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THE THREE LITTLE PIGS. 103 |
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doubt disguise himself and pretend to be a friend, but you must promise me not to let him enter your houses on any pretext whatever."
And the little pigs readily promised, for they had always had a great fear of the fox, of whom they had heard many terrible tales. A short time afterward the old pig died, and the little pigs went to live in their own houses.
Browny was quite deligtted with his soft mud walls and with the clay floor, wnich soon looked like nothing but a big mud pie. But that was what Browny enjoyed, and he was as happ7 as possible, rolling about all day and making himself in such a mess. One day, as he was lying half-asleep in the mud, he heard a soft knock at his door and a gentle voice said:
"May I come in, Master Browny? I want to see your beautiful new house."
"Who are you?" said Browny, starting up in great fright, for though the voice sounded gentle, he felt sure it was a feigned voice and he feared it was the fox.
"I am a friend come to call on you," answered the roice.
"No, no," replied Browny, "I don't believe you are a friend. You are the wicked fox, against whom our mother warned us. I won't let you in."
"Oho! is that the way you answer me?" said the fox, speaking very roughly in his natural voice. "We shall soon see who is master here," and with his paws he set to work and scraped a large hole in the soft mud walls. A moment later he had jumped through it, and catching Browny by the neck, flung him on his shoulders and trotted off with him to his den.
The next day, as Whity was munching a few leaves of cabbage out of the corner of her house, the fox stole up to her door, determined to carry her off to join her brother in his den. He began speaking to her in the same feigned gentle voice in which he had spoken to Browny; but it frightened her very much when he said:
"I am a friend come to visit you and to have some of your good cabbage for my dinner."
"Please don't touch it," cried Whity in great distress. "The cabbages are the walls of my house, and if you eat them you will make a hole, and the wind and rain will come in and give me a cold. Do go away. I am sure you |
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