one day bully no-tail, the frog boy, was hopping along through the woods, and he felt so very fine, and it was such a nice day, that, when he came to a place where some flowers grew up near an old stump, nodding their pretty heads in the wind, the frog boy sang a little song.

“i love to skip and jump and hop,

i love to hear firecrackers pop,

i love to play

the whole long day,

i love to spin my humming top.”

that’s what bully sang, and if there had been a second, or a third, or a forty-’leventh verse he would have sung that too, as he felt so good. well, after he had sung the one verse he hopped on some more, and pretty soon he came to the place where the mouse lady lived, whose basket of chips bully had once picked up, when she hurt her foot on a thorn. i guess you remember about that story.

“ah, how to you do, bully?” asked the mouse lady, as the frog boy hopped along.

“thank you, i am very well,” he answered politely. “i hope you are feeling pretty good.”

“well,” she made answer, “i might feel better. i have a little touch of cat-and-mouse-trap fever, but i think if i stay in my hole and take plenty of toasted cheese, i’ll be better. but here is a nice sugar cookie for you,” and with that the nice mouse lady went to the cupboard, got a cookie, and gave it to the frog boy.

bully ate it without getting a single crumb on the floor, which was very good of him, and then, saving a piece of the cookie for his brother bawly, he hopped on, after bidding the mouse lady good-by and hoping that she would soon be better.

along and along hopped bully, and all of a sudden the big giant jumped out of the bushes—oh, excuse me, if you please! there is no giant in this story. the giant went back to the circus, but i’ll tell you a story about him as soon as i may. as bully was hopping along, all of a sudden out from behind a bush there jumped a savage, ugly wolf, and he had gotten out of his circus cage again, and was looking around for something to eat.[pg 131]

“ah, ha! at last i have found something!” cried the wolf, as he made a spring for bully, and he caught the frog boy under his paws and held him down to the earth, just like a cat catches a mouse.

“oh, let me go! please let me go! you are squeezing the breath out of me!” cried poor bully.

“indeed i will not let you go!” replied the wolf, real unpleasant-like. “i have been looking for something to eat all day and now that i’ve found it i’m not going to let you go. no, indeed, and some horseradish in a bottle besides.”

“are you really going to eat me?” asked bully, sorrowfully.

“i certainly am,” replied the wolf. “you just watch me. oh, no, i forgot. you can’t see me eat you, but you can feel me, which is much the same thing.”

then the wolf sharpened his teeth on a sharpening stone, and he got ready to eat up the frog boy. now bully didn’t want to be eaten, and i don’t blame him a bit; do you? he wanted to go play ball, and have a lot of fun with his friends, and he was thinking what a queer world this is, where you can be happy and singing a song, and eating a sugar cookie one minute, and the next minute be caught by a wolf. but that’s the way it generally is.

then, as bully thought of how good the sugar cookie was he asked the wolf:

“will you let me go for a piece of cookie, mr. wolf?”

“let me see the cookie,” spoke the savage creature.

so bully reached in his pocket, and took out the piece of cookie that he was saving for bawly. he knew bawly would only be too glad to have the wolf take it, if he let his brother bully go.

but, would you ever believe it? that unpleasant and most extraordinary wolf animal snatched the cookie from bully’s paw, ate it up with one mouthful, and only smiled.

“well, now, are you going to let me go?” asked bully.

“no,” said the wolf. “that cookie only made me more hungry. i guess i’ll eat you now, and then go look for your brother and eat him, too.”

“oh, will no one save me?” cried bully in despair, and just then he heard a rustling in the bushes. he looked up and there he saw dottie trot, the little pony girl. she waved her hoof at bully, and then the frog boy knew she would save him if she could. so he thought of a plan, while dottie, with her new red hair ribbon tied in a pink bow, hid in the bushes, where the wolf couldn’t see her, and waited.

“well, if you are going to eat me, mr. wolf,” said bully, most politely, after a while, “will you grant me one favor before you do so?”

“what is it?” asked the wolf, still sharpening his teeth.

“let me take one last hop before i die?” asked bully.

“very well,” answered the wolf. “one hop and only one, remember. and don’t think you can get away, for i can run faster than you can hop.”

bully knew that, but he was thinking of dottie trot. so the wolf took his paws off bully, and the frog boy got ready to take a last big hop. he looked over through the bushes, and saw the pony girl, and then he gave a great, big, most tremendous and extraordinarily strenuous jump, and landed right on dottie’s back!

“here we go!” cried the pony girl. “here is where i save bully no-tail! good-by bad mr. wolf.” and away she trotted as fast as the wind.

“here, come back with my supper! come back with my supper!” cried the disappointed wolf, and off he ran after dottie, who had bully safely on her back.

faster and faster ran the wolf, but faster and faster ran dottie, and no wolf could ever catch her, no matter how fast he ran. and dottie galloped and trotted and cantered, and went on and on, and on, and the wolf came after her, but he kept on being left farther and farther behind, and at last dottie was out of the woods, and she and bully were safe, for the wolf didn’t dare go any nearer, for fear the circus men would catch him.

“oh, thank you so much, dottie, for saving me,” said bully. “i’ll give you this other piece of cookie i was saving for bawly. he won’t mind.”

so he gave it to dottie, and she liked it very much indeed, and that wolf was so angry and disappointed about not having any supper that he bit his claw nails almost off, and went back into the woods, and growled, and growled, and growled all night, worse than a buzzing mosquito.

but bully and dottie didn’t care a bit and they went on home and they met uncle wiggily longears, the rabbit gentleman, who bought them an ice cream soda flavored with carrots.

now in case my little bunny rabbit doesn’t bite a hole in the back steps so the milkman drops a bottle down it when he comes in the morning, i’ll tell you in the following story about grandpa croaker and brighteyes pigg.