Chapter 5

"Nonsense! Afraid of me!" exclaimed the voice, and this time, bless me; if it wasn't on the blanket, right over Buddy's nose. "Don't be afraid, little boy," the voice went on. "I wouldn't hurt you for the world. Why, I'm only a harmless, old June bug, you know. I blundered in here by mistake, somehow, because I saw your light, but now it's dark, and I can't see to get out. But land sakes, goodness me, and some buttermilk! Don't be afraid of me! I wouldn't hurt you for the world and the moon too."

"Well, I--I don't exactly know if I'm afraid of you or not," went on Buddy. "First I thought you were a fox or an owl. I--I guess I'm a little afraid of the dark, too."

"Nonsense! The dark can't hurt anyone," said the June bug. "The dark is good for sleeping. But if you're afraid, how would you like me to tell you a story? And that will pass the time until your papa and mamma come home."

"Oh, fine!" cried Buddy, and he wasn't afraid any more, for he loved to hear stories. So the June bug perched upon the bed clothes, where they were nice and soft, and he told lots of stories to Buddy.

He told about the cow that went to school, and about the bear who was bitten by a big, black bug, and about two good boys, and about three bad boys, who lived in a cave, and about an elephant, and about a horse that had four legs and, oh, I don't know how many stories.

Then the June bug sang this little verse, only, as I have a cold in my head you'll have to get some one else to sing it for you. Anyhow this is how it goes:

"I love to flip and flop and flap, And buzz around the room, I leap up to the ceiling high, And hit it with a boom! I turn a double somersault. My wings they play a tune. It's lots of fun to be a bug, Especially in June."

And then, land sakes, and a feather pillow; if Buddy Pigg wasn't fast asleep. Then the kind old June bug sang his song over again, softly, and was about to fly away, when he saw a mosquito going to bite the little guinea pig boy.

And what did that bug do but grab the mosquito and throw him out of the window. And the June bug stayed until he heard Dr. Pigg and his wife coming back, and then he flew away, for he had managed to find the place where he had come in, and crawled out again.

Buddy woke up when his mamma came in his room to see how he was, and he told her all about the June bug, and how kind it had been, and how it had told stories.

"You must have had a lovely dream," said Mrs. Pigg, but Buddy knew it had actually happened, and wasn't a dream at all. Now if my typewriter doesn't fall down and sprain its hair ribbon we'll next have a story soon about Brighteyes and a bad boy.

STORY XVI

BRIGHTEYES AND THE BAD BOY

Brighteyes Pigg was coming home from the grocery store one day. She didn't have much to carry because, you see, her mamma had sent her for only a yeast cake, and, as that wasn't very large, Matilda put it in her apron pocket.

She was walking along, thinking what a good time she would have when she got home, for Jennie Chipmunk had promised to come over as soon as she got her dishes washed and play house with the little guinea pig girl.

"We'll have a lovely time," thought Matilda, who was called Brighteyes for short. "We'll dress up all our dolls and have a play-party, and maybe mamma will give us real things to eat."

Well, Brighteyes was thinking so much about the party, and about Jennie Chipmunk, whom she had not seen in some time, that she didn't pay much attention to anything else. She was going along, hippity-hop, just as Sister Sallie went to the barber shop, when all of a sudden something whizzed right past the nose of Brighteyes and almost hit her.

"My goodness me, sakes alive and a tin dishpan! What's that?" she exclaimed. "I wonder if it could have been that June bug who told Buddy stories so nicely?"

Then she looked all around and she didn't see anything of a bug, and she didn't hear his wings buzzing, so she thought it couldn't have been him.

Then, bless me! if something more didn't shoot right past Brighteyes with a whizz and a whozz, making a funny noise, you know. And this time she saw what it was. It was an arrow, the kind that are shot from bows, you understand.

"Oh, the Indians are after me! The Indians are after me!" cried poor Brighteyes in fright, for you see she had read in her school reader about the Indians shooting arrows.

Then the little guinea pig girl started to run, but before she had taken three steps and a half, if another arrow didn't come whizzing through the bushes at her, and this time it was so close that it just touched her left ear.

This frightened her so that she fell down, and before she could get up to run away, if out from behind a tree didn't leap a bad boy.

So it wasn't an Indian shooting the arrows, after all, which, perhaps, was a good thing, as Indians can shoot very straight and might have hurt Brighteyes. No, it was a bad boy.

I call him bad because he shot at Brighteyes, and I guess before I'm through with this story that you'll call him bad also.

Well, that boy ran right at Brighteyes, and before she knew what was happening he had grabbed her.

"Wow!" cried the boy. "I've got it! I shot it! I've got a rabbit!"

"Ha! That ain't a rabbit!" exclaimed another boy, coming out of the bushes, "that's a guinea pig. Where did you hit it?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem to be hurt anywhere. But I was sure I hit it. But, maybe, the arrow only stunned it. Anyhow, I've got it. Now we'll take it home, and put it in a cage, and charge five cents for all the other boys to see it."

"Sure," said the second boy. "You're a good shot with your bow and arrow. Come on, let me carry the guinea pig."

"No," replied the first boy, "I'm going to carry it myself. I wonder if you carry 'em by their ears, like you do rabbits?" Then he tried to get hold of Brighteyes' ears, and he could hardly find them, as they were so small, and, of course, he couldn't take hold of them.

But, oh, dear! how roughly he handled that poor little guinea pig girl! When he couldn't get hold of her ears he grabbed her by the hind legs and actually turned her upside down, and then what should happen but that the yeast cake fell out of her apron pocket.

"Ha! That's funny!" cried the boy who held Brighteyes. "I never knew that guinea pigs ate yeast cakes. This must be a smart one. We'll teach it to do tricks, and then we can charge ten cents to see it. Oh, I'm glad I caught it."

And he held on more tightly to Brighteyes, for she was wiggling and squirming, trying to get away.

Oh, how frightened she was, when she heard the boys say that they were going to shut her up in a cage! She thought she would never see her mamma, and papa, and Buddy again. Big tears came into her eyes, and she trembled all over.

But do you s'pose that bad boy and the other one cared? Not the least bit! First one held Brighteyes, and then the other, to see how heavy she was, and then they took her up, first by one leg and then by the other, and, if she had had a tail, they would have held her up by that, and probably pulled it, too, for all I know.

You see those two boys had been playing they were Indians in the woods with their bows and arrows, and perhaps that made them act so cruelly.

"Let's hurry home now and put it in a cage," said the bad boy, and he and the other boy started off, carrying Brighteyes. But wait, don't be frightened, or worried, for something is going to happen immediately, which is very soon.

All at once there was a whizzing and a whozzing in the air, and a buzzing, bizzing sound, and that kind old June bug came sailing along. He saw those bad boys taking Brighteyes away, and the bug knew at once that she was Buddy's sister.

So what did he do but wiggle his wings about a thousand times a minute, I guess, and fly right at the boy who held the guinea pig girl!

Right at the bad boy flew the bug, and he hit him first in one eye and then the other and scared him so that the bad chap was glad enough to let go of poor Brighteyes in a hurry.

Then the other boy stepped on the yeast cake, and it flattened out, and he slipped on it, and fell down, and he thought a bear was after him, and he yelled, and the other boy yelled, and then they both ran away, and Brighteyes was saved.

She thanked the June bug, and he said he was glad he could help her, and he flew back to the grocery and got another yeast cake for her. Then Brighteyes hurried home.

Now the next story is going to be about Buddy Pigg's great run--that is, if we have peaches and cream for supper and the rag man doesn't take my rubber boots for his goat to wear to the party.

STORY XVII

BUDDY'S GREAT RUN

Well, I didn't have peaches and cream for supper last night, but I had strawberry shortcake, which is almost as good, so I can tell you a story, anyhow.

Once upon a time, Oh, I guess it must have been about two weeks after Brighteyes was caught by the bad boys, and rescued by the June bug, Buddy Pigg was sitting on his front steps, wishing he had something to do.

"Mother," he asked, "can I go down in the brook, paddling? Jimmie Wibblewobble is down there."

"No," said Mrs. Pigg kindly, "you are not quite well enough to go in the water, Buddy. But you may have five cents for an ice cream cone."

Well, Buddy walked up to the store, got a vanilla ice cream cone, and had just finished the last of it, even down to the sharp point of the cone, where there wasn't any ice cream, when who should come along but Billie and Johnnie Bushytail. They had their catching gloves, and a ball and a bat, and when the squirrel boys saw Buddy they called out:

"Come on, let's have a game of baseball."

"All right," agreed Buddy. "But who else will play?"

"Oh! we'll get Sammie Littletail, and Bully and Bawly, the frogs, and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and we'll have a fine game," said Billie Bushytail.

So they walked along, and pretty soon they met Sammie Littletail, and then a little while after that they met the two Bow Wows, and then who should come hopping along, but Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and, if you'll believe me, a moment after that, along came Jimmie Wibblewobble.

Then they had enough for a fine baseball game, and they went to a nice, green meadow where they could play. Well, Johnnie Bushytail was up at the bat first, and he knocked the ball so far that Bully, who was playing out in the far-off part of the field, had to take about sixteen and a half hops before he could get it. But by that time Johnnie was back at home plate safe.

Then it came Sammie Littletail's turn, and he knocked the ball so high that it went up in a tree and stayed there, and didn't come down.

"Oh, that's no way to play!" exclaimed Jimmie Wibblewobble. "Now we haven't any ball. What did you do that for, Sammie?"

"Well, I couldn't help it; could I?" asked Sammie, and he threw the bat up, trying to knock down the ball.

But it wouldn't come down, and then they all threw up stones and sticks, but still that ball wouldn't come down, and then Billie and Johnnie Bushytail climbed up and they had it down in about two frisks of their big, long tails.

Well, they said that Sammie Littletail was out for knocking the ball up in the tree, and he didn't like it, but he gave in, and the game went on. Then Jimmie Wibblewobble knocked a ball, oh! so far and so high that it was almost out of sight.

"Nobody can catch that!" cried Jimmie, as he started for first base.

But just you wait and see. Buddy Pigg was out in the field, waiting for a nice ball to come along so he could catch it, and now was his chance. He had such bright eyes, almost like his sister's, and he could see the ball away up in the white clouds, even though none of the other players could.

He kept his eyes on it, and got his paws all ready to catch it when it came down. And pretty soon it did begin to come down, for you know it couldn't stay up there in the air, with nothing to hold it. Of course not, and I know you understand how that is.

Well, Buddy managed to catch that ball, though it came down very swiftly, and Jimmie Wibblewobble was out.

"Fine catch, Buddy! Fine!" cried Billie Bushytail.

"Yes, and now it's Buddy's turn to bat," said Bawly, the frog. "Get up, Buddy. I'll pitch you a nice one."

So Buddy got up to home plate, which was a flat stone, you know, and he held his bat ready to knock the ball out of sight, if possible.

Bawly threw him a nice, easy ball, and Buddy struck at it. He hit, too, which is better. Oh! such a hit as he gave that ball! It's a good thing balls don't have feelings, I think, or bats either, for that matter.

Well, as soon as he hit the ball Buddy started to run for the bases. Oh, how fast he ran, but something happened. The ball didn't go as far as he thought it would. No, it fell down right near Sammie Littletail, and Sammie picked it up and ran toward Buddy with it.

He knew if he could touch Buddy with the ball before Buddy got back to home plate, that Buddy would be out and then Sammie could bat again.

So Sammie ran after Buddy, and Buddy ran all around the bases, hoping he could make a home run and get there safe. But it was hard work. Faster and faster he ran, and faster and faster hopped Sammie after him.

"Run, Buddy! Run!" cried Bully the frog.

"I--am--running!" panted Buddy.

"Catch him, Sammie! Catch him!" cried Bawly, and Sammie gave three tremendous hops to catch Buddy.

But by this time Buddy was nearly at home plate, where he would be safe. And the worst of it was that Sammie was almost there, too.

Then, with his last breath, and giving a spring and a hop that was so big that it took him close to Buddy, Sammie stretched out his paw with the ball in and tried to touch Buddy. But do you s'pose he did? No, sir, he didn't, and Buddy got home safe, and wasn't put out after all.

"Well," said Sammie, after he had gotten his breath, "if you had had a tail sticking out behind you I would have touched that, and you'd have been out."

"I'm glad I haven't a tail," said Buddy, as he sat down on the grass to rest, and then, after a while the game went on, and lasted until dark, everybody having a fine time.

Now, I'm going to tell you in the story after this one about Brighteyes, Buddy and the turnip--that is, in case I hear a potato bug sing a song that puts the rag doll to sleep, so she won't cry and wake up the pussy cat.

STORY XVIII

BRIGHTEYES, BUDDY AND THE TURNIP

One day when Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg were out walking in the fields, they saw, close beside a big stone, a fine, large turnip. Oh, it was the nicest, ripest, juiciest turnip that ever a guinea pig boy or girl smelled of, and it just made their mouths water, and water even came into their eyes.

"Oh, what a lovely turnip!" exclaimed Brighteyes. "I wonder who it belongs to?"

"Let's look and see if it has any one's name on it," suggested Buddy.

So, after peering carefully about to see that there were no traps near, the two guinea pig children went closer, and gazed on all sides of the turnip, and even turned it over to look on the bottom.

They couldn't see a single name, and then they came to the conclusion that the turnip didn't belong to any one in particular.

"I wonder if it would be right for us to take it home?" asked Brighteyes. "Mamma and papa would just love to have some of it."

"Why certainly, take it right along, children!" exclaimed a voice from under a burdock leaf, and then out flew the kind, old June bug.

"May we really have it?" asked Buddy.

"Of course," answered the June bug. "You see I was hiding under that leaf, thinking it was about time for me to go South, for June bugs oughtn't really to fly in July, when I heard a rumbling noise. First I thought it was thunder, and then I saw that it was a big farm wagon loaded with turnips.

"Well, one of the turnips fell off, and a boy, who was riding on the wagon, called to the man who was driving, and told him about the turnip falling. Then the man said that didn't matter, as he had more turnips than he knew what to do with. So that's how I know that you can have the turnip if you wish."

"Well, we certainly do wish!" cried Brighteyes. "Isn't it grand, Buddy? We'll take it right home."

"Yes, but how can we carry it?" asked her brother. "I don't believe we can lift it."

He went up to the big, round turnip, and tried and tried, with all his might, to lift it, but it wouldn't come up as high even as a pin head from the ground.

"Perhaps I can lift it," suggested Brighteyes, so she tried, but she couldn't.

"Maybe if you both try together you can," said the June bug.

Well, they both pulled and hauled, but it was of no use. There that turnip was, just as if it was stuck fast in the ground.

"I'm not very strong myself," went on the June bug, "but I'll do my best. Come on, now, all together."

So he took hold, with Buddy and Brighteyes, and he buzzed his wings as hard as they would buzz, and he cracked his legs, and he strained and he tugged and pulled, but, no sir, that turnip wouldn't move the least bit.

"I guess we'll have to leave it here," said Buddy sorrowful-like, "but I did so want to take it home to mamma and papa."

And he looked at the big vegetable as if it would, somehow, move itself.

"I know a way," said the June bug, at length.

"How?" asked Brighteyes.

"Why you and your brother must eat as much of it as you can, and then it will be lighter, and easier to lift, you see. Just gnaw a lot off the turnip, and you can carry it, then."

"Oh, but that would spoil the turnip," objected Buddy. "We want to take it home all in one piece, so papa and mamma can see it." Now wasn't that good of him? Especially when he and his sister were just as hungry as they could be, and would have loved to have had some? But they wanted to have their folks see it first, without a bite being taken from it.

"Well," said the June bug, "maybe you can roll it along, if you can't lift it."

"The very thing!" cried Buddy. "If we can just get it started it will roll along easily, for it is down hill to our pen, and it will bounce along just as the cabbage did, that I was once in. That's a good plan."

Well, by hard work the three of them did manage to get the turnip started, and it rolled along, first slowly and then more quickly, and then with a rush, and land sake! if all at once it didn't roll down into a big hole.

"Oh, now we'll never get it up!" cried Buddy, much disappointed, and he and his sister felt very sorrowful. But not for long, for in a little while along hopped Uncle Wiggily Longears, with his crutch. It didn't take him any time, with the aid of the June bug, and Buddy and Brighteyes, to pry that turnip up out of the hole.

"Now I'll show you how to get the turnip home," said Uncle Wiggily. "You need some way to steer it, so it won't run away from you and get into a hole again."

Then he took his crutch and punched a hole through that turnip, and put a stick through the hole, so the turnip was just like the wheel of a wheelbarrow.

Then he fastened long pieces of strong grass to the stick that was stuck through the turnip, and he and Buddy and Brighteyes and the June bug took hold of the grass, and they rolled that turnip along and steered it just as you pull your sled or wheel the baby carriage or guide a horse with a bit in his mouth.

And pretty soon they were safely at the pen, and Dr. Pigg and his wife were much surprised and delighted when they saw the big turnip which their children had found. They gave Uncle Wiggily Longears some, but the June bug said he would rather have a ginger snap, and he got it.

Now the next story will be about Buddy and the burglar fox, in case the milkman isn't late to school, and if he brings a bottle of water for teacher to sprinkle the blackboards with.

STORY XIX

BUDDY AND THE BURGLAR FOX

"We must lock all the windows and doors very tightly to-night," said Mrs. Pigg to her husband, one evening, when they were getting ready for bed.

"Yes," agreed Dr. Pigg, "we must. I'll see to it, my dear, and you put the children to bed."

"Why do you have to lock up so carefully, mamma?" inquired Buddy.

"Because," said Mrs. Pigg, "I heard that there have been a number of tramps and burglars around lately."

"Indeed, that's true," added Dr. Pigg. "Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster next door, was telling me that he thinks some one tried to get in his coop last night. The door rattled and some one shook the window."

"Perhaps it was the wind," suggested Brighteyes.

"It may have been," agreed her father. "I hope it was, for I don't like burglars at all. Now go to bed and don't be afraid, for I'll lock up carefully, and I have a pail of water right beside my bed and I'll throw it on a burglar if he dares to come in."

So Buddy and Brighteyes went up stairs to bed with their mother, while Dr. Pigg put out the cat, locked the doors and windows and set the alarm clock to wake him up at five o'clock, for he had to go downtown to attend to some business in the morning.

"I wish the June bug would come again," said Brighteyes, as she was falling asleep.

"Why?" asked her mother from the next room.

"Oh, so he could tell us some stories, and then I wouldn't think about burglars."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Pigg. "How silly! Burglars will never hurt you. Go to sleep now."

"If any burglars come in I'll fix 'em'!" cried Buddy, bravely, from his room. Then Brighteyes went to sleep, and so did Dr. Pigg and his wife.

But, somehow, Buddy couldn't sleep. Why it was he didn't know, only he couldn't. He thought of everything he could think of; ice cream cones and turnips and baseball games, and being in the boat that time, and going to the North Pole and then he thought of the stories the June bug had told him, but still he couldn't go to sleep.

"I guess I'll get up and sit by the window a while," he said to himself. "Then maybe I'll feel sleepy."

So he got up and sat down in a comfortable chair and looked out. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and he could see things almost as well as if it was day.

Well, Buddy hadn't sat there very long, before he saw something long and black and shadowy creeping along, as softly and as gently as a mouse.

First he thought it was a cat, but when he looked again he saw that it was a fox. And the fox had a bag over his shoulder, and he was sneaking along, looking around to be sure no policeman dogs saw him.

Well, sir, as true as I'm telling you, if that fox didn't come softly up to Dr. Pigg's house, right to the front door, as Buddy could see by leaning out of his window, which was open, and looking down, as his window was right over the front door.

Then that fox took a screw-driver out of his bag, and he began to work at the door to force it open, in spite of the lock on it. Oh, how softly and quietly he worked! But Buddy looked down and saw him, and he knew right away that it was a burglar fox, who was coming in the house.

At first Buddy was frightened, and then he knew that he ought to do something. He thought of awakening his papa and mamma, and then he feared that this would scare Brighteyes, and so he decided to drive that burglar fox away all by himself.

Then he tried to think of the best way to do it. He moved softly about his room, looking for something with which to scare the fuzzy old fox, and what do you think he found? Why, his baseball, to be sure!

"That will be as good as a bullet!" thought Buddy.

Then he moved softly to the window, leaned out, where he could see the fox, who was still trying to force open the front door, and raising the ball in his hand, Buddy threw it down with all his might, just as if he was throwing to first base.

Well, sir, the ball hit that bad fox right on the head, and it bounced up almost into Buddy's hands again, but not quite.