The Adventures of Prickly Porky | Page 7

but when he stopped
singing for a bit of a rest, he heard it very plainly, and it sounded so
very queer that he flew up the hill towards the place from which it
seemed to come, and there his bright eyes soon discovered Prickly
Porky. Right away he saw that Prickly Porky was in some kind of
trouble, and that it was he who was making the queer noise. Prickly
Porky was on the ground at the foot of a tree, and he was rolling over
and kicking and clawing at his mouth, from which a little piece of bark
was hanging. It was such a strange performance that Redeye simply
stared for a minute. Then in a flash it came to him what it meant.
Prickly Porky was choking, and if something wasn't done to help him,
he might choke to death!

Now there was nothing that Redeye himself could do to help, for he
was too small. He must get help somewhere else, and he must do it
quickly. Anxiously he looked this way and that way, but there was no
one in sight. Then he remembered that Unc' Billy Possum's hollow tree
was not far away. Perhaps Unc' Billy could help. He hoped that Unc'
Billy was at home, and he wasted no time in finding out. Unc' Billy was
at home, and when he heard that his old friend Prickly Porky was in
trouble, he hurried up the hill as fast as ever he could. He saw right
away what was the trouble.
"Yo' keep still just a minute, Brer Porky!" he commanded, for he did
not dare go very near while Prickly Porky was rolling and kicking
around so, for fear that he would get against some of the thousand little
spears Prickly Porky carries hidden in his coat. Prickly Porky did as he
was told. Indeed, he was so weak from his long struggle that he was
glad to. Unc' Billy caught hold of the piece of bark hanging from
Prickly Porky's mouth. Then he braced himself and pulled with all his
might. For a minute the piece of bark held. Then it gave way so
suddenly that Unc' Billy fell over flat on his back. Unc' Billy scrambled
to his feet and looked reprovingly at Prickly Porky, who lay panting for
breath, and with big tears rolling down his face.
[Illustration: Then he braced himself and pulled with all his might.
_Page 30._]
"Ah cert'nly am surprised, Brer Porky; Ah cert'nly am surprised that yo'
should be so greedy that yo' choke yo'self," said Unc' Billy, shaking his
head.
Prickly Porky grinned weakly and rather foolishly. "It wasn't greed,
Unc' Billy. It wasn't greed at all," he replied.
"Then what was it, may Ah ask?" demanded Unc' Billy severely.
"I thought of something funny right in the middle of my meal, and I
laughed just as I started to swallow, and the piece of bark went down
the wrong way," explained Prickly Porky. And then, as if the mere
thought of the thing that had made him laugh before was too much for

him, he began to laugh again. He laughed and laughed and laughed,
until finally Unc' Billy quite lost patience.
"Yo' cert'nly have lost your manners, Brer Porky!" he snapped.
Prickly Porky wiped the tears from his eyes. "Come closer so that I can
whisper, Unc' Billy," said he.
A little bit suspiciously Unc' Billy came near enough for Prickly Porky
to whisper, and when he had finished, Unc' Billy was wiping tears of
laughter from his own eyes.

IX
JIMMY SKUNK AND UNC' BILLY POSSUM TELL DIFFERENT
STORIES
The little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest didn't
know what to believe. First came Peter Rabbit with the strangest kind
of a story about being chased by a terrible creature without legs, head,
or tail. He said that it had come down the hill where Prickly Porky the
Porcupine lives in the Green Forest. Jimmy Skunk had been sent to call
on Prickly Porky and ask him if he had seen any strange creature such
as Peter Rabbit had told about. Prickly Porky had said that he hadn't
seen any stranger in that part of the Green Forest, and Jimmy had
straightway returned to the Green Meadows and told all his friends
there that Peter Rabbit must have had something the matter with his
eyes or else was crazy, for Prickly Porky hadn't been away from home
and yet had seen nothing unusual.
At the same time Unc' Billy Possum was going about in the Green
Forest telling everybody whom he met that he had called on Prickly
Porky, and that Prickly Porky had told him that Peter Rabbit
undoubtedly had seen something strange. Of course Jimmy Skunk's