CHAPTER IV
The next evening Susan begged old Grizzly to tell her another story about Whiskers. Grizzly said he knew one, but he kept it in the back of his head and he could not find it. So he told them the story of Carlo, instead.
Carlo was a fine dog. He had but one fault. He liked to suck eggs.
Day after day the cook went out into the hen-house to get eggs, and day after day there were no eggs to be found.
At first she thought it must be a rat that stole her eggs, and she set a trap. A clever old rat came and ate the cheese, but he never got caught.
One day the cook saw Carlo sucking an egg. Whisk! she was after him with a broom, and gave him a sound beating! But this did not cure Carlo of his bad habit. He went into the hen-house and stole eggs whenever he pleased.
The cook said she was not going to allow this, so one day she called the dog to her in a most friendly way, and held out half an egg in her hand.
Carlo thought that the cook had made up her mind to let him eat all the eggs he wanted, so he took the egg in his mouth, and swallowed it quickly.
Then he began to behave very strangely. He yelped with pain, and ran out into the yard and rolled over and over in the snow.
"Good! Now you will steal no more eggs," said the cook.
What do you suppose was the matter with Carlo? The egg the cook had given him was full of red pepper, and his mouth burned as though on fire. There is no telling what the poor dog would have done if a little girl had not come along just then.
The little girl had found out what the cook had done. She crept out of the house and said:
"Poor Carlo, poor doggie, come to me!" and then she took snow and washed out Carlo's mouth and patted him on the head until he felt all right again.
Carlo never forgot the little girl's kindness, and he never stole eggs any more.
Just as old Grizzly stopped speaking, "Tap, tap," was heard on the window. They looked up and saw Bushy Tail outside.
"Let him in. I'll see that he does no harm," said old Grizzly. They opened-the door, and Bushy Tail jumped in.
Now, Bushy Tail would not have come if he had not had something to say, for he felt a little ashamed about the pies.
What do you suppose Bushy Tail had come to say? He had heard of a big gold mine in the West, and he wanted Grizzly Bear and the Cotton-Tail family to go west with him to buy the gold mine.
Old Grizzly was delighted with the idea, but Bunny and Susan said they would rather stay at home. As they were talking, "Tap, tap," was heard on the window again, and there stood Bunny Boy. He had come home from his travels!
Bunny Boy's head was tied up and he looked as though he had had a hard time. Susan asked if he would like to go west and look for gold, but Bunny Boy only shook his head.
End of Project Gutenberg's Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes, by Laura Rountree Smith