“Now, we’ll just practice, ready for tonight, when we’re going to fool Uncle Wiggily,” said Curly Tail, and they did, having lots of fun.

Just before supper Uncle Wiggily came home from having played Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel.  The old gentleman had something under his coat, but when Curly Tail and Flop Ear asked him what it was he only laughed and said: 

“Oh, you’ll soon see!”

Well, it got pretty dark, and Curly Tail and his brother thought it was time for them to dress up and play a trick on their uncle.  So they took their false faces, one like a lump of buttered bread and the other like a piece of cheese, and went out in the woods to dress.  They intended to come and knock on the bungalow door and see what Uncle Wiggily would do and say when he saw them.

Pretty soon they were both ready, and, really, if I do say it myself, Curly Tail looked just like a ten-cent loaf, with flour in his buttonhole and all that, only he didn’t have any real butter on, as that was so greasy.  And Flop Ear, or Flop, or Floppy, for short, looked too cute for anything—­just exactly like an apple pie, and he even carried a bit of cheese to go with it, and a toasting fork.

“Now, we’ll fool Uncle Wiggily,” they said, as they started for the bungalow.  But they didn’t know what had happened to the rabbit gentleman.  They hadn’t gone very far before, out in a boat on the lake, not far from shore, they heard a voice calling: 

“Oh, help!  Help!  He’s such a big one that I can’t get him in, and Percival has fallen overboard!  Help!  Help!”

“My goodness!  What’s that?” asked Curly Tail, in surprise.

“Some one must be in trouble,” said Flop Ear.  “Let’s see who it is.”

“But it might be the bad skillery-scalery alligator, with the lumps on his tail,” said the other piggie boy.  Then Flop Ear looked out on the lake, where it was all lighted by the moon and he said: 

“I see a lady in a boat.  Surely she would not harm us.  And she spoke of Percival—­she must mean the old circus dog!  I am going to see what is the matter!”

“Better not!  Maybe it’s a trick to catch us!” said Curly Tail.

But just then a lady on the lake called again:  “Oh help!  He is such a big one that I can’t get him into the boat, and Percival has fallen overboard!”

Then there was a great splashing, and a rustling in the bushes and Flop Ear called: 

“We’re coming to help you, lady!  What have you got that is so big?”

“A fish,” she answered.  “My husband, Percival, is a great fisherman and he caught the biggest fish in all the lake, but it pulled him out of the boat.  However, I have hold of the pole and line, and the fish is still fast to the hook.  Oh, help me to catch him!”

So the piggie boys said they would, and they ran down to the shore, and the lady in the boat passed them the pole.  Then Curly and Flop pulled as hard as they could, and old circus dog Percival scrambled out of the water, and he helped pull, too, and, all of a sudden, from the bushes along the edge of the lake—­on dry land, but not in the water—­there suddenly flopped the biggest fish any one had ever seen.