“Oh, I’ll go!” exclaimed Floppy and Curly together, quickly, and you could not tell which one spoke first.  But Mrs. Twistytail said: 

“Well, I think I’ll let Floppy go, and when he comes back I’ll give you each some of the cake.”

So off Flop ran to the store, squealing as hard as anything because he was so happy.  At first Curly felt a little sad that he couldn’t go to the store, for the man who kept it always gave the piggie boys a sweet cracker or something like that.  But, of course, only one was needed to carry the chocolate.

“Never mind,” said Curly’s mamma to him.  “You may go next time.”

So then he felt better, and he was thinking what fun it would be to have a piece of chocolate cake, when all of a sudden he stopped to think.

“I guess I’ll go to school again!” he exclaimed.  “That will be fun.  Yes, I’ll go to school!”

So off he started, while his brother was getting the chocolate at the store, and pretty soon Curly came to the place where the lady bug school teacher had her classes of animal children in a hollow stump.

Curly knocked at the door, and when the teacher came to open it he made his best bow.

“Well, what is it, little piggie boy?” asked the teacher, kindly.

“If you please,” said Curly, “I want to come to school.”

“Very good,” said the teacher.  “I think you may.  You and your brother were so kind as to scare off the bear, so you may come to our class.  But, first, let me ask you—­have you been vaccinated?”

“Vaccinated?” repeated Curly.  “Is that like a lollypop?”

“No, that is having the doctor scratch your leg with a toothpick so you won’t get sick and have the epizootic,” said the teacher.  “Let me see your paw.”

So she looked at Curly’s paw, which he held out, and she saw that he had never been vaccinated, so she said he would have to have that done to him before he could come to school every day.

“You go home,” said the teacher to the little piggie boy, “and get vaccinated.  Then come back in about a week.”

So, as Curly wanted to go to school very much, on his way home he went past Dr. Possum’s office.  And going in, he said: 

“I want to be vaccinated, doctor, so I can go to school.”

“Very well,” answered Dr. Possum.  “We’ll do it.”

So Curly rolled up his sleeve, and the doctor scratched his paw with a toothpick, and put some funny kind of yellow salve on it, and wrapped it up in a little celluloid cap to keep the snowflakes from it, and also that no mosquitos could bite it.

“Now, in about a week your arm will begin to itch,” said the doctor, “and it will tickle you, and then, after a bit, you will be vaccinated, and you can go to school.”

“Very good,” said Curly, and he wondered why all little animal children had to be vaccinated, and have the mumps and the measles-pox and epizootic, and all things like that, but he couldn’t guess, and so he didn’t try.