Part 16 (1/2)

Faster and faster ran the wolf, but faster and faster ran Dottie, and no wolf could ever catch her, no matter how fast he ran. And Dottie galloped and trotted and cantered, and went on and on, and on, and the wolf came after her, but he kept on being left farther and farther behind, and at last Dottie was out of the woods, and she and Bully were safe, for the wolf didn't dare go any nearer, for fear the circus men would catch him.

”Oh, thank you so much, Dottie, for saving me,” said Bully. ”I'll give you this other piece of cookie I was saving for Bawly. He won't mind.”

So he gave it to Dottie, and she liked it very much indeed, and that wolf was so angry and disappointed about not having any supper that he bit his claw nails almost off, and went back into the woods, and growled, and growled, and growled all night, worse than a buzzing mosquito.

But Bully and Dottie didn't care a bit and they went on home and they met Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, who bought them an ice cream soda flavored with carrots.

Now in case my little bunny rabbit doesn't bite a hole in the back steps so the milkman drops a bottle down it when he comes in the morning, I'll tell you in the following story about Grandpa Croaker and Brighteyes Pigg.

STORY XXI

GRANDPA AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG

One nice warm day, right after he had eaten a breakfast of watercress oatmeal, with sweet-flag-root-sugar and milk on it, Grandpa Croaker, the nice old gentleman frog, started out for a hop around the woods near the pond. And he took with him his cane with the crook on the handle, hanging it over his paw.

”Where are you going, Grandpa?” asked Bully No-Tail, as he and his brother Bawly started for school.

”Oh, I hardly know,” said the old frog gentleman in his hoa.r.s.est, deepest, thundering, croaking voice. ”Perhaps I may meet with a fairy or a big giant, or even the alligator bird.”

”The alligator isn't a bird, Grandpa,” spoke Bawly.

”Oh no, to be sure,” agreed the old gentleman rabbit-I mean frog-”no more it is. I was thinking of the Pelican. Well, anyhow I am going out for a walk, and if you didn't have to go to school you could come with me. But I'll take you next time, and we may go to the Wild West show together.”

”Oh fine!” cried Bully, as he hopped away with his school books under his front leg.

”Oh fine and dandy!” exclaimed Bawly, as he looked in his spelling book to see how to spell ”cow.”

Well, the frog boys hopped on to school, and Grandpa Croaker hopped off to the woods. He went on and on, and he was wondering what sort of an adventure he would have, when he heard a little noise up in the trees.

He looked up through his gla.s.ses, and he saw Jennie Chipmunk there.

She was a little late for school, but she was hurrying all she could.

She called ”good morning” to Grandpa Croaker, and he tossed her up a sugar cookie that he happened to have in his pocket. Wasn't he the nice old Grandpa, though? Well, I just guess he was!

So he went on a little farther, and pretty soon he came to the place where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived. Only Buddy wasn't at home, being at school. But Brighteyes, the little guinea pig girl, was there in the house, and she was suffering from the toothache, I'm sorry to say.

Oh! the poor little guinea pig girl was in great pain, and that's why she couldn't go to school. Her face was all tied up in a towel with a bag of hot salt on it, but even that didn't seem to do any good.

”Oh, I'm so sorry for you, Brighteyes!” exclaimed Grandpa. ”Have you had Dr. Possum? Where is your mamma?”

”Mamma has gone to the doctor's now to get me something to stop the pain,” answered Brighteyes, ”and to-morrow I am going to have the tooth pulled. We tried mustard and cloves and all things like that but nothing would stop the pain.”

”Perhaps if I tell you a little story it will make you forget it until mamma comes with the doctor's medicine,” suggested Grandpa, and then and there he told Brighteyes a funny story about a little white rabbit that lived in a garden and had carrots to eat, and it ate so many that its white hair turned red and it looked too cute for anything, and then it went to the circus.

Well, the story made Brighteyes forget the pain for a time, but the story couldn't last forever, and soon the pain came back. Then Grandpa thought of something else.

”Why are all the ladders, and boards, and cans, and brushes piled outside your house?” he asked Brighteyes, for he had noticed them as he came in.