Howard Roger Garis

“ But Buddy and Brighteyes kept on, and pretty soon they met a grasshopper.
"Where are you going?" asked the grasshopper.
"To the top of the hill, to see the view," answered Buddy.
"You will never get there, the way you are going," said the grasshopper. "You should jump as I do," and he gave three big hops and a little one to show how well he could do it.
"We cannot hop," remarked Brighteyes, "but we have a friend who can."
"Who?" asked the grasshopper, as he scratched his two big hind legs together, like a man playing the fiddle.
"Sammie Littletail, the rabbit," said Buddy. "He can hop." ”

“ Well, every one was wondering how Uncle Wiggily was ever going to walk again, when all of a sudden, as Buddy looked from the window, he cried out:
"Oh, here comes the big, shaggy yellow dog that was going to eat up Brighteyes and Sister Sallie when they were playing with their dolls! He's coming right this way! Run everybody!"
"Wow!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "A dog! Goodness me!" and, land sakes, if he didn't jump up, seize his crutch and run home as fast as if he never had any rheumatism at all. ”

“ He looked, up and gave a shout of delight.
"Hello, Billie and Johnnie Bushytail!" he cried, as he saw the two little squirrel boys. "You're just in time! Come on and help me build this sand house!"
"Sure!" agreed Billie and Johnnie, as they frisked their tails, just as the cook sometimes frisks the dusting brush when she wants to knock the crumbs from the table to the floor. "Can you stay long?" asked Buddy.
"As long as papa and mamma do," answered Johnnie. "They are in your house now, and so is Sister Sallie. We're going to stay to dinner, but first we'll help you build the sand house." ”

“ I think I know where there is a cave, and we will see if a giant lives in it."
"A real giant?" asked Buddy.
"No, only a make-believe one," answered Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. So he and the two guinea pig children started off up the side of the mountain toward the cave. All around them were other mountains, and it was a lovely place, with the red sun sinking down behind the hills, just like it does in poetry.
"Ha, here we are at the cave!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, at length, as they came to a big hole in the side of the mountain. "Now, Buddy and Brighteyes, be very careful. ”

“ Tell my mamma good-by for me," he said to Jackie.
"We'll tell her you're in trouble, and maybe she will know of a way to save you," called Peetie and Jackie.
So they ran and told Mrs. Pigg, and she and Brighteyes came running down to the shore of the pond.
"Oh, my poor little boy," cried Mamma Pigg, when she saw Buddy being carried farther and farther away.
"Oh, how can we reach him?" wailed Brighteyes, wringing her paws. "We must save him, somehow!"
Just then along came Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels.
"Stick up your tail like a sail and the wind will blow you ashore!" ”

“ Well, I wish you could have seen the face Uncle Wiggily made when he swallowed the rheumatism medicine! It was just like a clown in the circus, only funnier. But Brighteyes and Buddy didn't even giggle, which was very kind of them.
"Do you feel any better?" asked Dr. Pigg, after Uncle Wiggily had stopped making faces. "Is the pain gone?"
"No, I can't say that it is," answered the rabbit. "It seems to be worse than ever," and he rubbed his leg and tried to get up, but he couldn't leave the chair, even with his crutch, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. ”

“ I don't like the Fourth of July. If you do get burned. Buddy, run right in and let papa attend to you."
"I can't get burned with the kind of firecrackers and torpedoes I'm going to use," answered the little boy guinea pig, and he laughed as he ran out.
Well, pretty soon, along came all his friends, Billie and Johnnie and Sammie, and all the rest. They were so excited that Bawly, the frog, didn't think to sing a song, or recite any poetry.
"What shall we do first?" asked Buddy.
"Let's play war," suggested Sammie. "We'll divide up into two armies, and have a battle. It will be great!" ”

“ So, with his sharp teeth, Buddy loosened the pink string around the box, and off came the cover. Then, what do you suppose was in the box? Why, a whole lot of peanut candy, all nice and fresh, shining, golden brown, with just enough peanuts in, and not a bit more, really and truly!
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Brighteyes in delight, as she saw it. "Peanut candy, Buddy! If there's anything I love it's peanut candy! Some good fairy must have left this for us. Come on, we'll take it over here, under a bush, where the bad fox won't see us, and we'll eat some of it, and save some to take home. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Well, it didn't take Buddy and Brighteyes very long to put on their bathing suits. Then they hurried out of the back of the house and went toward the pond.
"Do you really s'pose there'll be waves?" asked Buddy.
"I don't know," answered his sister. "Percival is a very smart dog, you know."
Well, they ran down to the pond, and the first thing they saw when they got there were cords fastened to sticks driven down into the ground, just like the ropes at Asbury Park, you know—if you've ever been there. The ropes are for the bathers to take hold of when the waves come. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So the owl flew along through the dark, dismal woods, going slowly, and close to the ground so Buddy could follow, and pretty soon, the owl stopped in front of a hole in the side of a hill.
"There is where the tail is," said the owl. "Just wait and I'll have it out to you in a jiffy and a half," and bless me, if that owl didn't go in that hole. He stayed there some time, and Buddy could hear voices inside, talking, and land sakes, goodness me alive, and a cherry pie! out of that hole was thrust a great, big, bushy tail. A tail, and nothing else, believe me, if you please. ”

“ That afternoon Buddy and his chums had more Fourth of July fun, and Brighteyes and her friends played with their dolls.
Then at night Buddy and the boys sent up skyrockets and Roman candles (which were sticks covered with lightning bugs) , and prettier ones you never saw. And they even had a lightning-bug pinwheel. Oh, it was the nicest Fourth of July that ever was! I hope you children have as nice a one and that none of you get burned or hurt when you celebrate Independence Day. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Placing his basket of groceries carefully on his arm, Buddy Pigg started for home. He walked along through the woods, and over the fields, thinking how nice everything was, and what fun he would have when he got home, playing ball with Sammie Littletail, and the Bushytail brothers, when, all at once, what should he hear but a noise in the bushes. ”

“ I'd be glad if I had even as much as Sammie has."
"Well," said Mrs. Pigg, "I'm sorry, Buddy, but I don't see how you are ever going to get a tail. I haven't any, your father hasn't any, and we get along very well. None of your relations have tails and they are happy. They never had any. In fact there has never been a tail in our family and I don't see why you want to start. Now run out and play, like a good boy, and when Brighteyes comes back it will be supper time, and we'll have hot biscuits and honey." ”

“ 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." ”

“ So he and Brighteyes carried the box of peanut candy into the bushes, and the little girl guinea pig began to eat the sweet stuff.
Well, she had eaten almost all of it up, before she thought, because it tasted so good, when all of a sudden, who should come along the path in the woods, but a little girl. Yes, a little girl in a red dress, and she was crying as hard as she could cry, that little girl was.
"Oh, dear!" she sobbed, "I have lost my box of peanut candy, that I bought in the store, and I can't find it, and I'm so miserable! Nobody in the world is so miserable as I am. ”

“ One day Buddy was sitting in the sand, on the banks of the pond, when, all at once, he had an idea.
"I know what I'm going to do!" he exclaimed. "I'm gong to build a sand house. I wish Brighteyes was here to help me," but his sister had gone in the pen to help her mamma get dinner ready, for Mrs. Pigg expected company that day; Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail were coming. So Buddy had to start to build the house all alone. He piled a lot of sand in a heap, together with stones, and sticks and bits of duck-weed, and then he started in. ”

“ The little guinea pig children had so much fun bathing in the pond, where Percival, the circus dog, made the salty waves for them, as I told you about in the previous story, that they went in swimming as many times as their mamma would let them.
Percival was only too glad to make the waves, and hold the bag of salt in the pond, to make it salty, just like the ocean. Sometimes the old dog would jounce a box up and down, to make the waves, and again, when he wanted larger ones, he would use a barrel. ”

“ It's walking a tight rope, and it's very hard to do."
"Oh! then you want rope, not wire," went on Brighteyes, as she put the pan of potatoes on the table.
"Wire is what the circus performers use," insisted her brother, "but if you can't find any I suppose rope will do."
"I saw some up in the attic," said Brighteyes. "I'll get it for you. But, Buddy, isn't it dangerous? Do you s'pose mamma and papa would let you do it?"
"There's not much danger," answered Buddy. "I'll not put the rope up very high, and I'll put some pillows on the ground underneath, so that if I fall I won't get hurt much." ”

“ You know stones can make a terrible racket when they are hit together real hard. Well, it sounded like regular cannon, and the birds in the wood got awfully scared.
"Now fire your guns!" cried General Buddy Pigg, and his soldiers took sticks, and snapped them in two pieces and broke them, until they sounded like real guns, or a lot of firecrackers going off.
Oh, it was fine, and the best of it was nobody could get hurt, or burned, either.
"Now shoot them with your torpedoes!" cried General Billie Bushytail, and all at once his side began firing off torpedoes at a great rate ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then it came the turn of Sammie Littletail's team again, and they got four runs, and so it went along until at the close of the game Sammie's team was eight runs and Buddy's only seven.
"We've got to get two runs to win," cried Billie Bushytail, "everybody work hard."
"We will," cried Bully, the frog. Now you girls just listen carefully, something wonderful will happen in about a minute.
Well, Peetie Bow Wow made one run, and then Bully and Billie got put out, and it was Buddy's turn to bat the ball. It all depended on him now. If he could make a home run his side would win. ”