he bushes and said he saw a white porcupine and fled.

Now was Zip's chance. Not waiting for them to get out of sight, he boldly
rushed out and helped himself to the biggest piece of chicken he saw and
gulped it down in his haste to get another piece and to steal some cake
before the children should recover from their fright and return.

As they ran, one little girl turned around to see if the porcupine was
chasing them. What she saw was some animal eating up their goodies, and
she began to cry, for she was terribly hungry and had been thinking of all
the good things they had to eat when lo! it was snatched out of their
mouths, one might say, for their fright had come so suddenly.

One of the larger boys stopped running and looked back, and as he had once
seen a porcupine, he knew this animal now eating their luncheon had too
long legs and his nose was too thin to be a porcupine. Having gotten over
his first panic, and being very hungry, his courage began to come back,
and he called,

"Here, let's stop running away and go back and kill that animal, whatever
it is! It won't eat us. It is too small!"

So like frightened sheep, when their leader stopped, the children all
halted. "Get long sticks," he commanded, "and we'll drive him away."

[Illustration]

This was easily done, for there were lots of long, strong sticks about,
and each child got one. Armed with these, they came running back as
bravely as they had cowardly run away, all howling like Comanche Indians
on the warpath.

Seeing this, Zip grabbed a leg of chicken in his mouth and, running to the
river, jumped in and swam to the opposite shore, where he soon disappeared
in the thick underbrush.

Once in his safe retreat, he lay down and devoured his bone, then got up
and looked at himself. He was a sorry sight, for the quick swim across the
creek had not washed the dough off, but had merely softened it and now he
was a sticky mass from head to foot.

"Whatever shall I do to get this stuff off?" he said to himself. "I'll try
rolling in the mud," which he did. But alas! it was not successful. It
only turned the dough black and made it stick all the tighter.

"I see where I shall have to go stand in some water and let it soak off.
Guess I'll go home and get Tabby to come and talk to me while I am in the
trough, for it is stupid being all alone." So he trotted on home, taking
good care not to let anyone see him. And when he reached home, he hid
under the bi