So he didn’t bother Cora Janet nor Flop any more, and pretty soon Curly awakened and came back to the bungalow to hear about his brother’s adventure.  And Uncle Wiggily came back from playing Scotch checkers with Pop Goes The Weasel, and everybody was happy, even Cora Janet, and they had roast marshmallows for supper.

And on the next page, in case the little boy across the street doesn’t slide down the front steps and scare the milkman’s horse so that it drinks up all the ice cream, I’ll tell you about the piggie boys and the big fish, and it will be a Hallowe’en story.

STORY XXIII

THE PIGGIES AND THE FISH

On the morning of the day when it was to be Hallowe’en, Curly Tail, and Flop Ear, the two piggie boys, awakened in Uncle Wiggily’s bungalow, on Raccoon Island in Lake Hopatcong, and Curly Tail whispered: 

“What are you going to dress up like, Flop Ear?”

“Oh, I guess I’ll make believe I’m a loaf of bread.  What are you going to be?”

“An apple pie,” said the other little piggie boy, “I’ll stick apples all over myself, and some bits of pie crust, and when we get through playing Hallowe’en we can eat them.”

“Fine!” cried Curly Tail.  “I wish I was going dressed up like an ice cream cone, but then I’d melt so fast I wouldn’t have any fun.  So I guess I’ll be a loaf of bread.”

“And we’ll fool Uncle Wiggily, won’t we?” said Flop Ear.

“We surely will,” declared his brother.  But if they could have looked into the next room, and have seen Uncle Wiggily laughing to himself, and winking his eyes, and rubbing his leg that had rheumatism in it—­well, maybe those piggie boys wouldn’t have felt so funny.

“Fool me, eh?  Will they?” whispered Uncle Wiggily.  “We’ll see about it,” and then he hopped about on his crutch to help the boys get breakfast.

“We must have all the good times we can,” said the old gentleman rabbit, “for soon the new roof will be on your school and you will have to begin studying your lessons again.  Be happy while you’re here, for soon the snow will fly and the ice will come, and we will have to go away from the lake.”

“Oh, we’re going to have a good time, Uncle Wiggily,” said Curly Tail, or Curly, as I often call him for short, and then he looked at his brother, and they both laughed and pretended it wasn’t anything at all.  But Uncle Wiggily knew better.

“Well,” said the old gentleman rabbit, after breakfast, “I guess I’ll go down and play Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel.  You boys can stay here, but if the bad alligator or the fuzzy fox tries to get you, just call for me.”

“All right,” said Curly Tail, and when his uncle was out of sight he and his brother began to dress up for Hollowe’en, which is the night everyone puts on false faces you know.

One of the piggie boys made a lot of flour paste, colored with brown sugar, and that was to fix him so he would look like a loaf of bread.  And Flop Ear made himself look like an apple pie.