“Receiving no reply he poked about among the sacks until he found the one I was in. “‘Why, it’s a pig in the bag instead of a boy!’ he cried in great surprise. ‘Well, I’ll soon fix him so he can’t get away!’ and he tied up the opening with a string. ‘But where is that boy that spoke to me just now?’ “Mr. Smythers looked under the wagon, searched both sides of the road, and even the trees, but of course found no one. Greatly perplexed he got into his buckboard and drove on, glancing back every few minutes to see if there wasn’t a boy around somewhere. After he had driven about a mile he ceased looking around, and as we were going through a dense forest, I decided to try to escape. The bag I was in had a hole in it (that is why I had chosen it), and it was not difficult to make the opening larger by tearing the rotten threads. Little by little I squeezed myself out, and dropping off the back of the buckboard, fell in a heap in the road. “‘Now I am free,’ I thought, and I wandered deeper and deeper into the woods until I found you.” [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VI THE HOUSE AT THE END OF A ROPE “Hm,” said Snythergen when Squeaky had finished his tale, and for some time he remained silent. At last he spoke. “I think we had better build a house!” “Good,” said Squeaky, “but is this a safe place? Didn’t I see a bear in the crowd you attracted?” “Yes, but I don’t think he’ll come back. If he does my tree suit will save us. I can bend over until my limbs touch the ground. Then you can climb into my top branches and I’ll lift you out of danger. The bear will take me for a tree and leave us alone.” So they set to work very promptly. The plans they drew called for a round house. And to make sure it would be big enough for Snythergen, he lay on the ground curling up in the smallest space he could, and Squeaky traced a line around him in the dirt to mark the position of the outside wall. They planned to make the roof high enough for Snythergen when he was lying down, but of course he would be unable to stand up or even to sit up without bumping his head on the ceiling. The outer circle just inside the wall was to be Snythergen’s bedroom, and Squeaky was to occupy the space in the middle. It took several weeks to build the house and before the paint was quite dry Snythergen spread pine boughs over the ground floor to make a soft place for them to lie. [Illustration: _The house was left dangling above ground to receive an airing out_]