“Oh dear! I don’t care to be changed into a pig!” Janey cried. “I don’t believe he can do it!” Johnny told her. “Oh, don’t you!” the Strange Man hissed, as he put down the large book and came towards Johnny. “I can easily change you into a cat, but I am learning the rhyme to change you into pigs and then I’ll show you!” Janey began crying and Johnny said, “Don’t cry, Sis! He’s trying to fool you! He can’t change us into anything, it isn’t possible!” The Strange Man puffed some powder from a tiny bellows upon Johnny and began to sing. “A diddle daddle hunka dee, A chunka lunka diddle fee, Kerlike kerlunk kachunkapat, and so I change you to a cat!” “There! I guess you believe it possible now, don’t you?” the Strange Man said when he stopped singing. “Meow!” said Johnny. “Meow!” He _had_ changed into a cat. “Killikaluka, willyculoosa! Now I change you to a boy!” said the Strange Man, again puffing the powder upon Johnny, and changing him back to a boy. “What shall we do?” Janey cried. “You must keep still,” the Strange Man commanded, “or I can never change you to pigs!” “Let us keep yelling at the top of our lungs,” cried Johnny, “so that he can not study the rhyme to change us into pigs!” So the two children began yelling at the top of their voices, and the Strange Man grew so impatient he finally said, “Well, if you continue like that, I shall have to go outside and study, but it will be all the worse for you when I do change you to pigs, for I shan’t let you see a mud puddle for two years!” And as the children continued their cries, the Strange Man closed his book and went out by a back door. He stamped along the walk kicking the loose pebbles viciously. [Illustration] CHAPTER III GRAN’MA AND GRAN’PA FLY AFTER THE CHILDREN When Gran’pa and Gran’ma saw the children fly over the fence they could scarcely believe their eyes. They shouted as loudly as possible for Janey and Johnny to come back. And when the children circled above the farm in their home-made Flying Machine, all the neighbors, hearing the cries of the two old people, came running over to the farm and watched the strange sight. When the home-made Flying Machine rapidly disappeared in the sky the two old people put their arms around each other and wept like children. Of course there was nothing they could do, so they went into the house and sat down upon the old couch. “They were such good children!” Gran’ma sobbed. “They were always good children!” Gran’pa cried. “Oh dear! Oh dear!” All the rest of the day the old people thought of Janey and Johnny and wondered what had become of them. “I wish we could go in search of them!” Gran’pa said. “Where did they get such a wonderful Flying Machine?” Gran’ma asked as she wiped the tears from Gran’pa’s eyes and her own with her apron. “They made it from an old box and some boards I had left after finishing my chicken coop!” Gran’pa told her.