And sure enough, Dr. Pigg did, and the carrot ice cream was the best Brighteyes and Buddy had ever tasted, they thought.

Well, it was about two days after this that Brighteyes Pigg was sent to the store for her mother, to get a nutmeg, a yeast cake, and a bottle of blueing.  Brighteyes started off, hurrying through the woods, where once the owl had tried to get Buddy into the den of the old fox, and soon the little guinea pig girl was at the grocery.

She got the things, and the storekeeper put them in a paper bag for her, and back she started.

It was so warm that, after Brighteyes had reached a cool place in the woods, near where a little brook ran over the stones, making a gurgling noise, very pleasant to hear, she sat down to rest.  And she hadn’t been sitting there more than about ten long breaths, when she saw, beside the stream, a tin can.

“Now I wonder what is in that can?” thought Brighteyes.  “I’m going to see.  Perhaps it’s something good to eat, and I can take some home to Buddy,” for she was very kind to her brother, you understand.

So she went up to the can, but wasn’t she disappointed when she saw that it was empty!  The open end was on the side that was turned away from her, and that’s why at first she thought it was full.  But she smelled of the opening, and oh, what a delicious perfume there was, sweet and sugary, and in a minute Brighteyes knew what it was.

“There has been molasses in that can!” she exclaimed.  “Oh, if there’s anything I dearly love it’s molasses!  I wonder if there is any left inside?  Sometimes people don’t quite empty the cans before they throw them away.  I’m going to look.”

So Brighteyes went closer, and, would you believe me? if she didn’t see, away down in the lower edge of that can, as it rested on its side, a lot of nice molasses.

“Oh, I must have that!” cried Brighteyes, and, without thinking of what she was doing, she put her head and her forepaws inside that can.  She found she could reach the molasses with her tongue, and she began to lick it up, wishing she had some way of taking part of it to Buddy.

She was so excited over it that she even had taken her things from the grocery store inside the can with her.  There she was, with only part of her body and her hind legs sticking out, and she was eating the molasses as fast as she could.

It kept tasting better and better, but, after a while, Brighteyes thought she had enough, and she started to pull her head out of the can.  But, oh dear me!  She found she couldn’t do it.  The sharp edges of the tin caught in her fur, and there she was, stuck fast with the can over her head, and the nutmeg, the bottle of blueing and the yeast cake in there with her.

“Oh, dear me suz-dud!” she cried.  “I’m fast!”

She tried to shake the can off, but it wouldn’t shake.  Then she tried to pull herself out, but the can was still on her head, and went everywhere she went, like Mary’s little lamb.  Then poor Brighteyes tried to stand up on her hind legs, and hit the can against a tree or a stone, thinking she could knock it off, but it wouldn’t come off, and then she turned a somersault, thinking that would help, but, though she even stood on her head in the can, and wiggled her hind legs, it did no good.