Imperial Valley Press

Once upon a time there was a queer little animal boy named Porky Pine. The reason he had that name was because he was a porcupine, or a creature in whose fur were many sharp, stickery spines. These spines, or tiny arrows like toothpicks, stuck into anybody who bumped into the porcupine or who tried to hurt him.

Porky, which is the name all his animal boy or girl friends called him, was a cute little fellow, never doing any one any harm.

Porky could not run as fast as Sammie or Susie Littletail, the rabbits, nor even as fast as Baby Bunty, the orphan. Porky had no sharp teeth like Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow nor sharp claws like Tommy and Kittie Kat. So when Porky thought any one was going to harm him he curled himself up into a little round ball of fur, with his sharp arrows sticking out all over him like a cactus plant, and Porky never said a word.

But if a Fox or Wolf tried to bite Porky those spiny arrows stuck in the mouth of the Bad Chaps, and they were glad enough to run away and let Porky alone. The sharp quills were so loose in his fur that they could easily be pulled out and it did not hurt Porky in the least. But Porky could not shoot his quills at anybody. They only pulled out when they were touched.

Now Porky was a cute little chap and he liked to play with the other animal children who lived near him not far from Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump bungalow. But the other boys and girls of Woodland did not like to play with Porky.

"His quills come out so easy!" said Baby Bunty. "If you just touch him in playing tag, golly! You get a quill in you and it hurts!"

"That's right!" barked Jackie Bow Wow. "The other day, just for fun I stuck my tongue out at Porky Pine and one of his quills jabbed in me. I guess I got too close to him."

"We won't let him play with us any more," said Billie Wagtail, the goat, shaking his horns.

Now when Porky heard that the other animals would no longer play with him on account of his loose quills coming out and sticking them, the little spiny chap felt very sad. He must have looked unhappy, too, for when Uncle Wiggily met Porky walking slowly along the woodland path one day the rabbit gentleman asked:

"What's the matter, Porky?"

"Oh, lots is the matter!" answered Porky. "The other children won't let me play with them. Look out! Don't come too close, Uncle Wiggily!" he warned the rabbit gentleman.

"Oh, I know about your stickery quills, Porky," said Mr. Longears with a laugh. "You may be sure I am not going to touch you, though I like you very much and I feel sorry for you. I suppose the other children won't let you play with them because if they 'tag' you then you stick them."

"Yes, that's how it is," sighed Porky, "though I don't mean to do it. I just can't help it! If there was only some way of keeping my quills from coming out I would be happy!" he said.

"And yet if your quills did not come out easily, the first Wolf or Fox that met you would gobble you up!" said Uncle Wiggily.

"Yes, that is true," agreed Porky. "But if there was some way I could keep my quills from sticking the others when I play tag with them, and then some way I could have my little quills come out if a Bad Chap tried to bite me, that would be dandy!"

"Hum! Yes, I suppose so!" said Uncle Wiggily. Then he looked at a clothes line near the pen house of Mrs. Twistytail, the lady pig, and right away Uncle Wiggily had a fine idea. For on the line were hanging out to dry some big stockings the fat pig lady wore.

"Porky," cried Uncle Wiggily, "I have it! I know a way to keep your quills from sticking your friends when you play tag with them and yet, if a Bad Chap tries to bite you he will get stuck!"

"How?" asked Porky eagerly.

"I'll get an old, big stocking leg from Mrs. Twistytail," said the rabbit. "You can slip into the stocking leg with your head and legs sticking out, as there are no quills on them. The stocking that covers you will keep your spines in so they won't stick your friends. And after you finish playing tag you can take off the stocking and you're ready for any bad chaps. How's that?"

"Fine!" squealed Porky. "But maybe Mrs. Twistytail won't let me have one of her old stockings."

"We'll go ask her. Come on!" invited Mr. Longears. And what happened next you may learn in the story after this, which will be called "Uncle Wiggily's Tag Game."

And please don't stop the lump of sugar from jumping in the lemonade for a swim, or else it will be too sour to drink.