One day, oh, I guess it was about a week after Baby Pinky went to the hospital, something else happened to the two piggie brothers. And, as most of it happened to Curly, I have named this story for him, though Flop1 had a part in it.
When her piggie boys came home from school one afternoon Mrs.
Twistytail said to them:
"I wonder if you don't want to go to the store for me?"
"Of course we do mamma," spoke2 Curly as quickly as ice cream melts on a hot day.
"Certainly," added Flop, and the funny part of it was that the two brothers had just planned to go off in the woods and play soldier and Indian after school.
But as soon as they heard that their mamma wanted them to go on an errand for her, they at once made up their minds that they would go to the store first and play afterward3.
"What do you want, mamma?" asked Curly. "Is it a cake of milk chocolate, because if it is—"
"We'll help eat it," finished Flop quickly with a laugh.
"No, all I need is some cornmeal to make pancakes with in the morning," spoke the pig lady. "Run along now, but you need not hurry back, and you may play on the way."
Curly and Flop whistled through their noses at hearing this, for they knew they could have some fun after all, and away they started for the store. The old gentleman duck who kept it, and who was a forty 'leventh cousin to Grandfather Goosey Gander, wrapped the cornmeal in two separate bags, so that Curly could carry one, and Flop the other.
"That will make it even," said the store duck, as he gave the piggie boys each a sweet cracker4.
Back home they started, playing tag, and hide the acorn5, and all such games like that, including one called "Please Don't Pull My Tail and I Won't Pull Yours." That's a very funny game.
Well, all of a sudden, as Curly and Flop were going along, they came past a field where a kind old rat gentleman was picking his apples off the trees. There were many of the apples, and they had to be put in barrels and brought into the cellar.
"Oh, don't those apples smell good," said Flop as he leaned over the fence and looked at them.
"Indeed they do," agreed Curly. "They remind me of apple pie and cheese."
Then the rat gentleman looked up, saw the piggie, and said:
"Come in, boys, and you may each have one apple. Help yourselves."
"Thank you, very much," spoke Curly. "Come on!" he cried to his brother Flop, "we'll each take a big apple, and there will be enough for a pie when we get home."
"Oh, but we can't carry big apples, with the bags of meal," said
Flop. "I'm going to take a middle-sized apple."
"Well, I'm not. I'm going to take the largest I can find in the field," declared Curly, and he went hunting for a specially7 large one.
Of course, in a way, it was all right to do this, for the rat gentleman had told them to help themselves, but you just wait and see what happens.
Curly picked out a very large apple—the very biggest one that grew on the trees, but Flop was content with a smaller one. Then the piggie brothers started for home again.
Curly had hard work to............