Part 19 (2/2)

”Better not! Maybe it's a trick to catch us!” said Curly Tail.

But just then a lady on the lake called again: ”Oh help! He is such a big one that I can't get him into the boat, and Percival has fallen overboard!”

Then there was a great splas.h.i.+ng, and a rustling in the bushes and Flop Ear called:

”We're coming to help you, lady! What have you got that is so big?”

”A fish,” she answered. ”My husband, Percival, is a great fisherman and he caught the biggest fish in all the lake, but it pulled him out of the boat. However, I have hold of the pole and line, and the fish is still fast to the hook. Oh, help me to catch him!”

So the piggie boys said they would, and they ran down to the sh.o.r.e, and the lady in the boat pa.s.sed them the pole. Then Curly and Flop pulled as hard as they could, and old circus dog Percival scrambled out of the water, and he helped pull, too, and, all of a sudden, from the bushes along the edge of the lake--on dry land, but not in the water--there suddenly flopped the biggest fish any one had ever seen.

”Oh, what long ears the fish has!” cried Curly Tail, when the moon shone on the fish. ”I never saw a fish with ears!”

”I'm not a fish,” said a voice. ”Oh, please let me go. The hook is caught in my collar. Please let me go!”

”Who are you?” asked Percival, in wonder.

”I'm Uncle Wiggily Longears,” was the answer. ”I dressed up like a Hallowe'en fish to fool Curly Tail and Flop Ear. I was walking along the sh.o.r.e in the dark, thinking I could catch the piggie boys, when, all of a sudden, something caught in my coat collar, and I was dragged through the bushes. I was choked so I could hardly speak, and I didn't know what had happened to me.”

”Oh, that's too bad,” said Percival. ”I guess I happened to catch you on my fishhook by mistake, when I was tossing it around. But why are you all dressed up?” he asked Curly Tail and Flop Ear and Uncle Wiggily.

”Because it is Hallowe'en,” said Flop Ear; ”but I guess we have had enough of it.”

”Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, ”come up into the bungalow and we will duck for apples, eat marshmallows and have fun.”

So Curly Tail took off his bread crumbs clothes, and Flop Ear his apple pie suit, and Uncle Wiggily his fish scales, and they all took off their false faces, and Percival and the lady whose name was Gertrude, had a good time.

And in the next story in case the ash can doesn't roll off the roof and fall on the dog house to scare the puppy cake I'll tell you about Curly Tail and the little afraid girl.

STORY XXIV

CURLY AND THE AFRAID GIRL

One day, when Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, went down to the store on Racc.o.o.n Island, in Lake Hopatcong, kept by Pop Goes the Weasel, there was a letter there for Curly Tail and also one for Flop Ear.

”I wonder who can be writing to the piggie boys,” said the rabbit gentleman. ”I'll take the letters to them.”

So he stopped to play just one game of Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel, only they didn't quit finish it because Mr. Pop's cat jumped on the middle of the board to catch a mosquito and scattered the checkers all over.

”Scat!” cried Pop Goes the Weasel. ”Why did you do that?”

”Never mind,” said Uncle Wiggily. ”She didn't mean to.”

And really the cat didn't mean to, and the mosquito got away after all, and Pop Goes the Weasel began picking up the checkers, but the rabbit gentleman said:

<script>