Howard R. Garis Curly and Floppy Twistytail the Funny Piggie Boys, Chapter 15: The Piggies in a Cornfield Lyrics

STORY XV

THE PIGGIES IN A CORNFIELD

One day--oh! I guess it must have been about two grunts and a squeal
after Curly and Flop, the two piggie boys, had the adventure with
the pumpkin--something else happened to them. In the first place,
they had to stay in after school.

Now, please don't get worried, nor think anything bad of them on
that account. They did not have to stay in because they whispered in
class, or anything like that. No, they stayed in to help their
teacher clean off the blackboards, but when they got out all the
other animal children were gone.

"Come on, let's run," suggested Flop, "and maybe we can catch up to
them."

"I wish we could!" exclaimed Curly, "for Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy
dog, borrowed my pencil and forgot to give it back."

So the two piggie boys ran as fast as they could, but they could see
nothing of the other animal children--not even little Jennie
Chipmunk, who could not go very fast, for every time she saw any
dust on a stone or a tree stump she used to stop and brush it off
with her tail. She was so neat and clean, you see, and as she had to
stop quite often, on account of there being so much dust, she
couldn't go fast at all.

But, as I said, Curly and Flop couldn't even catch up to her, which
shows you that they had stayed in after school for quite some time.

"Oh! they'll all be home long before us," said Curly after a bit,
sitting down on a stone to rest.

"I guess so," agreed his brother, as he made his two ears stand up
straight and then flop down again. "But never mind, I think you can
get your pencil from Jackie Bow Wow tomorrow."

"Yes," spoke Curly, and then they went on a little farther until
they came to a corn field. The corn was all cut down, and stood in
big bunches, called shocks--not the kind of shocks you get from an
electric battery, though, but corn shocks.

"Oh, let's take a short cut through the corn field," suggested
Curly. "Maybe then we can get ahead of the others."

"All right," said Flop. "We'll do it." And, though they had never
gone through this corn field, because it was owned by a cross old
alligator gentleman, they now started to crawl under the fence. Just
as they were inside the field they heard a little voice crying:

"Oh, dear! What shall I do. Oh, my poor tail!"

"What's that?"' asked Flop in alarm.

"I don't know," answered Curly. "Maybe it's the bad old fuzzy wolf."

"Let's hide!" exclaimed Flop, and they were looking for a place to
hide when they happened to see a poor little girl mouse near a shock
of corn, and her tail was held fast by a stone that had fallen on
it.

"Was that you crying?" asked Flop.

"It was," said the mousie girl. "Oh my poor tail! How can I ever get
loose?"

"We'll help you," spoke Curly. "We'll root up the stone with our
strong noses, and then you'll be all right."

"Of course we will," agreed Flop. "Oh, how glad we are that you
aren't a wolf," he added, and then he and Curly, with their noses
which were made stretchy like a rubber ball, soon had the stone off
the mousie girl's tail, and she was all right, except that her tail
was sore. But when her mamma could put some salve on it that would
be all better, too.

"Oh! I can't tell you how thankful I am to you," said the mousie
girl to the piggie boys. "Some day I will help you."

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Flop. "How can a little mousie girl like you help
us two big boys?"

"Hush!" exclaimed Curly. "It isn't polite to laugh when any one
offers to do you a favor, even if they are little. Besides, maybe
she MIGHT be able to help us some day."

"Of course," spoke the mousie, and she felt rather badly because
Flop Ear had laughed.

"Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed Flop. "I didn't mean to. I'm sure I hope
you can help us, little mousie."

So the two piggie boys went on through the corn field, hoping they
wouldn't meet the cross old alligator man, who owned it, and who
didn't like animal boys. And the mousie went on her way.

"I think we'll soon catch up to the others," said Flop after a bit.

"I guess so," agreed Curly. "And when we do---"

"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Floppy. "Some one is coming!" Curly heard
it, too, and he stopped talking. He looked around the corner of a
stone and whispered:

"It's the old alligator man himself. What shall we do?"

"Run!" exclaimed Flop. "Run as fast as we can."

So he and Curly started to run but my goodness me sakes alive and a
postage stamp! No sooner had they gone ten steps than the cross old
alligator man saw them, and after them he came as fast as he could
crawl on his four legs, wiggling his humpy tail. "Oh, he'll get us,
sure!" wailed Floppy.

"Run faster!" urged Curly.

Well, they both ran as fast as they could, squealing with fright,
and the alligator man was coming right after them, and he had almost
caught them when, all of a sudden, a little squeaky voice called
out:

"In here, boys! Crawl right in here, under this shock of corn, and
he can't see you!"

They looked, and there, in front of a sort of cave, that was made in
one of the upright piles of corn, stood the little mousie girl who
had been pinched by the stone on her tail.

"In here!" she cried. "Quick, before he comes, and he won't know
where you have gone!"

"But he'll know we're hiding in the corn," said Flop.

"Quick! Get inside and talk afterward!" said the mousie girl.
"Besides there are so many piles of corn that the alligator man
won't know which one you're hiding in, and it will take him all
night to peek into them all. And after dark I'll show you the way
home."

So into the shock of corn crawled Curly and Flop pulling a lot of
stalks behind them to close the hole, and they were only just in
time, for, an instant later, up rushed the alligator man. Of course
he could not see the piggy boys, and he was much surprised.

"But I know they're hiding somewhere!" he growled. And it all
happened just as the mousie girl said. The alligator man peeked in
nearly all the corn shocks, but he didn't happen to look in the one
where Curly and Flop were hiding. And pretty soon it was dark, and
then the piggies came out and the mousie girl showed them the way
home, and the alligator man did not get them. So, you see, the
mousie helped the piggie boys after all.

And next, in case the salt cellar doesn't hide in the pepper caster
and make believe it's a mustard plaster I'll tell you about Flop
having a tumble.