“I guess I’ll go down there and see if there’s anything to eat at the bottom,” went on the little guinea pig boy, “for I certainly am hungry.”

Then he stood and peeped down into the hole, and, though it looked quite far to the bottom of it, and though it seemed pretty dark, Buddy decided to go in.  Now, that was rather foolish of him, for it’s never safe to go in a hole until you know where you’re coming out, especially a hole in the woods; but Buddy didn’t stop to think.  So he looked all around, to see that there were no bad foxes in sight, and then he entered the hole.

First he crept along very slowly and carefully.  Oh my, yes, and a banana peeling in addition! and then, all of a sudden, land sakes flopsy dub! if Buddy didn’t slip and fall and stumble, and roll over and over, sideways, and head over heels, and he kept on going down, until finally he came to a stop in a place that was as dark as a pocket in a fur overcoat on a winter day.

“Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!” cried poor Buddy Pigg.  “Whatever has happened; and where am I?”

He tried to see where he was, but, my goodness sakes alive! he might as well have tried to look through the blackboard at school, for all he could see was just nothing.

“I—­I guess I must have fallen all the way through to China!” whispered Buddy, as he lay there in the darkness, and then he happened to remember that if he was in China he would see some little Chinese boys and girls, and he could not see any, so he knew he wasn’t in China.

“Oh, dear!” cried Buddy again.  “Where am I, anyhow?”

Then, all of a sudden, out of the darkness, there sounded a voice, and when Buddy heard it he trembled.

“Who are you?” cried the voice, “and what are you doing in here?”

“If you please,” answered the little guinea pig boy, “I am Buddy, and I fell down this hole.  Whose is it?”

“It belongs to us,” said two voices at once.  “We are groundhogs, and you must get right out of here!”

“Groundhogs!” exclaimed Buddy, and then he remembered the two who had teeter-tautered Brighteyes up and down on the plank bridge, and wet her dress, and he was frightened for fear they would harm him.

“Oh, please, Mr. Groundhogs!” went on Buddy, “I didn’t mean to come here!  I fell in when I was looking for something to eat.  Please help me out, and I’ll never come again.  I was looking for something to take home to Brighteyes, my sister.”

“What!  Is Brighteyes Pigg your sister?” cried the two groundhogs, rustling around in the dark hole, and when Buddy said she was, they said they were very sorry for having frightened her on the plank.  They were only playing a joke, they said, and they promised never to bother her again.

“And besides,” went on the larger groundhog, “we’ll give you something to eat, and help you out of this hole.”

So they went and got their lantern, which was a bottle filled with fireflies, and they showed Buddy where there was another hole leading up out of their underground house, and he crawled out, after they had given him some clover preserved in molasses candy, and they promised to come and play with him and Brighteyes some day.