“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.