"Why don't you call in Red Riding-Hood's wolf? He goes by every day, and perhaps he will know how she can get out of the forest."
So they all went in front of the house, and waited. Jane and the Baby Bear played games, only the Baby Bear could climb trees, and Jane couldn't, so in hide-and-go-seek he was able to get away quite easily.
Pretty soon they heard a galloping sound, and up came a big, gray wolf. Papa Bear explained to him what they wanted. The wolf was delighted, but said he had to go first to the Grandmother's cottage, because Red Riding-hood was there, and he had a message to give from her mother, but if Jane didn't mind going too, why, it would be all right. You can easily imagine Jane was most willing, so they put her on the wolf's back, after the Baby Bear had hugged her "good-bye".
The wolf went much faster than the Bear, and Jane had great difficulty in staying on his back, but she managed not to fall off, and soon they arrived at the Grandmother's cottage, and found the grandmother and Red Riding-hood positively sitting down to supper. They invited Jane to have a little of the delicious cream cheese, and fresh cake which she was very glad to do. While she was eating she confided to the Grandmother her troubles about getting home, and Grandmother said if Jane would take off her clothes, and get right into bed she would be home in a jiffy. As Jane was rather tired, she didn't mind doing this at all. She shut her eyes, just as Grandma told her to, and while she lay there, she could still hear them talking, and she heard them say:
"Jane, Jane, Jane," and it sounded very familiar, too, it sounded like Nurse. Why! it couldn't be Nurse! How could she have come there? Then Jane thought she would have to open her eyes, and so she did,—and there she was sitting at the bottom of the tree, with her book in her lap, and it was Nurse's voice she heard, and it meant "supper."
SAPPHIRA AND THE FLYING PIG
Sapphira's mamma and papa owned a flying pig. Of course people who have not had a flying pig in the family do not know how uninteresting they are. Sapphira knew, and the Flying Pig was a great trial to her. In the first place, he was locked up in a large wire cage so that he couldn't possibly fly, then he was watched all the time by two little page boys, so that nothing could ever disturb or annoy him, and he was never taken out except when the family were giving a party, and he was called on to entertain the guests. Sapphira often longed to play with him, he seemed as if he would be quite a decent playfellow, but he was asleep most of the time, so that she had grown accustomed to expect nothing much of him. Of course she went every day, on her way down to the beach, and said "Good morning, Flying Pig," respectfully, because after all you had to be respectful to a pig that could fly if it wanted to, and he always responded, "Good morning, Sapphira," but he never budged, and he never said more than that, so Sapphira would leave him, and go on with her pail and shovel to dig in the sand.
At the beach Sapphira had some real friends, and they were the Walruses. To be sure they couldn't be frightfully intimate because they were unable to come in shore for fear of running aground in the shallow water, so they stayed just outside the breakers and bobbed up and down over the waves, their great tusks gleaming in the sunlight, and as their voices were very loud they could talk to Sapphira easily as she sat on the beach. They were always very anxious for her to come out and see them, and they had promised her the loveliest time if she could only spend the day, but there was always the difficulty of her getting out through the breakers to them, as she couldn't swim, so they had been obliged to give it up.