Then, at that moment, who should come along but that bad fox and his wife.  The cabbage seemed to be rolling straight at them.

“My sakes alive!” cried Mrs. Fox.  “What is that, Oscar?” You see her husband’s name was Oscar.

“I don’t know,” he replied, “but don’t bother about it.  We’ll go and get that guinea pig.”  So they kept on, but just then the cabbage bounded over a little clod of dirt, went up in the air, and nearly hit Mr. Fox, and that scared him so that he ran away, and his wife ran after him.

Well, the cabbage, with Buddy inside, kept on rolling, and the first thing you know it began to roll down hill in front of the guinea pigs’ pen.  It made quite a noise, and Matilda ran out to see what it was.

“Oh, mamma!” she cried.  “Here is a cabbage rolling down hill.”

“Nonsense!” cried Mrs. Pigg.  “Whoever heard of such a thing?” but she ran out to see what it was, and at that moment the cabbage bounded right in front of the pen, hit a big stone, burst open with a noise like a torpedo, and out rolled Buddy Pigg, over and over, just like a pumpkin.  But, believe me, he wasn’t hurt the least mite, but he was rather surprised-like!

Then he got up, walked over to his mother and said: 

“Here is some fresh cabbage I brought home,” and he was as cool as two cucumbers.  Well, the guinea pigs had a fine dinner off the cabbage Buddy brought home in such a funny way, and of course the fox and his wife didn’t have any, which served them right I suppose.

Now in the next story, if the cook doesn’t burn the potatoes and make stove blacking of them I’ll be able to tell you about Brighteyes Pigg and Mrs. Hoptoad.

STORY II

BRIGHTEYES AND MRS. HOPTOAD

After Buddy had taken that funny ride down hill, inside the head of cabbage, his father said to him: 

“Buddy, come here, and let me look at you.  Possibly you were hurt in that terrible trip, and, having been in a hospital, I can tell whether you were or not.”

So he looked Buddy over carefully, but there wasn’t a thing the matter with the little chap, except a tiny scratch on his nose.

“Weren’t you awfully frightened?” asked Brighteyes of her brother.  “It was terrible!”

“No,” he answered, “not much.  And it wasn’t so terrible when we got a good dinner out of it.  I wish I could find a cabbage every day.”

“You had better put something on that scratch,” cautioned Dr. Pigg.  Then he went on reading his paper, and Mrs. Pigg got out the salve bottle for Buddy.

Well, it was two days after this that Brighteyes Pigg was out walking along the road.  She had been to the store for some carrots, and the store man said he would send them right over, so the little girl guinea pig didn’t have to carry them.

Well, she was walking along, not thinking of much of anything in particular, when suddenly something hopped out of the bushes in front of her.