BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES FALL DOWN HILL
Not far from where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived in the pen with their papa and mamma, there was a big, tall hill. Oh, ever so much taller than a house, but not quite so high as the church steeple, and it was a very hard hill to climb, but, once you had gotten to the top, you could see off, ever so far; farther than from here to the end of the rainbow, which is very far indeed.
Now, though Buddy and Brighteyes, the two little guinea pig children, had lived near the hill ever since they were mere babies, they had never climbed to the top of it. There were two reasons for this. One was because the hill was so high and the other was because it was so steep.
It seemed as if no one would ever be able to scramble up the sides of this hill, or, if they did, very likely they would tumble down again, just like a boy sliding over the ice and snow on his sled.
But one fine morning when the sun was shining and the birds were singing Buddy said to Brighteyes:
"Let's climb up to the top of the hill to-day?"
"What for?" asked his sister, as she tied her hair ribbon in a double bow knot, very pretty indeed to look at, let me tell you.
"Why, so we can see away off where the sky and the mountains come together beyond the hill," said Buddy. "You can see beautiful scenery from the tip-top, you know."
"What good will that do?" asked Brighteyes, who was very fond of asking questions that were hard to answer. "What is the good of looking at the scenery?" she wanted to know.
"Because," answered her brother, "every one does that where there is a high hill. I heard some of the summer boarders at the farmhouse, near our pen, telling each other what a beautiful view there was to be had from the hill. We must see it for ourselves. There is no one around now, and we can climb to the top."