Curly and Floppy Twistytail | Page 5

"Run along now."
"Come on Curly," said Floppy and he ran out and turned a somersault,
even though it was near winter, for he felt happy, now that he had a
name and didn't have to be called "Bub" or "Johnny" or something like
that.
"What shall we do?" asked Curly.
"Let's build a fort and play soldier," suggested Floppy. "Pinky can be a
prisoner and we'll make believe capture her, and then we'll rescue her,
and shoot off make-believe guns, and--"
"No--No!" cried Baby Pinky, as she tried to stand up on the end of her
twisty tail, but she couldn't, for it was too slimpsy and not stiff enough.
She fell down, but her brothers picked her up, and then the curl came
back in her tail.
You see, after the bear had tied Curly to the fence and made his tail all
frizzy-like, all the other pigs, including Pinky and Floppy wanted their
tails to curl also, and their mamma had to do it for them, twisting them
around the rolling-pin. And she even curled her own, and her husband's,
that that's why all pigs have curly tails now, because it's stylish, you
see.
"Why don't you want to play soldier?" asked Floppy of his little sister.
"Oh, it's too scary!" she said. "And the guns make so much noise. If
you won't shoot off any guns I'll play."
"Pooh!" exclaimed Curly, "all soldiers have to shoot guns! You
couldn't be a soldier with a gun that didn't make any noise."
"Then I'm not going to play," said Pinky, who was just the color of the
inside of a shiny sea shell. "I'll bounce my rubber ball," she went on,
"and you boys can play soldier."
So she bounced her ball that Grandfather Squealer had given her, while
Curly and Floppy as I'll call him for short, made a fort out of cobs from
which they had gnawed all the corn, and they had a fine time. They
were off playing in the woods, while Pinky stayed near the house.
She was hoping her mamma would soon have the apple pie baked and
would call her in and give her a piece, when, all of a sudden, as Pinky
bounced her ball, it went high in the air, but it didn't come down again

right away.
"My! What can have happened?" thought little Pinky, and she looked
around, and there she saw a great big fuzzy fox, standing behind her.
And the fox cried out, as he rubbed his nose:
"Did you hit me with that rubber ball?"
"Yes--yes--perhaps I did," said poor Baby Pinky, trembling so that she
nearly shook the curl out of her tail. "I tossed my ball up in the air, but
I'm sure I didn't mean to hit you with it. Please forgive me."
"No, indeed, I will not!" exclaimed the fox. "Your rubber ball hit me
right on the nose when it came down, and I caught it. And, just for that,
I am going to carry you away with me and make a pork pie of you!"
"Oh, please don't!" begged Pinky, shaking more than ever, and she
squealed as loudly as she could, but her mamma did not hear her, for
she was beating up some eggs to make a cake, and the egg beater made
so much noise that she couldn't hear her own little girl. And Curly and
Floppy were shooting off their make-believe guns, and making so
much noise in the woods that they couldn't hear, and there was the fox
about to carry off the poor little piggie girl to his den. Oh, wasn't it
terrible?
"Here we go!" cried the fox, and with that he grabbed up poor Pinky,
tossing her rubber ball on the ground. Up it bounced, and, hardly
knowing what she did, the little pig girl caught it in her foot, holding it
tight. Then the fox slung her across his back and ran off with her, Pinky
squealing all the while as hard as she could.
"Squeal away!" growled the old fuzzy fox. "You'll soon stop it when I
put you in the pork pie!"
And Pinky kept on squealing. Pretty soon the fox ran through the
woods where Curly and Flop were playing soldier, but the fox didn't
know that. Pinky did, however, and when she got beneath the trees she
squealed louder than ever, hoping her brothers would hear.
"Keep quiet!" barked the fox.
"No! No!" exclaimed Pinky, and she squealed again. Oh! she squealed
like anything. Then Curly heard her. So did Flop.
"That sounds like Pinky," said Curly, blinking his eyes.
"It surely does," agreed his brother. "Something must have happened to
her." They ran out of the fort they had made of corncobs piled one on