"I will," replied Dr. Pigg. "It is so very warm that I shall walk on the shady side of the street, and keep a handkerchief, wet in ice water, on my head."

"I was cool enough the other night," remarked Buddy Pigg. "In fact, I shivered when I saw the burglar fox trying to get in," and he actually shivered again when he thought of it, and of how he had scared the bad fox away, as I told you in the story just before this one.

But, after a bit, it got so warm that even the thought of the fox could not make Buddy shiver. Neither could his mother nor Brighteyes shiver, and when you can't shiver, you know, it's a sure sign that it's going to be very hot.

At last Brighteyes said:

"Oh, I think I'll go for a walk in the woods. Don't you want to come along, Buddy?" and she looked at her brother, who was whittling a stick with his new knife.

But Buddy decided it was too hot even to go off in the woods, so Brighteyes said she would go alone. She put on her coolest dress. I think it was a white swiss or a blue organdie, or a challis, or a bombazine, I can't just exactly remember. Anyway, it was nice and cool, and freshly washed and ironed and starched, and Brighteyes looked just as pretty in it as a picture in a gold frame.

Well, she walked along for some time, and, pretty soon, oh, I guess in about three squeaks, or, maybe, four, she came to the woods. It was nice and cool and shady in there, with a little breeze blowing through the trees, and, frisking about in the branches, were several chipmunks, who were cousins of Jennie Chipmunk, and a number of squirrels, besides, most of them relations of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail.

So Brighteyes sat down on a mossy log, and thought how nice and cool it was, and pretty soon, she heard water running and splashing over the stones. That made her cooler than ever and she was feeling very happy, and wishing Buddy was with her, when she began to feel thirsty.

And the more she heard the water running the more thirsty she became, until she said, right out loud: "I'm going to get a drink!"

You've no idea how funny it sounded to hear Brighteyes speak out loud that way, for it was so still and quiet in the woods, that it was just as if she had spoken out loud in church, after the minister has stopped praying. Then Brighteyes got up from the mossy log, and went toward the running water. And what do you s'pose is going to happen? Why, she's going to have an adventure in about a minute, or, maybe, less time.

Well, the little guinea pig girl found where a little brook ran through the woods, over the stones and under green banks where the long ferns grew, and she was more thirsty than ever, and when she got down to the edge of the brook, there was a little plank stretched across the water for a bridge.

Brighteyes walked out on the middle of the plank, looked down into the brook, which was just like a looking-gla.s.s, and she saw how well her dress fitted. Then she kneeled, dipped her paws in the water and scooped up some to drink, taking care not to splash any on her clothes.

"Oh!" exclaimed the little guinea pig girl, "that is very fine water!"

Then she took another drink and stood up. She was just going to walk back to sh.o.r.e when she happened to hear a funny noise, and, lo! and behold, at either end of the plank bridge there was a funny brown, furry creature, about as big as a small dog. They stood up on their hind legs, one at one end of the plank and one at the other, and when they saw Brighteyes looking at them the larger creature cried out:

"Ha! Ha! Now we have you! You can't get ash.o.r.e unless you give us all your money!"

"I haven't very much," said poor Brighteyes, beginning to tremble, and wondering if the brown creatures were burglars.

"Well, we want whatever money you have," declared the creature at the right-hand end of the plank.

"Yes, indeed!" cried the creature on the left end.

"Who--who are you?" stammered Brighteyes, thinking to make friends with the creatures.

"We're groundhogs!" they both cried together, "and we want your money."

"What for?" asked Brighteyes, wondering what question she could ask next.

"We're going to buy firecrackers," answered the one on the right end.

"Fourth of July is past," said Brighteyes.

"No matter. Give us all your money, or we'll push you into the brook!"

declared the two groundhogs together, and when Brighteyes said she hadn't any change, for there was no pocket in her dress, you see, to carry any money in, what did those bad groundhogs do, but begin to teeter-tauter up and down, with the little guinea pig girl on the middle of the plank.

Up and down she went, faster and faster, and pretty soon the water began to splash upon her new dress. And oh, how terrible she felt.

First she thought she would run across the plank, but she was afraid of the groundhog at either end. Then she thought she would jump over their heads, but she couldn't jump very well, not being a gra.s.shopper, you see, and she didn't know what to do, and she was crying the least bit, when, all of a sudden, who should come along but the three Wibblewobble children--Lulu and Alice and Jimmie--and when they saw how the two groundhogs had made Brighteyes a prisoner in the middle of the plank bridge, those three ducks just stretched out their long necks, and cried, "Quack! Quack! Quack!" as loudly as they could.

That so frightened the groundhogs that they jumped into the brook and swam away, leaving Brighteyes free. Then she went home with the Wibblewobbles, and told Buddy her adventure, and he said it was a good one.

Now, the next story will be about Buddy in a deep hole--that is if the trolley car doesn't run off the track, and break all the eggs in the grocery store window.

STORY XXI

BUDDY IN A DEEP HOLE

Once upon a time it happened that Buddy Pigg was out taking a walk over the fields and through the woods. He often used to do this, sometimes taking a stroll for pleasure, and again to see if he could find anything to eat. This time he was looking for something to eat, and so he walked very slowly, looking from side to side, and sniffing the air from time to time.

"For," he said, "who knows but what I may find a nice cabbage or a turnip, or a radish, or a bit of mola.s.ses cake, or a ginger snap, or even an ice cream cone. Any of those things would be very good," thought Buddy to himself, "especially an ice cream cone on a hot day."

But, though he looked and he looked and he looked, oh, I guess maybe about a dozen times, he couldn't find a single thing that was good to eat, and he was beginning to get discouraged.

"I'll go a little bit farther," he thought, "and then if I don't find anything I'll turn around, go back home, and get some bread and b.u.t.ter, for that is better than nothing; and I am getting hungry."

So he walked on a little farther, and, as he walked along, he sang this little song which no one is allowed to sing unless they are very, very hungry.

So in case it happens that you have just had an ice cream cone, or something good like that, and are not hungry, you must not sing this song until just before dinner or breakfast or supper. Anyhow here's the song and you can put it aside until you are nearly starving. This is how it goes:

"I wish I had some candy Or a peanut lolly-pop.

I'd eat an ice-cream cone so quick You could not see me stop.

If I had two big apples, An orange or a peach.

I'd give my little sister A great big bite from each.

"But there is nothing here to eat-- Not even cherry pie.

Though we had one at our house once, And some got in my eye.

Oh! how I'd like a cocoanut!

And watermelon, too.

I'd eat two slices off the ice-- Now, really, wouldn't you?"

No sooner had Buddy finished singing this song, than he came to a place in the woods, where there was a big hole going down into the ground. Oh, it was quite a large hole, not quite so big as the one going down to China, but pretty large and it looked just as if some animal were in the habit of going in and out of it.

"Ha, ho!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg. "This looks like something; it surely does," and, my dear children, the funny part of it was that the hole did look like something.

"I guess I'll go down there and see if there's anything to eat at the bottom," went on the little guinea pig boy, "for I certainly am hungry."

Then he stood and peeped down into the hole, and, though it looked quite far to the bottom of it, and though it seemed pretty dark, Buddy decided to go in. Now, that was rather foolish of him, for it's never safe to go in a hole until you know where you're coming out, especially a hole in the woods; but Buddy didn't stop to think. So he looked all around, to see that there were no bad foxes in sight, and then he entered the hole.

First he crept along very slowly and carefully. Oh my, yes, and a banana peeling in addition! and then, all of a sudden, land sakes flopsy dub! if Buddy didn't slip and fall and stumble, and roll over and over, sideways, and head over heels, and he kept on going down, until finally he came to a stop in a place that was as dark as a pocket in a fur overcoat on a winter day.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried poor Buddy Pigg. "Whatever has happened; and where am I?"