Buddy, who, I suppose, you remember, was a friend of Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, walked along, sniffing with his nose, just like Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits.
"It seems to me," Buddy said, "that I smell something good to eat. I wonder if it can be an ice cream cone, or some peanuts, or anything like that?" He looked around but he couldn't see any store there in the woods where they sold ice cream or peanuts, and then he knew he must be mistaken. Still he kept on smelling something good.
"I wonder where that is?" he exclaimed, and he sniffed harder than ever. And then he knew what it was—a cabbage—a great, big cabbage! He ran around the side of a big rock, and there lying on the path, was a fine big cabbage. Some one had dropped it by mistake.
"This is great luck!" cried Buddy Pigg. "There is enough for me and Brighteyes, and I can take some home to mamma and to my papa, the doctor. Yes, indeed, this has been a lucky day for me. I'm as glad I found this cabbage as if I had picked up ten cents! I guess I'll eat some to see how it tastes."
So Buddy Pigg began to gnaw at the cabbage and, as he had very good teeth for gnawing—almost as good as Sammy Littletail's—he soon had quite a hole made. But he kept on gnawing and eating away, so fine did it taste, until, in a little while if he hadn't eaten a hole right into the cabbage and he found himself inside, just like the mousie in the loaf of bread!
"Ha! This is very fine, indeed!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I think I will take a nap here," and lopsy-flop! if that little guinea pig didn't curl up inside the cabbage and go fast, fast asleep; and not even his tail stuck out, because, you see, he didn't have any tail—guinea pigs never do have any, which is a good thing, I suppose.
Well, Buddy Pigg was sleeping away inside that cabbage, dreaming of how nice it would be to take the rest of it home, when all at once, who should come creeping, creeping around the edge of the rock, but a great, big fox. He had sharp eyes, had that fox, and he saw the little guinea pig asleep inside the cabbage, even though Buddy's tail didn't stick out.
"Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" exclaimed the fox, and he smacked his lips. "I see a fine feast before me! Oh, yes, indeed, a very fine feast! Guinea pig flavored with cabbage! Now, just so that pig can't get out, I'll stop up that hole, while he's asleep in there, and I'll go and get my wife, and we'll come back and have a dandy meal! Oh! a most delectable meal!"
So that old fox crept softly, so softly, up to where the cabbage was, with Buddy asleep inside, and the fox took a stone, and he crowded it, and wedged it, fast in the hole, so poor Buddy couldn't get out, though there was some air for him to breathe. Then the fox laughed to himself: "Ha, ha!" and "Ho, ho!" and hurried off down the hill after his wife.
Well, it wasn't long before Buddy Pigg awoke, and he tried to stretch himself, as he always did after a nap, and wasn't he the surprised guinea pig, though, when he found he couldn't stretch!