BUDDY PIGG PLAYS BALL

“Hello, Buddy!” called Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, to Buddy Pigg one fine day, “come on out, and we’ll have a game of ball,” and Sammie tossed his ball high up in the air and caught it in his catching glove, as easily as you can eat two ice cream cones, a vanilla and a chocolate one, on a hot day.

“Why, we two can’t play ball alone,” objected Buddy.  “It needs three, anyhow.”

“Oh, well, we’ll find Billie and Johnie Bushytail somewhere in the woods,” went on Sammie, “and maybe Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, will come along, too.  Then there is Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, who have come back from the country.  Oh, we can get up a regular team.”

“All right, I’ll come,” agreed Buddy.  “Wait until I bring in some wood for mother.  She is going to bake some turnip pies to-day—­out of the turnip you and I and Billie Bushytail got yesterday—­and she needs a hot fire.  I just love turnip pies; don’t you, Sammie?”

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“Indeed I do, but I don’t believe we are going to have any.  Mother stewed my half of the turnip.”

“Never mind,” advised Buddy Pigg, “I’ll give you some of our pies when they are baked,” so he brought in two big armfuls of wood for the fire, and then he and Sammie went off to play ball, leaving Brighteyes Pigg home to help her mamma bake the pies, which the little guinea pig girl loved to do.

Well, Buddy and Sammie hadn’t gone very far before they met Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the boy squirrels, and they agreed to play ball.  Then, as the four of them went along a little farther, they met Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, out walking with Percival, the old circus dog.  So Peetie and Jackie said they would play ball, and that made six.

“Now, if we had two more we would have four on a side,” suggested Buddy, and, no sooner had he spoken than there was a noise in the bushes, and out came Jimmie Wibblewobble, and Bully, the frog.

They were very glad to play ball, and soon there were two sides selected.  Buddy Pigg was captain of one side, and for players he had Peetie Bow Wow, Billie Bushytail, and Bully, while Sammie Littletail was the other captain, and he had Jackie Bow Wow, Johnnie Bushytail and Jimmie Wibblewobble.

“Now we’re all ready, let’s play,” suggested Buddy.

“No, wait a moment,” begged Bully.

“Why?” they all wanted to know.

“Because,” replied the little frog boy, “my brother, Bawly, has just made up a new song, and I know he’ll give us no peace until he sings it.  He’s coming along now.  Let him sing the song, and then we’ll play ball.”  So they agreed to that, and in a minute Bawly came hopping along.

“Do you want to hear my new song?” he asked.

“Yes—­hurry up,” they all cried.  So Bawly sang this: 

  Oh, wiggily, waggily, wheelery,
    I wish that I was rich. 
  I’d buy an automobilery,
    And ride it in our ditch. 
  I wouldn’t hop at all again. 
    I’d ride the whole day long. 
  But I haven’t got an auto,
    And so I sing this song.