Well, Peetie Bow Wow made one run, and then Bully and Billie got put out, and it was Buddy's turn to bat the ball. It all depended on him now. If he could make a home run his side would win.
Well, I just wish you could have seen how bravely Buddy walked up to the home plate, and stood there, while Johnnie Bushytail almost tied himself into a bow knot in throwing a double-jointed up-and-down-sideways curve.
Buddy Pigg swung at it, and—no, he didn't miss it, he hit it good and proper, and away sailed the ball. Off Buddy started for first base, hoping he could make a home run, but alas! before he got to second base the ball he had knocked was coming down, and was almost in the webbed foot of Jimmie Wibblewobble, who was waiting to catch it, and if it was caught that would mean that Buddy would be out, and his side would not win that inning.
But Jimmie didn't catch the ball! No, sir! The strangest thing happened! At that moment if along didn't fly the kind fish hawk; and he swooped down and caught that ball up in his strong bill, and sailed away up in the air with it, and Buddy ran on and on as fast as he could go, around the bases, and toward home plate, and he got there in time to win the game. And then the fish hawk dropped the ball, and Jimmie caught it, but it was too late to put Buddy out.
"That's not fair!" cried Sammie Littletail. "The bird took the ball up in the air." All his side said it wasn't fair, but Uncle Wiggily, the umpire, decided that it was fair, and Buddy's side won the game, but they wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the fish hawk, and they were very thankful to him.
Now I think I'm going to tell you in the next story about Brighteyes and Sister Sallie—that is if no one takes our door mat to use for a pen wiper.
STORY V
BRIGHTEYES PIGG AND SISTER SALLIE
Brighteyes Pigg had finished doing the dishes, and had put on her clean dress, her new tan shoes, which matched her brown and white fur, and her hair was tied with a pink ribbon—you know the kind—the ones that stick out so with a bow on each side. Well, she looked just too nice for anything, and she asked her mother: