That so frightened the groundhogs that they jumped into the brook and swam away, leaving Brighteyes free.  Then she went home with the Wibblewobbles, and told Buddy her adventure, and he said it was a good one.

Now, the next story will be about Buddy in a deep hole—­that is if the trolley car doesn’t run off the track, and break all the eggs in the grocery store window.

STORY XXI

BUDDY IN A DEEP HOLE

Once upon a time it happened that Buddy Pigg was out taking a walk over the fields and through the woods.  He often used to do this, sometimes taking a stroll for pleasure, and again to see if he could find anything to eat.  This time he was looking for something to eat, and so he walked very slowly, looking from side to side, and sniffing the air from time to time.

“For,” he said, “who knows but what I may find a nice cabbage or a turnip, or a radish, or a bit of molasses cake, or a ginger snap, or even an ice cream cone.  Any of those things would be very good,” thought Buddy to himself, “especially an ice cream cone on a hot day.”

But, though he looked and he looked and he looked, oh, I guess maybe about a dozen times, he couldn’t find a single thing that was good to eat, and he was beginning to get discouraged.

“I’ll go a little bit farther,” he thought, “and then if I don’t find anything I’ll turn around, go back home, and get some bread and butter, for that is better than nothing; and I am getting hungry.”

So he walked on a little farther, and, as he walked along, he sang this little song which no one is allowed to sing unless they are very, very hungry.

So in case it happens that you have just had an ice cream cone, or something good like that, and are not hungry, you must not sing this song until just before dinner or breakfast or supper.  Anyhow here’s the song and you can put it aside until you are nearly starving.  This is how it goes: 

  “I wish I had some candy
    Or a peanut lolly-pop. 
  I’d eat an ice-cream cone so quick
    You could not see me stop. 
  If I had two big apples,
    An orange or a peach. 
  I’d give my little sister
    A great big bite from each.

  “But there is nothing here to eat—­
    Not even cherry pie. 
  Though we had one at our house once,
    And some got in my eye. 
  Oh! how I’d like a cocoanut! 
    And watermelon, too. 
  I’d eat two slices off the ice—­
    Now, really, wouldn’t you?”

No sooner had Buddy finished singing this song, than he came to a place in the woods, where there was a big hole going down into the ground.  Oh, it was quite a large hole, not quite so big as the one going down to China, but pretty large and it looked just as if some animal were in the habit of going in and out of it.

“Ha, ho!” exclaimed Buddy Pigg.  “This looks like something; it surely does,” and, my dear children, the funny part of it was that the hole did look like something.