“Oh!” he cried, “that is a cannon firecracker, and if it goes off it will blow the place to pieces, and me and you, too!”

“Then, for mercy sakes, don’t let it go off!” cried Dr. Pigg, and that brave dog Percival jumped up, grabbed the cannon cracker in his mouth, dashed out of the house, and leaped into a pond of water with it, which put out the burning string, and wet the firecracker so it wouldn’t explode.

And when the fox saw Percival, he sneaked away with his tail hanging down, I can tell you.  So that’s the story of Dr. Pigg and the firecracker, and when his family came home he told them of of his narrow escape.

Now, in case I hear a June bug buzz like an electric fan blowing soap bubbles, I’ll tell you in the next story about Buddy Pigg in a boat.

STORY XIII

BUDDY PIGG IN A BOAT

After Percival, the old circus dog, had been so kind to Dr. Pigg, in the matter of jumping into the pond with the big firecracker, which the bad fox had lighted, the old gentleman guinea pig said: 

“I wish, Percival, you would spend a few days with us.  I’m afraid that ugly tramp fox will come back.”

“Of course I will,” agreed the dog.  “The Bow Wows are going down to Asbury Park for the summer, and I don’t much care for the seashore, so I’ll stay home and spend a few days with you.  And in case that fox does come back—­”

Well, Percival didn’t say what he would do, but land sakes, flopsy dub!  Oh me, and a potato pancake!  You should have seen him show his teeth and growl.

Well, it was a few days after Percival had come to pay a little visit to the Pigg family that something happened to Buddy, and I’m going to tell you about it.

You see, it had been raining pretty hard for a week or more—­yes, nearly two weeks, and it didn’t seem as if it was ever going to stop.  There had been thunder showers and lightning showers and hail showers and just plain rain showers, and they were all more or less wet; and when it did finally stop raining there was a lot of water all over.

One day, the first day, in fact, after it stopped raining, Buddy was taking a walk, and glad enough he was to be out of the pen.  He strolled along, letting the warm sun and the gentle wind dry his black and white fur, and he was thinking of, oh! ever so many things, when, all at once, he came to a little pond; only this time it was a great big pond, because it had so much water in it.  And on the shore of the pond was a boat that some boys had been playing with.

“Oh, fine!” cried Buddy Pigg.  “I’ll get in and make believe I’m a sailor, just as Billie and Johnnie Bushytail and Jennie Chipmunk did once.  I’ve always wanted a ride in a boat, and now’s my chance!”

So he climbed into the boat, and he made believe he was sailing away off to China, where they make firecrackers and fans, and then, when he was half-way there (make believe, you know), why, he turned around and sailed for India, where it’s very hot; but all this while the boat was partly on the bank and partly in the water, and Buddy only rocked it from side to side, pretending it was moving.