"Did you hit me with that rubber ball?"
"Yes--yes--perhaps I did," said poor Baby Pinky, trembling so that she nearly shook the curl out of her tail. "I tossed my ball up in the air, but I"m sure I didn"t mean to hit you with it. Please forgive me."
"No, indeed, I will not!" exclaimed the fox. "Your rubber ball hit me right on the nose when it came down, and I caught it. And, just for that, I am going to carry you away with me and make a pork pie of you!"
"Oh, please don"t!" begged Pinky, shaking more than ever, and she squealed as loudly as she could, but her mamma did not hear her, for she was beating up some eggs to make a cake, and the egg beater made so much noise that she couldn"t hear her own little girl. And Curly and Floppy were shooting off their make-believe guns, and making so much noise in the woods that they couldn"t hear, and there was the fox about to carry off the poor little piggie girl to his den. Oh, wasn"t it terrible?
"Here we go!" cried the fox, and with that he grabbed up poor Pinky, tossing her rubber ball on the ground. Up it bounced, and, hardly knowing what she did, the little pig girl caught it in her foot, holding it tight. Then the fox slung her across his back and ran off with her, Pinky squealing all the while as hard as she could.
"Squeal away!" growled the old fuzzy fox. "You"ll soon stop it when I put you in the pork pie!"
And Pinky kept on squealing. Pretty soon the fox ran through the woods where Curly and Flop were playing soldier, but the fox didn"t know that. Pinky did, however, and when she got beneath the trees she squealed louder than ever, hoping her brothers would hear.
"Keep quiet!" barked the fox.
"No! No!" exclaimed Pinky, and she squealed again. Oh! she squealed like anything. Then Curly heard her. So did Flop.
"That sounds like Pinky," said Curly, blinking his eyes.
"It surely does," agreed his brother. "Something must have happened to her." They ran out of the fort they had made of corncobs piled one on the other, and they saw their little baby sister being carried off by the fox. Wow! Think of that!
"Here, you let our Pinky alone!" cried Curly bravely.
"No! No! No!" answered the bad fox.
"Then we"ll shoot you!" shouted Flop. "Shoot him, Curly!"
Then those two brave pig boys shot their make-believe guns at the fox. "Bang! Bang! Bung! Bung!" But do you s"pose he stopped for that? Not a bit of it! On he ran, faster than ever, carrying away Pinky, and Curly and Flop ran after him, but what could they do? It looked as if the little pig girl would soon be made into pork pie, when she suddenly called out:
"Oh, boys! My rubber ball! Fill it with water and squirt it at the fox!" and she threw her ball to Curly.
"Don"t you dare squirt rubber-ball water at me!" howled the fox, for he was very much afraid of getting his tail wet.
"Yes we will!" shouted Curly and with that he caught the ball his sister tossed to him. It only took him a second to stop at a mud puddle and fill the ball with water. Then, taking careful aim, just as a brave pig soldier boy should, he squeezed the ball, and "Zip!"
out squirted the water all over the bad fox.
"Oh wow! Double wow, and pumpkin pie! That water went right into my eye!" howled the fox, and then, with his tail all wet, so that it weighed ten pounds, or more, that fox was so utterly frightened and kerslostrated that he let go of poor little Pinky and ran off to his den, and he didn"t have any pork pie for a long time afterward.
"Oh, you saved me!" cried Pinky to her two brothers, when they had picked her up, and started back home with her.
"You helped save yourself," said Curly. "You and your rubber ball,"
and he and Flop were very glad their sister had not been carried off by the bad fox.
And on the next page, if the washtub doesn"t fall out of its crib and knock a hole in the tea kettle so that all the lemonade runs out, I"ll tell you how Curly helped his mamma.
STORY IV
HOW CURLY HELPED MOTHER
"Well, this is certainly a fine day for washing!" exclaimed Mrs.
Twistytail, the pig lady, one morning as she got up from the nice, clean, straw bed where she had slept with little Pinky. "I must get right to work and hang out the sheets and pillow-cases so the sun will make them nice and white."
So she hurried through with the breakfast of sour milk with corn meal and sugar cakes, and as soon as Mr. Twistytail had gone to the factory, where he helped make sausage for buckwheat cakes, Mrs.
Twistytail said:
"Now, children, do you want to help me wash?"
"Oh, yes, mamma!" they all cried at once.
"I"ll turn the wringer," said Curly, "for I am good and strong."
"And I"ll put the clothes pins in the basket and have them all ready," said Pinky, for, though she was only a little girl pig she could easily carry the clothes pins.
"What can I do?" asked Flop, the other little pig boy. His real name was Floppy, or Flop Ear, but I call him Flop for short you see.
"Oh, you can bring me in the sticks to make the fire," said his mamma, and soon the three piggie children were working away as fast as they could, helping their mamma, who was busy sorting out the clothes.
Soon the fire was made, and the sudsie-soapy water was boiling the clothes to sort of cook them nice and clean, and Pinky had the clothes pins all ready. Flop had put up the line, after he had brought in the firewood, and Curly was all ready with the wringer.
Well, you should have seen Mrs. Twistytail rub-adub-dub the clothes up and down on the washboard. My! how she did scatter the suds all over, and once some splashed right up in her eye, but she only laughed and sang a funny little song.
"Ready now, Curly!" she called to her eldest little boy. "Ready to wring out the clothes through the first water!"
So Curly turned the wringer, which doesn"t ring like a bell, you know, but squeezes all the water out of the clothes so they will dry better. Around and around Curly turned the wringer handle, and the clothes came out like corn out of the popper.
"Oh, what fun!" cried the little pig boy, and his brother and sister thought it was very jolly to help their mamma.
"Now, you may run away and play for a while," said the pig lady. "I have to get the rinsing and bluing waters ready."
So Curly and Flop and Pinky ran out in the yard to play. Flop and Pinky saw a little boy and girl pig whom they knew, and they began playing, but Curly walked about, thinking maybe he might find a penny, when all of a sudden he saw his mamma hurrying out of the kitchen.
"Where are you going, mamma?" he called to her. "Is the washing all done? Can"t I wring any more clothes?"
"Oh, yes," she answered. "There are plenty more to wring out even yet, but they must wait. Mrs. Littletail, who lives down the street, has just sent in to say that her little rabbit boy Sammie has the stomach ache and I am taking over some hot peppermint tea for him.
The washing can wait until I get back."
On ran Mrs. Twistytail to make Sammie Littletail feel better, and just then her own little boy Curly had a great idea.
"I"ll just slip in and finish the washing for mamma," he said to himself, as he saw that Flop and Pinky were still playing tag.
"Won"t she be s"prised when she comes in and sees the clothes all hung up to dry?"
So Curly hurried into the kitchen and there he saw a lot of water in a tub, and the pile of clothes in the basket ready to be rinsed and blued and hung out to dry. Then Curly began to help his mamma to make her surprised.
Into the tub he plumped the clothes, and then, fastening on the wringer, he began to wring them out as dry as he could. There were a lot of sheets and pillow-cases, and these last were like bags, full of wind and water when you put the open end in between the rubber rollers first. And then, when they came toward the closed end. My!
how they would puff out and make a funny sissing noise.