Not far from where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived, there was a man who had a farm, and on the farm were a number of cows that gave milk. Out of the milk butter was made, and sometimes, when the butter was all churned, the farmer's wife would take some of the buttermilk that remained in a pail and set it down where Dr. Pigg and his family could get it.

They thought this was very kind of the farmer's wife, and Dr. Pigg told his children that if they could ever do her a favor, they must be sure to do so. They promised, though for some time they had no chance to do any kindness to the farmer or his wife either. But just you wait and see what happens.

One day, in the middle of summer, when it was very hot every place, except in the cool and shady woods, Buddy and Brighteyes were strolling along under the trees near a brook, throwing pebbles in the water and floating down bits of bark and chips, which they pretended were boats sailing off to distant countries.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Buddy at last, "I wish I had something to do. There's nothing to do here."

"Why do you always want to be doing something?" asked his sister. "Why aren't you content to sit here in the shady woods, and sail the boats?"

"Because," answered Buddy, and that was the only reason he could give. Then Brighteyes thought of a new game to play. She took a piece of bark for her boat, and she found a nice, white chip for Buddy, and they made believe their boats were having a race down stream, and Buddy's boat won, which made him feel quite happy.

Well, pretty soon, the sun began to go down behind the hills, and the two guinea pig children knew it was time to go home, so they started off. But they had not gone very far before they came to a field, with a fence around it, and the field was quite hilly and stony and very large. Near the fence sat a man, and he had one shoe off, and he was looking at his foot.

"Oh dear!" Buddy and Brighteyes heard him say, for they could understand the man's language, if they couldn't talk it. "Oh dear! I've cut my foot on a sharp stone," the man said, "and I don't see how I can walk away over through the field and climb the hills after the cows. Oh dear; this is bad luck, and it's almost milking time, and the cows are sure to be away back in the far end of the pasture, and I can't go after them. I'll call them, and maybe they'll come to me, for I surely can't walk after them."

So the man stood up on one foot and called: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss! Co! Co! Co!" Then he waited quite some time, but the cows didn't come, and he called again: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss!" and he waited some more, but still the cows didn't come. "Oh, I guess I'll have to go after them, no matter if I have cut my foot," said the man at last, and he put on his shoe, though it hurt him, and he began to limp over the hilly field, very slowly and painfully.

All at once Brighteyes said to Buddy: "Oh, Bud, that man is the farmer, and it's his wife who gives us the buttermilk! Wouldn't it be nice if we could do him a favor, and go and drive the cows home for him?"

"How, could we?" asked Buddy. "The cows are big and we are little. We never could drive them home."

"We can try," said Brighteyes cheerfully. "Come, we'll hurry on ahead of the farmer and perhaps I shall think of a plan."

So the two little guinea pig children slipped under the fence and ran up across the hilly field, and the farmer, who was limping along, calling "Co Boss!" every once in a while, never saw them. His foot was hurting him very much and he had to go slowly.

Well, Buddy and Brighteyes kept on, bounding over the stories and stopping now and then to eat some blackberries or huckleberries or raspberries or a few late, wild strawberries, and pretty soon they came to the back part of the field, where, resting in the shade of some trees, were all the cows.

Oh, I guess there was a dozen and a half of them—big, nice mooley cows, with brown eyes and long tongues, and they were all chewing their cuds like gum, you know, and wondering why the farmer didn't come to drive them home to milk, for they hadn't heard him calling them, you see.

"How are we ever going to drive them home?" asked Buddy of his sister.

"Let me think a minute," said Brighteyes, so she thought real hard for a minute, or, possibly a minute and a little longer, and then she exclaimed: "We must each take a long, leafy tree branch, and go up behind the rows, and wave the branches, and tickle the cows with the leaves, and they'll think it's a boy driving them home, and they'll march right along, and the poor farmer, with his sore feet, won't have to come after them."

And that's exactly what Buddy and Brighteyes did. They got some branches, gnawing them off a tree with their sharp teeth, and with the leaves they tickled the cows until they almost made them sneeze.

The cows looked around, expecting to see some boys driving them, but Buddy and Brighteyes hid behind their big branches, and the cows were none the wiser. So they swallowed their cuds, blinked their eyes, switched their tails, and started up and down the hills, over the field, toward the barnyard to be milked.

Now, before the farmer-man had come very far from the fence, he met the cows, and maybe he wasn't surprised to see them coming. But he was glad, too, let me tell you, for he didn't have to walk any farther with his cut foot.

Then Brighteyes and Buddy ran and hid, for they did not want to be seen, and the man jumped upon the back of a gentle cow, and rode her all the way home, and told his wife how the whole herd, in some strange manner, had come all the way from the back of the field alone. You see he didn't know Buddy and Brighteyes had driven them.

Well, in a few days the man's foot was well, so he could drive the cows himself, and the farmer's wife gave Dr. Bigg's family lots of buttermilk; for, somehow, she guessed that the little guinea pig boy and girl had done the farmer a kindness, as their papa had told them to.

Now the following story will be about Buddy on horseback—that is, providing no cats get into our coalbin to scratch the furnace and make it go out.