Curly and Floppy Twistytail | Page 9

the others were lost."
So the piggie boy stopped running long enough to take an egg out of
the bag and roll it along the sidewalk toward the dog.
"Ah, ha!" growled the dog. "Egg Number Three!" and he stopped to eat
the yellow and white part of it. Of course, Curly ran on, and he got
some distance ahead, but you see the more eggs the dog ate the faster
he could run, so on he came, and he had almost caught up to Curly
when the little piggie boy thought again:
"Well, here goes for another egg!"
So he rolled a second one toward that bad dog, who ate it, hardly
stopping at all, and on he came again.
"Now, I have you!" the dog cried, as he threw the empty shell at Curly,
striking him on the nose once more. "Now, I'll get all the eggs, and
besides, I'll bite your tail off for running away!"
"Oh, how dreadful!" thought Curly, and he wondered how it would feel
to have no tail. He was running as fast as he could, and he was wishing

a policeman or fireman would save him from the bad dog, when, all at
once, out from a yard with a high fence around it sprang something big
and white, with yellow legs, and there came a hissing sound, just as if
water were being squirted out of a hose. Then a voice said:
"Here, you bad dog, let my friend Curly alone! Run away, now, or I'll
nip you on your toes and nose! Skip! Hiss! Scoot!"
And that dog was so frightened that he didn't think a single thing more
about eggs, but he just tucked his tail between his legs, where it
wouldn't get in his way, and off he ran.
"Oh, saved at last!" gasped Curly, as he sat down on the curbstone to
rest, "and I still have eight eggs left for mamma's cake." Then he
looked up to see who had rescued him, and it was old Grandfather
Goosey Gander, the father of all the geese. The brave creature had
hissed at the bad egg dog and frightened him away.
"Oh, how thankful I am to you," said Curly, politely, "and when the
cake is baked you shall have a piece, Grandpa Goosey."
So he went on home with the rest of the eggs and--well, I do declare! I
have forgotten all about the elephant! I know he was to be in this story,
somewhere, but there's no room now, so I'll have to put him in the next
one, which will be about Flop and the bag of meal--that is, if the
clothes-basket doesn't fall on the gas stove and make the rice pudding
go down the cellar to hide away from the rag doll.

STORY VI
FLOP AND THE BAG OF MEAL
Now, let me see, I promised to put in this story, something about the
elephant; didn't I? That's because I left it out of the story on the page
before this, where Curly had such a dreadful time with the bad egg dog.
Well, now, if I leave the elephant out of this story I promise that I'll
give each one of you an ice cream cone with a raisin in it. All you'll
have to do--in case I forget to tell about the elephant and how he helped
Flop--all you have to do, I say, is to come up to my house and say
"Magoozilum!" at me, just like that, and turn two somersaults on the
parlor rug, and the ice cream cone is yours for the asking.
But now let's get right at the story. You see it happened this way. Once
upon a time, when Curly and his brother Flop were out in the yard of
the piggy-house, playing "ring around the apple tree," their mother

called to them:
"Oh, boys! come in here!" she said, and when they got to the kitchen
where she was working, she asked them: "Do you know what I'm
making?"
"Pies," said Curly.
"Pudding," suggested Flop, as he tried to make his slimpsy ear stand up
straight, but he couldn't.
"Neither one," said their mother. "But if one of you will go to the store
for me I'll make a Johnny cake for supper."
"A Johnny cake?" asked Curly. "Is it called that because a boy has to be
named Johnny to eat it?"
"No," answered his mother with a laugh, "but lots of boys named
Johnny do eat it. However, just at the last minute I find that I have no
corn meal. Now who wants to go to the store for a bag full, so I can
make the Johnny cake?"
"I went for the eggs, last time," said Curly, sort of slow