sked, "can I go down in the brook, paddling? Jimmie
Wibblewobble is down there."

"No," said Mrs. Pigg kindly, "you are not quite well enough to go in the
water, Buddy. But you may have five cents for an ice cream cone."

Well, Buddy walked up to the store, got a vanilla ice cream cone, and
had just finished the last of it, even down to the sharp point of the
cone, where there wasn't any ice cream, when who should come along but
Billie and Johnnie Bushytail. They had their catching gloves, and a
ball and a bat, and when the squirrel boys saw Buddy they called out:

"Come on, let's have a game of baseball."

"All right," agreed Buddy. "But who else will play?"

"Oh! we'll get Sammie Littletail, and Bully and Bawly, the frogs, and
Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and we'll have a
fine game," said Billie Bushytail.

So they walked along, and pretty soon they met Sammie Littletail, and
then a little while after that they met the two Bow Wows, and then who
should come hopping along, but Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and, if
you'll believe me, a moment after that, along came Jimmie Wibblewobble.

Then they had enough for a fine baseball game, and they went to a nice,
green meadow where they could play. Well, Johnnie Bushytail was up at
the bat first, and he knocked the ball so far that Bully, who was
playing out in the far-off part of the field, had to take about sixteen
and a half hops before he could get it. But by that time Johnnie was
back at home plate safe.

Then it came Sammie Littletail's turn, and he knocked the ball so high
that it went up in a tree and stayed there, and didn't come down.

"Oh, that's no way to play!" exclaimed Jimmie Wibblewobble. "Now we
haven't any ball. What did you do that for, Sammie?"

"Well, I couldn't help it; could I?" asked Sammie, and he threw the bat
up, trying to knock down the ball.

But it wouldn't come down, and then they all threw up stones and sticks,
but still that ball wouldn't come down, and then Billie and Johnnie
Bushytail climbed up and they had it down in about two frisks of their
big, long tails.

Well, they said that Sammie Littletail was out for knocking the ball up
in the tree, and he didn't like it, but he gave in, and the game went
on. Then Jimmie Wibblewobble knocked a ball, oh! so far and so high that
it was almost out of sight.

"Nobody can catch that!" cried Jimmie, as he started for first base.

But just you wait and see. Budd