Chapter 1

BED TIME STORIES

Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg

Howard R. Garis

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

These stories appeared originally in the Evening News, of Newark, N.J., and are reproduced in book form by the kind permission of the publishers of that paper, to whom the author extends his thanks.

CONTENTS.

I. BUDDY PIGG IN A CABBAGE II. BRIGHTEYES AND MRS. HOPTOAD III. BUDDY PIGG AND SAMMY LITTLETAIL IV. BUDDY PIGG PLAYS BALL V. BRIGHT EYES PIGG AND SISTER SALLIE VI. DR. PIGG AND UNCLE WIGGILY VII. BUDDY PIGG IS CAUGHT VIII. BUDDY'S AND BRIGHTEYES' FOURTH OF JULY IX. BUDDY PIGG WANTS A TAIL X. BUDDY WALKS A TIGHT ROPE XI. BRIGHTEYES IN A TIN CAN XII. DR. PIGG AND THE FIRECRACKER XIII. BUDDY PIGG IN A BOAT XIV. BRIGHTEYES AND THE PEANUT CANDY XV. BUDDY AND THE JUNE BUG XVI. BRIGHTEYES AND THE BAD BOY XVII. BUDDY'S GREAT RUN XVIII. BRIGHTEYES, BUDDY AND THE TURNIP XIX. BUDDY AND THE BURGLAR FOX XX. BRIGHTEYES HAS AN ADVENTURE XXI. BUDDY IN A DEEP HOLE XXII. A TRICK THE GROUNDHOGS PLAYED XXIII. BUDDY IN THE BERRY BUSH XXIV. BRINGING HOME THE COWS XXV. BUDDY RIDES HORSEBACK XXVI. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES FALL DOWNHILL XXVII. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES GO BATHING XXVIII. BUDDY BUILDS A SAND HOUSE XXIX. BUDDY HELPS SAMMY LITTLETAIL XXX. BRIGHTEYES AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK XXXI. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES IN THE MOUNTAINS

BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG

STORY I

BUDDY PIGG IN A CABBAGE

Once upon a time, not so many years ago, in fact it was about the same year that Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys lived in their kennel house, there used to play with them, two queer little brown and white and black and white animal children, called guinea pigs. They were just as cute as they could be, and, since I have told you some stories about rabbits, and squirrels and ducks, as well as about puppies, I wonder how you would like to hear some account of what the guinea pigs did?

Anyhow, I'll begin, and so it happened that there lived at one time, in a nice little house, called a pen, four guinea pigs.

There was the papa, and he was named Dr. Pigg, and the reason for it was that he had once been in the hospital with a broken paw, and ever since he was known as "Doctor." Then there was his wife, and his little boy, and his little girl. They were Montmorency and Matilda, but, as the children didn't like those names, they always spoke of each other as "Buddy" and "Brighteyes," so I will do the same.

Buddy Pigg (and he had two g's in his name you notice) was black and white, and Brighteyes Pigg was brown and white, and they were the nicest guinea pig children you could meet if you rode all week in an automobile. One day Buddy went out for a walk in the woods alone, because Brighteyes had to stay at home to help to do the dishes, and dust the furniture.

Buddy, who, I suppose, you remember, was a friend of Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, walked along, sniffing with his nose, just like Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits.

"It seems to me," Buddy said, "that I smell something good to eat. I wonder if it can be an ice cream cone, or some peanuts, or anything like that?" He looked around but he couldn't see any store there in the woods where they sold ice cream or peanuts, and then he knew he must be mistaken. Still he kept on smelling something good.

"I wonder where that is?" he exclaimed, and he sniffed harder than ever. And then he knew what it was--a cabbage--a great, big cabbage! He ran around the side of a big rock, and there lying on the path, was a fine big cabbage. Some one had dropped it by mistake.

"This is great luck!" cried Buddy Pigg. "There is enough for me and Brighteyes, and I can take some home to mamma and to my papa, the doctor. Yes, indeed, this has been a lucky day for me. I'm as glad I found this cabbage as if I had picked up ten cents! I guess I'll eat some to see how it tastes."

So Buddy Pigg began to gnaw at the cabbage and, as he had very good teeth for gnawing--almost as good as Sammy Littletail's--he soon had quite a hole made. But he kept on gnawing and eating away, so fine did it taste, until, in a little while if he hadn't eaten a hole right into the cabbage and he found himself inside, just like the mousie in the loaf of bread!

"Ha! This is very fine, indeed!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I think I will take a nap here," and lopsy-flop! if that little guinea pig didn't curl up inside the cabbage and go fast, fast asleep; and not even his tail stuck out, because, you see, he didn't have any tail--guinea pigs never do have any, which is a good thing, I suppose.

Well, Buddy Pigg was sleeping away inside that cabbage, dreaming of how nice it would be to take the rest of it home, when all at once, who should come creeping, creeping around the edge of the rock, but a great, big fox. He had sharp eyes, had that fox, and he saw the little guinea pig asleep inside the cabbage, even though Buddy's tail didn't stick out.

"Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" exclaimed the fox, and he smacked his lips. "I see a fine feast before me! Oh, yes, indeed, a very fine feast! Guinea pig flavored with cabbage! Now, just so that pig can't get out, I'll stop up that hole, while he's asleep in there, and I'll go and get my wife, and we'll come back and have a dandy meal! Oh! a most delectable meal!"

So that old fox crept softly, so softly, up to where the cabbage was, with Buddy asleep inside, and the fox took a stone, and he crowded it, and wedged it, fast in the hole, so poor Buddy couldn't get out, though there was some air for him to breathe. Then the fox laughed to himself: "Ha, ha!" and "Ho, ho!" and hurried off down the hill after his wife.

Well, it wasn't long before Buddy Pigg awoke, and he tried to stretch himself, as he always did after a nap, and wasn't he the surprised guinea pig, though, when he found he couldn't stretch!

"Why, what can be the matter?" he cried. "I'm all in the dark! Let's see where was I? Oh, I remember, I found a cabbage, and I began to eat it, and I went inside it--And land sakes, goodness me and a trolley car! I'm inside it now!" he cried, as he smelled the cabbage. "I'm shut in the cabbage just as if I was shut in a closet! However did it happen?" and he tried to turn around, and make his way out, but he couldn't, because the stone which the fox had stuffed in the hole closed it up too tight.

"I'm locked in!" cried Buddy Pigg. "Locked in a cabbage! Isn't it terrible!" and of course it was, and no fooling, either.

Well, Buddy Pigg was a brave little chap, and instead of sitting down and crying there in the dark, he began to think of how he could get out. He thought of all sorts of ways, but none of them seemed any good, and at last he decided to try to burst the cabbage open. But it was too strong and thick, and he couldn't do it.

He soon discovered, however, that, wiggling around inside it as he did, made the cabbage wiggle too, and the first thing you know the cabbage began to roll down the hill, just like a man in a barrel.

Faster and faster went the cabbage down the hill, over and over, with Buddy inside, and he began to get dizzy, for he didn't know what was happening.

Then, at that moment, who should come along but that bad fox and his wife. The cabbage seemed to be rolling straight at them.

"My sakes alive!" cried Mrs. Fox. "What is that, Oscar?" You see her husband's name was Oscar.

"I don't know," he replied, "but don't bother about it. We'll go and get that guinea pig." So they kept on, but just then the cabbage bounded over a little clod of dirt, went up in the air, and nearly hit Mr. Fox, and that scared him so that he ran away, and his wife ran after him.

Well, the cabbage, with Buddy inside, kept on rolling, and the first thing you know it began to roll down hill in front of the guinea pigs' pen. It made quite a noise, and Matilda ran out to see what it was.

"Oh, mamma!" she cried. "Here is a cabbage rolling down hill."

"Nonsense!" cried Mrs. Pigg. "Whoever heard of such a thing?" but she ran out to see what it was, and at that moment the cabbage bounded right in front of the pen, hit a big stone, burst open with a noise like a torpedo, and out rolled Buddy Pigg, over and over, just like a pumpkin. But, believe me, he wasn't hurt the least mite, but he was rather surprised-like!

Then he got up, walked over to his mother and said:

"Here is some fresh cabbage I brought home," and he was as cool as two cucumbers. Well, the guinea pigs had a fine dinner off the cabbage Buddy brought home in such a funny way, and of course the fox and his wife didn't have any, which served them right I suppose.

Now in the next story, if the cook doesn't burn the potatoes and make stove blacking of them I'll be able to tell you about Brighteyes Pigg and Mrs. Hoptoad.

STORY II

BRIGHTEYES AND MRS. HOPTOAD

After Buddy had taken that funny ride down hill, inside the head of cabbage, his father said to him:

"Buddy, come here, and let me look at you. Possibly you were hurt in that terrible trip, and, having been in a hospital, I can tell whether you were or not."

So he looked Buddy over carefully, but there wasn't a thing the matter with the little chap, except a tiny scratch on his nose.

"Weren't you awfully frightened?" asked Brighteyes of her brother. "It was terrible!"

"No," he answered, "not much. And it wasn't so terrible when we got a good dinner out of it. I wish I could find a cabbage every day."

"You had better put something on that scratch," cautioned Dr. Pigg. Then he went on reading his paper, and Mrs. Pigg got out the salve bottle for Buddy.

Well, it was two days after this that Brighteyes Pigg was out walking along the road. She had been to the store for some carrots, and the store man said he would send them right over, so the little girl guinea pig didn't have to carry them.

Well, she was walking along, not thinking of much of anything in particular, when suddenly something hopped out of the bushes in front of her.

"My goodness! What's that?" cried Brighteyes, for she was a bit nervous from having had a tooth pulled week before last.

"Don't be alarmed, my dear," spoke a soft voice. "It's only me," and if there wasn't a great, big, motherly-looking hoptoad, out in the dusty road, and the next moment if that toad didn't begin hopping up and down as fast as she could hop.

"Why, whatever in the world are you doing?" asked Brighteyes Pigg, for she noticed that the toad didn't seem to get anywhere; only hopping up and down in the same place all the while.

"I'm jumping, my dear," answered the toad.

"So I see," remarked the little guinea pig girl, "but where are you jumping to? You don't seem to be getting any place in particular."

"And I don't want to, my dear," went on the toad, and she never stopped going up and down as fast as she could go. "I'm churning butter," she went on, "and when one churns butter one must jump up and down you know. That's the way to make butter. Don't your folks churn?" and then, for the first time, Brighteyes noticed that the toad had a little wooden churn, made from an old clothespin, fastened on her back.

"No, my mother doesn't churn," answered Brighteyes.

"Then I don't suppose you keep a cow," went on Mrs. Toad. "Neither do we, but next door to us is the loveliest milk-weed you ever saw, and I thought it a shame to see all the milk juice go to waste, so I churn it every week. It makes very fine butter."

"I should think it might," answered Brighteyes. "But isn't it hard work?"

"Yes, it is," replied Mrs. Toad, "and I know you'll excuse me, my dear, for not stopping my jumping to sit and chat with you, but the truth of the matter is that I think the butter is beginning to come, and I daren't stop."

"Oh, don't stop on my account," begged Brighteyes, politely. "I can talk while you jump."

"Very good," replied the toad, "I think I will soon be finished, though on hot days the butter is longer in coming," and she began to hop up and down faster than ever.

Then, all at once, oh, about as soon as you can pull off a porous plaster when you're quick about it, if poor Mrs. Toad didn't give a cry, and stop jumping.

"What's the matter?" asked Brighteyes, "has the butter come?"

"No," was the answer, "but I stepped on a sharp stone, and hurt my foot, and now I can't jump up and down any more. Oh, dear! now the butter will be spoiled, for there is no one else at my home to finish churning it. Oh, dear me, and a pinch of salt on a cracker! Isn't that bad luck?" and she sat down beside a burdock plant.

Well, sure enough, she had cut her foot quite badly, and it was utterly out of the question for her to jump up and down any more.

"Will you kindly help me to get the churn off my back?" Mrs. Toad asked of Brighteyes, and the little guinea pig girl helped her.

"All that nice butter is spoiled," went on Mrs. Toad, as she looked in the churn. "Well, it can't be helped, I s'pose, and there's no use worrying over buttermilk that isn't quite made. I shall have to throw this away."

"No, don't," cried Brighteyes quickly.

"Why not?" asked the toad lady.

"Because I will finish churning it for you."

"Do you know how to churn?"

"Not exactly, but I have thought of a plan. See, we will tie the churn to this blackberry bush stem, and then I will take hold of one end of the stem, and wiggle it up and down, and the churn will go up and down, too, on the bush, just as it did when you jumped with it; and then maybe the butter will come."

"All right, my dear, you may try it," agreed Mrs. Toad. "I'm afraid, though, that it won't amount to anything, but it can do no harm. I am sure it is very kind of you to think of it."

So Brighteyes took the churn, and tied it to a low, overhanging branch of the blackberry bush. Then she took hold of the branch in her teeth, and stood up on her hind legs and began to wiggle it up and down. The churn went up and down with the branch, and the milk from the milk-weed sloshed and splashed around inside the churn, and land sakes flopsy-dub and some chewing gum, if in about two squeals there wasn't the nicest butter a guinea pig or a toad would ever want to eat!

"Oh, what a smart little girl you are!" cried Mrs. Toad. "I'm sure your mother must be proud of you! Now I can work the buttermilk out, and salt the butter, and I'm going to send your mamma home a nice pat," which she did, and very glad Mrs. Pigg was to get it.

"You certainly are a clever little child," said Dr. Pigg to Brighteyes that night, "but then, you see, you take after your father. It is my hospital training that shows. By the way, we must send something to Mrs. Toad, for her cut foot," which they did, and it got all better.

Now, in case you don't drop your bread with the butter side down on the carpet, and spoil the kitchen oilcloth, I'll tell you in the next story about Buddy Pigg and Sammie Littletail.

STORY III

BUDDY PIGG AND SAMMY LITTLETAIL

Getting up quite early one morning, Buddy Pigg washed himself very carefully, so that his black and white fur was fairly shining in the sunlight, and then the little guinea pig started off to take a stroll before breakfast.

"Who knows," he said, "perhaps I may meet with an adventure; or else find a cabbage, just as I did the other day. But if I do, I'm not going to get inside it and go to sleep. No, indeed, and a feather pillow besides!"

So Buddy Pigg walked on, leaving his sister and his mamma and Dr. Pigg slumbering in the pen. Oh, it was just fine, running along through the woods and over the fields that beautiful, summer morning.

The grass was all covered with dew, and Buddy had a second bath before he had gone very far, there was so much water on everything, but he didn't mind that. He looked at the flowers, on every side, and smelled them with his little twinkling nose, and he listened to the birds singing.

Well, in a short time he came to a place where a lot of little trees grew close together, making a sort of grove, not large enough for a Sunday-school picnic, perhaps, but large enough for guinea pigs.

"This is a fine place," said Buddy Pigg. "I think I'll rest here a bit, and perhaps an adventure may come along."

You see Buddy was very fond of adventures, which means having something happen to you. He was almost as much that way as Alice Wibblewobble, the little duck girl, was fond of romantic things--that is she liked fairies, and princes, and kings, and knights with golden swords, and all oddities like that. Well, Buddy Pigg went in the little grove of trees, and now you just wait and listen--an adventure is going to happen in less than five minutes by the clock.

All of a sudden, just as the little guinea pig got close to one of the trees, he smelled something good, and he looked up, and, bless him! if he didn't see the nicest turnip that ever grew.

"Oh, that certainly is fine!" he cried, and his eyes twinkled and his nose wiggled, both at the same time. "I must take that home for breakfast," he went on. But my goodness me and the mustard spoon! if, when he went to get it, he didn't discover that the turnip was hung up by a string on the branch of the tree!

"Hello!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg. "I never saw turnips growing that way before. This must be a special kind, but it will be all the better. It is a little high up, but I think I can reach it by standing on my hind legs, and stretching up my front paws."

So he moved a little nearer the curious hanging turnip, and was about to reach up for it when who should come bounding out of the bushes but Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy.

"Hello, Buddy Pigg!" he called. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get this turnip down," answered Buddy. "It is a fine one; but it is hanging quite high. I'll give you some when I pull it down," for Buddy Pigg was very kind, you know.

Well, he stood up again, and was just about to step a little closer, so he could grab the turnip, when Sammie cried out:

"Here, Buddy! Come right away from that! Jump back as fast as you can! Quick! Quick! I say!"

"Why?" asked Buddy, "is it your turnip?"

"No, but don't you see? That turnip is nothing but a trap. It is hung up there on purpose. Come away. I can see the trap as plain as anything. Uncle Wiggily Longears taught me how to keep away from them, for I was caught in one, once upon a time."

"A trap?" asked Buddy. "Is this a trap?"

"To be sure," answered Sammie. "See, the turnip hangs right over a loop of wire, and inside the wire loop there is a piece of wood. Now to reach up and get the turnip you must step on the piece of wood, and as soon as you do so that tree branch, to which the wire is fast, will spring up, the wire will slip around your neck, you will be yanked up into the air, and that will be the last of you."

"The last of me?" asked Buddy, who, being a little boy, had not seen as much of the world as had Sammie.

"The very last of you," answered the rabbit. "You would be choked to death by the wire. Yes, the turnip was put there to catch some one, but they won't catch us, Buddy. We'll fool them!"

"Oh, I say! This is too bad!" exclaimed Buddy. "I was just counting on this turnip. Isn't there any way we can get it?"

"I don't believe so," replied Sammie, wrinkling up his nose, just as Buddy was doing. They smelled that turnip, and it had a most delicious odor, better to them, even, than strawberries are to you.

"Maybe we can throw some stones up and knock it down," suggested Buddy.

So they threw up stones, and, though they hit the turnip, and made it swing back and forth, like the pendulum of the clock, it didn't fall down, and by this time Buddy and Sammie were getting very hungry.

"Let's try throwing sticks," proposed Sammie. "We'll toss them at the cord, and maybe we can break it."

So they threw sticks, and, though Buddy did manage to hit the cord, the turnip didn't come down, and they were more hungry than ever.

"Let's take a long pole and poke the turnip down," said Sammie after a while, and they did so, but Buddy accidentally came within half a dozen steps of going too near the trap, and was almost caught.

"Oh, I guess we'll have to give it up," spoke Sammie, but Buddy didn't want to, because he was very determined, and did not like to stop until he had done what he set out to do.

So he tried every way he could think of, until he was all tired out, but nothing seemed to do any good. Then he and Sammie sat down and looked up at that turnip, swinging over their heads, and they were so hungry that their tongues stuck out like a dog's on a hot day. Then, all at once, before you could sharpen a lead pencil with a dull knife, if out from the bushes didn't pop Billie Bushytail, the squirrel.

"What's up?" he asked, just like that, honestly he did.

"The turnip is," said Buddy; "it's up high and we can't get it down."

"Ha! That's a mere trifle--a mere trifle!" cried Billie. "I will climb up the tree, run out on the limb and gnaw through the string. Then the turnip will fall down to you."

Which he did in two frisks of his tail, without any danger from the trap at all, for that was on the ground, while Billie was above it in the tree. So Buddy and Sammie had the turnip after all. And they divided it evenly, Sammie gnawing it through with his teeth, and each one took his half home. Billie didn't like turnip, you see for he would rather have chestnuts.

Now, I think I'll tell you next about Buddy Pigg playing ball--that is, if our tea kettle sings a nice song for supper and makes the rag doll go to sleep.

STORY IV

BUDDY PIGG PLAYS BALL

"Hello, Buddy!" called Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, to Buddy Pigg one fine day, "come on out, and we'll have a game of ball," and Sammie tossed his ball high up in the air and caught it in his catching glove, as easily as you can eat two ice cream cones, a vanilla and a chocolate one, on a hot day.

"Why, we two can't play ball alone," objected Buddy. "It needs three, anyhow."

"Oh, well, we'll find Billie and Johnie Bushytail somewhere in the woods," went on Sammie, "and maybe Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, will come along, too. Then there is Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, who have come back from the country. Oh, we can get up a regular team."

"All right, I'll come," agreed Buddy. "Wait until I bring in some wood for mother. She is going to bake some turnip pies to-day--out of the turnip you and I and Billie Bushytail got yesterday--and she needs a hot fire. I just love turnip pies; don't you, Sammie?"

"Indeed I do, but I don't believe we are going to have any. Mother stewed my half of the turnip."

"Never mind," advised Buddy Pigg, "I'll give you some of our pies when they are baked," so he brought in two big armfuls of wood for the fire, and then he and Sammie went off to play ball, leaving Brighteyes Pigg home to help her mamma bake the pies, which the little guinea pig girl loved to do.

Well, Buddy and Sammie hadn't gone very far before they met Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the boy squirrels, and they agreed to play ball. Then, as the four of them went along a little farther, they met Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, out walking with Percival, the old circus dog. So Peetie and Jackie said they would play ball, and that made six.

"Now, if we had two more we would have four on a side," suggested Buddy, and, no sooner had he spoken than there was a noise in the bushes, and out came Jimmie Wibblewobble, and Bully, the frog.

They were very glad to play ball, and soon there were two sides selected. Buddy Pigg was captain of one side, and for players he had Peetie Bow Wow, Billie Bushytail, and Bully, while Sammie Littletail was the other captain, and he had Jackie Bow Wow, Johnnie Bushytail and Jimmie Wibblewobble.

"Now we're all ready, let's play," suggested Buddy.

"No, wait a moment," begged Bully.

"Why?" they all wanted to know.