So, that’s all now, but in the next story, in case the pear doesn’t fall off the apple tree and hit the ragman on the nose, I’ll tell you about Flop Ear and the skate wagon.

STORY XXVII

FLOP AND THE SKATE WAGON

One morning Flop Ear, the little piggie boy, awakened in his bed of straw, and said: 

“I don’t feel very well today.”

“I wish I didn’t, too,” spoke Curly Tail.

“Why?” asked his brother in surprise.  “I’m not fooling.  Honestly, I don’t feel well.  Do you want to be sick, too?”

“Just a little bit,” answered Curly Tail.  “Just sick enough so as not to have to go to school.”

“Oh, that’s so!” exclaimed Flop Ear.  “There is school today.  I thought it was Saturday, and I was sorry I didn’t feel well, but now—–­”

Well, as it happened it was Friday, instead of Saturday, and, of course, there was school.  But when Mrs. Twistytail heard that Flop Ear did not feel well, she said: 

“Perhaps you had better not go today.  Just lie abed and maybe you will be better by afternoon.”

So Curly Tail had to go to school alone, and he felt rather lonesome, and Flop Ear stayed at home, just like the little pig in the story.

But pretty soon, oh, I guess about 10 o’clock, when it was too late to go to school, Flop Ear got out of bed and said: 

“I don’t feel quite so badly now, mother.  Maybe if I go out in the air, I’ll be all well.”

“All right,” she said, and there was a funny little twinkle in her eyes.  “But first you must take some castor oil, and then I will be sure you will be better,” she added.

Then Flop Ear wished he had gone to school, whether he felt well or not, but there was no help for it; he had to take the castor oil.  After it was down—­and it wasn’t much fun swallowing it, let me tell you—­after it was down, Flop Ear walked out in the street sort of slow and thoughtful-like, and wished he had someone to play with, or something to do.

“It isn’t so much fun staying home as I thought it would be,” he said.  Just then, in an ash barrel, he saw one roller skate.  It was pretty well battered and worn, but the four wheels of it were good yet, and Flop Ear, as he took it out and knocked the ashes from it, said: 

“Ha!  One roller skate.  Now if I had two I might have some fun, and forget about the castor oil.”

“You can have fun with one roller skate,” said a voice behind the little piggie boy, and turning, Flop Ear saw Uncle Butter, the goat gentleman, just coming back from having delivered all his milk.

“How can you have fun with one roller skate?” asked Flop Ear.

“By making a skate wagon,” said the goat gentleman.  “I saw some boy animals up in Roseville playing on them yesterday, and I’ll tell you how to make one.  First, you have to have a box, a long, narrow board, a stick and some nails and string.”