Part 7 (1/2)

”Oh, look!” cried Bully. ”We must save Grandpa from that snake!”

”That's what we must!” shouted Bawly. ”Here, we'll make him unwind himself from Grandpa and the toadstool and then hit him with our baseball bats.”

So those brave frog boys went quite close to the snake, and that wiggily creature thought he could catch them, and so put out his head to do it.

Then Bully and Bawly hopped around the toadstool in a circle, and the snake, keeping his beady, black eyes on them, followed them with his head, around and around, still hoping to catch them, until he finally unwound himself, just like a corkscrew out of a bottle.

Then Bully and Bawly hit him with their baseball bats, and the snake ran away, taking his tail with him, and Grandpa Croaker was free. Then, taking a long breath, for good measure, the old gentleman frog broke off the toadstool and gave it to Nellie Chip-Chip for an umbrella, and the sparrow girl could go home in the rain without getting wet. And Grandpa thanked Bully and Bawly and hopped on home with them. So that's the end of this story.

But in case the little dog next door doesn't take our doormat and eat it for supper with his bread and b.u.t.ter I'll tell you in the story after this one about Bawly and Jollie Longtail.

STORY X

BAWLY N

For a few days after Grandpa Croaker, the old frog gentleman, had been wound around the toadstool by the snake, as I told you in the story before this one, he was so sore and stiff from the squeezing he had received, that he had to sit in an easy chair, and eat hot mush with sugar on. And, in order that he would not be lonesome, Bawly and Bully No-Tail, the frog boys, sat near him, and read him funny things from their school books, or the paper, and Grandpa Croaker was very thankful to them.

The frog boys wanted very much to go away and play ball with their friends, for, it being the Easter vacation, there was no school, but, instead, they remained at home nearly all the while, so Grandpa wouldn't feel lonesome.

But at last one day the old gentleman frog said:

”Now, boys, I'm sure you must be very tired of staying with me so much.

You need a little vacation. I am almost well now, so I'll hop over and see Uncle Wiggily Longears. Then you may go and play ball, and here is a penny for each of you.”

Well, of course Bully and Bawly thanked their Grandpa, though they really hadn't expected anything like that, and off they hopped to the store to spend the money. For they had saved all the pennies for a long time, and they were now allowed to buy something.

Bully bought a picture post card to send to Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, and Bawly bought a bean shooter. That is a long piece of tin, with a hole through it like a pipe, and you put in a bean at one end, blow on the other end, and out pops the bean like a cork out of a soda water bottle.

”What are you going to do with that bean shooter?” asked Bully of his brother.

”Oh, I'm going to carry it instead of a gun,” said Bawly, ”and if I see that bad alligator, or snake, again I'll shoot 'em with beans.”

”Beans, won't hurt 'em much,” spoke Bully.

”No, but maybe the beans will tickle 'em so they'll laugh and run away,”

replied his brother. Then they hopped on through the woods, and pretty soon they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs.

”Let's have a ball game,” suggested Peetie, as he wiggled his left ear.

”Oh, yes!” cried Jackie, as he dug a hole in the ground to see if he could find a juicy bone, but he couldn't I'm sorry to say.

Well, they started the ball game, and Bawly was so fond of his bean shooter that he kept it with him all the while, and several times, when the b.a.l.l.s were high in the air, he tried to hit them by blowing beans at them. But he couldn't, though the beans popped out very nicely.

But finally the other players didn't like Bawly to do that, for the beans came down all around them, and tickled them so that they had to laugh, and they couldn't play ball.

Then Bawly said he'd lay his shooter down in the gra.s.s, but before he could do so his brother Bully knocked such a high flying ball that you could hardly see it.