It happened one day that after Brighteyes Pigg had finished combing her hair, and had put on a nice, pink ribbon, which she tied in two, big bows, that she heard a knock at the door. There was no one home, for her mamma had gone down to the five and ten cent store to get a wash boiler; Dr. Pigg was seeing some friends in the hospital, and Buddy was off playing ball with Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and some others of his friends. So Brighteyes went to the door herself.

And whom do you suppose she found there?

Well, I don't believe you'd guess in sixteen minutes, so I'll tell you. It was Jennie Chipmunk, the little girl who lived with Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot, the squirrel grandparents of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, you know.

Jennie was smiling so that she showed her pretty white teeth, and she was humming a little song, one of those she always sang when she washed the dishes. This is the song, and you are allowed to sing it if you have helped your mamma dry the dishes. It goes to the tune of "Oh fie lum diddle daddy de dum," which is a very nice tune if you can sing it. Anyhow, Jennie Chipmunk sang:

"That's enough, my goodness knows!" finished Brighteyes for Jennie, with a laugh. "Land sakes! Jennie Chipmunk," the little guinea pig girl went on, "I should think you'd be tired with all that work! Come on and we'll take a walk in the woods."

So the two started, after Brighteyes had locked the door and put the key under the mat, where her mother could find it when she came back from the five and ten cent store, where she had gone to get a diamond ring—no, I mean a dishpan—no, a wash boiler—there, I've got it right at last.

Well, Jennie and Brighteyes walked on through the woods and sometimes they found huckleberries to eat, or they found pennyroyal, which is a nice plant to smell, and it keeps the mosquitoes away, when they want to stay away. And the two children found some blackberries, and they found spearmint and peppermint and then they got in a field where there was a lovely apple tree and they were just eating a few of the apples and putting some in their pockets, to take home, when, all of a sudden they heard a voice calling to them from behind the tree.

"Here, what are you doing with those apples?" cried the voice, and oh, such a harsh, ugly, cross voice as it was! It fairly made Brighteyes and Jennie shiver.

First they thought it was the man who owned the tree, and then Brighteyes remembered that he was the kind farmer whose cows she and Buddy had once driven home, when he had cut his foot, and she knew he wouldn't speak so cross to her. Then she thought it was a bad boy, but she looked, and so did Jennie, and they couldn't see any boy. Then the voice growled out again:

"Here, you leave those apples alone!" and goodness sakes alive, and a can of tomato soup! from behind the apple tree, there appeared the bad, ugly, old burglar fox! Oh, how frightened Brighteyes and Jennie Chipmunk were! They fairly trembled and shivered, though it was a hot day!

"Ah! ha!" cried the fox, curling back his lip, to show his ugly teeth, and blinking his eyes as fast as a moving picture goes when it skips along very quickly. "Ah! ha! Now I have caught you! Do you know what I am going to do to you for taking my apples?"

"We—we didn't know they were your apples," said Jennie.

"No matter about that," said the bad fox. "Do you know what I am going to do to you?"

"No," answered Brighteyes. "What are you going to do to us, good Mr. Fox?"

"I'm not good Mr. Fox; I'm bad Mr. Fox," he answered, "and what I'm going to do is to eat you all up—all up—all up!" and he smacked his lips and gnashed his teeth something terrible.

But don't be afraid. Just you wait and see what Brighteyes did to that fox. All the while she was thinking how she could save herself and Jennie, for she knew those apples didn't belong to the fox.

First Brighteyes thought maybe Buddy would come along and help her, or maybe the farmer, but no one came, and the fox was creeping nearer and nearer to Jennie, getting ready to grab her first, when what did Brighteyes do but pull up some horseradish leaves that grew nearby and throw them right in the eyes of that bad fox.

Now, horseradish leaves are very smarty and peppery, you know, almost like mustard, and when they got in the fox's eyes they made him so he couldn't see, and they hurt him, too.

Then I wish you could have heard him howl. No, on second thought, I'm glad you couldn't hear him, for it might scare you. Anyhow, he jumped up and down and sideways, and he whirled around, and he howled and he yowled and he jowled, and then Brighteyes called:

"Come on, Jennie, now is our chance. We can get away before he sees us!"

So they ran away, taking all the apples they could carry, and the fox couldn't see for ever so long, for he couldn't get his eyes open. So that is how Brighteyes and Jennie Chipmunk were saved, and they went home, and nothing happened to them on the way. Now, the next story will be about Buddy and Brighteyes in the mountains—that is, providing I catch some fish the next time I go fishing and don't lose my watch in the water for the alligator to tell time by.