Chapter 26
Section 26 of Curly and Floppy Twisty Tale For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Curly and Floppy Twisty Tale by Howard R. Garris Story 26 Floppy and the Bonfire One night, after an election in Woodland, where the Twisty Tale family of pigs lived,
curly one of the piggy boys asked his brother floppy if they couldn't have some fun i guess so spoke the other little piggy i have a big pile of leaves so why can't we make a bonfire the very thing cried curly tail there are always bonfires after election and we'll have ours now and we'll invite all the other animal boys to help us suggested curly tail sammy little tail will want to come i know and so will the squirrel boys and jimmy wibble wobble the duck and the
bow wow puppy boys so as it was after school and they had done their homework lessons the piggy boys could run out and play. In a vacant lot not far from their house, Flop ear had collected a big pile of leaves ready for the fire, and he said to Curlytail, now if you go get the other fellows, I'll find some more leaves and some old boxes and barrels and we'll have a fine big fire. all right i will agreed curly tail so off he ran over the fields and through the woods to call all his friends to the bonfire which flop ear was going to make
now for a surprise exclaimed the little piggy boy who was left near the pile of leaves i'll look for some potatoes and i'll put them to roast in the bonfire and when it is all over, we'll eat them and sit about the blaze, telling stories about the election. So he crawled through a fence into a field nearby, where there were some late potatoes, and soon, with his strong rubbery nose, he was rooting them up. The field belonged to Grandfather Goosey Gander,
and Flop knew the old gentleman Goose would not mind if the boy animals took a few potatoes. Now to make the fire and roast them, spoke the little piggy boy, and when he had shoved the leaves all up in a heap with his nose, he lit them with a match. Won't Curlytail and the others be surprised when they come up and see the fire already going, thought floppy and they'll be more surprised when i pull out the roast potatoes for them
oh i almost forgot i must get some salt to eat on them into the house he ran with his queer little kinky tail twisting around like a piece of strawberry shortcake and floppy got the salt His mama was busy getting supper and she did not see him. And as his sister, Baby Pinky, was practicing her piano lesson on the tin dish pan, she made so much noise that Mrs. Twisty Tail did not hear the piggy boy.
So no one stopped Flop ear. Maybe if mama had known that he had a bonfire, she would not have liked it. and I want you children, especially you little ones, to promise Uncle Wiggly that you will never, never make a fire unless some older person is there to watch you. Fires are very bad, you know, and burns burn. How burns do hurt. Well, anyhow, Flop ear had his fire going and the potatoes were
roasting in the hot leaves and he had the salt all ready to eat on them. As he came running back to the blaze, out of the shadows stepped someone and a voice said, Aha, good evening. I was wondering who had made this good fire for me. I, I did, said Flop ear, but I didn't make it for you. I made it for us. Never mind, it will do very well for me, went on the voice. It will save me the trouble of kindling one to roast my pork sausage and chops. I mean you, exclaimed the
voice. Flop ear gave a jump and looked more closely at the figure in the shadow by the fire and then he saw that it was a big bad old fox with a fuzzy tail. Oh, oh, gasped the little piggy boy. You don't mean that, do you? That you're going to roast me?
Exactly what I'm going to do, replied the fox and he caught hold of Flop ear. We will wait until the fire is a little hotter, he said. Oh, how poor Flop ear did try to get loose, but he couldn't because the fox held him too tightly and the fire got hotter and hotter and the little piggy boy was hoping that curly tail and the other animal boys would come back in time to save him but he could neither see nor hear anything of them I guess I'm going to be roasted, he cried.
Oh, if Uncle Wiggly were only here, or even Grandpa Squealer. Ha, no one will come to save you, snarled the bad fox. And just then, what do you think? Out from the fire rolled some of the potatoes Flop ear was roasting for his friends. Out rolled two big potatoes, and the fox, seeing them, exclaimed,
ha what have we here something good to eat i should say and he smelled the baked potato oh yum yum he cried and he smacked his lips that will go most excellently with roast pork i think i will eat one and then i'll put you on the fire to cook he said to flop ear the little piggy boy didn't say anything but he felt very bad and the fox holding him with one paw took up a roasted potato in the other and cracked it open with his teeth and then well you know how hot roast potatoes are just out of the oven i dare say this one from flop ear's bonfire was even hotter it was just roasting hot and the fox had bitten into it
oh wow cried the fuzzy creature oh double wow and some ice cream cones oh pepper casters oh mustard oh my mouth how it burns and my paws And then he had to let go of Flop Ear and run to the brook to get a drink of cold water, that fox did, because the hot potato burned his mouth so, but I guess it served him right. Anyhow, Flop Ear was free, and the next minute along came Curly Tail and all the other animal boys, and then, of course, the bad fox had to run away and put cold cream on his tongue.
Flop ear told all that had happened, and then the bonfire was made bigger than ever, and when the roast potatoes were cool, they all ate some and had a fine time. So that's all now, but in the next story, in case the pear doesn't fall off the apple tree and hit the rag man on the nose, I'll tell you about Flop ear and the skate wagon. End of Story 26
Recording by A.K. Morton in Greensburg, Indiana August 2015
