rheumatism, and Buddy told about the scare the old gentleman rabbit had
had when the big, shaggy yellow dog appeared, and how the old gentleman
rabbit ran, and how Percival bit the bad dog.

"That's very interesting," said the storekeeper, and he gave Buddy a
whole carrot for himself.

Placing his basket of groceries carefully on his arm, Buddy Pigg started
for home. He walked along through the woods, and over the fields,
thinking how nice everything was, and what fun he would have when he got
home, playing ball with Sammie Littletail, and the Bushytail brothers,
when, all at once, what should he hear but a noise in the bushes.

Now Buddy Pigg was always a little afraid when he heard noises,
especially in the woods, where he couldn't see what made them, so he
crouched down under a burdock leaf in case there might be any danger.
And, sure enough, there was.

It wasn't more than a second or, possibly a second and a squeak, before
a great, big, bad boy stepped out from behind a tree. And he had a gun
with him, and he was looking for birds, or rabbits, or squirrels, or,
maybe, guinea pigs to shoot.

That's why I know he was a bad boy, but of course he may have turned out
to be a good boy before he got to be so very old. Well, this boy looked
up, and he looked down, and he looked first to one side, and then to the
other, and then--flopsy-dub, and wiggily-waggily! if he didn't spy poor
Buddy Pigg hiding under the burdock leaf, and trembling as hard as he
could tremble.