Howard R. Garis Curly and Floppy Twistytail the Funny Piggie Boys, Chapter 5: Curly and the Elephant Lyrics

STORY V

CURLY AND THE ELEPHANT

When Curly Twistytail, the little pig boy, was digging away with his
nose in the front yard, one day, hunting for lollypops, or maybe ice
cream cones, under the grass, for all that I know; one day, I say,
as he was rooting away, he heard his mamma calling:

"Oh, Curly; Oh, Flop Ear! I want some one to go to the store for
me."

"That means I've got to go," thought Curly, as he looked around to
see if his tail was still kinked into a little twist.

"I'll have to go because Flop is off playing ball with Bully the
frog. Well, there's no use getting cross about it," so, giving a
cheerful grunt or two, just to show that he didn't at all mind,
Curly ran around to the back door and said:

"What is it, mamma? I'll go to the store for you?"

"Oh, there you are!" exclaimed Mrs. Twistytail. "Well, I want a
dozen eggs, and be sure to get fresh ones, and don't smash them on
the way home."

"I won't," said the little piggie boy, and with that he ran down the
street squealing a tune about a little monkey who hung down by his
tail, and when he went to sleep he sat inside the water pail.

Well, Curly got the eggs all right, and he was on his way home with
them, when, all at once, as he came to the corner of the woods,
where an old stump stood, out from behind it jumped a bad dog.

"Ha, what have you in that bag, little piggie boy?" asked the bad
dog, catching hold of Curly by his ear so that he could not run
away.

"Eggs," answered Curly. "There are eggs in this bag for a cake my
mamma is going to bake."

"No, you are mistaken," said the dog, gritting his teeth. "Those
eggs are for me, I want to eat them," and he reached out his paw for
the paper bag.

Now, though Curly did not know it, this was a bad egg dog--that is,
he liked to eat eggs raw, without ever boiling or frying them, and
that kind of a dog is the worst there is. No one likes him, not even
the old rooster who crows in the morning.

"I'll just take those eggs," said the bad dog, "and, though I don't
know how to make a cake, still I can manage to eat them," and with
that he took an egg out of the bag, chipped a little hole in the
shell, and drank up the yellow and white part just as you would
drink an ice cream soda. And, mind you, that dog never even winked
an eye! What do you think of that?

"Number one!" the dog exclaimed, as he reached for another egg. "Now
for number two!"

And oh! how badly Curly felt when he saw his mamma's eggs going that
way. It was almost as bad as if he had dropped the bag on the
sidewalk and smashed them, only, of course, it was not his fault.

Then the little piggie boy decided to be brave and bold. The bad dog
was eating the second egg, and he had his nose tipped up in the air,
so the white and yellow of the egg would run out of the shell down
his throat, when, all of a sudden, Curly pulled himself loose from
the dog's paw and grabbed up the bag with the ten eggs in it and ran
away as fast as he could.

"Here! Come back!" cried the bad egg dog, as he threw the empty
shell at Curly. "Come back here with the rest of my eggs!"

"Your eggs! No indeed!" cried Curly, and he didn't in the least mind
when the egg shell hit him on the end of his nose, for, being empty,
you understand, the shell didn't hurt any more than a piece of paper
would have done.

"Ha! If you won't come back I'll chase after you!" barked the bad
egg dog, and with that he began chasing after Curly.

Faster and faster ran Curly, and faster and faster came the dog
after him, until he had nearly caught the little piggie boy. Then
Curly thought to himself:

"Well, maybe if I roll one more egg to him he'll stop to eat that
and let me alone. Anyhow, nine eggs will be enough for a cake, and I
can tell mamma how it happened that the others were lost."

So the piggie boy stopped running long enough to take an egg out of
the bag and roll it along the sidewalk toward the dog.

"Ah, ha!" growled the dog. "Egg Number Three!" and he stopped to eat
the yellow and white part of it. Of course, Curly ran on, and he got
some distance ahead, but you see the more eggs the dog ate the
faster he could run, so on he came, and he had almost caught up to
Curly when the little piggie boy thought again:

"Well, here goes for another egg!"

So he rolled a second one toward that bad dog, who ate it, hardly
stopping at all, and on he came again.

"Now, I have you!" the dog cried, as he threw the empty shell at
Curly, striking him on the nose once more. "Now, I'll get all the
eggs, and besides, I'll bite your tail off for running away!"

"Oh, how dreadful!" thought Curly, and he wondered how it would feel
to have no tail. He was running as fast as he could, and he was
wishing a policeman or fireman would save him from the bad dog,
when, all at once, out from a yard with a high fence around it
sprang something big and white, with yellow legs, and there came a
hissing sound, just as if water were being squirted out of a hose.
Then a voice said:

"Here, you bad dog, let my friend Curly alone! Run away, now, or
I'll nip you on your toes and nose! Skip! Hiss! Scoot!"

And that dog was so frightened that he didn't think a single thing
more about eggs, but he just tucked his tail between his legs, where
it wouldn't get in his way, and off he ran.

"Oh, saved at last!" gasped Curly, as he sat down on the curbstone
to rest, "and I still have eight eggs left for mamma's cake." Then
he looked up to see who had rescued him, and it was old Grandfather
Goosey Gander, the father of all the geese. The brave creature had
hissed at the bad egg dog and frightened him away.

"Oh, how thankful I am to you," said Curly, politely, "and when the
cake is baked you shall have a piece, Grandpa Goosey."

So he went on home with the rest of the eggs and--well, I do
declare! I have forgotten all about the elephant! I know he was to
be in this story, somewhere, but there's no room now, so I'll have
to put him in the next one, which will be about Flop and the bag of
meal--that is, if the clothes-basket doesn't fall on the gas stove
and make the rice pudding go down the cellar to hide away from the
rag doll.