ittle chap?" You see, he
called him "little chap" so as to pretend he was a friendly egg-dog.

"There are Easter eggs in the basket," said Sammie politely.

"And what, pray, are Easter eggs, if I may be so bold as to ask?"
inquired the dog, licking his teeth with his long red tongue, and
blinking his eyes, as if he didn't care.

"Easter eggs," replied Sammie, "are eggs for children for Easter, and
they are very prettily colored."

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the dog, just like that, and he sniffed the air.
"Please excuse me. But would you kindly be so good as to let me see
those eggs? I never saw any colored ones."

"Well," answered Sammie, "I am in a hurry, but you may have one peep."

So he opened the top of the basket and there, sure enough, were the
eggs, the green, the blue, the pink, the Johnnie red and the
skilligimink colored ones and all.

"Oh, how lovely!" cried the bad dog, sniffing the air again. "May I have
one?"

"No," said Sammie, very decidedly, "these are for the little children."
Then that dog got angry. Oh, you should have seen how angry he got. No,
on second thoughts I am glad you did not see how unpleasant he was, for
it might spoil your Easter. Anyhow, he was dreadfully angry, dreadfully!
He showed his teeth, and he made his hair stand up straight, and he
growled: "Give me all those eggs, or I'll take them right away from
you! I am an egg-dog, and I must have eggs. Give them to me, I say!"

Well, maybe poor Sammie wasn't frightened! He trembled so that the eggs
rattled together and very nearly were broken. Then he started to run
away, but the bad dog ran after him, and what do you think? Just as the
horrid creature was about to take those lovely Easter eggs out of the
basket and eat them up, who should come flying through the woods but
Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the fairy hen! She dashed at that dog, with her
feathers sticking out, and made him run off. Then how glad Sammie was!
He hurried and caught up to his papa and mamma, and soon all the Easter
eggs were hidden.

Oh, what fun Sammie and Susie had running back through the woods after
the eggs were all put in the secret places! Susie found a turnip in a
field, and Sammie a carrot, and they ate them as they hopped along.
Uncle Wiggily walked quite slowly, for his rheumatism was bothering him,
and when those rabbits got home to the burrow, what do you think they
found? Why, there were invitations for them all to come to a party that
was going to be giv