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XV

GRUNTY MEANS MISCHIEF

Jolly Robin and his wife told all their friends that Grunty Pig was going to teach them a lesson. The birds had many a laugh over the matter. Not till old Mr. Crow visited the orchard one day did the Robin family cease chuckling over what they called "the joke of the season."

"Don't laugh too soon!" Mr. Crow croaked. "This Grunty Pig means mischief. He isn't going to teach you the sort of lesson you've been snickering about. What he intends to do is to harm you in some way."

Now, n.o.body in Pleasant Valley could look gloomier than old Mr. Crow.

And when he hinted darkly, in his hoa.r.s.e way, that there was trouble ahead for the Robin family, he threw Jolly Robin's wife into a flutter.

"Oh, what does Grunty Pig mean to do to us?" Mrs. Robin quavered.

"I'd rather not tell you," said old Mr. Crow. "I don't want you to worry."

Mr. Crow left them then. Of course he couldn't have chosen a better way to upset Mrs. Robin. Even Jolly himself had to admit after a while that he could think of nothing that seemed to cheer his wife in the least.

"I'll speak to Mr. Crow again," he told his wife. "I'll ask him just what he meant."

Alas! Mr. Crow couldn't tell him. The truth was that Mr. Crow had already told all he knew.

"I'll ask Grunty Pig himself what he means to do to us," Jolly then declared to his wife. "I've noticed that he digs every day at the foot of our apple tree. The next time he comes here I'll have a talk with him." So that very day Jolly put his question to Grunty Pig.

"What is it," he asked, "that you intend to do to us?"

"You'll find out later," said Grunty Pig. "I expect to be in the top of your apple tree before fall. And then--"

Jolly Robin couldn't wait for him to finish. He had to laugh right out, on the spot. And his wife, who had been listening eagerly, burst into the first giggle that had pa.s.sed her bill for days and days.

So Grunty Pig expected to climb a tree! Mr. and Mrs. Robin gave each other a merry look. It was all too funny for words.

"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "You won't laugh when I'm in your tree top."

"How are you going to get up here?" Jolly Robin asked him, with a wink at Mrs. Robin. "Are you going to _fly_?"

"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!"

"Then you're going to _climb_," cried Mrs. Robin. And both she and her husband choked, as they pictured fat Grunty Pig scrambling up the trunk of the old apple tree.

"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!"

"Well, well!" Jolly Robin exclaimed. "Don't be so short with your answers! Explain how you expect to get up into the top of our apple tree."

"I never said I expected to get up there," Grunty Pig corrected him.

"What?" cried Jolly Robin. "What?" cried his wife.

"No!" said Grunty Pig. "I said I'd be in the tree top before fall. If I work here every day around the foot of the tree I'll have it uprooted at last. And when it topples over and falls on the ground I'll have no trouble getting into the top of it."

When they heard that, Jolly Robin and his wife stopped laughing.

XVI

DANGER AHEAD

Jolly Robin and his wife were terribly worried. Grunty Pig meant to uproot the apple tree where they had their nest. Every day he came and dug at the foot of the tree. Every day, just before he went away, he looked up at them and said, "I hope you'll sleep well to-night. You'd better enjoy your home while you have it, for the tree will be flat on the ground before fall."

Sleep! Mrs. Robin complained that she never had a good night's rest any more. She said that she had bad dreams. She dreamed that the tree was falling. And then she was sure to wake up with a start. And her husband wasn't there to calm her, because he was roosting in a thicket over in the pasture with their first brood of the season.

They both agreed--Jolly and his wife--that they must get their second brood of children out of the nest as soon as they could.

"The moment they're old enough, we must teach them to fly," Mrs. Robin told her husband.

"Yes!" he said. "And we'll have to be careful of them, too, with all these seven young porkers in the orchard."

"Suppose--" said Mrs. Robin--"suppose Grunty Pig should bring our tree toppling to the ground before the children leave the nest!"

"Oh! There's no danger of that," Jolly a.s.sured her. She was always looking on the dark side of things. But he didn't tell her so.

"I don't know how we're going to be sure the children are safe," Mrs.

Robin continued. "How long do you think it will take Grunty Pig to uproot our tree?"

Jolly Robin had to confess that he couldn't answer his wife's question.

"Then ask somebody who knows something about such matters!" Mrs. Robin cried. And there was a tart note in her voice that made Jolly Robin say hastily, "Yes! Yes, my dear! I'll go right now and find an answer to your question."

Off he flew. And not knowing where else to go, he sat down on a bush in Farmer Green's garden, to ponder. Who could tell him how long it would take Grunty Pig to uproot the old apple tree? Although Jolly Robin thought and thought, he could think of no one whom he might ask. To be sure, there was Tommy Fox, who was known to be an able digger. But Jolly Robin didn't trust him. Tommy Fox was tricky. And there was Billy Woodchuck, who came from a famous family of burrowers. But everybody knew that old dog Spot had chased him into his hole that very afternoon, and was watching Billy's front door.

While Jolly Robin sat there in the garden he happened to look down at the ground. And right before his eyes a long snout suddenly rose out of the dirt, followed by the squat form of Grandfather Mole.

Jolly Robin gave a cheerful chirp. Everybody knew that Grandfather Mole was the champion digger of Pleasant Valley. And if he couldn't answer Mrs. Robin's question, then no one could.

XVII

A PUZZLE SOLVED

"Good morning, Grandfather Mole!" Jolly Robin called.