Curly and Floppy Twistytail | Page 3

the apple sauce. Save me!"
"Indeed I will," said the little brother. And with his sharp teeth he
gnawed through the grape vine string, and then his brother was free.
"Come on!" exclaimed the littlest pig. "We must run home away from
the bear!"
And they did, getting back to their house safely, and oh! how
disappointed that bear was when he returned with the apples and found
his pig dinner gone. He was so peevish that he threw all the apples
away.
And when Mrs. Twistytail saw her little boy she exclaimed:
"Oh, my sakes alive! How did you get that curl in your tail?"
"I--I guess that was where the bear tied me to the fence," said the piggie
boy, and so it was. His tail was all curled tight, like a little girl's hair.
His mamma tried to take the curl out with a warm flatiron, but the kink
stayed in the tail, and so Mr. Twistytail said:
"I guess we'll have to call our piggie boy by the name of Curly after
this," and so they did, and that's how one piggie boy got the name of
"Curly Twistytail."
And in case the shells don't all come off the eggs and leave the feathers
sticking out for a sofa cushion, I'll tell you next how the other little pig
got his name.

STORY II
FLOPPY GETS HIS NAME
One day, oh, I guess it must have been about a week after Curly
Twistytail, the little pig boy, had the adventure with the bear, and his
brother rescued him, as I told you in the story before this one,--one day
Curly's brother, who hadn't any name as yet, said:
"Oh, Curly, let's go out for another walk, and maybe something will
happen to us."

"All right," agreed Curly, "only I hope a bear doesn't happen. It's no fun
to think you're going to be turned into roast pork and eaten with apple
sauce," for that is what the bear was going to do, you know.
So off the two little pig brothers started, and their mamma called after
them:
"Now, stay together. Don't go one on one path, and one on another, as
you did before, and have trouble. Stay together, and help one another."
"We will!" they answered, and really they meant to, but, you see, little
pigs sometimes forget, just as real children do.
On they went together. Curly and his brother who hadn't any name,
except that sometimes people called him "Bub," or maybe "Son," or
even "Hey, Johnnie!" though that wasn't his real name at all.
Pretty soon, in about as long as it takes to eat a lollypop if you don't
hurry to get down to the stick part of it--pretty soon the two piggie boys
met Grandfather Squealer, who was the grandpapa of all the pigs in that
part of the country,
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the old gentleman pig, "Oh, ho! How are you
today, Curly?"
"Very well, sir, thank you," replied the pig boy politely, and he looked
around to see if the curly kink had come out of his tail where the bear
had tied him to the round fence rail, but the curl was still there.
"And how is this other little chap?" went on Grandpa Squealer, as he
took a pinch of snuff, and then looked in his vest pocket to see if he had
any spare pennies. "How are you, Bub?" he asked. "You haven't any
name yet, have you?"
"No sir," answered the brother of Curly. "I wish I had, though," and he
also wished that Grandpa Squealer would find a penny so that he and
his brother could buy a lollypop, and that wish came true, if you will
kindly believe me. For the old gentleman pig did find two pennies.
"There now, boys," he said, "run along to the candy store. And maybe
you can buy a name for yourself," and he playfully pulled the ears of
Curly's brother. Then Grandpa Squealer sneezed again and walked on,
and so did the two boy pigs.
"I'm going to buy a corn lollypop," said Curly.
"I think I'll buy a sour-milk one," said his brother, for you know little
pigs, and big ones, too, like sour milk as much as you like yours sweet.
Isn't that funny?

So they walked on together, talking of different things, and pretty soon
they came to a place where there were two stores. One was painted red
and the other was painted blue.
"I'm going in the red store for my lollypop," said Curly.
"Oh, let's go in the blue one," suggested his brother. "Maybe I can buy
a name for myself in there. I am tired of being called 'Bub' and
'Johnny,' and names like that."
But the two