Well, no one knew what to do, until just then Uncle Wiggily
Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, came along, and he saw at once
what was the matter.
"I'll fix it!" he exclaimed. "If Curly and Flop will stand outside
the hospital and sing funny songs while the doctor is fixing Pinky,
she will not mind it in the least."
"We'll try it," said Dr. Possum. So the two piggie boys began to
sing funny songs under Pinky's window. They sang about the mousie
who had a rubber nose, and every time he blew it he bounced on his
tiptoes. Then there was another one about a doggie, who could not
wag his tail, because he'd fastened on it the monkey's drinking
pail. And when Pinky heard these songs she felt much better, and she
let the doctor do whatever he had to do to her.
And when he hurt her quite badly (though, of course, he did not mean
to, for it was to make her better), and when Pinky cried, Curly and
Flop danced harder than ever and sang about the kittie who had a
penny hat, and when the ribbons all fell off she gave it to a rat.
Pinky laughed at that, and when her two brothers chased after Sammie
Littletail, the rabbit, and made him jump over a telegraph pole just
for fun, she felt so jolly that Dr. Possum could finish making her
all better, and she never cried once again.
So this shows you that even little animal children can go to the
hospital and not mind it at all, though I hope none of you boys and
girls ever get ill enough to have to go. And in a short time Pinky
was all better, and she was glad she had let the doctor do what he
had to.
So on the next page, in case the baking powder doesn't shoot the
sponge cake in the bathtub and make the towel ring the bell, I'll
tell you about Curly and the big apple.
STORY XIII
CURLY AND THE BIG APPLE
One day, oh, I guess it was about a week after Baby Pinky went to
the hospital, something else happened to the two piggie brothers.
And, as most of it happened to Curly, I have named this story for
him, though Flop had a part in it.
When her piggie boys came home from school one afternoon Mrs.
Twistytail said to them:
"I wonder if you don't want to go to the store for me?"
"Of course we do mamma," spoke Curly as quickly as ice cream melts
on a hot day.
"Certainly," added Flop, and the funny part of it was that the two
brothers had just planned to go off in the woods and play soldier
and Indian after school.
But as soon as they heard that their mamma wanted them to go on an
errand for her, they at once made up their minds that they would go
to the store first and play afterward.
"What do you want, mamma?" asked Curly. "Is it a cake of milk
chocolate, because if it is--"
"We'll help eat it," finished Flop quickly with a laugh.
"No, all I need is some cornmeal to make pancakes with in the
morning," spoke the pig lady. "Run along now, but you need not hurry
back, and you may play on the way."
Curly and Flop whistled through their noses at hearing this, for
they knew they could have some fun after all, and away they started
for the store. The old gentleman duck who kept it, and who was a
forty 'leventh cousin to Grandfather Goosey Gander, wrapped the
cornmeal in two separate bags, so that Curly could carry one, and
Flop the other.
"That will make it even," said the store duck, as he gave the piggie
boys each a sweet cracker.
Back home they started, playing tag, and hide the acorn, and all
such games like that, including one called "Please Don't Pull My
Tail and I Won't Pull Yours." That's a very funny game.
Well, all of a sudden, as Curly and Flop were going along, they came
past a field where a kind old rat gentleman was picking his apples
off the trees. There were many of the apples, and they had to be put
in barrels and brought into the cellar.
"Oh, don't those apples smell good," said Flop as he leaned over the
fence and looked at them.
"Indeed they do," agreed Curly. "They remind me of apple pie and
cheese."
Then the rat gentleman looked up, saw the piggie, and said:
"Come in, boys, and you may each have one apple. Help yourselves."
"Thank you, very much," spoke Curly. "Come on!" he cried to his
brother Flop, "we'll each take a big apple, and there will be enough
for a pie when we get home."
"Oh, but we can't carry big apples, with the bags of meal," said
Flop. "I'm going to take a middle-sized apple."
"Well, I'm not. I'm going to take the largest I can find in the
field," declared Curly, and he went hunting for a specially large
one.
Of course, in a way, it was all right to do this, for the rat
gentleman had told them to help themselves, but you just wait and
see what happens.
Curly picked out a very large apple--the very biggest one that grew
on the trees, but Flop was content with a smaller one. Then the
piggie brothers started for home again.
Curly had hard work to carry the big apple and also his bag of corn
meal, and first he would have to put one down to rest his legs, and
then put down the other to rest his paws. But Flop could easily
carry his middle-sized apple and the meal. Finally Curly said:
"Flop, can't you help me?"
"I'm afraid not," answered his brother, "though I would if I could.
But I have all I can do to take care of my apple and the meal. Why
don't you get a smaller apple?"
"Because I want the big one," said Curly quickly.
Well, he was staggering along with the big apple and also his bag of
cornmeal, but his brother was going along much more easily, when,
all of a sudden, out from the bushes sprang the fuzzy fox.
"Ah ha!" he cried. "This time I have good luck! Here are little pigs
to make roast pork, and they have with them the apples for apple
sauce. Oh, joy is me! Now for a fine dinner!"
With that he made a grab for both the piggie brothers, but they
managed to jump away. Off ran Flop with his middle-sized apple and
the cornmeal, and after him came Curly, only he could not go so fast
because his apple was so big.
"Wait! Wait!" begged Curly of his brother.
"I can't!" was the answer. "I'll send a policeman back to help you.
But if you will let go of the big apple you can easily run away from
the fox, for he is old, and not a good runner. Drop the apple."
"No, indeed!" cried Curly. "I want the biggest one I can find!" So
he held tightly to the apple, and also to the cornmeal, and on he
ran, but the fuzzy fox was getting nearer and nearer, and almost had
him.
"I've got you!" suddenly snapped the fox. "I'll have roast pork and
apple sauce tonight all right!" and he was just going to grab Curly
and the apple and bag of meal, when out from the bushes jumped Uncle
Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit.
"Here!" he cried to the fox. "You stop chasing Curly, and go home to
your den!" and with that Uncle Wiggily stuck out his rheumatism
crutch, and tripped up the fox so that went tumbling head over
heels, and when he got up he was so lame that he could not chase
even a snail for more than a week.
"Run! Run!" called Uncle Wiggily to Curly and the little piggie boy
did run, and, after some trouble, he got safely home with his big
apple and the meal, but Flop was there ahead of him.
"After this," said Uncle Wiggily, when he came up to the piggie
house, "after this, Curly, don't take such a large apple, and you
can run better when a fox chases you."
"I'll be careful after this," promised the piggie boy, and I guess
he was. Anyhow it was a good lesson to him. And that night he and
his brother had cornmeal pancakes with apple sauce on, and Uncle
Wiggily stayed to supper.
Now in case the automobile tire doesn't jump into the frying pan,
and pretend it's a sausage for the lady in the purple dress to eat,
I'll tell you next about the piggie boys and the pumpkin.
STORY XIV
THE PIGGIES AND THE PUMPKIN
"Well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Twistytail, the pig lady, as she went
to the cupboard and looked in. "Whoever would have believed it?"
"Believed what, mamma?" asked Pinky, the little baby pig, who had
been in the hospital, but who was now much better.
"Why, there isn't a bit of bread for supper!" went on Mrs.
Twistytail. "And your papa will come home from the office so hungry
as never was! Oh, my! I must run right out to the store and get a
loaf."
"Can't Curly or Flop go?" asked the baby pig, as she looked to see
if her hair ribbon was on crooked, but it wasn't. I'm glad to say.
"They aren't here," said the mamma pig. "I guess they must be off
playing football, or seeing if there is any ice on the skating
pond."
"Then let me go, mamma," suggested little Pinky. "I'm sure I could
ask for a loaf of bread and carry it home, too."
"No, you are quite too small," said the pig lady. "I'll go myself to
the store and I'll ask Mrs. Goosey Gander, next door to come in and
stay with you."
But she didn't have to do that, for a few minutes later in came
Curly and Flop, the two nice boy piggies, and they were just as glad
as could be to go to the store for their mamma.
Well, they started off all right, and soon they were at the bread
store, where the baker cat wrapped up a nice loaf in pink paper and
they started for home, going as fast as they could, so as to be
there before their papa came to supper.
And, what do you think? Just as they reached the spot where stood
the old stump, with the knobs growing on the side of it, like warts
on a toad's back, they heard a voice saying:
"I wonder what I shall do with it? It is quite too large to cook,
and I have no little boys to give it to. I think I must let it roll
down hill into the pond."
"Who is that speaking?" asked Curly of his brother.
"I don't know," said Flop Ear, "but it sounds like the kind
rat-gentleman who gave us the apples."
"That's just who it is," said the voice. "And who are you, if I may
ask?"
"Two piggie boys," was the answer. "Can we help you?"
"Well, I have here a very large pumpkin," was what the rat gentleman
said. "It is too large to cut up into pies, and I thought maybe some
one might like it to make a Jack o' lantern of. Would you like it?"
"Indeed we would!" cried Flop. And Curly said the same thing.
So the nice old rat gentleman called the two piggie boys into his
farmhouse and he gave them the pumpkin.
Oh! so big as it was! I'm sure I never could tell you what a fine,
large pumpkin he gave to Curly and Flop. The one that was turned
into a coach for Cinderella was very small along side of this.
"What shall we do with it?" asked Flop Ear.
"Make a lantern of it, of course," said his brother. "We can scoop
out the insides, and cut the eyes and nose and mouth, put a candle
in it, and have a lot of fun."
"All right," said Flop, "we'll do it."
So they tied a string around the pumpkin and lifted it between them,
each one carrying his share. And the loaf of bread was put on top,
where it would not fall off.
Well, the piggie boys had not gone very far, carrying the pumpkin
home to make a Jack o'lantern, when, all of a sudden, out from
behind a lot of bushes, jumped a big wolf. Isn't it funny how those
bad creatures seem to always bother the piggie boys? Every once in a
while something is happening to them.
I can't help it. I wish I could, but you know I have to write things
exactly as they happen. Anyhow, out from behind the bushes jumped
the wolf, and as soon as he saw those sweet, tender little piggies
he exclaimed:
"Oh joy! Oh, happiness! Oh, appetite! Now is my chance! I shall
certainly grab those two piggies and carry them off to my den."
And he chased after Flop and Curly.
But, as luck would have it, they heard him coming, and they started
to run with the big pumpkin and the loaf of bread. Still the wolf
came closer and closer.
"I'll have you in a few minutes!" he cried.
"I believe he will!" exclaimed Flop. "What shall we do?"
"What can we do?" asked Curly, as he helped his brother to jump over
a stone, and lifted the pumpkin at the same time. "What can we do?"
"Why not make a Jack o'lantern of the pumpkin and scare the wolf?"
suggested Flop. "Some of our friends did that once."
"We haven't time," said Curly. "If we stopped to make a Jack
o'lantern the wolf would catch up to us and grab us. I'll tell you
what to do. Let's scoop out a hollow place in the pumpkin and get
inside it. Then the wolf won't see us."
"Good!" cried Flop. So he and his brother ran on as fast as they
could to get far ahead of the wolf. Then they stopped for a minute,
and, with their sharp hoofs, they cut the top off the pumpkin. Then,
with their digging noses, they dug out the soft seeds, and soon the
pumpkin was all hollowed out, so they could jump inside.
"Get in!" cried Curly to Flop.
"What about the loaf of bread?" asked his brother.
"Never mind that. We can get another. We must get away from the
wolf," cried Curly.
So they jumped inside the pumpkin, and only just in time, for the
wolf came rushing down the hill. But Curly and his brother wiggled
themselves inside the pumpkin, and away it rolled down toward the
piggies' house. The wolf saw the loaf of bread on the hill, and he
thought sure the piggie boys were near it. So he made a grab, but he
did not get them.
For of course they were inside the pumpkin, rolling over and over,
like a rubber ball down hill. The wolf chewed up the bread, and then
he saw the rolling pumpkin. Then he happened to think:
"Perhaps the pigs are inside that!" After it he ran, but it was too
late, for by that time the piggie boys were safely at home. Into
their front yard rolled the pumpkin, off flew the top, and out they
jumped to tell their papa and mamma and baby Pinky all about it.
And Grandpa Goosey Gander loaned Mr. Twistytail a loaf of bread for
supper. As for the wolf, he ran back up the hill as mad as anything
about the way he had been fooled, and ever after that he never ate
any pumpkin pie.
So that's all there is to this story, but in case the new brick
chimney doesn't fall down in the rice pudding and make the trained
nurse wild because her doll carriage has no wheels, I'll tell you on
the next page about the piggie boys in the corn field.
STORY XV
THE PIGGIES IN A CORNFIELD
One day--oh! I guess it must have been about two grunts and a squeal
after Curly and Flop, the two piggie boys, had the adventure with
the pumpkin--something else happened to them. In the first place,
they had to stay in after school.
Now, please don't get worried, nor think anything bad of them on
that account. They did not have to stay in because they whispered in
class, or anything like that. No, they stayed in to help their
teacher clean off the blackboards, but when they got out all the
other animal children were gone.
"Come on, let's run," suggested Flop, "and maybe we can catch up to
them."
"I wish we could!" exclaimed Curly, "for Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy
dog, borrowed my pencil and forgot to give it back."
So the two piggie boys ran as fast as they could, but they could see
nothing of the other animal children--not even little Jennie
Chipmunk, who could not go very fast, for every time she saw any
dust on a stone or a tree stump she used to stop and brush it off
with her tail. She was so neat and clean, you see, and as she had to
stop quite often, on account of there being so much dust, she
couldn't go fast at all.
But, as I said, Curly and Flop couldn't even catch up to her, which
shows you that they had stayed in after school for quite some time.
"Oh! they'll all be home long before us," said Curly after a bit,
sitting down on a stone to rest.
"I guess so," agreed his brother, as he made his two ears stand up
straight and then flop down again. "But never mind, I think you can
get your pencil from Jackie Bow Wow tomorrow."
"Yes," spoke Curly, and then they went on a little farther until
they came to a corn field. The corn was all cut down, and stood in
big bunches, called shocks--not the kind of shocks you get from an
electric battery, though, but corn shocks.
"Oh, let's take a short cut through the corn field," suggested
Curly. "Maybe then we can get ahead of the others."
"All right," said Flop. "We'll do it." And, though they had never
gone through this corn field, because it was owned by a cross old
alligator gentleman, they now started to crawl under the fence. Just
as they were inside the field they heard a little voice crying:
"Oh, dear! What shall I do. Oh, my poor tail!"
"What's that?"' asked Flop in alarm.
"I don't know," answered Curly. "Maybe it's the bad old fuzzy wolf."
"Let's hide!" exclaimed Flop, and they were looking for a place to
hide when they happened to see a poor little girl mouse near a shock
of corn, and her tail was held fast by a stone that had fallen on
it.
"Was that you crying?" asked Flop.
"It was," said the mousie girl. "Oh my poor tail! How can I ever get
loose?"
"We'll help you," spoke Curly. "We'll root up the stone with our
strong noses, and then you'll be all right."
"Of course we will," agreed Flop. "Oh, how glad we are that you
aren't a wolf," he added, and then he and Curly, with their noses
which were made stretchy like a rubber ball, soon had the stone off
the mousie girl's tail, and she was all right, except that her tail
was sore. But when her mamma could put some salve on it that would
be all better, too.
"Oh! I can't tell you how thankful I am to you," said the mousie
girl to the piggie boys. "Some day I will help you."
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Flop. "How can a little mousie girl like you help
us two big boys?"
"Hush!" exclaimed Curly. "It isn't polite to laugh when any one
offers to do you a favor, even if they are little. Besides, maybe
she MIGHT be able to help us some day."
"Of course," spoke the mousie, and she felt rather badly because
Flop Ear had laughed.
"Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed Flop. "I didn't mean to. I'm sure I hope
you can help us, little mousie."
So the two piggie boys went on through the corn field, hoping they
wouldn't meet the cross old alligator man, who owned it, and who
didn't like animal boys. And the mousie went on her way.
"I think we'll soon catch up to the others," said Flop after a bit.
"I guess so," agreed Curly. "And when we do---"
"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Floppy. "Some one is coming!" Curly heard
it, too, and he stopped talking. He looked around the corner of a
stone and whispered:
"It's the old alligator man himself. What shall we do?"
"Run!" exclaimed Flop. "Run as fast as we can."
So he and Curly started to run but my goodness me sakes alive and a
postage stamp! No sooner had they gone ten steps than the cross old
alligator man saw them, and after them he came as fast as he could
crawl on his four legs, wiggling his humpy tail. "Oh, he'll get us,
sure!" wailed Floppy.
"Run faster!" urged Curly.
Well, they both ran as fast as they could, squealing with fright,
and the alligator man was coming right after them, and he had almost
caught them when, all of a sudden, a little squeaky voice called
out:
"In here, boys! Crawl right in here, under this shock of corn, and
he can't see you!"
They looked, and there, in front of a sort of cave, that was made in
one of the upright piles of corn, stood the little mousie girl who
had been pinched by the stone on her tail.
"In here!" she cried. "Quick, before he comes, and he won't know
where you have gone!"
"But he'll know we're hiding in the corn," said Flop.
"Quick! Get inside and talk afterward!" said the mousie girl.
"Besides there are so many piles of corn that the alligator man
won't know which one you're hiding in, and it will take him all
night to peek into them all. And after dark I'll show you the way
home."
So into the shock of corn crawled Curly and Flop pulling a lot of
stalks behind them to close the hole, and they were only just in
time, for, an instant later, up rushed the alligator man. Of course
he could not see the piggy boys, and he was much surprised.
"But I know they're hiding somewhere!" he growled. And it all
happened just as the mousie girl said. The alligator man peeked in
nearly all the corn shocks, but he didn't happen to look in the one
where Curly and Flop were hiding. And pretty soon it was dark, and
then the piggies came out and the mousie girl showed them the way
home, and the alligator man did not get them. So, you see, the
mousie helped the piggie boys after all.
And next, in case the salt cellar doesn't hide in the pepper caster
and make believe it's a mustard plaster I'll tell you about Flop
having a tumble.
STORY XVI
FLOP HAS A TUMBLE
"Come boys!" called Mamma Twistytail, the pig lady, one morning, to
her two little boys, Curly and Flop. "Come, hurry, or you'll be late
for school!"
"Oh, I guess we have time enough," spoke Flop, as he looked around
for the football he and his brother had been playing with. "It's
early yet."
"No, it isn't," answered his mamma. "Our clock is slow by your
papa's watch. Hurry now, I think I hear the bell ringing!"
"All right," answered Curly. "Come along, Flop." You see, he
sometimes called his brother Flop, for short. So they kissed their
little sister, Baby Pinky, good-by, and went on to school.
As they hurried along, they met Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boy,
and Curly said:
"Oh, Jackie, where is my pencil you borrowed?"
"Here it is!" cried Jackie, turning a somersault, as he used to do
in the circus, and he handed the pencil to Curly on the end of his
nose--Jackie's nose I mean.
"We chased after you last night, when we got out of school,"
explained Curly, "and we had a dreadful adventure in the corn field
with the alligator man," and he told his doggie chum all about it,
just as I wrote it for you in the story before this one.
So Jackie, and Curly and Flop hurried along together toward the
school, when, all at once, they came to a nice, big, slanting cellar
door, just right for sliding down, and on it was a sign which read:
"NO ONE MUST SLIDE DOWN
THIS CELLAR DOOR!"
"Now isn't that queer," said Jackie Bow Wow.
"It certainly is," agreed Curly.
"I wonder why no one is allowed to slide down," spoke Flop. "It's a
dandy door for sliding. I've a good notion to try it."
"No, you mustn't!" said his brother. "We are almost late for school
now."
"Oh, but I would just love to slide down it," went on Flop, sort of
hanging back, while his brother and Jackie went on ahead. "I wonder
if a giant lives under that door, or a fairy?"
"Maybe that's the reason no one must slide down it," went on the
little piggie boy. But no one answered him and, though he looked all
around the cellar door, he could see no reason why he should not
slide down it.
"Maybe it's got slivers in, and they'd stick in me," went on Flop,
as he came closer to the door, but it was as nice and smooth as
heart could wish.
"Well, this is certainly queer," said Flop. "Here is the nicest
sliding cellar door in all the world and no one is allowed to slide
down it. I wonder who lives in the house," and he looked up at the
house to which the cellar door belonged, but it was all closed up,
and shutters were over the windows.
"I guess no one is at home," thought the little piggie boy.
"Say, aren't you coming to school?" called back Jackie Bow Wow, for
he and Curly were some distance down the street by this time.
"Yes, come on, or you'll surely be late," said Flop Ear's brother.
"I'm coming!" cried Flop, but he thought he would take just one more
look at the sliding door.
"I would like to have just one slide on it," he said. "I believe
I'll try it."
He looked ahead to where his brother and Jackie were and decided
that if he did take one slide he could run and catch up to them, and
not be late.
"Here goes;" said Flop, and he laid his books down on a clean stone.
Then he read the sign once more:
"NO ONE MUST SLIDE DOWN
THIS CELLAR DOOR!"
"I guess it's only a joke," decided Flop. "Now for one good slide
and then I'll go to school."
So he went around to the side of the door, where there was a stone,
and, by stepping on this, and giving a little jump, the piggie boy
got to the top part of the sliding door, ready for a coast down.
Of course he had no sled on which to slide, but his trousers were
good and thick, and he knew he could not wear a hole in the seat
just this once. So he gathered his legs together under him, gave
himself a little push and down the slanting door he went as nicely
as an icicle in the middle of the Fourth of July.
"Wow! This is great!" cried Flop. "I guess the other fellows will
wish they'd taken a slide. This is nifty!"
I don't know myself what "nifty" means, but Flop said it, so I have
to write it down.
Faster and faster he slid down the cellar door. It was a long one,
and now he was half way to the bottom.
"Oh, won't we have fun sliding after school!" the little piggie boy
cried. "I don't see why they looked rather sorrowfully after her
brothers and put up that sign not to slide. This is the best cellar
door I ever saw."
Faster and faster he slid, laughing and shouting in glee, and he was
almost at the bottom and he was wondering if he would have time for
just one more coast before school, when all of a sudden: