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!