Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg by Howard R. Garis
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Howard R. Garis >> Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg
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8 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?"
[Illustration]
"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.
"Because," replied the little frog boy, "my brother, Bawly, has just
made up a new song, and I know he'll give us no peace until he sings it.
He's coming along now. Let him sing the song, and then we'll play ball."
So they agreed to that, and in a minute Bawly came hopping along.
"Do you want to hear my new song?" he asked.
"Yes--hurry up," they all cried. So Bawly sang this:
Oh, wiggily, waggily, wheelery,
I wish that I was rich.
I'd buy an automobilery,
And ride it in our ditch.
I wouldn't hop at all again.
I'd ride the whole day long.
But I haven't got an auto,
And so I sing this song.
"I don't call that much of a song," said the old circus dog, Percival.
"You ought to do a dance after it. That's what the clowns always do."
"Thank you, I'm not a clown," answered Bawly. "But could you make up a
song like that, and sing it yourself? That's what I want to know," he
asked.
"I don't s'pose I could," answered Percival. "But if we're going to the
ball game, let's go." So they hurried on, and pretty soon they met Uncle
Wiggily Longears.
"Oh, will you umpire for us?" asked Sammie.
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