Howard R. Garis Curly and Floppy Twistytail the Funny Piggie Boys, Chapter 24: Curly and the Afraid Girl Lyrics

STORY XXIV

CURLY AND THE AFRAID GIRL

One day, when Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, went
down to the store on Raccoon Island, in Lake Hopatcong, kept by Pop
Goes the Weasel, there was a letter there for Curly Tail and also
one for Flop Ear.

"I wonder who can be writing to the piggie boys," said the rabbit
gentleman. "I'll take the letters to them."

So he stopped to play just one game of Scotch checkers with Pop Goes
the Weasel, only they didn't quit finish it because Mr. Pop's cat
jumped on the middle of the board to catch a mosquito and scattered
the checkers all over.

"Scat!" cried Pop Goes the Weasel. "Why did you do that?"

"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily. "She didn't mean to."

And really the cat didn't mean to, and the mosquito got away after
all, and Pop Goes the Weasel began picking up the checkers, but the
rabbit gentleman said:

"I'm afraid I can't stay to finish the game. I must get back with
the letters for Flop and Curly," calling them thus for short.

"Very well," said Pop, "and take them some sour milk chocolate candy
with my best wishes, for the letters may be from home, telling them
to come back to school."

And really, that is just what the letters said. They were from the
nice owl lady school teacher, saying that the roof was back on the
school now, and that in a few days all the animal children must
begin reciting their lessons again.

"Well, then, we must have all the fun we can the few remaining days
that we are to be on Raccoon Island," said Flop Ear.

"Correct," spoke Curly Tail. "Let's take a walk and see if we can
find an adventure."

So off they started from Uncle Wiggily's bungalow, and when they
came to a place where there were two paths through the woods, Curly
Tail said:

"Now, Flop Bar, you go one way and I'll go the other, and we will
see who first meets with an adventure."

"Very well," agreed Flop Ear, and off he went through the woods,
but, as nothing happened to him except that he fell down a well and
had trouble getting out again, I shall not tell his adventure.
Instead, I will relate what happened to Curly Tail.

On and on he went, and he was wondering what would happen to him,
when, all at once, as he came to a little river that flowed through
the island, he heard a voice saying:

"Oh, I shall never get across. I know I shan't. I'm so afraid of
water, and I know there are cat-tails and p____ willows and all
sorts of things like that around here. Oh! what shall I do? I want
to get across to see my grandmother, but how can I?"

"Hum! That is queer," thought Curly Tail. "I wonder who that can be?
I had better be careful, though, for it may be the fuzzy fox trying
to fool me."

So, carefully hiding himself behind a stone, he peered over the top,
and once more he heard the voice saying:

"Oh! isn't it dreadful to be afraid!"

"Why, it's a little mousie girl," exclaimed Curly Tail out loud.

"Of course, it is," said the little creature beside the river. "And
I'm afraid of the water, and the cat-tails and the p____ willows and
all that."

"There are no p____ willows out now, they only come in the spring,"
said Curly Tail. "Though there may be some cat-tails. But they are
not real cats, you know. They won't hurt you. Are you a little
afraid, mousie girl?"

"Yes, but that isn't my name," she said. "My name is Edna, and I'm
dreadfully afraid of the water. How shall I get across?"

"I'll get a big board and make believe it is a boat," said Curly
Tail. "Then you won't be afraid."

"Oh, yes, I will," she said. "Can't you think of some other way?"

Curly Tail shook his head, and even twisted up his ear, and then he
thought real hard.

"I have it!" he cried. "You shall get on the board boat, and all the
while you must keep looking up at the sky. Then you will not see the
water, and you'll think you're flying and you won't be afraid."

"The very thing!" cried Edna, the little afraid mousie girl. So
Curly Tail got a nice, big board for a boat, and pushed it into the
water. Then he got a pole to shove himself and the mousie girl
across the river, and they both got on the boat.

"Now mind!" exclaimed Curly Tail. "Keep looking up, and you won't be
afraid."

Off they started, and Edna wasn't much afraid. When they were about
halfway across, and she felt real glad that she would soon see her
grandmother, she said:

"Oh, I guess I'm brave enough to look at the water now. I think I'm
not afraid with you, Curly Tail."

"All right," spoke the little piggie boy, and he was just going to
tell the mousie girl to look down if she wanted to, when, all at
once, after the boat, with his big jaws open, and his tongue going
over his teeth like a nutmeg grater, came the bad skillery-scalery
old alligator, with a double hump on his tail.

"Oh, my!" thought Curly Tail. "If she looks down now, and sees that
alligator, she'll surely be so afraid that she'll faint, and maybe
fall into the water, and then I'll have to jump in to save her, and
the alligator will get us both. What shall I do?"

Well, the mousie girl was just going to look down, and she would
surely have seen the 'gator, when Curly Tail cried:

"Don't look! Don't look! Oh, lobster salad! don't look!"

"Why not?" asked the mousie girl.

"Because--because it's--it's a surprise!" was all Curly could think
of to say.

"Oh, if it's a surprise I must surely look!" said the mousie girl.
"I just love surprises!"

"I guess she won't like this kind!" thought Curly Tail, but what he
said was:

"Quick! Tie your handkerchief over your eyes, and make believe you
are playing blind man's bluff. Then you can't look until it's time.
Quick!"

So the mousie girl, whose name was Edna, did as Curly Tail told her.
She blinded her eyes, and then, the piggie boy knew she would not
see the 'gator. On came the ferocious creature, ready to swallow the
boat, Curly Tail and little afraid girl all at once. But Curly Tail
just stuck the push pole down the alligator's throat, and that made
the 'gator so angry that he lashed out with his tail, made a big
wave, and that washed the boat and the piggie boy and the mousie
girl safely up on shore. And then they were all right, for on dry
land they could run faster than the 'gator could.

"Where's the surprise?" asked Edna, as she took off the
handkerchief.

"There he goes," said Curly Tail, showing her the alligator, who was
swimming away, and Edna was glad she had not seen it when on the
boat or she knew she surely would have fainted. Then she went on to
her grandmother's, after thanking Curly Tail, and the little piggie
boy went back to the bungalow.

And on the next page, if the boys don't take my cocoanut cake for a
football and roll it up hill, I'll tell you about the piggies and
the dinner party.