in a little while if he hadn't eaten a hole right into
the cabbage and he found himself inside, just like the mousie in the
loaf of bread!
"Ha! This is very fine, indeed!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I think I will take
a nap here," and lopsy-flop! if that little guinea pig didn't curl up
inside the cabbage and go fast, fast asleep; and not even his tail stuck
out, because, you see, he didn't have any tail--guinea pigs never do
have any, which is a good thing, I suppose.
Well, Buddy Pigg was sleeping away inside that cabbage, dreaming of how
nice it would be to take the rest of it home, when all at once, who
should come creeping, creeping around the edge of the rock, but a great,
big fox. He had sharp eyes, had that fox, and he saw the little guinea
pig asleep inside the cabbage, even though Buddy's tail didn't stick
out.
"Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" exclaimed the fox, and he smacked his lips. "I see a
fine feast before me! Oh, yes, indeed, a very fine feast! Guinea pig
flavored with cabbage! Now, just so that pig can't get out, I'll stop up
that hole, while he's asleep in there, and I'll go and get my wife, and
we'll come back and have a dandy meal! Oh! a most delectable meal!"
So that old fox crept softly, so softly, up to where the cabbage was,
with Buddy asleep inside, and the fox took a stone, and he crowded it,
and wedged it, fast in the hole, so poor Buddy couldn't get out, though
there was some air for him to breathe. Then the fox laughed to himself:
"Ha, ha!" and "Ho, ho!" and hurried off down the hill after his wife.
Well, it wasn't long before Buddy Pigg awoke, and he tried to stretch
himself, as he always did after a nap, and wasn't he the surprised
guinea pig, though, when he found he couldn't stretch!
"Why, what can be the matter?" he cried. "I'm all in the dark! Let's
see where was I? Oh, I remember, I found a cabbage, and I began to eat
it, and I went inside it--And land sakes, goodness me and a trolley car!
I'm inside it now!" he cried, as he smelled the cabbage. "I'm shut in
the cabbage just as if I was shut in a closet! However did it happen?"
and he tried to turn around, and make his way out, but he couldn't,
because the stone which the fox had stuffed in the hole closed it up too
tight.
"I'm locked in!" cried Buddy Pigg. "Locked in a cabbage! Isn't it
terrible!" and of course it was, and no fooling, either.
Well, Buddy Pigg was a brave little chap, and instead of sitting down
and crying there in the da
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