All at once there was a whizzing and a whozzing in the air, and a buzzing, bizzing sound, and that kind old June bug came sailing along.  He saw those bad boys taking Brighteyes away, and the bug knew at once that she was Buddy’s sister.

So what did he do but wiggle his wings about a thousand times a minute, I guess, and fly right at the boy who held the guinea pig girl!

Right at the bad boy flew the bug, and he hit him first in one eye and then the other and scared him so that the bad chap was glad enough to let go of poor Brighteyes in a hurry.

Then the other boy stepped on the yeast cake, and it flattened out, and he slipped on it, and fell down, and he thought a bear was after him, and he yelled, and the other boy yelled, and then they both ran away, and Brighteyes was saved.

She thanked the June bug, and he said he was glad he could help her, and he flew back to the grocery and got another yeast cake for her.  Then Brighteyes hurried home.

Now the next story is going to be about Buddy Pigg’s great run—­that is, if we have peaches and cream for supper and the rag man doesn’t take my rubber boots for his goat to wear to the party.

STORY XVII

BUDDY’S GREAT RUN

Well, I didn’t have peaches and cream for supper last night, but I had strawberry shortcake, which is almost as good, so I can tell you a story, anyhow.

Once upon a time, Oh, I guess it must have been about two weeks after Brighteyes was caught by the bad boys, and rescued by the June bug, Buddy Pigg was sitting on his front steps, wishing he had something to do.

“Mother,” he asked, “can I go down in the brook, paddling?  Jimmie Wibblewobble is down there.”

“No,” said Mrs. Pigg kindly, “you are not quite well enough to go in the water, Buddy.  But you may have five cents for an ice cream cone.”

Well, Buddy walked up to the store, got a vanilla ice cream cone, and had just finished the last of it, even down to the sharp point of the cone, where there wasn’t any ice cream, when who should come along but Billie and Johnnie Bushytail.  They had their catching gloves, and a ball and a bat, and when the squirrel boys saw Buddy they called out: 

“Come on, let’s have a game of baseball.”

“All right,” agreed Buddy.  “But who else will play?”

“Oh! we’ll get Sammie Littletail, and Bully and Bawly, the frogs, and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and we’ll have a fine game,” said Billie Bushytail.

So they walked along, and pretty soon they met Sammie Littletail, and then a little while after that they met the two Bow Wows, and then who should come hopping along, but Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and, if you’ll believe me, a moment after that, along came Jimmie Wibblewobble.

Then they had enough for a fine baseball game, and they went to a nice, green meadow where they could play.  Well, Johnnie Bushytail was up at the bat first, and he knocked the ball so far that Bully, who was playing out in the far-off part of the field, had to take about sixteen and a half hops before he could get it.  But by that time Johnnie was back at home plate safe.