But they couldn’t help laughing, and I really think the groundhog boys meant to play a joke on Buddy and Brighteyes and had followed them through the woods and hid in the bushes and put the things under the box and all that just on purpose; I really do.

But, anyhow, Buddy and Brighteyes weren’t hurt a bit, and Woody and Waddy gave them all the good things they could eat before the guinea pigs ran home.

Now, in case it should happen that all the ice in our refrigerator isn’t melted, so we can fry some for pancakes, I’ll tell you next about Buddy in the berry bush.

STORY XXIII

BUDDY IN THE BERRY BUSH

Buddy Pigg didn’t know what to do.  You see he was home all alone, for his mother and Brighteyes had gone calling on Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot, the squirrels and Dr. Pigg was downtown, playing checkers or dominoes with Uncle Wiggily Longears, so Buddy didn’t have any one to keep him company.

“I wish some of the boys would come along,” he said, as he sat on the front steps and threw stones out in the dusty road.  “I’d like to have a ball game, or some sort of fun.”

But, though he sat there quite a while, none of the boys came along, and, at last, Buddy remarked: 

“Oh, I’m going off and see if I can’t find Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, or Sammie Littletail, or some one, to play with.”  So he locked the front door, and put the key under the mat, where his mother would find it when she came home, and off he started, almost as fast as when Sister Sallie went hippity-hop to the barber shop.

Pretty soon Buddy came to the woods, and he opened his mouth real wide and began to yell, not because he was hurt, you understand, but because he wanted to call some of the boys.  He yelled, and he hollered, and he hooted, and then, all of a sudden, he heard some one yelling back at him, and he saw Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys, bounding along on the low branches of the trees.

“Hello, fellows!” cried Buddy.  “Glad to see you!  Let’s have some fun.”

“What’ll we do?” asked Billie.

“I know,” suggested Johnnie.  “Let’s make a see-saw.  Here is a nice plank, and we can put it across that old stump and have a dandy time.”

So they got the plank and put it across the stump.  Then Buddy got on one end and Billie and Johnnie on the other, as they were a little smaller than Buddy, and did not weigh so much.  Then they began to go up and down, first slowly, and then faster and faster, until they were jiggling up and down as fast as the teakettle boils when there’s company coming to supper.

“Hi, yi!” yelled Billie and Johnnie.  “Isn’t this fun?”

“Wow, yow!  It certainly is,” agreed Buddy.  “Only don’t jump off too suddenly when I’m in the air, or I’ll fall and be hurt.”

Well, of course, Billie and Johnnie promised that they would be careful, and they really meant to keep their word; only, just as they were close down to the ground on the plank, and Buddy was high up, what should happen but that a new, green, little acorn fell off an oak tree.