42574	----	UNCLE WIGGILY IN WONDERLAND [Illustration] UNCLE WIGGILY SERIES by Howard R. Garis [Illustration] _UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES_ Uncle Wiggily in Wonderland By HOWARD R. GARIS Author of "SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL," "DICKIE AND NELLIE FLIPTAIL," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP," THE DADDY SERIES, ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD BLOOMFIELD A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York THE FAMOUS BED TIME STORIES Books intended for reading aloud to the Little Folks at night. Each volume contains colored illustrations, and a story for every night in the month. The animal tales send the children to bed with happy dreams. BEDTIME ANIMAL STORIES By HOWARD R. GARIS SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE JACKIES AND PEETIE BOW-WOW BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL DOTTIE AND WILLIE FLUFFTAIL DICKIE AND NELLIE FLIPTAIL UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES By HOWARD R. GARIS UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY UNCLE WIGGILY'S RHEUMATISM UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY UNCLE WIGGILY IN WONDERLAND UNCLE WIGGILY IN FAIRYLAND For sale at all bookstores or sent prepaid on receipt of price, 75 cents per volume, by the publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street New York City _Copyright, 1921, by R. F. Fenno & Company_ UNCLE WIGGILY IN WONDERLAND CONTENTS Chapter Page I Uncle Wiggily and Wonderland Alice 9 II Uncle Wiggily and the March Hare 16 III Uncle Wiggily and the Cheshire Cat 23 IV Uncle Wiggily and the Dormouse 30 V Uncle Wiggily and the Gryphon 37 VI Uncle Wiggily and the Caterpillar 44 VII Uncle Wiggily and the Hatter 50 VIII Uncle Wiggily and the Duchess 56 IX Uncle Wiggily and the Cook 63 X Uncle Wiggily and the Baby 69 XI Uncle Wiggily and the Mock Turtle 76 XII Uncle Wiggily and the Lobster 83 XIII Uncle Wiggily and Father William 89 XIV Uncle Wiggily and the Magic Bottles 96 XV Uncle Wiggily and the Croquet Ball 102 XVI Uncle Wiggily and the Do-Do 108 XVII Uncle Wiggily and the Lory 115 XVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Puppy 122 XIX Uncle Wiggily and the Unicorn 129 XX Uncle Wiggily and Humpty Dumpty 136 XXI Uncle Wiggily and the Looking Glass 143 XXII Uncle Wiggily and the White Queen 150 XXIII Uncle Wiggily and the Red Queen 157 XXIV Uncle Wiggily and Tweedledum 164 XXV Uncle Wiggily and Tweedledee 171 XXVI Uncle Wiggily and the Tear Pool 178 CHAPTER I UNCLE WIGGILY AND WONDERLAND ALICE Once upon a time, after Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice bunny rabbit gentleman, had some funny adventures with Baby Bunty, and when he found that his rheumatism did not hurt him so much as he hopped on his red, white and blue striped barber pole crutch, the bunny uncle wished he might have some strange and wonderful adventures. "I think I'll just hop along and look for a few," said Uncle Wiggily to himself one morning. He twinkled his pink nose, and then he was all ready to start. "Good-bye, Nurse Jane! Good-bye!" he called to his muskrat lady housekeeper, with whom he lived in a hollow stump bungalow. "I'm going to look for some wonderful adventures!" He hopped down the front steps, with his red, white and blue striped crutch under one paw, and his tall, silk hat on his head. "Good-bye, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy!" "Good-bye!" answered Nurse Jane. "I hope you have some nice adventures!" "Thanks, I wish you the same," answered Uncle Wiggily, and away he went over the fields and through the woods. He had not hopped very far, looking this way and that, before, all of a sudden, he came to a queer little place, near an old rail fence. Down in one corner was a hole, partly underground. "Ha! That's queer," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "That looks just like the kind of an underground house, or burrow, where I used to live. I wonder if this can be where I made my home before I moved to the hollow stump bungalow? I must take a look. Nurse Jane would like to hear all about it." So Uncle Wiggily, folding back his ears in order that they would not get bent over and broken, began crawling down the rabbit hole, for that is what it really was. It was dark inside, but the bunny uncle did not mind that, being able to see in the dark. Besides, he could make his pink nose twinkle when he wanted to, and this gave almost as much light as a firefly. "No, this isn't the burrow where I used to live," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, when he had hopped quite a distance into the hole. "But it's very nice. Perhaps I may have an adventure here. Who knows?" And just as he said that to himself, Uncle Wiggily saw, lying under a little table, in what seemed to be a room of the underground house, a small glass box. "Ha! My adventure begins!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll open that glass box and see what is in it." So the bunny uncle raised the cover, and in the glass box was a little cake, made of carrots and cabbage, and on top, spelled out in pink raisins, were the words: "EAT ME!" "Ha! That's just what I'll do!" cried jolly Uncle Wiggily, and, never stopping to think anything might be wrong, the bunny gentleman ate the cake. And then, all of a sudden, he began to feel very funny. "Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I hope that cake didn't belong to my nephew, Sammie Littletail, or Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers. One of them may have lost it out of his lunch basket on his way to school. I hope it wasn't any of their cake. But there is surely something funny about it, for I feel so very queer!" And no wonder! For Uncle Wiggily had suddenly begun to grow very large. His ears grew taller, so that they lifted his tall silk hat right off his head. His legs seemed as long as bean poles, and as for his whiskers and pink, twinkling nose, they seemed so far away from his eyes that he wondered if he would ever get them near enough to see to comb the one, or scratch the other when it felt ticklish. "This is certainly remarkable!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder what made me grow so large all of a sudden? Could it have been the cake which gave me the indyspepsia?" "It was the cake!" cried a sudden and buzzing voice, and, looking around the hole Uncle Wiggily saw a big mosquito. "It was the cake that made you grow big," went on the bad biting bug, "and I put it here for you to eat." "What for?" asked the bunny uncle, puzzled like. "So you would grow so big that you couldn't get out of this hole," was the answer. "And now you can't! This is how I have caught you! Ha! Ha!" and the mosquito buzzed a most unpleasant laugh. "Oh, dear!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if I am caught? Can't I get out as I got in?" Quickly he hopped to the front of the hole. But alas! Likewise sorrowfulness! He had grown so big from eating the magical cake that he could not possibly squeeze out of the hole through which he had crawled into the underground burrow. "Now I have caught you!" cried the mosquito. "Since we could not catch you at your soldier tent or in the trenches near your hollow stump bungalow, I thought of this way. Now we have you and we'll bite you!" and the big mosquito, who with his bad friends had dug the hole on purpose to get Uncle Wiggily in a trap, began to play a bugle tune on his wings to call the other biting bugs. "Oh, dear!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I am caught! And I haven't my talcum powder pop gun that shoots bean-bag bullets! Oh, if I could only get out of here!" "You can get out, Uncle Wiggily," said a soft little voice down toward the end of his pink, twinkling nose. "You can get out!" "Oh, no, I can't!" the bunny said. "I am much too large to squeeze out of the hole by which I came in here. Much too large. Oh, dear!" "Here, drink some of this and you'll grow small just as I did when I drank from it before I fell into the pool of tears," the soft and gentle voice went on, and to Uncle Wiggily's surprise, there stood a nice little girl with long, flaxen hair. She was holding out to him a bottle with a tag that read: "DRINK ME." "Am I really to drink this?" asked the bunny. "You are," said the little girl. Uncle Wiggily took a long drink from the bottle. It tasted like lollypop ice cream soda, and no sooner had he taken a good sip than all of a sudden he found himself shutting up small, like a telescope. Smaller and smaller he shrank, until he was his own regular size, and then the little girl took him by the paw and cried: "Come on! Now you can get out!" And, surely enough, Uncle Wiggily could. "But who are you?" he asked the little girl. "Oh! I'm Alice from Wonderland," she said, "and I know you very well, though you never met me before. I'm in a book, but this is my holiday, so I came out. Come on, now, before the mosquitoes catch us! We'll have a lot of funny adventures with some friends of mine. Come on!" And away ran Uncle Wiggily with Wonderland Alice, who had saved him from being bitten. So everything came out all right, you see. And if the teacup doesn't lose its handle and try to do a foxtrot waltz with the soup tureen, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the March Hare. CHAPTER II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MARCH HARE "Well, Uncle Wiggily, you certainly did have quite a time, didn't you," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper for the rabbit gentleman as they both sat on the porch of the hollow stump bungalow one morning. It was the day after the bunny rabbit had been caught in the mosquito hole, where he swelled up too big to get out, after eating cake from the glass box, as I told you in the first story. Then Alice from Wonderland happened along and gave Uncle Wiggily a drink from a magical little bottle so that he grew small enough to crawl out of the hole again. "Yes, I had a wonderful time with Alice," said the rabbit gentleman. "It was quite an adventure." "What do you s'pose was in the cake to make you swell up so large?" asked Nurse Jane. "Cream puffs," answered Uncle Wiggily. "They're very swell-like, you know." "Of course," agreed Nurse Jane. "And what was in the bottle to make you grow smaller?" "Alum water," Uncle Wiggily made reply. "That's very shrinking, you know, and puckery." "Of course," spoke Nurse Jane again, "I might have guessed it. Now I suppose you're off again?" "Off to have another adventure," went on Uncle Wiggily, with a jolly laugh. "I hope I meet Alice again. I wonder where she lives?" "Why, she's out of a book," said Nurse Jane. "I used to read about her to Sammie Littletail, when he was quite a little rabbit chap." "Oh, yes, to be sure," said Uncle Wiggily. "Alice from Wonderland is like Mother Goose, Sinbad the Sailor and my other Arabian Night friends. Well, I hope I meet some of them and have another adventure now," and away he hopped down the front steps of his bungalow as spry as though he never had had the rheumatism. The bad mosquitoes that used to live over in the swamp had gone away on their summer vacation, and so they did not bother the bunny rabbit just at present. He no longer had to practice being a soldier and stand on guard against them. Pretty soon, as Uncle Wiggily hopped along, he came to a little place in the woods, all set around with green trees, and in the center was a large doll's tea table, all ready for a meal. "Ha! This looks like an adventure already!" said the bunny uncle to himself. "And there's a party," he went on, as he saw the little girl named Alice, a March Hare (which is a sort of spring rabbit), a hatter man, with a very large hat, much larger than Uncle Wiggily's, on his head, and a dormouse. A dormouse (or doormouse) is one that crawls out under a door, you know, to get away from the cat. "Oh, here's Uncle Wiggily!" cried Alice. "Come right along and sit down. We didn't expect you!" "Then if I'm unexpected, perhaps there isn't room for me," spoke Uncle Wiggily, looking at the March Hare. "Oh, yes, there's plenty of room--more room than there is to eat," said the spring rabbit. "Besides, we really knew you were coming." As this was just different from what Alice had said, Uncle Wiggily did not know what to believe. "You see, it's the unexpected that always happens," went on the March Hare, "and, of course, being unexpected, you happened along, so we're glad to see you." "Only there isn't anything to eat," said Alice. "You see, the Hatter's watch only keeps one kind of time--" "That's what I do when I dance," interrupted Uncle Wiggily. "We haven't come to that yet," Alice spoke gently. "But as the Hatter's watch only keeps tea-time we're always at the tea table, and the cake and tea were eaten long ago." "And we always have to sit here, hoping the Hatter's watch will start off again, and bring us to breakfast or dinner on time," said the March Hare, who, Uncle Wiggily noticed, began to look rather mad and angry. "He's greased it with the best butter, but still his watch has stopped," the hare added. "It's on account of the hard crumbs that got in the wheels," said the Hatter, dipping his watch in the cream pitcher. "I dare say they'll get soaked in time. But pass Uncle Wiggily the buns," he added, and Alice passed an empty plate which once had dog biscuits on, only Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow had eaten them all up--I should say down, for they swallowed them that way. Uncle Wiggily was beginning to think this was a very queer tea party indeed, when, all of sudden, out from the bushes jumped a great, big, pink-striped Wabberjocky cat, who began singing: "London Bridge is falling up, On Yankee Doodle Dandy! As we go 'round the mulberry bush To buy a stick of candy." "Well, what do you want?" asked the Mad March Hare of the Wabberjocky. "If you've come to wash the dishes you can't, for it's still tea time and it never will be anything else as long as he keeps dipping his watch in the molasses jug! That's what makes it so sticky-slow," and he tossed a tea biscuit at the Hatter, who caught it in his hat, just like a magician in the theater, and turned it into a lemon meringue pie. "I've come for Uncle Wiggily!" cried the Wabberjocky. "I've come to take him off to my den, and then--" Uncle Wiggily was just going to hide under the table, which he noticed was growing smaller and smaller, and he was wondering if it would be large enough to cover him, when-- All of a sudden the Mad March Hare caught up the bunny uncle's red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, and cried: "You've come for Uncle Wiggily, have you? Well, we've no time for that!" and with this the March Hare smashed the crutch down on the Hatter's watch, "Bang!" breaking it all to pieces! "There, I guess it'll go now!" cried the March Hare, and indeed the wheels of the watch went spinning while the spring suddenly uncurled, and one end, catching around Uncle Wiggily's left hind leg, flew out and tossed him safely away over the trees, until he fell down on his soft soldier tent, right in front of his own hollow stump bungalow. So he was saved from the Wabberjocky. "Well! That was an adventure!" cried the bunny uncle. "I wonder what happened to the rest of them? I must find out." And if the laundry man doesn't let the plumber take the bath tub away for the gold fish to play tag in, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Cheshire Cat. CHAPTER III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHESHIRE CAT Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was hopping along through the woods one day, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have, and he was thinking about Alice in Wonderland and what a queer tea party he had been to the day before, when the Mad March Hare smashed the Hatter's watch because the hands always stayed at 5 o'clock tea time. "If anything like that is going to happen to me today," said the bunny uncle to himself, "I ought to have brought Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy along, so she could enjoy the fun. I'll just hop along and if anything queer starts I'll go back after her." So he went on a little farther, and, all of a sudden, he saw, lying on the woodland path, a piece of cheese. "Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if Jollie or Jillie Longtail, the mouse children, dropped that out of their trap? I'll take it to them, I guess." He picked up the bit of cheese, thinking how glad the mousie boy and girl would be to have it back, when, all at once, he heard behind him a voice asking: "Oh, did you find it? I'm so glad, thank you!" and from under a bush out stepped a cat wearing a large smile on the front of its face. The cat stretched out its claw and took the bit of cheese from Uncle Wiggily. "Oh! Is that yours?" asked the bunny gentleman, in surprise. "It's Cheshire cheese; isn't it?" asked the cat. "I--I believe so," answered the bunny. "Yes," he added as he looked and made sure, "it is Cheshire cheese." "Then, as I'm the Cheshire cat it's mine. Cheshire cat meet your cheese! Cheese, meet your cat! How do you do? So glad to see you!" and the cat shook paws with the cheese just as if Uncle Wiggily had introduced them. "I dare say it's all right," went on the bunny uncle. "Of course it is!" laughed the cat, smiling more than ever. "I'm so glad you found my cheese. I was afraid the March Hare had taken it for that silly 5 o'clock tea party. But I'm glad he didn't. At first I took you for the March Hare. You look like him, being a rabbit." "My birthday is not in March, it is in April," said Uncle Wiggily, bowing. "That's better," spoke the Cheshire cat. "You have done me a great favor by finding my cheese, and I hope to be able to do you one some day." "Pray do not mention it," spoke the bunny uncle, modest like and shy, as he always was. He was just going to ask about Alice in Wonderland when the cat ran away with the cheese. "Never mind," thought Uncle Wiggily. "That was the beginning of an adventure, anyhow. I wonder what the next part will be?" He did not have long to wait. All of a sudden, as he was walking along through the woods, sort of leaning on his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch, there was a rustling in the bushes and out popped a whole lot of hungry rats. "Ah, there IT is!" cried one rat, seizing hold of Uncle Wiggily by his ears. "Yes, and just in time, too!" cried another, grabbing the bunny by his paws. "Into our den with IT before the mouse trap comes along and takes IT away from us!" With that the rats, of which there were about five hundred and sixteen, began hustling Uncle Wiggily down a hole in the ground, and the first he knew they had him inside a wooden room in an underground house and they locked the door, taking the key out. "What does this mean?" cried the bunny uncle. "Why do you treat me this way?" "Why, IT can speak!" cried several of the rats, in surprise. "Of course I can!" cried Uncle Wiggily, his pink nose twinkling. "But why do you call me IT?" "Because you are a piece of cheese," said one rat, "and we always call cheese IT." "Cheese? I, cheese?" asked astonished Uncle Wiggily. "Of course," cried the biggest rat of all. "You're Cheshire cheese. Why, you perfume the whole room! We're so hungry for you. We thought the grocer had forgotten to send you. But it's all right now. Oh, what a delightful meal we shall have. We love Cheshire cheese," and the rats in the room with Mr. Longears looked very hungrily at the bunny uncle--very hungrily indeed. "Oh, what shall I do?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I see what has happened. When I picked up the Cheshire cat's piece of Cheshire cheese some of the perfume from it must have stuck to my paws. The rats smelled that and think I'm it. IT!" murmured the bunny gentleman. "As if I were a game of tag! IT!" The rats in the locked room were very busy, getting out their cheese knives and plates, and poor Uncle Wiggily hardly knew what to do with this most unpleasant adventure happening to him, when, all of a sudden, right in the middle of the room, there appeared a big, smiling mouth, with a cheerful grin spread all over it. Just a smile it was, and nothing more. "Oh!" cried Uncle Wiggily in surprise. "Oh!" With that all the rats looked up and, seeing the smile, one exclaimed: "I smell a cat! Oh, woe is me! I smell a cat!" Then, all of a sudden the smile grew larger and larger. Then a nose seemed to grow out of nothing, then some whiskers, then a pair of blazing eyes, and then ears--a head, legs, claws and a body, and finally there stood the Cheshire cat in the midst of the rats. "Scat, rats," meaouwed the Cheshire cat. "Scat!" "How did you get in here?" asked one rat. "Yes, tell us!" ordered another. "How did you get in past the locked door?" "Through the keyhole," said the Cheshire cat. "I sent my smile in first, and then it was easy for my body to follow. Now you scat and leave Uncle Wiggily alone!" and with that the cat grinned larger than ever, showing such sharp teeth that the rats quickly unlocked the door and ran away, leaving the bunny uncle quite safe. "Alice in Wonderland, most magically knew of the trouble you were in," said the Cheshire cat, "so she sent me to help you, which I was glad to do, as you had helped me. My Cheshire cheese, that you found for me when I had lost it, was very good!" Then Uncle Wiggily hopped back to his bungalow, and the cat went to see Alice; and if the paper cutter doesn't slice the bread board all up into pieces of cake for the puppy dog's party, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Dormouse. CHAPTER IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DORMOUSE "Tap! Tap! Tap!" came a knock on the door of the hollow stump bungalow one morning. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman who lived in the woods, called out: "Please come in!" In hopped Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy postchap, with a letter for the bunny gentleman. "Ha! That's nice!" explained Uncle Wiggily as he took the envelope. "I hope it's a valentine!" "A valentine this time of year!" laughed Dickie. "This is June, Uncle Wiggily!" "Oh, so it is. However, I'll read it." And when Dickie flew on to deliver the rest of his letters Uncle Wiggily read his own. It was very short, and said: "If you want a new hat, come to the green meadow as soon as you read this." "Ha! If I want a new hat!" thought the bunny uncle. "Well, I do need one. But who knew that I did? This is very strange and mysterious. Ha! I have it! This must be from Alice in Wonderland. She is giving me a little surprise." So, telling Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, that he was going out to get a new hat, away hopped Uncle Wiggily, over the fields and through the woods until he came to the green meadow. In the middle of the meadow was a little grove of trees, and half way there Uncle Wiggily heard a sad little voice saying: "Oh, dear! What trouble I'm in!" "Trouble!" cried the bunny gentleman twinkling his pink nose. "Ha! That sounds like old times! Let me help some one. But who is it?" "It is I. The little Dormouse," was the answer, and, looking down, Uncle Wiggily saw the tiny creature who had been at the queer tea party when the Mad March Hare smashed the Hatter's 5 o'clock watch. The tail of the poor little Dormouse was caught fast in between two stones and she could not move, but Uncle Wiggily quickly loosened it for her and she was very thankful to get out. "I was afraid I'd be late," said the Dormouse. "I have to hurry on to help the Queen of Hearts put sugared cheese on the blackberry tarts for the King's birthday. I'll see you again, Uncle Wiggily." "I hope so," spoke the bunny uncle, as he hurried away to get his new hat, all the while wondering whether or not he would see Alice from Wonderland. Uncle Wiggily reached the green meadow trees, but no one else was there. He looked up and down, and all around, but there was not even an old hat in sight, to say nothing of a new one. "I wonder if this letter is an April fool joke?" thought the bunny uncle, taking from his pocket the envelope Dickie had given him. "No, if it's the month of June it can't be April Fool's Day, any more than it can be time for valentines," said the bunny. "But I wonder where my hat is?" Hardly had Uncle Wiggily said this, out loud, than, all of a sudden, a voice cried: "Here's your hat!" With that something seemed to drop down from the clouds, or maybe it was from one of the trees. But whatever it was it completely covered Uncle Wiggily out of sight. It was just as if you took a large bowl and turned it upside down over a grasshopper, only, of course, Uncle Wiggily was not a grasshopper, though he did jump around a lot. And, at first, in the sudden darkness, the rabbit gentleman thought it was a bowl that, perhaps, the circus elephant's little boy had turned over on him just for fun. Then, making his pink nose twinkle very fast, so that it shone in the dark like a firefly lantern, Uncle Wiggily was able to see that he was inside a large, tall, silk hat. When it had dropped over him it had shut out all the sunlight, making it quite dark inside where the bunny was. "Yes, this is a hat!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "But what a funny way to give it to me! And it's so large! Instead of my new hat going outside my head, my head is inside the hat. This will never do! I must get out and see what the trouble is. This must be the elephant's hat, it's so large." But when Uncle Wiggily tried to lift up one edge of the hat, to crawl out, he found he could not. Some one seemed to be sitting on top of the hat, which was shaped like the silk stovepipe one Uncle Wiggily always wore. And a voice cried: "Hold it tight and he can't get out!" "Oh, I'm holding it tight!" was the answer. Then Uncle Wiggily knew what had happened. Some one had played a sad trick on him. And it was two bad old skillery-scalery alligators. They had borrowed the Wonderland Hatter's hat--which was very large. Nor had they told the Hatter what they wanted of it, for if they had he never would have let them borrow it to make trouble for Uncle Wiggily. The alligators had climbed up the tree with the big hat, and, after sending Uncle Wiggily the note, they had waited until he came to the field. Then from the branches above they dropped the hat down over him and sat on it. "And I can't get out!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That's the worst of it! I can't get out, and those bad alligators will reach under and grab me and--" "No they won't!" cried a little squeaky voice down low on the ground, just outside the hat. "Why not?" asked Uncle Wiggily, hopeful like. "Because I am the Dormouse whom you helped," was the answer. "Now, listen! With my sharp teeth I am going to cut a door in the side of the hat where the alligators, sitting up on top, can't see it. Then you can get out." So the Dormouse, being made for just such work, as you can tell by its name, gnawed a door in the side of the Hatter's hat, and out crawled the bunny rabbit gentleman before the alligators could grab him. And the bunny and the Dormouse got safely away, Mr. Longears being very thankful, indeed, for having been helped by the little creature. So the alligators had nothing for dinner but stewed pears, and if our dog doesn't leave his tail on the wrong side of the fence, so the cat can use it for a dusting brush, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Gryphon. CHAPTER V UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GRYPHON Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, had just finished shaving his whiskers in his hollow stump bungalow one morning when Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, came to his door, knocked gently by flapping her tail against it, and said: "If you please, Mr. Longears, there's a young lady to see you." "Of course I'm pleased," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I always like to see young ladies, especially if they have light, fluffy hair. Has this one that kind?" "Very much so," answered Nurse Jane. "Here she is now," and with that in came a nice young lady, or, rather, a tall girl, with flaxen hair. "I'm afraid you don't remember me," she said, as Uncle Wiggily wiped the soap lather off the end of his pink, twinkling nose, where it had splashed by mistake, making it look like part of a frosted chocolate cake. "Oh, yes, I do remember you!" cried the bunny gentleman, in his most jolly voice. "You're Alice from Wonderland, and you were very kind to help me grow smaller that time the big mosquito got me into his cave and I swelled up from eating cake." "Oh, I'm so glad you remember me!" laughed Alice, for it was indeed she. "I've come to ask you to do me a bit of a favor. I have to go see the Gryphon, and I thought maybe you'd come with me, for I'm afraid he'll be real cross to me." "You have to go see the Gryphon?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Who in the world is he?" "Oh, he's a funny animal who lives in the same story book with me," explained Alice. "He's something between a dragon, a lion, an elephant, a flying fish and an alligator." "Whew!" whistled Uncle Wiggily. "He must be a curious creature!" "He is," Alice said. "And sometimes he's very cross, especially if the wind blows his veil up." "If the wind blows his veil up?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "In the first place, why does he wear a veil, and in the second place, why should he be angry if the wind blows it?" "There isn't any first or second place about it," spoke Alice, "for you never can tell in which place the Gryphon will be found. But he wears a veil because he is so ugly that every one runs away when one sees him, and he doesn't like that. And, of course, he doesn't like the wind to blow up his veil so folks can see how he really looks." "Ah, ha! I understand," remarked the bunny. "But if he is so cross why do you want to go to see him?" "I don't want to," replied Alice, "but I have to, because it's that way in the book. You see, to make everything come out right, the Gryphon takes me to the Mock Turtle, who tells me a funny story, and so now I've come to see if you'll take me to the Gryphon?" "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily, washing the soap lather out of his ears. "But where shall we find him?" "Oh, that's the question!" laughed Alice, just as though Uncle Wiggily had asked a riddle. "You have three guesses," she went on. The bunny gentleman twinkled his pink nose, so that he might think better, and then he said: "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll go for a walk, and make believe I'm looking for an adventure. Then I may find the Gryphon for you." "Fine!" cried Alice, and, Uncle Wiggily having finished shaving, he and Alice set out together over the fields and through the wood, her hand holding the bunny's paw. "Now we must keep a sharp watch for the Gryphon," said Alice, who had had so many adventures in Wonderland that it took a whole book to tell of them. "You never know whether he'll appear like an elephant, a dragon, a lion or a big bird, for he has wings," she said. "Has he, indeed?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Then I think I hear him coming now," he went on. "Listen, do you hear the buzzing?" And, surely enough, the air seemed filled with the buzzing and fluttering of wings. And then the sun appeared to be hidden by a cloud. "That must be the Gryphon," said Uncle Wiggily. Alice looked, and then she cried: "Oh, no! It's a big cloud of bad, biting mosquitoes. It is the buzzing of their wings we hear! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, you haven't your talcum powder bean-shooter gun with you, and here come a billion-million mosquitoes!" "That's right!" cried the bunny uncle, as he, too, saw them. "We must hide or they will bite even our shoes off!" So he and Alice looked for a place to hide, but there was none, and the buzzing mosquitoes cried: "Ah, ha! Now we have that Uncle Wiggily Longears rabbit. He can't get away now, for he isn't a soldier today! And we'll get Alice from Wonderland, too!" Well, the mosquitoes were just going to grab the bunny gentleman, and the nice little young lady girl, with the fluffy flaxen hair, when a voice out of the air cried: "Oh, ho! No you're not going to get them, either!" "Who says we are not?" asked the captain mosquito. "I do!" "And who are you?" "I am the Gryphon!" was the answer. "And I have on my mosquito net veil. I'll catch all you bad biting bugs in my net, just as a professor catches butterflies. Whoop! Swoop! Here I come!" And with that the Gryphon, raising his veil, which hung down from his big ears as from around a lady's big hat, made a net of it and, flying around, soon caught all the mosquitoes that would have bitten Uncle Wiggily and Alice. And the mosquitoes that were not caught were so frightened at the fierce look on the Gryphon's face that they fainted, and couldn't bite even as much as a spoonful of mustard. So the Gryphon drove the mosquitoes away and then he took Alice to see the Mock Turtle, while Uncle Wiggily hopped on home to his bungalow. And if the rubber doll doesn't bounce off the clothes horse when she rides to the candy store for some cornstarch pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the blue caterpillar. CHAPTER VI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CATERPILLAR "Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Alice from Wonderland as she stood one day just outside the hollow stump bungalow where the rabbit gentleman had just finished his breakfast of carrot oatmeal with parsnip sauce sprinkled over the top. "Do you want to come for another walk with me?" asked Alice as she ran up the bungalow front steps. "Are you going to have the Gryphon take you to the Mock Turtle again?" the bunny gentleman wanted to know. "If you are, I'll bring my talcum powder gun along this time, to keep away the mosquitoes." "No. I don't have to see the Gryphon today," replied Wonderland Alice with a laugh. "But the Duchess has sent me to find the Blue Caterpillar." "The Duchess has sent you to find the Blue Caterpillar?" questioned Uncle Wiggily, wondering if he had heard rightly. "But who is the Duchess?" "Oh, she's some relation to the Queen of Hearts," Alice answered. "She's in the book with me, the Duchess is. In the book-picture she always has a lot of trimming on her big hat, and she doesn't care whether or not she holds the baby upside down." "Oh, yes, now I remember," Uncle Wiggily said, laughing as he thought of the baby. "And now about the Blue Caterpillar?" "Oh, he's a sort of long, fuzzy bug, who sits on a toadstool smoking a pipe," explained Alice. "The Duchess wants him to come and smoke some hams for her." "Smoke hams!" cried the bunny rabbit. "Why the very idonical idea! I've heard of men smoking tobacco--but hams--" "Oh, you don't smoke hams in a pipe," said Alice with a laugh. "They take a ham before it is cooked, and hang it up in a cloud of smoke, or blow smoke on it, or do something to it with smoke, so it will dry and keep longer." "What do they want to keep it for?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I thought ham was to eat, with eggs." "Oh, dear!" laughed Alice. "I wish you wouldn't ask me so many questions. You're like the Dormouse, or the Cheshire Cheese Cat or the Hatter. They were always asking the curiousestest questions like 'Who threw stones at the cherry tree?' or 'How did the soft egg get inside the hard shell without cracking it?' All things like that. I can't answer them!" "Very well," said Uncle Wiggily, smiling at Alice. "I'll not ask you any more questions. Come on! We'll go find the Blue Caterpillar." So off they started, the bunny rabbit gentleman and Wonderland Alice who had a day's vacation from the book with her name on it. Now and then she could slip out of the book covers and go off to have a real adventure with Uncle Wiggily. The bunny uncle and the little girl with the pretty, flaxen hair had not gone very far over the fields and through the woods before, all of a sudden, as they were walking under some trees, something long and twisty and rubbery, like a big fire hose, reached out and grabbed them. "Oh, my!" cried Alice, trying to get loose, which she could not do. "A big snake has us!" "No," said Uncle Wiggily, looking around as best he could, for he, too, was held fast as was Alice. "This isn't a snake." "What is it?" asked Alice. "It's a bad circus elephant," said the bunny, "and he has caught us in his trunk. Oh, dear! Please let us go!" he begged the big animal. "No," sadly answered the circus elephant, for it was indeed he. "I can't let you go, for if I do they will all sit on my back and bite me." "Who will?" asked Uncle Wiggily, curious like. "The mosquitoes," was the answer. "You see they have tried in so many ways to catch you, and haven't done it, Uncle Wiggily, that they finally came to me. About a million billion of them swarmed around me, and they said they'd bite me until I had the shiv-ivers if I did not help them catch you. So I had to promise that I would, though I did not want to, for I like you, Uncle Wiggily. "If I hadn't promised, though, the mosquitoes would have bitten me, and though I seem to have a very thick skin I am very tender, not to say ticklish, when it comes to mosquito bites. So I hid here to catch you, and I'll have to hold you until the mosquitoes come to get you. I'm very sorry!" and the elephant wound his rubbery nose of a trunk still more tightly around Uncle Wiggily and Alice. "Oh, dear!" said Alice. "What shall we do?" "I don't know, I'm sure," answered the bunny. "This is quite too bad. If only the Blue Caterpillar--" "Hush!" exclaimed a fuzzy voice down in the grass near the elephant's left front foot. "Don't say a word. I'll help you," and along came crawling a big Blue Caterpillar, with a folded toadstool umbrella and a long-stemmed pipe on his back. "That elephant is very ticklish," said the Blue Caterpillar. "Watch me make him squirm. And when he squirms he'll have to uncurl his trunk to scratch himself, and when he does that--" "We'll get away!" whispered Uncle Wiggily. "Exactly!" said the Blue Caterpillar. So he crawled up the elephant's leg, and tickled the big animal on its ear. "Oh, dear!" cried the elephant. "How itchy I am!" and he uncurled his trunk to scratch himself, and then Uncle Wiggily and Alice could run away safely, and the mosquitoes didn't get them after all. Then Alice told the Blue Caterpillar about the Duchess wanting the hams smoked and the crawling creature said he'd attend to it, and puff smoke on them from his pipe. So everything came out all right, I'm glad to say, and if the starch doesn't all come out of the collar so it has to lie down instead of standing up straight at the moving picture show, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Hatter. CHAPTER VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HATTER "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman, started to hop out of his hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" "Well, what is it?" asked the bunny with a polite bow. "Do you want anything from the store?" "Some carrot coffee, if you please," answered the muskrat lady. "When you finish your walk, and have had a nice adventure, bring home some coffee." "I'll do it," promised Uncle Wiggily, and then, as he hopped along, over the fields and through the woods, he thought perhaps he had better buy the carrot coffee first. "For," said he to himself, "I might have such a funny adventure that I'd forget all about what Nurse Jane told me." Now you just wait and see what happens, if you please. It did not take the bunny long to get the coffee; the monkey doodle gentleman who kept the store wrapping it up for him in a paper that had been twisted around a lollypop candy. "It's a bit sticky and sweet," said the monkey doodle store keeper, speaking of the lollypop paper, "but that will stop the coffee from falling out." "Fine!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, and then he hopped on to look for an adventure. He had not gone very far before when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying: "Well, I don't know what to do about it, that's all! I never saw such trouble! The idea of wanting me to get ready for it this time of day!" "Ha! Trouble!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "This is where I come in. What is it you can't get ready for this time of day, and who are you?" asked the bunny, for he saw no one. "Oh, it's you, is it?" called a voice, and out from under a mulberry bush stepped a little man, with such a large hat that it covered him from head to foot. "Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily. "You are--" "The Hatter! Exactly! You have guessed it," said the little man, opening a window which was cut in the side of his hat. The window was just opposite his face, which was inside, so he could look out at the bunny gentleman. "I'm the Hatter, from 'Alice in Wonderland,'" went on the little man. The bunny hadn't quite really guessed it, though he might if he had had time. "And what is the trouble?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, I've just been ordered by the Queen of Hearts to get up a tea party right away for Alice, who is expected any minute," went on the Hatter. "And here it is 10 o'clock in the morning, and the tea's at 5, and I haven't even started." "You have lots of time," said Uncle Wiggily. "Hours and hours." "Yes, but I haven't the tea!" cried the Hatter. "Don't mind me, but I'm as mad--as mad as--as lollypops, and there's nothing madder than them!" he said, sort of grinding his teeth. This grinding made Uncle Wiggily think of the coffee in his pocket. So, holding out the package, he said: "I don't s'pose this would do, would it?" "What?" asked the Hatter. "It's coffee," went on the bunny, "but--" "The very thing!" cried the Hatter, who was now smiling. "It will be just the thing for the 5 o'clock tea. We'll have it right here--I'll set the table," and opening two little doors lower down in his big hat, he stuck his arms through them and began brushing off a broad, flat stump near Uncle Wiggily. "The stump will do for a table," said the Hatter. "This is great, Uncle Wiggily! We'll have tea for Alice after all, and make things happen as they do in the book. Don't mind me saying I was as mad as lollypops. I have to be mad--make believe, you know--or things won't come out right." "I see," said Uncle Wiggily, remembering that it was quite stylish to be "as mad as a hatter," though he never before knew what it meant. "But you see, my dear sir," the rabbit went on, "I have only coffee to give you, and not tea." "It doesn't matter," said the Hatter. "I'll boil it in a cocoanut shell, and it will do her very well," and with that he took out, from somewhere inside his hat, half a cocoanut shell. This he set on top of the stump on a little three-legged stool, and built a fire under it. "But you need water to make coffee--I mean tea," said Uncle Wiggily. "I have it!" cried the Hatter, and, picking up an umbrella plant growing near by, he squeezed some water from it into the cocoanut shell kettle. Uncle Wiggily poured some of the ground coffee into the cocoanut shell of umbrella water, which was now boiling, and then the bunny exclaimed: "But we have no sugar!" "We'll sweeten it with the paper that came off the lollypop," said the Hatter, tearing off a bit of it and tossing it into the tea-coffee. "What about milk?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Alice may want cream in her coffee--I mean tea." "Here we are!" cried the Hatter. With that he picked a leaf from a milkweed plant growing near the flat stump and from that he squeezed out some drops of milk into a cup he made from a Jack-in-the-pulpit flower. "Now we're all ready for 5 o'clock tea!" cried the Hatter, and just then along came Alice from Wonderland, with the March Hare, and they sat down to the stump table with Uncle Wiggily, who happened to have a piece of cherry pie in his pocket, so they had a nice little lunch after all. And the carrot coffee with milkweed cream in it, tasted like catnip tea, so everything came out all right. And if the white shoes don't go down in the coal bin to play with the fire shovel and freeze their toes so they can't parade on the Board Walk, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Duchess. CHAPTER VIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DUCHESS Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was hopping along through the woods one day, looking for an adventure, when, all of a sudden, he came to a door standing up between two trees. It was a regular door, with a knob, hinges and all, but the funny part of it was there didn't seem to be a room on either side of it. "This is remarkable!" exclaimed Wiggily, "remarkable" meaning the same thing as queer. "It is very odd! Here is a door and the jamb--" "Where's the jamb?" asked a little katydid, who was sitting on a leaf in the sun. "I'm very fond of jam." "I didn't say j-a-m--the kind you eat on bread," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "I was talking about the j-a-m-b--with a b--" "Bees make honey," said the katydid, "and honey's almost as good as jam. I'm not so fussy as all that. Jam or honey--honey or jam, it's all the same to me." "No, there isn't any honey, either," said the bunny. "The jamb of the door is the wooden frame that goes around it, to hold it in place." "Then I don't want any door jamb--I want bread and jam," said the katydid, hopping off to find her sister, Katydidn't, leaving Uncle Wiggily to stare at the lone door. "Well," said the rabbit gentleman to himself, "I may as well see what's on the other side. Though a door standing all by itself in the woods is the strangest thing I've ever seen." However, he turned the knob, opened the door and stepped through, and, to his surprise, he found himself in a big kitchen which seemed magically to have appeared the moment he entered the very surprising place. At one end was a big stove, with a hot fire in it, and on the stove was a boiling kettle of soup, which was being stirred by a big fat cook lady, who was shaped like a ham, without the string in the end, of course. For the cook could stand up and didn't need to be hung on a nail as a ham is hung before it's cooked. In front of the fire was another large lady with a bonnet on almost as big as the Hatter's hat. Over the bonnet was a fluffy, flowing veil. "Now please be quiet--do!" exclaimed the sitting down lady to something in her lap, and Uncle Wiggily saw that it was a baby. "Come, cook!" she cried. "Is that hot soup ready yet for the baby?" "Not yet, mum. But it soon will be," answered the cook, and Uncle Wiggily was just going to say something about not giving a little baby hot soup, when the door opened again, and in came Alice from Wonderland. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Alice. "Now it will be all right." "What will?" asked the bunny. "What will be right?" "My left shoe," said Alice. "You see I just came from the Pool of Tears, and everything got all mixed up. When I came out I had two left shoes instead of one being a right, but now you are here it's all right--I mean one is right and the other is left, as it should be," and with that Alice put on one shoe she had been carrying in her hand, and smiled. "But who is this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, pointing with his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch at the big lady holding the baby, which was now squirming like an angle worm. "It's the Duchess--a friend of the Queen of Hearts," answered Alice. "I'll introduce you to her in a minute. Are you fond of sneezing?" "Only when I have a cold," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Why do you ask?" and he began to think he was having a very funny adventure indeed. "Why should I be fond of sneezing?" "Because you'll have to whether you like it or not," answered Alice. "The Duchess is going to talcum powder the baby now--it's just had a bath." With that the duchess, who is the wife of a duke, you know, called: "Here, cook! Never mind the soup. Give me the pepper!" "Goodness me sakes alive and some horseradish lollypops!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "She isn't going to talcum powder the baby with pepper, is she?" "Of course," answered Alice. "It's that way in the book from which I came to have an adventure with you, so, of course, pepper it has to be. Look out--here come the sneezes!" and Alice got out her handkerchief. Uncle Wiggily saw the duchess, with a funny smile on her big face, take the pepper-box the cook gave her and start to sprinkle the black stuff over the baby in her lap. The baby was cooing and gurgling--as all babies do after their bath--and didn't seem at all to mind her being peppered. "They season chickens and turkeys with salt and pepper, so why not babies?" asked Alice of Uncle Wiggily. The bunny gentleman was just going to say he did not know the answer to that riddle, when the door suddenly opened again and in came a great big dodo bird, which is something like a skillery-scalery alligator, only worse, with a beak like that of a mosquito. [Illustration] "Ah, ha!" chirped the dodo. "At last I have found him!" and he made a dart with his big beak for Uncle Wiggily. The dodo was just going to grab the bunny gentleman in his claws, and Mr. Longears was so shivery he didn't know what to do, when the duchess, suddenly tossing the baby to the cook, cried: "Ha! No you don't! I guess it's you I want to pepper instead!" and with that she shook the box of pepper at the dodo, who began sneezing as hard as he could sneeze. "Aker-choo! Aker-choo! Aker-choo!" sneezed the dodo. "Keer-zoo! Keer-zoo! Keer-zoo!" sneezed the duchess. "Goo-snitzio! Goo-snitzio! Goo-snitzio!" sneezed Alice. "Fizz-buzzy-wuzz! Fizz-buzzy-wuzz! Fizz-buzzy-wuzz!" sneezed Uncle Wiggily, and then the dodo himself gave another very large special five and ten cent store sale sneeze and blew himself backward out of the door. So he didn't get Uncle Wiggily after all. "And now we are all right," said Alice, when they had all finished sneezing, including the baby. "Have some soup, Uncle Wiggily." So the bunny did, finding it very good, and made from cabbage and pretzels and then he went home to his stump bungalow. And if the lollypop stick doesn't have to go out and help the wash lady hold up the clothesline when it goes fishing for apple pie I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the cook. CHAPTER IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE COOK "Well, Mr. Longears, I shall have to leave you all alone today," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she gave Uncle Wiggily, the bunny rabbit gentleman, his breakfast in the hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Leave me all alone--how does that happen?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of sad and sorrowful like. "Do you mean you are going to leave me for good?" "Oh, no; I'm just going to be busy all day sewing mosquito shirts for the animal boy soldiers who are going off to war. Since you taught them how to shoot their talcum powder guns at the bad biting bugs, Sammie Littletail, your rabbit nephew, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels; Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs, and all the other Woodland chaps have been bothered with the mosquitoes." "They made war enough on me," said Uncle Wiggily. "And, since they could not catch you, they are starting war against your friends," went on Nurse Jane, "so I am making mosquito shirts for the animal boys. I'll be away sewing all day, and you'll have to get your own lunch, I'm afraid." "I'm not afraid!" laughed brave Uncle Wiggily. "If I could get away from the bad, biting mosquitoes, I guess I can get my own lunch. Besides, maybe Alice from Wonderland will come along and help me." "Maybe," spoke Nurse Jane. Then the muskrat lady, tying her tail up in a pink-blue hair ribbon, scurried off, while Uncle Wiggily hopped over the fields and through the woods, looking for an adventure. But adventures, or things that happen to you, seemed to be scarce that day, and it was noontime before the bunny gentleman hardly knew it. "Well!" he exclaimed. "I'm getting hungry, and, as I didn't bring any cherry pie with me I'll have to skip along to my hollow stump bungalow for something to eat." Nurse Jane had left some things on the table for the bunny gentleman to eat for his lunch. There were cold carrot sandwiches, cold cabbage tarts, cold turnip unsidedowns--which are like turnovers only different--and cold lettuce pancakes. "But it seems to me," said Uncle Wiggily, "it seems to me that I would like something hot. I think I'll make a soup of all these things as I saw the cook doing when I went through the funny little door and met Alice from Wonderland in the kitchen of the Duchess." So, getting a large soup kettle, Uncle Wiggily put into it the cold carrot sandwiches, the cold lettuce pancakes, the cold cabbage tarts and so on. Then he built a fire in the stove. "For," said he, "if those things are good cold they are better hot. I shall have a fine hot lunch." Then Uncle Wiggily sat down to wait for the things to cook, and every once in a while he would look at the kettle on the stove and say: "Yes, I shall have a fine, hot lunch!" And then, all of a sudden, after the bunny rabbit gentleman had said this about five-and-ten-cent-store times a voice cried: "Indeed you will have a hot lunch!" and all of a sudden into the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow came the red hot flamingo bird, eager to burn the rabbit gentleman. "Oh!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I--I don't seem to know you very well." "You'll know me better after a bit," said the red flamingo bird, clashing its beak like a pair of tailor's shears. "I'm the bird that Alice from Wonderland used for a croquet mallet when she played with the Queen of Hearts." "Oh, now I know!" said the bunny. "Won't you have lunch with me?" he asked, trying to be polite. "I'm having a hot lunch, though Nurse Jane left me a cold one, and--" "You are going to have a much hotter lunch than you imagine!" said the red flamingo bird. "Look out! I'm getting sizzling hot!" And indeed he was, which made him such a red color, I suppose. "I'm going to burn you!" cried the bird to Uncle Wiggily, sticking out his red tongue. "Burn me? Why?" asked the poor bunny gentleman. "Oh, because I have to burn somebody, and it might as well be you!" said the flamingo. "Look out, now!" "Ha! Indeed! And it's you who had better look out!" cried a new voice. And with that the cook--the same big lady, shaped like a ham, whom Uncle Wiggily had last seen in the kitchen of the Duchess--this cook hopped nimbly in through a window of the hollow stump bungalow. "I'll fix him!" she cried, catching up the flatirons from the shelf over the stove and throwing them at the flamingo. "Get out! Scat! Sush! Run away!" And she threw the fire shovel, the dustpan, the sink shovel, the stove lifter, the broom and the coal scuttle at the flamingo. My, but that cook was a thrower! She didn't hit the red flamingo bird with any of the things she threw, but she tossed them so very hard, and seemingly with such anger, that the bird was frightened. "This is no place for me!" cried the flaming red bird, drawing in his red tongue. "I'll go make it hot for Mr. Whitewash, the polar bear. He might like some heat for a change from his cake of ice." Then the red flamingo bird, not burning Uncle Wiggily at all, flew away, and the cook, after she had picked up all the kitchen things she had thrown, came in and had a hot lunch with Uncle Wiggily, who thanked her very much. "I'm glad you came," said the bunny, "but I didn't know you cooks threw things." "Oh, I'm from the Wonderland Alice book, which makes me different," the cook answered. And she was queer. But everything came out all right, you see, and if the trolley car conductor doesn't punch the transfer so hard that it falls off the seat, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Baby. CHAPTER X UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BABY "Well," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, to himself, as he stood in the middle of the woods and looked around. "I don't seem to be going to have any adventures today at all. I wonder what's the matter?" Something was wrong, that is certain. The bunny uncle had been hopping along all the morning, and part of the afternoon, and not a single adventure had he found. Almost always something happened to him, but this time was different. He had not met Alice from Wonderland, nor any of her queer relations, and Uncle Wiggily had not seen any of his animal boy or girl friends, so the rabbit gentleman was beginning to feel a bit lonesome. Then, all of a sudden, before you could count a million (providing you had time and wanted to), Uncle Wiggily saw, fluttering from a tree, what he thought was a flag. "That's queer," he said to himself, only out loud. "I wonder if any of my mosquito enemies have made a camp there under the trees, and are flying the flag before they come to bite me? I'll go closer and see." Uncle Wiggily was very brave, you know, even if he only had his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch instead of the talcum powder popgun that shot bean-bag bullets. So up he went to where he thought he saw the mosquito enemy's flag fluttering, and my goodness me sakes alive and some chocolate cake ginger snaps! It wasn't the mosquito flag at all, which shows that we ought never to be afraid until we are sure what a thing is--and sometimes not then. "Why, it's a lady's veil!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the fluttering thing. And, as he said that, someone, who was sitting on an old log, turned around, and--there was the Wonderland Duchess herself--the queer, stout lady who looked like a barrel of flour--very rich you know! [Illustration] "Oh, hello, Uncle Wiggily!" called the Duchess, who is a sort of princess grown up. "I'm glad to see you. I have a friend of yours here with me!" "Do you mean Alice?" asked the bunny. "No, this time it's the Baby," answered the Duchess, and then Uncle Wiggily saw that she had a live baby in her arms upside down. I mean the baby was upside down, not the arms of the Duchess, though perhaps it would have been better that way. "Bless me!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That's no way to hold the child." "Oh, indeed!" said the Duchess, sort of sniffing proud like. "Then if you know so much about holding babies, take this one. I have to go make a rice pudding," and before Uncle Wiggily could stop her she tossed the baby to him as if it were a ball and ran away, crying: "Rice! Rice! Who has the rice pudding?" "Oh, my!" Uncle Wiggily started to say, but that was all he had time for, as he had to catch Baby, which he managed to do right side up. This was a good thing, I think. "You poor little dear!" cried the bunny uncle as he smoothed out the Baby's clothes and looked around for a nursing bottle or a rattle box. And, as he was doing this, and while the Baby was trying to close its lips, which it had opened to cry with when it found itself skedaddling through the air--while this was going on, some one gave a loud laugh, and Uncle Wiggily, looking around in surprise, saw Alice from Wonderland. "Well!" said the bunny. "I'm glad to see you, but what is there to laugh at?" "The--the baby!" said Alice, sort of choking like, for she was trying to talk and laugh at the same time. "Why should you laugh at a poor baby, whom no one seems to know how to care for?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why, I ask you?" "Oh! But look what it's turning into!" said Alice, pointing. The bunny uncle looked at what he held in his paws. It was wiggling, twisting and squirming in such a funny way, squee-geeing its dress all up around its face that for a moment Uncle Wiggily could not get a good look, but, when he did, he cried: "My goodness me sakes alive and some bacon gravy! It's a little pig!" And so it was! As he held it the baby had turned into a tiny pig, with a funny nose and half-shut eyes. "Bless my rheumatism crutch!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What made it do that?" "Because it's that way in the book where I came from," said Alice. "You read and you'll see that the baby which the Duchess gives me to hold turns into a little pig." "But she gave it to ME to hold!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "It's much the same thing," spoke Alice. "As long as it's a pig it doesn't matter." "But dear me hum suz dud!" cried the bunny. "I don't want to be carrying around a little pig. Of course I like pigs, and I'm very fond of my friends Curley and Floppy Twisty-tail, the little grunters. But this baby pig--" And, just as Uncle Wiggily said that, who should come along but a bad old skillery-scalery hump-tailed alligator, walking on his hind legs, with his two front claws stretched out in front of him. "Ah, ha!" cried the bad alligator, who had promised to be good, but who had not kept his word. "Ah, ha! At last I have caught you, Uncle Wiggily, and Wonderland Alice, too!" He was just going to grab them when the little Baby Pig, who had been squirming very hard all the while, finally squirmed out of Uncle Wiggily's paws, fell to the ground, and then, running right between the legs of the alligator, as pigs always do run, the squealing chap upset the bad, unpleasant creature, knocking him over in a frontward somersault and also backward peppersault down the steps. "Oh, my goodness!" cried the skillery-scalery alligator. "I'm killed!" Which he wasn't at all, but he thought so, and this frightened him so much that he ran away and didn't catch Uncle Wiggily or Alice after all, for which I'm glad. And if the puppy dog doesn't take all the bark off the sassafras tree and leave none for the pussy cat to polish her claws on, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Mock-Turtle. CHAPTER XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MOCK-TURTLE "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Will you please take me with you this morning?" asked a little voice, somewhere down near the lower, or floor-end, of the old rabbit gentleman's rheumatism crutch, as Mr. Longears sat at the breakfast table in his hollow stump bungalow. "Please take me with you!" "Well, who are you, and where do you want to be taken?" asked the bunny. "Oh, I'm Squeaky-Eeky, the little cousin mouse," was the answer, "and I want you to take me with you on one of your walks, so I can have an adventure as you do with Alice in Wonderland." "But perhaps I may not see Alice in Wonderland," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "I do not always have that pleasure." "Well, then, perhaps we'll see the Baby or the Duchess, or the Gryphon or some of the funny folk who make such jolly fun with you," went on Squeaky-Eeky. "I have a holiday from school today, because they are painting the blackboards white, and I'd like to come with you." "Come along then!" cried Uncle Wiggily, giving the little cousin mouse a bit of cheese cake with some lettuce sugar sprinkled over the top. "We'll see what sort of adventure happens today." So, calling good-bye to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, Uncle Wiggily and Squeaky-Eeky started off over the fields and through the woods. They had not gone very far before, all at once, as they walked along a little path under the trees they saw a funny thing lying near a clump of ferns. It looked like a mud turtle at first, but after peering at it through his glasses Uncle Wiggily saw that the larger part was made of a half-round stone. In front of that was part of a broken rubber ball, and sticking out at the four corner places were four pieces of wood, like little claws, while at the back was a piece of an old leather boot. "My! I wonder what in the world this can be?" said Uncle Wiggily, surprised like. "Maybe it's something from Alice in Wonderland," spoke Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse. "You are right--I am!" exclaimed a voice. "I am the Mock-Turtle and I have just gotten out of the soup." "Oh, I'm so glad to meet you!" cried Squeaky. "I've always wanted to see what a real mock turtle looked like, ever since I read the book about Alice." "Hum!" grunted the queer creature. "There's no such thing as a real mock turtle any more than there is a make-believe toothache." "I hope you never have that," said Squeaky-Eeky, politely. "Thank you, I don't care for any," answered the Mock-Turtle, just as if the little cousin mouse had passed the cakes. And then the turtle began to sing: "Speak gently to your toothache drops, And do not let them fall. And when you have the measle-mumps, They'll scarcely hurt at all." "Mine did," said Squeaky-Eeky, wondering if this was what Alice would have answered. But the Mock-Turtle kept right on with: "Once a tramp was seated on A chair made out of cheese. He ate the legs and then he fell Down with a terrible sneeze." "That isn't right," said Squeaky-Eeky. "It's a trap that was baited with a piece of cheese, and--" "Hush!" suddenly exclaimed the Mock-Turtle. "Here he comes!" "Who?" asked the little cousin mouse. "Do you mean the tramp?" Before the Mock-Turtle could answer along came shuffling a big, shaggy bear. At first Uncle Wiggily and the little cousin mouse thought perhaps it was Neddie or Beckie Stubtail, one of the good bear children, but instead it was a bad old tramp sort of a bear--the kind that goes about taking honey out of beehives. "Ah, ha!" growled the bear. "A rabbit and a mouse! That's fine for me! I shall have a good dinner, I'm sure!" and he smacked his red tongue against his teeth. "Where will you get your dinner?" asked Uncle Wiggily, curious like. "There is no restaurant or kitchen around here," went on Squeaky-Eeky. "Never you mind about that!" cried the bear. "I'll attend to you at dessert. Just now I want Uncle Wiggily to come here and count how many teeth I have," and he opened his mouth real wide, the bear did. "Oh, but I don't want to count your teeth," said the poor bunny gentleman, for well he knew what the bear's trick would be. The bear wanted to bite Uncle Wiggily. "You must count my teeth!" growled the shaggy creature, coming close to Uncle Wiggily. "No, let me do it!" suddenly cried the Mock-Turtle. "I am good at counting." "Well, it doesn't make any difference who does it," said the bear. Then, going close over to where the Mock-Turtle sat on the path, the bear opened wide his mouth. And then, just as he would have done to the rabbit gentleman, the bear made a savage bite for the Mock-Turtle. But you know what happened. Instead of biting on something good, like a lollypop, the bear bit on the hard stone, of which the top part of Mock, or Make-Believe, Turtle was made, and the stone was so gritty and tough that the bear's teeth all broke off, and then he couldn't bite even a jelly fish. "Oh, wow! Oh, woe is me!" cried the bear, as he ran to see if he could find a dentist to make him some false teeth. "And he didn't hurt me a bit," laughed the Mock-Turtle, made of stone, wood and leather, who was built that way on purpose to fool bad bears and such like. "I don't mind in the least being bitten," said the pretend turtle. "But you saved my life, and Squeaky-Eeky's, too," said Uncle Wiggily. "I thank you!" Then the Mock-Turtle crawled away and the bunny and mousie girl had a fine time together. And if the milk wagon doesn't go swimming down on the board walk with the watering cart and make the ice cream jump over the lollypop, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Lobster. CHAPTER XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOBSTER "You'll be home to supper, won't you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw her friend, Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, hopping down off the front porch of the hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Oh, yes, I'll be home," he answered, "I'm just going to look for a little adventure." Then, not having been on the board walk in quite a while, Uncle Wiggily went down to the ocean seashore beach. "For," said the old rabbit gentleman to himself, "I have not had a seashore adventure in some time. And, perhaps, my friend, Alice, from Wonderland, may be down there. I know in her story book there are many curious things that happen near the sea." So down to the shore went Uncle Wiggily and as he was walking along, looking at the funny marks his feet made in the wet sand, all of a sudden he came to a pile of damp, green seaweed, and from underneath it he heard a voice calling: "Oh, help me out! Please help me out!" "Ha! That sounds like some one in trouble!" Uncle Wiggily said. "I must help them." Then with his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a lollypop stick, the bunny poked away the seaweed, and underneath it, all tangled up so he could hardly move, was a Lobster gentleman. "Oh, it was so good of you to get me out," said the Lobster as he gave a flip-flap with his tail. "An old crab, who doesn't like me, piled the seaweed over my back as I was taking a nap in the sun. My long thin legs were all tangled in it, and even with my big pinching claws I could not get loose, and I was so afraid I'd be late." "Late for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, wondering where the Lobster was going. "To the dance--the quadrille, of course," was the answer. "Oh, now I remember," said the bunny. "It's in the Wonderland Alice book. You have to go to a dance, don't you?" "Exactly," said the Lobster. "I'd be pleased to have you come with me." "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily, thinking maybe he would have an adventure there. So down the beach started the Lobster gentleman and the bunny uncle. On and on they went for a long, long time, it seemed to Uncle Wiggily, and it was getting quite late, as he could tell by the star fish which were twinkling on the beach, and still they had seen no signs of a dance. "I can't understand it," said the Lobster. "Alice said I was to walk until I met her, and she'd take me to the party. And we certainly have been walking a long time." "We have," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "It is so late I'm afraid I'll have to leave you and go home to supper, as I promised Nurse Jane." "That's too bad," went on the Lobster. "I wanted you to see how well I can dance on the end of my tail. But I can't understand why we don't get to the quadrille. We certainly have walked down the beach, haven't we?" "We have," answered the bunny. "But--Ah! I have it!" Uncle Wiggily suddenly cried. "You have been walking BACKWARD, and I have been following you. We have been going =away= from the dance instead of =toward= it." "Of course!" cried the Lobster, in a cold and clammy voice. "Why didn't I think of that before? I always have to go backward, on account of my claws being so heavy I have to pull them after me, instead of pushing them ahead. "And so, of course, going backward as I do, and as all Lobsters do, when I want to get anywhere I always turn my back toward it, and get to it that way. This time I forgot to do that." "But what can we do now?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "How can we get to the dance?" "I'll just turn around and back up to it," spoke the Lobster. "I'm sorry to have mixed things up for you, especially as you were so kind as to get me from under the pile of seaweed." "Oh, don't worry!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I dare say it will be all right. Come on!" So the lobster turned around and began to back toward where he hoped to find the dance. It grew darker and darker, and the star fish were twinkling more than ever, and then, all of a sudden, they came to the hollow stump bungalow where Uncle Wiggily lived. "Hurray!" cried the Lobster. "Here we are at the quadrille. Now I'll explain to Alice--" "No, this isn't the dance," said Uncle Wiggily. "This is where I live. But I'd be pleased to have you come in to supper, and we can go to the dance tomorrow." "I will!" cried the Lobster, after thinking about it. Into the hollow stump bungalow they went, the Lobster backing in, of course, and Uncle Wiggily cried: "Supper for two, if you please, Nurse Jane!" "Right away!" answered the muskrat lady. And she began to set the table. And then, while Uncle Wiggily and the Lobster were talking together Nurse Jane called: "Oh, dear! I've lost the can opener, and I can't open this tin of peaches. What shall I do?" "Let me try!" begged Uncle Wiggily. But his paws were not big enough. "I'll do it!" said the Lobster. And with his strong, pinching claws he punched open the can of peaches as easily as you can eat a chocolate cream drop. It was no trouble at all for him. So it was a good thing Uncle Wiggily brought the Lobster home for supper, you see. And if the stairs don't stand on their heads and with their toes tickle all the holes out of the lawn tennis nets, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Father William. CHAPTER XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND FATHER WILLIAM One morning, soon after he had finished his breakfast, having taken his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch down from behind the clock, Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, started out from his hollow stump bungalow. There were quite a few friends of the little girl named Alice in Wonderland whom he had not yet met, and he hoped to have an adventure with one of them. So, tossing up in the air his tall silk stovepipe hat, and letting it bounce three times on the end of his pink nose, Uncle Wiggily hurried off. The rabbit gentleman had not gone very far, over the fields and through the woods, before he saw something very strange indeed. This something was what seemed to be a funny sort of flower vase, with two things sticking up in it, and on the end of them were two shoes. "My goodness me, sakes alive and some chocolate cake pudding!" cried the surprised bunny uncle. "What's this?" Then, as he looked again, he saw a funny face, and a pair of bright eyes looking at him from the bottom part of what seemed to be a flower vase. "Why, it's a man!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Of course I'm a man," was the jolly answer. "But don't be afraid of me; I'm not a hunter man." "And you--you're standing on your head!" went on Uncle Wiggily, more surprised than ever. "Of course I'm standing on my head!" said the funny man. "I have to do that to make things come out as they do in the Alice in Wonderland book. I'm Father William, you know," and with that he gave a nimble spring, turned a back somersault, putting himself right side up, and began to recite this verse: "You are old, Father William, the Young Man said, And your hair has become very white. But yet you incessantly stand on your head. Do you think, at your age, that is right?" "But is it?" asked Uncle Wiggily quickly, as soon as funny Father William had ceased speaking. "Of course it is," was the answer. "Otherwise it wouldn't be in the book and I wouldn't do it. At first it came very hard to me, but now I can easily manage. And you'll find you get quite a different view of things, looking at them upside down as I do every now and then," he went on. "I wonder if I could stand on my head?" spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Try it," said Father William. "I'd like to," went on the bunny uncle. "But I might crush my tall silk hat." "Take it off," suggested Father William. "Yes, I could do that. But suppose some one were to see me?" asked the bunny. "It would look sort of queer." "No one will see you here behind the trees," spoke Father William. "Besides, if they do, learning to stand on one's head is very useful. There is no telling when you may want to do it at home." "That's so," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Well, I'll try." At first he couldn't stand up on his head at all, just turning over in a sort of flip-flop every time he tried. But at last Father William held up the bunny rabbit by the heels, and then Uncle Wiggily did it better. After a while he could stand straight, right side up, on his hind paws, give a little wiggle, and then suddenly, with a funny twist and a somersault flop, there he was, standing on his head, with his silk hat twirling around on his upper paws. And Father William could do the same thing. If you had happened to walk through the woods when Uncle Wiggily and Father William, who had a little holiday from the Alice book, were standing on their heads, surely you would have laughed. "And, now that I have learned a new trick, I must go look for an adventure," said the bunny. "I'll go with you," spoke Father William. Together they went along through the woods and over the fields and, all of a sudden, from behind a currant jam bush, out jumped a bad, old, double-jointed skillery-scalery alligator. "Ah, ha!" cried the alligator. "At last I have caught some one to whom I can do it! Ah, ha!" "Do what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, while Father William looked around for a place to hide. "What are you going to do?" "Tickle your feet!" was the surprising answer. "I am the ticklish alligator, and feet I must tickle! Get ready now, here I come." "Oh, dear!" cried Father William. "I never can bear to have my feet tickled. For, when that happens I laugh and then I sneeze and then I catch cold and have to go to bed. Oh, dear! I don't want my feet tickled!" "Hush!" whispered Uncle Wiggily, as the 'gator was hopping toward them. "You won't have to suffer that! Quick! Stand on your head as you taught me to, and hold your feet up in the air!" And in the twinkle of a spiced pear Uncle Wiggily and Father William were standing on their heads. The surprised alligator saw them, and after trying to reach their feet with his claws, which he couldn't do, as they were up in the air, he cried: "Ah, ha! Thought you'd fool me, didn't you, by standing on your heads! Well, I'll tickle your feet after all. I'll climb a tree and reach down to them!" "Oh, dear! He'll make me catch cold no matter what I do," sighed Father William. "No, he won't," said Uncle Wiggily. "The alligator is very good at climbing up trees, but it takes him ever so long to climb down. As soon as he climbs up we'll stop standing on our heads. We'll flip-flop to our feet and run away." And that's exactly what the bunny and Father William did. As soon as the alligator was up in the tree branches they turned a flip-flop, stood up straight and away they ran, and the alligator was all day getting down out of the tree. So he didn't tickle their feet after all, but he might have if Uncle Wiggily had not learned to stand on his head. And if the ice wagon doesn't slide down hill and throw snowballs at the potato pudding in the parlor I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the magic bottles. CHAPTER XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MAGIC BOTTLES Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was hopping along through the woods one morning after having eaten breakfast in his hollow stump bungalow, when, just as he reached a nice, grassy place, near a spring of water, he saw the little flaxen-haired girl, Alice from Wonderland, coming toward him. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" cried Alice. "You are just in time to win the first prize." She handed the gentleman rabbit a little bottle, filled with what seemed to be water, and stoppered with a blue cork. "First prize for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "For getting here early," answered Alice. "And you also get second prize, too," and she handed him another bottle, stoppered with a red cork. "Why do I get second prize?" asked the bunny. "For not being late," answered Alice with a smile. "It is very simple. First prize for being early, second prize for not being late." "Hum!" said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nose, thoughtful like. "It's much the same thing, it seems to me." "Not at all," said Alice, quickly. "The prizes are very different. Those bottles are magical. They are filled with water from the pool of tears. If you drink a few drops from the one with the blue cork you will grow very small. And if you take some of the water from the red-stoppered bottle you will grow very large. Be careful of your prizes." "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "Are there any others coming?" he asked, looking about through the trees. "Any others coming where?" inquired Alice. "Here. I mean, might they have gotten prizes, too?" "No, only you," said the flaxen-haired girl. "You were the only one expected." "But," spoke the puzzled bunny rabbit, "if I was the only one expected, what was the use of giving prizes? No one else could have gotten here ahead of me; could they?" "Please don't ask me," begged Alice. "All I know is that it's one of the riddles like those the March Hare asks, such as 'What makes the mirror look crooked at you?' The answer is it doesn't if you don't. In this case you get the prizes because there is no one else to give them to. So take them and have an adventure. I have to go see what the Duchess wants." With that Alice faded away like the Cheshire Cat, beginning at her head and ending up at her feet, the last things to go being the buttons on her shoes. "Well," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, "I have two prizes, it seems, of magic bottles. I wonder what I am to do with them?" He looked at the red and blue corked bottles, holding one in each paw, and he was wondering whether it would be best to grow small or large, when, all at once, he felt himself caught from behind by a pair of big claws, and, looking over his shoulder, as best he could, Uncle Wiggily saw that he was held fast by a big alligator; a skillery-scalery chap with a double-jointed tail that he could swing back and forth like a pantry door. "Ah, ha! I have you!" gurgled the 'gator. "Yes, I see you have!" said Uncle Wiggily, sadly. "You thought you and Father William would fool me by standing on your heads so I couldn't tickle your feet," went on the 'gator, as I call him for short. "But I got down out of the tree, and here I am. I have you now and you can't get away from me!" Indeed it did seem so, for he held Uncle Wiggily very tight and fast in his claws. "What are you going to do with me?" asked the rabbit. "Take you home to my den, and my dear little foxes, Eight, Nine and Ten," said the alligator. "Foxes!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Have you foxes?" "I have!" answered the alligator. "I am keeping them until their father gets back from a hunting trip, and they are very hungry. Their father is the fox who went out 'in a hungry plight, and he begged of the moon to give him light, for he'd many miles to go that night, before he could reach his den-O.'" "Oh, now I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "It's in Mother Goose." "Yes, and so is the rest of it," went on the alligator. "'At last the fox reached home to his den, and his dear little foxes, Eight, Nine, Ten.' Those are their names, though they sound like numbers," said the 'gator. "I'll soon introduce you to them. Come along!" Now Uncle Wiggily did not like this at all. He wanted to get away from the alligator, but he did not know how he could do it. At last he thought of the magical bottles Alice had given him. "Ah, ha!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I'll give the alligator a drink from the blue-corked one, and we'll see what happens." So Uncle Wiggily slyly said to the 'gator: "Before you take me off to your den, would you not like a drink from this bottle to refresh you?" "Yes, I would," said the skillery-scalery creature, not at all politely. "I was going to take some anyhow whether you asked me or not." With that he took the blue-corked bottle from the paw of the bunny rabbit gentleman, pulled out the stopper with his teeth and drank a few drops. And, no sooner had he done that, than the alligator began to shrink. First he became as small as a dog, then as little as a cat, then as tiny as a kitten, then no larger than a bird and finally he was no bigger than a baby angle worm. And when the alligator became that size Uncle Wiggily was not afraid and easily got away from him, taking the two magic bottles. "Oh, dear!" cried the 'gator in a baby angle worm voice, which was about as loud as the head of a pin. "How foolish I was to drink from the magic bottle and grow small." But it served him right, I think, and the bunny uncle was safe. And if the head of the table doesn't step on the front door mat and make it slide off the porch I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the croquet ball. CHAPTER XV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CROQUET BALL "Why in the world are you taking those bottles with you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw Uncle Wiggily, the bunny rabbit gentleman, hopping off the front porch of his hollow stump bungalow one morning. "These are the prizes which Alice from Wonderland gave me," answered Mr. Longears, as he looked at the blue and red corked bottles. "The red one makes things grow larger and the blue one makes them smaller. I am going to take them with me as I go looking for an adventure today, as there is no telling when I might need them. I did yesterday, when the alligator caught me. I gave him a drink from the blue bottle and he shrunk until he was no larger than a baby angle worm." The rabbit gentleman had not gone very far, twinkling his pink nose as he hopped, before, all of a sudden, he came to a place where a big stone grew out of the ground, and near it he heard a voice, saying: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" "Ha! That sounds like trouble!" exclaimed the bunny. "Who are you and what is the matter?" he asked, kindly. "Oh, I am a Lady Bug," was the answer, "and I am so small that I either get lost all the while, or all the other animals and bugs in the forest step on me. Oh, I wish I were larger so I could be more easily seen!" "Indeed, you are rather hard to see," said Uncle Wiggily, and he had to look twice through his glasses before he could notice the Lady Bug. At the first look he only half saw her, but the second time he saw her fully. "I'd like to be about as large as a June Beetle," said the Lady Bug. "But I don't s'pose I ever shall be." "Oh, yes you will!" cried jolly Uncle Wiggily. "I will! How?" asked the Lady Bug, eagerly. "I have here some water in a magic bottle," said the bunny. "I'll give you a few drops of it, and it will make you grow larger." So he took some water from the red-corked flask, and let the Lady Bug sip it. Instantly she grew as large as a turkey. "Oh, now I'm too big," she said. "I see you are," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll have to give you some from the other bottle and make you grow smaller." So he did, but he must have given a little too much, for the Lady Bug suddenly grew as small as the point of a baby pin. "Oh, this is worse and worse," she said sadly. "I know it!" agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Wait, I'll give you a little of both kinds," and he did, so the Lady Bug grew to the size of a small potato, which was just right, so she would not get lost or stepped on. After the Lady Bug had thanked him, Uncle Wiggily, with his two magical bottles, hopped on through the woods. He had not gone very far before he saw Alice of Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts playing croquet on a grassy place. "Come on, Uncle Wiggily!" called Alice. "You're just in time for the game." "Fine!" said the bunny uncle, taking a mallet and round wooden ball which the Queen handed him. "Three strikes and you go out!" warned the Queen. "What does she mean?" asked Uncle Wiggily of Alice. "This isn't baseball." "She means," explained the little flaxen-haired girl, "that if you miss striking the croquet ball three times with your mallet you have to go out and bring in some ice cream." "Oh, I shan't mind that," the bunny rabbit said. "In fact, I shall rather like it. Now, what do I do--?" "Play ball!" suddenly cried the Queen of Hearts, and she struck with her mallet the croquet ball near her such a hard blow that it sailed through the air and hit Uncle Wiggily in the coat tails. And then something cracked. All at once the croquet ball began growing larger! Bigger and bigger it grew, like a snowball which you roll in the yard, and then it began to roll after Uncle Wiggily. Down the croquet ground the big wooden ball chased after him, rolling closer and closer. "Oh, my!" cried the Queen of Hearts, "What have I done?" "The ball cracked the magical red stoppered bottle that was in my coat tail pocket!" cried Uncle Wiggily over his shoulder, as he ran. "Some of the magic, big-growing water spilled on the ball, and now it has turned into a giant! Oh, it will crush me!" And, really, it did seem as though the big croquet ball would, for now it was as large as a house and still growing, so strong was the water in the magical bottle that had been broken. Larger and larger grew the croquet ball, and faster and faster it rolled after Uncle Wiggily. It was almost on his heels now, and the bunny gentleman was running so fast that his tall silk hat flew off. "Oh, what shall I do?" he cried. Alice thought for a minute, then she called: "Quick, Uncle Wiggily. Take out the blue-corked bottle and sprinkle some of that water on the croquet ball! Hurry now!" Uncle Wiggily did. As he ran he turned and threw back over his shoulder some of the blue bottle water on the big rolling croquet ball. And, all at once, just as the alligator had done, the croquet ball shrank and shrank until it was no larger than a boy's marble, and then it couldn't hurt Uncle Wiggily even if it did roll on him. But it is a good thing he had that bottle of shrinking water with him; isn't it? And, if the expressman doesn't take the baby carriage to ride the trunk down to the five-and-ten-cent store to buy a new piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Do-do. CHAPTER XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DO-DO "I declare!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper for Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, "I declare, I'll never get it done--never!" "What?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "What won't you get done?" "All this housework," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "You see, going over to call on Mrs. Bushytail, the squirrel lady, last night I didn't wash the supper dishes, and now I have them to do, and also the breakfast dishes and the sweeping and dusting and I ought to bake a cake, and mend some of your socks and--" "Whoa!" called Uncle Wiggily with a jolly laugh, as though he had spoken to Munchie Trot, the pony. "That's enough! Don't say any more. You have too much work to do." "And I'm worried about it," said Nurse Jane. "Don't be," advised the rabbit gentleman. "I'll stay and help you do it." "No," said Nurse Jane. "Thank you just the same, but I'd rather you wouldn't stay around the hollow stump bungalow when there is so much to do. You might get in my way and I'd step on you. That would give me the fidgets. It is very kind of you, but if you'll go off and have an adventure I think that will be best." "Just as you say," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "But I'd like to help. Can't I bring you a diamond dishpan or a gold wash rag from the five and ten cent store?" "No! Hop along with you!" laughed Nurse Jane. "I dare say I'll manage somehow." So Uncle Wiggily hopped along, over the fields and through the woods, and then he suddenly said to himself: "I know what I'll do. I'll play a little trick on Nurse Jane. She shouldn't spend so much time in the kitchen. A little is all right, but there is too much trouble about housework. Here I go off and have an adventure and she has to slop around in dishwater. It isn't right!" Then the rabbit gentleman hopped along until he came to a woodland telephone, made from a trumpet vine flower, and into that he called, speaking right into his own hollow stump bungalow and to Nurse Jane. "Oh, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Can you come over to Mrs. Wibblewobble's duck house right away?" "Why, yes, I can," answered the muskrat lady, "though I have a lot of work to do. What is the matter?" "I'll tell you when you get there," said the voice of Uncle Wiggily, pretending he was Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady. Then he called up Mrs. Wibblewobble herself, told her how he had fooled Nurse Jane, and asked the duck lady, when the muskrat lady housekeeper came, to keep her talking and visiting as long as she could. "And while Nurse Jane is at your house, Mrs. Wibblewobble," said Uncle Wiggily, over the trumpet vine telephone, "I'll run around the back way to the hollow stump bungalow and do all the work." "That will be a nice surprise for Nurse Jane," the duck lady said. Uncle Wiggily guessed so, too, and when he thought Nurse Jane was safely at Mrs. Wibblewobble's house, he went to the bungalow. He took off his tall silk hat, laid aside his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, and began with the dishes. There was a large pile of them, but Uncle Wiggily was brave. "When I was a soldier I fought a great many more mosquitoes than there are dishes here," he said. "I will make believe the plates, cups and saucers are the enemy, and I will charge on them and souse them." And Uncle Wiggily did, with a cake of soap for a gun and washing powder to fire with. But, still and with all, there were many dishes, and when he thought of the beds to make, the sweeping and dusting to be done and the socks to mend, Uncle Wiggily said: "Oh, dear!" "What's the matter?" asked a voice behind him, and turning, he saw Alice from Wonderland. With her was a queer bird, which had a tail like that of a mouse. "Oh, I'm glad to see you!" said Uncle Wiggily. "But I can't go and have an adventure with you, Alice, as I have to do all these dishes. Then I have to do the sweeping and do the dusting and do--" "That's enough!" laughed Alice. "There are too many Do-dos. I am just in time, I see. My friend will help you," and she pointed to the queer bird. "What?" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Can he do dishes?" "He can do anything!" laughed Alice. "He is the Do-do bird, and all I have to do is to pinch his tail and he will work very fast." "Doesn't it hurt him?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "What, to work fast?" Alice wanted to know. "No, to pinch his tail." "Not in the least," answered Alice. "He's used to it. The only trouble is I have to keep on pinching it to make him do things, and that means I have to keep my finger and thumb on his tail all the while and follow him around. Now we'll begin to do things, dear Do-do," and she pinched the bird's tail. At once the bird began to wash dishes, and soon they were all done, and then when the Do-do started to do the beds Uncle Wiggily thought of a new plan. "As long as you have to pinch his tail," said the bunny to Alice, "I'll get Nurse Jane's hair curlers. You can snap them on his tail and they'll keep pinching on it, and pinching on it all the while, and you and I can go take a walk." "Fine!" cried Alice. So with the hair curlers pinching his tail the Do-do bird quickly did all the bungalow housework, and Uncle Wiggily and Alice had a fine walk. And when Nurse Jane came home from Mrs. Wibblewobble's and found the work all done she was very happy. And so was the Do-do, for he loved to do dishes. And if the teacup doesn't try to hide in the milk pitcher, where the bread crumbs can't tickle it when they play tag with the butter knife, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Lory. CHAPTER XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LORY Once upon a time the skillery-scalery alligator was out walking in the fields near the muddy river where he lived, and he happened to meet a big spider. "Good morning, Mr. Alligator," said Mr. Spider. "Have you caught that Uncle Wiggily Longears bunny yet?" "I have not, I am sorry to say," answered the alligator chap. "I've tried every way I know how, but something always happens so that he gets away. Either he is helped by that funny book-girl, Alice from Wonderland, or by some of her friends. I'm afraid I'll never catch Uncle Wiggily." "Oh, yes, you will," said Mr. Spider. "I'll help you." "How?" asked the 'gator, which was his short name, though he was rather long. "I'll crawl through the woods and over the fields until I find him asleep," said Mr. Spider. "And, when I do, I'll spin a strong web around and over him so he cannot get loose. Then I'll come and tell you and you can get him." "Very good," spoke Mr. Alligator. "Please do it." So the alligator went back to sleep in the mud to wait until Mr. Spider should bring him word that Uncle Wiggily was held fast in the web. And now let us see what happens to the bunny gentleman. As he always did, he started out from his hollow stump bungalow one morning to look for an adventure. There had been a little accident at breakfast time. Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had boiled the eggs too long and they were as hard as bullets. "You can't eat them," she said to Uncle Wiggily. "I'll boil you some fresh ones." "All right," laughed the bunny. "I don't want to get indyspepsia by eating hard bullet eggs. But I'll take them with me and give them to Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boys. They can crack hard nuts so they must be able to crack hard boiled eggs." So it was that Uncle Wiggily, after having eaten the newly boiled soft eggs, started from his hollow stump bungalow with the hard boiled eggs in his pocket. He had not traveled very far before he heard from behind a big log a voice crying: "Oh, dear! It isn't hard enough! It isn't half hard enough!" "What isn't?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he saw a funny looking bird with a very large bill like a parrot's. "What isn't hard enough?" "This log of wood," was the answer. "I need something hard to bite on to sharpen my beak, but this wood is too soft." "You are a funny bird," laughed the bunny gentleman. "Who might you be?" "I am the Lory bird," was the answer. "I belong in the book with Alice of Wonderland, but I'm out for a day's pleasure, and, as I can't tell what I might have to eat, I thought I'd sharpen my bill. But I can't find anything hard enough to use as a grindstone." "Suppose you try these," said Uncle Wiggily, taking the hard boiled eggs out of his pocket. "The very thing!" cried the Lory. "These will be fine for my bill!" With that he champed his beak down on the hard eggs and he had all he could do to bite them. "Now I'll get my beak good and sharp," said Lory. "You have done me a great favor, Uncle Wiggily, and I hope some day to do you one." "Pray, do not mention it," said the bunny rabbit, modest-like and shy. Then, having found a good use for the hard boiled eggs, even if he didn't give them to the Bushytail squirrel boys, Uncle Wiggily hopped along, and the Lory kept on biting the shells for practice. Now, it was a warm day, and, as Uncle Wiggily felt tired, he sat down in a shady place in the fields, and soon fell fast asleep. And, no sooner was he in Dreamland than along came Mr. Spider. "Ah, ha!" said the spider. "Now's my chance to catch this bunny for the alligator. I'll spin a strong web around him, so strong that he cannot break loose. Then I'll go get my friend, the 'gator." So while Uncle Wiggily slept, Mr. Spider spun a strong web about the bunny--a very extra strong web, with such big strands that Uncle Wiggily never could have broken them himself. And when the web was all finished, and the bunny was helpless, he awakened just as Mr. Spider was going off to call Mr. Alligator. "Oh, what has happened to me?" cried the bunny, as he found he could not move his paws or even twinkle his pink nose. "Oh, what is it? Let me go!" "No, you can't go!" said the spider. "You are going to stay there until I bring Mr. Alligator," and away he crawled. Uncle Wiggily tried to get loose, but he could not. "Oh, if only some one would come who's good and strong, and would cut this web, then I would be free!" said the bunny. And then, all of a sudden, out from behind the bush came the Four and Twenty Tailors, from Mother Goose. They had their big scissors with them, and they were led by Alice of Wonderland. "I told these silly tailors I'd help them hunt the snail, because they are so timid that they even fear her tail," laughed Alice, "but we'll stop and help you first, dear Uncle Wiggily!" Then the Four and Twenty Tailors, with their shears, sniped and snapped the strong spider's web until it was all in pieces and the bunny could easily get loose. And when the alligator, fetched by the spider, came to get the bunny he wasn't there. But the strong-billed Lory bird was there. He had heard about Uncle Wiggily's trouble from the Do-do bird, and had come, with his strong bill, to bite the spider web into little pieces. "But I am too late, I see," said the Lory. "The Mother Goose Tailors got here first. However, as I want to bite something hard and mean I'll bite the alligator." And he did and the alligator said "Ouch!" and I'm glad of it. And if the telephone bell doesn't ring at the front door and make believe it's the milkman looking for old rags, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the puppy. CHAPTER XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PUPPY "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the two doggie boys, as they ran barking up to the hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Well, well! What's the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he came out on the porch. "Oh, we've got a baby over at our house!" cried Jackie. "Come and see it!" barked Peetie. "A baby? At your house?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Well, a little puppy dog," said Jackie. "That's the same to us as a real baby is to real persons." "To be sure," agreed the bunny uncle. "I'll come over and see the new baby puppy," and putting on his tall silk hat, and taking down his red-white-and-blue-striped barber pole rheumatism crutch from the electric light, Mr. Longears started away over the fields to the kennel house, where the Bow Wow dog family lived. "There's the new baby puppy!" cried Jackie, as he poked away the straw from the bed where something was moving about. "I--why, bless my spectacles--I can hardly see him!" said Uncle Wiggily, taking off his glasses to polish them, for he thought maybe he had splashed some carrot oatmeal on them at breakfast and that they were clouded over. "He's so small, that's why you can't see him," spoke Peetie. "But he'll soon grow big like us, Uncle Wiggily." "Let us hope so," spoke the bunny uncle. "He's so small now I'd be afraid of stepping on him if I lived here." "He's got awful cute eyes," said Peetie. "They aren't open yet, but I can pull 'em apart a little bit to show you they're going to be blue color, I guess," and Peetie began opening the shut eyes of his little baby brother puppy. Of course, the puppy whined and Mrs. Bow Wow called: "Now, what are you boys doing to that baby?" "Nothing, ma," answered Jackie. "We're jest pokin' open his eyes so Uncle Wiggily can see 'em," answered Peetie. "Oh, you doggie boys!" cried Mrs. Bow Wow. "You mustn't do that! I'm glad Uncle Wiggily came to see our baby, but now you run out and play, Peetie and Jackie, while I visit with Mr. Longears." So the doggie boys ran out to play with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, and Mrs. Bow Wow told Uncle Wiggily what a nice baby Wuff-Wuff was. Wuff-Wuff was the new puppy's name. "I'm sure he'll grow up to be a fine dog," said the bunny. Just then the telephone bell in the kennel house rang, and when Mrs. Bow Wow answered she said, after listening awhile: "Oh, dear! This is your friend Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy talking to me. She wants me to come over to show her how to make a strawberry longcake, as there is a lot of company coming for supper. A short cake won't be large enough." "Are you going to my hollow stump bungalow?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'd like to, only I can't leave Baby Wuff Wuff," said Mrs. Bow Wow. "Oh, I'll stay and take care of him," said the bunny uncle. "I think I can do it, and it may be an adventure for me. Trot along, Mrs. Bow Wow." "Very well, I will. If Wuff Wuff gets hungry, just give him some milk from this bottle," and she handed a nursing one to Uncle Wiggily. So Mrs. Bow Wow went over to help Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady housekeeper, make the longcake, and the bunny man stayed with the puppy baby. Uncle Wiggily sat in the kennel house, while the little doggie nestled in the straw. The bunny rabbit was just wondering who the company could be that were coming to his bungalow, when, all of a sudden, there was a big noise outside the kennel, and a big voice cried: "Now I know you're in there, Uncle Wiggily, for I saw you hop in with Jackie and Peetie. And I know they're gone, for I saw them go out. And I know Mrs. Bow Wow is out. So you're there all alone and I'm going to get you!" And Uncle Wiggily saw the big skillery-scalery alligator standing outside the door. "Oh, my!" thought the bunny rabbit gentleman. "He'll surely get me this time, for he can knock the kennel house apart with one flip-flap of his double-jointed tail. But maybe, if I keep real still, he will think I'm gone." So Uncle Wiggily snuggled down in the straw with the baby puppy, but the alligator cried: "Oh, I know you're there, and I'm going to get you!" "Oh, if only this puppy was a big, strong dog, like Nero!" thought Uncle Wiggily, "he could save me from the alligator." Just then the puppy began to whine, and the bunny rabbit said: "Oh, don't do that, Wuff Wuff! Don't whine, and make a noise, or the alligator will get you, too." But the puppy baby still whined, for he was hungry. Uncle Wiggily picked up a bottle and put the end of it in Wuff Wuff's mouth. "Here, drink that," said the bunny. "Then you won't be hungry." The puppy baby did so, and then something very strange happened. The little puppy suddenly began growing very large. First he was the size of Mr. Bow Wow, and then he swelled up until he was as big as a horse, and had to get out of the kennel house for fear of bursting off the roof. And when the alligator saw the great big puppy dog, like the one in Alice of Wonderland, suddenly standing in front of him, Mr. 'Gator just gave one flip of his tail, and away he ran crying: "Oh, my! I didn't know an elephant was there to save Uncle Wiggily!" But there wasn't. It was only the puppy who had suddenly grown big. For by mistake instead of giving him the bottle of milk, the bunny rabbit gave him some of the water from the magical red-stoppered, big-growing bottle that Alice from Wonderland had sent the bunny. It had been mended after the croquet ball broke it. And, after the puppy had scared away the alligator, Uncle Wiggily gave Wuff Wuff some water from the magical blue-stoppered bottle and shrunk him to his regular baby size, and everybody was happy. And if the fairy tale doesn't waggle itself all around the book case and scare all the big words out of the dictionary, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Unicorn. CHAPTER XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE UNICORN "Well, you look just as if you were going somewhere, Uncle Wiggily," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as the rabbit gentleman whizzed around the corner of his hollow stump bungalow in his automobile, with the bologna sausage tires, one morning. "I am going somewhere," he answered, and really he was, for the wheels were whizzing around like anything. "And going where, may I ask?" politely inquired the muskrat lady. "I am going to give Alice a ride," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Alice from Wonderland, I mean. She never has ridden in an automobile." "She never has?" cried Nurse Jane, in surprise. "Never! You see, when she was put in that nice book, which tells so much about her, there weren't any autos, and, of course, she never could have had a ride in one. "But she had ever so many other nice adventures, such as going down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass. However, I promised her a ride in my auto, and here I go to give it to her," and with that Uncle Wiggily sprinkled some pepper and salt on the sausage tires of his auto's wheels to make them go faster. The rabbit gentleman found Alice, the little book girl, in the White Queen's garden having a make-believe tea party with the Mock Turtle, who soon would have to go into the 5 o'clock soup. "Oh, how kind of you to come for me, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Alice, and she jumped up so quickly that she overturned the multiplication table, at which she and the Mock Turtle had been sitting, and ran to jump in the auto. "Well, I don't call that very nice," said the Mock Turtle. "Here she's gone and mixed up the seven times table with the three times six, and goodness knows when I'll ever get them straightened out again." "I'm sorry!" called Alice, waving her hand as she rode off with Uncle Wiggily. "I'll help you when I come back." "And I'll help too," promised the bunny uncle. Mr. Longears and Wonderland Alice rode over the fields and through the woods, and they were having a fine time when, all of a sudden, as the automobile came near a place where some oak trees grew in a thick cluster Alice cried: "Hark! They're fighting!" "Who?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Please don't tell me it is the mosquito enemy coming after me to bite me." "No, it's the Lion and the Unicorn," Alice answered. "Don't you remember how it goes in my book: "'The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the Crown, The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town. Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown, And then the funny Unicorn jumped right up and down.' "That last line isn't just right," explained Alice to the bunny uncle, "but I couldn't properly think of it, I'm so frightened!" "Frightened? At what?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "At the Unicorn," answered Alice. "Here he comes," and, as she said that, Uncle Wiggily saw a funny animal, like a horse, with a big long horn sticking out of the middle of his head, straight in front of him, galloping out of the clump of trees. "Hurray! I beat him!" cried the Unicorn. "Come on now, quick, I must get away from here before they catch me!" "You beat him? Do you mean beat the Lion?" asked Uncle Wiggily for he was not frightened as was Alice. "Sure I beat him," answered the Unicorn, as he jumped into the back seat of the automobile. "Drive on!" he ordered just as if the bunny uncle gentleman were the coachman. "Did you beat him very hard, with a broomstick?" asked Alice, putting out her head from behind Uncle Wiggily's tall silk hat where she had hidden herself. "Beat him with a broomstick? Ha! Ha! I should say not!" laughed the Unicorn. "We're too jolly good friends for that," and he spoke like an English chap. "I beat him playing hop-Scotch and Jack-straws. I was two hops and three straws ahead of him when I stopped and ran away because they were after me." "Who were after you?" asked Alice. "The lion's friends?" "No, the straws that show which way the wind blows. When the wind blows the straws against me they tickle, and I can't bear to be tickled. I'm worse than a soap bubble that way. So I ran to get in the auto. I hope you don't mind," and the Unicorn leaned back on the seat cushions. "Mind? Not in the least!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm glad to give you a ride with Alice," and he made the auto go very fast. On and on they went, over the fields and through the woods and then, all of a sudden, out from behind a tree jumped the big skillery-scalery alligator walking on his hind legs and the end of his double-jointed tail. "Halt!" he cried, like a sentry soldier, and Uncle Wiggily stopped the auto. "At last I have caught you," said the alligator in a nutmeg grater sort of a voice. "I want you, Uncle Wiggily, and that Alice girl also. As for your friend in the back seat, he may go--" "Oh, may I? Thank you!" cried the Unicorn, and with that he leaned forward. And, as he did so the long sharp horn in his head reached over Uncle Wiggily's shoulder, and began to tickle the alligator right under his soft ribs. "Oh, stop! Stop it, I tell you!" giggled the 'gator. "Stop tickling me!" and he laughed and wiggled and squirmed like an angle worm going fishing. "Stop! Stop!" he begged. "I will when you let my friends, Uncle Wiggily and Alice, alone," said the Unicorn, still tickling away. "Yes! Yes! I'll let them alone," promised the alligator, and he laughed until the tears ran down his tail. And then he had to run off by himself through the woods, and so he didn't get the bunny uncle nor Wonderland Alice either. And he never could have gotten the Unicorn, because of his long, ticklish horn. So it is sometimes a good thing to take one of these stickery chaps along when you go for an automobile ride. And if the skyrocket doesn't fall down and stub its nose when it tries to jump over the moon with the crumpled horn cow, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Humpty Dumpty. CHAPTER XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND HUMPTY DUMPTY "Excuse me," spoke a gentle voice behind Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, who was cleaning the steps of the hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Excuse me, but can Uncle Wiggily be out to play?" "Be out to play?" repeated Nurse Jane. "Do you mean play with you?" and the muskrat lady turned to see a little girl, with flaxen hair, standing at the foot of the steps. "Yes, play with me, if you please," said the little girl. "I'm Alice from Wonderland, you know, and Uncle Wiggily and I had such a jolly time yesterday, when the Unicorn tickled the alligator and made him laugh, that I'd like to go off with him again." "With whom--the alligator?" asked Nurse Jane. "No, with Uncle Wiggily," laughed Alice. "Where is he?" "Here I am, Alice. I've just finished breakfast," answered the bunny rabbit gentleman himself, as he came out on the front bungalow steps. "Are you ready for another auto ride?" "Indeed I am, thank you. And as tomorrow is a holiday I don't have any school today." "That's funny," said Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his pink nose. "What holiday is it?" "The Fourth of July!" answered Alice. "Have you forgotten? Even though I am an English girl I know what it means. Your boys and girls shoot off lollypops, bang ice cream cones and light red, white and blue candy." "Candy? I guess you mean candles!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "However, you're right. It is the Fourth of July tomorrow, and whereas, years ago, we used to shoot off firecrackers (when many children were burned), now we have a nicer holiday. "We go off in the woods and gather flowers. Why, do you know!" cried the bunny uncle, "there are flowers just right for Fourth of July. There are puff balls that are as good as torpedoes, and snap-dragons that open their mouths and make believe bite you, and there are dogwood flowers that bark, and red sumach which is just the color of firecrackers." "Then let's go off in the woods and have Fourth of July there," proposed Alice, and soon she and the bunny uncle were in the automobile. And then along came Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried these animal boys and girls. "Take us with you for Fourth of July!" "Of course I shall!" promised the bunny gentleman, so they all got in the automobile with him and Wonderland Alice, and away they went. They had not gone very far before, all of a sudden, they came to a stone wall, and when Alice saw something on top of it, she cried: "Why, there's my old friend Humpty Dumpty. I must stop and speak to him or he'll think I'm proud," and she waved her hands. "Why, that--that's nothing but an--egg!" said Sammie. "It's like the ones I colored for Easter when the skilli-gimink dye splashed all over me. That isn't Humpty Dumpty at all--it's an egg!" "Hush!" whispered Susie. "Humpty Dumpty is an egg, of course, but he doesn't like to be told of it. Don't you know the little verse? "'Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and all the King's men Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.'" "That's right," said Alice from Wonderland. "Only don't speak of the fall before Humpty. He doesn't like to be reminded of it." "I don't see why," spoke Jackie Bow Wow. "He can't hear a word we say. He's only an egg--he hasn't any ears." "He really isn't dressed yet," said Alice. "It's a bit early. But I'll soon make him look more human." With that she jumped out of the auto and, taking two ears of corn from a field nearby, she fastened them with silk from the cob, one on each side of the egg. "Now he can hear," said Alice. Then with tulip flowers she made Humpty a mouth and from a potato she took two eyes, so the egg could see. A comb made him as nice teeth as one could wish for, and they never ached, and for a nose she took out a cute little bottle of perfumery. "I think that's a queer nose," said Johnnie Bushytail, frisking his tail. "Well, a bottle of perfumery smells, doesn't it?" asked Alice, "and that's what a nose is especially for; smells." "Indeed it is!" cried Humpty Dumpty in his jolly voice, speaking through the tulips. "I'm all made now. I only hope--" And then he suddenly turned pale, for he nearly fell off the wall. "Has any one any powder?" he asked. "I think I'd like to clean my teeth." "I have some talcum," spoke Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, coming along just then. "That will do," spoke Humpty Dumpty. "It will be just fine." And with a brush made from the end of a soft fern he began to clean his teeth with the talcum powder which Lulu gave him. And then, all of a sudden, there was a loud noise, a puff of smoke, and Humpty Dumpty, the egg man, was seen sailing off through the air like a big white balloon. "Well, this is better than falling off the wall!" he cried in a faint voice. "Oh, my! What happened?" asked Sammie Littletail, trying to make his pink nose twinkle as Uncle Wiggily did his. "Humpty Dumpty was blown up instead of falling down," said Alice. "I guess your talcum powder was too strong for him, Lulu, my dear. And it being the Fourth of July tomorrow, Humpty wanted to give us some fireworks. So he's gone, but I'm glad he wasn't broken, for if he was the way the book has it, when he falls off the wall, all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put him together again. Maybe it is best as it is." But, after a while Humpty Dumpty sailed back again, not hurt a bit, and he sat on the wall as well as ever. Then Alice and Uncle Wiggily and the animal boys and girls had fun in the woods. And, if the pink pills don't hide in the green bottle and pretend they're peppermint candy for the rag doll, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the looking glass. CHAPTER XXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOOKING GLASS "A package came for you while you were out adventuring today," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, to Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit gentleman, as he hopped down the stairs of the hollow stump bungalow to breakfast one morning. "I wonder what's in it?" asked the bunny as he put a slice of carrot jam on his bread and held it over the lettuce coffee to have it flavored. "I don't know. You'll have to open it to find out," answered Nurse Jane. "It is marked 'Glass. With Care.'" Uncle Wiggily was so eager and excited like that he could not wait to finish his breakfast, but quickly opened the package which Mr. Hummingbird, the lightning express messenger, had left at the bungalow early that morning. "It's a looking glass!" exclaimed the bunny uncle when he saw what it was. "And it's from Alice in Wonderland--at least she used to live in Wonderland before she came to Woodland to have adventures with me." "And there's a note with it," spoke Nurse Jane, as she saw a piece of white birch bark, with writing on it; the letters having been made with a burned stick which marks black like a lead pencil. "Yes, it's a little letter," said Uncle Wiggily as he read it. "And it's from Alice. It says: 'Dear Uncle Wiggily: I send you the Looking Glass I once went through, and on the other side I had many adventures. I wish you the same!'" "That's queer," said the bunny, as he turned the glass over and looked at the back. "I don't see any hole where Alice went through." "Maybe it closed up after her, the same as fairy doors always close once you pass through," explained Nurse Jane. "I believe you are right," said Uncle Wiggily. "But this is a very small glass for a girl like Alice to get through," and indeed the glass was one of the kind you hold in your hand. "Maybe the glass was larger when Alice went through it," said Nurse Jane, "or else perhaps she had taken some drops from the magic bottle and grew small like a rubber doll." "I guess that was it," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Anyhow, it is very kind of her to send me the looking glass. I may have an adventure with it. I'll take it out on the front steps and then we'll see what happens next." So, having finished his breakfast, the bunny went out on the bungalow porch and sat with the looking glass in his paw, waiting for something to happen. He sat there and sat there and sat there and he was just beginning to wonder if anything would happen, when, all of a sudden, there was a rustling in the bushes, and up on the porch popped a bad old skillery-scalery alligator, with bumps all down the middle of his back like the buttons on a lady's dress. "Ah, ha! I am just in time, I see!" exclaimed the 'gator. "For what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, suddenly awakening, for he had fallen into a little sleep while he waited for an adventure to happen with the looking glass. "In time for what?" "To go away with you," answered the alligator. "But I am not going away," said the bunny. "At least I did not know I was going," and he looked around rather sad and lonesome, for he did not like the bad alligator, and he wanted to see, Uncle Wiggily did, if brave Nurse Jane Fuzzy would not come out and throw cold water on him--on the alligator, I mean--to drive him away. But the muskrat lady had gone to the store to get some cheese for supper. "I am not going away," said Uncle Wiggily again. "Oh, yes you are!" exclaimed the alligator, and he smiled in such a way that it seemed as though the whole top of his head would pop off, so large was the smile. "You may not know it, but you are going away, Uncle Wiggily." "With whom?" asked the bunny. "With me," answered the 'gator. "We are going away together. I came on purpose to fetch you. Come along," and with that the bad alligator wound his double-jointed tail around the bunny uncle's ears, lifted him out of the rocking chair and started to walk off the bungalow porch with him. "Oh, stop it!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Let me go! Let me go!" "No! No!" barked the alligator, like a dog. "I'll not let you go, now I have you!" and he started to drag the bunny uncle off to the dark, damp, dismal swamp, where the mosquitoes lived with the tent caterpillars. "Oh, please don't take me away!" begged the bunny. "I wish some one would help me!" and as he said that the alligator gave him a sudden twist and the looking glass, which Uncle Wiggily still held in his paw, came around in front of the alligator's face. And, no sooner had the 'gator looked in the glass than he gave a loud cry, and, unwinding his tail from Uncle Wiggily, away the bad creature scurried, leaving the bunny alone and safe. And the alligator cried: "Oh, excuse me! I didn't mean anything! I'll be good! I won't hurt Uncle Wiggily!" "Well, I wonder what frightened him away?" asked Uncle Wiggily, out loud. "Seeing himself in the looking glass," was the answer, and there stood Alice from Wonderland. "That is a magical mirror I sent you, Uncle Wiggily," she explained. "It shows the reflection of anything and anybody just as they are and not as they'd like to be. "And the alligator is such a mean-looking and ugly chap, that, never before having seen himself, this time when he did, in the looking glass, he was frightened, seeing himself as others see him. He thought he was looking at a Chinese dragon who would bite him. So he ran away, leaving you alone." "And I'm so glad he did," said Uncle Wiggily. "It's a good thing I had your looking glass." Then Alice and Uncle Wiggily had a good time, and if the clothes pin doesn't pinch the pillow case so hard that it tickles the bedspread and makes it sneeze all the feathers out, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the White Queen. CHAPTER XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WHITE QUEEN Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was hopping along through the woods one day, wondering if he would have an adventure with Alice of Wonderland or some of her friends, when, all of a sudden, coming to a place where a rail fence ran along among the trees he saw, caught in a crack of one of the rails by its legs, a white butterfly. The poor butterfly was fluttering its wings, trying to pull out its legs, but it had to pull very gently, for a butterfly's leg, you know, is very tender and easily broken, like a piece of spider-web. "Oh, my!" cried kind Uncle Wiggily, when he saw what was the matter. "You are in trouble, aren't you? I'm glad I happened to come along." "Why are you glad; to see me in trouble?" asked the white butterfly. "No, indeed!" exclaimed the bunny uncle. "But I want to help you." "Well, I wish you would," went on the fluttering creature. "I've tried and tried again to get my poor leg loose, but I can't. And I'm on my way--oh, but I forgot. That part is a secret!" quickly said the butterfly. "Well, then, don't tell me," spoke Uncle Wiggily with a laugh, "for I might not be very good at keeping secrets. But I'll soon have your leg loose." With that he took the small end of his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk and putting the little end of his crutch in the crack of the rail fence, Uncle Wiggily gave a hard push, opened the crack wider, and soon the butterfly's leg was loose and she could fly away. "But first I must thank you, Uncle Wiggily," she said. "And as you did me so great a favor I want to do you one in return. Not now, perhaps, as I am in a hurry, but later. So if ever you find you want something you can't get, just come to these woods and say a little verse. Then you shall have your wish." "What verse shall I say?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "This," answered the butterfly. Then she recited: "When the wind blows in the trees, Making perfume for the breeze, Will you grant to me this boon, That my wish may come true soon?" "And what then?" asked the bunny. "Then," answered the butterfly, "you must whisper your wish to a green leaf and--well, we'll see what happens next." "Thank you," said Uncle Wiggily, and then he hopped on through the woods while the butterfly fluttered away. Uncle Wiggily had no adventure that day, but when he reached home to his hollow stump bungalow he found his muskrat lady housekeeper in the kitchen looking quite sad and blue. "Well, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy!" cried the jolly bunny uncle. "Whatever is the matter?" "Oh, I have broken my nice gold and diamond dishpan, and I can't do any more kitchen work until it is mended. I can't wash the dishes nor get you any supper." "Oh, never mind about that," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll take the diamond dishpan down to the five and ten cent store and have them mend it for you. Where is it?" Nurse Jane gave it to him. The pan had a big crack right across the middle. The muskrat lady said it had fallen to the floor and had broken when she went to get Jackie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boy a slice of bread and jam. "I'll soon have it fixed for you," said Uncle Wiggily. But it was more easily said than done. The five and ten cent store was closed because every one was on a picnic, and no one else could mend the dishpan. "Never mind, I'll buy Nurse Jane a new one and say nothing about it," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll surprise her." But this, too, was more easily said than done. In all Woodland, where Uncle Wiggily and the animal folk lived, there was not another gold and diamond dishpan to be had. They were all sold. "Oh, dear! What shall I do?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane will be so unhappy!" Then he happened to think of the white butterfly and what she had told him. So, taking the dishpan, he went to the wood where he had helped the fluttering creature and whispered to a leaf the little verse: "When the wind blows in the trees, Making perfume for the breeze, Will you grant to me this boon, That my wish may come true soon?" "Well, what is your wish?" asked a sudden voice. "I wish Nurse Jane's gold and diamond dishpan to be mended," said Uncle Wiggily. Instantly something white came fluttering down out of a tree, and the bunny saw it was the white butterfly. And then, all of a sudden, before he could count up to sixteen thousand, the white butterfly seemed to fade away and in its place was a beautiful White Queen, seated on a golden throne with a diamond crown on her head. "You shall have your wish, Uncle Wiggily," she said. "Give me the dishpan." "Why--why!" exclaimed the bunny. "You are--you are--" "I am the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland," was the answer, "and I will ask you a riddle. When you take the dishes out of the pan what remains?" "Nothing," answered the bunny. "Wrong," answered the White Queen. "The water does. Now I'll mend this for you." And she did, taking some gold from her throne and some diamonds from her crown to mend the broken dishpan. Soon Nurse Jane's pan was as good as ever and she could wash the dishes in it. "Thank you," said Uncle Wiggily. "But how is it you are a queen and a butterfly, too?" "Oh, we Queens lead a sort of butterfly existence," said the White Queen. "But I must go now, for I have to find the tarts for the Queen of Hearts who is always losing hers." Then, changing herself into a white butterfly again, the Queen flew away, and Uncle Wiggily, with the mended dishpan, hopped on to his hollow stump bungalow, where he and Nurse Jane were soon having a nice supper and were very happy. And if the potato masher doesn't go to the moving pictures and step on the toes of the egg beater I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Red Queen. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED QUEEN Once upon a time, when Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was out walking in the woods, he stopped beside a little hole in the ground near a pile of oak tree leaves, and listening, when the wind stopped blowing, he heard a little voice saying: "Oh, but where can she be? I fear she is lost! Little Crawlie is lost!" "My! That's too bad," thought Uncle Wiggily. "Somebody's little girl is lost. I must ask if I cannot help find her." So he called: "Oh, ho, there! May I have the pleasure of helping you in your trouble, whoever you are?" "But who are you?" asked a voice that seemed to come out of the little hole in the ground. "I am Uncle Wiggily Longears," answered the bunny. "You can easily see me, but I can't see you. And who is this Crawlie who is lost?" "She is my little girl," was the answer, and up the hole in the ground came crawling a red ant lady, who was crying tear drops about as large as that part of a pin point which you can't see but can only feel. "Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I couldn't imagine who would live in such a little house, but of course ants can. And now what about Crawlie?" "She is my little girl," answered the red ant. "I sent her to the store about an hour ago to get a loaf of sand bread, but she hasn't come back and I'm sure something has happened to her." "Let us hope not," spoke Uncle Wiggily, softly. "I'll go at once and look for her. Have no fear, Mrs. Ant. I'll find Crawlie for you. It is rather a queer name." "Crawlie is called that because she crawls in such a funny way," said Mrs. Ant. "Oh, dear! I hope she is all right. If she should happen to have fallen down a crack in a peach stone she'd never get out." "I'll find her," said Uncle Wiggily, bravely. So off started the bunny uncle, hopping on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch over the fields and through the woods, looking for Crawlie. He had not gone very far before he heard a small voice calling: "Help! Help! Oh, will no one help me?" "Yes, of course, I will!" answered the bunny, and then he saw an acorn which seemed to be moving along the ground in a queer way. "Ha! Can it be that this acorn is alive?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "And can that acorn want help?" he cried. "No, it is I--Crawlie, the ant girl--under the acorn," was the answer, "and I want help, for I'm in such trouble." "What kind?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "What's the trouble?" "Why, I'm caught under this acorn here and I can't get out," was the answer, and Crawlie's voice sounded as though she had gone down cellar to get a crumb of apple and couldn't find her way back again. "I went under the acorn shell, which is empty," said the little ant girl, "and though it was nicely propped up on one side when I crawled in, it was blown over by the wind and I was held beneath it. Oh, dear! I can't get out and go to the store for the loaf of sand bread!" "Oh, yes you can!" cried jolly Uncle Wiggily. "I'll lift the acorn shell off you and let you out." So he did, easily picking up the empty oak tree acorn from where it was covering Crawlie, and then the little ant girl, who was red, just like her mother, could walk about. "Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily," she said. "If ever we ants can do you a favor we will." "Oh, pray do not mention it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, modest-like and shy. Then Crawlie hurried on to the sand bread store and the bunny hopped along over the fields and through the woods. He had not gone very far before he met a poor old June bug gentleman, and the June bug seemed very sad and unhappy. "What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Lots," was the answer. "You see it is now time, being July, for June bugs like myself to get in their winter wood so we will not freeze in the cold weather. But I hurt my legs, banging into an electric light one night, and I'm so lame and stiff that I can't gather any wood at all. I shall freeze, I know I shall!" and the June bug gentleman was more sad than ever. "Oh, cheer up!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "There is plenty of wood under these trees. I'll help you gather it." "There is no need to do that," said another voice, and, looking up, Uncle Wiggily and the June bug saw, sitting on a green mossy log, a Red Queen wearing a golden crown. "Oh!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily in surprise. "You are--" "I am the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland," interrupted the lady on the log. "I was also the red ant lady who was crying and also Crawlie, the red ant girl. You were so kind to me when you thought I was only a crawling insect that now, when I have changed myself into a Red Queen, I want to help you. And I know I can best help you by helping this June bug friend of yours." "Indeed, you can!" said Uncle Wiggily, thankful like. "I thought so," spoke the Red Queen. "Watch!" With that she waved her magic wand, and, instantly, ten million red, white and black ants came crawling out of old logs from holes in the ground and from under piles of leaves, and each ant took up a little stick of wood and carried it into the June bug's house for him, so he had plenty of wood for all winter, and couldn't freeze. "There you are, Uncle Wiggily!" laughed the Red Queen. "One kindness, you see, makes another," and then she got in her golden chariot and drove away, and when the June bug gentleman had thanked him, and the ants had crawled home, the bunny himself went to his hollow stump bungalow very happy. And if the looking glass doesn't make faces at the hairbrush and knock the teeth out of the comb so it can't have fun and bite the talcum powder, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tweedledum. CHAPTER XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND TWEEDLEDUM "Are you in, Uncle Wiggily?" asked a voice at the hollow stump bungalow one morning, and the rabbit gentleman looked up to see Alice from Wonderland standing on the door sill. "Yes, of course I'm in, my dear," he answered. "Can't you see me?" "I can't be sure of anything I see," answered the little girl with flaxen hair, "especially since I've been having so many queer adventures. I used to think I saw the Cheshire cat, when it was only his grin smiling at me. And maybe now I'm only looking at your ears, or tall silk hat, and thinking it's you." "No, I'm here all right," answered the bunny. "Is there anything I can do for you?" "Yes," answered Alice. "I'd like you to come for a walk with me. I haven't much longer time to stay with you, and I want to have all the fun I can." "Are you going away?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I have very soon to go back in the book where I belong," answered Alice. "But no matter. Come now, and we'll go look for an adventure." So Alice and Uncle Wiggily started off over the fields and through the woods, and they had not gone very far before they suddenly heard, among the trees, some voices crying: "You did it!" "No, I didn't!" "Yes, you did; you know you did!" "No, I didn't! I know I didn't!" "Well, we'll have to have a battle, anyhow!" And then came a sound as if some one was beating a carpet with a fishing pole and voices cried: "Oh! Oh, dear! Ouch! Oh, how it hurts!" "My, what in the world can that be?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "It sounds like an adventure all right." "I think it is," answered Alice. "It's probably Tweedledum and Tweedledee fighting." "Fighting? Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" asked the surprised bunny. "Oh, it's only in fun," laughed Alice, "and they have to do it because it's that way in the book, for if they didn't things wouldn't come out right. Yes, there they are." And she pointed off through the trees, where Uncle Wiggily saw two round, fat, little boys, dressed exactly the same, and looking so like one another that no one could tell them apart, except when they were together--just like twins, you know. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" called Alice to the two queer fat chaps. They were as round as barrels, both of them. Uncle Wiggily noticed that on the collar of one was the word DUM, while on the other was the word DEE. "Tweedle, the rest of their name, is on the back of their collars," Alice explained. "As it's the same for both, they didn't need it in front." Then the fat boys turned around, like tops slowly spinning, and, surely enough, on the back of the white collar of each were letters spelling TWEEDLE. "I'm glad to see you," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "I heard you--sort of--er--well, you know," he went on, diffident-like, not wishing to say he had heard the brothers quarreling. "Oh, it's all right, we do that every day," said Tweedledee. "And, contrariwise, twice on Sunday," added Tweedledum. "We have to for the verse about us says: "'Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. "'Just then down flew a monstrous crow, As black as a tar barrel, Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel.'" "Only we weren't really frightened," said Tweedledee. "We just made believe so, and laughed at the crow. And I didn't really spoil Tweedledum's nice new rattle, for here it is now," and taking his arm down from around his brother's neck he took the rattle from his pocket and shook it, making a noise like a drum. And, just as he did that, all of a sudden, out from behind a big stump came--not a monstrous crow, but the bad old skillery-scalery alligator, who cried: "Ah, ha! At last I have him! Now I'll get that Uncle Wiggily Longears chap! Ah, ha!" and he made a grab for the gentleman bunny. "Oh, dear!" exclaimed Alice. "Please don't hurt Uncle Wiggily!" "Yes, I shall!" snapped the 'gator. "I'll bumble him and mumble him, that's what I'll do." "Oh, no you won't!" exclaimed Tweedledum, wabbling toward the alligator as Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, waddled when he walked. "I won't what?" asked the 'gator. "You won't bumble or mumble Uncle Wiggily. First you have to catch me!" "Pooh! That's easily done," snapped the alligator. "You are so fat that you can't run any more than a rubber ball." "Will you promise to let Uncle Wiggily alone until you catch me?" asked Tweedledum, eagerly. "I promise," said the alligator smiling to himself, for he thought he could easily catch the fat twin, and his promise wouldn't count. "Then here I go! Catch me!" suddenly cried Tweedledum. And with that he stretched out on the ground and began to roll down hill in the woods. And as he was fat and round he rolled as fast as a rubber ball, and he rolled so fast (ever so much faster than if he had run) that when the alligator raced after him, as he had promised he would do, why the bad double-jointed skillery-scalery creature got all out of breath and couldn't bumble or mumble a strawberry, to say nothing of Uncle Wiggily. And the 'gator didn't catch the fat boy either. So Tweedledum, rolling down hill that way, which he could do much better than walking or running, saved the bunny uncle from the alligator, and Mr. Longears was very glad, and so was Alice. And if the knife and fork don't go to the candy store, just when supper is ready, and make the spoon holder wait for them before eating the ice cream, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tweedledee. CHAPTER XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND TWEEDLEDEE "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried a voice, as the old rabbit gentleman started out from his hollow stump bungalow one morning to walk in the woods and look for an adventure. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, be careful!" "Be careful of what, if you please, and who are you, if I may ask?" politely inquired the bunny. "I am your friend Alice, from Wonderland," was the answer, "and I want you to be careful and not get hurt today." "I always am careful," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I look for cabbage and turnip traps wherever I go, and I never pick up a bit of carrot on the Woodland path without first making sure there is no string fast to it, to catch me. What do you mean, Alice?" he asked the little flaxen-haired girl as she came out of the bushes and sat down on the stoop of the hollow stump bungalow. "What do you mean?" "I don't know just what I do mean, Uncle Wiggily," said Alice. "But last night I dreamed you were in trouble and I could not help you. I felt so sorry! As soon as I woke up this morning I hurried over to tell you to be careful." "Oh, I'll be careful," promised the bunny gentleman. "But in your dream did no one help me?" "Yes, after a while two funny little fat boys did," answered Alice. "But I don't remember that part of my dream. However, if you are going for a walk I'll go with you and do what I can in case the Jabberwocky or the Hop Scotch bird try to chase you." "The Hop Scotch isn't a bird," said Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh that made his pink nose twinkle like the strawberry on top of a cheese cake. "It's a bit of candy." "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! It's a game!" cried Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, coming out from behind a stump just then. "It's a game where you jump around on the pavement, and if you and Alice are going to play it, please may I watch you?" "We aren't going to play," said Alice. "It's long past play time." "I am going to look for an adventure," said Uncle Wiggily. "Then, please, may I come?" begged Susie. "I'll help look." "Come along!" cried jolly Uncle Wiggily and soon the three of them were on their way through the woods. They had not gone very far, over the paths with the big green ferns on either side, when, all of a onceness out from behind a big log jumped the two bad old skillery-scalery alligators, one with the humps on his tail and the other with his tail all double-jointed, so he could wiggle it seven ways from Sunday. "Ah, ha!" cried the hump-tailed 'gator. "Ha, ha!" cried the double-jointed one. "At last we have caught you!" and they both made a grab for the rabbit gentleman, one catching him on the left side and the other on the right, and holding him fast. "Oh!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, dear! Please let me go!" "No!" snapped the first 'gator. And "No!" snapped the second, both flapping their tails. "Oh, this is my dream! This is my dream!" said Alice, sadly. "But where are the two fat boys that saved Uncle Wiggily. Where are they?" "Here is one, if you please," answered a voice, and out stepped Tweedledee, the queer little fat chap from the Alice in Wonderland book. "I'll help you, Uncle Wiggily." "Thank you, very much," spoke the rabbit gentleman. "If you would kindly make these alligators let me go--" "Pooh! Huh! Humph! What! Him make us let you go? Well, I should say NOT!" sniffed the first alligator. "The very idea" sneered the second. "It will take a great deal more than one fat boy to make us let go of a nice, fat, juicy rabbit once we have caught him. Certainly NOT!" "Ahem! How about TWO fat boys?" suddenly asked another voice, and there stood another beside Tweedledee, a fat boy, who looked just the same exactly; even as you seem to yourself when you peek at your reflection in the bath room mirror. "No, we won't let you go for two fat boys, either," said the double-jointed alligator, while Alice murmured: "Oh, this is my dream! This is my dream! I wish I could remember how it came out!" "Was Uncle Wiggily saved?" asked Susie Littletail in a whisper. "Yes," said Alice. "Then it's all right," spoke the rabbit girl. "Let Uncle Wiggily go!" cried Tweedledee in his most grown-up sort of voice. "Yes, let him go at once!" added Tweedledum. "No, indeed!" snapped both alligators together like twins, only, of course, they weren't. "Well, then," went on Tweedledee, "don't you dare to take away or hurt him unless you guess which are our names. Now tell me truly who am I? And, remember, if you don't guess right, you can't have Uncle Wiggily!" "You are Tweedledum," said the hump-tailed 'gator. "No, he is Tweedledee," said the other 'gator. "The one standing next to him is Tweedledum. I guess I ought to know!" "You're wrong," said the hump-tailed 'gator. "The one I saw first is Tweedledum. I guess I ought to know!" "I know better!" the double-jointed alligator declared. "He is Tweedledee!" "Tweedledum!" shouted the other 'gator. "Tweedledee!" snapped his chum. And then they both began disputing, calling each other names, and throwing mud at one another, until, finally, they were so mixed up about Tweedledum and Tweedledee that they let go of Uncle Wiggily and began shaking their claws at one another, so the rabbit gentleman and Alice and Susie (as well as the two fat boys who looked exactly alike) ran safely away and the bunny was saved, just as Alice had dreamed. "And to think, if the alligators had only looked at our collars, they would have seen our right names," Tweedledum laughed. "Of course," said Tweedledee. But everything came out all right and the alligators only had sawdust for supper. And if the wash lady doesn't take my best collar button to fasten the tablecloth to the ironing board in the clothes basket, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the pool of tears. CHAPTER XXVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TEAR POOL Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was out walking in the woods one day, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have when he saw a little path, leading away from his hollow stump bungalow, and it seemed to go through a part of the forest in which he had never before been. "I'll take that path and see where it leads," said the bunny gentleman to himself. So, taking a piece of ribbon grass, which grew near a clump of ferns, he tied his tall silk hat firmly on his head, leaving his ears sticking out of the holes at the top, and tucking under his paw his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk, away started Uncle Wiggily. It was a nice warm summer day, and before the old gentleman bunny had gone very far he began to feel thirsty, just as you do when you go on a picnic and eat pickles, only I hope you don't eat too many of them. "I wonder if there is not a spring of water around here?" thought Uncle Wiggily, and he began to look about under the low branches of the trees and bushes, at the same time listening for the laughing murmur of a brook flowing over green, mossy stones. Then Uncle Wiggily sniffed with his pink, twinkling nose until it looked like a chicken picking up corn. "Ah, ha!" cried the bunny uncle, "I smell water!" for you know animals and birds can smell water when they cannot see it, in which they are more gifted than are we. So Uncle Wiggily sniffed and sniffed, and then, holding his pink, twinkling nose straight in front of him and letting it go on ahead, instead of lagging behind, he followed it until it led him straight to a little pool of water that was sparkling in the sun, while green moss ferns and bushes grew all around. "Oh, what a fine spring!" cried the bunny, "And how thirsty I am!" Mr. Longears, which I call him when first I introduce him to any strangers--Mr. Longears was just going to take a long drink from the pool, or spring, when he happened to notice a little piece of white birch bark tied with a bit of grass to a fern that grew near the water. "Ha! I wonder if that is a notice not to trespass, or not to fish or hunt, and to keep off the grass, or no admittance except on business or something like that?" thought Uncle Wiggily, as he put on his glasses to see if there was any writing on the birch bark, which animal folk use as we use paper. And there was some writing on the bark. It read: "Please do not jump in, or drink until I come. Alice from Wonderland." "Ha! That is strange," thought Uncle Wiggily. "Alice must have been here and put up that sign. But I wonder why she did it? If she knew how warm and thirsty I was she would not make me wait until she came to get a drink. Perhaps it is all a joke, and not her writing at all. One of the bad skillery-scalery alligators or the fuzzy fox may have put up the sign to fool me." But when the rabbit gentleman took a second look at the birch bark sign he saw that it really was Alice's writing. "Well, she must have some reason for it," said the bunny, with a sigh. "She dreamed right about two fat boys--Tweedledum and Tweedledee--saving me from the alligators, so she must have some reason for asking me to wait until she comes. But I am very thirsty." Uncle Wiggily sat down on the green, mossy bank beside the spring of water and looked at it. And it seemed so cool and wet, and he was so thirsty, that it was all he could do to keep from jumping in and having a bath, as well as drinking all he wanted. The sun grew hotter and more hot, and the rabbit gentleman more and more thirsty, and he didn't know what to do when, all of a sudden, out from the bushes jumped a bad old black bear. "Ah, ha!" growled the bear. "I am just in time, I see!" and he ran his red tongue over his white teeth as though giving it a trolley ride in a baby carriage. "In time for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, casual like and make-believe indifferent. "In time for lunch," answered the bear. "I was afraid I'd be a little late. I hope I haven't kept you waiting." "For my lunch?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "No. For MINE!" and once more the bear smacked his lips hungry like. "I am just in time, I see." "Oh, I thought you meant you were just in time to take a drink of this water," said the bunny, pointing at the pool. "If you did, you aren't." "If I did I aren't? What kind of talk is that?" asked the bear, curious like. "I mean we can't have a drink until Alice comes--the sign says so," spoke Uncle Wiggily, politely. "Pooh! I don't believe in signs," snapped the bear. "I'm thirsty and I'm going to have a drink," and with that he took a long one from the woodland pool. And then a funny thing happened. The bear began to grow smaller and smaller. First he was the size of a dog, then of a cat, then of a kitten, then he shrank to the littleness of a mouse, and next he was like a June bug. Then he became a July bug, next he was no larger than a little black ant, and finally he became a microbe, and Uncle Wiggily couldn't see him at all. "Well, thank goodness he's gone!" said the bunny. "But what made him so shrinking like I wonder?" "It was the pool of tears," said a voice behind the bunny, and there stood Alice from Wonderland. "This pool is sour alum water, Uncle Wiggily," she said, "and if you drink it you shrink and shrivel up and blow away. That's why I put up the sign so nothing would happen to you. I knew about the pool, as it's in my story book. And now we can go have some funny adventures." And away they went over the hills and far away and that bear was never seen again. But if your cat doesn't catch the ice cream cone in the mosquito net and feed it to the gold fish, I'll tell you more of Uncle Wiggily's adventures in a little while. For the old gentleman rabbit had many surprising things happen to him. You may read about them in another book to be called "Uncle Wiggily In Fairyland," which tells of some of the Genii and Gnomes of the Arabian Nights. So, until I have that book ready for you, I'll just wish you a Good-night and many, many happy dreams! THE END Uncle Wiggily Picture Books Three stories in each book By Howard R. Garis [Illustration] Also twenty-seven color pictures By Lang Campbell In these funny little books you can see in bright colored pictures the adventures of myself and my woodland friends. Also the pictures of some bad fellows, whose names you know. So if the spoon holder doesn't go down cellar and take the coal shovel away from the gas stove, you may read No. 1. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTO SLED If the rocking chair doesn't tickle the rag carpet and make the brass bed fall upstairs, you may read No. 2. UNCLE WIGGILY'S SNOW MAN If the umbrella doesn't go out in the rain and splash water all over the rubber boots on the gold fish, you may read No. 3. UNCLE WIGGILY'S HOLIDAYS If the electric light doesn't cry for some molasses, when the match leaves it all alone in the china closet, you may read No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY'S APPLE ROAST If the egg beater doesn't try to jump over the coffee pot and fall in the sink when the potato is learning to swim, you may read No. 5. UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICNIC If the sugar cookie doesn't go out walking with the fountain pen, and get all black so it looks like a chocolate cake, you may read No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING Hurry up and get these nice little books from the bookstore man, or send direct to the publishers, 50 cents per copy, postpaid. CHARLES E. GRAHAM & CO. NEW YORK [Illustration: Uncle Wiggily HIS MARK] Burt's Series of One Syllable Books 14 Titles. Handsome Illuminated Cloth Binding A series of Classics, selected specially for young people's reading, and told in simple language for youngest readers. Printed from large type, with many illustrations. Price 75 Cents per Volume �SOP'S FABLES Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 41 illustrations. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J. C. GORHAM. With many illustrations. ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES (Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations. BIBLE HEROES Told in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations. BLACK BEAUTY Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J. C. GORHAM. With many illustrations. GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES (Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS Into several remote regions of the world. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By J. C. G. With 32 illustrations. LIFE OF CHRIST Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With 24 large portraits. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 33 illustrations. REYNARD THE FOX The Crafty Courtier. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 23 illustrations. ROBINSON CRUSOE His life and surprising adventures retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY A. SCHWACOFER. With 32 illustrations. SANFORD AND MERTON Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 20 illustrations. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Adapted from the original. With 31 illustrations. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York=. THE MOTHER GOOSE SERIES 24 TITLES HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING, ILLUMINATED COVERS A series of popular books for young people. Each book is well printed from large type on good paper, frontispiece in colors, profusely illustrated, and bound in cloth, with ornamental covers in three colors, making a series of most interesting books for children at a reasonable price. =Price, 75 cents per copy= =Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Animal Stories= for Little People. Profusely Illustrated. =Beauty and the Beast=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Bird Stories= for Little People. Profusely Illustrated. =Bluebeard=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Foolish Fox, The=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Goody Two Shoes=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Hansel and Grethel=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =House That Jack Built, The=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Jack and the Beanstalk=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Jack the Giant Killer=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Little Red Riding Hood=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Little Snow White=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Mother Goose Rhymes.= Profusely Illustrated. =Mother Hubbard's Melodies.= Profusely Illustrated. =Night Before Christmas=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Patty and Her Pitcher; or, Kindness of Heart=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Peter and His Goose; or, The Folly of Discontent=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Puss in Boots=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Sleeping Beauty, The=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Tom Thumb=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Ugly Duckling, The=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. =Who Killed Cock Robin=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, =A. L. BURT CO., 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York City=. =Aunt Amy's Animal Stories= =By AMY PRENTICE= A Series of Stories, told by animals, to AUNT AMY PRENTICE. Each illustrated with many pictures in black, and four illustrations in colors, by J. WATSON DAVIS. 12 titles, in handsome cloth binding. =Price 75 cents. Net ----= Bunny Rabbit's Story 30 Illustrations Billy Goat's Story 32 Illustrations Brown Owl's Story 31 Illustrations Croaky Frog's Story 28 Illustrations Frisky Squirrel's Story 30 Illustrations Gray Goose's Story 32 Illustrations Mickie Monkey's Story 35 Illustrations Mouser Cat's Story 35 Illustrations Plodding Turtle's Story 30 Illustrations Quacky Duck's Story 34 Illustrations Speckled Hen's Story 28 Illustrations Towser Dog's Story 32 Illustrations For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-130 East 23rd Street, New York=. =The Boy Scouts Series= =By HERBERT CARTER= =Handsome Cloth Binding,= THE BOY SCOUTS' FIRST CAMP FIRE; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE BLUE RIDGE; or, Marooned Among the Moonshiners. THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL; or, Scouting through the Big Game Country. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE MAIN WOODS; or, The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol. THE BOY SCOUTS THROUGH THE BIG TIMBER; or, The Search for the Lost Tenderfoot. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver Mine. THE BOY SCOUTS ON STURGEON ISLAND; or, Marooned Among the Game Fish Poachers. THE BOY SCOUTS DOWN IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator Swamp. THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA. A story of Burgoyne's defeat in 1777. THE BOY SCOUTS ALONG THE SUSQUEHANNA; or, The Silver Fox Patrol Caught in a Flood. THE BOY SCOUTS ON WAR TRAILS IN BELGIUM; or, Caught Between the Hostile Armies. THE BOY SCOUTS AFOOT IN FRANCE; or, With the Red Cross Corps at the Marne. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York= =The Boy Allies= (Registered in the United States Patent Office) =With the Navy= =By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE= =Handsome Cloth Binding,= Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, they share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably the many exciting adventures of the two boys. THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at the German Fleet. THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Seas. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the Great War. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of Submarine D-16. THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine. THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the Czar. THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History. THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American Army Across the Atlantic. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian Empire. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German Navy. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York= =The Boy Allies With the Army= (Registered in the United States Patent Office) =By CLAIR W. HAYES= =Handsome Cloth Binding,= In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that every boy loves. THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel. THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the Marne. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the Carpathians. THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne. THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps. THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a Nation. THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded. THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy. THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American Troops to the Firing Line. THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of Vimy Ridge. THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or, Over the Top at Chateau Thierry. THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through France and Belgium. THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great World War. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York= =Our Young Aeroplane Scout Series= (Registered in the United States Patent Office) =By HORACE PORTER= =Handsome Cloth Binding,= A series of stories of two American boy aviators in the great European war zone. The fascinating life in mid-air is thrillingly described. The boys have many exciting adventures, and the narratives of their numerous escapes make up a series of wonderfully interesting stories. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM; or, Saving the Fortunes of the Trouvilles. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN RUSSIA; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN TURKEY; or, Bringing the Light to Yusef. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ENGLAND; or, Twin Stars in the London Sky Patrol. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ITALY; or, Flying with the War Eagles of the Alps. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT VERDUN; or, Driving Armored Meteors Over Flaming Battle Fronts. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE BALKANS; or, Wearing the Red Badge of Courage. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE WAR ZONE; or, Serving Uncle Sam In the Cause of the Allies. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS FIGHTING TO THE FINISH; or, Striking Hard Over the Sea for the Stars and Stripes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT THE MARNE; or, Harrying the Huns From Allied Battleplanes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN AT THE VICTORY; or, Speedy High Flyers Smashing the Hindenburg Line. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York= =The Boy Spies Series= [Illustration] These stories are based on important historical events, scenes wherein boys are prominent characters being selected. They are the romance of history, vigorously told, with careful fidelity to picturing the home life, and accurate in every particular. HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS =THE BOY SPIES AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.= A story of the part they took in its defence. By William P. Chipman. =THE BOY SPIES AT THE DEFENCE OF FORT HENRY.= A boy's story of Wheeling Creek in 1777. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.= A story of two boys at the siege of Boston. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES AT THE SIEGE OF DETROIT.= A story of two Ohio boys in the War of 1812. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES WITH LAFAYETTE.= The story of how two boys joined the Continental Army. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES ON CHESAPEAKE BAY.= The story of two young spies under Commodore Barney. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES WITH THE REGULATORS.= The story of how the boys assisted the Carolina Patriots to drive the British from that State. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES WITH THE SWAMP FOX.= The story of General Marion and his young spies. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES AT YORKTOWN.= The story of how the spies helped General Lafayette in the Siege of Yorktown. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES OF PHILADELPHIA.= The story of how the young spies helped the Continental Army at Valley Forge. By James Otis. =THE BOY SPIES OF FORT GRISWOLD.= The story of the part they took in its brave defence. By William P. Chipman. =THE BOY SPIES OF OLD NEW YORK.= The story of how the young spies prevented the capture of General Washington. By James Otis. For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers. A. L. BURT COMPANY. 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York =The Navy Boys Series= [Illustration] A series of excellent stories of adventure on sea and land, selected from the works of popular writers; each volume designed for boys' reading. HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS =THE NAVY BOYS IN DEFENCE OF LIBERTY.= A story of the burning of the British schooner Gaspee in 1772. By William P. Chipman. =THE NAVY BOYS ON LONG ISLAND SOUND.= A story of the Whale Boat Navy of 1776. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS AT THE SIEGE OF HAVANA.= Being the experience of three boys serving under Israel Putnam in 1772. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS WITH GRANT AT VICKSBURG.= A boy's story of the siege of Vicksburg. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE WITH PAUL JONES.= A boy's story of a cruise with the Great Commodore in 1776. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS ON LAKE ONTARIO.= The story of two boys and their adventures in the War of 1812. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE ON THE PICKERING.= A boy's story of privateering in 1780. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS IN NEW YORK BAY.= A story of three boys who took command of the schooner "The Laughing Mary," the first vessel of the American Navy. By James Otis. =THE NAVY BOYS IN THE TRACK OF THE ENEMY.= The story of a remarkable cruise with the Sloop of War "Providence" and the Frigate "Alfred." By William P. Chipman. =THE NAVY BOYS' DARING CAPTURE.= The story of how the navy boys helped to capture the British Cutter "Margaretta," in 1775. By William P. Chipman. =THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS.= The adventures of two Yankee Middies with the first cruise of an American Squadron in 1775. By William P. Chipman. =THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE WITH COLUMBUS.= The adventures of two boys who sailed with the great Admiral in his discovery of America. By Frederick A. Ober. Transcriber's Note Punctuation, capitalization and formatting markup have been normalized. Apparent printer's errors have been retained, unless stated below. Illustrations have been moved near their mention in the text. "_" surrounding text represents text in italics. "=" surrounding text represents text in bold. Page 76, missing "the" added. ("Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Will you please take me with you this morning?" asked a little voice, somewhere down near the lower, or floor-end, of the old rabbit gentleman's rheumatism crutch, as Mr. Longears sat at the breakfast table in his hollow stump bungalow.) Page 93, "current" changed to "currant". (Together they went along through the woods and over the fields and, all of a sudden, from behind a currant jam bush, out jumped a bad, old, double-jointed skillery-scalery alligator.) Page 93, "Wigwily" changed to "Wiggly" for consistency. (And if the ice wagon doesn't slide down hill and throw snowballs at the potato pudding in the parlor I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the magic bottles.) Page 120, "Wigggly" changed to "Wiggily". (He had heard about Uncle Wiggily's trouble from the Do-do bird, and had come, with his strong bill, to bite the spider web into little pieces.) Page 158, missing "to" added. ("I sent her to the store about an hour ago to get a loaf of sand bread, but she hasn't come back and I'm sure something has happened to her.") Page 184, missing "to" added. (For the old gentleman rabbit had many surprising things happen to him.) 
17807	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 17807-h.htm or 17807-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/8/0/17807/17807-h/17807-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/8/0/17807/17807-h.zip) Bedtime Stories UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS by HOWARD R. GARIS Author of "Sammie and Susie Littletail," "Uncle Wiggily and Mother Goose," "The Bedtime Series of Animal Stories," "The Daddy Series," Etc. Illustrated by Louis Wisa [Frontispiece: She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a little push.] A. L. Burt Company Publishers ------------ New York Copyright 1917, by R. F. Fenno & Company UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS CONTENTS STORY I Uncle Wiggily and the Willow Tree II Uncle Wiggily and the Wintergreen III Uncle Wiggily and the Slippery Elm IV Uncle Wiggily and the Sassafras V Uncle Wiggily and the Pulpit-Jack VI Uncle Wiggily and the Violets VII Uncle Wiggily and the High Tree VIII Uncle Wiggily and the Peppermint IX Uncle Wiggily and the Birch Tree X Uncle Wiggily and the Butternut Tree XI Uncle Wiggily and Lulu's Hat XII Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Drops XIII Uncle Wiggily and the Horse Chestnut XIV Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Tree XV Uncle Wiggily and the Green Rushes XVI Uncle Wiggily and the Bee Tree XVII Uncle Wiggily and the Dogwood XVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Hazel Nuts XIX Uncle Wiggily and Susie's Dress XX Uncle Wiggily and Tommie's Kite XXI Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie's Marbles XXII Uncle Wiggily and Billie's Top XXIII Uncle Wiggily and the Sunbeam XXIV Uncle Wiggily and the Puff Ball XXV Uncle Wiggily and the May Flowers XXVI Uncle Wiggily and the Beech Tree XXVII Uncle Wiggily and the Bitter Medicine XXVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Cones XXIX Uncle Wiggily and His Torn Coat XXX Uncle Wiggily and the Sycamore Tree XXXI Uncle Wiggily and the Red Spots ILLUSTRATIONS She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a little push . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt. As they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped the bad old tail-pulling monkey. The tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes were frightened and were glad enough to run away. Up, up and up into the air blew the kite and, as the string was tangled around the babboon's paws, it took him up with it. "Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from the puff balls went up his nose and into his eyes. Jackie was so surprised that he opened his mouth. Before Uncle Wiggily could stop himself he had run into the bush. STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WILLOW TREE "Well, it's all settled!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one day, as he hopped up the steps of his hollow stump bungalow where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, was fanning herself with a cabbage leaf tied to her tail. "It's all settled." "What is?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "You don't mean to tell me anything has happened to you?" and she looked quite anxious. "No, I'm all right," laughed Uncle Wiggily, "and I hope you are the same. What I meant was that it's all settled where we are going to spend our vacation this Summer." "Oh, tell me where!" exclaimed the muskrat lady clapping her paws, anxious like. "In a hollow stump bungalow, just like this, but in the woods instead of in the country," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, that _will_ be fine!" cried Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I love the woods. When are we to go?" "Very soon now," answered the bunny gentleman uncle. "You may begin to pack up as quickly as you please." And Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily moved to the woods very next day and his adventures began. I guess most of you know about the rabbit gentleman and his muskrat lady housekeeper who nursed him when he was ill with the rheumatism. Uncle Wiggily had lots and lots of adventures, about which I have told you in the books before this one. He had traveled about seeking his fortune, he had even gone sailing in his airship, and once he met Mother Goose and all her friends from Old King Cole down to Little Jack Horner. Uncle Wiggily had many friends among the animal boys and girls. There was Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, who have a book all to themselves; just as have Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, and Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the mice children. "And I s'pose we'll meet all your friends in the woods, won't we, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane, as they moved from the old hollow stump bungalow to the new one. "Oh, yes, I s'pose so, of course," he laughed in answer, as he pulled his tall silk hat more tightly down on his head, fastened on his glasses and took his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. So, once upon a time, not very many years ago, as all good stories should begin, Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane found themselves in the woods. It was lovely among the trees, and as soon as the rabbit gentleman had helped Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy put the hollow stump bungalow to rights he started out for a walk. "I want to see what sort of adventures I shall have in the woods," said Mr. Longears as he hopped along. Now in these woods lived, among many other creatures good and bad, two skillery-scalery alligators who were not exactly friends of the bunny uncle. But don't let that worry you, for though the alligators, and other unpleasant animals, may, once in a while, make trouble for Uncle Wiggily, I'll never really let them hurt him. I'll fix that part all right! So, one day, the skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail, and his brother, another skillery-scalery chap, whose tail was double jointed, were taking a walk through the woods together just as Uncle Wiggily was doing. "Brother," began the hump-tailed 'gator (which I call him for short), "brother, wouldn't you like a nice rabbit?" "Indeed I would," answered the double-jointed tail 'gator, who could wobble his flippers both ways. "And I know of no nicer rabbit than Uncle Wiggily Longears." "The very same one about whom I was thinking!" exclaimed the other alligator. "Let's catch him!" "That's what we'll do!" said the double-jointed chap. "We'll hide in the woods until he comes along, as he does every day, and the we'll jump out and grab him. Oh, you yum-yum!" "Fine!" grunted his brother. "Come on!" Off they crawled through the woods, and pretty soon they came to a willow tree, where the branches grew so low down that they looked like a curtain that had unwound itself off the roller, when the cat hangs on it. "This is the place for us to hide--by the weeping willow tree," said the skillery-scalery alligator with bumps on his tail. "The very place," agreed his brother. So they hid behind the thick branches of the tree, which had leafed out for early spring, and there the two bad creatures waited. Just before this Uncle Wiggily himself had started out from his hollow stump bungalow to walk in the woods and across the fields, as he did every day. "I wonder what sort of an adventure I shall have this time?" he said to himself. "I hope it will be a real nice one." Oh! If Uncle Wiggily had known what was in store for him, I think he would have stayed in his hollow stump bungalow. But never mind, I'll make it all come out right in the end, you see if I don't. I don't know just how I'm going to do it, yet, but I'll find a way, never fear. Uncle Wiggily hopped on and on, now and then swinging his red-white-and-blue-striped rheumatism crutch like a cane, because he felt so young and spry and spring-like. Pretty soon he came to the willow tree. He was sort of looking up at it, wondering if a nibble of some of the green leaves would not do him good, when, all of a sudden, out jumped the two bad alligators and grabbed the bunny gentleman. "Now we have you!" cried the humped-tail 'gator. "And you can't get away from us," said the other chap--the double-jointed tail one. "Oh, please let me go!" begged Uncle Wiggily, but they hooked their claws in his fur, and pulled him back under the tree, which held its branches so low. I told you it was a weeping willow tree, and just now it was weeping, I think, because Uncle Wiggily was in such trouble. "Let's see now," said the double-jointed tail alligator. "I'll carry this rabbit home, and then--" "You'll do nothing of the sort!" interrupted the other, and not very politely, either. "I'll carry him myself. Why, I caught him as much as you did!" "Well, maybe you did, but I saw him first." "I don't care! It was my idea. I first thought of this way of catching him!" And then those two alligators disputed, and talked very unpleasantly, indeed, to one another. But, all the while, they kept tight hold of the bunny uncle, so he could not get away. "Well," said the double-jointed tail alligator after a while, "we must settle this one way or the other. Am I to carry him to our den, or you?" "Me! I'll do it. If you took him you'd keep him all for yourself. I know you!" "No, I wouldn't! But that's just what you'd do. I know you only too well. No, if I can't carry this rabbit home myself, you shan't!" "I say the same thing. I'm going to have my rights." Now, while the two bad alligators were talking this way they did not pay much attention to Uncle Wiggily. They held him so tightly in their claws that he could not get away, but he could use his own paws, and, when the two bad creatures were talking right in each other's face, and using big words, Uncle Wiggily reached up and cut off a piece of willow wood with the bark on. And then, still when the 'gators were disputing, and not looking, the bunny uncle made himself a whistle out of the willow tree stick. He loosened the bark, which came off like a kid glove, and then he cut a place to blow his breath in, and another place to let the air out and so on, until he had a very fine whistle indeed, almost as loud-blowing as those the policemen have to stop the automobiles from splashing mud on you so a trolley car can bump into you. "I'll tell you what we'll do," said the hump-tail alligator at last. "Since you won't let me carry him home, and I won't let you, let's both carry him together. You take hold of him on one side, and I'll take the other." "Good!" cried the second alligator. "Oh, ho! I guess not!" cried the bunny uncle suddenly. "I guess you won't either, or both of you take me off to your den. No, indeed!" "Why not?" asked the hump-tailed 'gator, sort of impolite like and sarcastic. "Because I'm going to blow my whistle and call the police!" went on the bunny uncle. "Toot! Toot! Tootity-ti-toot-toot!" And then and there he blew such a loud, shrill blast on his willow tree whistle that the alligators had to put their paws over their ears. And when they did that they had to let go of bunny uncle. He had his tall silk hat down over his ears, so it didn't matter how loudly he blew the whistle. He couldn't hear it. "Toot! Toot! Tootity-toot-toot!" he blew on the willow whistle. "Oh, stop! Stop!" cried the hump-tailed 'gator. "Come on, run away before the police come!" said his brother. And out from under the willow tree they both ran, leaving Uncle Wiggily safely behind. "Well," said the bunny gentleman as he hopped along home to his bungalow, "it is a good thing I learned, when a boy rabbit, how to make whistles." And I think so myself. So if the vinegar jug doesn't jump into the molasses barrel and turn its face sour like a lemon pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the winter green. STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WINTERGREEN Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, knocked on the door of the hollow tree in the woods where Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two little squirrel boys, lived. "Come in!" invited Mrs. Bushytail. So Uncle Wiggily went in. "I thought I'd come around and see you," he said to the squirrel lady. "I'm living in the woods this Summer and just now I am out taking a walk, as I do every day, and I hoped I might meet with an adventure. But, so far, I haven't. Do you know where I could find an adventure, Mrs. Bushytail?" "No, I'm sorry to say I don't, Uncle Wiggily," answered the squirrel lady. "But I wish you could find something to make my little boy Billie feel better." "Why, is he ill?" asked the bunny uncle, surprised like, and he looked across the room where Billy Bushytail was curled up in a big rocking chair, with his tail held over his head like an umbrella, though it was not raining. "No, Billie isn't ill," said Mrs. Bushytail. "But he says he doesn't know what to do to have any fun, and I am afraid he is a little peevish." "Oh, that isn't right," said Mr. Longears. "Little boys, whether they are squirrels, rabbits or real children, should try to be jolly and happy, and not peevish." "How can a fellow be happy when there's no fun?" asked Billie, sort of cross-like. "My brother Johnnie got out of school early, and he and the other animal boys have gone off to play where I can't find them. I had to stay in, because I didn't know my nut-cracking lesson, and now I can't have any fun. Oh, dear! I don't care!" Billie meant, I suppose, that he didn't care what he said or did, and that isn't right. But Uncle Wiggily only pinkled his twink nose. No, wait just a moment if you please. He just twinkled his pink nose behind the squirrel boy's back, and then the bunny uncle said: "How would you like to come for a walk in the woods with me, Billie?" "Oh, that will be nice!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "Do go, Billie." "No, I don't want to!" chattered the boy squirrel, most impolitely. "Oh, that isn't at all nice," said Mrs. Bushy-tail. "At least thank Uncle Wiggily for asking you." "Oh, excuse me, Uncle Wiggily," said Billie, sorrylike. "I do thank you. But I want very much to have some fun, and there's no fun in the woods. I know all about them. I know every tree and bush and stump. I want to go to a new place." "Well, new places are nice," said the bunny uncle, "but old ones are nice, too, if you know where to look for the niceness. Now come along with me, and we'll see if we can't have some fun. It is lovely in the woods now." "I won't have any fun there," said Billie, crossly. "The woods are no good. Nothing good to eat grows there." "Oh, yes there does--lots!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Why the nuts you squirrels eat grow in the woods." "Yes, but there are no nuts now," spoke the squirrel boy. "They only come in the Fall." "Well, come, scamper along, anyhow," invited Uncle Wiggily. "Who knows what may happen? It may even be an adventure. Come along, Billie." So, though he did not care much about it, Billie went. Uncle Wiggily showed the squirrel boy where the early spring flowers were coming up, and how the Jacks, in their pulpits, were getting ready to preach sermons to the trees and bushes. "Hark! What's that?" asked Billie, suddenly, hearing a noise. "What does it sound like?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Like bells ringing." "Oh, it's the bluebells--the bluebell flowers," answered the bunny uncle. "Why do they ring?" asked the little boy squirrel. "To call the little ants and lightning bugs to school," spoke Uncle Wiggily, and Billy smiled. He was beginning to see that there were more things in the woods than he had dreamed of, even if he had scampered here and there among the trees ever since he was a little squirrel chap. On and on through the woods went the bunny uncle and Billie. They picked big, leafy ferns to fan themselves with, and then they drank with green leaf-cups from a spring of cool water. But no sooner had Billie taken the cold water than he suddenly cried: "Ouch! Oh, dear! Oh, my, how it hurts!" "What is it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you bite your tongue or step on a thorn?" "It's my tooth," chattered Billie. "The cold water made it ache again. I need to go to Mr. Stubtail, the bear dentist, who will pull it out with his long claws. But I've been putting it off, and putting it off, and now--Oh, dear, how it aches! Wow!" "I'll cure it for you!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Just walk along through the woods with me and I'll soon stop your aching tooth." "How can you?" asked Billie, holding his paw to his jaw to warm the aching tooth, for heat will often stop pain. "There isn't anything here in the woods to cure toothache; is there?" "I think we shall find something," spoke the bunny uncle. "Well, I wish we could find it soon!" cried Billie, "for my tooth hurts very much. Ouch!" and he hopped up and down, for the toothache was of the jumping kind. "Ah, ha! Here we have it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he stooped over some shiny green leaves, growing close to the ground, and he pulled some of them up. "Just chew these leaves a little and let them rest inside your mouth near the aching tooth," said Mr. Longears. "I think they will help you, Billie." So Billie chewed the green leaves. They smarted and burned a little, but when he put them near his tooth they made it nice and warm and soon the ache all stopped. "What was that you gave me, Uncle Wiggily?" Billie asked. "Wintergreen," answered Uncle Wiggily. "It grows in the woods, and is good for flavoring candy, as well as for stopping toothache." "I am glad to know that," said Billie. "The woods are a nicer place than I thought, and there is ever so much more in them than I dreamed. Thank you, Uncle Wiggily." So, as his toothache was all better, Billie had good fun in the woods with the bunny uncle, until it was time to go home. And in the next story, if the top doesn't fly off the coffee pot and let the baked potato hide away from the egg-beater, when they play tag, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the slippery elm. STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SLIPPERY ELM "Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman standing on the front steps of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods one morning. "Where are you going?" "Oh, just for a walk through the forest," spoke the bunny uncle. "It is so nice in the woods, with the flowers coming up, and the leaves getting larger and greener every day, that I just love to walk there." "Well," said Nurse Jane with a laugh, "if you happen to see a bread-tree in the woods, bring home a loaf for supper." "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "You know, Nurse Jane, there really are trees on which bread fruit grows, though not in this country. But I can get you a loaf of bread at the five and ten cent store, I dare say." "Do, please," asked the muskrat lady. "And if you see a cocoanut tree you might bring home a cocoanut cake for supper." "Oh, my!" laughed the rabbit gentleman. "I'm afraid there are no cocoanut trees in my woods. I could bring you home a hickory nut cake, perhaps." "Well, whatever you like," spoke Nurse Jane. "But don't get lost, whatever you do, and if you meet with an adventure I hope it will be a nice one." "So do I," Uncle Wiggily said, as he hopped off, leaning on his red, white and blue stripped [Transcriber's note: striped?] rheumatism crutch which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. The old rabbit gentleman had not gone very far before he met Dr. Possum walking along in the woods, with his satchel of medicine on his tail, for Dr. Possum cured all the ill animals, you know. "What in the world are you doing, Dr. Possum?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he saw the animal doctor pulling some bark off a tree. "Are you going to make a canoe, as the Indians used to do?" "Oh, no," answered Dr. Possum. "This is a slippery elm tree. The underside of the bark, next to the tree, and the tree itself, is very slippery when it is wet. Very slippery indeed." "Well, I hope you don't slip," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I hope so, too," Dr. Possum said. "But I am taking this slippery elm bark to mix with some of the bitter medicine I have to give Billie Wagtail, the goat boy. When I put some bark from the slippery elm tree in Billie's medicine it will slip down his throat so quickly that he will never know he took it." "Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, laughing. Then the bunny uncle went close to the tree, off which Dr. Possum was taking some bark, and felt of it with his paw. The tree was indeed as slippery as an icy sidewalk slide on Christmas eve. "My!" exclaimed Mr. Longears. "If I tried to climb up that tree I'd do nothing but slip down." "That's right," said Dr. Possum. "But I must hurry on now to give Billie Wagtail his medicine." So Dr. Possum went on his way and Uncle Wiggily hopped along until, pretty soon, he heard a rustling in the bushes, and a voice said: "But, Squeaky-Eeky dear, I can't find any snow hill for you to ride down on your sled. The snow is all gone, you see. It is Spring now." "Oh, dear!" cried another voice. "Such a lot of trouble. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" "Ha! Trouble!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "This is where I come in. I must see if I cannot help them." He looked through the bushes, and there he saw Jillie Longtail, the little girl mouse, and with her was Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse. And Squeaky-Eeky had a small sled with her. "Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, for he saw that Squeaky-Eeky had been crying. "What is the matter, little mice?" "Oh, hello. Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "I don't know what to do with my little cousin mouse. You see she wants to slide down hill on her Christmas sled, but there isn't any snow on any of the hills now." "No, that's true, there isn't," said the bunny uncle. "But, Squeaky, why didn't you slide down hill in the Winter, when there was snow?" "Because, I had the mouse-trap fever, then," answered Squeaky-Eeky, "and I couldn't go out. But now I am all better and I can be out, and oh, dear! I do so much want a ride down hill on my sled. Boo, hoo!" "Don't cry, Squeaky, dear," said Jillie. "If there is no snow you can't slide down hill, you know." "But I want to," said the little cousin mouse, unreasonable like. "But you can't; so please be nice," begged Jillie. "Oh, dear!" cried Squeaky. "I do so much want to slide down hill on my sled." "And you shall!" suddenly exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Come with me, Squeaky." "Why, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "How can you give Squeaky a slide down hill when there is no snow? You need a slippery snow hill for sleigh-riding." "I am not so sure of that," spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a smile. "Let us see." Off through the woods he hopped, with Jillie and Squeaky following. Pretty soon Uncle Wiggily came to a big tree that had fallen down, one end being raised up higher than the other, like a hill, slanting. With his strong paws and his sharp teeth, the rabbit gentleman began peeling the bark off the tree, showing the white wood underneath. "What are you doing, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jillie. "This is a slippery elm tree, and I am making a hill so Squeaky-Eeky can slide down," answered the bunny uncle. "Underneath the bark the trunk of the elm tree is very slippery. Dr. Possum told me so. See how my paw slips!" And indeed it did, sliding down the sloping tree almost as fast as you can eat a lollypop. Uncle Wiggily took off a lot of bark from the elm tree, making a long, sliding, slippery place. "Now, try that with your sled, Squeaky-Eeky," said the bunny uncle. And the little cousin mouse did. She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a little push. Down the slippery elm tree went Squeaky as fast as anything, coming to a stop in a pile of soft leaves. "Oh, what a lovely slide!" cried Squeaky. "You try it, Jillie." And the little mouse girl did. "Who would think," she said, "that you could slide down a slippery elm tree? But you can." Then she and Squeaky took turns sliding down hill, even though there was no snow, and the slippery elm tree didn't mind it a bit, but rather liked it. And if the coal man doesn't take away our gas shovel to shoot some tooth powder into the wax doll's pop gun, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the sassafras. STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SASSAFRAS "Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Get up!" called Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she stood at the foot of the stairs of the hollow stump bungalow and called up to the rabbit gentleman one morning. "Hurry down, Mr. Longears," she went on. "This is the last day I am going to bake buckwheat cakes, and if you want some nice hot ones, with maple sugar sauce on, you'd better hurry." No answer came from the bunny uncle. "Why, this is strange," said Nurse Jane to herself. "I wonder if anything can have happened to him? Did he have an adventure in the night? Did the bad skillery-scalery alligator, with humps on its tail, carry him off?" Then she called again: "Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Aren't you going to get up? Come down to breakfast. Aren't you going to get up and come down?" "No, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," replied the bunny uncle, "not to give you a short answer, I am not going to get up, or come down or eat breakfast or do anything," and Mr. Longears spoke as though his head was hidden under the bed clothes, which it was. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, whatever is the matter?" asked Nurse Jane, surprised like and anxious. "I don't feel at all well," was the answer. "I think I have the epizootic, and I don't want any breakfast." "Oh, dear!" cried Nurse Jane. "And all the nice cakes I have baked. I know what I'll do," she said to herself. "I'll call in Dr. Possum. Perhaps Uncle Wiggily needs some of the roots and herbs that grow in the woods--wintergreen, slippery elm or something like that. I'll call Dr. Possum." And when the animal doctor came he looked at the bunny uncle's tongue, felt of his ears, and said: "Ha! Hum! You have the Spring fever, Uncle Wiggily. What you need is sassafras." "Nurse Jane has some in the bungalow," spoke Mr. Longears. "Tell her to make me some tea from that." "No, what is needed is fresh sassafras," said Dr. Possum. "And, what is more, you must go out in the woods and dig it yourself. That will be almost as good for your Spring fever as the sassafras itself. So hop out, and dig some of the roots." "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, fussy like. "I don't want to. I'd rather stay here in bed." "But you can't!" cried Dr. Possum in his jolly voice. "Out with you!" and he pulled the bed clothes off the bunny uncle so he had to get up to keep warm. "Well, I'll just go out and dig a little sassafras root to please him," thought Uncle Wiggily to himself, "and then I'll come back and stay in bed as long as I please. It's all nonsense thinking I have to have fresh root--the old is good enough." "I do feel quite wretched and lazy like," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he limped along on his red, white and blue-striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. "As soon as I find some sassafras I'll pull up a bit of the root and hurry back home and to bed." Pretty soon the bunny uncle saw where some of the sassafras roots were growing, with their queer three-pointed leaves, like a mitten, with a place for your finger and thumb. "Now to pull up the root," said the bunny uncle, as he dug down in the ground a little way with his paws, to get a better hold. But pulling up sassafras roots is not as easy as it sounds, as you know if you have ever tried it. The roots go away down in the earth, and they are very strong. Uncle Wiggily pulled and tugged and twisted and turned, but he could break off only little bits of the underground stalk. "This won't do!" he said to himself. "If I don't get a big root Dr. Possum will, perhaps, send me hack for more. I'll try again." He got his paws under a nice, big root, and he was straining his back to pull it up, when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying: "How do you do?" "Oh, hello!" exclaimed the bunny, looking up quickly, and expecting to see some friend of his, like Grandpa Goosey Gander, or Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy. But, instead, he saw the bad old fox, who had, so many times, tried to catch the rabbit gentleman. "Oh!" said Uncle Wiggily, astonished like. And again he said: "Oh!" "Surprised, are you?" asked the fox, sort of curling his whiskers around his tongue, sarcastic fashion. "A little--yes," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I didn't expect to see you." "But I've been expecting you a long time," said the fox, grinning most impolitely. "In fact, I've been waiting for you. Just as soon as you have pulled up that sassafras root you may come with me. I'll take you off to my den, to my dear little foxes Eight, Nine and Ten. Those are their numbers. It's easier to number them than name them." "Oh, indeed?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as politely as he could, considering everything. "And so you won't take me until I pull this sassafras root?" "No, I'll wait until you have finished," spoke the fox. "I like you better, anyhow, flavored with sassafras. So pull away." Uncle Wiggily tried to pull up the root, but he did not pull very hard. "For," he thought, "as soon as I pull it up then the fox will take me, but if I don't pull it he may not." "What's the matter? Can't you get that root up?" asked the fox, after a while. "I can't wait all day." "Then perhaps you will kindly pull it up for me," said the bunny uncle. "I can't seem to do it." "All right, I will," the fox said. Uncle Wiggily hopped to one side. The fox put his paws under the sassafras root. And he pulled and he pulled and he pulled, and finally, with a double extra strong pull, he pulled up the root. But it came up so suddenly, just as when you break the point off your pencil, that the fox keeled over backward in a peppersault and somersault also. "Oh, wow!" cried the fox, as he bumped his nose. "What happened?" But Uncle Wiggily did not stay to tell. Away ran the bunny through the woods, as fast as he could go, forgetting all about his Spring fever. He was all over it. "I thought the sassafras would cure you," said Dr. Possum, when Uncle Wiggily was safely home once more. "The fox helped some," said the bunny uncle, with a laugh. And if the black cat doesn't cover himself with talcum powder and make believe he's a white kid glove going to a dance, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Jack-in-the-Pulpit. STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PULPIT-JACK "Well, how are you feeling today, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman taking his tall silk hat down off the china closet, getting ready to go for a walk in the woods one morning. "Why, I'm feeling pretty fine, Nurse Jane," answered the bunny uncle. "Since I ran home to get away from the fox, after he turned a peppersault from pulling too strong to get up the sassafras root, I feel much better, thank you." "Good!" cried Nurse Jane. "Then perhaps you would not mind going to the store for me." "Certainly not," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "What do you wish?" "A loaf of bread," replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, "also a box of matches and some sugar and crackers. But don't forget the matches whatever you do." "I won't," promised the bunny uncle, and soon he was hopping along through the woods wondering what sort of an adventure he would have this day. As he was going along keeping a sharp look-out for the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery alligator with the double jointed tail. Uncle Wiggily heard a voice saying: "Oh, dear! I'll never be able to get out from under the stone and grow tall as I ought. I've pushed and pushed on it, but I can't raise it. Oh, dear; what a heavy stone!" "Ha! Some one under a stone!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "That certainly is bad trouble. I wonder if I cannot help?" The bunny uncle looked all around and down on the ground he saw a flat stone. Underneath it something green and brown was peeping out. "Was that you who called?" asked Mr. Longears. "It was," came the answer. "I am a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant, you see, and I started to grow up, as all plants and flowers do when summer comes. But when I had raised my head out of the earth I found a big stone over me, and now I can grow no more. I've pushed and pushed until my back aches, and I can't lift the stone." "I'll do it for you," said Uncle Wiggily kindly, and he did, taking it off the Pulpit-Jack. Then the Jack began growing up, and he had been held down so long that he grew quite quickly, so that even while Uncle Wiggily was watching, the Jack and his pulpit were almost regular size. A Jack-in-the-Pulpit, you know, is a queer flower that grows in our woods. Sometimes it is called an Indian turnip, but don't eat it, for it is very biting. The Jack is a tall green chap, who stands in the middle of his pulpit, which is like a little pitcher, with a curved top to it. A pulpit, you know, is where some one preaches on Sunday. "Thank you very much for lifting the stone off me so I could grow," said the Jack to Uncle Wiggily. "If ever I can do you a favor I will." "Oh, pray don't mention it," replied the rabbit gentleman, with a low bow. "It was a mere pleasure, I assure you." Then the rabbit gentleman hopped on to the store, to get the matches, the crackers, the bread and other things for Nurse Jane. "And I must be sure not to forget the matches," Uncle Wiggily said to himself. "If I did Nurse Jane could not make a fire to cook supper." There was an April shower while Uncle Wiggily was in the store, and he waited for the rain to stop falling before he started back to his hollow stump bungalow. Then the sun came out very hot and strong and shone down through the wet leaves of the trees in the woods. Along hopped the bunny uncle, and he was wondering what he would have for supper that night. "I hope it's something good," he said, "to make up for not having an adventure." "Don't you call that an adventure--lifting the stone off the Jack-in-the-Pulpit so he could grow?" asked a bird, sitting up in a tree. "Well, that was a little adventure." said Uncle Wiggily. "But I want one more exciting; a big one." And he is going to have one in about a minute. Just you wait and you'll hear all about it. The sun was shining hotter and hotter, and Uncle Wiggily was thinking that it was about time to get out his extra-thin fur coat when, all of a sudden, he felt something very hot behind him. "Why, that sun is really burning!" cried the bunny. Then he heard a little ant boy, who was crawling on the ground, cry out: "Fire! Fire! Fire! Uncle Wiggily's bundle of groceries is on fire! Fire! Fire!" "Oh, my!" cried the bunny uncle, as he felt hotter and hotter, "The sun must have set fire to the box of matches. Oh, what shall I do?" He dropped his bundle of groceries, and looking around at them he saw, surely enough, the matches were on fire. They were all blazing. "Call the fire department! Get out the water bugs!" cried the little ant boy. "Fire! Water! Water! Fire!" "That's what I want--water," cried the bunny uncle. "Oh, if I could find a spring of water. I could put the blazing matches, save some of them, perhaps, and surely save the bread and crackers. Oh, for some water!" Uncle Wiggily and the ant boy ran here and there in the woods looking for a spring of water. But they could find none, and the bread and crackers were just beginning to burn when a voice cried: "Here is water, Uncle Wiggily!" "Where? Where?" asked the rabbit gentleman, all excited like. "Where?" "Inside my pulpit," was the answer, and Uncle Wiggily saw, not far away, the Jack-plant he had helped from under the stone. "When it rained a while ago, my pitcher-pulpit became filled with water," went on Jack. "If you will just tip me over, sideways, I'll splash the water on the blazing matches and put them out." "I'll do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and he quickly did. The pulpit held water as good as a milk pitcher could, and when the water splashed on the fire that fire gave one hiss, like a goose, and went out. "Oh, you certainly did me a favor, Mr. Pulpit-Jack," said Uncle Wiggily. "Though the matches are burned, the bread and crackers are saved, and I can get more matches." Which he did, so Nurse Jane could make a fire in the stove. So you see Uncle Wiggily had an adventure after all, and quite an exciting one, too, and if the lemon drop doesn't fall on the stick of peppermint candy and make it sneeze when it goes to the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the violets. STORY VI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE VIOLETS Down in the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow there was a great clattering of pots and pans. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman who lived in the bungalow, sat up in bed, having been awakened by the noise, and he said: "Well, I wonder what Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy is doing now? She certainly is busy at something, and it can't be making the breakfast buckwheat cakes, either, for she has stopped baking them." "I say, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, what's going on down in your kitchen?" called the rabbit gentleman out loud. "I'm washing," answered the muskrat lady. "Washing what; the dishes?" the bunny uncle wanted to know. "If you wash them as hard as it sounds, there won't be any of them left for dinner, and I haven't had my breakfast yet." "No, I'm getting ready to wash the clothes, and I wish you'd come down and eat, so I can clear away the table things!" called the muskrat lady. "Oh, dear! Clothes-washing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his pink nose twinkle in a funny way. "I don't like to be around the bungalow when that is being done. I guess I'll get my breakfast and go for a walk. Clothes have to be washed, I suppose," went on the rabbit gentleman, "and when Nurse Jane has been ill I have washed them myself, but I do not like it. I'll go off in the woods." And so, having had his breakfast of carrot pudding, with turnip sauce sprinkled over the top, Uncle Wiggily took his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, and hopped along. The woods were getting more and more beautiful every day as the weather grew warmer. The leaves on the trees were larger, and here and there, down in the green moss, that was like a carpet on the ground, could be seen wild flowers growing up. "I wonder what sort of an adventure I will have today?" thought the bunny uncle as he went on and on. "A nice one, I hope." And, as he said this, Uncle Wiggily heard some voices speaking. "Oh, dear!" exclaimed a sad little voice, "no one will ever see us here! Of what use are we in the world? We are so small that we cannot be noticed. We are not brightly colored, like the red rose, and all that will happen to us will be that a cow will come along and eat us, or step on us with her big foot." "Hush! You musn't talk that way," said another voice. "You were put here to grow, and do the best you know how. Don't be finding fault." "I wonder who can be talking?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I must look around." So he looked up in the air, but though he heard the leaves whispering he knew they had not spoken. Then he looked to the right, to the left, in front and behind, but he saw no one. Then he looked down, and right at his feet was a clump of blue violet flowers. "Did you speak?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the violets. "Yes," answered one who had been finding fault. "I was telling my sisters and brothers that we are of no use in the world. We just grow up here in the woods, where no one sees us, and we never can have any fun. I want to be a big, red rose and grow in a garden." "Oh, my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I never heard of a violet turning into a rose." Then the mother violet spoke and said: "I tell my little girl-flower that she ought to be happy to grow here in the nice woods, in the green moss, where it is so cool and moist. But she does not seem to be happy, nor are some of the other violets." "Well, that isn't right," Uncle Wiggily said, kindly. "I am sure you violets can do some good in this world. You are pretty to look at, and nice to smell, and that is more than can be said of some things." "Oh, I want to do something big!" said the fault-finding violet. "I want to go out in the world and see things." "So do I! And I! And I!" cried other violets. Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute, and then he said: "I'll do this. I'll dig up a bunch of you violets, who want a change, and take you with me for a walk. I will leave some earth on your roots so you won't die, and we shall see what happens." "Oh, goodie!" cried the violets. So Uncle Wiggily dug them up with his paws, putting some cool moss around their roots, and when they had said good-by to the mother violet away they went traveling with the bunny uncle. "Oh, this is fine!" cried the first violet, nodding her head in the breeze. "It is very kind of you, Uncle Wiggily to take us with you. I wish we could do you a kindness." And then a bad old fox jumped out from behind a stump, and started to grab the rabbit gentleman. But when the fox saw the pretty violets and smelled their sweetness, the fox felt sorry at having been bad and said: "Excuse me, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sorry I tried to bite you. The sight of those pretty violets makes me feel happier than I did. I am going to try to be good." "I am glad of it," said Mr. Longears, as he hopped on through the woods. "You see, you have already done some good in this world, even if you are only tiny flowers," he said to the violets. Then Uncle Wiggily went on to his hollow stump bungalow, and, reaching there, he heard Nurse Jane saying: "Oh, dear! This is terrible. Here I have the clothes almost washed, and not a bit of bluing to rinse them in. Oh, why didn't I tell Wiggy to bring me some blueing from the store? Oh, dear!" "Ha! Perhaps these will do to make blue water," said the bunny uncle, holding out the bunch of violets. "Would you like to help Nurse Jane?" he asked the flowers. "Oh, yes, very much!" cried the violets. Then Uncle Wiggily dipped their blue heads in the clean rinsing water--just a little dip so as not to make them catch cold--and enough color came out of the violets to make the water properly blue for Nurse Jane's clothes, so she could finish the washing. "So you see you have done more good in the world," said Uncle Wiggily to the flowers. Then he took them back and planted them in the woods where they lived, and very glad they were to return, too. "We have seen enough of the world," they said, and thereafter they were glad enough to live down in the moss with the mother violet. And if the umbrella doesn't turn inside out so the handle tickles its ribs and makes it laugh in school, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the high tree. STORY VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HIGH TREE Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, stood in front of the looking glass trying on a new tall silk hat he had just bought ready for Easter Sunday, which would happen in about a week or two. "Do you think it looks well on me, Nurse Jane?" asked the bunny uncle, of the muskrat lady housekeeper, who came in from the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow, having just finished washing the dishes. "Why, yes, I think your new hat is very nice," she said. "Do you think I ought to have the holes for my ears cut a little larger?" asked the bunny uncle. "I mean the holes cut, not my ears." "Well, just a little larger wouldn't hurt any," replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I'll cut them for you," and she did, with her scissors. For Uncle Wiggily had to wear his tall silk hat with his ears sticking up through holes cut in it. His ears were too large to go under the hat, and he could not very well fold them down. "There, now I guess I'm all right to go for a walk in the woods," said the rabbit gentleman, taking another look at himself in the glass. It was not a proud look, you understand. Uncle Wiggily just wanted to look right and proper, and he wasn't at all stuck up, even if his ears were, but he couldn't help that. So off he started, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have that day. He passed the place where the blue violets were growing in the green moss--the same violets he had used to make Nurse Jane's blueing water for her clothes the other day, as I told you. And the violets were glad to see the bunny uncle. Then Uncle Wiggily met Grandfather Goosey Gander, the nice old goose gentleman, and the two friends walked on together, talking about how much cornmeal you could buy with a lollypop, and all about the best way to eat fried ice cream carrots. "That's a very nice hat you have on, Uncle Wiggily," said Grandpa Goosey, after a bit. "Glad you like it," answered the bunny uncle. "It's for Easter." "I think I'll get one for myself," went on Mr. Gander. "Do you think I would look well in it?" "Try on mine and see," offered Uncle Wiggily most kindly. So he took his new, tall silk hat off his head, pulling his ears out of the holes Nurse Jane had cut for them, and handed it to Grandfather Goosey Gander--handed the hat, I mean, not his ears, though of course the holes went with the hat. "There, how do I look?" asked the goose gentleman. "Quite stylish and proper," replied Mr. Longears. "I'd like to see myself before I buy a hat like this," went on Grandpa Goosey. "I hope it doesn't make me look too tall." "Here's a spring of water over by this old stump," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "You can see yourself in that, for it is just like a looking glass." Grandpa Goosey leaned over to see how Uncle Wiggily's tall, silk hat looked, when, all of a sudden, along came a puff of wind, caught the hat under the brim, and as Grandpa Goosey had no ears to hold it on his head (as the bunny uncle had) away sailed the hat up in the air, and it landed right in the top of a big, high tree. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, dear!" said Grandpa Goosey. "I'm very sorry that happened. Oh, dear!" "It wasn't your fault at all," spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly. "It was the wind." "But with your nice, new tall silk hat up in that high tree, how are we ever going to get it down," asked the goose gentleman. "I don't know," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Let me think." So he thought for a minute or two, and then he said: "There are three ways by which we may get the hat down. One is to ask the wind to blow it back to us, another is to climb up the tree and get the hat ourselves, and the third is to ask the tree to shake it down to us. We'll try the wind first." So Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey asked the wind that had blown the hat up in the top of the high tree to kindly blow it back again. But the wind had gone far out to sea, and would not be back for a week. So that way of getting the hat was of no use. "Mr. High Tree, will you kindly shake my hat down to me?" begged Uncle Wiggily next. "I would like to, very much," the tree answered politely, "but I cannot shake when there is no wind to blow me. We trees cannot shake ourselves, you know. We can only shake when the wind blows us, and until the wind comes back I cannot shake." "Too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Then the only way left for us to do, Grandpa Goosey, is to climb the tree." But this was easier said than done, for neither a rabbit nor a goose gentleman is made for climbing up trees, though when he was a young chap Grandpa Goosey had flown up into little trees, and Uncle Wiggily had jumped over them. But that was long, long ago. Try as they did, neither the rabbit gentleman nor the goose gentleman could climb up after the tall silk hat. "What are we going to do?" asked Grandpa Goosey. "I don't know," replied Mr. Longears. "I guess I'll have to go get Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boys, to climb the tree for us. Yes, that's what I'll do; and then I can get my hat." Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods to look for one of the Bushytail chaps, while Grandpa Goosey stayed near the tree, to catch the hat in case it should happen to fall by itself. All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily heard some one coming along whistling, and then he heard a loud pounding sound, and next he saw Toodle Flat-tail, the beaver boy, walking in the woods. "Oh, Toodle! You're the very one I want!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "My hat is in a high tree and I can't get it. With your strong teeth, just made for cutting down trees, will you kindly cut down this one, and get my hat for me?" "I will," said the little beaver chap. But when he began to gnaw the tree, to make it fall, the tree cried: "Oh, Mr. Wind, please come and blow on me so I can shake Uncle Wiggily's hat to him, and then I won't have to be gnawed down. Please blow, Mr. Wind." So the wind hurried back and blew the tree this way and that. Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt, and so everything was all right again, and Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey and Toodle Flat-tail were happy. And the tree was extra glad as it did not have to be gnawed down. [Illustration: Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt.] And if the little mouse doesn't go to sleep in the cat's cradle and scare poor pussy so her tail swells up like a balloon, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the peppermint. STORY VIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEPPERMINT "Uncle Wiggily, would you mind going to the store for me?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, one morning, as she came in from the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow, where she had been getting ready the breakfast for the rabbit gentleman. "Go to the store? Why of course I'll go, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," answered the bunny uncle. "Which store?" "The drug store." "The drug store? What do you want; talcum powder or court plaster?" "Neither one," answered Nurse Jane. "I want some peppermint." "Peppermint candy?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "Not exactly," went on Nurse Jane. "But I want a little of the peppermint juice with which some kind of candy is flavored. I want to take some peppermint juice myself, for I have indigestion. Dr. Possum says peppermint is good for it. I must have eaten a little too much cheese pudding last night." "I'll get you the peppermint with pleasure," said the bunny uncle, starting off with his tall silk hat and his red, white and blue striped rheumatism barber pole crutch. "Better get it in a bottle," spoke Nurse Jane, with a laugh. "You can't carry peppermint in your pocket, unless it's peppermint candy, and I don't want that kind." "All right," Uncle Wiggily said, and then, with the bottle, which Nurse Jane gave him, he hopped on, over the fields and through the woods to the drug store. But when he got there the cupboard was bare--. No! I mustn't say that. It doesn't belong here. I mean when Uncle Wiggily reached the drug store it was closed, and there was a sign in the door which said the monkey-doodle gentleman who kept the drug store had gone to a baseball-moving-picture show, and wouldn't be back for a long while. "Then I wonder where I am going to get Nurse Jane's peppermint?" asked Uncle Wiggily of himself. "I'd better go see if Dr. Possum has any." But while Uncle Wiggily was going on through the woods once more, he gave a sniff and a whiff, and, all of a sudden, he smelled a peppermint smell. The rabbit gentleman stood still, looking around and making his pink nose twinkle like a pair of roller skates. While he was doing this along came a cow lady chewing some grass for her complexion. "What are you doing here, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the cow lady. Uncle Wiggily told her how he had gone to the drug store for peppermint for Nurse Jane, and how he had found the store closed, so he could not get any. "But I smell peppermint here in the woods," went on the bunny uncle. "Can it be that the drug store monkey doodle has left some here for me?" "No, what you smell is--that," said the cow lady, pointing her horns toward some green plants growing near a little babbling brook of water. The plants had dark red stems that were square instead of round. "It does smell like peppermint," said Uncle Wiggily, going closer and sniffing and snuffing. "It is peppermint," said the cow lady. "That is the peppermint plant you see." "Oh, now I remember," Uncle Wiggily exclaimed. "They squeeze the juice out of the leaves, and that's peppermint flavor for candy or for indigestion." "Exactly," spoke the cow lady, "and I'll help you squeeze out some of this juice in the bottle for Nurse Jane." Then Uncle Wiggily and the cow lady pulled up some of the peppermint plants and squeezed out the juice between two clean, flat stones, the cow lady stepping on them while Uncle Wiggily caught the juice in the empty bottle as it ran out. "My! But that is strong!" cried the bunny uncle, as he smelled of the bottle of peppermint. It was so sharp that it made tears come into his eyes. "I should think that would cure indigestion and everything else," he said to the cow lady. "Tell Nurse Jane to take only a little of it in sweet water," said the cow lady. "It is very strong. So be careful of it." "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "And thank you for getting the peppermint for me. I don't know what I would have done without you, as the drug store was closed." Then he hopped on through the woods to the hollow stump bungalow. He had not quite reached it when, all of a sudden, there was a rustling in the hushes, and out from behind a bramble bush jumped a big black bear. Not a nice good bear, like Neddie or Beckie Stubtail, but a bear who cried: "Ah, ha! Oh, ho! Here is some one whom I can bite and scratch! A nice tender rabbit chap! Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" "Are--are you going to scratch and bite me?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I am," said the bear, snappish like. "Get ready. Here I come!" and he started toward Uncle Wiggily, who was so frightened that he could not hop away. "I'm going to hug you, too," said the bear. Bears always hug, you know. "Well, this is, indeed, a sorry day for me," said Uncle Wiggily, sadly. "Still, if you are going to hug, bite and scratch me, I suppose it can't be helped." "Not the least in the world can it be helped," said the bear, cross-like and unpleasant. "So don't try!" "Well, if you are going to hug me I had better take this bottle out of my pocket, so when you squeeze me the glass won't break," Uncle Wiggily said. "Here, when you are through being so mean to me perhaps you will be good enough to take this to Nurse Jane for her indigestion, but don't hug her." "I won't," promised the bear, taking the bottle which Uncle Wiggily handed him. "What's in it?" Before Uncle Wiggily could answer, the bear opened the bottle, and, seeing something in it, cried: "I guess I'll taste this. Maybe it's good to eat." Down his big, red throat he poured the strong peppermint juice, and then--well, I guess you know what happened. "Oh, wow! Oh, me! Oh, my! Wow! Ouch! Ouchie! Itchie!" roared the bear. "My throat is on fire! I must have some water!" And, dropping the bottle, away he ran to the spring, leaving Uncle Wiggily safe, and not hurt a bit. Then the rabbit gentleman hurried back and squeezed out more peppermint juice for Nurse Jane, whose indigestion was soon cured. And as for the bear, he had a sore throat for a week and a day. So this teaches us that peppermint is good for scaring bears, as well as for putting in candy. And if the snow man doesn't come in our house and sit by the gas stove until he melts into a puddle of molasses, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the birch tree. STORY IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRCH TREE Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was walking along through the woods one afternoon, when he came to the hollow stump school, where the lady mouse teacher taught the animal boys and girls how to jump, crack nuts, dig homes under ground, and do all manner of things that animal folk have to do. And just as the rabbit gentleman was wondering whether or not school was out, he heard a voice inside the hollow stump, saying: "Oh, dear! I wish I had some one to help me. I'll never get them clean all by myself. Oh, dear!" "Ha! That sounds like trouble!" thought Mr. Longears to himself. "I wonder who it is, and if I can help? I guess I'd better see." He looked in through a window, and there he saw the lady mouse teacher cleaning off the school black-boards. The boards were all covered with white chalk marks, you see. "What's the matter, lady mouse teacher?" asked Uncle Wiggily, making a polite, low bow. "Oh, I told Johnnie and Billy Bushytail, the two squirrel boys, to stay in and clean off the black-boards, so they would be all ready for tomorrow's lesson," said the lady mouse. "But they forgot, and ran off to play ball with Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys. So I have to clean the boards myself. And I really ought to be home now, for I am very tired." "Then you trot right along," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Tie a knot in your tail, so you won't step on it, and hurry along." "But what about the black-boards?" asked the lady mouse. "They must be cleaned off." "I'll attend to that," promised the bunny uncle. "I will clean them myself. Run along, Miss Mouse." So Miss Mouse thanked the bunny uncle, and ran along, and the rabbit gentleman began brushing the chalk marks off the black-boards, at the same time humming a little tune that went this way: "I'd love to be a teacher, Within a hollow stump. I'd teach the children how to fall, And never get a bump. I'd let them out at recess, A game of tag to play; I'd give them all fresh lollypops 'Most every other day!" "Oh, my! Wouldn't we just love to come to school to you!" cried a voice at the window, and, looking up. Uncle Wiggily saw Billie Bushytail, the boy squirrel, and brother Johnnie with him. "Ha! What happened you two chaps?" asked the bunny uncle. "Why did you run off without cleaning the black-boards for the lady mouse teacher?" "We forgot," said Johnnie, sort of ashamed-like and sorry. "That's what we came back to do--clean the boards." "Well, that was good of you," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "But I have the boards nearly cleaned now." "Then we will give them a dusting with our tails, and that will finish them," said Billie, and the squirrel boys did, so the black-boards were very clean. "Now it's time to go home," said Uncle Wiggily. So he locked the school, putting the key under the doormat, where the lady mouse could find it in the morning, and, with the Bushytail squirrel boys, he started off through the woods. "You and Billie can go back to your play, now, Johnnie," said the bunny uncle. "It was good of you to leave it to come back to do what you were told." The three animal friends hopped and scrambled on together, until, all of a sudden, the bad old fox, who so often had made trouble for Uncle Wiggily, jumped out from behind a bush, crying: "Ah, ha! Now I have you, Mr. Longears--and two squirrels besides. Good luck!" "Bad luck!" whispered Billie. The fox made a grab for the rabbit gentleman, but, all of a sudden, the paw of the bad creature slipped in some mud and down he went, head first, into a puddle of water, coughing and sneezing. "Come on, Uncle Wiggily!" quickly cried Billie and Johnnie. "This is our chance. We'll run away before the fox gets the water out of his eyes. He can't see us now." So away ran the rabbit gentleman and the squirrel boys, but soon the fox had dried his eyes on his big brush of a tail, and on he came after them. "Oh, I'll get you! I'll get you!" he cried, running very fast. But Uncle Wiggily and Billie and Johnnie ran fast, too. The fox was coming closer, however, and Billie, looking back, said: "Oh, I know what let's do, Uncle Wiggily. Let's take the path that leads over the duck pond ocean. That's shorter, and we can get to your bungalow before the fox can catch us. He won't dare come across the bridge over the duck pond, for Old Dog Percival will come out and bite him if he does." "Very well," said Uncle Wiggily, "over the bridge we will go." But alas! Also sorrowfulness and sadness! When the three friends got to the bridge it wasn't there. The wind had blown the bridge down, and there was no way of getting across the duck pond ocean, for neither Uncle Wiggily nor the squirrel boys could swim very well. "Oh, what are we going to do?" cried Billie, sadly. "We must get across somehow!" chattered Johnnie, "for here comes the fox!" And, surely enough the fox was coming, having by this time gotten all the water out of his eyes, so he could see very well. "Oh, if we only had a boat!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, looking along the shore of the pond, but there was no boat to be seen. Nearer and nearer came the fox! Uncle Wiggily and the squirrel boys were just going to jump in the water, whether or not they could swim, when, all at once, a big white birch tree on the edge of the woods near the pond, said: "Listen, Uncle Wiggily and I will save you. Strip off some of my bark. It will not hurt me, and you can make a little canoe boat of it, as the Indians used to do. Then, in the birch bark boat you can sail across the water and the fox can't get you." "Good! Thank you!" cried the bunny uncle. With their sharp teeth he, Billie and Johnnie peeled off long strips of birch bark. They quickly bent them in the shape of a boat and sewed up the ends with long thorns for needles and ribbon grass for thread. "Quick! Into the birch bark boat!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and they all jumped in, just as the fox came along. Billie and Johnnie held up their bushy tails, and Uncle Wiggily held up his tall silk hat for sails, and soon they were safe on the other shore and the fox, not being able to swim, could not get them. So that's how the birch tree of the woods saved the bunny uncle and the squirrels, for which, I am very glad, as I want to write more stories about them. And if the gold fish doesn't tickle the wax doll's nose with his tail when she looks in the tank to see what he has for breakfast, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the butternut tree. STORY X UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERNUT TREE "Well, I declare!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit, as she looked in the pantry of the hollow stump bungalow one day. "Well, I do declare!" "What's the matter?" asked Mr. Longears, peeping over the top of his spectacles. "I hope that the chimney hasn't fallen down, or the egg beater run away with the potato masher." "No, nothing like that," Nurse Jane said. "But we haven't any butter!" "No butter?" spoke Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzled like, and abstracted. "Not a bit of butter for supper," went on Nurse Jane, sadly. "Ha! That sounds like something from Mother Goose. Not a bit of butter for supper," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Not a bit of batter-butter for the pitter-patter supper. If Peter Piper picked a pit of peckled pippers--" "Oh, don't start that!" begged Nurse Jane. "All I need is some supper for butter--no some bupper for batter--oh, dear! I'll never get it straight!" she cried. "I'll say it for you," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I know what you want--some butter for supper. I'll go get it for you." "Thank you," Nurse Jane exclaimed, and so the old rabbit gentleman started off over the fields and through the woods for the butter store. The monkey-doodle gentleman waited on him, and soon Uncle Wiggily was on his way back to the hollow stump bungalow with the butter for supper, and he was thinking how nice the carrot muffins would taste, for Nurse Jane had promised to make some, and Uncle Wiggily was sort of smacking his whiskers and twinkling his nose, when, all at once, he heard some one in the woods calling: "Uncle Wiggily! Oh, I say, Uncle Wiggily! Can't you stop for a moment and say how-d'-do?" "Why, of course, I can," answered the bunny, and, looking around the corner of an old log, he saw Grandpa Whackum, the old beaver gentleman, who lived with Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the beaver boys. "Come in and sit down for a minute and rest yourself," invited Grandpa Whackum. "I will," said Uncle Wiggily. "And I'll leave my butter outside where it will be cool," for Grandpa Whackum lived down in an underground house, where it was so warm, in summer, that butter would melt. Grandpa Whackum was a beaver, and he was called Whackum because he used to whack his broad, flat tail on the ground, like beating a drum, to warn the other beavers of danger. Beavers, you know, are something like big muskrats, and they like water. Their tails are flat, like a pancake or egg turner. "Well, how are things with you, and how is Nurse Jane?" asked Grandpa Whackum. "Oh, everything is fine," said Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane is well. I've just been to the store to get her some butter." "That's just like you; always doing something for some one," said Grandpa Whackum, pleased like. Then the two friends talked for some little while longer, until it was almost 6 o'clock, and time for Uncle Wiggily to go. "I'll take my butter and travel along," he said. But when he went outside, where he had left the pound of butter on a flat stump, it wasn't there. "Why, this is queer," said the bunny uncle. "I wonder if Nurse Jane could have come along and taken it to the hollow stump bungalow herself?" "More likely a bad fox took the butter," spoke the old gentleman beaver. "But we can soon tell. I'll look in the dirt around the stump and see whose footprints are there. A fox makes different tracks from a muskrat." So Grandpa Whackum looked and he said: "Why, this is queer. I can only see beaver tracks and rabbit tracks near the stump. Only you and I were here and we didn't take anything." "But where is my butter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. Just then, off in the woods, near the beaver house, came the sound of laughter and voices cailed: "Oh, it's my turn now, Toodle." "Yes, Noodle, and then it's mine. Oh, what fun we are having, aren't we?" "It's Toodle and Noodle--my two beaver grandsons," said Grandpa Whackum. "I wonder if they could have taken your butter? Come; we'll find out." They went softly over behind a clump of bushes and there they saw Toodle and Noodle sliding down the slanting log of a tree, that was like a little hill, only there was no snow on it. "Why, they're coasting!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "And how they can do it without snow I don't see." "But I see!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Those two little beaver boys have taken my butter that I left outside of your house and with the butter they have greased the slanting log until it is slippery as ice. That's how they slide down--on Nurse Jane's butter." "Oh, the little rascals!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "Well, they didn't mean anything wrong," Uncle Wiggily kindly said. Then he called; "Toodle! Noodle! Is any of my butter left?" "Your butter?" cried Noodle, surprised like. "Was that your butter?" asked Toodle. "Oh, please forgive us! We thought no one wanted it, and we took it to grease the log so we could slide down. It was as good as sliding down a muddy, slippery bank of mud into the lake." "We used all your butter," spoke Noodle. "Every bit." "Oh, dear! That's too bad!" Uncle Wiggily said. "It is now after 6 o'clock and all the stores will be closed. How can I get more?" And he looked at the butter the beaver boys had spread on the tree. It could not be used for bread, as it was all full of bark. "Oh, how can I get some good butter for Nurse Jane?" asked the bunny uncle sadly. "Ha! I will give you some," spoke a voice high in the air. "Who are you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, startled. "I am the butternut tree," was the answer. "I'll drop some nuts down and all you will have to do will be to crack them, pick out the meats and squeeze out the butter. It is almost as good as that which you buy in the store." "Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "and thank you." Then the butter tree rattled down some butternuts, which Uncle Wiggily took home, and Nurse Jane said the butter squeezed from them was very good. And Toodle and Noodle were sorry for having taken Uncle Wiggily's other butter to make a slippery tree slide, but they meant no harm. So if the pussy cat doesn't take the lollypop stick to make a mud pie, and not give any ice cream cones to the rag doll, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Lulu's hat. STORY XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND LULU'S HAT "Uncle Wiggily, do you want to do something for me?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman one day as he started out from his hollow stump bungalow to take a walk in the woods. "Do something for you, Nurse Jane? Why, of course, I want to," spoke Mr. Longears. "What is it?" "Just take this piece of pie over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady," went on Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I promised to let her taste how I made apple pie out of cabbage leaves." "And very cleverly you do it, too," said Uncle Wiggily, with a polite bow. "I know, for I have eaten some myself. I will gladly take this pie to Mrs. Wibblewobble," and off through the woods Uncle Wiggily started with it. He soon reached the duck lady's house, and Mrs. Wibblewobble was very glad indeed to get the piece of Nurse Jane's pie. "I'll save a bit for Lulu and Alice, my two little duck girls," said Mrs. Wibblewobble. "Why, aren't they home?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "No, Lulu has gone over to a little afternoon party which Nannie Wagtail, the goat girl, is having, and Alice has gone to see Grandfather Goosey Gander. Jiminie is off playing ball with Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, so I am home alone." "I hope you are not lonesome," said Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, no, thank you," answered the duck lady. "I have too much to do. Thank Nurse Jane for her pie." "I shall," Uncle Wiggily promised, as he started off through the woods again. He had not gone far before, all of a sudden, he did not stoop low enough as he was hopping under a tree and, the first thing he knew, his tall silk hat was knocked off his head and into a puddle of water. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he picked up his hat. "I shall never be able to wear it again until it is cleaned and ironed. And how I can have that done out here in the woods is more than I know." "Ah, but I know," said a voice in a tree overhead. "Who are you, and what do you know?" asked the bunny uncle, surprised like and hopeful. "I know where you can have your silk hat cleaned and ironed smooth," said the voice. "I am the tailor bird, and I do those things. Let me have your hat, Uncle Wiggily, and I'll fix it for you." Down flew the kind bird, and Uncle Wiggily gave him the hat. "But what shall I wear while I'm waiting?" asked the bunny uncle. "It is too soon for me to be going about without my hat. I'll need something on my head while you are fixing my silk stovepipe, dear Tailor Bird." "Oh, that is easy," said the bird. "Just pick some of those thick, green leafy ferns and make yourself a hat of them." "The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he fastened some woodland ferns together and easily made himself a hat that would keep off the sun, if it would not keep off the rain. But then it wasn't raining. "There you are, Uncle Wiggily!" called the tailor bird at last. "Your silk hat is ready to wear again." "Thank you," spoke the bunny uncle, as he laid aside the ferns, also thanking them. "Now I am like myself again," and he hopped on through the woods, wondering whether or not he was to have any more adventures that day. Mr. Longears had not gone on very much farther before he heard a rustling in the bushes, and then a sad little voice said: "Oh, dear! How sad! I don't believe I'll go to the party now! All the others would make fun of me! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" "Ha! That sounds like trouble!" said the bunny uncle. "I must see what it means." He looked through the bushes and there, sitting on a log, he saw Lulu Wibblewobble, the little duck girl, who was crying very hard, the tears rolling down her yellow bill. "Why, Lulu! What's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, dear!" answered the little quack-quack child. "I can't go to the party; that's what's the matter." "Why can't you go?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "I saw your mother a little while ago, and she said you were going." "I know I was going," spoke Lulu, "but I'm not now, for the wind blew my nice new hat into the puddle of muddy water, and now look at it!" and she held up a very much beraggled and debraggled hat of lace and straw and ribbons and flowers. "Oh, dear! That hat is in a bad state, to be sure," said Uncle Wiggily. "But don't cry, Lulu. Almost the same thing happened to me and the tailor bird made my hat as good as ever. Mine was all mud, too, like yours. Come, I'll take you to the tailor bird." "You are very kind, Uncle Wiggily," spoke Lulu, "but if I go there I may not get back in time for the party, and I want to wear my new hat to it, very much." "Ha! I see!" cried the bunny uncle. "You want to look nice at the party. Well, that's right, of course. And I don't believe the tailor bird could clean your hat in time, for it is so fancy he would have to be very careful of it. "But you can do as I did, make a hat out of ferns, and wear that to Nannie Wagtail's party. I'll help you." "Oh, how kind you are!" cried the little duck girl. So she went along with Uncle Wiggily to where the ferns grew in the wood, leaving her regular hat at the tailor bird's nest to be cleaned and pressed. Uncle Wiggily made Lulu the cutest hat out of fern leaves. Oh, I wish you could have seen it. There wasn't one like it even in the five and ten-cent store. "Wear that to Nannie's party, Lulu," said the rabbit gentleman, and Lulu did, the hat being fastened to her feathers with a long pin made from the stem of a fern. And when Lulu reached the party all the animal girls cried out: "Oh, what a sweet, lovely, cute, dear, cunning, swell and stylish hat! Where did you get it?" "Uncle Wiggily made it," answered Lulu, and all the girls said they were going to get one just like it. And they did, so that fern hats became very fashionable and stylish in Woodland, and Lulu had a fine time at the party. So this teaches us that even a mud puddle is of some use, and if the rubber plant doesn't stretch too far, and tickle the gold fish under the chin making it sneeze, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the snow drops. STORY XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SNOW DROPS "Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Will you come with me?" called a voice under the window of the hollow stump bungalow, where the old gentleman rabbit was sitting, half asleep, one nice, warm afternoon. "Ha! Come with you? Who is it wants me to come with them?" asked the bunny gentleman. "I hope it isn't the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery alligator with humps on his tail that is calling. They're always wanting me to go with them." The rabbit looked out of the window and he heard some one laughing. "That doesn't sound like a bad fox, nor yet an unpleasant alligator," said Mr. Longears. "Who is it wants me to come with them?" "It is I--Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl," was the answer. "And where do you want me to come?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "To the woods, to pick some flowers," answered Susie. "The lady mouse teacher wants me to see how many kinds I can find. You know so much about the woods, Uncle Wiggily, that I wish you'd come with me." "I will," said the nice rabbit gentleman. "Wait until I get my tall silk hat and my red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch." And, when he had them, off he started, holding Susie's paw in his, and limping along under the green trees and over the carpet of green moss. Uncle Wiggily and the little rabbit girl found many kinds of flowers in the woods. There were violets, some white, some yellow and some purple, with others blue, like the ones Uncle Wiggily used to make blueing water for Nurse Jane's clothes. And there were red flowers and yellow ones, and some Jacks-in-their-pulpits, which are very queer flowers indeed. "Here, Susie, is a new kind of blossom. Maybe you would like some of these," said Uncle Wiggily, pointing to a bush that was covered with little round, white balls. "Oh, I didn't know the snow had lasted this long!" Susie cried. "I thought it had melted long ago." "I don't see any snow," said Uncle Wiggily, looking around. "On that bush," said Susie, pointing to the white one. "Oh!" laughed the bunny uncle. "That does look like snow, to be sure. But it isn't, though the name of the flowers is snowdrop." "Flowers! I don't call them flowers!" said Susie. "They are only white balls." "Don't you want to pick any?" asked the rabbit. "Thank you, no," Susie said. "I like prettier colored flowers than those, which are just plain white." "Well, I like them, and I'll take some to Nurse Jane," spoke the bunny uncle. So he picked a bunch of the snowdrops and carried them in his paws, while Susie gathered the brighter flowers. "I think those will be all teacher will want," said the little rabbit girl at last. "Yes, we had better be getting home," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane will soon have supper ready. Won't you come and eat with me, Susie?" "Thank you, I will, Uncle Wiggily," and the little bunny girl clapped her paws; that is, as well as she could, on account of holding her flowers, for she loved to eat at Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump bungalow, as did all the animal children. Well, Uncle Wiggily and Susie were going along and along through the woods, when, all of a sudden, as they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped the bad old tail-pulling monkey. [Illustration: As they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped the bad old tail-pulling monkey.] "Ah, ha!" chattered the monkey chap. "I am just in time, I see." "Time for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, suspicious like. "To pull your tails," answered the monkey. "I haven't had any tails to pull in a long while, and I must pull some. So, though you rabbits haven't very good tails, for pulling, I must do the best I can. Now come to me and have your tails pulled. Come on!" "Oh, dear!" cried Susie. "I don't want my tail pulled, even if it is very short." "Nor I mine," Uncle Wiggily said. "That makes no manner of difference to me," chattered the monkey. "I'm a tail-pulling chap, and tails I must pull. So you might as well have it over with, now as later." And he spoke just like a dentist who wants to take your lolly-pop away from you. "Pull our tails! Well, I guess you won't!" cried Uncle Wiggily suddenly. "Come on, Susie! Let's run away!" Before the monkey could grab them Uncle Wiggily and Susie started to run. But soon the monkey was running after them, crying: "Stop! Stop! I must pull your tails!" "But we don't want you to," answered Susie. "Oh, but you must let me!" cried the monkey. Then he gave a great big, long, strong and double-jointed jump, like a circus clown going over the backs of fourteen elephants, and part of another one, and the monkey grabbed Uncle Wiggily by his ears. "Oh, let go of me, if you please!" begged the bunny. "I thought you said you pulled tails and not ears." "I do pull tails when I can get hold of them," said the malicious monkey. "But as I can't easily get hold of your tail, and as your ears are so large that I can easily grab them, I'll pull them instead. All ready now, a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether!" "Stop!" cried the bunny uncle, just as the monkey was going to give the three kinds of pull at once. "Stop!" "No!" answered the monkey. "No! No!" "Yes! Yes!" cried the bunny uncle. "If you don't stop pulling my ears you'll freeze!" and with that the bunny uncle pulled out from behind him, where he had kept them hidden, the bunch of white snowdrops. "Ah, ha!" cried Mr. Longears to the monkey. "You come from a warm country, where there is no snow or snowdrops. Now when you see these snow drops, shiver and shake--see how cold it is! Shiver and shake! Shake and shiver! Burr-r-r-r-r!" Uncle Wiggily made believe the flowers were real snow, sort of shivering himself (pretend like) and the tail-pulling chap, who was very much afraid of cold and snow and ice, chattered and said: "Oh, dear! Oh, how cold I am! Oh, I'm freezing. I am going back to my warm nest in the tree and not pull any tails until next summer!" And then the monkey ran away, thinking the snowdrops Uncle Wiggily had picked were bits of real snow. "I'm sorry I said the snowdrops weren't nice," spoke Susie, as she and Uncle Wiggily went safely home. "They are very nice. Only for them the monkey would have pulled our tails." But he didn't, you see, and if the hookworm doesn't go to the moving pictures with the gold fish and forget to come back to play tag with the toy piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the horse chestnut tree. STORY XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HORSE CHESTNUT "Bang! Bango! Bunko! Bunk! Slam!" Something made a big noise on the front porch of the hollow stump bungalow, where, in the woods, lived Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman. "My goodness!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I hope nothing has happened!" "Well, from what I heard I should say it is quite certain that SOMETHING has happened," spoke the bunny uncle, sort of twisting his ears very anxious like. "I only hope the chimney hasn't turned a somersault, and that the roof is not trying to play tag with the back steps," went on Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, a bit scared like. "I'll go see what it is," offered Uncle Wiggily, and as he went to the front door there, on the piazza, he saw Billie Wagtail, the little goat boy. "Oh, good morning, Uncle Wiggily," spoke Billie, politely. "Here's a note for you. I just brought it." "And did you bring all that noise with you?" Mr. Longears wanted to know. "Well, yes, I guess I did," Billie said, sort of bashful like and shy as he wiggled his horns. "I was seeing how fast I could run, and I ran down hill and got going so lickity-split like that I couldn't stop. I fell right up your front steps, rattle-te-bang!" "I should say it was rattle-te-bang!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "But please don't do it again, Billie." "I won't," promised the goat boy. "Grandpa Goosey Gander gave me that note to leave for you on my way to the store for my mother. And now I must hurry on," and Billie jumped off the porch and skipped along through the Woodland trees as happy as a huckleberry pie and a piece of cheese. "What was it all about?" asked Nurse Jane, when Uncle Wiggily came in. "Oh, just Billie Wagtail," answered the bunny uncle. "He brought a note from Grandpa Goosey, who wants me to come over and see him. I'll go. He has the epizootic, and can't get out, so he wants some one to talk to and to play checkers with him." Off through the woods went Uncle Wiggily and he was almost at Grandpa Goosey's house when he heard some voices talking. One voice said: "Oh, dear! How thirsty I am!" "And so am I!" said another. "Well, children, I am sorry," spoke a third voice, "but I cannot give you any water. I am thirsty myself, but we cannot drink until it rains, and it has not rained in a long, long time." "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried the other voices again. "How thirsty we are!" "That's too bad," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I would not wish even the bad fox to be thirsty. I must see if I can not be of some help." So he peeked through the bushes and saw some trees. "Was it you who were talking about being thirsty?" asked the rabbit gentleman, curious like. "Yes," answered the big voice. "I am a horse chestnut tree, and these are my children," and the large tree waved some branches, like fingers, at some small trees growing under her. "And they, I suppose, are pony chestnut trees," said Uncle Wiggily. "That's what we are!" cried the little trees, "and we are very thirsty." "Indeed they are," said the mother tree. "You see we are not like you animals. We cannot walk to a spring or well to get a drink when we are thirsty. We have to stay, rooted in one place, and wait for the rain, or until some one waters us." "Well, some one is going to water you right away!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. "I'll bring you some water from the duck pond, which is near by." Then, borrowing a pail from Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, Uncle Wiggily poured water all around the dry earth, in which grew the horse chestnut tree and the little pony trees. "Oh! How fine that is!" cried the thirsty trees. "It is almost as nice as rain. You are very good, Uncle Wiggily," said the mother tree, "and if ever we can do you a favor we will." "Thank you," spoke Uncle Wiggily, making a low bow with his tall silk hat. Then he went on to Grandpa Goosey's where he visited with his epizootic friend and played checkers. On his way home through the woods, Uncle Wiggily was unpleasantly surprised when, all of a sudden out from behind a stone jumped a bad bear. He wasn't at all a good, nice bear like Beckie or Neddie Stubtail. "Bur-r-r-r-r!" growled the bear at Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll scratch you." "Oh, please don't," begged the bunny uncle. "Yes, I shall!" grumbled the bear. "And I'll hug you, too!" "Oh, no! I'd rather you wouldn't!" said the bunny uncle. For well he knew that a bear doesn't hug for love. It's more of a hard, rib-cracking squeeze than a hug. If ever a bear wants to hug you, just don't you let him. Of course if daddy or mother wants to hug, why, that's all right. "Yes, I'm going to scratch you and hug you," went on the bad bear, "and after that--well, after that I guess I'll take you off to my den." "Oh, please don't!" begged Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his nose and thinking that he might make the bear laugh. For if ever you can get a bear to laugh he won't hurt you a bit. Just remember that. Tickle him, or do anything to get him to laugh. But this bear wouldn't even smile. He just growled again and said: "Well, here I come, Uncle Wiggily, to hug you!" "Oh, no you don't!" all of a sudden cried a voice in the air. "Ha! Who says I don't?" grumbled the bear, impolite like. "I do," went on the voice. And the bear saw some trees waving their branches at him. "Pooh! I'm not afraid of you!" growled the bear, and he made a rush for the bunny. "I'm not afraid of trees." "Not afraid of us, eh? Well, you'd better be!" said the mother tree. "I'm a strong horse chestnut and these are my strong little ponies. Come on, children, we won't let the bear get Uncle Wiggily." Then the strong horse chestnut tree and the pony trees reached down with their powerful branches and, catching hold of the bear, they tossed him up in the air, far away over in the woods, at the same time pelting him with green, prickly horse chestnuts, and the bear came down ker-bunko in a bramble brier bush. "Oh, wow!" cried the bear, as he felt his soft and tender nose being scratched. "I'll be good! I'll be good!" And he was, for a little while, anyhow. So this shows you how a horse chestnut tree saved the bunny gentleman, and if the postman doesn't stick a stamp on our cat's nose so it can't eat molasses cake when it goes to the puppy dog's party, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the pine tree. STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PINE TREE Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, put on his tall silk hat, polished his glasses with the tip of his tail, to make them shiny so he could see better through them, and then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch down off the mantel, he started out of his hollow stump bungalow one day. "Better take an umbrella, hadn't you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "It looks as though we might have an April shower." "An umbrella? Yes, I think I will take one," spoke the bunny uncle, as he saw some dark clouds in the sky. "They look as though they might have rain in them." "Are you going anywhere in particular?" asked the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail in a soft knot. "No, not special," Uncle Wiggily answered. "May I have the pleasure of doing something for you?" he asked with a polite bow, like a little girl speaking a piece in school on Friday afternoon. "Well," said Nurse Jane, "I have baked some apple dumplings with oranges inside, and I thought perhaps you might like to take one to Grandfather Goosey Gander to cheer him up." "The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I'll do it, Nurse Jane." So with an apple dumpling carefully wrapped up in a napkin and put in a basket, Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods and over the fields to Grandpa Goosey's house. "I wonder if I shall have an adventure today?" thought the rabbit gentleman as he waved his ears to and fro like the pendulum of a clock. "I think I would like one to give me an appetite for supper. I must watch for something to happen." He looked all around the woods, but all he could see were some trees. "I can't have any adventures with them," said the bunny uncle, "though the horse chestnut tree did help me the other day by tossing the bad bear over into the briar bush. But these trees are not like that." Still Uncle Wiggily was to have an adventure with one of the trees very soon. Just you wait, now, and you shall hear about it. Uncle Wiggily walked on a little farther and he heard a funny tapping noise in the woods. "Tap! Tap! Tap! Tappity-tap-tap!" it sounded. "My! Some one is knocking on a door trying to get in," thought the bunny. "I wonder who it can be?" Just then he saw a big bird perched on the side of a pine tree, tapping with his bill. "Tap! Tap! Tap!" went the bird. "Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but you are making a mistake. No one lives in that tree." "Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I know that no one lives here," said the bird. "But you see I am a woodpecker, and I am pecking holes in the tree to get some of the sweet juice, or sap. The sap is running in the trees now, for it is Spring. Later on I will tap holes in the bark to get at bugs and worms, when there is no more sap for me to eat." And the woodpecker went on tapping, tapping, tapping. "My! That is a funny way to get something to eat," said the bunny gentleman to himself. He watched the bird until it flew away, and then Uncle Wiggily was about to hop on to Grandpa Goosey's house when, all of a sudden, before he could run away, out popped the bad old bear once more. "Ah, ha! We meet again, I see," growled the bear. "I was not looking for you, Mr. Longears, but all the same I am glad to meet you, for I want to eat you." "Well," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nose with his ear, surprised like. "I can't exactly say I'm glad to see you, good Mr. Bear." "No, I s'pose not," agreed the fuzzy creature. "But you are mistaken. I am the Bad Mr. Bear, not the Good." "Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily. All the while he knew the bear was bad, but he hoped by calling him good, to make him so. "I'm very bad!" growled the bear, "and I'm going to take you off to my den with me. Come along!" "Oh, I don't want to," said the bunny uncle, shivering his tail. "But you must!" growled the bear. "Come on, now!" "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Will you let me go if I give you what's in my basket?" he asked, and he held up the basket with the nice orange apple turnover in it. "Let me go if I give you this," begged the bunny uncle. "Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," said the bear, cunning like. "Let me see what it is." He took the basket from Uncle Wiggily, and looking in, said: "Ah, ha! An apple turnover-dumpling with oranges in it! I just love them! Ah, ha!" "Oh," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I hope he eats it, for then maybe I can get away when he doesn't notice me. I hope he eats it!" And the bear, leaning his back against the pine tree in which the woodpecker had been boring holes, began to take bites out of the apple dumpling which Nurse Jane had baked for Grandpa Goosey. "Now's my chance to get away!" thought the bunny gentleman. But when he tried to hop softly off, as the bear was eating the sweet stuff, the bad creature saw him and cried: "Ah, ha! No you don't! Come hack here!" and with his claws he pulled Uncle Wiggily close to him again. Then the bunny uncle noticed that some sweet, sticky juice or gum, like that on fly paper, was running down the trunk of the tree from the holes the woodpecker had drilled in it. "Oh, if the bear only leans back hard enough and long enough against that sticky pine tree," thought Mr. Longears, "he'll be stuck fast by his furry hair and he can't get me. I hope he sticks!" And that is just what happened. The bear enjoyed eating the apple dumpling so much that he leaned back harder and harder against the sticky tree. His fur stuck fast in the gum that ran out. Finally the bear ate the last crumb of the dumpling. "And now I'll get you!" he cried to the bunny uncle; "I'll get you!" But did the bear get Uncle Wiggily? He did not. The bear tried to jump toward the rabbit, but could not. He was stuck fast to the sticky pine tree and Uncle Wiggily could now run safely back to his hollow stump bungalow to get another dumpling for Grandpa Goosey. So the bear had no rabbit, after all, and all he did was to stay stuck fast to the pine tree until a big fox came along and helped him to get loose, and the bear cried "Wouch!" because his fur was pulled. So Uncle Wiggily was all right, you see, after all, and very thankful he was to the pine tree for holding fast to the bear. And in the next story, if our cat doesn't go hunting for the poll parrot's cracker in the gold fish bowl and get his whiskers all wet, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the green rushes. STORY XV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GREEN RUSHES Once upon a time Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was taking a walk in the woods, looking for an adventure, as he often did, when, as he happened to go past the hollow tree, where Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys lived, he saw them just poking their noses out of the front door, which was a knot-hole. "Hello, boys!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Why haven't you gone to school today? It is time, I'm sure." "Oh, we don't have to go today," answered Billie, as he looked at his tail to see if any chestnut burrs were sticking in it. But none was, I am glad to say. "Don't have to go to school? Why not?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "This isn't Saturday, is it?" "No," spoke Johnnie. "But you see, Sister Sallie, our little squirrel sister, has the measles, and we can't go to school until she gets over them." "And we don't know what to do to have some fun," went on Billie, "for lots of the animal children are home from school with the measles, and they can't be out to play with us. We've had the measles, so we can't get them the second time, but the animal boys and girls, who haven't broken out, don't want us to come and see them for fear we'll bring the red spots to them." "I see," said Uncle Wiggily, laughing until his pink nose twinkled like a jelly roll. "So you can't have any fun? Well, suppose you come with me for a walk in the woods." "Fine!" cried Billie and Johnnie and soon they were walking in the woods with the rabbit gentleman. They had not gone very far before, all of a sudden, they came to a place where a mud turtle gentleman had fallen on his back, and he could not turn over, right-side up again. He tried and tried, but he could not right himself. "Oh, that is too bad!" cried Uncle Wiggily, when he saw what had happened. "I must help him to get right-side up again," which he did. "Oh, thank you for putting me on my legs once more, Uncle Wiggily," said the mud turtle. "I would like to do you a favor for helping me, but all I have to give you are these," and in one claw he picked some green stalks growing near him, and handed them to the bunny uncle, afterward crawling away. "Pooh! Those are no good!" cried Billie, the boy squirrel. "I should say not!" laughed Johnnie, "They are only green rushes that grow all about in the woods, and we could give Uncle Wiggily all he wanted." "Hush, boys! Don't talk that way," said the bunny uncle. "The mud turtle tried to do the best he could for me, and I am sure the green rushes are very nice. I'll take them with me. I may find use for them." Billie and Johnnie wanted to laugh, for they thought green rushes were of no use at all. But Uncle Wiggily said to the squirrel boys: "Billie and Johnnie, though green rushes, which grow in the woods and swamps are very common, still they are a wonderful plant. See how smooth they are when you rub them up and down. But if you rub them sideways they are as rough as a stiff brush or a nutmeg grater." Well, Billie and Johnnie thought more of the rushes after that, but, as they walked on with Uncle Wiggily, when he had put them in his pocket, they could think of no way in which he could use them. In a little while they came to where Mother Goose lived, and the dear old lady herself was out in front of her house, looking up and down the woodland path, anxious like. "What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Are you looking for some of your lost ones--Little Bopeep or Tommy Tucker, who sings for his supper?" "Well, no, not exactly," answered Mother Goose. "I sent Simple Simon to the store to get me a scrubbing brush, so I could clean the kitchen floor. But he hasn't come back, and I am afraid he has gone fishing in his mother's pail, to try to catch a whale. Oh, dear! My kitchen is so dirty that it needs scrubbing right away. But I cannot do it without a scrubbing brush." "Ha! Say no more!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. "I have no scrubbing brush, but I have a lot of green rushes the mud turtle gave me for turning him right-side up. The rushes are as rough as a scrubbing brush, and will do just as nicely to clean your kitchen." "Oh, thank you! I'm sure they will," said Mother Goose. So she took the green rushes from Uncle Wiggily and by using them with soap and water soon her kitchen floor was scrubbed as clean as an eggshell, for the green, rough stems scraped off all the dirt. Then Mother Goose thanked Uncle Wiggily very much, and Billie and Johnnie sort of looked at one another with blinking eyes, for they saw that green rushes are of some use in this world after all. And if the strawberry jam doesn't go to the moving pictures with the bread and butter and forget to come home for supper, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the bee tree. STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEE TREE "Well, you're off again, I see!" spoke Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, one morning, as she saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, starting away from his hollow stump bungalow. He was limping on his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch, that Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. "Off again!" she cried. "Yes, off again," said Uncle Wiggily. "I must have my adventure, you know." "I hope it will be a pleasant one today," went on Nurse Jane. "So do I," said Uncle Wiggily, and away he went hopping over the fields and through the woods. He had not gone very far before he heard a queer buzzing sound, and a sort of splashing in the water and a tiny voice cried: "Help! Help! Save me! I am drowning!" "My goodness me sakes alive and some horse radish lollypops!" cried the bunny uncle. "Some one drowning? I don't see any water around here, though I do hear some splashing. Who are you?" he cried. "And where are you, so that I may save you?" "Here I am, right down by your foot!" was the answer. "I am a honey bee, and I have fallen into this Jack-in-the pulpit flower, which is full of water. Please get me out!" "To be sure I will!" cried Mr. Longears, and then, stooping down he carefully lifted the poor bee out of the water in the Jack-in-the-pulpit. The Jack is a plant that looks like a little pitcher and it holds water. In the middle is a green stem, that is called Jack, because he looks like a minister preaching in the pulpit. The Jack happened to be out when the bee fell in the water that had rained in the plant-pitcher, or Jack himself would have saved the honey chap. But Uncle Wiggily did it just as well. "Oh, thank you so much for not letting me drown," said the bee, as she dried her wings in the sun on a big green leaf. "I was on my way to the hive tree with a load of honey when I stopped for a drink. But I leaned over too far and fell in. I can not thank you enough!" "Oh, once is enough!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly voice. "But did I understand you to say you lived in a hive-tree?" "Yes, a lot of us bees have our hive in a hollow tree in the woods, not far away. It is there we store the honey we gather from Summer flowers, so we will have something to eat in the Winter when there are no blossoms. Would you like to see the bee tree?" "Indeed, I would," Uncle Wiggily said. "Follow me, then," buzzed the bee. "I will fly on ahead, very slowly, and you can follow me through the woods." Uncle Wiggily did so, and soon he heard a great buzzing sound, and he saw hundreds of bees flying in and out of a hollow tree. At first some of the bees were going to sting the bunny uncle, but his little friend cried: "Hold on, sisters! Don't sting this rabbit gentleman. He is Uncle Wiggily and he saved me from being drowned." So the bees did not sting the bunny uncle, but, instead, gave him a lot of honey, in a little box made of birch bark, which he took home to Nurse Jane. "Oh, I had the sweetest adventure!" he said to her, and he told her about the bee tree and the honey, which he and the muskrat lady ate on their carrot cake for dinner. It was about a week after this, and Uncle Wiggily was once more in the woods, looking for an adventure, when, all at once a big bear jumped out from behind a tree and grabbed him. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why did you do that? Why have you caught me, Mr. Bear?" "Because I am going to carry you off to my den," answered the bear. "I am hungry, and I have been looking for something to eat. You came along just in time. Come on!" The hear was leading Uncle Wiggily away when the bunny uncle happened to think of something, and it was this--that bears are very fond of sweet things. "Would you not rather eat some honey than me?" Uncle Wiggily asked of the bear. "Much rather," answered the shaggy creature, "but where is the honey?" he asked, cautious like and foxy. "Come with me and I will show you where it is," went on the bunny uncle, for he felt sure that his friends the bees, would give the bear honey so the bad animal would let the rabbit gentleman go. Uncle Wiggily led the way through the wood to the bee tree, the bear keeping hold of him all the while. Pretty soon a loud buzzing was heard, and when they came to where the honey was stored in the hollow tree, all of a sudden out flew hundreds of bees, and they stung the bear so hard all over, especially on his soft and tender nose, that the bear cried: "Wow! Wouch! Oh, dear!" and, letting go of the rabbit, ran away to jump in the ice water to cool off. But the bees did not sting Uncle Wiggily, for they liked him, and he thanked them for driving away the bear. So everything came out all right, you see, and if the foot-stool gets up to the head of the class and writes its name on the blackboard, with pink chalk, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the dogwood tree. STORY XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOGWOOD "Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as the nice old rabbit gentleman started out from his hollow stump bungalow one afternoon. "Oh, just for a walk in the woods," he answered. "Neddie Stubtail, the little bear boy, told me last night that there were many adventures in the forest, and I want to see if I can find one." "My goodness! You seem very fond of adventures!" said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I am," went on Uncle Wiggily, with a smile that made his pink nose twinkle and his whiskers sort of chase themselves around the back of his neck, as though they were playing tag with his collar button. "I just love to have adventures." "Well, while you are out walking among the trees would you mind doing me a favor?" asked Nurse Jane. "I wouldn't mind in the least," spoke the bunny uncle. "What would you like me to do?" "Just leave this thimble at Mrs. Bow Wow's house. I borrowed the dog lady's thimble to use when I couldn't find mine, but now that I have my own back again I'll return hers." "Where was yours?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "Jimmie Caw-Caw, the crow boy, had picked it up to hide under the pump," answered Nurse Jane. "Crows, you know, like to pick up bright and shining things." "Yes, I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "Very well, I'll give Mrs. Bow Wow her thimble," and off the old gentleman rabbit started, limping along on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a bean-pole. Excuse me, I mean corn stalk. When Uncle Wiggily came to the place where Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys lived, he saw Mrs. Bow Wow, the dog lady, out in front of the kennel house looking up and down the path that led through the woods. "Were you looking for me?" asked Uncle Wiggily, making a low and polite bow with his tall silk hat. "Looking for you? Why, no, not specially," said Mrs. Bow Wow, "though I am always glad to see you." "I thought perhaps you might be looking for your thimble," went on the bunny uncle. "Nurse Jane has sent it back to you." "Oh, thank you!" said the mother of the puppy dog boys. "I'm glad to get my thimble back, but I was really looking for Peetie and Jackie." "You don't mean to say they have run away, do you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "No, not exactly run away. But they have not come home from school, though the lady mouse, who teaches in the hollow stump, must have let the animal children out long ago." "She did," Uncle Wiggily said. "I came past the hollow stump school on my way here, and every one was gone." "Then where can Jackie and Peetie be keeping themselves?" asked Mrs. Bow Wow. "Oh, I'm so worried about them!" "Don't be worried or frightened," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll go look for them for you." "Oh, if you will I'll be so glad!" cried Mrs. Bow Wow. "And if you find them please tell them to come home at once." "I will," promised the bunny uncle. Giving the dog lady her thimble, Uncle Wiggily set off through the woods to look for Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow. On every side of the woodland path he peered, under trees and bushes and around the corners of moss-covered rocks and big stumps. But no little puppy dog chaps could he find. All at once, as Mr. Longears was going past an old log he heard a rustling in the bushes, and a voice said: "Well, we nearly caught them, didn't we?" "We surely did," said another voice. "And I think if we race after them once more we'll certainly have them. Let's rest here a bit, and then chase those puppy dogs some more. That Jackie is a good runner." "I think Peetie is better," said the other voice. "Anyhow, they both got away from us." "Ha! This must be Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow they are talking about," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "This sounds like trouble. So the puppy dogs were chased, were they? I must see by whom." He peeked through the bushes, and there he saw two big, bad foxes, whose tongues were hanging out over their white teeth, for the foxes had run far and they were tired. "I see how it is," Uncle Wiggily thought. "The foxes chased the little puppy dogs as they were coming from school and Jackie and Peetie have run somewhere and hidden. I must find them." Just then one of the foxes cried: "Come on. Now we'll chase after those puppies, and get them. Come on!" "Ha! I must go, too!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Maybe I can scare away the foxes, and save Jackie and Peetie." So the foxes ran and Uncle Wiggily also ran, and pretty soon the rabbit gentleman came to a place in the woods where grew a tree with big white blossoms on it, and in the center the blossoms were colored a dark red. "Ha! There are the puppy boys under that tree!" cried one fox, and, surely enough, there, right under the tree, Jackie and Peetie were crouched, trembling and much frightened. "We'll get them!" cried the other fox. "Come on!" And then, all of a sudden, as the foxes leaped toward the poor little puppy dog boys, that tree began to hark and growl and it cried out loud: "Get away from here, you bad foxes! Leave Jackie and Peetie alone! Wow! Bow-wow! Gurr-r-r-r!" and the tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes were frightened and were glad enough to run away, taking their tails with them. Then Jackie and Peetie came safely out, and thanked the tree for taking care of them. [Illustration: The tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes were frightened and were glad enough to run away.] "Oh, you are welcome," said the tree. "I am the dogwood tree, you know, so why should I not bark and growl to scare foxes, and take care of you little puppy chaps? Come to me again whenever any bad foxes chase you." And Peetie and Jackie said they would. So Uncle Wiggily, after also thanking the tree, took the doggie boys home, and they told him how the foxes had chased them soon after they came from school, so they had to run. But everything came out all right, you see, and if the black cat doesn't dip his tail in the ink, and make chalk marks all over the piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the hazel nuts. STORY XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HAZEL NUTS "Going out again, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, one morning, as she saw the rabbit gentleman taking his red, white and blue-striped rheumatism crutch down off the clock shelf. "Well, yes, Janie, I did think of going out for a little stroll in the forest," answered the bunny uncle, talking like a phonograph. What he meant was that he was going for a walk in the woods, but he thought he'd be polite about it, and stylish, just for once. "Don't forget your umbrella," went on Nurse Jane. "It looks to me very much as though there would be a storm." "I think you're right," Uncle Wiggily said. "Our April showers are not yet over. I shall take my umbrella." So, with his umbrella, and the rheumatism crutch which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk, off started the bunny uncle, hopping along over the fields and through the woods. Pretty soon Uncle Wiggily met Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy. "Where are you going, Johnnie?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Are you here in the woods, looking for an adventure? That's what I'm doing." "No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the squirrel boy. "I'm not looking for an adventure. I'm looking for hazel nuts." "Hazel nuts?" cried the bunny uncle in surprise. "Yes," went on Johnnie. "You know they're something like chestnuts, only without the prickly burrs, and they're very good to eat. They grow on bushes, instead of trees. I'm looking for some to eat. They are nice, brown, shiny nuts." "Good!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "We'll go together looking for hazel nuts, and perhaps we may also find an adventure. I'll take the adventure and you can take the hazel nuts." "All right!" laughed Johnnie, and off they started. On and over the fields and through the woods went the bunny uncle and Johnnie, until, just as they were close to the place where some extra early new kind of Spring hazel nuts grew on bushes, there was a noise behind a big black stump--and suddenly out pounced a bear! "Oh, hello, Neddie Stubtail!" called Johnnie. And he was just going up and shake paws when Uncle Wiggily cried: "Look out, Johnnie! Wait a minute! That isn't your friend Neddie!" "Isn't it?" asked Johnnie, surprised-like, and he drew back. "No, it's a bad old bear--not our nice Neddie, at all! And I think he is going to chase us! Get ready to run!" So Johnnie Bushytail and Uncle Wiggily got ready to run. And it was a good thing they did, for just then the bear gave a growl, like a lollypop when it falls off the stick, and the bear said: "Ah, ha! And oh, ho! A rabbit and a squirrel! Fine for me! Tag--your it!" he cried, and he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie. But do you s'pose the bunny uncle and the squirrel boy stayed there to be caught? Indeed, they did not! "Over this way! Quick!" cried Johnnie. "Here is a hazel nut bush, Uncle Wiggily. We can hide under that and the bear can't get us!" "Good!" said the bunny uncle. And he and Johnnie quickly ran and hid under the hazel nut bush, which was nearby. The bear looked all around as he heard Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie running away, and when he saw where they had gone he laughed until his whiskers twinkled, almost like the rabbit gentleman's pink nose, and then the bear said: "Ha, ha! and Ho, ho! So you thought you could get away from me that way, did you? Well, you can't. I can see you hiding under that bush almost as plainly as I can see the sun shining. Here I come after you." "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What shall we do, Johnnie? I don't want the bear to get you or me." "And I don't either," spoke the little squirrel boy. "I wonder if I could scare him away with my umbrella, Johnnie?" went on Uncle Wiggily. "I might if I could make believe it was a gun. Have you any talcum powder to shoot?" "No," said Johnnie, sadly, "I have not, I am sorry to say." "Have you any bullets?" asked the bunny uncle. "No bullets, either," answered Johnnie, more sadly. "Then I don't see anything for us to do but let the bear get us," sorrowfully said Mr. Longears. "Here he comes, Johnnie." "But he sha'n't get us!" quickly cried the squirrel boy, as the bear made a jump for the bush under which the bunny and Johnnie were hiding. "He sha'n't get us!" "Why not?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Because," said Johnnie, "I have just thought of something. You asked me for bullets a while ago. I have none, but the hazel nut bush has. Come, good Mr. Hazel Bush, will you save us from the bear?" asked Johnnie. "Right gladly will I do that," the kind bush said. "Then, when he comes for us!" cried Johnnie, "just rattle down, all over on him, all the hard nuts you can let fall. They will hit him on his ears, and on his soft and tender nose, and that will make him run away and leave us alone." "Good!" whispered the hazel nut bush, rustling its leaves. "But what about you and Uncle Wiggily? If I rattle the nuts on the bear they will also fall on you two, as long as you are hiding under me." "Have no fear of that!" said the bunny uncle. "I have my umbrella, and I will raise that and keep off the falling nuts." Then the bear, with a growl, made a dash to get Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie. But the hazel bush shivered and shook himself and "Rattle-te-bang! Bung-bung! Bang!" down came the hazel nuts all over the bear. "Oh, wow!" he cried, as they hit him on his soft and tender nose. "Oh, wow! I guess I'd better run away. It's hailing!" And he did run. And because of Uncle Wiggily's umbrella held over his head, the nuts did not hurt him or Johnnie at all. And when the bear had run far away the squirrel boy gathered all the nuts he wanted, and he and Uncle Wiggily went safely home. And the bear's nose was sore for a week. So if the hickory nut cake doesn't try to sit in the same seat with the apple pie and get all squeezed like a lemon pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Susie's dress. STORY XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND SUSIE'S DRESS Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was reading the paper in his hollow stump bungalow, in the woods, while Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady house-keeper, was out in the kitchen washing the dinner dishes one afternoon. All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily fell asleep because he was reading a bed-time story in the paper, and while he slept he heard a noise at the front door, which sounded like: "Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" "My goodness!" suddenly exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, awakening out of his sleep. "That sounds like the forest woodpecker bird making holes in a tree." "No, it isn't that," spoke Nurse Jane. "It's some one tapping at our front door. I can't answer because my paws are all covered with soapy-suds dishwater." "Oh, I'll go," said Uncle Wiggily, and laying aside the paper over which he had fallen asleep, he opened the door. On the porch stood Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl. "Why, hello Susie!" exclaimed the bunny uncle. "Where are you going with your nice new dress?" for Susie did have on a fine new waist and skirt, or maybe it was made in one piece for all I know. And her new dress had on it ruffles and thing-a-ma-bobs and curley-cues and insertions and Georgette crepe and all sorts of things like that. "Where are you going, Susie?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I am going to a party," answered the little rabbit girl. "Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls, are going to have a party, and they asked me to come. So I came for you." "But I'm not going to the party!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I haven't been invited." "That doesn't make any difference," spoke Susie with a laugh. "You know they'll be glad to see you, anyhow. And I know Lulu meant to ask you, only she must have forgotten about it, because there is so much to do when you have a party." "I know there is," Uncle Wiggily said, "and I don't blame Lulu and Alice a bit for not asking me. Anyhow I couldn't go, for I promised to come over this afternoon and play checkers with Grandfather Goosey Gander." "Oh, but won't you walk with me to the party?" asked Susie, sort of teasing like. "I'm afraid to go through the woods alone, because Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, said you and he met a bear there yesterday." "We did!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "But the hazel bush drove him away by showering nuts on his nose." "Well, I might not be so lucky as to have a hazelnut bush to help me," spoke Susie. "So I'd be very glad if you would walk through the woods with me. You can scare away the bear if we meet him." "How?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "With my red, white and blue crutch or my umbrella?" "With this popgun, which shoots toothpowder," said Susie. "It belongs to Sammie, my brother, but he let me take it. We'll bring the popgun with us, Uncle Wiggily, and scare the bear." "All right," said the bunny uncle. "That's what we'll do. I'll go as far as the Wibblewobble duck house with you and leave you there at the party." This made Susie very glad and happy, and soon she and Uncle Wiggily were going through the woods together. Susie's new dress was very fine and she kept looking at it as she hopped along. All of a sudden, as the little rabbit girl and the bunny uncle were going along through the woods, they came to a mud puddle. "Look out, now!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Don't fall in that, Susie." "I won't," said the little rabbit girl. "I can easily jump across it." But when she tried to, alas! Likewise unhappiness. Her hind paws slipped and into the mud puddle she fell with her new dress. "Splash!" she went. "Oh, dear!" cried Susie. "Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Look at my nice, new dress," went on Susie. "It isn't at all nice and new now. It's all mud and water and all splashed up, and--oh, dear! Isn't it too bad!" "Yes, besides two it is even six, seven and eight bad," said Uncle Wiggily sadly. "Oh, dear!" "I can't go to the Wibblewobble party this way," cried Susie. "I'll have to go back home to get another dress, and it won't be my new one--and oh, dear!" "Perhaps I can wipe off the mud with some leaves and moss," Uncle Wiggily spoke. "I'll try." But the more he rubbed at the mud spots on Susie's dress the worse they looked. "Oh, you can't do it, Uncle Wiggily!" sighed the little rabbit girl. "No, I don't believe I can," Uncle Wiggily admitted, sadly-like and sorry. "Oh, dear!" cried Susie. "Whatever shall I do? I can't go to a party looking like this! I just must have a new dress." Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then, through the woods, he spied a tree with white, shiny bark on, just like satin. "Ha! I know what to do!" he cried. "That is a white birch tree. Indians make boats of the bark, and from it I can also make a new dress for you, Susie. Or, at least, a sort of dress, or apron, to go over the dress you have on, and so cover the mud spots." "Please do!" begged Susie. "I will!" promised Uncle Wiggily, and he did. He stripped off some bark from the birch tree and he sewed the pieces together with ribbon grass, and some needles from the pine tree. And when Susie put on the bark dress over her party one, not a mud spot showed! "Oh, that's fine, Uncle Wiggily!" she cried. "Now I can go to the Wibblewobbles!" And so she went, and the bad bear never came out to so much as growl, nor did the fox, so the popgun was not needed. And all the girls at the party thought Susie's dress that Uncle Wiggily had made was just fine. So if the rain drop doesn't fall out of bed, and stub its toe on the rocking chair, which might make it so lame that it couldn't dance, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tommie's kite. STORY XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE'S KITE "Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do today?" asked Tommie Kat, the little kitten boy, one morning as he knocked on the door of the hollow stump bungalow, where Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived. "Anything special to do? Why, no, I guess not," answered the bunny uncle. "I just have to go walking to look for an adventure to happen to me, and then--" "Didn't you promise to go to the five and ten cent store for me, and buy me a pair of diamond earrings?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "Oh, so I did!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I had forgotten about that. But I'll go. What was it you wanted of me?" he asked Tommie Kat, who was making a fishpole of his tail by standing it straight up in the air. "Oh, I wanted you to come and help me build a kite, and then come with me and fly it," said the kitten boy. "Could you do that, Uncle Wiggily?" "Well, perhaps I could," said the bunny uncle. "I will first go to the store and get Nurse Jane's diamond earrings. Then, on the way back, I'll stop and help you with your kite. And after that is done I'll go along and see if I can find an adventure." "That will be fun!" cried Tommie. "I have everything all ready to make the kite--paper, sticks, paste and string. We'll make a big one and fly it away up in the air." So off through the woods started Uncle Wiggily and Tommie to the five and ten cent store. There they bought the diamond earrings for Nurse Jane, who wanted to wear them to a party Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the hen lady, was going to have next week. "And now to make the kite!" cried Tommie, as he and Uncle Wiggily reached the house where the Kat family lived. The bunny uncle and the little kitten boy cut out some red paper in the shape of a kite. Then they pasted it on the crossed sticks, which were tied together with string. "The kite is almost done," said Uncle Wiggily, as he held it up. "And can you tell me, Tommie, why your kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?" "Can I tell you why my kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?" repeated Tommie, like a man in a minstrel show. "No, Uncle Wiggily, I can not. Why is my kite like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?" "Because," laughed the old rabbit gentleman, "this kite has no tail and neither has Buddy." "Ha, ha!" exclaimed Tommie. "That's right!" For guinea pigs have no tails, you know, though if you ask me why I can't tell you. Some kites do have tails, though, and others do not. Anyhow, Tommie's kite, without a tail, was soon finished, and then he and Uncle Wiggily went to a clear, open place in the fields, near the woods, to fly it. There was a good wind blowing, and when Uncle Wiggily raised the kite up off the ground, Tommie ran, holding the string that was fast to the kite and up and up and up it went in the air. Soon it was sailing quite near the clouds, almost like Uncle Wiggily's airship, only, of course, no one rode on the kite. "Have you any more string, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the kitten boy, after a bit. "String, Tommie? What for?" "Well, I want to make my kite string longer so it will go up higher. But if you have none I'll run home and get some myself. Will you hold the kite while I'm gone?" "To be sure I will," said Uncle Wiggily. So he took hold of the string of Tommie's kite, which was now quite high in the air. And, sitting down on the ground, Uncle Wiggily held the kite from running away while Tommie went for more string. It was a nice, warm, summer day, and so pleasant in the woods, with the little flies buzzing about, that, before he knew it Uncle Wiggily had fallen asleep. His pink nose stopped twinkling, his ears folded themselves down like a slice of bread and jam, and Uncle Wiggily's eyes closed. All of a sudden he was awakened by feeling himself being pulled. At first he thought it was the skillery-scalery alligator, or the bad fox trying to drag him off to his den, and Uncle Wiggily, opening his eyes, cried: "Here! Stop that if you please! Don't pull me so!" But when he looked around he could see no one, and then he knew it was Tommie's kite, flying up in the air, that was doing the pulling. The wind was blowing hard now, and as Uncle Wiggily had the kite string wound around his paws, of course he was pulled almost off his feet. "Ha! That kite is a great puller!" said the bunny uncle. "I must look out or it might pull me up to the clouds. I had better fasten the string to this old stump. The kite can't pull that up." So the rabbit gentleman fastened the kite cord to the stout old stump, winding it around two or three times, and he kept the loose end of the string in his paw. Uncle Wiggily was just going to sleep again, and he was wondering why it took Tommie so long to find more string for the kite, when, all of a sudden, there was a rustling in the bushes, and out jumped the bad old babboon, who had, once before, made trouble for the bunny uncle. "Ah, ha!" jabbered the babboon. "This time I have caught you. You can't get away from me now. I am going to take you off to my den." "Oh, please don't!" begged Uncle Wiggily. "Yes, I shall, too!" blabbered the babboon. "Off to my den you shall go--you shall go--you shall go. Off to my den. Oh, hold on!" cried the bad creature. "That isn't the song I wanted to sing. That's the London Bridge song. I want the one about the dinner bell is ringing in the bread box this fine day. And the dinner bell is ringing for to take you far away, Uncle Wiggily." "Ah, then I had better go to my dinner," said the bunny uncle, sadly. "No! You will go with me!" cried the babboon. "Come along now. I'm going to take you away." "Well, if I must go, I suppose I must," Uncle Wiggily said, looking at the kite string, which was pulling at the stump very hard now. "But before you take me away would you mind pulling down Tommie's kite?" asked the bunny uncle. "I'll leave it for him." "Yes, I'll pull the kite down," said the babboon. "Maybe you will," thought Uncle Wiggily, laughing to himself. "And maybe you won't." The bad babboon monkey chap unwound the string from the stump, but no sooner had he started to pull in the kite than there came a very strong puff of wind. Up, up and up into the air blew the kite and, as the string was tangled around the babboon's paws, it took him up with it, and though he cried out: "Stop! Stop! Stop!" the kite could not stop, nor the babboon either. [Illustration: Up, up and up into the air blew the kite and, as the string was tangled around the babboon's paws, it took him up with it.] "Well, I guess you won't bother me any more," said Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the babboon, who was only a speck in the sky now; a very little speck, being carried away by the kite. And the babboon did not come back to bother Uncle Wiggily, at least for a long time. Tommie felt badly when he found his kite blown away. But he was glad Uncle Wiggily had been saved, and he and the bunny uncle soon made a new kite, better than the first. They had lots of fun flying it. And in the story after this, if the chocolate pudding doesn't hide in the coal bin, where the cook can't find it to put the whipped cream on, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie's marbles. STORY XXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND JOHNNIE'S MARBLES It was a nice, warm spring day, when the ground in the woods where the animal boys and girls lived was soft, for all the frost had melted out of it; and, though it was a little too early to go barefoot, it was not too early to play marbles. Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels; Sammie Littletail, the rabbit, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, were having a game under the trees, not far from the hollow stump bungalow which was the house of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny gentleman. "First shot agates!" cried Johnnie. "No, I'm going to shoot first!" chattered his brother Billie. "Huh! I hollered it before either of you," quacked Jimmie, the duck boy, and he tossed some red, white and blue striped marbles on the ground in the ring. The marbles were just the color of Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism crutch. The animal boys began playing, but they made so much noise, crying "Fen!" and "Ebbs!" and "Knuckle down!" that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, went to the bungalow door and called: "Boys! Boys! Will you please be a little quiet? Uncle Wiggily is lying down taking a nap, and I don't want you to wake him up with your marbles." "Oh, I don't mind!" cried the bunny uncle, unfolding his ears from his vest pockets, where he always tucked them when he went to sleep, so the flies would not tickle him. "It's about time I got up," he said. "So the boys are playing marbles, eh? Well, I'll go out and watch them. It will make me think of the days when I was a spry young bunny chap, hopping about, spinning my kites and flying my tops." "I guess you are a little bit twisted; are you not?" asked Nurse Jane, politely. "Oh, so I am," said Uncle Wiggily. "I mean flying my kite and spinning my top." Then he pinkled his twink nose--Ah! you see that's the time I was twisted--I mean he twinkled his pink nose, Uncle Wiggily did, and out he went to watch the animal boys play marbles. Billie, Johnnie and Jimmie, as well as Sammie, wanted the bunny uncle to play also, but he said his rheumatism hurt too much to bend over. So he just watched the marble game, until it was time for the boys to go home. And then Johnnie cried: "Oh, I forgot! I have to go to the store for a loaf of bread for supper. Come on, fellows, with me, will you?" But neither Jimmie, nor Sammie nor Billie wanted to go with Johnnie, so he started off through the woods to the store alone, when Uncle Wiggily cried: "Wait a minute, Johnnie, and I'll go with you. I haven't had my walk this day, and I have had no adventure at all. I'll go along and see what happens." "Oh, that will be nice!" chattered Johnnie, who did not like to go to the store alone. So, putting his marbles in the bag in which he carried them, he ran along beside Uncle Wiggily. They had not gone far when, all of a sudden, there came a strong puff of wind, and, before Uncle Wiggily could hold his hat down over his ears, it was blown off his head. I mean his hat was--not his ears. Away through the trees the tall silk hat was blown. "Oh, dear!" cried the bunny uncle. "I guess I am not going to have a nice adventure today." "I'll get your hat for you, Uncle Wiggily!" said Johnnie kindly. "You hold my bag of marbles so I can run faster, and I'll get the hat for you." Tossing the rabbit gentleman the marbles, away scampered Johnnie after the hat. But the wind kept on blowing it, and the squirrel boy had to run a long way. "Well, I hope he gets it and brings it back to me," thought Uncle Wiggily, as he sat down on a green, moss-covered stone to wait for the squirrel boy. And, while he was waiting the bunny uncle opened the bag and looked at Johnnie's marbles. There were green ones, and blue and red and pink--very pretty, all of them. "I wonder if I have forgotten how to play the games I used to enjoy when I was a boy rabbit?" thought the bunny gentleman. "Just now, when no one is here in tile woods to laugh at me, I think I'll try and see how well I can shoot marbles." So he marked out a ring on the ground, and putting some marbles in the center began shooting at them with another marble, just the way you boys do. "Ha! A good shot!" cried the bunny uncle, as he knocked two marbles out of the ring at once. "I am not so old as I thought I was, even if I have the rheumatism." He was just going to shoot again when a growling voice over behind a bush said: "Well, you will not have it much longer." "Have what much longer?" asked Uncle Wiggily, and glancing up, there he saw a big bear, not at all polite looking. "You won't have the rheumatism much longer," the bear said. "Why not?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "Because," answered the bear, "I am going to eat you up and the rheumatism, too. Here I come!" and he made a jump for the bunny uncle. But did he catch him? That bear did not, for he stepped on one of the round marbles, which rolled under his paw and he fell down ker-punko! on his nose-o! Uncle Wiggily started to run away, but he did not like to go and leave Johnnie's marbles on the ground, so he stayed to pick them up, and by then the bear stood up on his hind legs again, and grabbed the bunny uncle in his sharp claws. "Ah ha! Now I have you!" said the bear, grillery and growlery like. "Yes, I see you have," sadly spoke Uncle Wiggily. "But before you take me off to your den, which I suppose you will do, will you grant me one favor?" "Yes, and only one," growled the bear. "Be quick about it! What is it?" "Will you let me have one more shot?" asked the bunny uncle. "I want to see if I can knock the other marbles out of the ring." "Well, I see no harm in that," slowly grumbled the bear. "Go ahead. Shoot!" Uncle Wiggily picked out the biggest shooter in Johnnie's bag. Then he took careful aim, but, instead of aiming at the marbles in the ring he aimed at the soft and tender nose of the bear. "Bing!" went the marble which Uncle Wiggily shot, right on the bear's nose. "Bing!" And the bear was so surprised and kerslostrated that he cried: "Wow! Ouch! Oh, lollypops! Oh, sweet spirits of nitre!" And away he ran through the woods to hold his nose in a soft bank of mud, for he thought a bee had stung him. And so he didn't bite Uncle Wiggily after all. "Well, I guess I can play marbles nearly as well as I used to," laughed the bunny uncle when Johnnie came back with the tall silk hat. And when Mr. Longears told the boy squirrel about shooting the bear on the nose, Johnnie laughed and said he could have done no better himself. So everything came out all right, you see, and if the butterfly doesn't try to stand on its head and tickle the June bug under the chin, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Billie's top. STORY XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND BILLIE'S TOP Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was sitting on the front porch of his hollow stump bungalow one day, when along came Billie Bushytail, the little squirrel boy. "Hello, Billie!" called the bunny gentleman, cheerful-like and happy, for his rheumatism did not hurt him much that day. "Hello, Billie." "Hello, Uncle Wiggily," answered the chattery squirrel chap. Then he came up and sat down on the porch, but he seemed so quiet and thoughtful that Uncle Wiggily asked: "Is anything the matter, Billie?" "No--well--that is, nothing much," said the squirrel boy slowly, "but I'd like to ask you what you'd buy if you had five cents, Uncle Wiggily." "What would I buy if I had five cents, Billie? Well now, let me see. I think I'd buy two postage stamps and a funny postcard and write some letters to my friends. What would you buy, Billie?" "I'd buy a spinning top, Uncle Wiggily," said the little squirrel boy, very quickly. "Only, you see, I haven't any five cents. You have, though, haven't you Uncle Wiggily? Eh?" "Why, yes, Billie, I think so," and the old gentleman rabbit put his paw in his pocket to make sure. "This is a funny world," said Billie with a long, sorrowful sigh. "Here you are with five cents and you don't want a top, and here I am without five cents and I do want a spinning top. Oh, dear!" "Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly fashion. "I see what you mean, Billie. Now you just come along with me," and Uncle Wiggily picked up off the porch his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. "Where are we going?" asked Billie, sort of hopeful-like and expectant. "I'm going to the top store to buy a spinning top," answered bunny uncle. "If you think I ought to have one, why I'll get it." "Oh, all right," said Billie, sort of funny-like. "Do you know how to spin a top, Uncle Wiggily?" "Well, I used to when I was a young rabbit, and I guess I can remember a little about it. Come along and help me pick out a nice one." So the bunny uncle and the squirrel boy went on and on through the woods to the top store kept by Mrs. Spin Spider, who had a little toy shop in which she worked when she was not spinning silk for the animal ladies' dresses. "One of your best tops for myself, if you please," said Uncle Wiggily, as he and Billie went into the toy store. Mrs. Spin Spider put a number of tops on the counter. "That's the kind you want!" cried Billie, as he saw a big red one, and pointed his paw at it. "Try it and see how it spins," said the bunny man. Billie wound the string on the top, and then, giving it a throw, while he kept hold of one end of the cord, he made the top spin as fast as anything on the floor of the store. Around and around whizzed the red top, like the electric fan on Uncle Wiggily's airship. "Is that a good top for me, Billie?" asked Mr. Longears. "A very good top," said the squirrel boy. "Fine!" "Then I'll take it," said Uncle Wiggily, and he paid for it and walked out, Billie following. If the little chattery squirrel chap was disappointed at not getting a top for himself, he said nothing about it, which was very brave and good, I think. He just walked along until they came to a nice, smooth-dirt place in the woods, and then Uncle Wiggily said: "Let me see you spin my top, Billie. I want to watch you and see how it's done--how you wind the string on, how you throw it down to the ground and all that. You just give me some lessons in top-spinning, please." "I will," said Billie. So he wound the string on the top again and soon it was spinning as fast as anything on the hard ground in the woods. "Do you want me to show you how to pick up a top, and let it spin on your paw?" asked Billie, of Uncle Wiggily. "Yes, show me all the tricks there are," said the bunny gentleman. So, while the top was spinning very fast, Billie picked it up, and, holding it on his paw, quickly put it over on Uncle Wiggily's paw. "Ouch! It tickles!" cried the bunny uncle, sort of giggling like. "Yes, a little," laughed Billie, "but I don't mind that. Now I'll show you how to pick it up." Once more he spun the top, and he was just going to pick it up when, all of a sudden, a growling voice cried: "Ah, ha! Again I am in luck! A rabbit and a squirrel! Let me see; which shall I take first?" And out from behind a stump popped a big bear. It was the same one that Uncle Wiggily had hit on the nose with Johnnie's marble, about a week before. "Oh, my!" said the bunny man. "Oh, dear!" chattered Billie. "Surprised to see me, aren't you?" asked the bear sticking out his tongue. "A little," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but I guess we'd better be getting along Billie. Pick up my top and come along." "Oh, oh! Not so fast!" growled the bear. "I shall want you to stay with me. You'll be going off with me to my den, pretty soon. Don't be in a hurry," and, putting out his claws, he grabbed hold of Uncle Wiggily and Billie. They tried to get away, but could not, and the bear was just going to carry them off, when he saw the spinning top whizzing on the ground. "What's that red thing?" he asked. "A top Billie just picked out for me," said Uncle Wiggily. "Would you like to have it spin on your paw?" asked Billie, blinking his eyes at Uncle Wiggily, funny-like. "Oh, I might as well, before I carry you off to my den," said the bear, sort of careless-like and indifferent. "Spin the top on my paw." So Billie picked up the spinning top and put it on the bear's broad, flat paw. And, no sooner was it there, whizzing around, than the bear cried: "Ouch! Oh, dear! How it tickles. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! It makes me laugh. It makes me laugh. It makes me giggle! Ouch! Oh, dear!" And then he laughed so hard that he dropped the top and turned a somersault, and away he ran through the woods, leaving Billie and Uncle Wiggily safe there alone. "We came out of that very well," said the bunny uncle as the bear ran far away. "Yes, indeed, and here is your top," spoke Billie, picking it up off the ground where the bear had dropped it. "My top? No that's yours," said the bunny gentleman. "I meant it for you all the while." "Oh, did you? Thank you so much!" cried happy Billie, and then he ran off to spin his red top, while Mr. Longears went back to his bungalow. And if the sofa pillow doesn't leak its feathers all over, and make the room look like a bird's nest at a moving picture picnic, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the sunbeam. STORY XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNBEAM Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was walking along in the woods one day, sort of hopping and leaning on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, and he was wondering whether or not he would have an adventure, when, all at once, he heard a little voice crying: "Oh, dear! I never can get up! I never can get up! Oh, dear!" "Ha! that sounds like some one who can't get out of bed," exclaimed the bunny uncle. "I wonder who it can be? Perhaps I can help them." So he looked carefully around, but he saw no one, and he was just about to hop along, thinking perhaps he had made a mistake, and had not heard anything after all, when, suddenly, the voice sounded again, and called out: "Oh, I can't get up! I can't get up! Can't you shine on me this way?" "No, I am sorry to say I cannot," answered another voice. "But try to push your way through, and then I can shine on you, and make you grow." There was silence for a minute, and then the first voice said again: "Oh, it's no use! I can't push the stone from over my head. Oh, such trouble as I have!" "Trouble, eh?" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Here is where I come in. Who are you, and what is the trouble?" he asked, looking all around, and seeing nothing but the shining sun. "Here I am, down in the ground near your left hind leg," was the answer. "I am a woodland flower and I have just started to grow. But when I tried to put my head up out of the ground, to get air, and drink the rain water, I find I cannot do it. A big stone is in the way, right over my head, and I cannot push it aside to get up. Oh, dear!" sighed the Woodland flower. "Oh, don't worry about that!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice. "I'll lift the stone off your head for you," and he did, just as he once had helped a Jack-in-the-pulpit flower to grow up, as I have told you in another story. Under the stone were two little pale green leaves on a stem that was just cracking its way up through the brown earth. "There you are!" cried the bunny uncle. "But you don't look much like a flower." "Oh! I have only just begun to grow," was the answer. "And I never would have been a flower if you had not taken the stone from me. You see, when I was a baby flower, or seed, I was covered up in my warm bed of earth. Then came the cold winter, and I went to sleep. When spring came I awakened and began to grow, but in the meanwhile this stone was put over me. I don't know by whom. But it held me down. "But now I am free, and my pale green leaves will turn to dark green, and soon I will blossom out into a flower." "How will all that happen?" Uncle Wiggily asked. "When the sunbeam shines on me," answered the blossom. "That is why I wanted to get above the stone--so the sunbeam could shine on me and warm me." "And I will begin to do it right now!" exclaimed the sunbeam, who had been playing about on the leaves of the trees, waiting for a chance to shine on the green plant and turn it into a beautiful flower. "Thank you, Uncle Wiggily, for taking the stone off the leaves so I could shine on them," went on the sunbeam, who had known Uncle Wiggily for some time. "Though I am strong I am not strong enough to lift stones, nor was the flower. But now I can do my work. I thank you, and I hope I may do you a favor some time." "Thank you," Uncle Wiggily said, with a low bow, raising his tall silk hat. "I suppose you sunbeams are kept very busy shining on, and warming, all the plants and trees in the woods?" "Yes, indeed!" answered the yellow sunbeam, who was a long, straight chap. "We have lots of work to do, but we are never too busy to shine for our friends." Then the sunbeam played about the little green plant, turning the pale leaves a darker color and swelling out the tiny buds. Uncle Wiggily walked on through the woods, glad that he had had even this little adventure. It was a day or so after this that the bunny uncle went to the store for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept his hollow stump bungalow so nice and tidy. "I want a loaf of bread, a yeast cake and three pounds of sugar," said Nurse Jane. "It will give me great pleasure to get them for you," answered the rabbit gentleman politely. On his way home from the store with the sugar, bread and yeast cake, Uncle Wiggily thought he would hop past the place where he had lifted the stone off the head of the plant, to see how it was growing. And, as he stood there, looking at the flower, which was much taller than when the bunny uncle had last seen it, all of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes, and out jumped a bad old fox. "Ah, ha!" barked the fox, like a dog. "You are just the one I want to see!" "You want to see me?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I think you must be mistaken," he went on politely. "Oh, no, not at all!" barked the fox. "You have there some sugar, some bread and a yeast cake; have you not?" "I have," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Well, then, you may give me the bread and sugar and after I eat them I will start in on you. I will take you off to my den, to my dear little foxes. Eight, Nine and Ten. They have numbers instead of names, you see." "But I don't want to give you Nurse Jane's sugar and bread, and go with you to your den," said the rabbit gentleman. "I don't want to! I don't like it!" "You can't always do as you like," barked the fox. "Quick now--the sugar and bread!" "What about the yeast cake?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he held it out, all wrapped in shiny tinfoil, like a looking-glass. "What about the yeast cake?" "Oh, throw it away!" growled the fox. "No, don't you do it!" whispered a voice in Uncle Wiggily's ear, and there was the sunbeam he had met the other day. "Hold out the yeast cake and I will shine on it very brightly, and then I'll slant, or bounce off from it, into the eyes of the fox," said the sunbeam. "And when I shine in his eyes I'll tickle him, and he'll sneeze, and you can run away." So Uncle Wiggily held out the bright yeast cake. Quick as a flash the sunbeam glittered on it, and then reflected itself into the eyes of the fox. "Ker-chool!" he sneezed. "Ker-chooaker-choo!" and tears came into the fox's eyes, so he could not see Uncle Wiggily, who, after thanking the sunbeam, hurried safely back to his bungalow with the things for Nurse Jane. So the fox got nothing at all but a sneeze, you see, and when he had cleared the tears out of his eyes Uncle Wiggily was gone. So the sunbeam did the bunny gentleman a favor after all, and if the coal man doesn't put oranges in our cellar, in mistake for apples when he brings a barrel of wood, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the puff ball. STORY XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PUFF BALL "Are you going for a walk to-day, as you nearly always do, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman, as he got up from the breakfast table in the hollow stump bungalow one morning. "Why, yes, Janie, I am going for a walk in the woods very soon," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Is there anything I can do for you?" "There is," said the muskrat lady. "Something for yourself, also." "What is it?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know, sort of making his pink nose turn orange color by looking up at the sun and sneezing. "What is it that I can do for myself as well as for you, Janie?" "Cream puffs," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "Cream puffs?" cried the bunny uncle, hardly knowing whether his housekeeper was fooling or in earnest. "Yes, I want some cream puffs for supper, and if you stop at the baker's and get them you will be doing yourself a favor as well as me, for we will both eat them." "Right gladly will I do it," Uncle Wiggily made answer. "Cream puffs I shall bring from the baker's," and then, whistling a funny little tune, away he hopped to the woods. It did not take him long to get to the place where the baker had his shop. And in a few minutes Uncle Wiggily was on his way back with some delicious cream puffs in a basket. "I'll take them home to Nurse Jane for supper," thought the bunny uncle, "and then I can keep on with my walk, looking for an adventure." You know what cream puffs are, I dare say. They are little, round, puffy balls made of something like piecrust, and they are hollow. The inside is filled with something like corn-starch pudding, only nicer. Uncle Wiggily was going along with the cream puffs in his basket when, coming to a nice place in the woods, where the sun shone on a green, mossy log, the bunny uncle said: "I will sit down here a minute and rest." So he did, but he rested longer than he meant to, for, before he knew it, he fell asleep. And while he slept, along came a bad old weasel, who is as sly as a fox. And the weasel, smelling the cream puffs in the basket, slyly lifted the cover and took every one out, eating them one after the other. "Now to play a trick on Uncle Wiggily," said the weasel in a whisper, for the bunny uncle was still sleeping. So the bad creature found a lot of puff balls in the woods, and put them in the basket in place of the cream puffs. Puff balls grow on little plants. They are brown and round and hollow, and, so far, they are like cream puffs, except that inside they have a brown, fluffy powder that flies all over when you break the puff ball. And, if you are not careful, it gets in your eyes and nose and makes you sneeze. "I should like to see what Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane do when they open the basket, and find puff balls instead of cream puffs," snickered the weasel as he went off, licking his chops, where the cornstarch pudding stuff was stuck on his whiskers. "It will be a great joke on them!" But let us see what happens. Uncle Wiggily awakened from his sleep in the woods, and started off toward his hollow stump bungalow. "I declare!" he cried. "That sleep made me hungry. I shall be glad to eat some of the cream puffs I have in my basket." "What's that?" asked a sharp voice in the bushes. "What did you say you had in the basket?" "Cream puffs," answered Uncle Wiggily, without thinking, and then, all of a sudden, out jumped the bad old skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail. "Ha! Cream puffs!" cried the 'gator, as I call him for short, though he was rather long. "Cream puffs! If there is one thing I like more than another it is cream puffs! It is lucky you brought them with you, or I would have nothing for dessert when I have you for supper." "Are you--are you going to have me for supper?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of anxious like. "I am!" cried the alligator, positively. "But I will eat the dessert first. Give me those cream puffs!" he cried and he made a grab for the bunny's basket, and, reaching in, scooped out the puff balls, thinking they were cream puffs. The 'gator, without looking, took one bite and a chew and then---- "Oh, my! Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from the puff balls went up his nose and into his eyes. "Oh, what funny cream puffs! Wow!" And, not stopping to so much as nibble at Uncle Wiggily, away ran the alligator to get a drink of lemonade. [Illustration: "Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from the puff balls went up his nose and into his eyes.] So you see, after all, the weasel's trick saved Uncle Wiggily, who soon went back to the store for more cream puffs--real ones this time, and he got safely home with them. And nothing else happened that day. But if the trolley car stops running down the street to play with the jitney bus, so the pussy cat can have a ride when it wants to go shopping in the three and four-cent store, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the May flowers. STORY XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MAY FLOWERS "Rat-a-tat!" came a knock on the door of the hollow stump bungalow, where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived in the woods with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper. "My! Some one is calling early to-day!" said the bunny uncle. "Sit still and eat your breakfast," spoke Nurse Jane. "I'll see who it is." When she opened the door there stood Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. "Why where are you going so early this morning, Jimmie?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'm going to school," answered the Wibblewobble chap, who was named that because his tail did wibble and wobble from side to side when he walked. "Aren't you a bit early?" asked Mr. Longears. "I came early to get you," said Jimmie. "Will you come for a walk with me, Uncle Wiggily? We can walk toward the hollow stump school, where the lady mouse teaches us our lessons." "Why, it's so very early," Uncle Wiggily went on. "I have hardly had my breakfast. Why so early, Jimmie?" The duck boy whispered in Uncle Wiggily's ear: "I want to go early so I can gather some May flowers for the teacher. This is the first day of May, you know, and the flowers that have been wet by the April showers ought to be blossoming now." "So they had!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll hurry with my breakfast, Jimmie, and we'll go gathering May flowers in the woods." Soon the bunny uncle and the boy duck were walking along where the green trees grew up out of the carpet of soft green moss. "Oh, here are some yellow violets!" cried Jimmie, as he saw some near an old stump. "Yes, and I see some white ones!" cried the bunny uncle, as he picked them, while Jimmie plucked the yellow violets with his strong bill, which was also yellow in color. Then they went on a little farther and saw some bluebells growing, and the bluebell flowers were tinkling a pretty little tinkle tune. The bluebells even kept on tinkling after Jimmie had picked them for his bouquet. The boy duck waddled on a little farther and all of a sudden, he cried: "Oh, what a funny flower this is, Uncle Wiggily. It's just like the little ice cream cones that come on Christmas trees, only it's covered with a flap, like a leaf, and under the flap is a little green thing, standing up. What is it?" "That is a Jack-in-the-pulpit," answered the bunny uncle, "and the Jack is the funny green thing. Jack preaches sermons to the other flowers, telling them how to be beautiful and make sweet perfume." "I'm going to put a Jack in the bouquet for the lady mouse teacher," said Jimmie, and he did. Then he and Uncle Wiggily went farther and farther on in the woods, picking May flowers, and they were almost at the hollow stump school when, all at once, from behind a big stone popped the bad ear-scratching cat. "Ah, ha!" howled the cat. "I am just in time I see. I haven't scratched any ears in ever and ever so long. And you have such nice, big ears, Uncle Wiggily, that it is a real pleasure to scratch them!" "Do you mean it is a pleasure for me, or for you?" asked the bunny uncle, softly like. "For me, of course!" meaouwed the cat. "Get ready now for the ear-scratching! Here I come!" "Oh, please don't scratch my ears!" begged Uncle Wiggily. "Please don't!" "Yes, I shall!" said the bad cat, stretching out his claws. "Would you mind scratching my ears, instead of Uncle Wiggily's?" asked Jimmie. "I'll let you scratch mine all you want to." "I don't want to," spoke the cat. "Your ears are so small that it is no pleasure for me to scratch them--none at all." "It was very kind of you to offer your ears in place of mine," said Uncle Wiggily to the duck boy. "But I can't let you do that. Go on, bad cat, if you are going to scratch my ears, please do it and have it over with." "All right!" snarled the cat. "I'll scratch your ears!" She was just going to do it, when Jimmie suddenly picked up a new flower, and holding it toward the cat cried: "No, you can't scratch Uncle Wiggily's ears! This is a dog-tooth violet I have just picked, and if you harm Uncle Wiggily I'll make the dog-tooth violet bite you!" And then the big violet went: "Bow! Wow! Wow!" just like a dog, and the cat thinking a dog was after him, meaouwed: "Oh, my! Oh, dear! This is no place for me!" and away he ran, not scratching Uncle Wiggily at all. Then Jimmie put the dog-tooth violet (which did not bark any more) in his bouquet and the lady mouse teacher liked the May flowers very much. Uncle Wiggily took his flowers to Nurse Jane. And if the umbrella doesn't turn inside out, so its ribs get all wet and sneeze the handle off, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the beech tree. STORY XXVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEECH TREE "Will you go to the store for me, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman one day, as he sat out on the porch of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods. "Indeed I will, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," said Mr. Longears, most politely. "What is it you want?" "A loaf of bread and a pound of sugar," she answered, and Uncle Wiggily started off. "Better take your umbrella," Nurse Jane called after him. "All the April showers are not yet over, even if it is May." So the rabbit gentleman took his umbrella. On his way to the store through the woods, the bunny uncle came to a big beech tree, which had nice, shiny white bark on it, and, to his surprise the rabbit gentleman saw a big black bear, standing up on his hind legs and scratching at the tree bark as hard as he could. "Ha! That is not the right thing to do," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "If that bear scratches too much of the bark from the tree the tree will die, for the bark of a tree is just like my skin is to me. I must drive the bear away." The bear, scratching the bark with his sharp claws, stood with his back to Uncle Wiggily, and the rabbit gentleman thought he could scare the big creature away. So Uncle Wiggily picked up a stone, and throwing it at the bear, hit him on the back, where the skin was so thick it hurt hardly at all. And as soon as he had thrown the stone Uncle Wiggily in his loudest voice shouted: "Bang! Bang! Bungity-bang-bung!" "Oh, my goodness!" cried the bear, not turning around. "The hunter man with his gun must be after me. He has shot me once, but the bullet did not hurt. I had better run away before he shoots me again!" And the bear ran away, never once looking around, for he thought the stone Mr. Longears threw was a bullet from a gun, you see, and he thought when Uncle Wiggily said "Bang!" that it was a gun going off. So the bunny gentleman scared the bear away. "Thank you, Uncle Wiggily," said the beech tree. "You saved my life by not letting the bear scratch off all my bark." "I am glad I did," spoke the rabbit, making a polite bow with his tall silk hat, for Mr. Longears was polite, even to a tree. "The bear would not stop scratching my bark when I asked him to," went on the beech tree, "so I am glad you came along, and scared him. You did me a great favor and I will do you one if I ever can." "Thank you," spoke Uncle Wiggily, and then he hopped on to the store to get the loaf of bread and the pound of sugar for Nurse Jane. It was on the way back from the store that an adventure happened to Uncle Wiggily. He came to the place where his friend the beech tree was standing up in the woods, and a balsam tree, next door to it, was putting some salve, or balsam, on the places where the bear had scratched off the bark, to make the cuts heal. Then, all of a sudden, out from behind a bush jumped the same bad bear that had done the scratching. "Ah, ha!" growled the bear, as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily, "you can't fool me again, making believe a stone is a bullet, and that your 'Bang!' is a gun! You can't fool me! I know all about the trick you played on me. A little bird, sitting up in a tree, saw it and told me!" "Well," said Uncle Wiggily slowly, "I'm sorry I had to fool you, but it was all for the best. I wanted to save the beech tree." "Oh, I don't care!" cried the bear, saucy like and impolitely. "I'm going to scratch as much as I like!" "My goodness! You're almost as bad as the ear-scratching cat!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'd better run home to my hollow stump bungalow." "No, you don't!" cried the bear, and, reaching out his claws, he caught hold of Uncle Wiggily, who, with his umbrella, and the bread and sugar, was standing under the beech tree. "You can't get away from me like that," and the bear held tightly to the bunny uncle. "Oh, dear! What are you going to do to me?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "First, I'll bite you," said the bear. "No, I guess I'll first scratch you. No, I won't either. I'll scrite you; that's what I'll do. I'll scrite you!" "What's scrite?" asked Uncle Wiggily, curious like. "It's a scratch and a bite made into one," said the bear, "and now I'm going to do it." "Oh, ho! No, you aren't!" suddenly cried the beech tree, who had been thinking of a way to save Uncle Wiggily. "No, you don't scrite my friend!" And with that the brave tree gave itself a shiver and shake, and shook down on the bear a lot of sharp, three-cornered beech nuts. They fell on the bear's soft and tender nose and the sharp edges hurt him so that he cried: "Wow! Ouch! I guess I made a mistake! I must run away!" And away he ran from the shower of sharp beech nuts which didn't hurt Uncle Wiggily at all because he raised his umbrella and kept them off. Then he thanked the tree for having saved him from the bear and went safely home. And if the cow bell doesn't moo in its sleep, and wake up the milkman before it's time to bring the molasses for breakfast, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the bitter medicine. STORY XXVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BITTER MEDICINE "How is Jackie this morning, Mrs. Bow Wow?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one day, as he stopped at the kennel where the dog lady lived with her two little boys, Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppies. "How is Jackie?" "Jackie is not so well, I'm sorry to say," answered Mrs. Bow Wow, as she looked carefully along the back fence to see if there were any bad cats there who might meaouw, and try to scratch the puppies. "Not so well? I am sorry to hear that," spoke the bunny uncle. "What's seems to be the matter?" "Oh, you know Jackie and Peetie both had the measles," went on Mrs. Bow Wow. "They seemed to get over them nicely, at least Peetie did, but then Jackie caught the epizootic, and he has to stay in bed a week longer, and take bitter medicine." "Bitter medicine, eh?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I am sorry to hear that, for I don't like bitter medicine myself." "Neither does Jackie," continued Mrs. Bow Wow. "In fact, he really doesn't know whether he likes this bitter medicine or not." "Why, not?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Because we can't get him to take a drop," said the puppy dog boy's mother. "Not a drop will he take, though I have fixed it up for him with orange juice and sugar and even put it in a lollypop. But he won't take it, and Dr. Possum says he won't get well unless he takes the bitter medicine." "Well, Dr. Possum ought to know," said Uncle Wiggily. "But why don't you ask him a good way to give the medicine to Jackie?" "That's what I'm waiting out here for now," said Mrs. Bow Wow. "I want to catch Dr. Possum when he comes past, and ask him to come in and give Jackie the medicine. The poor boy really needs it to make him well." "Of course he does," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "And while you are waiting for Dr. Possum I'll see what I can do." "What are you going to do?" asked Mrs. Bow Wow, as the bunny uncle started for the dog kennel. "I'm going to try to make Jackie take his bitter medicine. You just stay out here a little while." "Well, I hope you do it, but I'm afraid you won't," spoke Mrs. Bow Wow with a sigh. "I've tried all the ways I know. I was just going, as you came along, to get a toy balloon, blow it up, and put the medicine inside. Then I was going to let Jackie burst it by sticking a pin in it. And I thought when the balloon exploded the medicine might be blown down his throat." "Oh, well, I think I have a better way than that," said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh. He went in where Jackie, who had the measles-epizootic, was in bed. "Good morning, Jackie," said the bunny uncle. "How are you?" "Not very well," answered Jackie, the puppy dog boy. "But I'm glad to see you. I'm not going to take the bitter medicine even for you, though, Uncle Wiggily." "Ho! Ho! Ho! Just you wait until you're asked!" cried Mr. Longears in his most jolly voice. "Now let me have a look at that bitter medicine which is making so much trouble. Where is it?" "In that cup on the chair," and Jackie pointed to it near his bed. "I see," said Uncle Wiggily, looking at it. "Now, Jackie, I'm a good friend of yours, and you wouldn't mind just holding this cup of bitter medicine in your paw, would you, to please me?" "Oh, I'll do that for you, Uncle Wiggily, but I'll not take it," Jackie said. "Never mind about that," laughed the bunny uncle. "Just hold the medicine in your paw, so," and Jackie did as he was told. "Now, would you mind holding it up to your lips, as if you were going to make believe take it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Mind you, don't you dare take a drop of it. Just hold the cup to your lips, but don't swallow any." "Why do you want me to do that?" asked Jackie, as he did what Uncle Wiggily asked. "Because I want to draw a picture of you making believe take bitter medicine," said the bunny, as he took out pencil and paper. "I'll show it to any other of my little animal friends, who may not like their medicine, and I'll say to them: 'See how brave Jackie is to take his bitter medicine.' Of course, I won't tell them you really were afraid to take it," and without saying any more Uncle Wiggily began to draw the puppy dog boy's picture on the paper. "Hold the cup a little nearer to your lips, and tip it up a bit, Jackie," said the bunny man. "But, mind you, don't swallow a drop. That's it, higher up! Tip it more. I want the picture to look natural." Jackie tipped the cup higher, holding it close to his mouth, and threw back his head, and then Uncle Wiggily suddenly cried: "Ouch!" And Jackie was so surprised that he opened his mouth and before he knew it he had swallowed the bitter medicine! [Illustration: Jackie was so surprised that he opened his mouth.] "Oh, why I took it!" he cried. "It went down my throat! And it wasn't so bad, after all." "I thought it wouldn't be," spoke Uncle Wiggily, as he finished the picture of Jackie, and now he could really say it showed the doggie boy actually taking the medicine, for Jackie did take it. So Dr. Possum didn't have to come in to see Jackie after all to make him swallow the bitter stuff, and the little chap was soon all well again. And if the clothesline doesn't try to jump rope with the Jack in the Box, and upset the washtub, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the pine cones. STORY XXVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PINE CONES Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was out walking in the woods one day when he felt rather tired. He had been looking all around for an adventure, which was something he liked to have happen to him, but he had seen nothing like one so far. "And I don't want to go back to my hollow stump bungalow without having had an adventure to tell Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy about," said Mr. Longears. But, as I said, the rabbit gentleman was feeling rather tired, and, seeing a nice log covered with a cushion of green moss, he sat down on that to rest. "Perhaps an adventure will happen to me here," thought the bunny uncle as he leaned back against a pine tree to rest. It was nice and warm in the woods, and, with the sun shining down upon him, Uncle Wiggily soon dozed off in a little sleep. But when he awakened still no adventure had happened to him. "Well, I guess I must travel on," he said, and he started to get up, but he could not. He could not move his back away from the pine tree against which he had leaned to rest. "Oh, dear! what has happened," cried the bunny uncle. "I am stuck fast! I can't get away! Oh, dear!" At first he thought perhaps the skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail had come softly up behind him as he slept and had him in his claws. But, by sort of looking around backward, Mr. Longears could see no one--not even a fox. "But what is it holding me?" he cried, as he tried again and again to get loose, but could not. "I am sorry to say I am holding you!" spoke a voice up over Uncle Wiggily's head. "I am holding you fast!" "Who are you, if you please?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "I am the pine tree against which you leaned your back. And on my bark was a lot of sticky pine gum. It is that which is holding you fast," the tree answered. "Why--why, it's just like sticky flypaper, isn't it?" asked Uncle Wiggily, trying again to get loose, but not doing so. "And it is just like the time you held the bear fast for me." "Yes, it is; and flypaper is made from my sticky pine gum," said the tree. "I am so sorry you are stuck, but I did not see you lean back against me until it was too late. And now I can't get you loose, for my limbs are so high over your head that I can not reach them down to you. Try to get loose yourself." "I will," said Uncle Wiggily, and he did, but he could not get loose, though he almost pulled out all his fur. So he cried: "Help! Help! Help!" Then, all of a sudden, along through the woods came Neddie Stubtail, the little bear-boy, and Neddie had some butter, which he had just bought at the store for his mother. "Oh!" cried the pine tree. "If you will rub some butter on my sticky gum, it will loosen and melt it, so Uncle Wiggily will not be stuck any more." Neddie did so, and soon the bunny uncle was free. "Oh, I can't tell you how sorry I am," said the pine tree. "I am a horrid creature, of no use in this world, Uncle Wiggily! Other trees have nice fruit or nuts or flowers on them, but all I have is sticky gum, or brown, rough ugly pine cones. Oh, dear! I am of no use in the world!" "Oh, yes you are!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "As for having stuck me fast, that was my own fault. I should have looked before I leaned back. And, as for your pine cones, I dare say they are very useful." "No, they are not!" said the tree sadly. "If they were only ice cream cones they might be some good. Oh, I wish I were a peach tree, or a rose bush!" "Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "I like your pine cones, and I am going to take some home with me, and, when I next see you, I shall tell you how useful they were. Don't feel so badly." So Uncle Wiggily gathered a number of the pine cones, which are really the big, dried seeds of the pine tree, and the bunny uncle took them to his bungalow with him. A few days later he was in the woods again and stopped near the pine tree, which was sighing and wishing it were an umbrella plant or a gold fish. "Hush!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You must try to do the best you can for what you are! And I have come to tell you how useful your pine cones were." "Really?" asked the tree, in great surprise. "Really?" "Really and truly," answered Uncle Wiggily. "With some of your cones Nurse Jane started her kitchen fire when all the wood was wet. With others I built a little play house, and amused Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, when she had the toothache. And other cones I threw at a big bear that was chasing me. I hit him on the nose with them, and he was glad enough to run away. So you see how useful you are, pine tree!" "Oh, I am so glad," said the tree. "I guess it is better to be just what you are, and do the best you can," and Uncle Wiggily said it was. And, if the roof of our house doesn't come down stairs to play with the kitchen floor and let the rain in on the gold fish, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and his torn coat. STORY XXIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND HIS TORN COAT "Do you think I look all right?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper. He was standing in front of her, turning slowly about, and he had on a new coat. For now that Summer was near the bunny uncle had laid aside his heavy fur coat and was wearing a lighter one. "Yes, you do look very nice," Nurse Jane said, tying her tail in a knot so Uncle Wiggily would not step on it as he turned around. "Nice enough to go to Grandfather Goosey Gander's party?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Oh, yes, indeed!" exclaimed Nurse Jane. "I didn't know Grandpa Goosey was to give a party, but, if he is, you certainly look well enough to go with your new coat. Of course, it might be better if it had some lace insertion around the button holes, or a bit of ruching, with oyster shell trimming sewed down the back, but--" "Oh, no, indeed!" laughed the bunny uncle. "If it had those things on it would be a coat for a lady. I like mine plainer." "Well, take care of yourself," called Nurse Jane after him as he hopped off over the fields and through the woods to the house where Grandfather Goosey Gander lived. "Now, I must be very careful not to get my new coat dirty, or I won't look nice at the party," the old rabbit gentleman was saying to himself as he hopped along. "I must be very careful indeed." He went along as carefully as he could, but, just as he was going down a little hill, under the trees, he came to a place which was so slippery that, before he knew it, all of a sudden Uncle Wiggily fell down and slid to the bottom of the hill. "My goodness!" he cried, as he stood up after his slide. "I did not know there was snow or ice on that hill." And when he looked there was not, but it was covered with long, thin pine needles, which are almost as slippery as glass. It was on these that the rabbit gentleman had slipped down hill. "Well, there is no great harm done," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he found no bones broken. "I had a little slide, that's all. I must bring Sammie and Susie Littletail here some day, and let them slide on pine needle hill. Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrels, would also like it, and so would Nannie and Billie Wagtail, my two goat friends." Uncle Wiggily was about to go on to the party when, as he looked at his new coat he saw that it was all torn. In sliding down the slippery pine needle hill the coat had caught on sticks and stones and it had many holes torn in it, and it was also ripped here and there. "Oh, dear me!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, sorrow! Oh, unhappiness! Now I'll have to go back to my hollow stump bungalow and put on my old coat that isn't torn. For I never can wear my new one to the party. That would never do! But the trouble is, if I go back home I'll be late! Oh, dear, what trouble I am in!" Now was the time for some of Uncle Wiggily's friends to help him in his trouble, as he had often helped them. But, as he looked through the woods, he could not see even a little mouse, or so much as a grasshopper. "The tailor bird would be just the one I'd like to see now," said the rabbit uncle. "She could mend my torn coat nicely." For tailor birds, yon know, can take a piece of grass, with their bill for a needle, and sew leaves together to make a nest, almost as well as your mother can mend a hole in your stocking. But there was no tailor bird in the woods, and Uncle Wiggily did not know what to do. "I certainly do not want to be late to Grandpa Goosey's party," said the bunny uncle, "nor do I want to go to it in a torn coat. Oh, dear!" Just then he heard down on the ground near him, a little voice saying: "Perhaps we could mend your coat for you, Uncle Wiggily." "You. Who are you, and how can you mend my torn coat?" the bunny gentleman wanted to know. "We are some little black ants," was the answer, "and with the pine needles lying on the ground--some of the same needles on which you slipped--we can sew up your coat, with long grass for thread." "Oh, that will be fine, if you can do it," spoke the bunny uncle. "Can you?" "We'll try," the ants said. Then, about fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-two black ants took each a long, sharp pine needle, and threading it with grass, they began to sew up the rips and tears in Uncle Wiggily's coat. And in places where they could not easily sew they stuck the cloth together with sticky gum from the pine tree. So, though the pine tree was to blame, in a way, for Uncle Wiggily's fall, it also helped in the mending of his coat. Soon the coat was almost as good as new and you could hardly tell where it was torn. And Uncle Wiggily, kindly thanking the ants, went on to Grandpa Goosey's party and had a fine time and also some ice cream. And if the egg beater doesn't take all the raisins out of the rice pudding, so it looks like a cup of custard going to the moving pictures, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the sycamore tree. STORY XXX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SYCAMORE TREE "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I'm going to a party! I'm going to a party!" cried Nannie Wagtail, the little goat girl, as she pranced up in front of the hollow stump bungalow where Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "Going to a party? Say, that's just fine!" said the bunny gentleman. "I wish I were going to one." "Why, you can come, too!" cried Nannie. "Jillie Longtail, the little mouse girl, is giving the party, and I know she will be glad to have you." "Well, perhaps, I may stop in for a little while," said Mr. Longears, with a smile that made his pink nose twinkle like the frosting on a sponge cake. "But when is the party going to take place, Nannie?" "Right away--I'm going there now; but I just stopped at your bungalow to show you my new shoes that Uncle Butter, the circus poster goat, bought for me. Aren't they nice?" And she stuck out her feet. "Indeed, they are!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the shiny black shoes which went on over Nannie's hoofs. "So the party is to-day, is it?", "Right now," said Nannie. "Come on, Uncle Wiggily. Walk along with me and go in! They'll all be glad to see you!" "Oh, but my dear child!" cried the bunny gentleman. "I haven't shaved my whiskers, my ears need brushing, and I would have to do lots of things to make myself look nice and ready for a party!" "Oh, dear!" bleated Nannie Wagtail. "I did so want you to come with me!" "Well, I'll walk as far as the Longtail mouse home,"' said the bunny uncle, "but I won't go in. "Oh, maybe you will when you get there!" And Nannie laughed, for she knew Uncle Wiggily always did whatever the animal children wanted him to do. So the bunny uncle and Nannie started off through the woods together, Nannie looking down at her new shoes every now and then. "I'm going to dance at the party, Uncle Wiggily!" she said. "I should think you would, Nannie, with those nice new shoes," spoke Mr. Longears. "What dance are you going to do?" "Oh, the four-step and the fish hornpipe, I guess," answered Nannie, and then she suddenly cried: "Oh, dear!" "What's the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you lose one of your new shoes?" "No, but I splashed some mud on it," the little goat girl said. "I stepped in a mud puddle." "Never mind, I'll wipe it off with a bit of soft green moss," answered Uncle Wiggily; and he did. So Nannie's shoes were all clean again. On and on went the rabbit gentleman and the little goat girl, and they talked of what games the animal children would play at the Longtail mouse party, and what good things they would eat, and all like that. All of a sudden, as Nannie was jumping over another little puddle of water, she cried out again: "Oh, dear!" "What's the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did some more mud splash on your new shoes, Nannie?" "No, Uncle Wiggily, but a lot of the buttons came off. I guess they don't fasten buttons on new shoes very tight." "I guess they don't," Uncle Wiggily said. "But still you have enough buttons left to keep the shoes on your feet. I guess you will be all right." So Nannie walked on a little farther, with Uncle Wiggily resting his rheumatism, now and then, on the red, white and blue striped barber pole crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. All of a sudden Nannie cried out again: "Oh, dear! Oh, this is too bad!" "What is?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Now all the buttons have come off my shoes!" said the little goat girl, sadly. "I don't see how I can go on to the party and dance, with no buttons on my shoes. They'll be slipping off all the while." "So they will," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Shoes without buttons are like lollypops without sticks, you can't do anything with them." "But what am I going to do?" asked Nannie, while tears came into her eyes and splashed up on her horns. "I do want so much to go to that party." "And I want you to," said Uncle Wiggily. "Let me think a minute." So he thought and thought, and then he looked off through the woods and he saw a queer tree not far away. It was a sycamore tree, with broad white patches on the smooth bark, and hanging down from the branches were lots of round balls, just like shoe buttons, only they were a sort of brown instead of black. The balls were the seeds of the tree. "Ha! The very thing!" cried the bunny uncle. "What is?" asked Nannie. "That sycamore, or button-ball tree," answered the rabbit gentleman. "I can get you some new shoe buttons off that, Nannie, and sew them on your shoes." "Oh, if you can, that will be just fine!" cried the little goat girl. "For when the buttons came off my new shoes they flew every which way--I mean the buttons did--and I couldn't find a single one." "Never mind," Uncle Wiggily kindly said. "I'll sew on some of the buttons from the sycamore tree, and everything will be all right." With a thorn for a needle, and some long grasses for thread, Uncle Wiggily soon sewed the buttons from the sycamore, or button-ball, tree on Nannie's new shoes, using the very smallest ones, of course. Then Nannie put on her shoes again, having rested her feet on a velvet carpet of moss, while Uncle Wiggily was sewing, and together they went on to the Longtail mouse party. "Oh, what nice shoes you have, Nannie!" cried Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl. "And what lovely stylish buttons!" exclaimed Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck. "Yes, Uncle Wiggily sewed them on for me," said Nannie. "Oh, is Uncle Wiggily outside!" cried the little mousie girl. "He must come in to our party!" "Of course!" cried all the other animal children. And so Uncle Wiggily, who had walked on past the house after leaving Nannie, had to come in anyhow, without his whiskers being trimmed, or his ears curled. And he was so jolly that every one had a good time and lots of ice cream cheese to eat, and they all thought Nannie's shoes, and the button-ball buttons, were just fine. And if the ham sandwich doesn't tickle the cream puff under the chin and make it laugh so all the chocolate drops off the cocoanut pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the red spots. STORY XXXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED SPOTS Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was hopping along through the woods one fine day when he heard a little voice calling to him: "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Will you have a game of tag with me?" At first the bunny uncle thought the voice might belong to a bad fox or a harum-scarum bear, but when he had peeked through the bushes he saw that it was Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, who had called to him. "Have a game of tag with you? Why, of course, I will!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "That is, if you will kindly excuse my rheumatism, and the red, white and blue crutch which Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat lady housekeeper, gnawed for me out of a cornstalk." "Of course, I'll excuse it, Uncle Wiggily," said Lulu. "Only please don't tag me with the end of your crutch, for it tickles me, and when I'm tickled I have to laugh, and when I laugh I can't play tag." "I won't tag you with my crutch," spoke Uncle Wiggily with a laugh. "Now we're ready to begin." So the little duck girl and the rabbit gentleman played tag there in the woods, jumping and springing about on the soft mossy green carpet under the trees. Sometimes Lulu was "it" and sometimes Uncle Wiggily would be tagged by the foot or wing of the duck girl, who was a sister to Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble. "Now for a last tag!" cried Uncle Wiggily when it was getting dark in the woods. "I'll tag you this time, Lulu, and then we must go home." "All right," agreed Lulu, and she ran and flew so fast that Uncle Wiggily could hardly catch her to make her "it." And finally when Uncle Wiggily almost had his paw on the duck girl she flew right over a bush, and, before Uncle Wiggily could stop himself he had run into the bush until he was half way through it. [Illustration: Before Uncle Wiggily could stop himself he had run into the bush.] But, very luckily, it was not a scratchy briar bush, so no great harm was done, except that Uncle Wiggily's fur was a bit ruffled up, and he was tickled. "I guess I can't tag you this time, Lulu!" laughed the bunny uncle. "We'll give up the game now, and I'll be 'it' next time when we play." "Ail right, Uncle Wiggily," said Lulu. "I'll meet you here in the woods at this time tomorrow night, and I'll bring Alice and Jimmie with me, and we'll have lots of fun. We'll have a grand game of tag!" "Fine!" cried the bunny uncle, as he squirmed his way out of the bush. Then he went on to his hollow stump bungalow, and Lulu went on to her duck pen house to have her supper of corn meal sauce with watercress salad sprinkled over the sides. As Uncle Wiggily was sitting down to his supper of carrot ice cream with lettuce sandwiches all puckered around the edges, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy looked at him across the table, and exclaimed: "Why, Wiggy! What's the matter with you?" "Matter with me? Nothing, Janie! I feel just fine!" he said. "I'm hungry, that's all!" "Why, you're all covered with red spots!" went on the muskrat lady. "You are breaking out with the measles. I must send for Dr. Possum at once." "Measles? Nonsense!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I can't have 'em again. I've had 'em once." "Well, maybe these are the French or German mustard measles," said the muskrat lady. "You are certainly all covered with red spots, and red spots are always measles." "Well, what are you going to do about it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "You must go to bed at once," said Nurse Jane, "and when Dr. Possum comes he'll tell you what else to do. Oh, my! Look at the red spots!" Uncle Wiggily was certainly as red-spotted as a polka-dot shirt waist. He looked at himself in a glass to make sure. "Well, I guess I have the measles all right," he said. "But I don't see how I can have them twice. This must be a different style, like the new dances." It was dark when Dr. Possum came, and when he saw the red spots on Uncle Wiggily, he said: "Yes, I guess they're the measles all right. Lots of the animal children are down with them. But don't worry. Keep nice and warm and quiet, and you'll be all right in a few days." So Uncle Wiggily went to bed, red spots and all, and Nurse Jane made him hot carrot and sassafras tea, with whipped cream and chocolate in it. The cream was not whipped because it was bad, you know, but only just in fun, to make it stand up straight. All the next day the bunny uncle stayed in bed with his red spots, though he wanted very much to go out in the woods looking for an adventure. And when evening came and Nurse Jane was sitting out on the front porch of the hollow stump bungalow, she suddenly heard a quacking sound, and along came Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children. "Where is Uncle Wiggily?" asked Lulu. "He is in bed," answered Nurse Jane. "Why is he in bed?" asked Jimmie. "Was he bad?" "No, indeed," laughed Nurse Jane. "But your Uncle Wiggily is in bed because he has the red-spotted measles. What did you want of him?" "He promised to meet us in the woods, where the green moss grows," answered Lulu, "and play tag with us. We waited and waited, and played tag all by ourselves tonight, even jumping in the bush, as Uncle Wiggily accidentally did when he was chasing me, but he did not come along. So we came here to see what is the matter." The three duck children came up on the porch, where the bright light shone on them from inside the bungalow. "Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some paregoric lollypops!" cried Nurse Jane, as she looked at the three. "You ducks are all covered with red spots, too! You all have the measles! Oh, my!" "Measles!" cried Jimmie, the boy duck. "Measles? These aren't measles, Nurse Jane! These are sticky, red berries from the bushes we jumped in as Uncle Wiggily did. The red berries are sticky, like burdock burrs, and they stuck to us." "Oh, my goodness!" cried Nurse Jane. "Wait a minute, children!" Then she ran to where Uncle Wiggily was lying in bed. She leaned over and picked off some of the red spots from his fur. "Why!" cried the muskrat lady. "You haven't the measles at all, Wiggy! It's just sticky, red berries in your fur, just as they are in the ducks' feathers. You're all right! Get up and have a good time!" And Uncle Wiggily did, after Nurse Jane had combed the red, sticky burr-berries out of his fur. He didn't have the measles at all, for which he was very glad, because he could now be up and play tag. "My goodness! That certainly was a funny mistake for all of us," said Dr. Possum next day. "But the red spots surely did look like the measles." Which shows us that things are not always what they seem. And if the--Oh, excuse me, if you please. There is not going to be a next story in this book. It is already as full as it can be, so the story after this will have to be put in the following book, which also means next. Let me see, now. Oh, I know. Next I'm going to tell you some stories about the old gentleman growing cabbages, lettuce and things like that out of the ground, and the book will be called "Uncle Wiggily on The Farm." It will be ready for you by Christmas, I think, and I hope you will like it. And now I will say good-bye for a little while, and if the lollypop doesn't take its sharp stick to make the baby carriage roll down the hill and into the trolley car, I'll soon begin to make the new book. 
15282	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 15282-h.htm or 15282-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/5/2/8/15282/15282-h/15282-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/5/2/8/15282/15282-h.zip) UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS by HOWARD R. GARIS Author of _Sammie and Susie Littletail_, _Johnnie and Billy Bushytail_, _Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow_, "Those Smith Boys," series, "The Island Boys," series, etc. Illustrated by LOUIS WISA A.L. Burt Company Publishers New York 1913 [Illustration] THE FAMOUS BED TIME SERIES Five groups of books, intended for reading aloud to the little folks each night. Each volume contains 8 colored illustrations, 31 stories, one for each day of the month. Handsomely bound in cloth. Size 6-1/2 x 8-1/4. Price cents per volume, postpaid * * * * * HOWARD R. GARIS' Bed Time Animal Stories No. 1. SAMMIE AND SUSIE LTTTLETAIL No. 2. JOHNNY AND BILLY BUSHYTAIL No. 3. LULU, ALICE & JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE No. 5. JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW-WOW No. 7. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG No. 9. JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT No. 10. CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK No. 14. NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL No. 16. BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL No. 20. NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL No. 28. JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL Uncle Wiggily Bed Time Stories No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS No. 8. UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE No. 11. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE No. 19. UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE No. 21. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP No. 27. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers. A.L. BURT CO., 114-120 East 23d St., New York * * * * * UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS The stories herein contained appeared originally in the _Evening News_, of Newark, N.J., where (so many children and their parents were kind enough to say) they gave pleasure to a number of little folks and grown-ups also. Permission to issue the stories in book form was kindly granted by the publisher and editor of the _News_, to whom the author extends his thanks. CONTENTS STORY PAGE I. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED SQUIRREL 9 II. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BROWN WREN 16 III. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFISH 22 IV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE YELLOW BIRD 28 V. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SKY-CRACKER 34 VI. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERCUP 40 VII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JULY BUG 46 VIII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 52 IX. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOST CHIPMUNK 58 X. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CRICKET 64 XI. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUSY BUG 70 XII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FUNNY MONKEY 76 XIII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIG DOG 82 XIV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEANUT MAN 88 XV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRAWLY SNAKE 94 XVI. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATER-LILIES 100 XVII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFLOWER 106 XVIII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LIGHTNING BUGS 112 XIX. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PHOEBE BIRDS 118 XX. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MILKMAN 124 XXI. UNCLE WIGGILY'S SWIMMING LESSON 131 XXII. UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE BEAR'S DEN 137 XXIII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TOADSTOOL 144 XXIV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHICKIE 150 XXV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WASP 157 XXVI. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLUEBELL 163 XXVII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WIBBLEWOBBLES 170 XXVIII. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BERRY BUSH 176 XXIX. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CAMP FIRE 183 XXX. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE COWBIRD 189 XXXI. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TAILOR BIRD 195 Uncle Wiggily's Travels STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED SQUIRREL You know when Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old rabbit gentleman, started out to look for his fortune, he had to travel many weary miles, and many adventures happened to him. Some of those adventures I have told you in the book just before this one, and now I am going to tell you about his travels when he hoped to find a lot of money, so he would be rich. One day, as I told you in the last story in the other book, Uncle Wiggily came to a farm, and there he had quite an adventure with a little boy. And this little boy had on red trousers, because, I guess, his blue ones were in the washtub. Anyhow, he and the rabbit gentleman became good friends. And now I am going to tell you what happened when Uncle Wiggily met the red squirrel. "Where do you think you will go to look for your fortune to-day, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the little boy with the red trousers the next morning, after the rabbit had stayed all night at the farm house. "I do not know," said the rabbit gentleman. "Perhaps I had better do some traveling at night. I couldn't find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but perhaps there may be a gold, or silver fortune, at the end of a moon-beam. I think I'll try." "Oh, but don't you get sleepy at night?" asked the little boy's mother as she fried an ice cream cone for Uncle Wiggily's breakfast. "Well, I could sleep in the day time, and then I would stay awake at night," answered the traveling uncle, blinking his ears. "Oh, but aren't you afraid of the bogeyman at night?" inquired the boy with the red hair--I mean trousers. "There are no such things as bogeymen," said Uncle Wiggily, "and if there were any, they would not harm you. I am not a bit afraid in the dark, except that I don't like mosquitoes to bite me. I think I'll travel to-morrow night, and look for gold at the end of the moon-beam." So he started off that day, and he went only a short distance, for he wanted to find a place to sleep in order that he would be wide awake when it got dark. Well, he found a nice, soft place under a pile of hay, and there he stretched out to slumber as nicely as if he were in his bed at home. He even snored a little bit, I believe, or else it was Bully Frog croaking one of his songs. The day passed, and the sun went down, and it got all ready to be night, and still Uncle Wiggily slept on soundly. But all of a sudden he heard voices whispering: "Now you go that way and I'll go this way, and we'll catch that rabbit and put him in a cage and sell him!" Well, you can just believe that Uncle Wiggily was frightened when he awakened suddenly and saw two bad boys softly creeping up and making ready to catch him. "Oh, this is no place for me!" the rabbit cried, and he grabbed up his crutch and his valise and hopped away so fast that the boys couldn't catch him, no matter how fast they could run, even bare-footed. "Let's throw stones at him!" they cried. And they did, but I'm glad to say that none of them hit Uncle Wiggily. Isn't it queer how mean some boys can be? But perhaps they were never told any better, so we'll forgive them this time. "Well, it is now night," said the rabbit gentleman as he hopped on through the woods, "so I think I will sit under this tree and wait for the moon to come up. And while I'm waiting I'll eat my supper." So Uncle Wiggily ate his supper, which the kind farmer lady had put up for him, and then he sat and waited for the moon to rise, and pretty soon he heard a funny noise, calling like this: "Who? Who? Who-tu-tu-tu." "Oh, you know who I am all right, Mr. Owl," said the rabbit. "You can see very well at night. You can see me." "My goodness, if it isn't Uncle Wiggily!" cried the owl in surprise. "What are you doing out so late, I'd like to know?" "Waiting for a moon-beam, so I can see if there is any gold for my fortune at the end of it," was the answer. "Is the moon coming up over the trees, Mr. Owl?" "Yes, here it comes," said the owl, "and now I must fly off to the dark woods, for I don't like the light," and he fluttered away. Then the moon came up, all silver and glorious; shining over the tree tops like a shimmering ball, and soon the moon-beams fell to the ground in slanting rays, but they fell so softly, like feathers, that they did not get hurt at all. "Well, I guess I'll follow that big one," said the old gentleman rabbit, as he picked out a nice, broad, large, shiny moon-beam. "That must have gold at the end, and, if I find it, my fortune is made." So off he started to follow the moon-beam to where it came to an end. It seemed to go quite a distance through the dark woods, and Uncle Wiggily traveled on for several hours, and he didn't seem to be any nearer the end by that time than he was at first. "My land, this is a very long beam," he exclaimed. "It is almost big enough to make a church steeple from. But I'll keep on a little longer, for I'm not a bit sleepy yet." Well, all of a sudden, just as he was turning the corner around a big stone, the rabbit gentleman heard a funny noise. It wasn't like any one crying, yet it sounded as if some one was in trouble, for the voice said: "Oh, dear! I'll never get it big enough, I know I can't! I've combed it and brushed it, and done it up in curl papers to make it fluffy, but still it isn't like theirs. What shall I do?" "Hum, I wonder who that can be?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps it is some little lost child; but no children would be out in the woods at night. I'll take a look." So he hopped softly over, and peered around the edge of the stone, and what do you think he saw? Why, there was a nice, little, red squirrel-girl, and she had a comb and a brush, and little looking-glass. And the glass was stuck up on a stump where the moon-beam that Uncle Wiggily was following shone on it and reflected back again. And by the light of the moon-beam the red squirrel was combing and brushing out her tail as hard as she could comb and brush it. "What are you doing?" asked Uncle Wiggily in surprise. "Oh, my! How you startled me!" exclaimed the red squirrel. "But I'm glad it's you, Uncle Wiggily. I'm going to a surprise party soon, and I was just trying to make my tail as big as Johnnie or Billie Bushytail's, but I can't do it," she said sadly. "No, and you never can," said the rabbit. "Their tails are a different kind than yours, for they are gray squirrels and you are a red one. But yours is very nice. Be content to have yours as it is." "I guess I will," said the red squirrel. "But what are you doing out so late, Uncle Wiggily?" "Looking for the end of the moon-beam to get my fortune." "Ha! The moon-beam ends right here," said the red squirrel-girl, pointing to her looking-glass, and, surely enough, there the bright shaft of light ended. "But there is no fortune here, Uncle Wiggily, I am sorry to say," she added. "I see there isn't," answered the rabbit. "Well, I must travel on again to-morrow, then. But now I will see that you get safely home, for it is getting late." And, just as he said that, what should happen but that a black, savage, ugly bear stuck his nose out of the bushes and made a grab for the rabbit. But what do you think the red squirrel did? She just took her hair brush and with the hard back of it she whacked the bear on the end of his tender-ender nose, and he howled, and turned around to run away, and the squirrel girl tickled him with the comb, and he ran faster than ever, and the bear didn't eat Uncle Wiggily that night. Then the rabbit stayed at the red squirrel's mamma's house the rest of the evening, and the next day the squirrel went to the surprise party with her tail the regular size it ought to be, and not as big as the Bushytail brothers' tails, and everybody was happy. Now in case the granddaddy longlegs doesn't tickle the baby with his long cow-pointing leg and make her laugh so she gets the hiccoughs, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the brown wren. STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BROWN WREN Well, just as I expected, the granddaddy longlegs did tickle the baby, but she only smiled in her sleep, and didn't awaken, so, as it's nice and quiet I can tell you another story. And it's going to be about how Uncle Wiggily, in his travels about the country, in search of his fortune, helped a little brown wren. "Well, where are you going this morning?" asked the red squirrel's mother as Uncle Wiggily finished his breakfast, and shook out from his long ears the oatmeal crumbs that had fallen in them. "Oh, I suppose I will have to be traveling on," answered the rabbit. "That fortune of mine seems to be a long distance off. I've tried rainbows and moon-beams and I didn't find any money at their ends. I guess I'll have to look under the water next, but I'll wait until I get back home, and then I'll have Jimmie Wibblewobble the duck boy put his head at the bottom of the pond and see if there is any gold down there." So off the old gentleman rabbit started, limping on his crutch, for his rheumatism was troubling him again, and at his side swung his valise, with some crackers and cheese and bread and butter and jam in it--plenty of jam, too, let me tell you, for the red squirrel's mamma could make lovely preserves, and this was carrot jam, with turnip frosting on it. Well, Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, over the hills and through the deep woods, and pretty soon he came to a place where he saw a lot of little black ants trying to carry to their nest a nice big piece of meat that some one had dropped. "My, how hard those ants are working," thought the rabbit. "But that meat is too heavy for them. I'll have to help carry it." Now the piece of meat was only as big as a quarter of a small cocoanut, but, of course, that's too big for an ant to carry; or even for forty-'leven ants, so Uncle Wiggily kindly lifted it for them, and put it in their nest. "Thank you very much," said the biggest ant. "If ever we can do you a favor, or any of your friends, we will." The old gentleman rabbit said he was glad to hear that, and then, taking up his crutch and valise again, on he went. Pretty soon he came to a place in the woods where the sun was shining down through the trees, and a little brook was making pretty music over the stones. And then, all at once, the old gentleman rabbit heard a different kind of music, and it was that of a little bird singing. And this is the song. Now I did not make up this song. It is much prettier than I could write, even if I had my Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes on, and I don't know who did write it. But it used to be in my school reader when I was a little boy, and I liked it very much. I hope whoever did write it won't mind if you sing it. This is it: "There's a little brown bird sitting up in a tree, He's singing to you--he's singing to me. And what does he say, little girl--little boy? Oh, the world's running over with joy!" Then the bird sang about how there were five eggs laid away up in a nest, and how, pretty soon, little birds would come out from them, and then, all of a sudden, the bird sang like this: "But don't meddle,--don't touch, Little girl--little boy, Or the world will lose some of its joy!" "Ha! you seem quite happy this beautiful morning," said Uncle Wiggily, as he paused under the tree where the bird was singing. "Why, I do declare," he exclaimed. "If it isn't Mrs. Wren! Well, I never in all my born days! I didn't know you were back from the South yet." "Yes, Uncle Wiggily," said the little brown wren, "I came up some time ago. But I'm real glad to see you. I'm going to take my little birdies out of the shell pretty soon. They are almost hatched." "Glad to hear it," said the rabbit, politely, and then he told about seeking his fortune, and all of a sudden a great big ugly crow-bird flew down out of a tall tree and made a dash for Mrs. Wren to eat her up. But Mrs. Wren got out of the way just in time, and didn't get caught. But alack, and alas-a-day! The crow knocked down the wren's nest, and all the sticks and feathers of which it was made were scattered all about, and the eggs, with the little birdies inside, would have been all broken ker-smash, only that they happened to fall down on some soft moss. "Oh, dear!" cried Mrs. Wren, sorrowfully. "Now see what that crow has done! My home is broken up, and my birdies will be killed." "Caw! Caw! Caw!" cried the crow as unkindly as he could, and it sounded just as if he laughed "Haw! Haw! Haw!" "Oh, whatever shall I do?" asked Mrs. Wren. "My birdies will have no nest, and I haven't time to make another and break up the little fine sticks that I need and gather the feathers that are scattered all over. Oh, what shall I do? Soon my birdies will be out of the shells." "Never fear!" said Uncle Wiggily, bravely. "I will help you. I'll gather the sticks for you." "Oh, but you haven't time; you must be off seeking your fortune," answered the wren. "Oh, I guess my fortune can wait. It has been waiting for me a long time, and it won't hurt to wait a bit longer. I'll get you the sticks," said the rabbit gentleman. So while Mrs. Wren sat over the eggs to keep them warm with her fluffy feathers, Uncle Wiggily looked for sticks with which to make a new nest. He couldn't find any short and small enough, so what do you think he did? Why, he took some big sticks and he jumped a jiggily dance up and down on them with his sharp paws, and broke them up as fine as toothpicks for the nest. Then he arranged them as well as he could in a sort of hollow, like a tea cup. "Oh, if we only had some feathers now, we would be all right," said Mrs. Wren. "It's a very good nest for a rabbit to make." "Don't say a word!" cried some small voices on the ground. "We will gather up the feathers for you." And there came marching up a lot of the little ants that Uncle Wiggily had been kind to, and soon they had gathered up all the scattered feathers. And the nest was made on a mossy stump, and lined with the feathers, and the warm eggs were put in it by Mrs. Wren, who then hovered over them to hatch out the birdies. And she was very thankful to Uncle Wiggily for what he had done. Now, in case the water in the lake doesn't get inside the milk pail and make lemonade of it, I'll tell you in the next story how the birdies were hatched out, and also about Uncle Wiggily and the sunfish. STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFISH Uncle Wiggily slept that night--I mean the night after he had helped Mrs. Wren build her nest--he slept in an old under-ground house that another rabbit must have made some time before. It was nicely lined with leaves, and the fortune-hunting bunny slept very nice and warm there. When the sun was up, shining very brightly, and most beautifully, Uncle Wiggily arose, shook his ears to get the dust out of them, and threw the dried-leaf blankets off him. "Ah, ha! I must be up and doing," he cried. "Perhaps I shall find my fortune to-day." Well, no sooner had he crawled out of the burrow than he heard a most beautiful song. It was one Mrs. Wren was singing, and it went "tra-la-la tra-la-la! tum-tee-tee-tum-tum-tee-tee!" too pretty for anything. And then, afterward, there was a sort of an echo like "cheep-cheep cheep-cheep!" "Why, you must be very happy this morning, Mrs. Wren!" called Uncle Wiggily to her as she sat in her new nest which the rabbit had made for her on the mossy stump. "I am," she answered, "very happy. What do you think happened in the night?" "I can't guess," he answered. "A burglar crow didn't come and steal your eggs, I hope!" "Oh, nothing sad or bad like that," she answered. "But something very nice. Just hop up here and look." So Uncle Wiggily hopped up on the stump, and Mrs. Wren got off her nest, and there, on the bottom, in among some egg-shells, were a lot of tiny, weeny little birdies, about as big as a spool of silk thread or even smaller. "Why, where in the world did they come from?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, rubbing his eyes. "Out of the eggs to be sure," answered Mrs. Wren. "And I do declare, the last of my family is hatched now. There is little Wiggily out of the shell at last. I think I'll name him after you, as he never could keep still when he was being hatched. Now I must take out all the broken shells so the birdies won't cut themselves on them." And she began to throw them out with her bill, just as the mother hen does, and then one of the new little birdies called out: "Cheep-cheep-chip-chip!" "Yes, I know you're hungry," answered their mamma, who understood their bird talk. "Well, I'll fly away and get you something to eat just as soon as your papa comes home to stay in the house. You know Mr. Wren went away last night to see about getting a new position in a feather pillow factory," said Mrs. Wren to Uncle Wiggily, "and he doesn't yet know about the birdies. I hope he'll come back soon, as they are very hungry, and I don't like to leave them alone to go shopping." "Oh, I'll stay and take care of them for you while you go to the store," said the old gentleman rabbit, kindly. "That will do very well," said Mrs. Wren. So she put on her bonnet and shawl and took her market basket and off she flew to the store, while Uncle Wiggily stayed with the new birdies, and they snuggled down under his warm fur, and were as cozy as in their own mother's feathers. Well, Mrs. Wren was gone some time, as the store was crowded and she couldn't get waited on right away, and Uncle Wiggily stayed with the birdies. And they got hungrier and hungrier, and they cried real hard. Yes, indeed, as hard as some babies. "Hum! I don't know what to do," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I can't feed them. I guess I'll sing to them." So he sang this song: "Hush, birdies, hush, Please don't cry; Mamma'll be back By and by. "Nestle down close Under my fur, I'm not your mother, but I'm helping her." But this didn't seem to satisfy the birdies and they cried "cheep-cheep" harder than ever. "Oh, dear! I believe I must get them something to eat," said Uncle Wiggily. So he covered them all up warmly with the feathers that lined the nest, and then he hopped down and went limping around on his crutch to find them something to eat. Pretty soon he came to a little brook, and as he looked down into it he saw something shining, all gold and red and green and blue and yellow. "Why, I do declare, if here isn't the end of the rainbow!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, as he saw all the pretty colors. He rubbed his eyes with his paw, to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but the colors were surely enough there, down under water. "No wonder the giant couldn't find the pot of gold, it was down in the water," spoke the rabbit. "But I'll get it, and then my fortune will be made. Oh, how glad I am!" Well, Uncle Wiggily reached his paw down and made a grab for the red and green and gold and yellow thing, but to his surprise, instead of lifting up a pot of gold, he lifted up a squirming, wiggling sunfish. "Oh, my!" exclaimed the rabbit in surprise. "I should say yes! Two Oh mys and another one!" gasped the fish. "Oh, please put me back in the water again. The air out on land is too strong for me. I can't breathe. Please, Uncle Wiggily, put me back." "I thought you were a pot of gold," said the rabbit, sadly. "I'm always getting fooled. But never mind. I'll put you in the water." "What are you doing here?" asked the fish, as he slid into the water again and sneezed three times. "Just at present I am taking care of Mrs. Wren's new little birdies," said the rabbit. "She has gone to the store for something for them to eat, but they are so hungry they can't wait." "Oh, that is easily fixed," said the sunfish. "Since you were so kind to me I'll tell you what to do. Get them a few little worms, and some small flower seeds, and feed them. Then the birdies will go to sleep." So Uncle Wiggily did this, and as soon as the birds had their hungry little mouths filled, sound to sleep they went. And in a little while Mrs. Wren came back from the store with her basket filled, and Mr. Wren flew home to say that he had a nice position in a feather factory, and how he did admire his birdies! He hugged and kissed them like anything. Then the two wrens both thanked Uncle Wiggily for taking care of their children, and the rabbit said good-by and hopped on again to seek his fortune. And if the trolley car conductor gives me a red, white and blue transfer, for the pin cushion to go to sleep on, I'll tell you in the following story about Uncle Wiggily and the yellow bird. STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE YELLOW BIRD Once upon a time, when Johnnie Bushytail was going along the road to school, he met a fox--oh, just listen to me, would you! This story isn't about the squirrel boy at all. It's about Uncle Wiggily Longears to be sure, and the yellow bird, so I must begin all over again. The day after the old gentleman rabbit had helped Mrs. Wren feed her little birdies he found himself traveling along a lonely road through a big forest of tall trees. Oh, it was a very lonesome place, and not even an automobile was to be seen, and there wasn't the smell of gasoline, and no "honk-honks" to waken the baby from her sleep. "Hum, I don't believe I'll find any fortune along here," thought Uncle Wiggily as he tramped on. "I haven't met even so much as a red ant, or even a black one, or a grasshopper. I wonder if I can be lost?" So he looked all around to see if he might be lost in the woods. But you know how it is, sometimes you're lost when you least expect it, and again you think you are lost, but you're right near home all the while. That's the way it was with Uncle Wiggily, he didn't know whether or not he was lost, so he thought he'd sit down on a flat stone and eat his lunch. The reason he sat on a flat stone instead of a round one was because he had some hard boiled eggs for his lunch, and you know if you put an egg on a round stone it's bound to roll off and crack right in the middle. "And I don't like cracked eggs," said the rabbit. So he laid the eggs he had on the flat stone, and put little sticks in front of them and behind them, so they couldn't even roll off the flat stone if they wanted to. Then he ate his lunch. "I guess it doesn't much matter if I am lost," said the traveling fortune-hunting rabbit a little later. "I'll go on and perhaps I may meet with an adventure." So on he hopped, and pretty soon he came to a place where the leaves and the dirt were all torn up, just as if some boys had been playing a baseball game, or leap-frog, or something like that. "My, I must look out that I don't tumble down any holes here," thought Uncle Wiggily, "for maybe some bad men have been setting traps to catch us rabbits." Well, he turned to one side, to get out of the way of some sharp thorns, and, my goodness! if there weren't more sharp thorns on the ground on the other side of the path. "I guess I'll have to keep straight ahead!" thought our Uncle Wiggily. "I never saw so many thorns before in all my life. I'll have to look out or I'll be stuck." So he kept straight on, and all of a sudden he felt himself going down into a big hole. "Oh! Oh dear! Oh me! Oh my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I've fallen into a trap! That's what those thorns were for--so I would have to walk toward the trap instead of going to one side." But, very luckily for Uncle Wiggily, his crutch happened to catch across the hole, and so he didn't go all the way down, but hung on. But his valise fell to the bottom. However, he managed to pull himself up on the ground, though his rheumatism hurt him, and soon he was safe once more. "Oh, my valise, with all my clothes in it!" he cried, as he looked down into the hole, which had been covered over with loose leaves and dirt so he couldn't see it before falling in. "I wonder how I can get my things back again?" he went on. Then he looked up, and in a tree, not far from him, he saw something bright and yellow, shining like gold. "Ah, ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "At last I have found the pot of gold, even if the rainbow isn't here. That is yellow, and yellow is the color of gold. Now my fortune is made. I will get that gold and go back home." So, not worrying any more about his valise down the trap-hole, Uncle Wiggily hopped over to the tree to get what he thought was a big bunch of yellow gold. But as he came closer, he saw that the gold was moving about and fluttering, though not going very far away. "That is queer gold," thought the old gentleman rabbit. "I never saw moving gold before. I wonder if it is a good kind." Then he went a little closer and he heard a voice crying. "Why, that is crying gold, too," he said. "This is very strange." Then he heard some one calling: "Oh, help! Will some one please help me?" "Why, this is most strange of all!" the rabbit cried. "It is talking gold. Perhaps there is a fairy about." "Oh, I only wish there was one!" cried the yellow object in the tree. "If I saw a fairy I'd ask her to set me free." "What's that? Who are you?" asked the rabbit. "Oh, I'm a poor little yellow bird," was the answer, "and I'm caught in a string-trap that some boys set in this tree. There is a string around my legs and I can't fly home to see my little ones. I got into the trap by mistake. Oh! can't you help me? Climb up into the tree, Uncle Wiggily, and help me!" "How did you know my name was Uncle Wiggily?" asked the rabbit. "I could tell it by your ears--your wiggling ears," was the answer. "But please climb up and help me." "Rabbits can't climb trees," said Uncle Wiggily. "But I will tell you what I'll do. I'll gnaw the tree down with my sharp teeth, for they are sharp, even if I am a little old. Then, when it falls, I can reach the string, untie it, and you will be free." So Uncle Wiggily did this, and soon the tree fell down, but the golden yellow bird was on a top branch and didn't get hurt. Then the old gentleman rabbit quickly untied the string and the bird was out of the trap. "I cannot thank you enough!" she said to the rabbit. "Is there anything I can do for you to pay you?" "Well, my valise is down a hole," said Uncle Wiggily, "but I don't see how you can get it up. I need it, though." "I can fly down, tie the string to the satchel and you can pull it up," said the birdie. And she did so, and the rabbit pulled up his valise as nicely as a bucket of water is hoisted up from the well. Then some bad boys and a man came along to see if there was anything in the hole-trap, or the string-trap they had made; but when they saw the bird flying away and the rabbit hopping away through the woods they were very angry. But Uncle Wiggily and the yellow bird were safe from harm, I'm glad to say. And the rabbit had another adventure soon after that, and what it was I'll tell you soon, when the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the skyrockets. It will be a Fourth of July story, if you please; that is if the bean bag doesn't fall down the coal hole and catch a mosquito. STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SKY-CRACKER Let me see, I think I promised to tell you a story about Uncle Wiggily and the skyrocket, didn't I? Or was it to be about a firecracker, seeing that it soon may be the Fourth of July? What's that--a firecracker--no? A skyrocket? Oh, I'm all puzzled up about it, so I guess I'll make it a sky-cracker, a sort of half-firecracker and half-skyrocket, and that will do. Well, after Uncle Wiggily had gotten the little yellow bird, that looked like gold, out from the string-trap in the tree, the old gentleman rabbit spent two nights visiting a second cousin of Grandfather Prickly Porcupine, who lived in the woods. Then Uncle Wiggily got up one morning, dressed himself very carefully, combed out his whiskers, and said: "Well, I'm off again to seek my fortune." "It's too bad you can't seem able to find it," said the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine, "but perhaps you will have good luck to-day. Only you want to be very careful." "Why?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "Well, because you know it will soon be the Fourth of July, and some boys may tie a firecracker or a skyrocket to your tail," said the porcupine. "Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "They will have a hard time doing that, for my tail is so short that the boys would burn their fingers if they tried to tie a firecracker to it." "Then look out that they don't fasten a skyrocket to your long ears," said the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine, as he wrapped up some lettuce and carrot sandwiches for Uncle Wiggily to take with him. The old gentleman rabbit said he would watch out, and away he started, going up hill and down hill with his barber-pole crutch as easily as if he was being wheeled in a baby carriage. "Well, I don't seem to find any fortune," he said to himself as he walked along, and, just as he said that he saw something sparkling in the grass beside the path in the woods. "What's that?" he cried. "Perhaps it is a diamond. If it is I can sell it and get rich." Then he happened to think what the second cousin of Grandfather Prickly Porcupine had told him about Fourth of July coming, and Uncle Wiggily said: "Ha! I had better be careful. Perhaps that sparkling thing is a spark on a firecracker. Ah, ha!" So he looked more carefully, and the bright object sparkled more and more, and it didn't seem to be fire, so the old gentleman rabbit went up close, and what do you suppose it was? Why, it was a great big dewdrop, right in the middle of a purple violet, that was growing underneath a shady fern. Oh, how beautiful it was in the sunlight, and Uncle Wiggily was glad he had looked at it. And pretty soon, as he was still looking, a big, buzzing bumble bee buzzed along and stopped to take a sip of the dewdrop. "Ha! That is a regular violet ice cream soda for me!" said the bee to Uncle Wiggily. And just as he was taking another drink a big, ugly snake made a spring and tried to eat the bee, but Uncle Wiggily hit the snake with his crutch and the snake crawled away very much surprised. "Thank you very much," said the bee to the rabbit. "You saved my life, and if ever I can do you a favor I will," and with that he buzzed away. Well, pretty soon, not so very long, in a little while, Uncle Wiggily came to a place in the woods where there were a whole lot of packages done up in paper lying on the ground. And there was a tent near them, and it looked as if people lived in the white tent, only no one was there just then. [Illustration] "I guess I'd better keep away," thought the old gentleman rabbit, "or they may catch me." And just then he saw something like a long, straight stick, standing up against a tree. "Ha, that will be a good stick to take along to chase the bears away with," he thought. "I think no one wants it, so I'll take it." Well, he walked up and took hold of it in his paws, but, mind you, he didn't notice that on one end of the stick was a piece of powder string, like the string of a firecracker, sticking down, and this string was burning. No, the poor old gentleman, rabbit never noticed that at all. He started to take the stick away with him when, all of a sudden, something dreadful happened. With a whizz and a rush and a roar that stick shot into the air, carrying Uncle Wiggily with it, just like a balloon, for he hadn't time to let go of it. Up and up he went, with a roar and a swoop, and just then he saw a whole lot of boys rushing out of the woods toward the white tent. And one boy cried: "Oh, fellows, look! A rabbit has hold of our sky-cracker and it's on fire and has gone off and taken him with it! Oh the poor rabbit! Because when the sky-cracker gets high enough in the air the firecracker part of it will go off with a bang, and he'll be killed. Oh, how sorry I am. The hot sun must have set fire to the powder string." You see those boys had come out in the woods to have their Fourth of July, where the noise wouldn't make any one's head ache. Well, Uncle Wiggily went on, up and up, with the sky-cracker, and he felt very much afraid for he had heard what the boys said. "Oh, this is the end of me!" he cried, as he held fast to the sky-cracker. "I'll never live to find my fortune now. When this thing explodes, I'll be dashed to the ground and killed." The sky-cracker was whizzing and roaring, and black smoke was pouring out of one end, and Uncle Wiggily thought of all his friends whom he feared he would never see again, when all of a sudden along came flying the buzzing bumble bee, high in the air. He was much surprised to see Uncle Wiggily skimming along on the tail of a sky-cracker. "Oh, can't you save me?" cried the rabbit. "Indeed I will, if I can," said the bee, "because you were so kind to me. You are too heavy, or I would fly down to earth with you myself, but I'll do the next best thing. I'll fly off and get Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrow children, and they'll come with a big basket and catch you so you won't fall." No sooner said than done. Off flew the bee. Quickly he found Dickie and Nellie and told them the danger Uncle Wiggily was in. "Quick," called Dickie to Nellie. "We must save him." Off they flew like the wind, carrying a grocery basket between them. Right under Uncle Wiggily they flew, and just as the sky-cracker was going to burst with a "slam-bang!" the old gentleman rabbit let go, and into the basket he safely fell and the sparrow children flew to earth with him. Then the sky-cracker burst all to pieces for Fourth of July, but Uncle Wiggily wasn't on it to be hurt, I'm glad to say. He spent the Fourth visiting the Bumble bee's family, and had ice cream and cake and lemonade for supper, and at night he heard the band play, and he gave Nellie and Dickie ten cents for ice cream sodas, and that's all to this story. But on the next page, if the baker man brings me a pound of soap bubbles with candy in the middle for Cora Janet's doll, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the buttercup. STORY VI UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUTTERCUP I hope none of you were burned by a sky-cracker or a Roman candle stick when you had your Fourth of July celebration, but if you were I hope you will soon be better, and perhaps if I tell you a story it will make you forget the pain. So here we go, all about Uncle Wiggily and the buttercup. The old gentleman rabbit spent a few days in an old burrow next to the bumble bee's house, and then one morning, when the sun was shining brightly, he started off again to seek his fortune. "I never can thank you enough," he said to the bee, "for going after the sparrow children and saving me from the exploding sky-cracker. If ever I find my fortune I will give you some of it." "Thank you very kindly," said the bee, as she looked in the pantry, "and here are some sweet honey sandwiches for you to eat on your travels. This is some honey that I made myself." "Then it must be very good," said the old gentleman rabbit politely, as he put the sandwiches in his valise and started off down the dusty road. Well, he hopped on and on, sometimes in the woods where it was cool and green and shady, and sometimes out in the hot sun, and every minute or so he would stop and look around to see if he could find his fortune. "For, who knows?" he said, "perhaps I may pick up a bag of gold, or some diamonds at almost any minute. Then I could go back home and buy an automobile for myself to ride around in, and my travels would be over. I have certainly been on the go a long time, but my health is much better than it was." So he kept on, looking under all the big leaves and clumps of ferns for his fortune. But he didn't find it, and pretty soon he came to a hole in the ground. And in front of this hole was a little sign, printed on a piece of paper, and it read: "COME IN! EVERYBODY WELCOME." "Humph! I wonder if that means me?" thought the old gentleman rabbit. "Let's see, gold grows under ground, in mines, and perhaps this is a gold mine. I'm going down. I'm sure there is a fortune waiting for me. Yes, I'll go down." So he laid aside his valise and barber-pole crutch and got ready to go down in the hole, which wasn't very big. "But I can scratch it bigger if I need to," said Uncle Wiggily. Well, he had no sooner gotten his front feet and part of his nose down the hole, but his ears were still sticking out, when he heard a voice calling: "Here! Where are you going?" "Down this hole after gold," replied Uncle Wiggily. "You mustn't go down there," went on the voice, and pulling out his nose and looking about him, the old gentleman rabbit saw a white pussy cat sitting on a stump. And the pussy cat was washing his face with his paws, taking care not to let the claws stick out for fear of scratching his eyes. "Why can't I go down this hole, Pussy?" asked the rabbit. "Do you have charge of it?" "No, indeed," was the answer, "but there is a bad snake who lives down there, and he puts up that sign so the animals will come down, and then he eats them. That's the reason he says they are welcome. No, indeed, I wouldn't want to see you go down there!" "Ha! Hum! I wouldn't like to see myself!" spoke Uncle Wiggily, and he crawled away from the hole just in time, for the snake stuck out his ugly head and was about to bite the rabbit. It was the same snake that had nearly caught the bumble bee. "Say!" cried the snake, quite angry like, to the pussy cat, "I wish you would get away from here! You are always spoiling my plans. I thought I was going to have a nice rabbit dinner, and now look at what you have done," and that snake was so angry that he hissed like a boiling teakettle. "I will never let you eat up Uncle Wiggily!" cried the pussy. "Now look out for yourself, Mr. Snake!" and with that the pussy made his back round like a hoop, and he swelled up his tail like a bologna sausage, and he showed his teeth and claws to the snake, and that snake popped down the hole again very quickly, I can tell you, taking his tail with him. Oh, my, yes, and a bucket of sawdust soup besides. "I thank you very much for telling me about that snake, little pussy cat," said Uncle Wiggily. "Well, I am disappointed about my fortune again. I shall never be rich I fear. But I almost forgot that I have some fine honey sandwiches and I will give you some, for you must be hungry. I know I am." "I am, too," said the pussy. So Uncle Wiggily opened his valise and took out the honey sandwiches which the bee had given him, but when he went to eat them he found that the bee had forgotten to butter the bread. "Oh, that is too bad!" cried the pussy, when Uncle Wiggily spoke of it. "Still they will do very well without butter." "No, we must have some," said the rabbit. "I wonder how I can get butter in the woods?" So he looked all around and the first thing he saw was a yellow buttercup flower. You know the kind I mean. You hold them under your chin to see if you like butter, and the shine of the flower makes your chin yellow. "Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Now we will have butter." "But you are not going to eat the flower, are you?" asked the pussy. "No, indeed!" cried the rabbit, "I'll show you." Now there was a cow in the field a short distance away, and Uncle Wiggily went over and got some milk from the cow in a little tin cup. "Butter is made from milk," said the rabbit to the pussy. "So I will just pour some milk in the buttercup flower, and shake it just as if it was a churn, and then we'll have butter for our honey sandwiches." So he did this. Into the buttercup he poured the milk, and it became yellow like butter at once. But Uncle Wiggily did not have to shake the flower, for a little wind came along just then and shook it for him. And pretty soon, in a little while, the milk in the buttercup was churned into lovely sweet butter, and the rabbit and pussy spread it on their honey sandwiches, and what a fine feast they had. Just as they were eating it the bad alligator came along, and wanted to take the honey away from them, but the pussy scratched the end of the savage beast's tail with his claws, and the bad alligator ran away as fast as he could. Then Uncle Wiggily and the pussy traveled on together and the next day they had quite an adventure. What it was I'll tell you in the next story when, in case the steamboat stops at our house for a little girl wearing a green sunbonnet, with horse chestnuts on it, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the July bug. STORY VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JULY BUG "Well, what shall we do to-day?" asked the white pussy of Uncle Wiggily, as they traveled on together, the next day after the adventure at the snake hole. They had slept that night in a nice hollow stump. "Hum! I hardly know what to do," replied the old gentleman rabbit. "Of course I must be on the watch for my fortune, but, as I don't seem to be finding it very fast, what do you say to having a picnic to-day?" "The very thing!" cried pussy. "We will get some lunch, and go off in the woods and eat it. Only we ought to have a lot more people. Two are hardly enough for a picnic." "I would like some of my friends to come to it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "but I am afraid they are too far off." "Couldn't you send them word by telephone?" inquired the pussy. "I'm sure I would like to meet them, for I have heard so much about Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail." "There is no telephone in these woods," replied Uncle Wiggily, "and we haven't time to send them postcards. I wish I could get word to them, however, but I don't s'pose I can." "Yes, you can!" suddenly cried a voice down in the grass. "I'll tell all your friends to come to the picnic if you like." "Indeed, I would like it," said the rabbit, "but who are you, if I may be so bold as to ask? I can't see you." "There he is--it's a big June bug!" exclaimed the pussy. "I beg your pardon," spoke the bug quickly, as he crawled out from under a leaf and sat on a toadstool. "But I am not a June bug, if you please." "You look like one," said Uncle Wiggily politely. "I am a July bug," went on the funny little creature. "I was intended for a June bug, but there was some mistake made, and I didn't come out of my shell until July. So you see I'm a July bug, and at first I thought it would be jolly fun, to hear all the firecrackers and skyrockets go off." "It isn't so much fun as you imagine," said Uncle Wiggily, as he thought of the time he went sailing into the air on the sky-cracker. "But don't you like being a July bug?" "Not very much. You see I'm the only one there is, and all the others are June bugs. The June bugs won't speak to me, nor let me play with them, so I'm very lonesome. I heard you talking about a picnic you were going to have, and so I offered to call all your friends to it. I thought perhaps if I did that you would let me come to it also." "To be sure!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "You may gladly come, but how are you going to send word to all of my friends?" "I will fly through the air and tell them to come," was the answer. "I am a very swift flyer. Watch me," and then and there the July bug buzzed around so fast that Uncle Wiggily and the pussy couldn't see his wings go flip-flop-flap. Well, they decided it would be a good plan to have the July bug act as a postman, so Uncle Wiggily wrote out the invitations on little pieces of white birch bark, and gave them to the bug. Off he flew into the air waving one leg at Uncle Wiggily and the pussy. "Well, now we must get ready for the picnic--get the things to eat--for that bug flies so fast that soon all my friends will be here," said the rabbit, so he and the pussy began to get the lunch ready. Uncle Wiggily had some food in his valise, but they got more good things from a kind old monkey who lived in the woods. He used to work on a hand organ, but when he got old he bought him a nest in the woods with the pennies he had saved up, and he lived in peace and quietness, and played a mouth organ on Sundays. Well, you will hardly believe me, but it's true, no sooner had Uncle Wiggily and the pussy put up the lunch, wrapping some for each visitor in nice, green grape leaves, than the first ones of the picnic party began to arrive. They were Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrows, for they could fly through the air very quickly, and so they came on ahead. "We got your invitation that the July bug left us, Uncle Wiggily, and we came at once," said Dickie. "Where are the others?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "They are coming," answered Nellie, as she tied her tail ribbon over again, for the bow knot had become undone as she was flying through the air. Well, in a little while along came hopping, Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers, and Bully and Bawly the frogs, and Dottie and Munchie Trot, the ponies, and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck twins, and Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg, and oh, all the boy and girl animals I have ever told you about. And oh! how glad they were to see Uncle Wiggily. He had to tell them all about his travels after his fortune before they would go off in the woods to the picnic. But at last they went, each one with a little leaf-package of lunch. The July bug came along, too, and he had a very little package of good things, because he was so small, you see, but it was enough. They all sat down on the ground with flat stones for plates, and sticks for knives and forks, and they ate their picnic lunch there. Oh, they had the finest time, and it didn't matter if some ants did get in the sugar. Uncle Wiggily said they could have all they wanted of the sweet stuff. And, when the picnic was almost over, there was a sudden noise in the bushes, and two bad foxes sprang out. One tried to grab Uncle Wiggily, and another made a dash for Lulu Wibblewobble. "Oh dear!" cried Dottie Trot, without looking to see if her hair ribbon was on straight. "We shall all be eaten up!" "No, you won't!" cried the brave July bug. "I'll fix those foxes!" So that brave July bug just buzzed his wings as hard as he could, and straight at those foxes he flew, bumping and banging them on their noses and in the eyes, so that they gave two separate and distinct howls, and ran away, taking their big tails with them. So that is how the July bug saved everybody from being eaten up, and then the picnic was over and every one said it was lovely. "Well, I'll start on my travels again to-morrow," said Uncle Wiggily, as his friends told him good-by. Now what happened to him the next day I'll tell you very soon, for, in case I see a chipmunk with a blue tail and a red nose climbing up the clothes pole, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and Jack-in-the-pulpit. STORY VIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT Uncle Wiggily was slowly hopping along through the woods, sometimes leaning on his crutch, when his rheumatism pained him, and again skipping along when he got out into the warm sunshine. It was the day after the picnic, and the old gentleman rabbit felt a bit lonesome as all his friends had gone back to their homes. "I do declare!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he walked slowly along by a little lake, where an August rabbit was running his motor boat, "if I don't find my fortune pretty soon I won't have any vacation this year. I must look carefully to-day, and see if I can't find a pot full of gold." Well, he looked as carefully as he could, but my land sakes and a pair of white gloves! he couldn't seem to find a smitch of gold and not so much as a crumb of diamonds. [Illustration] "Hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "at this rate I guess I'll have to keep on traveling for several years before I find my fortune. But never mind, I'm having a good time, anyhow. I'll keep on searching." So he kept on, and all of a sudden when he was walking past a prickly briar bush, he heard a voice calling: "Hey, Uncle Wiggily, come on in here." "Ha! Who are you, and why do you want me to come in there?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "Oh, I am a friend of yours," was the answer, "and I will give you a lot of money if you come in here." "Let me see your face," asked the rabbit, "I want to know who you are." "Oh! I have a dreadful toothache," said the creature hiding in the bushes. "I don't want to stick my face out in the cold. But if you will take my word for it I am a good friend of yours. I would like very much for you to come in here." "Well, perhaps I had better," said the old gentleman rabbit, "for I certainly need money." And he was just going to crawl in under the prickly briar bush when all of a sudden he happened to look, and he saw the skillery-scallery tail of the alligator accidentally sticking out. Yes, it was the alligator trying to fool dear old Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, ho!" cried the wise old rabbit. "I guess I won't go in there after all," so he hopped to one side and the alligator kept waiting for him to come in so he could eat him, but when the rabbit didn't come in the savage creature with the skillery-scallery tail cried: "Well, aren't you coming in?" "No, thank you," said the rabbit. "I have to go on to seek my fortune," and away he hopped. Well, that alligator was so angry that he gnashed his teeth and nearly broke them, and he crawled after Uncle Wiggily, but of course, he couldn't catch him. Uncle Wiggily was pretty careful after that, and whenever he came near a prickly briar bush he listened with both his long ears stuck up straight to see if he could hear any sounds like an alligator. But he didn't, and so he kept on. Well, it was coming on toward evening, one afternoon, and the old gentleman rabbit was tramping along the road, wondering where he would sleep, when all of a sudden something came bursting out of the bushes toward the rabbit, and a voice cried out: "Hide! Hide! Uncle Wiggily. Hide as quickly as you can!" "Why should I hide?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "Is there a giant coming after me?" "Worse than a giant," said the voice. "It is a bad wolf that jumped out of his cage from the circus, and he is just ready to eat up anything he sees," and the July bug, for it was he who had fluttered out of the bushes, to tell Uncle Wiggily, made his wings go slowly to and fro like an electric palm-leaf fan. "A wolf, eh?" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "And do you think he will eat me?" "He surely will," said the July bug. "I happened to fly past his house, and I heard him say to his wife that he was going out to see if he could find a rabbit supper. So I know he's coming for you. You'd better hide." "Oh! where can I hide?" asked the rabbit, as he looked around for a hollow stump. But there wasn't any, and there were no holes in the ground, and he didn't know what to do. Then, all at once there was a crashing in the bushes and it sounded like an elephant coming through, breaking all the sticks in his path. "There's the wolf! There's the wolf!" cried the July bug. "Hide, Uncle Wiggily," and then the bug perched on the high limb of a tree where the wolf couldn't catch him. Well, the poor old gentleman rabbit looked for a place to hide himself away from the wolf but he couldn't seem to find any, and he was just going to crawl under a stone and maybe hurt himself, when all at once he heard a voice say: "Jump up here, Uncle Wiggily. I'll hide you from the wolf." So the rabbit traveler looked up, and there he saw a flower called Jack-in-the-pulpit looking down on him. I've told you about them before, how the frog once took his bath in one, and how, when you pick a wood-bouquet you put them in with some ferns to make the bouquet look pretty. They are a flower like a vase, with a top curling over, and a thing standing up in the centre whose name is "Jack." "Jump in here," said the Jack. "I'll fold my top down over you like an umbrella, and the wolf can't find you." "But you are so small that I can't get inside," said the rabbit. "Oh, I'll make myself bigger," cried the Jack, I and he took a long breath, and puffed himself up and swelled himself up, until he was large enough for Uncle Wiggily to jump down inside. Then the Jack-in-the-pulpit closed down the umbrella top over the rabbit, and he was hidden away as nice and snug as could be wished. Pretty soon that bad savage wolf came prancing along, and he looked all over for the rabbit. Then he sniffed and cried: "Ha! I smell him somewhere around here! I'll find him!" But he couldn't see Uncle Wiggily because he was safely hidden in the Jack-in-the-pulpit. So the wolf raged around some more and chased after his tail, and just as he smelled the rabbit hidden in the flower, the July bug flew down out of the tree, bang! right into the eyes of the wolf, and then the savage creature felt so badly that he ran home and ate cold bread and water for supper, and he didn't bother Uncle Wiggily any more that day. So that's how the Jack-in-the-pulpit saved the rabbit and very thankful Uncle Wiggily was. And he stayed that night in a hollow stump, and the next day he went on to seek his fortune. And quite a curious thing happened to him, as I shall have the pleasure of telling you about soon, when in case our canoe boat doesn't turn upside down and spill out the breakfast oatmeal, the next bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the lost chipmunk. STORY IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOST CHIPMUNK Uncle Wiggily was walking along the road one morning, after he had slept all night in the hollow stump. He didn't have any breakfast either, for there was nothing left in his valise, and of course he couldn't eat his barber-pole crutch. If the crutch had had a hole in it, like in the elephant's trunk, then the old gentleman rabbit could have carried along some sandwiches. But, as it was, he had nothing for breakfast, and he hadn't had much supper either, the night before. "Oh, how hungry I am!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If only I had a piece of cherry pie now, or an ice cream cone, or a bit of bread and butter and jam I would be all right." Well, he just happened to open his valise, and there on the very bottom, among some papers he found a few crumbs of the honey sandwiches the bumble bee had given him. Well, you never can imagine how good those few crumbs tasted to the old gentleman rabbit, which shows you that it is a good thing to be hungry once in a while, because even common things taste good. But the crumbs weren't enough for Uncle Wiggily. As he walked along he kept getting hungrier and hungrier and he didn't know how he was going to stand it. Then, all of a sudden, as he was passing by a hollow stump, he saw a whole lot of little black creatures crawling around it. They were going up and down, and they were very busy. "Why, these are ants," said the rabbit. "Well, I s'pose they have plenty to eat. I almost wish I was an ant." "Well! Well!" exclaimed a voice all at once. "If here isn't Uncle Wiggily. Where did you come from?" and there stood a second cousin to the ant for whom Uncle Wiggily had once carried home a pound of beefsteak with mushrooms on it. "Oh, I am traveling about seeking my fortune," said the rabbit. "But I haven't been very successful. I couldn't even find my breakfast this morning." "That's too bad!" exclaimed the ant who wore glasses. "We can give you something, however. Come on! everybody, help get breakfast for Uncle Wiggily." So all the ants came running up, and some of them brought pieces of boiled eggs, and others brought oatmeal and others parts of oranges and still others parts of cups of coffee. So take it altogether, with seventeen million, four hundred and seventeen thousand, one hundred and eighty-five ants and a baby ant to wait on him, Uncle Wiggily managed to make out a pretty fair sort of a breakfast. Well, after the old gentleman rabbit had eaten all the breakfast he could, he thanked the kind ants and said good-by to them. Then he started off again. He hadn't gone on very far through the woods, before, all of a sudden he saw something bright and shining under a blackberry bush. "Well, I do declare!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I think that looks like gold. I hope I'm not fooled this time. I will go up very slowly and carefully. Perhaps I shall find my fortune now." So up he walked very softly, and he stooped down and picked up the shining thing. And what do you think it was? Why a bright new penny--as shiny as gold. "Good luck!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "I am beginning to find money. Soon I will be rich, and then I can stop traveling," and he put the penny in his pocket. Well, no sooner had he done so than he heard some one crying over behind a raspberry bush. Oh, such a sad cry as it was, and the old gentleman rabbit knew right away that some one was in trouble. "Who is there?" he asked, as he felt in his pocket to see if his penny was safe, for he thought that was the beginning of his fortune. "Oh, I'm lost!" cried the voice. "I came to the store to buy a chocolate lollypop, and I can't find my way back," and then out from behind the raspberry bush came a tiny, little striped chipmunk with the tears falling down on her little paws. "Oh, you poor little dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "And so you are lost? Well, don't you know what to do? As soon as you are lost you must go to a policeman and ask him to take you home. Policemen always know where everybody lives." "But there are no policemen here," said the chipmunk, who was something like a squirrel, only smaller. "That's so," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Well, pretend that I am a policeman, and I'll take you home. Where do you live?" "If I knew," said the chipmunk, "I would go home myself. All that I know is that I live in a hollow stump." "Hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "There are so many hollow stumps here, that I can't tell which one it is. We will go to each one, and when you find the one that is your home, just tell me." "But that is not the worst," said the chipmunk. "I have lost my bright, new penny that my mamma gave me for a chocolate lollypop. Oh dear. Isn't it terrible." "Perhaps this is your penny," said the old gentleman rabbit a bit sadly, taking from his pocket the one he had found. "It is the very one!" cried the lost chipmunk, joyfully. "Oh, how good of you to find it for me." "Well," thought Uncle Wiggily with a sorrowful sigh as he handed over the penny, "I thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, but I've lost it again. Never mind. I'll try to-morrow." So he gave the penny to the chipmunk, and she stopped crying right away, and took hold of Uncle Wiggily's paw, and he led her around to all the hollow stumps until she found the right one where she lived. And he bought her an ice cream cone because he felt sorry for her. And, just as she was eating it, along came a big, black bear and he wanted half of it, but very luckily the July bug flew past just then, and he bit the bear in the eyes, so that the bad bear was glad enough to run home, taking his little stumpy tail with him. Then the chipmunk took Uncle Wiggily back to her home, and he stayed with her papa and mamma all night. Now, in case the rocking chair on our porch doesn't tip over in the middle of the night, and scare the pussy cat off the railing, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the black cricket. STORY X UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CRICKET Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was feeling quite sad one morning as he hopped along the dusty road. It was a few days after he had helped the lost chipmunk find her way back home, and he had given her the lost penny which he had also picked up. "Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he thought of the penny. "That's generally the way it is in this world. Nothing seems to go right. I naturally thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, even if it was only a penny, and it turned out that the money belonged to somebody else. Oh dear!" Well, the old rabbit traveler actually felt so badly that he didn't much care whether he found his fortune or not, and that is a very poor way to feel in this world, for one must never give up trying, no matter what happens. Then Uncle Wiggily looked in his satchel to see if he had anything to eat, but my goodness sakes alive and a ham sandwich! There wasn't a thing in the valise! You see he was thinking so much about the penny that he forgot to put up his lunch. "Humph! This is a pretty state of affairs!" exclaimed the old rabbit gentleman. "Worse and worse, and some more besides! I do declare! Hum! Suz! Dud!" Well, he didn't know what to do, so he sat down on a log beside a shady bush and thought it all over. And the more he thought the sadder he became, until he began to believe he was the most miserable rabbit in all the world. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I might as well go back home and done with it." But no sooner had he said this, than Uncle Wiggily heard the jolliest laugh he had ever known. Oh! it was such a rippling, happy joyous laugh that it would almost cure the toothache just to listen to it. "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" laughed the voice, and Uncle Wiggily looked up, and he looked down, and then he looked sideways and around a corner, but he could see no one. Still the laugh kept up, more jolly than ever. "Humph! I wonder who that is?" said the rabbit. "I wish I could laugh like that," and Uncle Wiggily actually smiled the least little bit, and he didn't feel quite so sad. Then, all at once, there was a voice singing, and this is the song, and if you feel sad when you sing it, just get some one to tickle you, or watch baby's face when he smiles, and you will feel jolly enough to sing this song, even if you have been crying because you stubbed your toe. "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! I gladly sing, I sing about most anything. I sing about a pussy cat, Who caught a little mousie-rat. I sing about a doggie-dog, Who saw a turtle on a log. I sing about a little boy, Who cried because he broke his toy. And then he laughed, 'Ha! Ha! He! He!' Because he couldn't help it; see?" "Well, well!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "I wish I knew who that was. Perhaps it is a fairy, and if it is, I'm going to ask her for my fortune. I'm getting tired of not finding it," and when he thought about that he was sad again. But a moment later a little black creature hopped out from under a leaf, and who should it be but a cricket. "Was that you laughing?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as he again looked in his valise to see if he had any sandwiches there. "Was it you?" "It was," said the cricket. "I was just going--Oh, kindly excuse me, while I laugh again!" the cricket said, and then he laughed more jolly than before. "What makes you so good-natured?" asked the rabbit. "I just can't help it," said the cricket. "Everything is so lovely. The sun shines, and the birds sing, and the water in the brooks babble such jolly songs, and well--Oh, excuse me again if you please, I'm going to laugh once more," and so he did then and there. He just laughed and laughed and laughed, that cricket did. "Well," said Uncle Wiggily, still speaking sadly, "of course it's nice to be jolly, anybody can be that way when the sun shines, but what about the rain? There! I guess you can't be jolly when it rains." "Oh! when it rains I laugh because I know it will soon clear off, and then, too, I can think about the days when the sun did shine," said the cricket. "Well," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "there is something in that, to be sure. And as you are such a jolly chap, will you travel along with me? Perhaps with you I could find my fortune." "Of course I'll come," said the cricket, and he laughed again, and then he and the old gentleman rabbit hopped on together and Uncle Wiggily kept feeling more and more happy until he had forgotten all about the chipmunk's penny that wasn't his. Well, in a little while, not so very long, the rabbit and the cricket came to a dark place in the woods. Oh! it was quite dismal, and, just as they passed a big, black stump with a hole in it, all of a sudden out popped the skillery-scalery-tailery alligator. "Ah, ha!" exclaimed the unpleasant creature. "Now I have you both. I'm going to eat you both, first you, Mr. Cricket, and then you, Uncle Wiggily." "Oh, please don't," begged the rabbit. "I haven't found my fortune yet." "No matter," cried the alligator, "here we go!" He made a grab for the cricket, but the little black insect hopped to one side, and then, all of a sudden he began to laugh. Oh, how hard he laughed. "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" My, it was wonderful! At first the alligator didn't know what to make of it. Harder and harder did the black cricket laugh, and then Uncle Wiggily began. He just couldn't help it. Harder and harder laughed the cricket and Uncle Wiggily together, and then, all at once, the alligator began to laugh. He couldn't help it either. "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" laughed the 'gator, and great big alligator tears rolled down his scaly cheeks, he laughed so hard. Why, he giggled so that he couldn't even have eaten a mosquito with mustard on. "Come on, now!" suddenly cried the cricket to Uncle Wiggily. "Now is our chance to get away." And before the alligator had stopped laughing they both hopped away in the woods together, and so the bad scalery-ailery-tailery creature didn't get either of them. "My! it's a good thing you made him laugh," said the rabbit when they were safely away. "It's a good thing to make anybody laugh," said the black cricket, and then he and Uncle Wiggily went on to seek the old gentleman rabbit's fortune. And in the next story, in case the sunshine doesn't make my pussy cat sneeze and spill his milk, on the new door mat, I'll tell you all about Uncle Wiggily and the busy bug. STORY XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUSY BUG Everywhere Uncle Wiggily and the black cricket went in the next few days, every one was glad to see them. For they were both so jolly, and laughed and joked so much along the road, that no one who heard them could be sad. They came to one place where there was a boy sick with the toothache, and his mamma had done everything for him that she could think of, even to putting mustard on it, but still that boy's tooth ached. Well, as soon as that boy saw the cricket and the old gentleman rabbit, and heard them laugh, why the boy smiled, and then the pain, somehow, seemed to be better, and he smiled some more, and then he laughed. Then Uncle Wiggily told a funny story about a monkey who made faces at himself in a looking-glass, and got so excited about it that he jumped around behind the glass, thinking another monkey was there, and there wasn't, and the monkey fell into the freezer full of ice cream and caught cold because he ate so much of it. Well, that boy opened his mouth real wide to laugh at the funny story and his mamma all of a sudden slipped a string around the aching tooth and she pulled it out in a moment, and it never ached again. "Oh, how glad I am!" cried the little boy. "I wish you would always stay with me, Uncle Wiggily--you and the jolly cricket." "I'd like to, but I can't," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I must keep on after my fortune." "I'll stay with you for a little while," said the cricket, and he did, telling some funny stories to other boys who had the toothache, and right away after that they allowed their bad teeth to be pulled, and their pain was over. So Uncle Wiggily said good-by to the cricket and went on by himself. He was feeling very good now, for he and the cricket had met a kind muskrat, a thirty-fifth cousin to Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and this muskrat gave Uncle Wiggily a lot of sandwiches for his satchel, so he wouldn't be hungry again for some time. "And I don't mind so much about the cent, either," thought the rabbit, as he remembered the one that belonged to the chipmunk. "After all a cent is not so much, and I need more than that for my fortune. Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" He just had to laugh, you see, when he thought of the jolly cricket. So he traveled on and on, over hill and dale, until one evening, just as the sun was going down behind the clouds, all red and golden and violet colored, he saw a little house built of green leaves. "Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That is a very fine house. I wish I had one like it in which to stay to-night. But it's too small for me. I guess I'll have to keep on and look for a haystack under which to crawl." Well, just as he said that, all of a sudden there was a little rustling, scratching noise, and a bug came to the door of the queer little green leaf house. The bug had a broom and she began sweeping off the front porch and then she knocked the dirt out of the doormat, and then she swept some cobwebs off the shutters and then she hurried out and swept off the sidewalk, all so quickly that you could scarcely see her move. "My, but she is a fast worker," said Uncle Wiggily. "She is almost as quick as Jennie Chipmunk." "I have to be!" exclaimed the bug, for the old gentleman rabbit had spoken out loud without thinking, and the bug had heard him. "I have to hustle around," she said, "for I am the busy bug, and I have to keep busy. I work from morning to night to keep my house in order. Now excuse me; I have to go in and dust the piano," and she was just going to run in the house, when Uncle Wiggily said: "Do you happen to know of a place where I can stay to-night?" "Why, yes," said the busy bug. "Next door is a house where Mr. Groundhog used to live. But now he is away on his vacation, and I have the keys. I'm sure he wouldn't mind you staying in there over night. I'll get it in order for you. Come along, hurry up, no time to lose!" And before Uncle Wiggily knew what was happening the busy bug had run in, got the keys, opened the front door of the groundhog's house. Then she flew in, and she began dusting it. My! what a dust she raised. Uncle Wiggily had to sneeze, there was so much of it. And the funny part of it was that the house was already just as neat and clean as a piece of cocoanut or custard, or maybe even apple pie. "Don't fuss any more with it," said Uncle Wiggily. "It will do very well as it is." "Oh, it must be made cleaner," said the busy bug, and she swept and dusted until Uncle Wiggily sneezed again. Then the bug dusted a little more, and at last she said the house was in pretty fair shape and Uncle Wiggily could sleep there. Then the busy bug flew back home and she kept busy up to nine o'clock, making beds and dusting the crumbs off the mantelpiece and picking up grains of sand off the floor. Then she went to sleep. Well, along in the middle of the night Uncle Wiggily was awakened by hearing some one talking under his window. He looked out, and there were two savage old owls. "Now, we'll fly right in through her window," said one owl, "and we'll eat her all up, and then we'll tear her house down." And, would you believe it, they started right toward the house of the poor busy lady bug, who was fast asleep. "Ha! This must never be!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I must save her. How can I do it?" So he looked around, and he saw a broom, which the busy bug had left behind when she finished sweeping. "That will do!" cried the rabbit. He took it in his paws and, leaning out of the window, he held it just as if it was a gun, and cried: "Now, you bad owls, fly away or I'll shoot all your feathers off! Fly away and don't you harm my friend, the busy lady bug!" Well, sir, those owls were so frightened, thinking that Uncle Wiggily was going to shoot them with the broom-gun (only, of course, they didn't know it was only a broom), and, would you believe it, they were terribly afraid and they flew off into the dark woods, and so didn't eat up the busy bug after all, and she slept in peace and quietness, never even waking up, she was so tired after being busy all day. Then Uncle Wiggily went back to bed, and the owls didn't disturb him again that night. And in the morning the busy bug got his breakfast and thanked him when he told her about scaring the owls away with the make-believe broom-gun. Uncle Wiggily traveled on, and soon he had another adventure. What it was I'll tell you almost right away, when, in case the cake of ice doesn't melt, and make a mud puddle for the baby to fall into, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the funny monkey. STORY XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FUNNY MONKEY It was a bright and beautiful sunshiny day, and Uncle Wiggily was hopping along the road, thinking many thoughts and about the busy bug and the black cricket and all things like that and how hard it was to look and look for your fortune and never find it, when all of a sudden, just as he happened to put his crutch down on a round stone, it slipped, and down he fell kerthump. "Oh, wow! Ouch!" cried the old gentleman rabbit as he bumped his nose on a sharp stick. "That hurt! My, I hope I haven't broken one of my ears or paw-nails. If I did I'll have to get in the ambulance and go to the hospital." So he sat up very slowly and carefully and looked himself all over and he was glad to see that he hadn't broken anything except a lettuce sandwich that he carried in his satchel and, as it was just as good broken as it was whole, it didn't matter much. "Oh, are you hurt?" suddenly cried a voice, as Uncle Wiggily took some dirt out of his left ear. "If you are I can give you something to put on your cuts," and out from under a big leaf came a beautiful butterfly. "What can you put on my cuts?" asked the rabbit. "Oh, I can get some sticky gum from a tree or a flower and spread it on a leaf and make some court plaster," spoke the butterfly. "It will cure a cut very quickly." "Thank you very much," said Uncle Wiggily, "but very luckily I haven't any cuts. I'm all right, I guess, but because you are so kind to me here is just a drop of honey that I found in the bottom of my satchel. The bee gave it to me." So he handed to the kind butterfly a little honey he had left. The butterfly was very glad to get it, and fluttered away, jumping from one flower to another as easily as a boy can spin his top. Then the old gentleman rabbit traveled on, and pretty soon, when it was just about time for dinner, he came to a beautiful place in the woods. The trees were nice and green and shady, and there was a little brook that was bubbling and babbling over the mossy stones and then all at once Uncle Wiggily heard the queerest music he had ever heard. It was like forty-'leven bands all playing in the park at once. "My, I must be near a big picnic!" cried the rabbit. "I shall have to look out for myself, or some boys may chase me." The music kept getting louder but still the old gentleman rabbit didn't see any people, and he went on very slowly until he came to a little house built of shingles, and there in front of it sat a monkey. And he was the funniest monkey you ever saw. For that monkey was playing five hand organs all at once. Yes, just as true as I'm telling you, he was. He played one organ with his left paw and he played another organ with his right paw, and he played still another with his left foot and he twisted the crank of another with his right foot. And then, to finish off with, he whirled around the crank of the fifth organ with his long tail. Oh, he was a smart monkey, I tell you! "My! This is almost as good as a circus!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'm glad I came this way." Well, that funny monkey played faster than ever, and on one organ he played the tune "Please Bring Your Umbrella Inside When it Rains," and on another he played "May I Have Some of Your Ice Cream Cone if I Give You a Kiss?" And on the third hand organ the monkey was playing the tune "Come Out Into the Hammock and See Who'll Fall Out First," and another tune was "Please Don't Let that Big Black Bug Tickle Me," and on the organ that he twisted with his tail the monkey ground out the song "Come On Inside the Motorboat and Have a Nice, Cool Swim." "My, how do you do it?" asked the rabbit of the monkey. "You must be very musical." "Oh, it comes natural to me," said the monkey, not a bit proud like. "But where did you get so many organs?" "Oh, I saved up my pennies for them," said the monkey. "You see, it was this way. I used to work for a man who had a hand organ, and he used to take me around with him to climb up on the porches, and in the second-story windows to get the pennies from the children. Well, I always loved music, and I wanted the man to let me play his organ, but he never would. So I made up my mind I would save up all my pennies and some day buy an organ for myself. "Well, I did that, for you know often when I used to go around to collect pennies for the man, some children would give me a few for myself. Finally I got rich and I didn't work for the man any longer, and I had enough to buy five hand organs, for I can play five at once. Then I came here, and built this shingle house and every day I amuse myself by playing tunes, and I never have to climb up the rainwater pipe to get money. Oh, it is a happy life," and the monkey felt so funny that he hung by his tail from a tree branch, and made faces at Uncle Wiggily--just in fun, you understand. Uncle Wiggily was very glad he had met the monkey, and he listened to the music, and the monkey even let the rabbit play one tune for himself, and it was called, "When You Wiggle Your Wiggily Ears Wiggle Them Good and Hard." And then, all of a sudden, just as that tune was finished, there was a terrible noise in the bushes. "My goodness! What's that?" cried the monkey as he hopped up on top of one of his hand organs and curled his tail around the handle. "It sounds like a bear!" said the rabbit. "But don't worry. I'll do just as the cricket did to the alligator and make him laugh so that he won't hurt us." "Good!" cried the monkey. And then the noise became louder and out from the bushes popped a big animal. But it was an elephant instead of a bear, and as soon as he saw the monkey and Uncle Wiggily he ran up to them and shook his trunk at them and cried: "Oh, I'm so glad to see you! I just got away from the circus, and I want to have some fun!" and he was as kind and gentle as he could be and he and Uncle Wiggily had quite an adventure the next day. I'll tell you about it on the next page, when, in case the little boy across the street doesn't tickle my pussy cat and make him sneeze the rubbers off the umbrella plant, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the big dog. STORY XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIG DOG Let's see, I left off in the last story just where the elephant came out of the woods and shook his tail--I mean his trunk--at Uncle Wiggily and the funny monkey, didn't I? Well, now, I'm going to tell you what happened after that. "Why did you run away from the circus?" asked the old gentleman rabbit of the elephant. "I should think you would like it there. I know Sammie and Susie Littletail would love a circus." "Yes, some folks like it," spoke the elephant slow and thoughtful-like, as he sat down on his trunk, "but I do not care for it. You see of late the children ate all the peanuts, instead of giving me my share, and I just couldn't stand it any longer. Why, it got so, finally, that when a man would give his little boy five cents to buy a bag of peanuts for me the little boy would eat all but two or three of the nuts, and those were all he gave to me. It wasn't enough, so I ran away." "I don't in the least blame you," said the monkey, "and I'm going to let you play some of my hand organs." Well, the elephant was delighted at that, and he played one organ with his trunk and another one with his tail, making some very nice music. Uncle Wiggily stayed in the monkey's house that night, and the elephant wanted to come in also, but of course he was far too big, so he had to sleep outside under a tree. It was an apple tree, and in the middle of the night the elephant snored so hard and heavily through his trunk that he shook the tree and all the apples fell off, and in the morning the monkey made an apple pie from some of them. "I think I had better start off on my travels again," said the old gentleman rabbit after breakfast. "There must be a fortune for me somewhere if I can only find it. So I'll trot along." "I'll go with you," said the kind elephant. "Perhaps you might see your fortune in the top of a tall tree, and then you couldn't get it. But I would pull the tree down for you." "That would be fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be glad to have you travel with me." So they said good-by to the monkey, and off they started together, the rabbit and the elephant. They talked of many things, about how hot it was, and whether there would be rain soon, and about how much ice cream cones cost, and sometimes what a little bit of ice cream the man puts in the cones when he is in a hurry. "Speaking of ice cream cones," said the elephant, "makes me hungry for some. I wish I had one." "I wish I had one also," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "You would have to have a very large one, though, Mr. Elephant, but a small one would do for me." "Don't say another word," cried the elephant as he waved his trunk in the air. "I'm going right off and get us some ice cream cones. I know where there's a store. You hop along slowly and I'll catch up to you." So the elephant went off to the ice cream cone store, and Uncle Wiggily, with his valise and the barber pole crutch, hopped on through the woods, looking about to see if his fortune was up in any of the trees, but it wasn't there yet. Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, all of a sudden the old gentleman rabbit heard a sniffing-sniffing noise in the woods. And then there was a rustling in the bushes. "Ha, hum!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Perhaps that may be a bear. I had better look out for myself." He started to hop softly away, so the bear, or whatever it was, wouldn't hear him, but he was too late. In an instant out of the bushes popped something big and black and shaggy, and the rabbit, taking one look at it, saw that it was a big dog. "New is the time for me to run!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That dog will eat me up, sure pop!" Away hopped the old gentleman rabbit, his heart going "pitter-patter-pat," he was so frightened. On and on he ran down a path in the woods. "Here, come back here! Come back!" cried the dog. "Indeed, I will not," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I know what you want to do. You want to eat me." "No, I don't, honestly!" cried the dog. "But come back, for if you run any farther on that road you'll fall into a lake and be drowned." "Humph! I don't believe that!" cried the rabbit. "You are saying that to scare me," and on he hopped faster than ever. "Come back! Come back!" cried the dog again, but Uncle Wiggily wouldn't. My! how fast he did hop, until, all of a sudden, as he returned around the corner of a stump, he saw a lake of water right in front of him. And before he could stop himself he had fallen plump into it; crutch, satchel and all, and of course he couldn't swim. And he could hear the dog coming barking down the path after him. "Oh, this is the end of me, sure pop!" thought poor Uncle Wiggily. "I'll never get any fortune now." "Oh, dear!" cried the dog. "I told you how it would be. I tried to save you from getting in the water," and then the rabbit knew the big dog had been telling the truth. But it was too late now. Uncle Wiggily was going down under the deep, dark, cold water when, all of a sudden, along came the elephant with a great big ice cream cone for himself, and a little one for Uncle Wiggily. He saw the rabbit in the water and he also saw the big shaggy dog. "Did you push Uncle Wiggily in the water?" asked the elephant, "because if you did I'm going to throw you in." "No, indeed, I didn't," answered the dog. "It was an accident," and he told the elephant how it happened. "But I'll jump in, grab him and swim out with him," said the dog. "No, don't do that, you might accidentally bite him," spoke the elephant. "I have a better plan." So he laid down the ice cream cones and then he put the end of his hollow trunk in the lake, and he began to suck up and drink the water, just as you suck lemonade up through a straw. And presto chango! in a few seconds all the water was sucked out of the lake by the elephant, and it was dry land and the rabbit could walk safely to shore, and so he wasn't drowned after all. And how he did thank the elephant! Uncle Wiggily ate his ice cream cone, and the elephant gave some of his to the dog, and they were all happy. Now, if the elephant doesn't get a sliver in his foot so he can't dance at the hoptoads' picnic, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the peanut man. STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEANUT MAN After Uncle Wiggily and the elephant and the big dog had eaten up the ice cream cones, they sat in the woods a while and looked at the place where the watery lake had been before the elephant drank it up to save the rabbit from drowning. "My, but you must be strong to take up all that water," said the dog. "Yes, I guess I am pretty strong," said the elephant, though he was not at all proud-like. "I will show you how I can pull up a tree," he said. So he wound his trunk around a big tree and he gave one great, heaving pull and up that tree came by the roots. Then, all of a sudden a voice cried: "Oh, you're upsetting all my eggs!" and a robin, who had her nest in the tree, fluttered around feeling very sad. "Oh, excuse me, Mrs. Robin," said the elephant. "I would not have disturbed you for the world had I known that your nest was in that tree. I'll plant it right back again in the same place I pulled it up. Anyhow, I intended to do it, as it is not a good thing to kill a tree. I'll plant it again." So he put the tree back in the hole, and with his big feet he stamped down the earth around it. Then the robin's nest and eggs were safe, and she sang a pretty song because she was thankful to the elephant. Well, the elephant had to sleep out-of-doors again that night, because he couldn't find a house large enough for him, but Uncle Wiggily slept in the big dog's kennel. In the morning the rabbit said: "It is very nice here, and I like it very much, but I must travel along, I s'pose, and see if I can't find my fortune. Are you coming, Mr. Elephant?" "Why, certainly. I will go along with you," said the big chap. "Perhaps the dog will come also." "No, thank you," said the dog. "I am going to meet a friend of mine, named Percival, and we are going to call on Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children." "Is that so?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Why, Percival and the Wibblewobbles are friends of mine. Kindly give them my love and say that I hope soon to get back home with my fortune." So the dog said he would, and he started off to meet Percival, who used to work in the same circus where the elephant came from. And the rabbit and the elephant hurried off together down the road. "Are you ever going back to the circus?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the elephant as they went along. "Not unless they catch me and make me go," he answered. "I like this sort of life much better, and besides, no one gave me ice cream cones in the circus." Well, pretty soon the rabbit and the elephant came to a place where there was a high mountain. "Oh, we'll never get up that," said Uncle Wiggily. "Yes, we will," said the elephant, "I'll make a hole through it with my tusks, and we can walk under it instead of climbing over." So with his long, sharp tusks he made a tunnel right through the mountain, and, though it was a bit darkish, he and the rabbit went through it as easily as a mouse can nibble a bit of cheese. [Illustration] Then, a little later they came to a place where there was a big river to cross, and there was no bridge. "Oh, we can never get over that," said Uncle Wiggily. "Yes, we can," said the elephant. "Are you going to drink it up as you did the lake?" asked the rabbit. "No," said the elephant, "but I will make a bridge to go over the river." So he found a great big tree that the wind had blown down, and, taking this in his strong trunk, the elephant laid it across the river, and then he laid another tree and another, and pretty soon he had as good a bridge as one could wish, and he and Uncle Wiggily crossed over on it. Well, they hadn't gone on very far, before, all of a sudden the elephant fell down, and he was so heavy that he shook the ground just like when a locomotive choo-choo engine rushes past. "Oh, whatever is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you hurt yourself?" "No," said the elephant, sad-like, "I am not hurt, but I am sick. I guess I drank too much ice water, which is a bad thing to do in hot weather. Oh, how ill I am! You had better go for a doctor." Well, that poor elephant was so ill that he had to lie down on the ground, and he cried and groaned, and the big tears rolled down his trunk, and made quite a mud puddle on the earth. For when an elephant is ill he is very ill, indeed, as there is so much of him. "I'll cover you with leaves so you won't get sunburned," said Uncle Wiggily, "and then I'll hop off for a doctor." Well, it takes a great number of leaves to cover up an elephant, but finally the rabbit did it, and then away he started. He looked everywhere for an elephant doctor, but he couldn't seem to find any. There were dog doctors and horse doctors and cat doctors and even doctors for boys and girls, but none for the elephant. "Oh, what shall I do?" thought the rabbit. "My poor, dear elephant may die." Just then he heard some one singing in the woods like this: "Peanuts, they are good to eat, Mine are most especially neat, I am going to make them hot So that you will eat a lot." "Oh, are you an elephant doctor?" cried Uncle Wiggily. "No, I am a hot-peanut-man," said the voice, and then the peanut roaster began to whistle like a tea-kettle. "But, perhaps I can cure a sick elephant," said the peanut man. So he and Uncle Wiggily hurried off through the woods to where the elephant was groaning, and, would you believe it? as soon as the big chap heard the whistle of the hot-peanut wagon and smelled the nuts roasting he got well all of a sudden and he ate a bushel of the nuts and Uncle Wiggily had some also. So that's how the elephant got well, and he and the rabbit traveled on the next day. They had quite an adventure, too, as I shall have the pleasure of telling you in the next story which will be about Uncle Wiggily and the crawly snake--that is if the baby doesn't drop his bread and butter down the stovepipe and make the rice pudding laugh. STORY XV. UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRAWLY SNAKE "Do you feel all right to travel to-day?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the elephant the next morning, after the hot-peanut-man had cured the big chap. "Oh, yes, I feel very fine!" said the elephant. "We will travel along together again, and perhaps we may find your fortune this time." "Hadn't we better take some extra peanuts with us, in case you become ill again?" asked the rabbit, as he looked in the satchel to see if he had any sandwiches, in case he got hungry. "Oh, to be sure, we must have peanuts!" exclaimed the elephant. "Take as many as we can carry, for I just love 'em!" So they hunted up the hot-peanut-man, and bought all the rest of his peanuts, besides paying for those the elephant had eaten to make himself get well. "Good luck to you!" cried the peanut man, as he wheeled away his empty wagon, "I wish I had elephants for customers every day, then I would soon get rich," and away he went singing: "I sell peanuts good and hot, Five cents buys you quite a lot. Get your money and come here, Buy my peanuts, children dear. "My peanuts are hot and brown, Finest ones in all the town. Nice and juicy--good to chew, I have some for all of you." "Well, come on," said the elephant to Uncle Wiggily, "put some peanuts in your valise, and I will carry the rest." "How; in your trunk?" asked the rabbit. "No, I'm going to wrap them up in a bundle, and tie them on my back. I want my trunk to squirt water through when it gets hot, as I think the sun is going to be very scorchy to-day." So he tied the bundle of peanuts on his back, and then the two friends journeyed on together. Well, it did get very hot, and it kept on getting hotter, and there wasn't much shade. "Oh my, I wish it would rain a little shower!" said Uncle Wiggily, as he wiped his ears with his handkerchief. "I am as hot as an oven." "I can soon fix that part of it," said the elephant. And pretty soon he came to a spring of cold water, and he sucked a lot of it up in his hollow trunk, and then he squirted a nice cool, fine spray of it over the rabbit, just as if it came out of a hose with which papa waters the garden or lawn. "My! That feels fine!" said the rabbit. Then the elephant squirted some water on himself, and they went on, feeling much better. But still they were warm again in a short time, and then the elephant said: "I know what I am going to do. I am going to get some more ice cream cones. They will cool us off better than anything else. I'll go for them and bring back some big ones. You stay here in the shade, Uncle Wiggily, but don't walk on ahead, or you may tumble into the water again." "I'll not," promised the rabbit. "I'll wait right here for you." Off the elephant started to get the ice cream cones and pretty soon he came to the store where the man sold them. [Illustration] "I want two of your very coldest cones," said the elephant to the man, for sometimes, in stories, you know, elephants can talk to people. "I want a big strawberry cone for myself," the elephant went on, "and a smaller one for my friend, Uncle Wiggily, the rabbit." "Very well," said the man, "but you will have to wait until I make a large cone for you." So that man took seventeen thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven little cones and made them into one big one for the elephant. Then he took eighteen thousand, two hundred and ninety-one quarts of strawberry ice cream, and an extra pint, and put it into the big cone. Then he made a rabbit-sized ice cream cone for Uncle Wiggily and gave them both to the elephant, who carried them in his trunk so they wouldn't melt. But I must tell you what was happening to Uncle Wiggily all this while. As he sat there in the shade of the apple tree, thinking, about his fortune and whether he would ever find it, all of a sudden he saw something round and squirming sticking itself toward him through the bushes. "Ha! the elephant has come back so quietly that I didn't hear him," thought the rabbit. "That is his trunk he is sticking out at me. I guess he thinks I don't see him, and he is going to tickle me. I hope he has those ice cream cones." Well, the crawly, squirming, round thing, which was like the small end of an elephant's trunk, kept coming closer and closer to the rabbit. "Now, I'll play a trick on that elephant--I'll tickle his trunk for him, and he'll think it's a mosquito!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. He was just about to do this, when suddenly the crawly thing made a sort of jump toward him, and before the rabbit could move he found himself grasped by a big, ugly snake, who wrapped himself around the rabbit just as ladies wrap their fur around their necks in the winter. It wasn't the elephant's trunk at all, but a bad snake. "Now, I have you!" hissed the snake like a steam radiator in Uncle Wiggily's left ear. "I'm going to squeeze you to death and then eat you," and he began to squeeze that poor rabbit just like the wash-lady squeezes clothes in the wringer. "Oh, my breath! You are crushing all the breath out of me!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Please let go of me!" "No!" hissed the snake, and he squeezed harder than ever. "Oh, this is the end of me!" gasped the rabbit, when all of a sudden he heard a great crashing in the bushes. Then a voice cried: "Here, you bad snake, let go of Uncle Wiggily." And bless my hat! If the elephant didn't rush up, just in time, and he grabbed hold of that snake's tail in his trunk, and unwound the snake from around the rabbit, and then the elephant with a long swing of his trunk threw the snake so high up in the air that I guess he hasn't yet come down. "I was just in time to save you!" said the elephant to Uncle Wiggily. "Here, eat this ice cream cone and you'll feel better." So the rabbit did this, and his breath came back and he was all right again, but he made up his mind never to try to tickle a crawly thing again until he was sure it wasn't a snake. So that's all for the present, if you please, but in case my fur hat doesn't sleep out in the hammock all night, and catch cold in the head so that it sneezes and wakes up the alarm clock, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the water lilies. STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATER LILIES Uncle Wiggily was hopping along through the woods one day, and pretty soon, as he went past a cute little house, made out of corncobs, he heard some one calling to him. "Oh, Mr. Rabbit," a voice said, "have you seen anything of my little girl?" And there stood a nice mamma cat, looking anxiously about. "I don't know," answered Uncle Wiggily, as he stopped in the shade of a tree, and set down his valise. "Was your little girl named Sarah, Mrs. Cat?" "Oh, indeed, my little girl is not named Sarah," said Mrs. Cat. "She is called Snowball, and she is just as cute as she can be. She is all white, like a ball of snow, and so we call her Snowball. But she is lost, and I'm afraid I'll never find her again," and the kittie's mamma began to cry, and she wiped her tears on her apron. "Oh, don't worry. Never mind. I'll find her for you," said the kind old gentleman rabbit. "I can't find my fortune but I believe I can find Snowball. Now, tell me which way she went away, and I'll go search for her." "I didn't see her go out of the house," said Mrs. Cat, "because I was making a cherry pie, and I was very busy. Snowball was playing on the floor, with a ball of soft yarn, and it rolled out of doors. She raced out after it, and I thought she would soon be back. I put the cherry pie in the oven and then when I went to look for her she was gone. Oh, dear! I just know some horrid dog has hurt her." "Please don't worry," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll find her for you. I'll start right off, and if I can't find her I'll get a policeman, and he can, for the police always find lost children." So Uncle Wiggily started off, leaving his valise with Mrs. Cat, but taking his crutch with him, for he thought he might need it to beat off any bad dogs if they chased after Snowball. First the old gentleman rabbit looked carefully all along the road, but he couldn't see anything of the lost pussy cat. "Perhaps she may be up a tree," he said to himself. "If a dog chased her she would climb up one, and perhaps she is afraid to come down." So he looked up into all the trees, and he even shook some of them in order to see up them better, but he did not discover the pussy cat. Then he called: "Snowball! Snowball! Snowball! Where are you?" But there was no answer. "Oh, if there was only some bird who could call 'Snowball' I would get them to call for the lost pussy," thought Uncle Wiggily. Then he looked up and he saw a big black bird sitting on a tree. "Can you call 'Snowball' for me?" asked the rabbit, politely. "She is lost and her mamma wants her very much. Just call 'Snowball' as loudly as you can." "I can't," said the big black bird. "All I can cry is 'Caw! Caw! Caw!' I am a crow, you see." "That is too bad," said the rabbit. "Then I will have to keep on searching by myself," so he did, and the crow flew away to look for a cornfield that had no scarecrow in it to frighten him. Well, Uncle Wiggily looked in all the places he could think of, but still there was no pussy to be seen, and he was just thinking he had better go for a policeman. But he thought he would try just one more place, so he looked down a hollow stump, but Snowball was not there. "I'll have to get a policeman after all," said the rabbit, so he told a policeman cat about the lost pussy, and the policeman cat searched for Snowball, but he couldn't find her, either. "I guess she is gone," said the policeman. "You had better go back and tell her mamma that she hasn't any little pussy girl any more." "Oh, how sad it will be to do that!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I just can't bear to." But he started back to the corncob house to tell Mrs. Cat that he couldn't find her Snowball. And all the while he kept feeling more and more sad, until he was almost ready to cry. "But I must be brave," said the old gentleman rabbit, and just then he came to a pond where a whole lot of beautiful, white water lilies were growing. Oh, they are a lovely flower, with such a sweet, spicy smell. As soon as Uncle Wiggily saw them he said: "I'll pick some and take them home to Mrs. Cat. Perhaps they will make her feel a little happy, even if her Snowball is gone forever." So with his long crutch Uncle Wiggily pulled toward shore some of the water lilies, until he could pick them on their slender stems. Some of the flowers were wide open, and some were closed, like rosebuds. He took both kinds home to Mrs. Cat, and when he told her he couldn't find Snowball she was very sorrowful and she cried. But she loved the flowers very much, and put them in a bowl of water. "I'll stay here to-night," said the rabbit, "and in the morning I'll look for Snowball again. I'm sure I'll find her." "Oh, you are very kind," said Mrs. Cat, as she wiped away her tears. Well, the next morning Uncle Wiggily got up real early, and the first thing he saw was the bowl of water lilies on the parlor table. They had all closed up like buds in the night, but in the sunlight they all opened again into beautiful flowers. And, would you believe me, right in the middle of one of the flowers something white moved and wiggled. Then it gave a little "Mew!" and then Uncle Wiggily cried: "Oh, Mrs. Cat, come here quickly! Here is Snowball! She was asleep inside of one of the water lilies!" And, surely enough, there was the little lost kittie, just awakening in one of the flowers, and she was exactly the color of it. And, oh, how glad she was to see her mamma again, and how her mamma did hug her! "How did you get in that flower?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, when I went after my ball a big dog chased me," said Snowball, "so I jumped into one of the lilies and I fell asleep, and the flower went shut and I stayed there. But now I'm home, and I'm glad of it," and she just kissed Uncle Wiggily on the tip end of his nose, that twinkled like a star on a frosty night. So that's how Snowball was lost and found, and I'm going to tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the sunflower, that is if the sunfish doesn't spread the butter too thick on the baby's bread with his tail and make her slide out of her high chair. STORY XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFLOWER Mrs. Cat and her daughter Snowball liked Uncle Wiggily so much that they wanted him to stay with them a long time. "You can build yourself a nice little corncob house next to ours," said Snowball, "and live in it; and you can tell me a story every night." "Oh, but rabbits live underground, and not in corncob houses, though such houses are very nice," said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll have to be traveling on." "If you stay, I'll bake you a cherry pie every day," said Mrs. Cat. "And you can help find Snowball when she gets lost again." "Cherry pie is very good, and you are very kind," said the rabbit politely, "but I have my fortune to find." "Well, if you can't stay you can't, I s'pose," said Snowball; "but I'm never going to get lost again," and she put her little nose down deep inside a water lily and smelled it, and oh, how sweet and spicy it smelled! So Uncle Wiggily got ready to start off on his travels again, and in his satchel he put a whole cherry pie that Mrs. Cat had baked for him. "It will taste good when you are hungry," she said. "Indeed it will," agreed Uncle Wiggily, and he wished he was hungry then and there, because he just loved cherry pie. He was walking on through the woods, when, all at once, he heard some music playing, and the name of the song was "Never Take Your Ice Cream Cone and Drop it in the Mud." "Ha! I believe that is the funny monkey and one of his hand organs!" exclaimed the rabbit. "I shall be glad to see him again." So he looked through the trees, and there, surely enough, was the monkey, and he was playing the organ with his tail, and in one paw he held a cocoanut and in the other paw an orange, and first he would take a bite of the orange, and then a bite of the cocoanut. "I always like music when I eat," said the monkey as he threw a bit of orange skin over his left shoulder. "How comes it that you are away off here," asked the rabbit. "Oh! I got tired of staying home," said the monkey. "I thought I would go out and see if I could make a few pennies by playing music." Then he played another tune called, "Don't Sit Down When You Stand Up." Well, Uncle Wiggily listened to the music, which he liked very much, and he began to feel hungry. Then he thought of the cherry pie, that the cat lady had put in his valise. "I guess I'll eat some of that and give the monkey a bit," he said, and he did so. "Oh, this is most delicious and scrumptious!" cried the monkey, as he and Uncle Wiggily sat there eating the pie, and wiping off the juice with green leaves, so as not to soil their clothing. "Indeed, it is very delectable," said the rabbit, hungry-like. "Have another piece." Well, he was just cutting it off, when, all of a sudden, before you could say "Boo!" to an elephant, a terrible voice cried: "Here! Give me that pie! I must have cherry pie!" and before the monkey or Uncle Wiggily knew what was happening, out from behind the bushes jumped the skillery-scallery-tailery alligator, gnashing his teeth. "Give me that pie!" he cried again, opening his mouth wide enough to swallow a cake as big as a wash-tub. "No, you cannot have it," said Uncle Wiggily, and, as quick as a wink, he popped the pie into his valise and closed it up. "Now you can't get it!" the rabbit said. "Then I'll get you and the monkey!" cried the alligator, as he made a dash for both of them. "Not me! You can't catch me!" exclaimed the monkey, as he skipped up into the top of a tall tree. Then, of course, as the alligator couldn't climb a tree he couldn't get the monkey. The skillery-scallery creature tried to eat the hand organ, and he tried to play it, but he could do neither. Then he got real angry. "I'll chase after Uncle Wiggily and eat him!" he cried out, for by this time the rabbit was hopping along down the road. After him went the 'gator, coming nearer and nearer. "Stop! Stop! I want you!" cried the alligator to the rabbit. "I know you do, but you can't have me!" replied the rabbit. "I don't want to be eaten up!" So he ran on as fast as he could, but still the alligator came on after him, and the savage beast was almost up to Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, if I only had some place to hide!" panted the poor rabbit. "Then maybe the alligator would pass me by." So he looked around for a place in which to hide, but just then he found himself in a field, and all that he could see were a whole lot of sunflowers growing near a fence. "Oh, I can't hide behind those flowers because the stems are so small around," thought Uncle Wiggily. "And I can't climb up them, and sit on the big flower, because I can't climb, and besides the stems are too slender to hold me up. Oh, what shall I do?" Well, the alligator was coming nearer and nearer, and the rabbit could hear the gnashing of his teeth, when, all at once one of the sunflowers called out. "Gnaw through my stem, and cut me down, Uncle Wiggily. Then you can hold my big blossom up in front of you and the alligator can't see you." "But won't it hurt you to cut you down?" asked the rabbit. "No, for I will grow up again next year," said the big sunflower. "Hurry and cut me down, and hide behind me, and I'll shine in the eyes of the alligator and blind him." So Uncle Wiggily quickly gnawed through the sunflower stalk with his sharp teeth, and down the flower came. Then the rabbit held the blossom up in front of himself, and hid behind it, and the yellow flower, which is round, just like the sun, shone so brightly into the alligator's face that he couldn't look out of his eyes, and so he was partly blinded, and he couldn't see to catch Uncle Wiggily, and he had to crawl away without eating the rabbit. Then Uncle Wiggily thanked the sunflower, and laid it gently down, and hopped on his way again to seek his fortune. And the story after this, in case the washbowl and pitcher don't do a funny dance in the middle of the night and wake up my puppy dog, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the lightning bugs. STORY XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LIGHTNING BUG It was a very warm day, and as Uncle Wiggily walked along, carrying his satchel, and sort of leaning on his crutch, for his rheumatism hurt him a bit, he said: "It is very hard to have to look for your fortune on a hot day, I wish it was nice and cool, and then I would feel better." "I can tell you where there is a cool place," said a little yellow bird, as she flew along in the air over the head of the old gentleman rabbit. "Do you mean in an icehouse?" asked the traveling rabbit as he took off his hat to see if the sun had burned it any. "No, but of course that is a cold place," said the bird, as she sang a funny little song about a curly-headed dog who hadn't any nose and every time he walked along he stepped upon his toes. "But I don't mean an icehouse," went on the bird, as she turned her head to one side. "However, I know a nice cool place in the woods where you can lie down and have a little sleep. By that time the hot sun will go down behind the clouds, and then you can travel on in comfort." "I believe that will be a good plan," spoke the rabbit. "I'll do it. Please show me the way to the cool place." So the bird flew on ahead, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on behind, and pretty soon he came to a place in the woods where there was a little babbling brook, flowing over mossy green stones, and telling them secrets about the fishes that swam in the cool water. Then there were long, green ferns leaning over, and nodding their heads as they dipped down to take a drink out of the brook. There was also a nice little cave, made of stones, and that was almost as cool as an icehouse. "Oh, this will be just fine for me!" exclaimed the rabbit, as he hopped inside the stone cave. "I'll go to sleep here." So he stretched out on a pile of leaves, and the little yellow bird began to sing a sleepy song. This is how it went, to the tune "Lum-tum-tum tiddily-iddily-um:" "Sleep, Uncle Wiggily, sleep. Don't open your eyes to peep. I'll sing you a song, That's not very long. It's not sad, so please do not weep." Well, as true as I'm telling you, before she had sung more than forty-'leven verses the old gentleman rabbit was fast, fast asleep, and, no matter how hot the sun shone down, Uncle Wiggily was nice and cool. Well, pretty soon, in a little while, a savage, bad hawk-bird flew down from high in the air, where he had seen the little yellow bird sitting on the tree, near the cave, where the rabbit was sleeping. And the hawk made a dash for the yellow bird, and would have eaten her up only the bird flew quickly away and hid in a hollow stump, and that hawk was so mad that he bit a leaf off a tree and tore it into three pieces--the leaf, I mean, not the tree. Well, after that the yellow bird didn't dare stay near the cave, for the hawk was on the watch to catch her, and, of course, Uncle Wiggily had no one to awaken him when it was cool enough for him to travel on and seek his fortune. He slept and he slept, and then he slept a little more, and all of a sudden he awakened and it was nearly night. My! how he did jump up then and rub his eyes with his paws, and he couldn't think, for a minute or so, just where he was. "Oh, now I remember!" he exclaimed. "I'm in the cave. Oh, dear me! but it's coming on night. The yellow bird must have forgotten to wake me up. I wonder what I shall do?" So he went out of the cave to look for the bird, but he couldn't find her. The savage hawk was there, however, but when he saw Uncle Wiggily and noted how brave he was, even if he did have the rheumatism, that hawk just gnashed his beak and flew away. Then it got darker and darker, and poor Uncle Wiggily didn't know what to do, for he didn't know whether or not it would be safe to stay in the cave. "A bear might come along and eat me," he thought. "This cave might be a bear's den. I guess I will travel ahead and look for some other place where I can spend the night. But I don't like traveling in the dark." However, there was no help for it, so the old gentleman rabbit, after eating a lettuce sandwich, took up his satchel, grasped his crutch firmly, and started away. He traveled on through the woods, and it kept getting darker and darker, until at last Uncle Wiggily couldn't see anything in front of him but just blackness. "Oh, this will never do!" he cried. "I can't go on this way. If I only had a lantern it would be all right." Then, all at once, he heard a sort of growling noise in the bushes, and then he heard a sniffing-snuffling noise, and pretty soon a voice cried: "Oh, ha! Oh, hum! I smell fresh rabbit. Now, I will have a good supper!" "That must be a savage bear or a fox!" cried the rabbit. "I guess this is the last of me!" Then he saw two round circles shining in the darkness, two flashing, bright, shining things, and he was more frightened than ever. "Oh, those are the glaring eyes of the fox or bear!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I'm done for, sure!" Then something made a jump for him, out of the bushes, but the rabbit crouched down, and the beast jumped over him. Then, would you ever believe it? those two shining things flew nearer, and instead of being the eyes of a fox or bear they were two, good, kind, lightning bugs, who were flitting about. "Oh, you'll be a lantern for me, won't you?" cried the rabbit, anxiously. "Will you please light me out of these woods, and keep the savage beasts away?" "Of course, we will!" cried the two lightning bugs. And they flew closer to the rabbit. Then the savage fox, for he it was who had made a jump for Uncle Wiggily, was so afraid of the sparkling lights, that he ran away and hid in the bushes, fearing he would be burned. Then the two bugs called for all of their friends to come and make the woods light so the old gentleman rabbit could see. And pretty soon seventeen thousand, four hundred and eighty-three big lightning bugs, and a little baby one besides, came flying along, and the woods were almost as light as day, and Uncle Wiggily could see to hop on. The bugs flew ahead, shining themselves like fairy lanterns, and pretty soon the rabbit came to a nice hollow stump, where he remained all night. And some of the bugs stayed with him to keep the bears and foxes away. Then, in the morning, after thanking the bugs, the rabbit traveled on again, and he had another adventure. What it was I'll tell you on the next page, when, in case my pussy cat goes in swimming and doesn't get her fur wet, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the Phoebe birds. STORY XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PHOEBE BIRDS "Well, I don't seem to be finding my fortune very fast," said Uncle Wiggily to himself the next day, as he traveled on, after the lightning bugs had shown him the way out of the woods. "Here I've been tramping around the country for a considerable while, and all I've found was one cent, and that belonged to the chipmunk. "I wish I could find a little money. Then I would buy some peanuts and sell them, and make more money, and pretty soon I would be rich, and I could go back home and see Sammie and Susie Littletail." So he walked along, looking very carefully on the ground for money. All he found for some time were only old acorns, and, as he couldn't eat them, they were of no use to him. "If Johnnie or Billie Bushytail were here now I would give them some," he said. But the squirrels were far away frisking about in the tops. Now, as true as I'm telling you, a moment after that, just as Uncle Wiggily was going past a big stone, he saw something bright and shining in the leaves. "Oh, good luck!" he cried. "I've found ten cents, and that will buy two bags of peanuts. Now I'll get rich!" So he picked up the shining thing, and oh! how disappointed he was, for it was only a round piece of tin, such as they make penny whistles of. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Fooled again! Well, all I can do is to keep on." He went on a little farther, until he came to a place where there were a whole lot of prickly briar bushes, with red berries growing on them. "Oh, ho!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Some of those berries will do for my dinner, as I'm getting hungry. I'll pick a few." He was just going to pick some of the berries, when he happened to notice a big, red thing, like a red flannel bag, standing wide open near a hole in the bushes. And in front of the red place was a sign, which said: "Come in, one and all. Everybody welcome." "It looks very nice in there," thought the rabbit. "Perhaps it is the opening of a circus tent. I'm going in, for I haven't seen a show in some time. And, maybe, my friend, the elephant, will be in there." Uncle Wiggily was just going to hop into the funny red opening that had the sign on it, when a little ant came crawling along, carrying a small loaf of bread. "Hello, Uncle Wiggily," said the ant. "Where are you going?" "I am going inside this red circus tent," said the rabbit. "Won't you come in with me? I'll buy you a ticket." "Oh, never go in there--don't you do it!" cried the ant, and she got so excited that she nearly dropped her loaf of bread. "That is not a circus tent; it is only the skillery-scalery-tailery alligator, and he has opened his mouth wide hoping some one will come in, so he can have a meal. Don't go in." "I won't," said Uncle Wiggily, quickly as he hopped away, and then he took up a stone and tossed it into the red mouth of the scalery-tailery-wailery alligator. The alligator shut his jaws very quickly, thinking he had something good to eat, but he only bit on the stone, and he was so angry that he lashed out with his tail and nearly knocked over a hickory-nut tree. Then the ant crawled home, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on out of danger and the alligator opened his mouth again, hoping some foolish animal would walk into the trap he had all ready for them. Well, in a little while after that, as the old gentleman rabbit was going along under the big tree, all of a sudden he heard a voice calling, rather sadly and sweetly: "Phoebe! Phoebe!" "My goodness, that must be some little lost girl named Phoebe, and her sister is calling for her," he thought. "I wonder if I could help find her?" For, you know, Uncle Wiggily was just as kind as he could be, and always wanting to help some one. Then he heard the voice again: "Phoebe! Phoebe!" "Where are you?" asked the rabbit. "I'll help you hunt for your sister Phoebe. Where are you, little girl?" But the voice only called again: "Phoebe! Phoebe!" "I guess she can't hear me," said the rabbit. "I'll shout more loudly." So he cried out at the top of his voice: "I'll help you find Phoebe. Tell me where you are, and we'll go off together to hunt for her." But this time the calling voice was farther off, though still the rabbit could hear it saying: "Phoebe! Phoebe!" "My goodness me, sakes alive, and a bottle of stove polish! I can't make this out," said Uncle Wiggily. "That little girl is so worried about her lost sister that she doesn't pay any attention to me. But I'll help her just the same." So he hopped on toward where he heard the voice calling, and pretty soon, believe me, he heard two voices. One cried out: "Phoebe! Phoebe!" And the other one called just the same, only a little more slowly, like this: "Phoe-be! Phoe-be!" "Now, there are two of her sisters calling for the lost one," said the rabbit. "They must be very much worried about Phoebe. Perhaps a bear has eaten her. That would be dreadful! I must help them!" So he hopped on through the woods, faster than ever, crying out: "I'm coming! I'm coming! Old Uncle Wiggily is going to help you find Phoebe." And then, would you believe me, Uncle Wiggily heard seven voices, all calling at once: "Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe!" "Oh, now the whole family is after that lost child," said the rabbit. "I had better go for a policeman." And then he happened to look up, and he saw a whole lot of little birds sitting on a tree, and each one was calling: "Phoebe!" just like that. Really I'm not fooling a bit; honestly. "Oh my! How surprised I am!" cried the rabbit. "Was that you birds calling for the little lost girl?" "It was," said the largest bird, "but there isn't any lost girl. You see we are Phoebe birds, and that is the way we always sing. We always say 'Phoebe--Phoebe' over and over again. We didn't mean to fool you. It's only our way of calling." "Oh, that's all right," said the rabbit. "I don't mind. It was good exercise for me to run after you." Well, those birds liked Uncle Wiggily so much that they sang their prettiest for him, and asked him to stay to dinner, which he did. And he had chocolate cake with candied carrots on top. And that's all to this story, if you please, but in case a red bird brings me some green flower seeds to plant in my garden so I can grow some lollypops, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the milkman. STORY XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MILKMAN Well, now I guess we're all ready for the story of the chicken who tried to roll an egg up hill, and it fell down, and was broken into forty-'leven pieces and the monkey--Oh dear! Did you ever hear of such a thing? I guess I must have turned over two pages in the story book instead of one, for to-night I'm going to tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the milkman, and not about the chicken and the egg at all. That comes in later. Let's see then, we left the old gentleman rabbit just after he had met the Phoebe birds, didn't we? Well, a few days after that, as Uncle Wiggily was hopping along with the elephant, who had come back to him again, now and then, when he was tired, taking a ride on the back of the big fellow, all of a sudden they heard a voice crying: "Ah, ha! Now I have you!" "My! What's that?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "It must be somebody after us," answered the elephant. "But don't you be afraid, Uncle Wiggily, I'll take care of you, and not let them hurt you. Just get behind me." So the rabbit got behind the big elephant, and, would you believe it? you couldn't see Uncle Wiggily at all, not even if you were to put on the strongest kind of spectacles, such as Grandma wears. For he was hidden behind the elephant. Then, in another moment a man with a long rope came bursting through the bushes, and he ran straight toward the elephant. "Now I have you!" cried the man again. "You must come right back to the circus with me." "Oh, it's you they want, and not me," remarked Uncle Wiggily, and then he wasn't afraid any more, and felt better, for he knew that he could still travel on and seek his fortune. "Yes, they're after me," said the elephant sadly. "I guess I'll have to leave you, Uncle Wiggily. Do you want me to go with you, Mr. Man?" "Yes, we want you back in the circus show." "Will I have all the peanuts I want?" asked the elephant. "Oh, yes," promised the man, "you may have a bushel and a pint every day, besides a pailful of pink lemonade." "Then I'll come," said the elephant, "though I would like to have Uncle Wiggily come also. But he still has his fortune to find. Come and see me some time," he called to the rabbit. "I will," said Uncle Wiggily. Then the man tied a rope around the elephant's trunk and led him away, and the big fellow waved and flapped his ears at the rabbit to say good-by. "Now I must travel all alone once more," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he hopped on through the woods. "And I do hope I find part of my fortune to-day, even if it's only ten cents' worth." Well, he was passing across a nice green field a little while after that when, all of a sudden, he heard some voices talking. He looked all around, but he couldn't see any one, and he wondered if perhaps there were fairies about. Then he heard a voice say: "Now, children, hop just as I do. Take a long breath and then hop, and be very careful where you go." Then Uncle Wiggily looked down in the grass, and he saw a mamma hoptoad and a whole lot of her little toads hopping along. The mamma toad was giving the little ones their morning lesson. And I just wish you could have seen how nicely those tiny toads could hop. One little chap, named Sylvester, hopped over a big stone, and his little sister, named Clarabella, leaped over a stick with a nail in it and didn't get hurt a bit. "Ha! That is very good hopping! Very fine, indeed!" cried Uncle Wiggily, waving his ears back and forth. "I could hardly do better myself." "Oh, it's very kind of you to say so," said the mamma toad. "Now, children, give a big hop for Uncle Wiggily." Well, they all took long breaths, and they were just going to hop when the old gentleman rabbit suddenly called: "Look out! Hold on! Don't jump!" They all stopped quickly, and the mamma toad wanted to know what was the matter. "Why, there is a big cow walking along," said the rabbit, for he could see over the top of the grass better than could the toads, and could watch the big cow coming. "If that cow stepped on you, why, you would never hop again," said the rabbit, and then he led the toads out of danger. "Oh, I'm ever so much obliged to you," said the mamma toad to the rabbit. "You saved our lives." Then she had all the little toads thank the old gentleman rabbit, and the mamma toad asked him to come to her house for dinner. Uncle Wiggily went, but the toad's house was so small that he couldn't get in, until he had made it bigger by scratching away some of the dirt around the front door. Then he had a very good dinner, and he stayed all night at the toad family's house and watched the little ones hop some more, and he and the papa toad talked about the weather. Well, in the morning when Uncle Wiggily got up and washed his face and paws, and combed out his whiskers, he suddenly heard all the little toads crying. "Hum! Suz! Dud!" he exclaimed, "some of them must have the toothache." So he went down stairs, and there all the toad family were sitting around the breakfast table, but they weren't eating. "What's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sadly-like. "Why," said the papa toad, "the milkman hasn't come, and the children have no milk for their oatmeal, and I have none for my coffee, and I'm in a hurry to get down to the store where I work." "That's too bad," said the rabbit. "Can't you use condensed milk?" "We haven't any," spoke the mamma toad. [Illustration] "Well, I'll hop out and see if I can see the milkman coming," said the rabbit, "for I can see a long distance." So he went out and he hopped up and down the street, and he looked up and down, but no milkman could he see. And the little toads were getting hungrier and hungrier every minute and they cried a lot, yes, indeed! "This is too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess that milkman must be lost. What can I do? Ah, I have it!" and away he hopped off toward the green fields. Pretty soon he came to where the cow, who had nearly walked on the toads, was eating grass, and, stepping up to her, Uncle Wiggily politely asked: "Will you please give me some milk for the toads?" "To be sure I will," said the cow, kindly, "and I'm sorry I nearly stepped on them yesterday." So she gave Uncle Wiggily a canful of fresh milk, for the rabbit had brought the milk can out with him. Then Uncle Wiggily hopped to the toadhouse as fast as he could, and the little toads had milk for their breakfast, and didn't cry any more. Then, after a while, the milkman (who was a big puppy dog) came along and said he was sorry he was late, but he couldn't help it, because he had stepped on a thorn and had a lame foot and couldn't go fast, so they forgave him. "Well, I'll travel along now, I guess," said Uncle Wiggily, and once more he started off to seek his fortune. And if you don't let your bathing suit fall into the water and get all wet, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily's swimming lesson. STORY XXI UNCLE WIGGILY'S SWIMMING LESSON Uncle Wiggily was so tired and worn out after running for milk for the toad family that he couldn't travel very far that day to seek his fortune. He slept that night in a doghouse, where a kind puppy named Towser lived, and Towser covered the old gentleman rabbit up with leaves and straw and kept watch so that no one would hurt him. "For I have heard about you from Percival, the old circus dog," said Towser, the next morning when the rabbit awakened, "and I feel quite like a friend to you. Will you gnaw one of my juicy bones?" "No, thank you," said Uncle Wiggily, "but if I had a bit of carrot I would be very glad." "Don't say another word!" cried Towser. "I will have it for you in less than two shakes of a crooked stick, or a straight one, either." So he ran out into the vegetable garden, and, very carefully he dug up a fine yellow carrot, which Uncle Wiggily ate for his breakfast. Then the rabbit rested all that day, and stayed another night with Towser. And Towser invited some of his friends over to call on the rabbit, and they had quite an evening's entertainment. Towser sang a funny song and stood on his tail, and Uncle Wiggily jumped over two chairs and a footstool, and a dog named Rover stood up on his hind legs and begged, and made believe he was a soldier with a broom for a gun, and did lots of tricks like that. Well, the next day Uncle Wiggily felt well enough to go on with his travels again and so he started off. "I will go part of the way with you," said Towser, "to see that no harm comes to you." "Thank you, very much," said the rabbit, and so they set off together, the puppy dog carrying Uncle Wiggily's valise for him. Pretty soon, not so very long, they came to a pond of water, and as soon as Towser saw it, he cried out: "Oh, it is such a hot day I think I'll jump in and have a swim. Come on, Uncle Wiggily, have a swim with me." "Oh, no, I can't swim," said the old gentleman rabbit. "What! You can't swim?" cried the dog. "Well, every one ought to swim, for when they go on their vacation if they fall in the water they won't drown if they know how to keep themselves up. Watch me and see how easy it is." So Towser set the satchel down on the bank and, taking off some of his clothes, into the water he jumped with a big splashy dive. Right down under the water he disappeared. "Oh, he'll be drowned, sure!" cried Uncle Wiggily, who was much frightened. But, no. In a second up came Towser, shaking the water from his hair and eyes, and then he began swimming around as easily as a chicken can pick up corn. "Come on in, Uncle Wiggily," he called. "The water is fine." "Oh, I'm afraid!" said the rabbit. "Then the first thing to do is to get so you are not afraid of the water," said the dog. "You needn't be. Just see; it will hold you up easily if you go at it right. Just keep your nose out, and don't splutter and splash too much and you can swim. Come in and I will give you a lesson." So Uncle Wiggily got in the water. At first it took his breath away, but after a bit he got used to it, and he found that he could wade away far out. Then he tried holding his breath and ducking his head away under, and he found that he could do that and not be harmed in the least, and at last he got so he wasn't afraid at all in the water. "Now for a lesson," said the puppy dog. "You must wade out so that the water is up to your neck, and then you face toward shore, so you won't be frightened. Then you just lean forward, gently and easily, and you kick out with your legs like a frog, and you wave your hands around from in front of you to your sides, and keep on doing that and you'll swim." "I'll try it," said the rabbit. So he tried it, but, all of a sudden, he cried out: "Ouch! Oh, my! Oh, dear me! Oh, hum, suz dud!" "What's the matter," asked the dog, looking around. "A fish bit my toe," exclaimed the rabbit. "Oh, I guess you only hit it on a stone," said Towser. "Fish are too frightened to bite any one. Come on, strike out and swim as I do." Then Uncle Wiggily wasn't afraid, and soon he was swimming as nicely as could be. For you know to swim you must first not be a bit afraid of the water, for it can't hurt you. If ever you fall in, don't breathe--just hold your breath as long as you can. Then, pretty soon you'll come up, and if some one doesn't grab you, and you go under again, hold your breath until you come up once more and then some one will surely grab you. "You must never breathe under water--just hold your breath," said Towser to Uncle Wiggily, and the rabbit did it that way, and soon he could even swim under water. "Well, I'm much obliged to you," he said to Towser, "but now I must be on my way to seek my fortune." So he said good-by to Towser and hopped on. And he hadn't gone very far before a big bear saw him and chased after him. "Oh, I'll catch you!" cried the bear to the rabbit. Well, I just wish you could have seen Uncle Wiggily run! He ran until he came to a big river, and the bear was right after him. "Now I have you!" cried the bear. "You can't get across the river." "Oh, can't I?" asked the rabbit. "Just you watch and see!" So Uncle Wiggily threw his crutch and valise across the stream, and then into it he jumped, and he swam just as Towser had taught him and he got safely on the other side and so saved his life, for the bear couldn't swim and Uncle Wiggily could. So you see it's a good thing to know how to swim, and I hope all of you, who are big enough, know how to keep up in the water. Well, Uncle Wiggily got across to the other shore, and he looked back and there that bear was raging and tearing around as mad as mad could be, because the rabbit had gotten away from him. But I'm glad of it; aren't you? Now I have another story for you, and, in case my typewriter doesn't fall in the lake and the fishes don't eat up the hair ribbon on it, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily in the bear's den. STORY XXII UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE BEAR'S DEN Well, here we are again, all ready for a story, I suppose, and I hope you had a nice time at the surprise party. Let me see now, what shall I tell you about? How would you like to hear about the old gentleman rabbit and the toadstool? Oh, my! I just happened to remember that I promised to write about Uncle Wiggily getting into the bear's den, so of course I'll have to tell about that first, and afterward I'll write the story about the toadstool. I'll tell you this much, however, the toadstool story is very curious, if I do say so myself. Anyhow, Uncle Wiggily was hopping along one fine morning, following a stormy night, and he was thinking about the swimming lesson he had had a few days before. "I wonder if I have forgotten how to move my legs, and go skimming through the water?" he said to himself as he set down his valise, and leaned his crutch against a prickly briar bush. "I must practice a little." And the old gentleman rabbit did practice then and there, going through all the motions of swimming, only he was on dry land, of course. Next he twinkled his nose, like a star on a very hot night, when you drink iced lemonade to keep cool, and then Uncle Wiggily hopped forward once more. He hadn't gone very far before he noticed a grasshopper moving along so swiftly that the old gentleman rabbit could hardly see the legs go flip-flap. My, but that grasshopper did hippity-hop! "Hold on there, if you please!" called Uncle Wiggily. "What is your hurry. Are you late for school?" "There is no school now," said the grasshopper, as he sat on a daisy flower, "but I am hopping along to get out of danger." "Danger? What danger is there around here?" asked the rabbit. "Do you see a fox, or anything like that?" "No, but don't you hear that dreadful noise?" asked the grasshopper. "Listen, and you will hear it. It scared me so that I went away as fast as I could." So Uncle Wiggily listened, and sure enough he heard, away off in the woods, a voice shouting: "Help! Help! Help! Oh, won't some one please help me, or I'll be killed!" "There, did you hear it?" asked the grasshopper, as he shivered and got ready to flit away again, "he said he was going to kill us." "Oh, no! Nonsense!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That is some poor animal caught in a trap, and he's afraid of being killed himself. I'm going to see who it is. Perhaps it is a friend of mine." "Oh, no! Don't you go!" begged the grasshopper. "For it may be the alligator with the skillery-scalery-railery tail." "Oh, preposterous!" cried Uncle Wiggily, who sometimes used big words when he was excited. "I'm not afraid. I'm going to help whoever it is, and, perhaps, in that way I may find my fortune." So the grasshopper, who was very much frightened, flew on, and the rabbit hopped toward where he could hear the voice still calling for help. And whom do you s'pose it was? Why, the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine was caught fast in a trap, and he was calling for help as loudly as he could call. "Oh, I'm so glad you came along," said the porcupine to Uncle Wiggily. "Please help me to get my leg out of this trap." "Of course I will," said the rabbit, and with his crutch he pried open the trap, and set free the nice little second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine. "Oh, how thankful I am to you," said the porcupine, as he limped away. "If ever I can do you a favor I will." And, would you believe it? the time was soon to come when that porcupine was to save Uncle Wiggily's life. Well, the old gentleman rabbit hopped on, looking all over for his fortune, but he couldn't seem to find it anywhere until, all of a sudden, as he was walking along by some big stones, he saw something shining, and picking it up, he found he had a silver twenty-five-cent piece. "Oh, my goodness me, sakes alive and a piece of cherry pie!" cried the rabbit. "I've found part of my fortune! I'll have good luck now, and perhaps I can find more." So the rabbit looked all about in among the stones for other money. But he didn't find any, and pretty soon he came to a place where there was a hole down in between the big rocks. "Perhaps there is more money down there," said the rabbit. "I'll take a look." He leaned over, and looked down, and then--Oh, how sorry I am that I have to tell it, but I do, all of a sudden Uncle Wiggily fell right down that black hole. Right down into it he fell, and he landed at the bottom with such a bump that he nearly broke his spectacles. At first it was so dark that he couldn't make out anything, but in a little while he could see something big and black and shaggy coming toward him, and a grillery-growlery voice called out: "Who's there? Who dares to come into my den?" "It is only I," said the rabbit. "I'm Uncle Wiggily Longears, and I came in here by mistake. I was looking for my fortune." "Ah, ha!" cried the bear, for the shaggy creature with the grillery-growlery voice was a bear. "Ah, ha! That is a different story. I am very glad you dropped in to see me, Mr. Longears. I was just wondering what I'd have for my dinner, and now I know--it is going to be rabbit stew, and you are going to be stewed," and the bear opened the dining-room shutters so he could see to eat the rabbit. "Oh, how can you be so cruel to me?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I only came in here by mistake. I found twenty-five cents, and I was looking for more." "Found twenty-five cents, did you, eh?" cried the bear, savage-like. "Give it to me at once! I lost that, it's my money!" And he took the twenty-five-cent piece right away from Uncle Wiggily. Then the bear was just going to eat up the nice old gentleman rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily didn't know how to get away, and he was feeling most dreadful, when, all of a sudden, a voice sharply cried: "Here, you let my friend Uncle Wiggily alone," and then some one scrambled down through the top hole of the bear's den. "Who are you?" asked the shaggy creature with the grillery-growlery voice, and the bear gnashed his teeth. "I'm the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine," was the answer, "and I'm going to save my rabbit friend." And with that the porcupine took out a whole handful of his stickery-ickery quills, like toothpicks, and he stuck them right into the soft and tender nose of that bad bear. And the stickery-ickery quills so tickled the bear and hurt him that he nearly sneezed his head off, and tears came into his eyes. "Now's our time! Come on, let's get away from here!" cried the porcupine to the rabbit, and up out of the bear's den they scrambled, and got safely away before the bear had finished his sneezing. "Oh, you saved my life," said Uncle Wiggily to the prickly porcupine, "and I thank you very much." Then they traveled on together, and they had an adventure the next day. What it was I'll tell you soon, when, in case the boys who go in swimming don't duck my typewriter under water and make it catch the measles, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the toadstool. STORY XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TOADSTOOL "Were you much frightened when you were in the bear's den?" asked the prickly porcupine as he and Uncle Wiggily went along the road next day. They had slept that night in a hole where an old fox used to live, but just then he was away on his summer vacation at Asbury Park, and so he wasn't home. "Was I frightened?" repeated the old gentleman rabbit, as he looked to see if there was any mud on his crutch, "why I was so scared that my heart almost stopped beating. But I'm glad you happened to come along, and that you stuck your stickery-ickery quills into the bear's nose. It was very lucky that you chanced to come past the den." "Oh, I did it on purpose," said the porcupine. "After you got me out of the trap, and I scurried away, I happened to think that you might go past the bear's house, so I hurried after you, and--well, I'm glad that I did." [Illustration] "So am I," said the rabbit. "Will you have a bit of my carrot sandwich?" "I don't mind if I do," said the porcupine, polite-like, so he and the rabbit traveler ate the carrot sandwiches as they walked along. "Well, I don't believe I'm ever going to find my fortune," said Uncle Wiggily sadly. "I began to have hopes, when I picked up the twenty-five-cent piece, but now the bear has that and I have nothing. Oh, I certainly am very unlucky." "Never mind," said the porcupine, "I'll help you look." But even with the sharp eyes, and the sharp, stickery-ickery quills of the hedgehog, Uncle Wiggily couldn't find his fortune. But it is a good thing the old gentleman rabbit had company, for as they were walking along under some trees, all of a sudden a big snake hissed at them, like a coffee-pot boiling over. And then the snake uncoiled himself and tried to grab the rabbit by the ears. "Here! That will never do!" cried the porcupine, and then and there, without even stopping to take off his necktie, that brave creature stuck twenty-seven and a half stickery-stockery-stackery quills into the snake, and then that snake was glad enough to crawl away. Oh, my, yes, and a basketful of soap bubbles besides! Well, it wasn't long after that before it was dinner time, and the two friends sat down in a place where there were a lot of toadstools to eat their lunch. They sat on the low toadstools, and the higher ones they used for tables, each one having a toadstool table for himself, just like in a restaurant. "Now, this is what I call real jolly," said the porcupine, as he ate his third piece of hickory-nut pie with carrot sauce on it. "Yes, it is real nice," said the rabbit. "After all, it isn't so bad to go hunting for your fortune when you have company, but it's not so much fun all alone." Well, the two friends were just finishing their meal, and they were getting ready to travel on, when, all at once, there was a terrible crashing sound in the bushes, just as if some one was breaking them all to pieces. "My! What's that?" asked the porcupine, preparing to pull out some more of his stickery-ickery quills. "It sounds like the elephant," said the rabbit, as he looked around for a safe place in which to hide in case it should happen to be the bear coming after him. "Oh, if it's the elephant, we don't have to worry. He is a friend of ours," said the porcupine. Well, the crashing in the bushes still kept up, and then before you could tickle your pussy cat under the chin-chopper, there burst out of the middle of a prickly briar bush a great big alligator--the same one who once before had tried to catch Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, look!" cried the porcupine. "He's after us." "Indeed, I am!" exclaimed the 'gator. "I'll have a fine meal in about a minute. I'll pull all your quills out, and eat you with strawberry sauce on; prickly porcupine." "Oh, don't you let him do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Stick some of your quills in him, and make him go away, Mr. Porcupine." "It wouldn't do any good," said the porcupine. "You see, the alligator has such a thick skin on him that even a bullet will hardly go through, so my quills won't hurt him. I guess we had better run away." Well, they started to run away, but the 'gator, with his skillery-scalery tail, chased after them, and he could go very quickly, too, let me tell you. Right after Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine the alligator raced, and he almost caught both of them. Then the porcupine saw a hole just big enough for him to squeeze down, but not big enough for the alligator to come after. Down into this hole jumped the prickly porcupine, and he was safe, but there was no hole for Uncle Wiggily to hide in, and the alligator was close after him. "Jump up on a toadstool, and maybe he can't get you!" called the porcupine, sticking the end of his nose out of the hole. "I will!" cried the rabbit, and up on top of the biggest toadstool he landed with a jump. "Oh, I can easily get you off there!" yelled the alligator, savage-like. "I'll have you down in a minute." He reached up with his claws to get the rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily got right in the middle of the toadstool, as far away as he could, but it wasn't very far. The alligator's claws almost had him, when all of a sudden that toadstool quickly began to grow up tall. Taller and taller it grew, for toadstools grow very fast you know. Higher and higher it went, like an elevator, taking Uncle Wiggily up with it. "Oh, now I'm safe!" cried the rabbit, for he was quite high in the air by this time. "No, you're not. I'll get you yet!" cried the alligator, as he reared up on the end of his skillery-scalery tail. He made a grab for the rabbit, but the kind toadstool at once grew itself up as tall as the church steeple, with Uncle Wiggily still on top, and then, of course, the alligator couldn't reach him. "Oh, now I'm safe, but how ever am I going to get down?" thought the rabbit, for the alligator was still there. But, in another minute, along came a policeman dog, and with his club he made that alligator run away back to the swamp where he belonged. Then the toadstool began to get smaller and smaller, and it sank down close to the ground again and lowered the rabbit just like on an elevator in a store, and Uncle Wiggily was safe on earth once more. And he was very thankful to the toadstool, which grew up so quickly just in time. "Well, we'd better get along once more," said Uncle Wiggily to the prickly porcupine, after he had thanked the dog-policeman. So the two friends set off together through the woods, and the next day something else happened to them. I'll tell you what it was on the next page, when, in case the iceman brings me some hot chocolate to put on my bread and butter, the bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the chickie. STORY XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHICKIE "Well, what shall we do to-day?" asked the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine, as he crawled out of his bed of dried leaves, and looked over to where Uncle Wiggily was washing his whiskers. "Are we going to travel some more?" "Oh, yes," answered the old gentleman rabbit, "we must still keep on, for I have yet to find my fortune." "What are you going to do with your fortune when you find it?" asked the porcupine. "Will you buy a million ice cream cones with the money?" "Oh, my goodness sakes alive, and a pot of mustard, no!" replied Uncle Wiggily. "If I ate as many cones as that I would have indigestion, as well as rheumatism. When I find my fortune I am going back home, and I'll buy something for Sammie and Susie Littletail, and for Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and for all my other animal friends, including Grandfather Goosey Gander. That's what I'll do when I find my fortune." "Very good," said the porcupine, and then he got up and washed his face and paws. And he wiped them on the towel after the old gentleman rabbit, instead of before him, for you see when the porcupine soaked up the water off his face he left some of his stickery-stockery quills sticking in the towel, and if Uncle Wiggily had used it then he might have been scratched. But, as it was, the rabbit didn't even get tickled, and very glad of it he was, too. Oh, my, yes, and some pepper hash in addition. Well, Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine had their breakfast and then they started off. They hadn't gone very far before they met a locust sitting on the low limb of a tree. And this locust was buzzing his wings like an electric fan, and making more noise than you could shake your handkerchief at on a Tuesday morning. "Why do you do that?" asked the rabbit. "To keep myself cool," said the locust. "I am fanning myself with my buzzy wings for it is going to be a very hot day." "Then we must keep in the shade as we travel along," said the porcupine, and that is what he and the old gentleman rabbit did. And it is a good thing they did so, for, as they walked along where it was cool and dark, beneath clumps of ferns, and under big, tall trees, they passed by a place where a bad snake lived. "Look out! There's the snake's hole!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and he jumped to one side. "Ha! I'm ready for him!" called the porcupine, and he got some of his stickery quills ready to jab into the snake. But the snake was out on a big rock, sunning himself in the hot sun, though when he heard the rabbit and porcupine talking he made a jump for them and tried to catch them. But you see they were in the cool shadows, and the snake's eyes were blinded by the sun, so he could not see very well, and thus the rabbit and his friend escaped. "I tell you it is a good thing we heard the locust sing, and that we kept in the shade, or else we might have stepped right on that snake and he'd have bitten and killed us," said the porcupine, and Uncle Wiggily said that this was true. Well, they kept on and on, and pretty soon they sat down in the shade of a mulberry tree and ate their lunch. Then they rested a bit, and in the afternoon they traveled on farther. And, just as they were passing by a large, gray rock, that had nice, green moss on it, all of a sudden they heard something calling like this: "Cheep! Cheep! Chip-cheep-cheep! Oh, cheep! Peep! Peep!" "What's that?" asked Uncle Wiggily in a whisper. "I don't know. Maybe a burglar fox," answered the porcupine also, in a whisper. "But I'm all ready for him." So he got out some of his sharpest stickery quills to jab into the burglar fox, and the noise still kept up: "Cheep! Cheep! Yip! Yip! Yap! Yap! Cheep-chap!" "That doesn't sound like a fox," said the rabbit, listening with his two ears. "No, it doesn't," admitted the porcupine, and he stuck his quills back again like pins in a cushion. "Perhaps it is the skillery-scalery alligator, and my quills would be of no use against him," he went on. Then, all at once, before Uncle Wiggily could make his nose twinkle like a star of a frosty night more than two times, there was a rustling in the bushes, and out popped a poor, little white chickie--only she wasn't so very white now, for her feathers were all wet and muddy. "Cheep-chap! Yip-yap!" cried the little chickie. "Why, what in the world are you doing away off here?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "You poor little dear! Where is your mother?" "Oh, me! Oh, my!" cried the little chickie. "I only wish I knew. I'm lost! I wandered away from my mamma, and my brothers, and sisters, and I'm lost in these woods. Oh chip! Oh chap! Oh yip! Oh yap!" Then she cried real hard and the tears washed some of the dirt off her white feathers. "Don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "We'll help you find your mamma, won't we, Mr. Porcupine?" "Of course we will," said the stickery-stockery creature. "You go one way, Uncle Wiggily, and I'll go the other, and the chickie can stay on this big rock until one of us comes back with her mamma." "Yes, and here is a piece of cherry pie for you to eat while we are gone," said the rabbit, giving the lost chickie a nice piece of the pie. So off the rabbit and the porcupine started to find the chickie's mamma. They looked everywhere for her, but the porcupine couldn't find the old lady hen, so he went back to the rock to wait there with the lost chickie so she wouldn't be lonesome. But Uncle Wiggily wouldn't stop looking. Pretty soon he heard something going "cluck-cluck" in the bushes, and he knew that it was the mamma hen. Then he went up to her and said: "Oh, I know where your little lost chickie is." Well, at first, that mamma hen didn't know who the rabbit was, and she ruffled up her feathers, and puffed them out, and let down her wings, and she was going to fly right at Uncle Wiggily, but she happened to see who he was just in time and she said: "Oh, thank you ever so much, Uncle Wiggily. I was so worried that I was just going down to the police station to see if a policeman had found her. Now I won't have to go. Come along, children, little lost Clarabella is found. Uncle Wiggily found her." So she clucked to all the other children, and the rabbit led them toward where Clarabella was sitting on the rock with the porcupine. And on the way a big, ugly fox leaped out of the bushes and tried to eat up all the chickens, and Uncle Wiggily also. But the old mother hen just ruffled up her feathers and puffed herself all out big again, and she flew at that fox and picked him in the eyes, and he was glad enough to slink away through the bushes, taking his fuzzy tail with him. Then the rabbit hopped on and took the mamma hen to her little lost chickie on the rock, and the rabbit and the porcupine had supper that night with the chicken family and slept in a big basket full of straw next door to the chicken coop. Then they traveled on the next day and something else happened. What it was I'll tell you right soon, when, in case a little boy named Willie doesn't crawl up in my lap when I'm writing and pull my ears, as the conductor does the trolley car bell-rope, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the wasp. STORY XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WASP "What would you like for breakfast this morning?" asked Mrs. Hen, as Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine got up out of their bed in the clean straw by the chickens' coop. This was the day after the rabbit found the little white chickie. "Ha, hum! Let me see," exclaimed the rabbit, as he waved his whiskers around in the air to get all the straw seeds out of them: "what would I like? Why, I think some fried oranges with carrot gravy on them would be nice, don't you, Mr. Porcupine?" "No," said the stickery-stockery creature. "I think I would like to have some bread with banana butter on and a glass of milk with vanilla flavoring." "You may both have what you like, because you were so kind to my little lost Clarabella," said Mrs. Hen. Then she spoke to her children. "Scurry around now, little ones, and get Uncle Wiggily and his friend the nice things for breakfast. Hurry now, for they will be wanting to travel on before the sun gets too hot," the mamma hen said. So one little chickie got the oranges, and another chickie got the bananas, and still another chickery-chicken, with a spotted tail, got the carrots, and then Clarabella went to where Mrs. Cow lived, and got the milk for the prickly porcupine. Then Mrs. Hen cooked the breakfast, and very good it was, too, if I may be allowed to say so. "Well, I guess we'll be getting along now," said Uncle Wiggily. "Are you still going to travel with me, Mr. Porcupine?" "Oh, yes, I'll come with you for a couple days more, and then if you don't find your fortune I'll start out by myself, and perhaps I can find it for you." So the two friends went on together. They traveled over hills and down dales, and once they met a lame rabbit, who had the epizootic very bad. Uncle Wiggily showed him how to make a crutch out of a cornstalk, just as Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat, had done, and the lame rabbit made himself one and was much obliged. Then, a little later they met a duck with only one good leg, and the other one was made of wood, and this duck wanted to get over a fence but she couldn't, on account of her wooden leg. "Pray, how did you lose your leg?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he and the porcupine kindly helped her over the rails. "Oh, a bad rat bit it off," said the duck. "I was asleep in the pond one morning and before I knew it a rat swam up under water, and nipped off my leg." "Oh, I'm so sorry," said the rabbit. "I'll tell Alice and Lulu and Jimmie Wibblewobble, my duck friends, to be careful of bad rats in their pond." "That's a good idea," spoke the duck with the wooden leg, and then she said good-by and waddled away. After that Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine traveled on some more, and, as it got to be very warm they thought they would lie down in a shady place and take a little sleep. Well, they picked out a nice place under a clump of ferns, that leaned over a little babbling brook, and touched the tips of their green leaves into the cool water. And, before he knew it, dear old Uncle Wiggily was fast, fast asleep, and he snored the least little bit, but please don't tell any one about it. Then pretty soon the porcupine was asleep too, only he didn't snore any, though I'm not allowed to tell you why just now. I may later, however. Well, in a little while, something is going to happen. In fact, it's now time for it to begin. Yes, here comes the stingery wasp. Listen, and you can hear him buzz. "Buzz! Buzz! Bizzy-buzzy-buzzy!" went the stingery wasp, as he flew over the place where the rabbit and porcupine were sleeping. And the wasp flitted and flapped his bluish wings and lifted up the sharp end of his body where be carries his stingery-sting. "Ah, ha! I see something to sting!" thought the wasp. "Now, I wonder which one I shall sting first? I think I will try the porcupine, and then I will sting the rabbit." Oh, but he was a bad wasp, though; wasn't he, eh? Well, he was all ready to sting the porcupine, when suddenly the wasp heard a voice calling to him from the bushes. "Don't sting the porcupine, Mr. Wasp, sting the rabbit," said the rasping voice. "Why should I do that?" asked the wasp, as he looked to see if his sting needed sharpening. "Oh, because if you sting the porcupine you might get stuck with his stickery-stockery quills," said the voice. "But the rabbit can't hurt you. Besides, if you sting him for me I will give you a popcorn ball." [Illustration] "Why are you so anxious for me to sting the rabbit?" asked the wasp, as he flittered his steely-blue wings. "Oh, if you do that it will scare him so that he won't know which way to run, and then, when he is all puzzled up, I can jump out on him and eat him up!" said the voice. "I have been wanting a rabbit dinner this long time," and with that out from the bushes crawled the bad fox. "Very well," said the wasp, "I'll sting the rabbit on the end of his twinkling nose for you, and then you must give me a popcorn ball," for you know wasps like sweet things. So the wasp got ready to sting poor Uncle Wiggily, and all this while the rabbit and the porcupine were peacefully sleeping there under the ferns, and they didn't know what was going to happen. "Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!" went the wasp, as he flew closer to Uncle Wiggily. He was all ready to sting him, when a piece of bark happened to fall off a tree and hit the porcupine on his left ear, waking him up. He opened his eyes very quickly, thinking that a fairy was throwing snowballs at him, and then the porcupine heard the wasp buzzing, and he saw the wasp flying straight toward Uncle Wiggily to sting him, and next the porcupine saw the bad fox. "Ha! So that is how things are, eh?" cried the porcupine, as he jumped up. "Well, I'll soon put a stop to that!" So, before you could fan yourself with a feather, the porcupine took out one of his stickers, and he stuck the wasp with it so hard that the bad wasp was glad enough to fly away, taking his stinger with him. "Now, it's your turn!" cried the porcupine to the fox, and with that he threw a whole lot of his sharp quills at the fox, and that bad creature ran away howling. And then Uncle Wiggily woke up and wanted to know what it was all about, and what made the buzzing and howling noises. "You had a narrow escape," said the porcupine as he told the rabbit about the wasp and the fox. "I guess I did," admitted Uncle Wiggily. "I'm much obliged to you. Now let's have supper." So they ate their supper, and that's all I can tell you for the present, if you please. But, in case I see a little pig with a pink ribbon tied in his curly tail, I'll make the next bedtime story, about Uncle Wiggily and the bluebell. STORY XXVI UNCLE WIGGLY AND THE BLUEBELL Well, I didn't see any little pig with a pink ribbon tied in his kinky, curly tail, but I'll tell you a story just the same if you'd like to hear it. Once upon a time, a good many years ago, when--Oh, there I go again! I'm always making mistakes like that, of late. That's a story about a giant that I was thinking of, whereas I meant to tell you one about Uncle Wiggily, and what happened to him. It was the day after the wasp had nearly stung him, and the old gentleman rabbit was traveling on alone, for the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine had to go home, and so he couldn't help Uncle Wiggily hunt for his fortune any longer. "Now take care of yourself," the porcupine had said to the rabbit, as they bade each other good-by, "and don't let any wasps sting you." "What should I do, in case I happened to be stung?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Put some mud on the place," said the porcupine. "Mud is good for stings." "I will," said the rabbit, and then he hopped on with his valise and his red-white-and-blue-striped-barber-pole crutch. Uncle Wiggily hoped he would soon find his fortune, for he wanted to get back home and see Sammie and Susie Littletail, and all the other animal friends. So he looked around very carefully for any signs of gold. He also asked all the animals and flowers whom he met if they could tell him where his fortune was. "No," said a warty-spotted toad, "I can't tell you, but I should think you would dig in the ground for gold." So Uncle Wiggily dug in the dirt in many places, but no gold did he find. "Perhaps you can tell me where my fortune is?" he said to a tailor-bird who was sewing some leaves together to make a nest. "It might be up in the air," said the tailor-bird. "If I were you I should hop up into the air and look for it." Well, Uncle Wiggily hopped up, but you know how it is with rabbits. They're not made to fly, and he couldn't stay up in the air long enough to do any good, so he couldn't find any gold that way. "Oh, dear! I guess I'll never find my fortune," said the rabbit sadly-like. Then he saw a little blue flower, shaped just like a bell, hanging on a stem over a small babbling brook of water. "Ah, there is a bluebell!" said the rabbit. "Perhaps she knows where my fortune is. I'll ask her, for flowers are very wise." "No, I can't tell you where there is any gold," said the bluebell when Uncle Wiggily had asked her most politely. "All I do is to swing backward and forward here all day long, and I ring my bell and I am happy. I do not need gold." "I wish I didn't have to have it, but I do. I need it to make my fortune, and then I can go home," said the rabbit. "Very well," spoke the blue flower, as she rang her bell, oh so sweetly! so that it seemed to the rabbit as if she played a song about the blue skies, and birds singing and fountains spouting upward in the sun while pretty blossoms grew all around. "Go on, Uncle Wiggily, but if you don't find your fortune come back here, and I will sing you to sleep," she added. "I will," spoke the rabbit, as he hopped away. Well, pretty soon, not so very long, as he was walking on a path through the woods, Uncle Wiggily heard a voice speaking. "I can tell you where to find your fortune," said the voice. "I know where there is a big pile of yellow stones, and I think they are gold. Follow me and I will show you." "But who are you?" asked the rabbit, for he could see no one. "You may be the alligator for all I know." "Oh, I'm not the alligator," was the answer. "I am a friend of yours, and I like you very much," and the unseen one smacked his lips. "But I can't come out and let you see me, for I dare not go out in the sun as I am afraid of getting too hot," the voice answered, "so I will just creep along through the bushes and I will wiggle my tail, and you can see it moving in the grass, and you can follow that without seeing me, and I will lead you to the pile of yellow stones." "Very well," answered the rabbit, "though I would much rather see you. But go ahead and I'll follow, for I must find my fortune." So the old gentleman rabbit saw the grass wiggling and he followed that, and he kept thinking of how rich he would soon be, and how many nice things he would buy for Sammie and Susie Littletail. But if the rabbit had only known who it was he was following he wouldn't have been so happy, for it was a crawly snake, and that snake was only fooling Uncle Wiggily, and trying to get him off to his den so he could eat him. And that's why he didn't show himself. On and on the snake wiggled through the grass, shaking his tail, and the poor rabbit followed after him. "Are we nearly to the gold?" asked Uncle Wiggily after a bit. "Almost," answered the snake, making his voice soft and gentle. The snake was nearly at his den now, and he was just going to turn around and squeeze the rabbit to death, when all at once a yellow bumblebee that was flying overhead looked down and saw the crawly creature, and the bee knew what the snake was going to do. "Run away, Uncle Wiggily! Run!" called the bee, "the snake is fooling you!" Well, Uncle Wiggily didn't wait a second. He jumped right over a briar bush and away he hopped as fast as he could hop, and the snake didn't get him, and, oh, how mad that snake was! Uncle Wiggily hopped around and around in the woods and the first thing he knew he couldn't find the path, he was so excited. And the more he tried to find it the more he couldn't, until he sat down on a stump and said: "I'm lost. I know I am! Lost in the dark, deep, dismal woods, and night coming on! Oh, what shall I do?" Well, he was feeling very badly, and was quite frightened, and he didn't know what to do when, all at once he heard a bell ringing. Oh, such a sweet-toned silvery bell. "Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" it went, sounding very clearly through the woods. Then the bell seemed to say: "Come this way, Uncle Wiggily, come this way. Ding-dong!" "Oh, that's the bluebell flower!" cried the rabbit. "How glad I am. Now I can follow the ringing sound and get to a nice place to stay for the night." So he listened carefully, and the blue flower rang her tinkling bell louder than ever, and the rabbit could tell by the sound of it just which way to go, and pretty soon he was out of the woods and right beside the flower that was swinging to and fro in the wind, just like a bell in a church steeple. "Oh, I'm go glad I could ring and tell you the way back here," said the bluebell. "Now lie down and sleep, and if there is any danger I will tinkle my bell and awaken you." So Uncle Wiggily stretched out on some soft moss, and went to sleep. And there was some danger for him, as I shall tell you very soon, when, in case the rocking chair on the front porch doesn't go swimming in the molasses barrel, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the Wibblewobble children. STORY XXVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WIBBLEWOBBLES Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was sleeping on the soft moss under a clump of ferns, and over his head the bluebell flower was nodding in the night breeze, keeping watch for danger. For you remember, I dare say, that the flower had promised to awaken Uncle Wiggily in case any harm happened to come near him. Hour after hour crept along, like a little mouse after a bit of cheese, and still the rabbit slumbered, and still the bluebell nodded her drowsy head, for she would not go to sleep while she was keeping watch. "I think I will just take one little nap," said the flower to herself, after a bit, "just shut my eyes for a little while." So she did so, and then, all of a sudden, as quietly as a clock when it isn't ticking, there came creeping and crawling through the woods, the bad scalery-tailery alligator. He was looking around sniffing, and snooping, and scuffing for something to eat, and pretty soon he sniffed and snuffed until he came to where Uncle Wiggily was fast asleep, dreaming that he had found his fortune. And the worst part of it was that the bluebell flower also was sleeping, and she couldn't tell the rabbit what was going to happen. "Oh, I'll have a fine meal in about a minute," said the scalery-tailery alligator as he smacked his big jaws. Then he shuffled up closer to Uncle Wiggily, and was about to bite him when all of a sudden the nutmeg grater tail of the scalery alligator accidentally hit against the bluebell flower, and she awoke quickly. "Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" rang out the bluebell, just like an alarm clock in the morning. "Ding-dong-dong! Tinkle! Tinkle!" Up jumped Uncle Wiggily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked through the woods, and by the light of the silvery moon he saw the grinning alligator, with his open mouth, close to him. "Run, Uncle Wiggily! Run!" cried the bluebell, and then she made such a jingling-jangling noise that all the birds in the woods awakened, and by the moonlight, they flew down at that alligator, and stuck him with their sharp bills, so that he was glad to crawl away, and he didn't forget to take his scalery tail with him, either. "My, that was a narrow escape!" said the rabbit. "I am glad he didn't eat me." "So am I," said the bluebell, "and I'll not go to sleep again, either, I promise you." So the flower stayed wide awake the rest of the night, and the rabbit slept on the soft moss, and in the morning he awakened and ate his breakfast out of his valise, and then, saying good-by to the flower and thanking her, he set off once more to seek his fortune. Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, looking in all the places he could think of for some gold, but he couldn't seem to find any. And then, just when he got on top of a little hill, and started down the other side he heard some one crying--no, I'm just a bit wrong, he heard three some ones crying--three separate and distinct cries. "Oh, dear, I've got a sliver in my foot!" blubbered one voice. "And I've stepped on a stone and there's a big bruise on my foot!" sniffled another voice. "Oh! none of you is as badly off as I am," quivered a third voice, "for I've cut my two feet on a piece of glass! Oh, whatever shall we do?" "My, I wonder who they can be?" thought the rabbit, for he could see no one as yet. "Maybe those are the little children of the burglar fox, and if they are, then the burglar fox must be somewhere around here, and I had better be careful of myself." Well, the rabbit was about to turn, and run back down the hill, up which he had just come, when he saw something white fluttering like a piece of paper. "A fox isn't white," Uncle Wiggily said to himself, "at least not the foxes around here. That must be something else." So he took another careful look, and he saw three nice little duck children--I guess you remember their names--Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble. And as soon as they saw the old gentleman rabbit, those three duck children exclaimed: "Oh, joy! Oh, happiness!" and they didn't think about the slivers and the bruises and the cuts in their feet any more. "My goodness me sakes alive and a potato pancake!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What are you children doing so far away from home? You must be lost." "We are lost," said Jimmie Wibblewobble, "all three of us." "Yes," went on Lulu, "we are certainly lost, and it's Jimmie's fault, for he asked us to come." "Oh! it's not all Jimmie's fault," said Alice gently, as she looked at her brother. "You see, Uncle Wiggily, we are visiting our Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat, who lives in the country near here. We are at her house for our vacation, and to-day we started to go to the woods to have a good time, but we took the wrong path and we are lost, and I have a big sliver in my foot." "Yes, and I stepped on a stone, and have a big bruise," whimpered Jimmie. "And I've cut both feet on a piece of glass," cried Lulu Wibblewobble, "and Oh, we are all so miserable!" "Well, well!" exclaimed the rabbit in a jolly voice, "this is too bad. I must see what I can do for you. First we will take the sliver out of Alice's foot," and he did so with a sharp needle. It hurt a little, but Alice never cried. "Now for Jimmie's bruise," said the rabbit, and he took some soft green leaves, and made a plaster of them, and with some ribbon-grass for a string he tied the plaster on Jimmie's foot, and that was almost well. Then Uncle Wiggily made a little salve, from some gum out of a cherry tree, and bound up the glass cuts on Lulu's feet. "Now, I will lead you to your Aunt Lettie's house," said the rabbit, "and you won't be lost any more." So the three Wibblewobble children felt much better and happier, and when they were almost at their aunt's house, a big hawk swooped down out of the sky and tried to bite Lulu. But Uncle Wiggily hit the bad bird with his barber-pole crutch, and the hawk flew away, flopping his wings and tail. "Oh, how good, and brave, and strong you are!" cried Lulu to Uncle Wiggily, and then all three duck children kissed him. Soon they were at the goat-lady's home, and Aunt Lettie was very glad to see the rabbit gentleman, and also glad to have the children back. So she invited Uncle Wiggily to stay to supper, and very glad he was to do so. He also stayed all night at Aunt Lettie's house, and he had quite an adventure, too, which I shall tell you about directly, when, in case the fire shovel doesn't slide down hill on a cake of ice and break its roller skates the next bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the berry bush. STORY XXVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BERRY BUSH "Well, children, I think I will soon have to be leaving you," said Uncle Wiggily Longears one morning to the three Wibblewobbles, when he had stayed all night at their Aunt Lettie's house. That was after the old gentleman rabbit had found the three ducks lost in the woods, you remember, and had taken them to where they were visiting the old lady goat. "I must pack my valise and travel on," said Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, can't you stay a little longer?" asked Alice Wibblewobble, as she tied her sky-blue-pink hair ribbon in a flopsy-dub kind of a bow knot. "Yes, do stay!" urged Jimmie as he tossed up his ball, which Lulu, his sister, caught. "We'll have some fun together and you can play on my ball team, Uncle Wiggily." "Oh! I am much too old for that," said the rabbit, "though I like to watch you play. Besides, I have the rheumatism, and I have to keep on looking for my fortune. So I will travel forward once more." "Well, if you must go, I suppose you must," said Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat. "But at least let me put you up a little lunch. Let me see, what shall it be? I think a tomato can sandwich, and some brown paper cake with paste frosting on would be nice. And then, too, I can give you some fine wooden pie." "Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed the rabbit, "but while it is very kind of you, I cannot eat such things. I never could chew a tomato can, nor yet a wooden, or even a sawdust pie." "No more you could," cried Aunt Lettie in confusion. "I was thinking of what I liked to eat. Very well, I will give you some carrots and cabbage and a piece of cherry pie. I know you will like those." So she made Uncle Wiggily that kind of a lunch, and he put it in his valise, and after saying good-by to the old lady goat, and the three Wibblewobbles, off he started to seek his fortune once more. On and on he traveled up some hills, and down others and through the woods, and pretty soon he came to a place where there was a big hole in the ground. "Ah, ha!" exclaimed the rabbit, "perhaps this is a gold mine. I will get some gold dollars out of it and then I will be rich." So he went close to the hole and looked down it, but all of a sudden out popped a great big rat, and she gnashed her teeth at Uncle Wiggily and tried to bite him. "What are you doing at my house?" she cried, real savagely. "Get away at once before I eat you." "Indeed I will," said the rabbit, politely. "I thought your hole was a gold mine. Excuse me, I'll get right along," so he hopped away as fast as he could hop, very thankful that he had not gone down the hole. Well, the next place he came to was where a great big stone was sticking out of the side of a hill. And the stone glittered in the sunshine just like diamonds or dewdrops. "Oh, how delightful!" cried the rabbit. "This surely is a gold stone. I will break off some pieces of it and take them home, and then I will have my fortune." So, taking his crutch, Uncle Wiggily tried to break off pieces of the glittering stone. But, my goodness me, sakes alive and a chocolate ice cream cone! that stone was very hard, and try as he did, Uncle Wiggily couldn't break off a piece even as big as baby's tiny pink toe. "I'll just sing a little song, and then, perhaps, I can get some of the gold," he said. So he sang this song, which goes to the tune "Tiddily-um-tum-tum:" "My fortune I've found, On top of the ground, I'm lucky as lucky can be. But really this stone, Is hard as a bone, I wish that some one would help me." After singing, Uncle Wiggily hammered away at the stone with his crutch again, but the song did no good. And then, all at once, before you could shake your finger at a pink pussy cat, out from behind the glittering stone there jumped the savage wushky-woshky, which is a very curious beast with two tails and three heads and only one crinkly leg, so that it has to go hippity-hop, or else fall down ker thump! "What are you doing to my stone?" cried the wushky-woshky. "Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily politely. "I didn't know it was your stone. I was only trying to break off a small piece for my fortune." "Wow! Oh, wow!" cried the wushky-woshky, as savage as savage could be, and he gnashed the teeth in all three of his mouths, and he lashed his two tails on the ground. "I'm going to catch you!" he called to the rabbit. "Not if I know it you won't catch me," said Uncle Wiggily bravely, and off he hopped down the hill. "Yes, I will catch you!" cried the wushky-woshky, and off he hopped on his one crinkly leg after the rabbit. Faster and faster hopped Uncle Wiggily, but still faster and faster hopped the wushky-woshky. "Oh, he'll surely catch me!" thought the rabbit. "I wonder what I can do? I know. I'll open my valise, and I'll scatter on the ground my nice lunch that Aunt Lettie put up for me, and the wushky-woshky will stop to eat the good things, and then I can get away." So the rabbit did this. Out on the ground from the valise tumbled all the nice carrot and lettuce sandwiches. But the savage wushky-woshky gobbled them up with three mouthfuls, and didn't stop hopping after Uncle Wiggily on his one crinkly leg. "Oh, he'll surely catch me now!" cried the rabbit. "No, he won't! Jump up in the air, and come down inside of me!" cried a voice, and Uncle Wiggily saw a nice blackberry bush waving its long arms at him. "Jump down inside of me, where there are no thorns to scratch you," said the berry bush, "but if the wushky-woshky tries to come after you I'll scratch his six eyes out. I'll save you. Jump down inside me!" "Thank you, I will," said the rabbit, and he gave a big spring and a hop, over the outer edge of the bush, and down he landed safely inside of it, not scratched a bit. Up came the three-headed, two-tailed and one crinkly-legged wushky-woshky, but when he saw the prickly briar berry bush he stopped short, for he did not want his six eyes scratched out. "Come out of there!" cried the wushky-woshky to the rabbit. "Indeed, I will not," said Uncle Wiggily, politely. "Then I'll stay here forever and you can't ever come out," said the savage creature. "For if you come out I'll eat you!" "Don't let him scare you," said the briar berry bush to Uncle Wiggily, "I'll fix him," so the berry bush reached out a long arm all covered with stickers, and she stickered and prickered the wushky-woshky on his three heads and two tails and one leg, so that the savage creature ran away howling, and Uncle Wiggily was safe, and not hurt a bit, I'm glad to say. So he stayed in the briar bush that night and had berries for breakfast, and the next day he had another adventure. What it was I will tell you on the page after this one, when the bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the camp fire--that is, if the cat across the street doesn't untie the pink ribbon off our pussy's neck and put it on his ice cream cone. STORY XXIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CAMP FIRE "Well, how do you find yourself this morning?" asked the berry bush of Uncle Wiggily as the old gentleman rabbit peeped out to see if the bad three-headed wushky-woshky had come back. "Are you all right?" "Oh, yes, thank you kindly," spoke the rabbit, "but I was just wondering how I could get out of here to go on and seek my fortune without being scratched all to pieces." "Can't you jump out just as you jumped in?" asked the bush, waving her prickly arms, but taking care not to so much as even tickle Uncle Wiggily. "No, there isn't room enough for me to get started to jump out," replied the rabbit. "I'm afraid I'll have to stay here a long time, and I really ought to be going on." "Oh, I have a plan!" suddenly cried the bush. "You are a very good digger, so why can't you dig a tunnel right under me? Start it inside here and curve it up so that it comes outside of my prickly branches, and then you won't be scratched." "I'll do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, so with his strong front feet he dug a tunnel, just as you sometimes make in the sand, and soon he was safely outside the berry bush. "Take some of my berries with you," said the bush, "so you won't get hungry." "I will," answered the rabbit, and he filled his valise with nice, big blackberries. He felt a little sad about the nice lunch the wushky-woshky had eaten, but there was no help for it--that lunch was gone completely. So Uncle Wiggily said good-by to the kind berry bush, and traveled on once more to seek his fortune. "Watch out for the wushky-woshky," called the bush to the rabbit, as she waved her friendly stickery branches at him. "I will," he said, and then he passed up over the hill and out of sight. The first place he came to was an old hollow stump, where an old owl had once lived. The rabbit looked down inside the stump, but there was no fortune there. The second place he came to was a curious little house built of bark, where an old dog, who was a friend to Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, used to live, but the old dog was away on his vacation at Ocean Grove, so he wasn't at home. "Perhaps there is a fortune in here," thought the rabbit, but there wasn't any and he went on. Now the third place he came to was a little house, made out of clothespins, where a pussy cat lived, and the pussy wasn't home, for she had just gone to the store to get some milk. But the rabbit didn't know this, so he went inside the house to see if there was any fortune there. And the first thing he saw on the mantelpiece was a tin bank, and when he shook it something inside of it rattled, and when he peeped in Uncle Wiggily saw a whole lot of pennies in the tin bank. "Oh fine!" he cried, "now I have my fortune at last. Some one has gone away and left all this money, so I might as well take it." Well, he was just putting the bank full of pennies into his valise, when the pussy came back with the bottle of milk. "Oh! are you going to take my bank away from me?" she cried, very sadly. "I have been saving up my pennies for a long time, and now you have them." "Oh, I wouldn't take them for the world!" cried the rabbit. "I didn't know they were yours, it's all a mistake," and he placed the bank right back on the mantel. "But perhaps you could tell me where to find my fortune," said Uncle Wiggily, and he told the pussy all about his travels. "First we will have a drink of milk," said the pussy, and she poured out some for the rabbit. "Then I will go into the woods a little way with you and help you look for your fortune." "Perhaps we had better take some lunch with us," said the rabbit, so he went to the store and got a nice lunch, which he put up in his valise, and then he and the pussy started off together to the woods. They looked here and there and everywhere and even around corners, but no fortune could they find, and pretty soon it began to get a little dark. And then suddenly it got all dark. "Oh, I can never find my way back home!" cried the pussy. "And I am afraid in these lonesome woods." "Oh! don't be frightened," said Uncle Wiggily, who was very brave. "I will build a camp fire and we can stay here all night. I will cook some supper and in the morning I will take you home." Then the pussy wasn't afraid any more. She helped the rabbit to gather up some dry leaves and little sticks, and also some big sticks, and soon Uncle Wiggily had a fine fire merrily blazing away in the woods, and it was nice and light. Then he took some leafy branches and made a little house for himself and the pussy and then they cooked supper, making some coffee in an old empty tomato can they found near a wrinkly-crinkly stump. "Oh, this is real jolly!" cried the pussy, as she warmed her paws and her nose at the blaze. "It is much better than drinking milk out of a bottle." "I think so myself," said the rabbit. "Now, if I could only find my fortune I would be happy. But, perhaps, I shall to-morrow." Well, pretty soon Uncle Wiggily and the pussy became sleepy so they thought they would go to bed. They made their beds in the little green bower-house on some soft, dried leaves. "And I must have plenty of wood to put on the camp fire," said the rabbit, "for in the night some bad animal might try to eat us, but when they see the blaze they will be afraid and run away." So he gathered a big pile of wood, and then he and the pussy went to sleep. And in the middle of the night, as true as I'm telling you, yes, indeed, along came sneaking the wushky-woshky with his three heads and two tails and his one crinkly leg. "Now, I'll have a fine meal," thought the wushky-woshky as he saw the rabbit and the pussy sleeping. "Which one shall I take first?" But all of a sudden his foot slipped on a stone and he made a noise, and Uncle Wiggily awakened in an instant and cried out: "Some one is after us!" Then the brave rabbit threw some wood on the camp fire, and it blazed up so quickly that it burned the whiskers of the wushky-woshky and he gave three howls, one with each of his mouths, and away he hopped on his one leg, taking his two tails with him. "My!" cried the pussy, "it's a good thing we had the camp fire, or we would have been eaten up." "Indeed it is," said the rabbit. "I'll keep it blazing all night." So he did this, and no more wushky-woshkys came to bother them. And in the morning the pussy and the rabbit traveled on together and they had quite an adventure. What it was I'll relate to you almost immediately, when, in case a little girl named Elizabeth learns how to swim by standing on one toe and holding a red balloon under water, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the cowbird. STORY XXX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE COWBIRD "Do you think you can help me find my way back home again?" asked the pussy of Uncle Wiggily as they awakened the next morning, after having spent the night in the woods by the camp fire. "Oh, I'm sure I can," answered the rabbit. "As soon as we have our breakfast we'll start off to look for your clothespin house." Then Uncle Wiggily made up the camp fire again, putting on some more wood, and he boiled the coffee, in a tomato can, and fried some pieces of bacon he had in his valise. The way he cooked them was to take a sharp stick and put a piece of bacon on the end of it, and then he held the bacon up in front of the blaze, where it sizzled away, and got nice and curly and brown, and oh! how good it did smell, and so did the coffee! Oh! it's great to cook over a camp fire when the smoke doesn't get in your eyes and when it doesn't rain. "Now we must put out the fire," said the rabbit, as he and the pussy were ready to go look for the clothespin house. "Why must we do that, Uncle Wiggily?" "Oh, so that it will not set fire to the woods, and burn down the nice trees after we are gone. Always put out your camp fire when you leave it," said the rabbit, as he threw water on the blaze, making clouds of steam. Well, he and the pussy traveled on for some time longer together, but somehow or other they couldn't seem to find the place where the pussy lived, and the little cat was beginning to be sorry that she had gone camping in the woods. "Oh, I know I'll never find my home again!" she cried. "Oh, yes, we will," said the rabbit kindly. "Don't worry." And just then they heard some one else crying, a little, tiny, sobbing voice. "What's that?" exclaimed the pussy. "Perhaps it is one of the skillery-scalery alligator's children." "No, I do not think so," said the rabbit. "It sounds to me as if some one else were lost in the woods, and I may have to find their home, too. We'll take a look." So they looked all around, but they couldn't seem to find any one, though the crying was still to be heard. "That's queer," said the rabbit, "I'll call to them." So he called as loudly as he could like this: "Is any one lost? Do you want me to help you find your home?" "Oh, I'd be very glad to have you help me," said the crying voice, "but I am not lost." "Then who are you, and what is the matter?" asked the rabbit. "Oh, I am a robin bird," was the answer, "and I am in this bush over your heads." "Ha, no wonder we couldn't see you," said the rabbit, as he and the pussy looked up, and there, sure enough, was the nice mamma robin bird, and she was crying, as she sat in the bush. "What is the matter?" asked the rabbit. "I will tell you," said the robin. "You know there is a bird called the cowbird or cuckoo, and that bird is too lazy to build a nest for itself. So what do you think it does?" "What?" asked the pussy. "Why it goes around, laying its eggs in the nests of other birds," said the robin. "Then we birds have to hatch out the cowbird's eggs, and when her children come out they are so unpleasant that they shove our little birdies right out of the nest, and eat all the things we mamma birds bring home to our little ones." "Ha! That is very unpleasant, to say the least," spoke the rabbit. "And are there any cowbirds in your nest now, Mrs. Robin?" "Not yet, but there are three of the cowbird's eggs here, and they will soon hatch out." "Why don't you toss out the cowbird's eggs?" asked the pussy. "Then you won't have to hatch them." "I would," said the robin, "only I am not strong enough, for I have been ill, and my husband is out of work and he is looking for some. So I don't know what to do about it. Oh, dear!" and she cried again. "Ha! We must see what we can do," said Uncle Wiggily, who always liked to help people who were in trouble. "I think I have a plan." "What is it?" asked the robin. "Well, I can't climb up that bush, for my paws are not built for that sort of thing, but the pussy can climb very nicely, as she has sharp claws." "Indeed I can," said the pussy, "and I will, and I'll throw out the cowbird's eggs for you, so those bad birds won't bother your little birds." So Uncle Wiggily gave the pussy a boost up the bush, in which the robin's nest was built, and then the pussy, with her sharp claws climbed up the rest of the distance all alone very nicely. "Now show me which are the eggs of the cowbird?" said the kittie-cat to the robin when the nest was reached. So the robin mamma pointed out the eggs with her claw, and then with her foot the pussy clawed those cowbird eggs out on the ground where they wouldn't hatch. "Now, that will be the last of those bad birds," said the pussy as she started to climb down to where Uncle Wiggily was waiting for her. "Yes, indeed, and thank you very much," spoke the robin. "Now, my little ones will have a chance to grow and live." And just then there was a fluttering and a rustling in the bushes, and the bad cowbird came flying past. And when she saw what had been done, and how her eggs had been tossed out of the robin's nest where they didn't belong, that cowbird flew at the pussy and was going to pick her eyes out. But Uncle Wiggily took his crutch, and tickled the cowbird so that she sneezed, and had to fly away without doing any harm. And Uncle Wiggily called after her that she ought to be ashamed of herself not to build her own nests. And I guess that cowbird was ashamed, but I'm not sure. Anyhow she came back a little later and gathered up her eggs off the ground, and flew away with them, and what she did with them I'll tell you; oh, just as soon as you like. The bedtime story then will be about Uncle Wiggily and the tailor bird--that is, if the needle and thread don't dance up and down on the pin cushion, and make it full of holes so the sawdust stuffing comes out and tickles the baby's pink toes. STORY XXXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TAILOR BIRD After Uncle Wiggily and the pussy had helped the robin get the cowbird's eggs out of her nest, as I told you in the story before this, the rabbit and the kittie stayed in the woods a little while talking to the mamma bird. "I should like to see the little robins hatch out of the eggs," said the pussy, as she frisked her tail about and smoothed out her fur. "So should I," added Uncle Wiggily. "I will gladly let you see my little birdies hatch," spoke the robin, "but it will take nearly a week yet, and you will have to wait." "Oh, I can't wait as long as that," went on the rabbit. "I must be off to seek my fortune." "Yes, and I must go and find my clothespin house," said the pussy. So they said good-by to the mamma robin, and away the pussy and Uncle Wiggily went, over the hills and down the dales through the woods and over little brooks. Pretty soon they came to a place in the woods where there were a whole lot of flowers nodding their heads in the wind, and it was such a pretty place that Uncle Wiggily and the pussy stayed there a little while. And in about a minute they heard something flying through the bushes and out flew that same cowbird, and she laughed just as hard as she could laugh, as she passed along. "Somebody is going to be surprised!" cried the cowbird and she fluttered her wings at the rabbit and the kittie, and then she hid herself off in the woods. "I wonder what she means?" asked the pussy. "I'm sure I don't know," replied the rabbit. "But did you notice that she didn't have her eggs with her?" "Sure enough!" exclaimed the pussy. "She must have left them in some other bird's nest." "Well, we had better keep on, for it is getting late," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "and I want to find your clothespin house for you." On they hurried through the trees, and pretty soon--Oh, I guess about as long as it takes you to eat a stick of peppermint candy--they suddenly came to the pussy's clothespin house. "Oh, here's where I live!" she cried. "How glad I am to get back home!" She hurried in through the front door and no sooner was she inside than she cried out: "Come here! Come here, quickly, Uncle Wiggily! Did you ever see such a sight in all your born days?" "What is it?" asked the rabbit, as he hopped in, and he was half afraid that there might be a burglar fox hiding in the pussy's house. But it wasn't anything like that. Instead the rabbit saw the pussy pointing to her bed, and there, right in the middle of the feather pillows, were some eggs. "The cowbird's eggs!" cried the kittie. "That's what she meant when she said some one was going to be surprised. Indeed, I am the one who is surprised. She brought her eggs here, thinking I would hatch them out for her, but I'll not do it!" So the pussy threw the eggs out of the window, on some soft straw, where they wouldn't be broken, and pretty soon that cowbird came back, as angry as a lion without any tail. And she grabbed up her eggs, and this time she took them to the monkey, who played five hand-organs at once. And the monkey was a good-natured sort of a chap, so he hatched out the cowbird's eggs for her, and soon he had a lot of little calfbirds, and when they grew up they gave him no end of trouble. "Well, now you are safe home," said Uncle Wiggily to the pussy, "I will travel on." "First, let me fill your valise with something to eat," said the kittie cat, and she did so, and then the rabbit hopped on. He looked all over for his fortune, but he couldn't find it, and pretty soon it got dark night and he went to sleep in a hollow stump. "Surely, I will find my fortune to-day," thought Uncle Wiggily, as he arose the next morning, and combed out his whiskers. It was a bright, beautiful sunshiny morning, and everything was cheerful, and the birds were singing. But, in spite of all that, something happened to the rabbit. He was just going past a berry bush, and he was reaching up to pick off some of the red raspberries, when all at once a sharp claw was thrust out from the bush and a grab was made for the rabbit. "Now, I've got you!" cried a savage voice. "No, you haven't!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, and he jumped back just as a savage wolf sprang out at him. "Oh, don't worry, I'll get you yet!" went on the wolf and he made another spring. But the rabbit was ready for him and ran down the hill and the wolf ran after him, howling at the top of his grillery-growlery voice, for he was very hungry. My! how Uncle Wiggily did run. And the wolf ran also, and he was catching up to the rabbit, and probably would have eaten him all up, but just then a kind bumble bee who knew Uncle Wiggily flew off a tree branch and stung that wolf on the end of his nose. That wolf gave a howl, and made one more grab for Uncle Wiggily, but he only managed to catch hold of his coat tails in his teeth, and there the wolf held on. "Let go of Uncle Wiggily!" buzzed the bee. "No I won't!" cried the wolf, most impolite-like. "Then I'll sting you again!" cried the bee, and she did so, and the rabbit gave a great pull, and he managed to pull himself away from the wolf. But, alas! Uncle Wiggily's nice red coat was all tattered and torn. "Oh, whatever shall I do?" cried Uncle Wiggily as the wolf ran away down the hill and the rabbit looked at the torn and ripped coat. "I never can go on seeking my fortune with a torn coat." "I am sorry," said the bee, "but I can not help you. But if you see the tailor bird she may mend your coat for you." So the bee buzzed away and Uncle Wiggily went on looking for the tailor bird. This is a bird that makes a nest by sewing leaves together with grass for thread. And would you believe me, in a little while Uncle Wiggily saw the very bird he wanted. She was making a nest with her bill for a needle and some dried grass for thread, and she was sewing the leaves together. "Will you kindly mend my coat for me where the wolf tore it?" asked the rabbit politely. "Indeed I will," said the tailor bird. So she took some long, strong pieces of grass for thread. Then she made her sharp bill go back and forth in the cloth of Uncle Wiggily's coat and soon it was all mended again as good as new. Then the rabbit thanked the bird and started off again to seek his fortune and you could hardly see where his coat was torn. Then Uncle Wiggily was very thankful to the tailor bird, and he stayed at her house for some time, helping her sweep the sidewalk mornings, and bringing up coal, and all things like that. And the old gentleman had some more adventures. But as I have already made this book quite long, I think I will have to save the rest of the stories for another one. I'll get it ready as soon as I can for you, and the name of it is going to be "Uncle Wiggily's Fortune." Just think of that! He really does find his fortune in that book, though he has quite some trouble, let me tell you. But bless your hearts! Trouble is only another kind of fun! So now we will say good-by to Uncle Wiggily for a time, and soon you may hear more about him. Good-by and good luck to all of you. THE END * * * * * Uncle Wiggily Picture Books Three stories in each book By Howard R. Garis [Illustration: UNCLE WIGGILY'S SNOW PUDDING] Also twenty-seven color pictures By Lang Campbell In these funny little books you can see in bright colored pictures the adventures of myself and my woodland friends. Also the pictures of some bad fellows, whose names you know. So if the spoon holder doesn't go down cellar and take the coal shovel away from the gas stove, you may read No. 1. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTO SLED If the rocking chair doesn't tickle the rag carpet and make the brass bed fall upstairs, you may read No. 2. UNCLE WIGGILY'S SNOW MAN If the umbrella doesn't go out in the rain and splash water all over the rubber boots on the gold fish, you may read No. 3. UNCLE WIGGILY'S HOLIDAYS If the electric light doesn't cry for some molasses, when the match leaves it all alone in the china closet, you may read No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY'S APPLE ROAST If the egg beater doesn't try to jump over the coffee pot and fall in the sink when the potato is learning to swim, you may read No. 5. UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICNIC If the sugar cookie doesn't go out walking with the fountain pen, and get all black so it looks like a chocolate cake, you may read No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING Hurry up and get these nice little books from the bookstore man, or send direct to the publishers, 50 cents per copy, postpaid. CHARLES E. GRAHAM & CO. NEW YORK [Illustration: Uncle Wiggily] Burt's Series of One Syllable Books 14 Titles. Handsome Illuminated Cloth Binding A series of Classics, selected specially for young people's reading, and told in simple language for youngest readers. Printed from large type, with many illustrations. * * * * * Price 75 Cents per Volume * * * * * AESOP'S FABLES Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 41 illustrations. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J.C. GORHAM. With many illustrations. ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES (Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations. BIBLE HEROES Told in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations. BLACK BEAUTY Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J.C. GORHAM. With many illustrations. GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES (Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS Into several remote regions of the world. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By J.C.G. With 32 illustrations. LIFE OF CHRIST Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With 24 large portraits. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 33 illustrations. REYNARD THE FOX The Crafty Courtier. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 23 illustrations. ROBINSON CRUSOE His life and surprising adventures retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY A. SCHWACOFER. With 32 illustrations. SANFORD AND MERTON Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 20 illustrations. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Adapted from the original. With 31 illustrations. * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York. THE MOTHER GOOSE SERIES 24 TITLES HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING, ILLUMINATED COVERS A series of popular books for young people. Each book is well printed from large type on good paper, frontispiece in colors, profusely illustrated, and bound in cloth, with ornamental covers in three colors, making a series of most interesting books for children at a reasonable price. * * * * * Price, 75 cents per copy * * * * * Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Animal Stories for Little People. Profusely Illustrated. Beauty and the Beast, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Bird Stories for Little People. Profusely Illustrated. Bluebeard, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Foolish Fox, The, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Goody Two Shoes, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Hansel and Grethel, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. House That Jack Built, The, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Jack and the Beanstalk, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Jack the Giant Killer, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Stories. Profusely illustrated. Little Snow White, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Mother Goose Rhymes. Profusely Illustrated. Mother Hubbard's Melodies. Profusely Illustrated. Night Before Christmas, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Patty and Her Pitcher; or, Kindness of Heart, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Peter and His Goose; or, The Folly of Discontent, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Puss in Boots, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Sleeping Beauty, The, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Tom Thumb, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Ugly Duckling, The, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. Who Killed Cock Robin, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated. * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, A.L. BURT CO., 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York City. * * * * * Aunt Amy's Animal Stories By AMY PRENTICE A Series of Stories, told by animals, to AUNT AMY PRENTICE. Each illustrated with many pictures in black, and four illustrations in colors, by J. WATSON DAVIS. 12 titles, in handsome cloth binding. * * * * * Price 75 cents. Net---- * * * * * Bunny Rabbit's Story, 30 Illustrations Billy Goat's Story, 32 Illustrations Brown Owl's Story, 31 Illustrations Croaky Frog's Story, 28 Illustrations Frisky Squirrel's Story, 30 Illustrations Gray Goose's Story, 32 Illustrations Mickie Monkey's Story, 35 Illustrations Mouser Cat's Story, 35 Illustrations Plodding Turtle's Story, 30 Illustrations Quacky Duck's Story, 34 Illustrations Speckled Hen's Story, 28 Illustrations Towser Dog's Story, 32 Illustrations * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York. * * * * * Our Young Aeroplane Scout Series (Registered in the United States Patent Office) By HORACE PORTER * * * * * Handsome Cloth Binding, PRICE, 75 per Volume A series of stories of two American boy aviators in the great European war zone. The fascinating life in mid-air is thrillingly described. The boys have many exciting adventures, and the narratives of their numerous escapes make up a series of wonderfully interesting stories. * * * * * OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM; or, Saving the Fortunes of the Trouvilles. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN RUSSIA; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN TURKEY; or, Bringing the Light to Yusef. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ENGLAND; or, Twin Stars in the London Sky Patrol. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ITALY; or, Flying with the War Eagles of the Alps. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT VERDUN; or, Driving Armored Meteors Over Flaming Battle Fronts. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE BALKANS; or, Wearing the Red Badge of Courage. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN THE WAR ZONE; or, Serving Uncle Sam In the Cause of the Allies. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS FIGHTING TO THE FINISH; or, Striking Hard Over the Sea for the Stars and Stripes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS AT THE MARNE; or, Harrying the Huns From Allied Battleplanes. OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN AT THE VICTORY; or, Speedy High Flyers Smashing the Hindenburg Line. * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York * * * * * The Boy Scouts Series By HERBERT CARTER * * * * * Handsome Cloth Binding, PRICE, 75 per Volume * * * * * THE BOY SCOUTS' FIRST CAMP FIRE; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE BLUE RIDGE; or, Marooned Among the Moonshiners. THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL; or, Scouting through the Big Game Country. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE MAIN WOODS; or, The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol. THE BOY SCOUTS THROUGH THE BIG TIMBER; or, The Search for the Lost Tenderfoot. THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver Mine. THE BOY SCOUTS ON STURGEON ISLAND; or, Marooned Among the Game Fish Poachers. BOY SCOUTS DOWN IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator Swamp. THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA; A story of Burgoyne's defeat in 1777. THE BOY SCOUTS ALONG THE SUSQUEHANNA; or, The Silver Fox Patrol Caught in a Flood. THE BOY SCOUTS ON WAR TRAILS IN BELGIUM; or, Caught Between the Hostile Armies. THE BOY SCOUTS AFOOT IN FRANCE; or, With the Red Cross Corps at the Marne. * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd St., New York * * * * * The Navy Boys Series [Illustration] * * * * * A series of excellent stories of adventure on sea and land, selected from the works of popular writers; each volume designed for boys' reading. HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS * * * * * PRICE, 75 PER VOLUME * * * * * THE NAVY BOYS IN DEFENCE OF LIBERTY. A story of the burning of the British schooner Gasnee in 1772 By William P. Chipman. THE NAVY BOYS ON LONG ISLAND SOUND. A story of the Whale Boat Navy of 1776. 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By William P. Chipman. THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS. The adventures of two Yankee Middies with the first cruise of a: American Squadron in 1775. By William P. Chipman. THE NAVY BOYS' CRUISE WITH COLUMBUS. The adventures of two boys who sailed with the great Admiral in his discovery of America. By Frederick A. Ober. * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street. New York * * * * * The Boy Spies Series * * * * * [Illustration] These stories are based on important historical events, scenes wherein boys are prominent characters being selected. They are the romance of history, vigorously told, with careful fidelity to picturing the home life, and accurate in every particular. HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS * * * * * PRICE, 75 PER VOLUME * * * * * THE BOY SPIES AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. A story of the part they took in its defence. By William P. Chipman. 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60017	----	[Illustration] UNCLE WIGGILY'S (TRADE MARK REGISTERED) AUTOMOBILE _by_ HOWARD R. GARIS _Author of_ "UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES", "UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICTURE BOOK", "UNCLE WIGGILY'S STORY BOOK", Etc. _Illustrated by_ LOUIS WISA [Illustration] A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK UNCLE WIGGILY BOOKS (TRADE MARK REGISTERED) _by_ HOWARD R. GARIS * * * * * BEDTIME STORIES UNCLE WIGGILY and CHARLIE and ARABELLA CHICK UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RINGTAILS UNCLE WIGGILY ON SUGAR ISLAND UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY UNCLE WIGGILY'S PUZZLE BOOK UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM UNCLE WIGGILY'S BUNGALOW UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP * * * * * Larger Uncle Wiggily Volumes * * * * * UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICTURE BOOK _33 full colored illustrations and 32 in black and white_ UNCLE WIGGILY'S STORY BOOK _16 full colored illustrations and 29 in black and white_ _Copyright 1913 by_ R. F. FENNO & COMPANY UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE * * * * * _Printed in the United States of America_ PUBLISHER'S NOTE These stories appeared originally in the Evening News, of Newark, N. J., and are reproduced in book form by the kind permission of the publishers of that paper, to whom the author extends his thanks. Uncle Wiggily's Automobile * * * * * STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SORROWFUL CROW Once upon a time, a good many years ago, there was an old rabbit gentleman named Uncle Wiggily Longears. He was related to Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, as well as being an Uncle to Sammie and Susie Littletail, his rabbit nephew and niece. And Uncle Wiggily lived near Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs, while, not far away was the home of the Wibblewobble family of ducks, and across the street, almost, around the corner by the old slump, were the Kat children, and Neddie and Beckie Stubtail, the nice bear children. One day Uncle Wiggily was not feeling very well, so he sent for Dr. Possum, who soon came over. Dr. Possum found Uncle Wiggily sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch of the hollow stump house where he lived. "Well, what is the trouble, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Dr. Possum, as he looked over the tops of his glasses. "I am sick," answered the rabbit gentleman. "Sick; eh?" exclaimed Dr. Possum. "Let me see. Put out your tongue!" Uncle Wiggily did so. "Ha! Hum!" exclaimed Dr. Possum. "Yes, I think you are ill, and you will have to do something for it right away." "What will I have to do?" asked Uncle Wiggily, anxious-like, and his nose twinkled like a star on a frosty night. "You will simply have to go away," said Dr. Possum. "There is no help for it." "I don't see why!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, and he bent one of his long ears forward and the other backward, until he looked as if he had the letter V on top of his head. But, of course, he hadn't, for that letter is in the reading book--or it was the last time I looked. "Yes," said Dr. Possum, "you must go away." "I don't see why," said Uncle Wiggily again. "Couldn't I get well at home here?" "No, you could not," replied Dr. Possum. "If you want me to tell you the truth----" "Oh, always tell the truth!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, quickly. "Always!" "Well, then," said Dr. Possum, as he looked in his medicine case, to see if he had any strong peppermint for Aunt Jerushia Ann, the little, nervous old lady woodchuck. "Well, then, to tell you the truth, you are getting too fat, and you must take more exercise." "Exercise!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why! Don't I play a game of Scotch checkers with Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old gentleman duck, nearly every day? And we always eat the sugar cookies we use for checkers." "That's just it," said Dr. Possum, as he rolled up a sweet sugar-pill for Sammie Littletail, the mill rabbit boy; "you eat too much, and you don't jump around enough." "But I used to," said Uncle Wiggily, while he twinkled his pink nose like a red star on a frosty night. "Why, don't you remember the time I went off and had a lot of adventures, and how I traveled after my fortune, and found it?" "That is just the trouble," spoke Dr. Possum. "You found your fortune, and since you became rich you do nothing. I remember the time when you used to teach Sammie and Susie Littletail how to keep out of traps, and how to dig burrows and watch out for savage dogs." "Ah, yes!" sighed Uncle Wiggily. "Those were happy days." "And healthful days, too," said Dr. Possum. "You were much better off then, and not so fat." "And so you think I had better start traveling again?" asked Uncle Wiggily, taking off his high hat and bowing politely to Uncle Lettie, the nice goat lady, who was passing by, with her two horns sticking through holes in her Sunday-go-to-meeting bonnet. "Yes, it would be the best thing for you," spoke Dr. Possum. "Medicine is all right sometimes, but fresh air, and sunshine, and being out-of-doors, and happy and contented, and helping people, as Uncle Booster, the old ground hog gentleman, used to do--all these are better than medicine." "How is Uncle Booster, by the way?" inquired the rabbit gentleman. "Fine! He helped a little girl mouse to jump over a mud puddle the other day, and after she was on the other side she jumped back, all by herself, and fell in," said Dr. Possum, with a laugh. "That's the kind of a gentleman Uncle Booster is!" "Ha! Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That's queer! But now do you think it would do me any good to start off and have some adventures in my automobile?" "It would be better to walk," said Dr. Possum. "Remember you called me in to tell you what was the matter with you, because you felt ill. And I tell you that you must go around more; take more exercise. Still, if you had rather go in your auto than walk, I have no objections." "I had much rather," said Uncle Wiggily. "I like my auto." "Then," said Dr. Possum, "I will write that as a prescription." So on a piece of white birch bark he wrote: "One auto ride every day, to be taken before meals. Dr. Possum." "I'll do it at once," said the rabbit gentleman. Uncle Wiggily Longears was a quite rich, you know, having found his fortune, of about a million yellow carrots, as I have told you in some other stories, so he could afford to have an auto. And it was the nicest auto you could imagine. It had a turnip for a steering wheel, and whenever Uncle Wiggily got hungry he could take a bite of turnip. Sometimes after a long trip the steering wheel would be all eaten up, and old Circus Dog Percival, who mended broken autos, would have to put on a new wheel. And to make a noise, so that no one would get run over by his machine, Uncle Wiggily had a cow's horn fastened on his auto; so instead of going "Honk-honk!" like a duck, it went "Moo! Moo!" like a bossy cow at supper time. "Well, if I'm going off for my health, I'd better start," said Uncle Wiggily, as he went out to his auto after Dr. Possum had gone. "I'll take a long ride." So he got in the machine, and pushed on the doodle-oodle-um, and twisted the tinkerum-tankerum, and away he went as fast as anything, if not faster. Over the fields and through the woods he went, and pretty soon he came to a place where lived a sorrowful crow gentleman. The crow is a black bird, and it pulls up corn and goes "Caw! Caw! Caw!" Nobody knows why, though. And this crow was very sorrowful. He was always thinking something unpleasant was going to happen, such as that he was going to drop his ice cream cone in the mud, or that somebody would put whitewash on him. Oh, he was very sorrowful, was this crow, and his name was Mr. Caw-caw. When Uncle Wiggily got to where the crow was sitting in a tree the black creature cried: "Oh, dear! O woe is me! O unhappiness!" "Why, what is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, curious-like! "Oh, something is going to happen!" cried the crow. "I know it will rain or snow or freeze, or maybe my feathers will all blow off." "Don't be silly!" said Uncle Wiggily. "You just come for an auto ride with me, and you'll feel better. Come along, bless your black tail!" So Mr. Caw-caw got into the auto, and once more Uncle Wiggily started off. He had not gone very far before, all of a sudden, there was a bangity-bang noise, and the auto stopped so quickly that Uncle Wiggily and the crow were almost thrown out of their seats. "There!" cried the black crow. "I knew something would happen!" and he cried "Caw! Caw! Caw!" "It is nothing at all," said the rabbit gentleman as he got out to look. "Only the whizzicum-whazzicum has become twisted around the jump-over-the-clothes basket, and we can't go until it's fixed." "Can't go?" asked the crow. "Can't go--no," said Uncle Wiggily. And he didn't know what to do. But just then along came Old Dog Percival, who used to work in a circus. "I'll pull you along," he said. "You sit in the auto and steer, and I'll pull you." And he did, by a rope fast to the car. The crow said it was funny to have a circus dog pulling an auto, but Uncle Wiggily did not mind, and soon they were at a place where the auto could be fixed. So Uncle Wiggily and the crow waited there, while the machine was being mended. "And we will see what happens to us to-morrow," said Uncle Wiggily, "for I am going to travel on." And he did. And in case the jumping rope doesn't skip over the clock, and make the hands tickle the face I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the school teacher. STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SCHOOL TEACHER Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was riding along in his automobile, with the turnip for a steering wheel, and he had not yet taken more than two bites out of the turnip, for it was only shortly after breakfast. With him was Mr. Caw-caw, the black crow gentleman. "Do you think your automobile will go all right now?" asked the crow, as he looked down from his seat at the big wheels which had German sausages around for tires, so in case Old Percival, the circus dog, got hungry, he could eat one for lunch. "Oh yes, it will go all right now," said the rabbit gentleman. "Specially since we have had it fixed." I think, if I am not mistaken, and in case the cat has not eat up all the bacon, that I told you in the story before this one how Uncle Wiggily had been advised by Dr. Possum to go traveling around for his health and how he had started off in the auto. Did I tell you that? He met Mr. Caw-caw and the tinkle-inkle-um on the auto broke, or else it was the widdle-waddle-um. Anyhow, it wouldn't go, and Old Dog Percival, coming along, pulled the machine to the fixing place. Then Uncle Wiggily and Mr. Caw-caw slept all night and now it was daylight again and they had started off once more. "It is a lovely morning," said Uncle Wiggily, as he drove the machine over the fields and through the woods. "A lovely spring day!" "But we may get an April shower before night," said Mr. Caw-caw, the crow gentleman, who had black feathers and who was always sad instead of being happy. "Oh, dear, I'm sure it will rain," he said. "Nonsensicalness!" cried Uncle Wiggily, swinging his ears around just like some circus balloons trying to get away from an elephant eating peanuts. "Cheer up! Be happy!" "Well, if it doesn't rain it will snow," said the sad crow. "Oh, cheer up," said Uncle Wiggily, as he took another bite out of the turnip steering wheel. "Have a nibble," he went on politely. "It may only blow." "I'm sure it will do something," spoke the gloomy crow. "Anyhow I don't care for turnip." "Have some corn then," said Uncle Wiggily. "Is it popped?" asked the crow. "No, but I can pop it," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I will pop it on my automobile engine, which gets very hot, almost like a gas stove." So the old rabbit gentleman, who was riding around in his auto to take exercise, because he was getting too fat, and Dr. Possum had said so, popped the corn on the hot engine, and very good it was, too, for the crow to eat. But even the popcorn could not seem to make the unhappy crow feel better, and he cried so much, as the auto went along, that his tears made a mud-puddle in the road where they happened to be just then. And the auto wheels, with the German bologna sausages on for tires, splashed in the mud and made it fly all over like anything. Then, just as Uncle Wiggily steered the auto right away from the road into a nice green wood, where the leaves were just coming out on the trees, the old gentleman rabbit heard some one saying: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear me! I know I'll never be at school on time! Oh, what a bad accident!" "My!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What can that be?" "Oh, something dreadful, you may be sure," said Mr. Caw-caw, the crow gentleman. "Oh, I just knew something would happen on this trip." "Well, let it happen!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I like things to happen. This seems to be some one in trouble, and I am going to help, whoever it is." "Then please help me," said the voice. "Who are you?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I am the lady mouse school teacher," said some one they could not see, "and on my way to school I ran a thorn in my foot, so I cannot walk. If I am not there on time to open the school, the children will not know what to do. Oh, isn't it terrible!" "Say no more!" cried Uncle Wiggily, cheerfully. "You shall ride to school in my auto. Then you will be there on time, and the animal children will not have to go home and miss their lessons. I am so glad I can help you. Isn't it horribly jolly to help people?" cried Uncle Wiggily to the crow, just as an English rabbit might have done. "Ha! It's jolly, all right, if you can help them," said the crow. "But I'm sure something will happen. Some bad elephant will eat off our sausage tires, or a cow will drink the gasoline, or we shall roll down a hill." "Nonsensicalness!" cried Uncle Wiggily, real exasperated-like, which means bothered. "Get in, Miss Mouse School Teacher," he said, "and I will soon have you at your classes." So the lady mouse school teacher got into the auto, and sat beside Mr. Caw-caw, who asked her how many six and seven grains of corn were. "Thirteen," said the nice mouse school teacher. "Thirteen in the winter," spoke the crow, "but I mean in summer." "Six and seven are thirteen in summer just as in winter," said the lady mouse. "Wrong," croaked the crow. "If you plant thirteen grains of corn in summer you'll get thirteen stalks, each with thirteen ears of corn on, and each ear has five hundred and sixty-three grains, and thirteen times thirteen times five hundred and sixty-three makes--how many does it make?" he asked of Uncle Wiggily suddenly. "Oh, please stop!" cried the lady mouse school teacher; "you make my head ache." "How much is one headache and two headaches?" asked the crow, who seemed quite curious. "Stop! Stop!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he took a bite out of the turnip steering wheel. "You will make the auto turn a somersault." "How much," said the crow, "is one somersault and one peppersault added to a mustard plaster and divided by----" "There you go!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily as the auto hit a stone and stopped. "You've made the plunkity-plunk bite the wizzie-wazzie!" "Oh, dear!" cried the crow. "I knew something would happen!" "Well, it was your fault," said Uncle Wiggily. "Now I'll have to have the auto fixed again." "Can't we go on to school?" asked the lady mouse teacher anxiously. "No, I am sorry to say, we cannot," said Uncle Wiggily. "Then I shall be late, and the children will all run home after all. Oh, dear!" "I knew something--" began the crow. "Stop it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, provoked-like. The lady mouse school teacher did not know what to do, and it looked as if she would be late, for even when Uncle Wiggily had crawled under the auto, and had put pepper on the German sausage tires, he could not make the machine go. But, just as the school teacher was going to be late, along came flying Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, with his new airship. And in the airship he gave the lady mouse school teacher a ride to school up above the tree tops, so she was not late after all. She called a good-by to Uncle Wiggily, who some time afterward had his auto fixed again, and then he and the crow gentleman went on and had more adventures. What the next one was I'll tell you on the next page, when the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the candy--that is, if a little Montclair girl, named Cora, doesn't eat too much peanut brittle, and get her hair so sticky that the brush can't comb it. STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CANDY Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was riding along in his automobile, with the turnip for a steering wheel and big, fat German bologna sausages on for tires. On the seat beside Uncle Wiggily was the crow gentleman, named Mr. Caw-caw. "Well, where do you think you will go to-day?" asked the crow gentleman, as he straightened out some of his black feathers with his black bill, for the wind had ruffled them all up. "Where will I go?" repeated Uncle Wiggily, as he steered to one side so he would not run over a stone and hurt it, "well, to tell you the truth--I hardly know. Dr. Possum, when he told me to ride around for my health, because I was getting too fat, did not say where I was to go, in particular." "Then let's go straight ahead," said the crow. "I don't like going around in a circle; it makes me dizzy." "And it does me, also," spoke the rabbit gentleman. "That is why I never can ride much on a merry-go-'round, though I often take Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, my squirrel nephews, or Buddy and Brighteyes, the guinea pig children, on one for a little while. But, Mr. Crow, we will go straight ahead in my auto, and we will see what adventure happens to us next." For you know something was always happening to Uncle Wiggily as he traveled around. Sometimes it was one thing, and sometimes another. You remember, I dare say, how, the day before, he had nearly helped to keep the nice lady mouse school teacher from being late. Well, pretty soon, as Uncle Wiggily and the crow gentleman were riding in the auto, all at once they looked down the road and saw a little girl sitting on a stone. She had a box in her hands and she was trying to open it. But she was crying so hard that she could not see out of her eyes, because of her tears, and so she could not open the box. "My goodness me sakes alive, and some roast beef gravy!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he stopped the auto. "What can be the matter with that child?" For you know Uncle Wiggily loved children. Then the old gentleman rabbit blew on the cow's horn, that was on his auto to warn people kindly to get out of danger, and the cow's horn went "Moo! Moo! Moo!" very softly, three times just like that. The little girl looked up through her tears, and when she saw Uncle Wiggily and the crow gentleman in the auto, she smiled and asked: "Where is the mooley cow?" "Only her horn is here," said Uncle Wiggily, as he made it go "Moo!" again. "Oh, dear," said the little girl. "I just love a mooley cow," and she was going to cry some more, because there was no cow to be seen, when Uncle Wiggily asked: "What is the matter? Why are you crying?" "Because I can't get this box open," said the little girl, whose name was Cora. "What is in the box?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Candy," said little Cora. "I just love candy, and I haven't had any in ever so long. Now my papa gave me a box, but the string is tied on it so tightly that I can't get the box open, and my papa went away and forgot about it. Oh, dear. Boo! hoo! Can you open it for me, Uncle Wiggily?" The rabbit gentleman thought for a moment. Then he said, with a twinkle in his eyes that matched the twinkle in his nose: "Well, possibly I might untie the string, but you see my teeth are so big and sharp, and are so used to gnawing wood, and bark and carrots, and I can't see very well, even with my glasses, so I might accidentally, when I bite through the string I might, by mistake, also bite through the box, and eat the candy myself." "Oh, dear!" cried the little girl. Then she added quickly, as she thought of her polite manners: "I wouldn't mind, Uncle Wiggily, if you did eat some of the candy. Only open the box for me so I can get part of it," she said. "I think I have a better plan than that," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I will ask Mr. Caw-caw, our crow friend here, to untie the string for you. With his sharp bill this crow gentleman can easily loosen the knot, and that, too, without danger of breaking the box and taking any candy." "Will he do it?" asked the little girl eagerly. "To be sure, I will," said the crow gentleman, and he loosened that knot then and there with his sharp bill, which seemed just made for such things. "Oh, what lovely candy!" cried the little girl, as she took the cover off the box. "I am going to give you each some!" she added. And she gave Mr. Caw-caw some candy flavored with green corn, for he liked that best of all, and to Uncle Wiggily she gave some nice, soft, squishie-squashie candy, with a carrot inside. And the little girl ate some chocolate candy for herself, and did not cry any more. "Get in my auto," said Uncle Wiggily, "and I will give you a ride. Perhaps we may have an adventure." "Oh, I just love adventures!" said little Cora. "I love them even better than candy. But we can eat candy in the auto anyhow," she went on, with a laugh, as she climbed up in the seat. Then Uncle Wiggily turned the tinkerum-tankerum, and with a feather tickled the whizzicum-whazzicum to make the auto go, and it went. The old rabbit gentleman made the cow's horn blow "Moo! Moo!" and away they started off through the woods. They had not gone very far, and Cora had eaten only about six pieces of candy, when they heard a voice behind them shouting: "Wait for me! Wait for me! I want a ride!" "Ha!" cawed the crow, "who can that be?" "I'll look," said Uncle Wiggily, and he did. Then he exclaimed: "Oh, dear! It's the circus elephant. And he's grown so big lately, that if he gets in with us he will break my auto." "Don't let him do it then," said Mr. Caw-caw. "I don't believe I will," said Uncle Wiggily. "But would it be polite not to give him a ride?" asked the little girl, as she ate another piece of candy. "No, you are right, it would not," said Uncle Wiggily, decidedly. "I must give him a ride, but he's sure to break my auto, and then I can't ride around for my health any more, and stop getting fat. Oh, dear, what a predicament!" A predicament means trouble, you know. Then the elephant called again: "I say, hold on there! I want a ride!" and he came on as fast as anything. Uncle Wiggily was going to stop, and let the big creature get in, when the crow gentleman said: "I have it! We'll pretend we don't hear him. We'll keep right on, and not stop, and then it won't be impolite, for he will think we didn't listen to what he said." "That's it," said Uncle Wiggily. "We'll do that. Pachy is the dearest old chap in the world, you know, but he really is too big for this auto." Pachy was the elephant's name, you see. So Uncle Wiggily made the auto go faster, and still the elephant ran after it, calling: "Stop! Stop! I want a ride!" "He's catching up to us," said the crow, looking back. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "what's to be done?" "I know what to do," spoke Cora. "I'll drop some pieces of candy in the road for him, and when he stops to eat them we can get so far away he can't catch up to us." "Please do," begged Uncle Wiggily, and the little girl did. And when the elephant saw the pieces of candy, being very fond of sweet things, he stopped to pick them up in his trunk and eat them. And it took him quite a while, for the candy was well scattered about. And when the elephant had eaten the last piece Uncle Wiggily and the crow, and little girl, were far off in the auto and the elephant could not catch them to break the machine; though even if he had smashed it he would not have meant to do so. So Uncle Wiggily rode on, looking for more adventures, and he soon found one. I'll tell you about it in the next story, which will be called, "Uncle Wiggily at the Squirrel House;"--that is if the clothes wringer doesn't squeeze the rubber ball so it cries and makes water come in the eyes of the potatoes. STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SQUIRREL HOUSE Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was standing one day in front of his new automobile which had run away with him upsetting, and breaking one of the wheels. But it had been fixed all right again. "I think this automobile will go fine now," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he got up on the front seat. "Now, I am ready to start off on some more travels, and in search of more adventures, and this time I won't have to walk. Now let me see, do I turn on the fizzle-fazzle first or the twinkum-twankum? I forget." So he looked carefully all over the automobile to see if he could remember what first to turn to make it go, but he couldn't think what it was. Because, you see, he was all excited over his accident. I didn't tell you that story because I thought it might make you cry. It was very sad. The crow gentleman flew away after it. "I guess I'll have to look in the cookbook," said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps that will tell me what to do." So he took out a cookbook from under the seat and leafed it over until he came to the page where it tells how to cook automobiles, and there he found what he wanted to know. "Ha! I see!" cried Uncle Wiggily; "first I must twist the dinkum-dankum, and then I must tickle the tittlecum-tattlecum, and then I'll go." Well, he did this, and just as he was about to start off on his journey out came running Sammie and Susie Littletail, the two rabbit children, with whom Uncle Wiggily sometimes lived. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Susie, "where are you going?" "And may we come along?" asked Sammie, making his nose twinkle like two stars on a night in June. "I am going off on a long journey, for my health, and to look for more adventures," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I am tired of staying around the house taking medicine for my rheumatism. So Dr. Possum told me to travel around. I don't just know where I am going, but I am going somewhere, and if you like you may come part of the way. Hop in." Sammie and Susie hopped in the back part of the auto, where there were two little seats for them, and then Uncle Wiggily turned the whizzicum-whazzicum around backward and away they went as nicely as the baby creeps over the floor to catch the kittie by the tail; only you mustn't do that, you know; indeed not! "Oh, isn't this great?" cried Susie, in delight. "It certainly is," agreed Sammie, blinking his pink eyes because the wind blew in them. "I hope Uncle Wiggily has an adventure while we're with him." And then, all of a sudden, a doggie ran across the road in front of the auto, and the doggie's tail was hanging down behind him and sticking out quite a bit, and, as it was quite a long tail, Uncle Wiggily nearly ran over it, but, of course, he didn't mean to, even if he had done it. "Look out of the way, little doggie!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, kindly. "I am looking as fast as I can!" cried the doggie, and he ran to the sidewalk as quickly as he could, and then he turned around to see if his tail was still fastened to him. "That came near being an adventure," said Susie, waving her pocket handkerchief. "Yes, almost too near," said Uncle Wiggily. "I think I will go through the woods instead of along the streets, and then I won't be in any danger of running over any one." So he steered the auto toward the woodland road, and Sammie cried: "Oh, I know what let's do! Let's go call on Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boys. Then we'll have some fun." "All right, we'll do it," agreed Uncle Wiggily, for he liked fun as much as the children did, if not more. Well, as they were going along the road, all of a sudden they heard a little voice calling to them. "Oh, please don't run over me!" the voice cried. "Please be careful!" And, looking down, Sammie saw a little black cricket on the path just ahead of the auto, which Uncle Wiggily was now making go very slowly. "Why don't you get out of the way if you don't want to be run over?" asked Susie, politely, for the cricket just stood still there, looking at them, and not making a move. "Oh, I'm so stiff from the cold that I can't hop about any more," said the cricket, "or else I would hop out of the way. You know I can't stand cold weather." [Illustration] "That's too bad," said Uncle Wiggily as he stopped the auto. "I'll give you a ride, and perhaps I can find some warm place for you to spend the winter." So the old gentleman rabbit kindly picked up the cold and stiff cricket and gave it to Susie, and Susie gently put it in the warm pocket of her jacket, and there it was so nice and cozy-ozy that the cricket went fast to sleep. And then, in about forty-'leven squeak-squawk toots of the big mooley-cow automobile horn, there they were at the home of Johnnie and Billy Bushytail, the squirrel brothers. "Toot! Toot!" tooted Uncle Wiggily on his tooter-tooter mooley-cow horn. "There! I guess that will bring out the boys if they are in the house," said the old gentleman rabbit. And then, all of a sudden, something happened. Susie and Sammie were looking at the front door, expecting Johnnie and Billie to come out, when Susie saw a great big bear's face up at one window of the squirrel house. "Oh! Look! Look!" she cried. "The bear has gotten in and maybe he has bitten Johnnie." And just then Sammie looked at the other window and he saw a wolf's face peering out. "Oh, dear!" cried Sammie, "the wolf has gotten Billie." "My gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'm going for the police right away. Hold on tightly, children, for I am going to twist the tinkerum-tankerum and make this automobile go very fast. Oh! how sorry I am for poor Johnnie and Billie." But just before Uncle Wiggily could start the auto, there was a shout of laughter. The front door of the Bushytail home swung open, and out rushed Billie and Johnnie, jumping and skipping. And Johnnie had a wolf's false face in his paws and Billie had a bear's false face in his paws. "Ho! Ho!" they shouted together. "Did we scare you, Uncle Wiggily? We didn't mean to, but we were just practising." "Was that you boys looking out of the windows with your false faces on?" asked Uncle Wiggily very much surprised-like. "That was us," said Johnnie. "And wasn't there a real bear?" asked Susie, flapping her ears. "And wasn't it a real wolf?" asked Sammie, wiggling his paws. "Not a bit," said Billie. "We're just getting ready for Hallowe'en to-morrow night, and those were our false faces, you know, and I wish you'd all stay with us and have some fun." "We will," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll put my auto in the barn, and we'll stay." So they did, and in case the little wooden dog with the pink-blue nose doesn't bite the tail of the woolly cat, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily having Hallowe'en fun. STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY'S HALLOWE'EN FUN "Oh, dear, I wish it were night," said Susie Littletail. "So do I!" exclaimed Sammie, her brother. "Then it would be Hallowe'en." "And both of us wish the same thing," said Johnnie Bushytail, as he and his brother Billie went skipping about the room of their house. "Oh, don't wish so hard or night might come before I'm ready for it," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit. "I've got to decorate my auto yet and get my false face, you know." "What kind are you going to have?" asked Susie. "Oh, I think I'll dress up like an elephant," said Uncle Wiggily. "But what will you do for a trunk?" asked Mrs. Bushytail, for, you see, Uncle Wiggily and Sammie and Susie had stayed at the squirrel's house to have some fun. This was the first place the old gentleman rabbit came to after starting out in his auto for his health, and after some fresh adventures. "What will you do for an elephant's trunk?" asked Mrs. Bushytail. "I will take a long stocking and stuff it full of soft cotton so it will look just like an elephant's face," said Uncle Wiggily. "Then I'll go out with the children in my auto and we'll have a lot of fun." So all that day they got ready for the Hallowe'en fun they were to have that night. Johnnie and Billie had their false faces, you remember; Johnnie had a wolf's face and Billie a bear's, and they were too cute for anything. But, of course, Sammie and Susie Littletail and Uncle Wiggily had to have some false faces also, and it took quite a while for the rabbit children to decide what they wanted. "I think I'll dress up like a wild Indian," said Sammie at last. "And I'm going to be a pussy cat," said Susie. "And if any dogs chase you, I'll growl at them, and scare them away," said Billie, who was going to be a make-believe bear. "Yes, and I'll tickle them with my stuffed-stocking elephant's trunk," said Uncle Wiggily. "Now, I must go out and put some oil and gasoline in my auto, and see that the frizzle-frazzle works all right, so we can go Hallowe'en riding to-night." Finally the animal children were all ready, and they were waiting for it to get dark so they could go out. And, pretty soon, after supper, when the sun had gone to bed, it did get dark. Then the four animal children and Uncle Wiggily went out in the auto. Say, I just wish you could have seen them; really I do! and I'd show you a picture of them, only I'm not allowed to do that. And besides it was too dark to see pictures well, so perhaps it doesn't much matter. Oh, but they were the funny looking sights, though! Billy Bushytail acted like a real bear, growling as hard as ever he could, though, of course, he was polite about it, as it was only fun. And what a savage make-believe wolf Johnnie was! And there was Susie, as cute a little pussy cat as one would meet with in going from here to the moon and back. And as for Sammie, well, say, he was so much like a real Indian that when he looked in the glass he was frightened at himself; yes, really he was, and he had truly feathers on, too; not make-believe ones, either. Uncle Wiggily was dressed up like an elephant, and he sat in the front of the auto to steer it. Only his stuffed-stocking trunk got in the way of the steering wheel, so Uncle Wiggily had to put it behind him, over his left shoulder and have Susie hold it. I mean she held his stuffed-stocking trunk, not the steering wheel, you know. "Here we go!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily, and his voice sounded far away because it had to go down inside the stuffed-stocking elephant trunk and come out again around in back of him. Then he twisted the tinkerum-tankerum, and away they went in the automobile. All at once, from around a corner, came a big clown with red, white and blue all over his face. He had a rattlety-bang-banger thing and he was making a terrible racket on it. "Oh, I know who that is!" cried Susie. "You're Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck." "That's right," said the clown, making more noise than ever. "Whoop-de-doodle-do! Isn't this fun!" Along went the auto and by this time there were a whole lot of animal children prancing and dancing around it. Uncle Wiggily had to make the auto go real slowly so as not to hurt any of them, for they were all over the streets. There was Buddy Pigg, dressed up like a camel, and there was Dickie Chip-Chip and his sister, and they were dressed up like sailors. Brighteyes Pigg had on a cow's false face and Billie Goat was dressed up like a Chinaman, while Nannie, his sister, was supposed to be a lady with a sealskin coat on. Oh, I couldn't tell you how all the different animal children were dressed, but I'll just say that Bully, the frog, with his tall hat, was dressed like a football player and Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, made believe she was a fireman, and Munchie Trot was a pretend-policeman. And such fun as they had! Uncle Wiggily steered the auto here and there, and squeaked and squawked his tooter-teeter so no one would get hurt. There were about forty-'leven tin horns being blown, and the wooden rattlety-bang-bangs were rattling all over and some one threw a whole lot of prettily colored paper in the air until it looked as if it were raining red, pink, green, purple, blue, yellow and skilligimink colored snow. And then, all at once, out from the crowd, came a figure that looked like a bear. Oh, it was very real looking with long teeth, and shaggy fur, and that bear came right up to the auto that Uncle Wiggily was steering. "I've come to get you!" growled the bear, away down in his throat. "Oh, he's almost real!" exclaimed Susie, and she forgot that she was holding Uncle Wiggily's stuffed-stocking trunk, and let go of it, so that it hung down in front of him. "I am a real bear!" growled the shaggy creature. "Oh, you can't fool us," said Johnnie Bushytail, with a laugh. "You're Jacko or Jumpo Kinkytail dressed up like a bear, just as my brother Billie is. You can't fool us." "But I am a real bear!" growled the shaggy creature again, "and I'm hungry so I'm going to bite Uncle Wiggily." And, would you ever believe it? he was a real bear who had come in from the woods. He made a grab for Uncle Wiggily, but the old gentleman rabbit leaned far back in his auto seat, and the bear only got hold of the stuffed-stocking trunk. And then the bear pulled on that so hard that it came all apart and the cotton stuffing came out, and got up the bear's nose and made him sneeze. And then up came running Munchie Trot, the pony boy, who was dressed like a policeman, and with his club Munchie tickled the bear on his ear, and that shaggy creature was glad enough to run back to the woods, taking his little stubby tail with him, so he didn't eat anybody. "My, it's a good thing, I didn't have on a real elephant's trunk," said Uncle Wiggily, "or that bear would have bitten it off, for real trunks are fastened on tight." "Yes, indeed," said Susie. So after everybody got over being scared at the real bear they had a lot of fun and Uncle Wiggily took all the children to a store and treated them to hot chocolate, and then he and Sammie and Susie and Billie and Johnnie went home in the auto, and went to bed. And Uncle Wiggily had another adventure next day. I'll tell you about it on the page after this, when, in case it doesn't rain lightning bugs down the chimney, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily going chestnutting. STORY VI UNCLE WIGGILY GOES CHESTNUTTING "Where are you going this morning, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Johnnie Bushytail of the old gentleman rabbit the day after the Hallowe'en fun. "Oh, I am going to take a ride and see if I can find any more adventures," said Uncle Wiggily, as he went out in the barn to look and see if his auto had any holes in the rubber tires, or if the what-you-may-call-it had gotten twisted around the whose-this-cantankerum. "May I go with you?" asked Billie Bushytail, as he followed Uncle Wiggily. "We don't want you to go away from our house so soon. We'd like to have you pay us a nice, long visit." "Hum, well, I'll think about it," said Uncle Wiggily, slowly, and careful-like. "I'll stay as long as I can. But as for you squirrel boys going for a ride in my auto, why I guess you may come if your mamma will let you. Yes, it's all ready for a spin," he went on, as he saw that the tiddle-taddleum was on straight, and that the wheels had no holes in them. "Oh, goody! Come on!" cried Billie to Johnnie; so into the house they hurried to ask their mamma, and she said they might go. A little later, with the squirrel boys sitting in the back part of the auto, away they went, Uncle Wiggily steering here and there and taking care not to run over any puppy-dogs' tails or over any alligators' noses. "Are you going off in the woods?" asked Johnnie, as he saw the old gentleman rabbit steering toward the tree-forest. "I think I will," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I want to see Grandfather Goosey Gander, and if we go through the woods that is the shortest way to his house." "Then, perhaps, we can stop and gather some chestnuts," said Johnnie. "There may be a few left that the other squirrels haven't yet picked up, and I heard papa saying to mamma the other night that we need a whole lot more than we have, so we wouldn't be hungry this winter." "Oh, yes; let's get chestnuts!" cried Billie. "All right," answered Uncle Wiggily, smiling, and then he had to turn the auto to one side very quickly, for a fuzzy worm was hurrying along the path, on her way to the grocery store, and Uncle Wiggily didn't want to run over her, you know. "Thank you very much for not squashing me flat like a pancake," said the worm, as she wiggled along. "Oh, pray do not mention such a little thing," said Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I am always glad to do you a favor like that." Then he turned the handle so some more gasoline would squirt into the fizzle-fozzleum, and away the automobile went faster than ever. Pretty soon they came to the woods, and Johnnie and Billie began looking about for chestnut trees. Squirrels, you know, can tell a chestnut tree a great way off, and soon Johnnie saw one. "Stop the auto here, Uncle Wiggily," said Johnnie, "and we'll see if there are any chestnuts left." So the old gentleman rabbit did this, and, surely enough, there were quite a few of the brown nuts lying on the ground, partly covered with leaves. "Take a stick and poke around and you'll find more," said Billie to his brother, and pretty soon all three of them, including Uncle Wiggily, were picking up the nuts. Of course, the automobile couldn't pick up any; it just had to stand still there, looking on. I guess you know that, anyhow, but I just thought I'd mention it to make sure. "Oh, here is another tree over there!" cried Johnnie after a while, as he ran to a large one. "It's got heaps and heaps of chestnuts under it, too. I guess no squirrels or any chipmunks have been here. Oh, we can get lots of nuts to put away for winter!" So the two squirrel boys filled their pockets with nuts, and so did Uncle Wiggily, and they even put some in the automobile, though, of course, the auto couldn't eat them, but it could carry them away. And then, all of a sudden, Billie cried: "Oh, I know what let's do! Let's build a little fire and roast some of the chestnuts. They're fine roasted." "I guess they are," said Uncle Wiggily, "and so we'll cook some, though, as for me, I'd rather have a roast carrot or a bit of baked apple." "Maybe we can find some apples to bake while we're roasting the chestnuts," said Billie. "We'll look." They looked all around, and in a field not far from the woods they found an apple tree and there were some apples on the ground under it. They picked up quite a few and then they got some flat stones and made a place to build a fire. Uncle Wiggily lighted it, for it isn't good for children to have anything to do with matches, and soon the fire was blazing up very nicely and was quite hot. "Now put the chestnuts down to roast on the hot stones," said the rabbit gentleman, after a bit, to the two squirrel boys, "and I'll put some apples on a sharp stick and hold them near the blaze to roast. Why, boys! This is as much fun for me as a picnic!" he exclaimed joyfully. But listen! Something is going to happen. All of a sudden, as they were sitting quietly around the fire and wishing the apples and chestnuts would hurry up and roast, all of a sudden a man came along with a gun. He stood by the fence that went around the field where they had picked up the apples, and that man said, in a grillery-growlery voice: "Ah, ha! So those squirrels and that rabbit have been taking my apples, eh? I can smell 'em! Sniff! Snoof! Snuff! Well, I'll soon put a stop to that! I'm glad I brought my gun along!" He was just aiming his gun at poor Uncle Wiggily and also at Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and the rabbit and the squirrels didn't know what in the world to do, for they were too frightened to run, when, all of a sudden there was a tremendously loud bang-bang in the fire and something flew out of it and hit that man right on the end of his nose. "Ouch-ouchy!" the man cried. "Bang!" went something again, and this time it flew over and hit the man on his left ear. Now what do you think of that? "Ouch! Ouchy!" the man yelled again. "Bang!" went the noise for the third shot, and this time the man was hit on his other ear. "Ouch! Ouchy!" he cried again. "They're shooting at me. I'd better run." And run away he did, taking his gun with him, and so Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie and Billie weren't hurt. "My, that was a narrow escape," said Johnnie. "What was it that made the bang noise, and hit the man?" "It was the roast chestnuts," said Uncle Wiggily, "I forgot to tell you to make little holes in them before you roasted them or else they would burst. And burst they did, and I'm glad of it, for they scared that man. But I guess we had better be going now, for he may come back." So they took the apples, which were nicely roasted now, and they took the chestnuts that were left and which hadn't burst, and away they went in the auto and had a fine ride, before going home to bed. And now I'll say good-night, but in case the cow who jumped over the moon doesn't kick our milk bottles off the back stoop, I'll tell you, in the story after this one, about Uncle Wiggily and the pumpkin. STORY VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PUMPKIN "Well," said Uncle Wiggily Longears one fine fresh morning, just after the milkman had been around to leave some cream for the coffee, "I think I will be traveling on again, Mrs. Bushytail." "Oh, don't go yet!" begged Billie, the boy squirrel. "No, you haven't made us a long visit at all," spoke his brother Johnnie. "Can't you stay a long, long time?" "Well, I promised Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, that I would come in my new automobile and pay him and his sisters a visit," said the old gentleman, as he wiggled first his left ear and then the right one to see if there were any pennies stuck in them. And he found two pennies, one for Johnnie and one for Billie. "Oh, please stay with us a few more days. You can go visit the Wibblewobble family next week," said Johnnie; "can't he, mother?" "Yes, I really think you might stay with us a little longer," said Mrs. Bushytail, as she was mending some holes in Johnnie's stocking. "Besides, I thought you might do me a favor to-day, Uncle Wiggily." "A favor!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, making a low bow. "I am always anxious to do you a favor if I can. What is it, Mrs. Bushytail?" "Why, I thought you and the boys might like to go off in the automobile and see if you could find me a nice, large yellow pumpkin," said the squirrel lady. "Oh, goody!" cried Billie. "I know what for--to make a Jack-o'-lantern for us, eh, mamma?" "Sure!" cried Johnnie, jumping up and down because he was so happy, "and we'll take it out after dark, Billie, and have some fun with Bully the frog." "Oh, no, not a pumpkin for a Jack-o'-lantern," said Mrs. Bushytail. "What I need a pumpkin for is to make some pies, and I thought you might like to get one, Uncle Wiggily." "Yes, indeed, I would!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "I am very fond of hunting pumpkins for pies, and also eating them after they are baked. I like pumpkin pie almost as much as I do cherry pie. Come on, boys, let's get into the auto and we'll go look for a pumpkin." "But don't go near that man's field who was going to shoot us the other day because we took a few apples," said Billie, and Uncle Wiggily said he wouldn't. So out they went to the barn, where the auto was kept, leaving Mrs. Bushytail in the house mending stockings and getting ready to bake the pumpkin pies. "Here we go!" cried Uncle Wiggily, when he had tickled the tinkerum-tankerum with a feather to make it sneeze. Away went the auto, and as it rolled along on its big fat wheels Uncle Wiggily sang a funny little song, like this: "Pumpkin pie is my delight, I eat it morning, noon and night, It's very good to make you grow, That's why the boys all love it so. "If I could have my dearest wish, I'd have some cherries in a dish. And then a pumpkin pie, or two; Of course, I'd save a piece for you. "Perhaps, if we are good and kind, A dozen pumpkins we may find, We'll bring them home and stew them up, And then on pumpkin pie we'll sup." Well, after he had sung that song, Uncle Wiggily felt better. The auto felt better also, I guess, for it ran along very fast, and, all of a sudden, they came to a place where there was a field of pumpkins. Oh, such lovely, large, golden yellow pumpkins as they were. "Hurray!" cried Johnnie. "Whoop-de-doodle-do!" cried Billie. "Dear me hum suz dud!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "It couldn't be better. But I wonder if these pumpkins would mind if we took one?" "Not in the least! Not in the least!" suddenly cried a voice near the fence, and looking over, Uncle Wiggily and the boys saw Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old gentleman duck, standing there on one leg. "This is my field of pumpkins," said Grandfather Goosey, "and you may take as many as you like." Then he put down his other leg, which he had been holding up under his feathers. "Thank you very much," spoke Uncle Wiggily politely. "And may we each have a pumpkin to make a Jack-o'-lantern?" asked Billie. "To be sure," answered Grandfather Goosey, so Uncle Wiggily took a very large pumpkin for a pie, and the boy squirrels took smaller ones for their lanterns. Then Uncle Wiggily took a few more to be sure he would have plenty, but none was as large as the first one. "I will send you some pumpkin pies when Mrs. Bushytail bakes them," promised the old gentleman rabbit as he got ready to travel on with the boys in the auto. "I wish you would," said Grandfather Goosey, "as I am very fond of pumpkin pie with watercress salad on top." On and on went the auto, and Billie and Johnnie were talking about how they would make their Jack-o'-lanterns and have fun, when all of a sudden, out from the bushes at the side of the road, jumped the big, bad savage wolf. "Hold on there!" he cried to Uncle Wiggily. "Stop, I want to see you!" "You want to bite me, I guess," said the old gentleman rabbit. "No, sir! I'm not going to stop." "Then I'll just make you!" growled the wolf, and with that what did he do but bite a hole in one of the big rubber tires, letting out all the wind with a puff, so the auto couldn't go any more. "Now see what you've done!" cried Johnnie. "Yes, and it was a nice, new auto, too," said Billie sorrowfully. "Fiddlesticks!" cried the wolf. "Double fiddlesticks. Don't talk to me. I'm hungry. Get out of that auto, now, so I can bite you." "Oh! what shall we do?" whispered Johnnie. "Hush! Don't say a word. I'm going to play a trick on that wolf," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he spoke to the savage creature, saying: "If you are going to eat us up, I s'pose you will; but first would you mind taking one of these pumpkins down to the bottom of the hill and leaving it there for Mrs. Bushtail to make a pie of?" "Oh, anything to oblige you, since I am going to eat you, anyhow," said the wolf. "Give me the pumpkin, but mind, don't try to run away, while I'm gone for I can catch you. I'll come back and eat you up in a minute." "All right," said Uncle Wiggily, giving the wolf a little pumpkin, and pretending to cry, to show that he was afraid. But he was only making believe, you see. Well, the wolf began to run down to the foot of the hill. "Now, quick, boys!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily. "We'll roll the biggest pumpkin down after him, and it will hit him and make him as flat as a pancake, and then he can't eat us! Lively, now!" So, surely enough, they took the big pumpkin out of the auto and rolled it down after the wolf. He heard it coming and he tried to get out of the way, but he couldn't, because he was carrying another pumpkin, and he stumbled and fell down, and the big pumpkin rolled right over him, including his tail, and he was as flat as two pancakes, and part of another one, and he couldn't even eat a toothpick. Then, Uncle Wiggily and the boys fixed the hole in the tire, pumped it full of wind, and hurried on, and they had plenty of pumpkin left for pies, and they were soon at the squirrel's house, safe and sound, so that's the end of the story. But on the next page, if the milk bottle doesn't roll down off the stoop and tickle the doormat, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the pumpkin pie. STORY VIII UNCLE WIGGILY'S JACK-O'-LANTERN "I really think I must be traveling on to-day," said Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, one bright morning when he had gone out to the Bushtail barn to see if there were any slivers sticking in the rubber tires of his automobile. "I have been here quite a while now, boys, and I want to pay a visit to some of my other friends," he added. "Oh, please don't think of going!" begged Johnnie Bushtail, the boy squirrel. "Please, can't you stay a little longer?" asked Billie, his brother. "Johnnie and I are going to make Jack-o'-lanterns to-night from the pumpkin you got us, and you may help if you like." "Oh, that will be fine," said Uncle Wiggily. "I suppose I really must stay another night. But after that I shall have to be traveling along, for I have many more friends to visit, and only to-day I had a letter from Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, asking when I was coming to see him." "Well, never mind about that. Let's get to work at making Jack-o'-lanterns now and not wait for to-night," suggested Johnnie. "We'll make three lanterns, one for Uncle Wiggily and one for each of us." So they sat down on benches out in the back yard, where the pumpkin seeds wouldn't do any harm, and they began to make the lanterns. And this is how you do it. First you cut a little round hole in the top of the pumpkin--the part where the stem is, you know. And then you scoop out the soft inside where all the seeds are, and you can save the seeds to make more pumpkins grow next year, if you like. Then, after you have the inside all scraped out clean, so that the shell is quite thin, you cut out holes for the two eyes and a nose and a mouth, and if you know how to do it you can cut make-believe teeth in the Jack-o'-lantern's mouth. If you can't do it yourselves, perhaps some of the big folks will help you. [Illustration] So that's how the squirrel boys and Uncle Wiggily made their Jack-o'-lanterns, and when they were all finished they put a lighted candle inside and say! My goodness! It looked just like a real person grinning at you, only, of course, it wasn't. "Won't we have fun to-night!" exclaimed Johnnie as he finished his lantern. "We certainly will!" said Billie, dancing a little jig. "What are you going to do with your lantern, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Johnnie. "Oh, I don't know," answered the old gentleman rabbit. "I may take it with me on my travels." Well, after the three lanterns were made, there was still plenty of time before it would be dark, so Uncle Wiggily and the boys made some more lanterns. And along came Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, and as they had no Jack-o'-lanterns of their own, Johnnie gave Lulu one and Billie gave Alice one, and Uncle Wiggily gave Jimmie one, and my! you should have seen how pleased those duck children were! It was worth going across the street just to look at their smiling faces. Well, pretty soon, after a while, not so very long, it was supper time, and there was pumpkin pie and carrot sandwiches and lettuce salad, and things like that for Uncle Wiggily, and nut cake and nut candy and nut sandwiches for the squirrels. Uncle Wiggily was folding up his napkin, and he was just getting out of his chair to go in the parlor, and read the paper with Mr. Bushytail, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock on the front door. "My goodness! I wonder who that can be?" exclaimed Mrs. Bushytail. "I'll go see," spoke her husband, and when he went to the door there was kind old Mrs. Hop Toad on the mat, wiping her feet. "Oh, is Uncle Wiggily Longears here?" asked Mrs. Toad. "If he is, tell him to come back to the rabbit house at once, for Sammie Littletail is very sick, and they can't get him to sleep, and the nurse thinks if he heard one of Uncle Wiggily's stories he would shut his eyes and rest." "I'll come right away," said Uncle Wiggily, for he had gone to the front door, also, and had heard what Mrs. Hop Toad had said. "Wait until I get on my hat and coat and I'll crank up my automobile and go see Sammie," said the rabbit gentleman. "I won't wait," said Mrs. Toad. "I'll hop on ahead, and tell them you're coming. Anyhow it gives me the toodle-oodles to ride in an auto." So she hopped on ahead, and Uncle Wiggily was soon ready to start off in his car. Just as he was going, Billie Bushytail cried out: "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, take a Jack-o'-lantern with you and maybe Sammie will like that." So the old gentleman rabbit took one of the pumpkin lanterns up on the seat with him, and away he went. And then, all at once, as he was going through a dark place in the woods in his auto, the wind suddenly blew out all his lanterns--all the oil lamps on the auto I mean, and right away after that a policeman dog cried out: "Hey, there, Mr. Longears, you can't go on in your auto without a light, you know. It's against the law." "I know it is," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll light the lamps at once." But when he tried to do it he found there was no more oil in them. "Oh, what shall I do?" he cried. "I'm in a hurry to get to Sammie Littletail, who is sick, but I can't go in the dark. Ah! I have it. The Jack-o'-lantern! I'll light the candle in that, and keep on going. Will that be all right, Mr. Policeman?" "Sure it will," said the policeman dog, swinging his club, and wishing he was home in bed. So Uncle Wiggily lighted the Jack-o'-lantern and it was real bright, and soon the old gentleman rabbit was speeding on again. And, all of a sudden out from the bushes jumped a burglar fox. "Hold on there!" he cried to Uncle Wiggily. "I want all your money." And just then he saw the big pumpkin Jack-o'-lantern, with its staring eyes and big mouth and sharp teeth, looking at him from the seat of the auto, and the fox was so scared, thinking it was a giant going to catch him, that he ran off in the woods howling, and he didn't bother Uncle Wiggily a bit more that night. Then the old gentleman rabbit drove his auto on toward Sammie's house, and he was soon there and he told Sammie a funny story and gave him the Jack-o'-lantern, and the little rabbit boy was soon asleep, and in the morning he was all better. So that's what the Jack-o'-lantern did for Uncle Wiggily and Sammie, and now if you please you must go to bed, and on the page after this, in case the basket of peaches doesn't fall down the cellar stairs and break the furnace door all to pieces, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the lazy duck. STORY IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LAZY DUCK The day after Uncle Wiggily had scared the bad burglar fox with the Jack-o'-lantern, the old rabbit gentleman and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the ducks, went for a little ride in the automobile. For it was Saturday, you see, and there was no school. So they went along quite a distance over the hills and through the woods and fields, for Uncle Wiggily's auto was a sort of fairy machine and could go almost anywhere. Pretty soon they came to a little house beside the road, and in the front yard was a nice pump, where you could get a drink of water. "I am very thirsty," said Uncle Wiggily to Jimmie. "I wonder if we could get a drink here?" "Oh, yes," said Lulu, as she looked to see if her hair ribbon was on straight; "a duck family lives here, and they will give you all the water you want." Right after that, before Uncle Wiggily could get out of the auto to pump some water, there came waddling out of the duckhouse a duck boy, about as big as Jimmie. "How do you do?" said Uncle Wiggily, politely to this duck boy. "May we get a drink of water here?" "Oh--um--er--oo--I--guess--so," said the duck boy slowly, and he stretched out his wings and stretched out his legs and then he sat down on a bench in the front yard and nearly went to sleep. "Why, I wonder what is the matter with him?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why does he act so strangely, and speak so slow?" "I can tell you!" exclaimed Lulu, and she got down out of the auto and picked up a stone. "That duck boy is lazy, that's what's the matter with him. He never even wants to play. Why, at school he hardly ever knows his lessons." "Oh, you surprise me!" said the old gentleman rabbit. "A lazy duck boy! I never heard of such a thing. Pray what is his name?" "It's Fizzy-Whizzy," said Jimmie, who also knew the boy. "Why, what a strange name!" exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. "Why do they call him that?" "Because he is so fond of fizzy-izzy soda water," said Alice. "Oh, let's go along, Uncle Wiggily." "No," said the rabbit gentleman, slowly, "if this is a lazy duck boy he should be cured. Laziness is worse than the measles or whooping cough, I think. And as I am very thirsty I want a drink. Then I will think of some plan to cure this boy duck of being lazy." So Uncle Wiggily went close up to the boy duck and called out loud, right in his ear, so as to waken him: "Will you please get me a cup so I may get a drink of water?" "Hey? What's--that--you--said?" asked the lazy boy duck, slowly, stretching out his wings. Uncle Wiggily told him over again, but that lazy chap just stretched his legs this time and said: "Oh--I--am--too--tired--to--get--you--a--cup. You--had--better--go--in--the--house--and--get--it--for--yourself," and then he was going to sleep again. But, all of a sudden, his mother, who worked very hard at washing and ironing, came to the door and said: "Oh, dear! If Fizzy-Wizzy hasn't gone to sleep again. Wake up at once, Fizzy, and get me some wood for the fire! Quick." "Oh--ma--I am--too--tired," said Fizzy-Wizzy. "I--will--do--it--to-morrow--um--ah--er--boo--soo!" and he was asleep once more. "Oh, I never saw such a lazy boy in all my life!" exclaimed the duck boy's mother, and she was very much ashamed of him. "I don't know what to do." "Do you want me to make him better?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Indeed I do, but I am afraid you can't," she said. "Yes I can," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll come back here this evening and I'll cure him. First let me get a drink of water and then I'll think of a way to do it." So the duck lady herself brought out a cup so Uncle Wiggily and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie could get a drink from the pump, and all the while the lazy chap slept on. "How are you going to cure him, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jimmie when they were riding along in the auto once more. "I will show you," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And you children must help me, for to be lazy is a dreadful thing." Well, that night, after dark, Uncle Wiggily took a lantern, and some matches and some rubber balls and some beans and something else done up in a package, and he put all these things in his auto. Then he and the Wibblewobble children got in and they went to the house of the lazy boy duck. "Is he in?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the boy's mamma. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Well, when I throw a pebble against the kitchen window tell him to come out and see who's here," went on the rabbit gentleman. Then he opened the package and in it were four false faces, one of a fox, one of a wolf, one of a bear and one was of an alligator. And Uncle Wiggily put on the alligator false face, gave the bear one to Jimmie, the fox one to Alice and the wolf one to Lulu. Then he gave Jimmie a handful of beans and he gave Alice a rubber ball filled with water to squirt and Lulu the same. They knew what to do with them. Then Uncle Wiggily built a fire and made some stones quite warm, not warm enough to burn one, but just warm enough. These stones he put in front of the lazy duck boy's house and then he threw a pebble against the window. "Go and see who is there," said the duck boy's mamma to him. "I--don't--want--to," the lazy chap was just saying, but he suddenly became very curious and thought he would just take a peep out. And no sooner had he opened the door and stepped on the warm stones than he began to run down the yard, for he was afraid if he stood still he would be burned. And then, as he ran, up popped Uncle Wiggily from behind the bushes, looking like an alligator with the false face on. "Oh! Oh!" cried the lazy boy and he ran faster than ever. Then up jumped Jimmie, looking like a bear with the false face on, and up popped Lulu looking like a wolf and Alice looking like a fox. "Oh! Oh!" cried the lazy boy, and he ran faster than ever before in his life. Then Alice and Lulu squirted water at him from their rubber balls. "Oh! It's raining! It's raining!" cried the boy duck, and he ran faster than before. Then Jimmie threw the beans at him and they rattled all over. "Oh! It's snowing and hailing!" cried the lazy boy, and he ran faster than ever. And then Uncle Wiggily threw some hickory nuts at him, and that lazy duck ran still faster than he had ever run in his life before and ran back in the house. "Oh, mother!" he cried, "I've had a terrible time," and he spoke very fast. "I'll never be lazy again." "I'm glad of it," she said. "I guess Uncle Wiggily cured you." And so the old gentleman rabbit had, for the duck boy was always ready to work after that. Then Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went home in the auto and went to bed, and that's where you must go soon. And if the pussy cat doesn't slip in the molasses, and fall down the cellar steps, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily helping Jimmie. STORY X UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS JIMMIE Old Percival, who used to be a circus dog, wasn't feeling very well. Some bad boys had tied a tin can to his tail, and had thrown stones at him and done other mean things. But Uncle Wiggily had come along and driven the boys away, and Percival had come home in the automobile of the old gentleman rabbit, and was given a nice warm place behind the kitchen stove, where he could lie down. "But I don't feel a bit good," Percival said to Uncle Wiggily. "I don't know whether it was the tin can the boys tied to my tail, or the leaves they stuck on me, or the bone they put in my mouth or the molasses they used, but I don't feel at all well." "Perhaps it is the epizootic," said Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girl, as she untied her green hair ribbon and put on a pink one. "That may be it," said Percival, and he blinked his two eyes slow and careful-like, so as not to get any dust in them. "Perhaps if I made you some dog-biscuit-soup it would make you feel better," said Mrs. Wibblewobble. "I'll cook some right away." So she did that and Percival ate it, but still that night he didn't feel much better, and the only trick he could do for the children was to stand up on his tail, and make believe he was a soldier. But he couldn't do that very long, and then he had to crawl back to his bed behind the stove. "Poor Percival is getting old," said Mr. Wibblewobble. "He isn't the lively dog he used to be when he showed Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow how to do tricks in a circus parade." "No, indeed," said Uncle Wiggily, and then the old gentleman rabbit played blind man's bluff with Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble until it was time to go to bed. Well, the next day poor old Percival wasn't any better and when the duck children started for school their mamma told them to stop on their way home and tell Dr. Possum to come and give Percival some medicine. "We will," said Jimmie, and just then they saw Uncle Wiggily putting some gasoline in his automobile. "Oh, dear! You're not going away, are you, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Lulu Wibblewobble as she picked up a stone and threw it even better than the lazy boy duck could have done. "No," said the old gentleman rabbit, "I am just going for a little ride to see Grandfather Goosey Gander, but I will be back here when you come from school. Don't forget about telling Dr. Possum to come and see Percival." So they said they wouldn't forget, and then the three duck children hurried on to school so they wouldn't be late, and Uncle Wiggily tickled the flinkum-flankum of his auto and away he went whizzing over the fields and through the woods. Well, as it happened that day, Dr. Possum wasn't home, so all that Jimmie and his sisters could do was to leave word for him to come and see Percival as soon as the doctor got back. "I'll send him right away, just as soon as he comes in," said Dr. Possum's wife. "Oh, I am so sorry for poor Percival." Well, when Lulu and Alice and Jimmie got home from school Dr. Possum hadn't yet come to the duck house to see the sick dog, who was much worse. And Uncle Wiggily hadn't come back from his automobile ride, either. "Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Wibblewobble. "I don't know what to do! The doctor ought to come, and Uncle Wiggily ought to be here. Perhaps Uncle Wiggily has met with an accident and Dr. Possum had to attend to him first." "Oh, I hope not, mamma," said Alice. "I know what I can do," said Jimmie, the boy duck. "I can hurry back to Dr. Possum's house to see if he has come back yet. If he has I'll tell him to please hurry here." "I think that would be a good idea," spoke Mrs. Wibblewobble. "Go quickly, Jimmie, and here is a molasses cookie to eat on your way. Hurry back and bring the doctor with you if you can." So Jimmie said he would, and off he started, eating the molasses cookie that his mamma had baked. He was thinking how good it was, and wishing it was larger when, all at once, he stepped on a sharp stone and hurt his foot so that he couldn't walk. "Oh, dear!" cried Jimmie. "What shall I do? I can't go get Dr. Possum for Percival now." Well, he was in great pain, and he was just wondering how he could send word to the doctor when, all at once, he saw a pony-horse in the field near by. "The very thing!" exclaimed Jimmie. "That is Munchie Trot, the pony boy, and he'll let me ride to the doctor on his back." So Jimmie took a stick to use as a cane, and he managed to get right close up beside the pony-horse, who was eating grass. "I'll surprise him," thought Jimmie. "I'll fly up on his back before he sees me." So with his strong wings he flew up on the pony's back and he cried out: "Surprise on you, Munchie! Please gallop and trot with me to Dr. Possum's so he can make Percival well." And then a funny thing happened. All at once Jimmie noticed that he was on the back of a strange pony. It wasn't Munchie Trot at all! Jimmie had made a mistake. Think of that! And the worst of it was that when he flew so suddenly up on the pony's back Jimmie frightened him, and the next instant the pony jumped over the fence and began running down the road as fast as he could. "Oh! Stop! Stop!" cried Jimmie. "I'll fall off!" The duck boy had to take hold of the pony's mane in his yellow bill, and he had to hold on so he wouldn't fall off. Faster and faster ran the pony, trying to get away from what was on his back, for he hadn't seen Jimmie fly up, and he didn't know what it was. Maybe he thought it was a burglar fox, but I'm not sure. Anyhow the pony went faster and faster, and though Jimmie cried as hard as he could for him to stop the pony wouldn't do it. Jimmie was almost falling off, and he thought surely he would be hurt, when, all of a sudden, down the road, came Uncle Wiggily in his automobile. He saw what was the matter. "Hold on, Jimmie!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "Hold on, and I'll be up to you in a minute. Then you can fly into my auto and be safe." Well, the pony was going fast, but the auto went faster, and it was soon up beside the little galloping horsie. "Now jump, Jimmie!" called Uncle Wiggily, and the boy duck did so, landing safely in the auto, and he wasn't hurt a bit. Then the pony galloped on until he looked back and saw it had only been a duck on his back and then he was ashamed for having run away, and he stopped and said he was sorry, so Jimmie forgave him. "Quick, we must go for Dr. Possum for Old Dog Percival," said Jimmie, and he told Uncle Wiggily how the doctor hadn't yet come. Then Uncle Wiggily told how he accidentally got a hole in one of his big rubber tires or he would have been home sooner. "But it's a good thing I happened to come along to help you," he said to Jimmie, and Jimmie thought so too. Then they went for Dr. Possum, who had just come home, and they took him to Percival in the auto, and Dr. Possum soon made Percival all well, and I'm glad of it. Then the doctor cured Jimmie's sore foot, and everybody was happy, and I hope you are. And next, if the dried leaves don't blow in my window and scare the wallpaper so that it falls off, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily helping Alice. STORY XI UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS ALICE. One day the postman bird flew down out of the sky and stopped in front of the Wibblewobble duck house. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, was out in front, cleaning some mud off his auto, for he had run it very fast into a puddle of water the day he saved Jimmie off the pony's back. "Does anybody named Alice Wibblewobble live here?" asked the postman bird as he looked in his bag of letters. "Yes, Alice lives here," said Uncle Wiggily. "And does Lulu Wibblewobble?" "Yes, of course." "And Jimmie, too?" "Certainly," said the old gentleman rabbit. "Then this is the right house," said the postman bird as he blew his whistle, like a canary, "and here is a letter for each of them." So he handed Uncle Wiggily three letters and then he flew up into the air again, as fast as he could go, to deliver the rest of the mail. "Hum! I wonder who can be writing to Lulu and Alice and Jimmie?" said Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the letters. "Well, I'll take them in the house. They look to me like party invitations; and I wonder why I didn't get one? But I suppose the young folks don't want an old rheumatic uncle around any more. Ah, well, I'm getting old--getting old," and he went slowly into the house, feeling a bit sad. "Here are some letters for you, children," he called to Lulu and Alice and Jimmie. "The bird postman just brought them." "Oh, fine!" cried the children, and they opened them all at once with their strong yellow bills. "Goodie!" cried Lulu as she read hers. "Jennie Chipmunk is going to have a party, and I'm invited." "So am I," cried Alice. "And I," added Jimmie. "I thought they were party invitations," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of sad and thoughtful-like. "When is it?" "To-night," said Lulu. "Then we must hurry and get ready," said Alice. "I must iron out some of my hair ribbons so they will be nice and fresh." "Oh, that's just like you girls," cried Jimmie. "You have to primp and fuss. I can be ready in no time, just by washing my face." "Oh!" cried Lulu and Alice together. "Make him put on a clean collar, anyhow, mamma." "Yes, I'll do that," agreed Jimmie. Well, pretty soon they were all getting ready to go to the party, and Uncle Wiggily went back to finish cleaning his auto and he was wishing he could go. But you just wait and see what happens. Pretty soon it became night and then it was time for the party. Lulu and Jimmie were all ready, but it took Alice such a long time to get her hair fixed the way she wanted it, and to get just the kind of hair ribbon that suited her, that she wasn't ready. You see, she had so many kinds of hair ribbons and she kept them all in a box, and really she didn't know just which one to take. First she picked out a red one, and she didn't like that, and then she picked out a blue one, and she didn't like that, and then she picked up a pink one, and then a green, and then a brown, and finally a skilligimink colored one, but none suited her. "Hurry, Alice," called Lulu, "or you'll be late." "Oh, you can go on ahead and I'll catch up to you and Jimmie," said Alice, trying another hair ribbon. "All right," they answered, and they started off. Mr. and Mrs. Wibblewobble had gone across the street to pay a little visit to Mr. and Mrs. Duckling, and so Uncle Wiggily and Alice were all alone in the house. "You had better hurry, Alice," said the old gentleman rabbit as he was reading the evening paper. "Oh, I don't know what to do!" she cried. "I can't decide which hair ribbon to wear." "Wear them all," called Uncle Wiggily with a laugh, but, of course, Alice couldn't do that, and she was in despair, which means that she didn't know what to do. She laid all the ribbons back in the box, and she was just going to shut her eyes, and pick out the first one she could reach, and wear that whether she liked it or not, for she didn't want to be late to the party. And then, all of a sudden, in through the open window of her room the old skillery-scalery alligator put his long nose and he cried: "Hair ribbons! I must have hair ribbons! Give me hair ribbons!" And then what do you think he did? Why, he grabbed up the whole box full of Alice's lovely hair ribbons, and before she could say "scootum-scattum," if she had wanted to, that skillery-scalery alligator ran away with them in his mouth, taking his double-jointed tail with him. "Oh!" cried Alice. "Oh! Oh!" and she almost lost her breath, she was so surprised. "What is it?" cried Uncle Wiggily, running up to her room. "The alligator! He has taken my hair ribbons. Quick, run after him, dear Uncle Wiggily!" "I will!" exclaimed the brave old gentleman rabbit and out of the house he hurried, but the 'gator with the double-jointed tail had completely gone, and the rabbit gentleman couldn't catch him. "Oh, what ever shall I do?" cried Alice, when Uncle Wiggily came back. "I have no hair ribbon, and I can't go to the party!" Well, Uncle Wiggily thought for a moment. He didn't tell Alice that she should have hurried more and worn a pink ribbon, and then the accident wouldn't have happened. No, he didn't say anything like that; but he said: "I can help you, Alice. Down in the yard is some long grass, green, with white stripes in it. They call it ribbon grass. I will get some for a hair ribbon for you." "Oh, thank you, so much!" said Alice. So Uncle Wiggily quickly went down, pulled some of the ribbon grass and helped Alice tie it in her feathers. And she looked too cute for anything, really she did. "Now, quick, run and catch up to Jimmie and Lulu, and go to the party and have a good time," said Uncle Wiggily, and Alice did. And what do you think? A little while after that up to the duck-house drove Sammie Littletail in a pony cart. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Sammie, "Jennie Chipmunk was so flustrated about her party that she forgot to send you an invitation. But she wants you very much, so I've come to take you to it. Come along with me!" Then Uncle Wiggily was very glad, for he liked parties as much as you do, and he jumped into the cart with Sammie and they went to the party and had a lovely time. And the next day Uncle Wiggily went out in his auto, and he made the alligator give back all of Alice's hair ribbons, and none of them was lost or soiled the least bit, I'm glad to say. Now, no more at present, if you please, but if the picture book doesn't read about the sandman and go to sleep on the front porch, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the doll doctor. STORY XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOLL DOCTOR "Now, I wonder where I will go to-day?" said Uncle Wiggily, the old gentleman rabbit to himself, as he went along, in his automobile, turning around the corner by an old black stump-house, where lived a nice owl school teacher lady. "I wonder where I had better go? I have it! I'll call on Grandfather Goosey Gander and play a game of Scotch checkers!" and off he went. It was generally that way with Uncle Wiggily. He would start off pretending he had no place in particular to go, but he would generally end up at Grandpa Goosey's house. There the old rabbit gentleman and the old duck gentleman would sit and play Scotch checkers and eat molasses cookies with cabbage seeds on top, and they would talk of the days when they were young, and could play ball and go skating, and do all of those things. But this time Uncle Wiggily never got to Grandfather Goosey's house. As he was going along in the woods, all of a sudden he came to a little house that stood under a Christmas tree, and on this house was a sign reading: DR. MONKEY DOODLE. SICK DOLLS MADE WELL. "Ha! That is rather strange!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I never knew there was a doll doctor here. He must have moved in only lately. I must look into this!" So the rabbit gentleman went up to the little house, and, as he came nearer he heard some one inside exclaiming: "Oh, I'll never get through to-day, I know I won't! Oh, the trouble I'm in! Oh, if I only had some one to help me!" "My! What is that!" cried Uncle Wiggily, stopping short. "Perhaps I am making a mistake. That may be a trap! No, it doesn't look like a trap," he went on, as he peered all about the little house and saw nothing dangerous. Then the voice cried again: "Oh, I am in such trouble! Will no one help me?" [Illustration] Now Uncle Wiggily was always on the lookout to help his animal friends, but he did not know who this one could be. "Still," said the rabbit gentleman to himself, "he is in trouble. Maybe a mosquito has bitten him. I'm going to see." So Uncle Wiggily marched bravely up to the little house under the Christmas tree, and knocked on the door. "Come in!" cried a voice. "But if you're a little animal girl, with a sick doll, or one that needs mending, you might as well go away and come back again. I'm head-over heels in work, and I'll never get through. In fact I can't work at all. Oh, such trouble as I am in!" "Well, maybe I can help you," said Uncle Wiggily. "At any rate I have no doll that needs mending." So into the little house he went, and what a queer sight he saw! There was Dr. Monkey Doodle, sitting on the floor of his shop, and scattered all about him were dolls--dolls--dolls! All sorts of dolls--but not a good, whole, well doll in the lot. Some dolls had lost their wigs, some had swallowed their eyes, others had lost a leg, or both arms, or a foot. One poor doll had lost all her sawdust, and she was as flat as a pancake. Another had dropped one of her shoe button eyes, and a new eye needed to be sewed in. One doll had stiff joints, which needed oiling, while another, who used to talk in a little phonograph voice, had caught such a cold that she could not speak or even whisper. "My, what sort of a place is this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "It is the doll hospital," said Dr. Monkey Doodle. "Think of it! All these dolls to fix before night, and I can't touch a one of them!" "Why must all the dolls be fixed to-night?" the rabbit gentleman wanted to know. "Because they are going to a party," explained Dr. Monkey Doodle. "Susie Littletail, the rabbit is giving a party for all the little animal girls, and every one is going to bring her doll. But all the dolls were ill, or else were broken, and the animal children brought them all to me at once, so that I am fairly overwhelmed with work, if you will kindly permit me to say so," remarked the monkey doctor. "Of course, I'll let you say so," said Uncle Wiggily. "But, if you will kindly pardon me, why don't you get up and work, instead of sitting in the middle of the floor, feeling sorry for yourself?" "True! Why do I not?" asked the monkey doctor. "Well, to be perfectly plain, I am stuck here so fast that I can't move. One of the dolls, I think it was Cora Ann Multiplicationtable, upset the pot of glue on the floor. I came in hurriedly, and, not seeing the puddle of glue, I slipped in it. I fell down, I sat right in the glue, and now I am stuck so fast that I can't get up. "So you see that's why I can't work on the broken dolls. I can't move! And oh, what a time there'll be when all those animal girls come for their dolls and find they're not done. Oh, what a time I'll have!" And the monkey doctor tried to pull himself up from the glue on the floor, but he could not--he was stuck fast. "Oh, dear!" he cried. "Now don't worry!" spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly. "I think I can help you." "Oh, can you!" cried Dr. Monkey Doodle. "And will you?" "I certainly will," said Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears in a bowknot so they would not get tangled in the glue. "But how can you help me?" asked the monkey doctor. "In the first place," went on the rabbit gentleman. "I will pour some warm water all around you on the glue. That will soften it, and by-and-by you can get up. And while we are waiting for that you shall tell me how to cure the sick dolls and how to mend the broken ones and I'll do the best I can." "Fine!" cried Dr. Monkey Doodle, feeling happier now. So Uncle Wiggily poured some warm water on the glue that held the poor monkey fast, taking care not to have the water too hot. Then Uncle Wiggily said: "Now, we'll begin on the sick dolls. Who's first?" "Take Sallie Jane Ticklefeather," said the monkey. "She needs some mucilage pills to keep her hair from sticking up so straight. She belongs to a little girl named Rosalind." So Uncle Wiggily gave Sallie Jane Ticklefeather some mucilage pills. Then he gave another doll some sawdust tea and a third one some shoe-button pudding--this was the doll who only had one eye--and soon she was all cured and had two eyes. And then such a busy time as Uncle Wiggily had! He hopped about that little hospital, sewing arms and legs and feet on the dolls that had lost theirs. He oiled up all the stiff joints with olive oil, and one doll, whose eyes had fallen back in her head, Uncle Wiggily fixed as nicely as you please. Only by mistake he got in one brown eye and one blue one, but that didn't matter much. In fact, it made the doll all the more stylish. "Oh, but there are a lot more dolls to fix!" cried the monkey doctor. "Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily. "You will soon be loose from the glue, and you can help me!" "Oh, I wish I were loose now!" cried the monkey. He gave himself a tremendous tug and a pull, Uncle Wiggily helping him, and up he came. Then how he flew about that hospital, fixing the dolls ready for the party. "Hark!" suddenly called Uncle Wiggily. "It's the girl animals coming for their dolls," said the monkey. "Oh, work fast! Work fast!" Outside the doll hospital Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, and Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girls, and all their friends were calling: "Are our dolls mended? Are they ready for us?" "Not yet, but soon," answered Uncle Wiggily, and then he and the monkey worked so fast! Dolls that had lost their heads had new ones put on. The doll that had spilled all her sawdust was filled up again, plump and fat. One boy soldier doll, who had lost his gun was given a new one, and a sword also. And the phonograph doll was fixed so that she could sing as well as talk. "But it is almost time for the party!" cried Susie Littletail. "Just a minute!" called Uncle Wiggily. "There is one more doll to fix." Then he quickly painted some red cheeks on a poor little pale doll, who had had the measles, and in a moment she was as bright and rosy again as a red apple. Then all the dolls were fixed, and the girl animals took them to a party and had a fine time. "Hurray for Uncle Wiggily!" cried Susie Littletail, and all the others said the same thing. "He certainly was kind to me," spoke Dr. Monkey Doodle, as he cleaned the glue up off the floor. And that's all there is to this story, but in the next one, if the goldfish doesn't bite a hole in his globe and let all the molasses run over the tablecloth, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the flowers. STORY XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FLOWERS One Saturday, when there was no school, Charley Chick was playing soldier in the chicken coop, and beating the drum that Uncle Wiggily had given him, for Christmas. And Arabella, who was Charley's sister, was playing with her talking doll. The little chicken girl was teaching the doll to recite that piece about "Once a trap was baited, with a piece of cheese." But the doll couldn't seem to get the verses right. She would say it something like this: "Once a trap was baited, With a twinkling star. 'Twas Christmas eve and Santa Claus Was coming from afar. "A little drop of water, Was in Jack Horner's pie When Mary lost her little lamb Old Mother Goose did cry." "Oh, you'll never get that right!" exclaimed Arabella. "Uncle Wiggily, can't you make my talking doll learn to speak pieces right? She gets them all mixed up." "I'll try," said the old gentleman rabbit, and he was just telling the doll how to recite a poem about little monkey-jack upon a stick of candy, and every time he took a bite it tasted fine and dandy. Well, the doll had learned one verse, when, all at once, there came a knock on the door, and there stood a telegraph messenger boy, with a telegram for Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, something has happened!" exclaimed Mrs. Chick. "I am so nervous whenever telegrams come." "Wait until I read it," said the old gentleman rabbit, and when he had read it he said: "It is from Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat. She has the epizootic very badly, from having eaten some bill-board pictures of a snowstorm, which made her catch cold, and she wants to know if I can't come over to see her, and tell Dr. Possum to bring her some medicine. Of course I will. I'll start off at once." So Uncle Wiggily started off, in his automobile, and on his way to see the old lady goat he stopped at the doctor's house, and Dr. Possum promised to come as soon as he could, and cure the old lady goat. "Then I'll go on ahead," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "and tell her you are coming." So he hurried on, with his long ears flapping to and fro, and he hadn't gone very far before he came to a shop where a man had flowers to sell--roses and violets and pinks and all lovely blossoms like that. "The very thing!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he saw the pretty posies. "Sick persons like flowers, and I'll take some to Aunt Lettie. They may cheer her up." So he bought a large and kept on toward the old lady goat's house. Well, he hadn't gone very far before, all at once, as he was going around the corner by the prickly briar bush, that had berries on it in the summer time, all at once, I say, out jumped a big black bear. At first Uncle Wiggily thought it was a good bear, and he stopped the auto to shake paws with him. But, all at once, he saw that it was a bad bear, whom he had never seen before. "Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, surprised-like. "I--I guess I have made a mistake. I don't know you. I beg your pardon." "You don't need to do that," growled the bear. "You'll soon know me well enough. You and I are going to be very well acquainted soon. You come with me," and with that he grabbed hold of the old gentleman rabbit and marched off with him, pulling him right out of the auto. "Where are you taking me?" asked Uncle Wiggily, trying to be brave, and not shiver or shake. "To my den," answered the bear in a grillery-growlery voice. "I haven't had my Christmas or New Year's dinner yet, and here it is the middle of January. Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r! Wow!" "Oh, what a savage bear," exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "What makes you so cross?" "Just look at my feet and you'll see why," answered the bear, and Uncle Wiggily looked, and as true as I'm telling you, there were a whole lot of walnut shells fast on the bear's feet. "That's enough to make any one cross," said the bear. "I stepped in these shells that some one threw out of their window after Christmas, and they stuck on so tight that I can't get them off. Talk about corns! These are worse than any corns. I have to walk on my tiptoes all the while, and I'm so cross that I could eat a hot cross bun and never know it. Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof!" "Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Then I guess it's all up with me," and he felt quite sad-like. "You may well say that!" growled the bear. "Come along!" and he almost pulled Uncle Wiggily head over paws. "What have you in that paper?" asked the bear, as he saw the bag of flowers in Uncle Wiggily's paw. "Some blossoms for poor sick Aunt Lettie!" answered the rabbit gentleman. "Poor, sick Aunt Lettie----" "Bur-r-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof! Bah! Don't talk to me about sick goats!" growled the bear. "I'm sicker than any goat of these walnut shells on my feet. Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof!" And then Uncle Wiggily thought of something. Gently opening the paper he took out one nice, big, sweet-smelling rose and handed it to the bear, saying nothing. "Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! What's this?" growled the bear, and before he knew what he was doing he had taken the rose in his big paws. And then, before he knew, the next thing, he was smelling of it. And, as he smelled the sweet perfume, he seemed to think he was in the summer fields, all covered with flowers, and as he looked at the rose it seemed to remind him of the time when he was a little bear, and wasn't bad, and didn't say such things as "Bur-r-r-r-r!" "Wow!" And then once more he smelled of the perfume in the flower, and he seemed to forget the pain of the walnut shells on his feet. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" exclaimed the bear, and tears came into his blinkery-inkery eyes, and rolled down his black nose. "I'm sorry I was bad to you. This flower is so lovely that it makes me want to be good. Run along, now, before I change my mind and get bad again." "First let me help you take those walnut shells off your paws," said the rabbit gentleman, and he did so, prying them off with a stick, and then the bear felt ever so much better and he hurried to his den, still smelling the beautiful rose. So you see flowers are sometimes good, even for bears. Then Uncle Wiggily hurried on to Aunt Lettie's house with the rest of the bouquet, and when she saw it she was quite some better, and when Dr. Possum gave her some medicine she was all better, and she thought Uncle Wiggily was very brave to do as he had done to the bear. And on the next page, in case the eggbeater doesn't hit the rolling pin and make the potato masher fall down in the ice cream cone, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Susie's doll. STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND SUSIE'S DOLL "Well, I see you are going out for another ride in your auto," remarked Mrs. Bow Wow, the puppy dog lady, to Uncle Wiggily, one morning, after Peetie and Jackie had gone to school. "Where are you bound for now?" "Oh, no place in particular," he said. "I just thought I would take a ride for my health." You see the rabbit gentleman had come to pay the dog family a visit. "I should think you'd stay in when it snows," went on the doggie lady. "You seem always to be out in a snowstorm," for it was snowing quite hard just then. "I love the snow," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I like cold weather, for then my thick fur coat keeps me much warmer than in the summer time. And I like the snow--I like to see it come down, and feel it blow in my face and make my auto go through the drifts." "Well, be careful you don't get stuck in any drifts and freeze fast," said Mrs. Bow Wow, as she began washing the breakfast dishes. "I'll try not to," promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he put some oil on his auto, and gave it a drink of warm water (for autos get thirsty sometimes), and away the old gentleman rabbit rode through the snowstorm. "I guess I'll go call on Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat, to-day," he thought as he went through a big snowdrift, scattering the snow on both sides like an electric-car snow plow. "I haven't seen Aunt Lettie in some time, and she may be ill again." For this was some time after Uncle Wiggily had brought her the flowers. Well, pretty soon he was at the old lady goat's house, and, surely enough she had been ill again. She had eaten some red paper, off the outside of a tomato can, one day right after Christmas, and the paper didn't have the right kind of stickumpaste on it, so Aunt Lettie was taken ill on that account. "But I'm much better now," she said to Uncle Wiggily, "and I'm real glad you called. Come in and I'll give you a hot cup of old newspaper tea." "Um, I don't know as I care for that," said the old gentleman rabbit, making his nose twinkle like a star on a frosty night. "Oh, I'm surprised to hear you say that," spoke Aunt Lettie, sorrowful-like. "Newspaper tea is very good, especially with cream-stickum-mucilage in it. But never mind, I'll give you some carrot tea," and she did, and she and Uncle Wiggily sat and talked about old times, and the fun Nannie and Billie Goat used to have, until it was time for the old gentleman rabbit to go back home. School was out as he went along in his auto. He could tell that because he met so many of the animal children. And he gave Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow and Johnnie and Billie Bushtail a ride toward home. But before they got there, all of a sudden, as the four animal children were in the auto, and Uncle Wiggily was making it go through a snowdrift, all of a sudden, I say the old gentleman rabbit turned around a corner, and there was Susie Littletail, the little rabbit girl, standing in front of a big heap of snow. And she was crying very hard, her tears falling down, and making little holes in the snow, and she was poking into the drift with a long stick. "Why, Susie!" asked Uncle Wiggily, "whatever is the matter?" "Oh, my doll! My lovely, big, new Christmas doll!" cried Susie. "I had her to school with me, for we are learning to sew in our class, and I was making my dollie a new dress, and--and--" and then poor Susie cried so hard that she couldn't talk. "Don't tell me some one took your doll away from you!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If they did I'll go after them and get it back for you!" cried Jackie Bow Wow. "So will I!" said Peetie and Billie and Johnnie. "No, it isn't that," spoke the little rabbit girl. "But as I was walking along, with my dollie in my arms, all of a sudden she slipped out, fell into this big snowbank, and I can't find her! She's all covered up. Boo hoo! Hoo boo!" "Oh, don't take on so," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "We will all help you hunt for your dollie; won't we, boys?" "Sure!" cried Peetie and Jackie and Billie and Johnnie. So they all got sticks and poked in the snow bank, Uncle Wiggily poking harder than anybody, but it was of no use. They couldn't seem to find that lost doll. "She must be very deep under the snow!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, I'll never see her again!" cried Susie. "My big, beautiful Christmas doll. Boo-hoo! Hoo-boo!" "You can get her when the snow melts," spoke Peetie Bow Wow, as he scratched away at the drift with his paws. "Yes, but then the wax will be all melted off her face, and she won't look like anything," murmured Susie, sad-like. "Wait; I have a plan," said Uncle Wiggily. "There is a fan, like an electric one, in the front part of my auto to keep the water cool. I'll make that fan blow the snow away and we'll get your doll." So he tried that, making the fan whizz around like a boy's top, but, though it blew some snow away, the doll couldn't be found. "Oh, I'll never see my big, beautiful doll again!" cried Susie. "Oh, whatever is the matter?" asked a voice, and, turning around, they all saw the big, black, woolly bear standing there. At first the animal children were frightened until Uncle Wiggily said: "Oh, that bear won't hurt us. I once helped him get some walnut shells off his paws, so he is a friend of mine." "Of course I am," said the bear. "What is the trouble?" Then they told him about Susie's doll being under the drift, and the bear went on: "Don't worry about that. My paws are just made for digging in the snow. I'll have that doll for you in a jiffy, which is very quick." So with his paws he began digging in the snow. My! how he did make the snow fly, and he blew it away with his strong breath. Faster and faster flew the snow, and in about a minute it was all scraped away, and there was Susie's doll safe and sound. And she was sleeping with her eyes shut. "Oh, you darling!" Susie cried, clasping the doll in her arms. "Did you mean me?" asked the bear, laughing. "Yes, I guess I did!" said Susie, also laughing, and she gave the bear a nice little kiss on the end of his black nose. Then everybody was happy and the bear went back to his den and Uncle Wiggily took the children and the doll home, and that's all I can tell you now, if you please. But, if the rocking horse doesn't run away and upset the milk pitcher down in the salt cellar and scare the furnace so that it goes out, I'll tell you in the story after this one, about Uncle Wiggily on roller skates. STORY XV UNCLE WIGGILY ON ROLLER SKATES "Well, where are you going this morning?" asked Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he looked out of the front door of his house, and saw Uncle Wiggily, the old gentleman rabbit, putting some gasoline in his automobile. "Oh, I am going to take a little ride out in the country," said Uncle Wiggily. "I am going to see if I can find an adventure. Nothing has happened since we found Susie's doll. I must have excitement. It keeps me from thinking about my rheumatism. So I am going to look for an adventure, Jimmie." "I wish I could come," said the little duck boy. "I wish you could too," said his uncle. "But you must go to school. Some Saturday I'll take you with me, and we may find an adventure for each of us." "And for us girls, too?" asked Lulu and Alice as they came out, all ready to go to school. Alice had just finished tying her sky-yellow-green hair ribbon into two lovely bow knots. "Yes, for you duck girls, too," said Uncle Wiggily. "But I will be back here when you come from school, and if anything happens to me I'll tell you all about it." So he kept on putting gasoline in his automobile until he had the tinkerum-tankerum full, and then he tickled the hickory-dickory-dock with a mucilage brush, and he was all ready to start off and look for an adventure. So Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went on to school, and Uncle Wiggily rode along over the fields and through the woods and up hill and down hill. Pretty soon, as he was riding along, he heard a funny little noise in the bushes. It was a sad, little, squeaking sort of noise and at first the old gentleman rabbit thought it was made by something on his automobile that needed oiling. Then he looked over the side and there, sitting under an old cabbage leaf, was a little mousie girl, and it was she who was crying. "Oh, ho!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "is that you, Squeaky-eaky?" for he thought it might be the little cousin-mouse who lived with Jollie and Jillie Longtail, as I have told you in other stories. "No, I am not Squeaky-eaky," said the little mouse girl, "but I am cold and hungry and I don't know what to do or where to go. Oh, dear! Boo-hoo!" "Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "I will take you in my auto, and I'll bring you to the house where the Longtail children live, and they'll take care of you." "Oh, goody!" cried the little girl mouse. "Thank you so much. Now I am happy." So Uncle Wiggily took her in the nice, warm automobile. Then he twisted the noodleum-noddleum until it sneezed, and away the auto went through the woods again. And, all of a sudden, just as Uncle Wiggily came to a big black stump, out jumped the burglar bear with roller skates on his paws. "Hold on there!" the bear cried to the old gentleman rabbit, and he poked a stick in the auto wheels, so they couldn't go around any more. "Hold on, if you please, Mr. Rabbit. I want you." "What for?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I want you to come to supper," said the burglar bear. "Your supper or my supper?" asked Uncle Wiggily, politely. "My supper, of course," said the burglar bear. "I am going to have rabbit pot-pie to-night, and you are going to be both the rabbit and the pie. Come, now, get out of that auto. I want to ride in it before I bite you." Well, of course, Uncle Wiggily felt pretty badly, but there was no help for it. He had to get out, and then the burglar bear, taking off his roller skates, got up into the automobile. "Oh, what nice soft cushions!" exclaimed the bear as he sank down on them. Then he took hold of the turnip steering wheel in his claws and twisted it. "I shall have lots of fun riding in this auto, after I gobble you up," said the bear, looking at the rabbit with his blinky eyes. "I must learn to run it. I think I'll take a little ride before I have my supper. But don't you dare run away, for I can catch you." Then, to make sure Uncle Wiggily couldn't get away, the bear took the old rabbit gentleman's crutch away from him and Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism was so severe, which means painful, that he couldn't walk a step without his crutch. So there was no use for him to try to run away. [Illustration] Well, the bear knew how to run the auto, it seems, and he started to take a little ride in it. Uncle Wiggily felt pretty sad because he was going to be gobbled up and lose his auto at the same time. All at once, when the bear in the auto was some distance off in the woods, Uncle Wiggily heard a little voice speaking to him. "Hey, Uncle Wiggily," the voice said, "I know how you can get the best of that bear!" "How?" asked Uncle Wiggily, eagerly. "Here are his roller skates," said the voice, and it was the little mousie girl who was speaking. She had quietly jumped out of the auto. "Put on his roller skates," said the mousie, "and skate down the hill until you see a policeman dog. Then tell the policeman dog to come and arrest the bear. He'll do it, and then you'll get your auto back. You can go on roller skates even if you have rheumatism, can't you?" "I guess so," said the rabbit. "I'll try." So he put on the skates while the burglar bear was making the auto go around in a circle in the woods, and that bear was having a good time. All at once Uncle Wiggily skated away. First he went slowly, and then he went faster and faster until he was just whizzing along. And then, at the foot of the hill, he found the policeman dog. "Oh, please come and arrest the burglar bear for me?" begged Uncle Wiggily. "To be sure I will," said the policeman dog. So he put on his roller skates, and skated back with Uncle Wiggily to where the bear was still in the auto. The policeman dog hid behind a stump. The bear stopped the auto in front of Uncle Wiggily and got out. "Well," said the burglar bear, smacking his lips, "I guess it's supper time now. I'm going to eat you. Come on and be my pot-pie!" And he made a grab for the old gentleman rabbit. "Oh, you will; will you?" suddenly cried the policeman dog, drawing his club, and jumping from behind the stump. "Well, I guess you won't eat my good friend, Uncle Wiggily. I guess not!" and with that the policeman dog tickled the bear so on his nose that he sneezed, and ran off through the woods taking his stubby little tail with him, but leaving behind his roller skates. "Oh, I'm ever so much obliged to you, Policeman Dog," said the old gentleman rabbit, as he took off the bear's skates. "You saved my life. I'll take these skates home to Jimmie. They will fit him when he grows bigger." "That is a good idea," said the dog, "and if I ever catch that bear again I will put him in the beehive jail and make him crack hickory nuts with his teeth." Then Uncle Wiggily went home, and took the little mousie girl with him, and he told the duck children about his adventure with the bear, just as I have told you. So now it's bedtime, if you please, and I can't tell you any more. But if the man who cleans our yard doesn't take my overcoat for an ash can and put the dried leaves in it, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the clothes wringer. STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLOTHES WRINGER One day Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys, came running over to Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump-house. It was after school, from which they had just come, and they rushed up the front steps, barking like anything, and calling out: "Where's Uncle Wiggily? Where is he?" "We want to see him in a hurry!" barked Peetie. "Yes, immediately," went on Jackie. He had heard the teacher that day in school use the word, immediately, to tell a bad bumble bee to take his seat and stop trying to sting Lulu Wibblewobble. Immediately means right off quick, without waiting, you know. "Hoity-toity!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat housekeeper. "What is the trouble?" "We must see Uncle Wiggily immediately!" barked Peetie again, trying to stand on one ear. But he could not make it stiff enough, so he fell down, and bumped into Jackie, and they both tumbled down the steps, making a great racket. "There, there! You must be more quiet," cautioned Nurse Jane. "Uncle Wiggily just came back from his auto ride for his health, and is taking a nap. You must not wake him up. What do you want to see him about that is so important?" "Oh, we'll wait until he wakes up," said Jackie, as he sat down on the porch. "Ha! Who wants me?" suddenly exclaimed a voice a little later, and out came Uncle Wiggily himself. "We do!" cried Jackie. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" "We're going to work!" added Peetie, unable to keep still any longer. "What! You don't mean to say you're going to leave school and go to work?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "No, we're not going to leave school," exclaimed Peetie. "We are going to work after school. Jackie is going to deliver newspapers." "And I'm going to get ten cents a week for it," said Jackie proudly, but not too proud. "And I'm going to help at the clothes wringer for the circus elephant," exclaimed Peetie. "Help at the wringer for the elephant!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What does that mean? You startle and puzzle me." "Why, you know the circus elephant has to dress up like a clown," went on Peetie. "And he plays a drum and a handorgan, and he fires off a cannon in the sawdust ring. And he does a lot of things like that. After a while his white clown suit gets all dirty and he has to wash out his clothes. Then he has to squeeze them in a wringer to get as much of the water out as he can. Then he hangs them up to dry. "Well, he can turn the wringer himself with his trunk, but his paws are so big that he can't put the clothes through between the rubber rollers. So he advertised for some little animal boy to help him after school. I answered, and I'm going to help him wash and dry his clothes." "How much are you to get?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I get three puppy biscuits every day and a glass of pink lemonade, and on Saturday afternoons I can go to the circus for nothing." "Fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm real glad you came to tell me. You are good and smart little animal boys." Then Peetie and Jackie ran off to do the new work they had arranged for, and Uncle Wiggily cleaned his auto ready for his ride next day. And when he had finished he thought he would take a walk down to the circus tent and see how Peetie was helping the elephant wash the clothes. As for Jackie, he had to run so fast, here and there and everywhere, to deliver his papers that Uncle Wiggily did not know where to find him, any more than Bo-peep did her sheep. Well, in a little while, the rabbit gentleman came to where the elephant was washing his clothes. Of course he had to have a very large tub and washboard and an extra large wringer for his clothes were very large. And there, up on a box in front of the tub, that was filled with suds and water, stood Peetie Bow Wow, splashing around, and reaching down in for the wet clothes. And as he fished them up, and put the ends between the rubber rollers of the wringer, the elephant would turn the handle of the squee-gee machine with his trunk. "How is that?" asked Peetie. "Fine!" cried the elephant, making his trunk go faster and faster, and squirting the water out of the wet clothes, all over the ground. "Yes, Peetie is a good little chap," said Uncle Wiggily. Just then the elephant's brother came along, and the two big animals began talking together. And, as they were both a little deaf, each one shouted to the other as loudly as he could. Oh! such a racket as they made--thunder was nothing to it! And then a funny thing happened. Peetie turned around to put some more clothes in the tub, when, all of a sudden, his tail got caught in between the wringer's rubber rollers. "Ouch!" cried the little puppy dog. "Ouch! Oh, dear me! Stop, please, Mr. Elephant. Don't turn the wringer any more!" But the two elephants were talking together, each one as loudly as he could, about how much hay they could eat, and how some little boys at a circus would give them only one peanut instead of a whole bag full, and all things like that. So the clothes-washing elephant never noticed that Peetie's tail was caught in the rollers. And he didn't hear him cry. Around and around the elephant turned the handle of the wringer with his trunk, winding Peetie's tail right between the rollers, and drawing the little puppy dog boy himself closer and closer into the tub, over the water and nearer to the rubber rollers themselves. [Illustration] "Oh, stop! Oh, stop!" cried poor Peetie trying to get away, but he could not. "If I get rolled between the rollers I'll be as flat as a pancake!" he screamed. "Oh, stop! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, save me!" "Yes, I will!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "You must stop turning that wringer!" he said to the circus elephant. "You are wringing Peetie instead of the clothes. His tail is caught!" But the elephant was so deaf, and his brother was calling to him so loudly about pink lemonade, that he could not hear either Peetie or Uncle Wiggily. Then, to make him listen, Uncle Wiggily with his crutch tickled the elephant's foot, which was as high up as he could reach, but the big creature thought it was only a mosquito, and paid no attention. "Oh, what shall I do?" cried Peetie. "I'll save you!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, and then, happening to have a bag of peanuts in his pocket he held them close to the elephant's trunk. The elephant could smell, if he could not hear well, and all at once he took the peanuts, and as he did so, of course, he removed his trunk from the wringer handle. And as he ate the peanuts he saw what a terrible thing he was doing, wringing Peetie instead of the clothes, so he very kindly made the wringer go backwards, and out came Peetie's tail again, a little flat, but not much hurt otherwise. "I am so sorry," said the elephant. "I wouldn't have had it happen for the world." "Yes, it was an accident," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "but I guess Peetie had better find some other kind of work to do after school." "All right," said the elephant. "I'll pay him off, and then I'll get a rubbery snake to help me with my clothes. A snake won't mind being squeezed." So he did that, and Peetie and Uncle Wiggily went home, and nothing more happened that day. But next, in case the automobile horn doesn't blow the little girl's rubber balloon up in the top of the tree, where the kittie cat has its nest, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the trained nurse. STORY XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TRAINED NURSE Uncle Wiggily Longears, the gentleman rabbit, was out riding in his automobile. He was taking exercise, so he would not be so fat, for a fat rabbit is about the fattest thing there is, except a balloon, and that doesn't count, as it has no ears. "I wonder what will happen to me to-day?" said Uncle Wiggily, as he rode along, turning the turnip steering wheel from one side to the other to keep from bumping into stones and stumps, and things like that. And, every now and then, Uncle Wiggily would take a bite out of his turnip steering wheel. That was what it was for, you see. And as for the German bologna sausages which were the tires, Uncle Wiggily used to let anybody who wanted to--such as a hungry doggie or a starving kittie--take a bite out of them whenever they wanted to. Well, pretty soon, after a while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily came to the top of a hill. He stopped his auto there to look around at the green fields and the apple trees in blossom, and at the little brook running along over the green, mossy stones. And the brook never stubbed its toe once on the stones! What do you think of that? "Well, I guess I'll go down hill," thought the old gentleman rabbit, and down he started. But Oh unhappiness! Sadness, and, also, isn't it too bad! No sooner had Uncle Wiggily started down the hill in his auto than the snicker-snooker-um got twisted around the boodle-oodle-um, and that made the wibble-wobble-ton stand on its head, instead of standing on its ear as it really ought to have done. Then the auto ran away, and the next thing Uncle Wiggily knew his car had hit a stump, turned a somersault and part of a peppersault, and he was thrown out. "Bang!" he fell, right on the hard ground, and for a moment he stayed there, being too much out of breath to get up and see what was the matter. And when he tried to get up he couldn't. Something had happened to him. He had hit his head on a stone. Poor Uncle Wiggily! But, very luckily, Dr. Possum happened to be passing, having just come from paying a visit to Grandfather Goosey Gander, who had, by mistake, eaten a shoe button with his corn meal pudding. And Dr. Possum, having cured Grandpa Goosey, went at once to help Uncle Wiggily. "We must get you home right away, Uncle Wiggily," said the doctor gentleman. "You must be put to bed and have a trained nurse." "Well, as long as I have to have a nurse, I should much prefer," said Uncle Wiggily, faintly, "I should much prefer a trained one to a wild one. For a trained nurse who can do tricks will be quite funny." "Hum!" exclaimed Dr. Possum. "A trained nurse has no time to do tricks. Now rest yourself." So Uncle Wiggily sat back quietly in Dr. Possum's auto until he got to his hollow stump home. Then Old Dog Percival and the doctor carried the rabbit gentleman in, and they sent for a trained nurse. For Uncle Wiggily was quite badly hurt, and needed some one to feed him for a while. Pretty soon the trained nurse came, and who did she turn out to be but Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy herself, the kind old muskrat. She had been living with Uncle Wiggily, but, for a time, had gone off to study to be a trained nurse. She put on a white cap and a blue and white striped dress, and she was just as good a nurse as one could get from the hospital. Uncle Wiggily was too ill to notice, though. "I know how to look after him," said Nurse Jane, and she really did. She felt of his pulse, and made him put out his tongue to look at, to see that he had not swallowed it by mistake, and she found out how hot he was to see if he had fever, and all things like that. And she put a report of all these things down on a bit of white birch bark for paper, using a licorice stick for a pencil. Afterward Dr. Possum would read the report. Well, for some time Uncle Wiggily was quite ill, for you know it is no fun to be in an automobile accident. Then he began to get better. Nurse Jane did not have much to do, and Dr. Possum, who came in every day, said: "He will get well now. But Uncle Wiggily has had a hard time of it; very hard!" And, as soon as he began to get better, Uncle Wiggily got sort of impatient, and he wanted many things he could not have, or which were not good for him. He wanted to get out of bed, but Nurse Jane would not let him, for the doctor had told her not to. Then Uncle Wiggily said: "Well, you are a trained nurse. Now you must do some tricks for me, or I shall get out of bed whether you want me to or not," and he barked like a dog; really he did. You see he was not exactly himself, but rather out of his head on account of the fever. "Come on, do some tricks!" he cried to Nurse Jane. Poor Miss Fuzzy-Wuzzy! She had never done a trick since she was a little girl muskrat, but she knew sick rabbits must be humored, so she tried to think of a trick. She did not know whether to make believe jump rope, play puss in a corner or pretend that she was a fire engine. And she really wanted to help Uncle Wiggily! "Come on! Do something!" he cried, and he almost jumped out of bed. "Do something." And just then, as it happened, a great big bee flew in the window, and maybe it was going to sting Uncle Wiggily, for all I know. Then Nurse Jane knew what to do. She caught up a soft towel, so as not to hurt the bee any more than she had to, and she began hitting at him. "Get out of here! Get out of here!" cried Nurse Jane. "You can't sting Uncle Wiggily!" "Buzz! Buzz!" sang the bee. "Go out! Go out!" exclaimed Nurse Jane, and she made the towel sail through the air. The bee flew this way and that, up and down and sideways, but always Nurse Jane was after him with the towel, trying to drive him out of the window. She climbed up on chairs, she jumped over tables, without knocking over a single medicine bottle. She crawled under the sofa and out again, she even jumped on the couch and bounced up in the air like a balloon. And at last she drove the bad bee out doors where he could get honey from the flowers, and they didn't mind his stinging them if he wanted to, which of course he didn't. Then, after that, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy sat down in a chair, near Uncle Wiggily, very tired out indeed. The old gentleman rabbit opened his eyes and laughed a little. "Those were funny tricks you did for me," he said, "jumping around like that. Very funny! Ha! Ha!" "I was not doing tricks," answered Nurse Jane, surprised-like. "I was trying to keep a bee from biting you." "Were you indeed?" spoke Uncle Wiggily. "I thought they were some of the tricks you had been trained to do. They were fine. I laughed so hard that I think I am much better." And, indeed, he was, and soon he was all well, so that Nurse Jane Fuzzy, without really meaning to at all, had done some funny tricks when she drove out that bee. Oh! trained nurses are very queer, I think, but they are very nice, also. So Uncle Wiggily was soon well, and needed no nurse, and when his auto was mended, he could ride around in it as nicely as before. =The Sunnybrook Series= By MRS. ELSIE M. ALEXANDER Cloth Bound, 12 mo. Illustrations in Color Jackets in Full Color Colored End Papers, Illus. * * * * * A remarkably well told, instructive series of stories of animals, their characteristics and the exciting incidents in their lives. Young people will find these tales of animal life filled with a true and intimate knowledge of nature lore. * * * * * THE HAPPY FAMILY OF BEECHNUT GROVE (PETER GRAY SQUIRREL AND FAMILY) BUSTER RABBIT, THE EXPLORER (THE BUNNY RABBIT FAMILY) ADVENTURES OF TUDIE (THE FIELD MOUSE) TABITHA DINGLE (THE FAMOUS CAT OF SUNNYBROOK MEADOW) ROODY AND HIS UNDERGROUND PALACE (MR. WOODCHUCK IN HIS HAPPY HOME) BUFF AND DUFF (CHILDREN OF MRS. WHITE-HEN) * * * * * A. L. BURT COMPANY, _Publishers_ 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK =The Wildwood Series= By BEN FIELD Cloth Bound, 12 mo. Illustrations in Color Jackets in Full Color Colored End Papers, Illus. * * * * * In this new children's series the adventures of many familiar animal characters are pictured in a realistic manner. Young readers will find these captivating tales of the habits, haunts and pranks of their little animal friends brimful of entertainment. * * * * * EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. TOM SQUIRREL EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. JIM CROW EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. GERALD FOX EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. MELANCTHON COON EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. ROBERT ROBIN EXCITING ADVENTURES OF MR. BOB WHITE * * * * * A. L. BURT COMPANY, _Publishers_ 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK Transcriber's Note A few obvious typographical errors have been corrected. All other text and punctuation is retained. Blank pages before illustrations have been removed. Text in _italics_ or =bold= are indicated in this way. 
23213	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original lovely illustrations. See 23213-h.htm or 23213-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/3/2/1/23213/23213-h/23213-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/3/2/1/23213/23213-h.zip) [Cover Illustration] UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD [Illustration] UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD Adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman with the Mother Goose Characters by HOWARD R. GARIS Author of "Uncle Wiggily Bedtime Stories," "Uncle Wiggily Animal Stories," "Uncle Wiggily's Story Book," "The Daddy Series," Etc. Illustrated by Edward Bloomfield & Lansing Campbell A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York CHILDREN'S BOOKS by Howard R. Garis UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY UNCLE WIGGILY'S RHEUMATISM UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY UNCLE WIGGILY IN WONDERLAND UNCLE WIGGILY IN FAIRYLAND UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER HUBBARD UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRDS UNCLE WIGGILY ANIMAL STORIES SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW-WOW BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL TOODLE AND NOODLE FLATTAIL DOTTIE AND WILLIE FLUFFTAIL DICKIE ANP NELLIE FLIPTAIL WOODIE AND WADDIE CHUCK BOBBY AND BETTY RINGTAIL SOMETHING NEW! UNCLE WIGGILY'S STORY BOOK and UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICTURE BOOK Copyright, 1922, by R. F. FENNO & COMPANY UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Uncle Wiggily and Mother Goose II. Uncle Wiggily and the First Pig III. Uncle Wiggily and the Second Pig IV. Uncle Wiggily and the Third Pig V. Uncle Wiggily and Little Boy Blue VI. Uncle Wiggily and Higgledee Piggledee VII. Uncle Wiggily and Little Bo-Peep VIII. Uncle Wiggily and Tommie Tucker IX. Uncle Wiggily and Pussy Cat Mole X. Uncle Wiggily and Jack and Jill XI. Uncle Wiggily and Jack Horner XII. Uncle Wiggily and Mr. Pop-Goes XIII. Uncle Wiggily and Simple Simon XIV. Uncle Wiggily and the Crumpled-Horn Cow XV. Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard XVI. Uncle Wiggily and Miss Muffet XVII. Uncle Wiggily and the First Kitten XVIII. Uncle Wiggily and the Second Kitten XIX. Uncle Wiggily and the Third Kitten XX. Uncle Wiggily and the Jack Horse XXI. Uncle Wiggily and the Clock-Mouse XXII. Uncle Wiggily and the Late Scholar XXIII. Uncle Wiggily and Baa-Baa Black Sheep XXIV. Uncle Wiggily and Polly Flinders XXV. Uncle Wiggily and the Garden Maid XXVI. Uncle Wiggily and the King Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard CHAPTER I UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER GOOSE There once lived in the woods an old rabbit gentleman named Uncle Wiggily Longears, and in the hollow-stump bungalow where he had his home there also lived Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, a muskrat lady housekeeper. Near Uncle Wiggily there were, in hollow trees, or in nests or in burrows under the ground, many animal friends of his--rabbits, squirrels, puppy dogs, pussy cats, frogs, ducks, chickens and others, so that Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane were never lonesome. Often Sammie or Susie Littletail, a small boy and girl rabbit, would hop over to the hollow-stump bungalow, and call: "Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Can't you come out and play with us?" Then the old rabbit gentleman, who was as fond of fun as a kitten, would put on his tall silk hat, take his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a corn-stalk, and he would go out to play with the rabbit children, about whom I have told you in other books. Or perhaps Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boys, might ask Uncle Wiggily to go after hickory nuts with them, or maybe Lulu, Alice or Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, would want their bunny uncle to see them go swimming. So, altogether, Uncle Wiggily had a good time in his hollow-stump bungalow which was built in the woods. When he had nothing else to do Mr. Longears would go for a ride in his airship. This was made of a clothes-basket, with toy circus balloons on it to make it rise up above the trees. Or Uncle Wiggily might take a trip in his automobile, which had big bologna sausages on the wheels for tires. And whenever the rabbit gentleman wanted the automobile wheels to go around faster he sprinkled pepper on the sausages. One day Uncle Wiggily said to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy: "I think I will go for a ride in my airship. Is there anything I can bring from the store for you?" "Why, you might bring a loaf of bread and a pound of sugar," answered the muskrat lady. "Very good," answered Uncle Wiggily, and then he took some soft cushions out to put in the clothes-basket part of his airship, so, in case the air popped out of the balloons, and he fell, he would land easy like, and soft. Soon the rabbit gentleman was sailing off through the air, over the tree tops, his paws in nice, warm red mittens that Nurse Jane had knitted for him. For it was winter, you see, and Uncle Wiggily's paws would have been cold steering his airship, by the baby carriage wheel which guided it, had it not been for the mittens. It did not take the bunny uncle long to go to the store in his airship, and soon, with the loaf of bread and pound of sugar under the seat, away he started for his hollow-stump bungalow again. And, as he sailed on and over the tree tops, Uncle Wiggily looked far off, and he saw some black smoke rising in the air. "Ha! That smoke seems to be near my hollow-stump bungalow," he said to himself. "I guess Nurse Jane is starting a fire in the kitchen stove to get dinner. I must hurry home." Uncle Wiggily made his airship go faster, and then he saw, coming toward him, a big bird, with large wings. "Why, that looks just like my old friend, Grandfather Goosey Gander," Uncle Wiggily thought to himself. "I wonder why he is flying so high? He hardly ever goes up so near the clouds. "And he seems to have some one on his back," spoke Uncle Wiggily out loud this time, sort of talking to the loaf of bread and the pound of sugar. "A lady, too," went on the bunny uncle. "A lady with a tall hat on, something like mine, only hers comes to a point on top. And she has a broom with her. I wonder who it can be?" And when the big white bird came nearer to the airship Uncle Wiggily saw that it was not Grandfather Goosey Gander at all, but another big gander, almost like his friend, whom he often went to see. And then the bunny uncle saw who it was on the bird's back. "Why, it's Mother Goose!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears. "It's Mother Goose! She looks just like her pictures in the book, too." "Yes, I am Mother Goose," said the lady who was riding on the back of the big, white gander. "I am glad to meet you, Mother Goose," spoke Mr. Longears. "I have often heard about you. I can see, over the tree tops, that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat lady housekeeper, is getting dinner ready. I can tell by the smoke. Will you not ride home with me? I will make my airship go slowly, so as not to get ahead of you and your fine gander-goose." "Alas, Uncle Wiggily," said Mother Goose, scratching her chin with the end of the broom handle, "I cannot come home to dinner with you much as I would like it. Alas! Alas!" "Why not?" asked the bunny uncle. "Because I have bad news for you," said Mother Goose. "That smoke, which you saw over the tree tops, was not smoke from your chimney as Nurse Jane was getting dinner." "What was it then?" asked Uncle Wiggily, and a cold shiver sort of ran up and down between his ears, even if he did have warm, red mittens on his paws. "What was that smoke?" "The smoke from your burning bungalow," went on Mother Goose. "It caught fire, when Nurse Jane was getting dinner, and now----" "Oh! Don't tell me Nurse Jane is burned!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Don't say that!" "I was not going to," spoke Mother Goose, kindly. "But I must tell you that your hollow-stump bungalow is burned to the ground. There is nothing left but some ashes," and she made the gander, on whose back she was riding, fly close alongside of Uncle Wiggily's airship. "My nice bungalow burned!" exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. "Well, I am very, very sorry for that. But still it might be worse. Nurse Jane might have been hurt, and that would have been quite too bad. I dare say I can get another bungalow." "That is what I came to tell you about," said Mother Goose. "I was riding past when I saw your Woodland hollow-stump house on fire, and I went down to see if I could help. It was too late to save the bungalow, but I said I would find a place for you and Nurse Jane to stay to-night, or as long as you like, until you can build a new home." "That is very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily. "I hardly know what to do." "I have many friends," went on Mother Goose. "You may have read about them in the book which tells of me. Any of my friends would be glad to have you come and live with them. There is the Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe, for instance." "But hasn't she so many children she doesn't know what to do?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he remembered the story in the book. "Yes," answered Mother Goose, "she has. I suppose you would not like it there." "Oh, I like children," said Uncle Wiggily. "But if there are so many that the dear Old Lady doesn't know what to do, she wouldn't know what to do with Nurse Jane and me." "Well, you might go stay with my friend Old Mother Hubbard," said Mother Goose. "But if I went there, would not the cupboard be bare?" asked Uncle Wiggily, "and what would Nurse Jane and I do for something to eat?" "That's so," spoke Mother Goose, as she reached up quite high and brushed a cobweb off the sky with her broom. "That will not do, either. I must see about getting Mother Hubbard and her dog something to eat. You can stay with her later. Oh, I have it!" suddenly cried the lady who was riding on the back of the white gander, "you can go stay with Old King Cole! He's a jolly old soul!" Uncle Wiggily shook his head. "Thank you very much, Mother Goose," he said, slowly. "But Old King Cole might send for his fiddlers three, and I do not believe I would like to listen to jolly music to-day when my nice bungalow has just burned down." "No, perhaps not," agreed Mother Goose. "Well, if you can find no other place to stay to-night come with me. I have a big house, and with me live Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, who is getting to be quite a big chap now, Little Tommie Tucker and Jack Sprat and his wife. Oh, I have many other friends living with me, and surely we can find room for you." "Thank you," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I will think about it." Then he flew down in his airship to the place where the hollow-stump bungalow had been, but it was not there now. Mother Goose flew down with her gander after Uncle Wiggily. They saw a pile of blackened and smoking wood, and near it stood Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, and many other animals who lived in Woodland with Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, I am so sorry!" cried Nurse Jane. "It is my fault. I was baking a pudding in the oven, Uncle Wiggily. I left it a minute while I ran over to the pen of Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, to ask her about making a new kind of carrot sauce for the pudding, and when I came home the pudding had burned, and the bungalow was on fire." "Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly, "as long as you were not burned yourself, Nurse Jane." "But where will you sleep to-night?" asked the muskrat lady, sorrowfully. "Oh," began Uncle Wiggily, "I guess I can----" "Come stay with us!" cried Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children. "Or with us!" invited Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. "And why not with us?" asked Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goat children. "We'd ask you to come with us," said Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the mouse children, "only our house is so small." Many of Uncle Wiggily's friends, who had hurried up to see the hollow-stump bungalow burn, while he was at the store, now, in turn, invited him to stay with them. "I, myself, have asked him to come with me," said Mother Goose, "or with any of my friends. We all would be glad to have him." "It is very kind of you," said the rabbit gentleman. "And this is what I will do, until I can build me a new bungalow. I will take turns staying at your different hollow-tree homes, your nests or your burrows underground. And I will come and visit you also, Mother Goose, and all of your friends; at least such of them as have room for me. "Yes, that is what I'll do. I'll visit around now that my hollow-stump home is burned. I thank you all. Come, Nurse Jane, we will pay our first visit to Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits." And while the other animals hopped, skipped or flew away through the woods, and as Mother Goose sailed off on the back of her gander, to sweep more cobwebs out of the sky, Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane went to the Littletail burrow, or underground house. "Good-bye, Uncle Wiggily!" called Mother Goose. "I'll see you again, soon, sometime. And if ever you meet with any of my friends, Little Jack Horner, Bo Peep, or the three little pigs, about whom you may have read in my book, be kind to them." "I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. And he did, as you may read in the next chapter, when, if the sugar spoon doesn't tickle the carving knife and make it dance on the bread board, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the first little pig. CHAPTER II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST PIG Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, came out of the underground burrow house of the Littletail family, where he was visiting a while with the bunny children, Sammie and Susie, because his own hollow-stump bungalow had burned down. "Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, as he strapped his cabbage leaf books together, ready to go to school. "Oh, I am just going for a little walk," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, asked me to get her some court plaster from the five and six cent store, and on my way there I may have an adventure. Who knows?" "We are going to school," said Susie. "Will you walk part of the way with us, Uncle Wiggily?" "To be sure I will!" crowed the old gentleman rabbit, making believe he was Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster. So Uncle Wiggily, with Sammie and Susie, started off across the snow-covered fields and through the woods. Pretty soon they came to the path the rabbit children must take to go to the hollow-stump school, where the lady mouse teacher would hear their carrot and turnip gnawing lessons. "Good-by, Uncle Wiggily!" called Sammie and Susie. "We hope you have a nice adventure," "Good-by. Thank you, I hope I do," he answered. Then the rabbit gentleman walked on, while Sammie and Susie hurried to school, and pretty soon Mr. Longears heard a queer grunting noise behind some bushes near him. "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" came the sound. "Hello! Who is there?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why, if you please, I am here, and I am the first little pig," came the answer, and out from behind the bush stepped a cute little piggie boy, with a bundle of straw under his paw. "So you are the first little pig, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "How many of you are there altogether?" "Three, if you please," grunted the first little pig. "I have two brothers, and they are the second and third little pigs. Don't you remember reading about us in the Mother Goose book?" "Oh, of course I do!" cried Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his nose. "And so you are the first little pig. But what are you going to do with that bundle of straw?" "I'm going to build me a house, Uncle Wiggily, of course," grunted the piggie boy. "Don't you remember what it says in the book? 'Once upon a time there were three little pigs, named Grunter, Squeaker and Twisty-Tail.' Well, I'm Grunter, and I met a man with a load of straw, and I asked him for a bundle to make me a house. He very kindly gave it to me, and now, I'm off to build it." "May I come?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'll help you put up your house." "Of course you may come--glad to have you," answered the first little pig. "Only you know what happens to me; don't you?" "No! What?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "I guess I have forgotten the story." "Well, after I build my house of straw, just as it says in the Mother Goose story book, along comes a bad old wolf, and he blows it down," said the first little pig. "Oh, how dreadful!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "but maybe he won't come to-day." "Oh, yes, he will," said the first little pig. "It's that way in the book, and the wolf has to come." "Well, if he does," said Uncle Wiggily, "maybe I can save you from him." "Oh, I hope you can!" grunted Grunter. "It is no fun to be chased by a wolf." So the rabbit gentleman and the piggie boy went on and on, until they came to the place where Grunter was to build his house of straw. Uncle Wiggily helped, and soon it was finished. "Why, it is real nice and cozy in here," said Uncle Wiggily, when he had made a big pile of snow back of the straw house to keep off the north wind, and had gone in with the little piggie boy. "Yes, it is cozy enough," spoke Grunter, "but wait until the bad wolf comes. Oh, dear!" "Maybe he won't come," said the rabbit, hopeful like. "Yes, he will!" cried Grunter. "Here he comes now." And, surely enough, looking out of the window, the piggie boy and Uncle Wiggily saw a bad wolf running over the snow toward them. The wolf knocked on the door of the straw house and cried: "Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in." "No! No! By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. I will not let you in!" answered Grunter, just like in the book. "Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll blow your house in!" howled the wolf. Then he puffed and he blew, and, all of a sudden, over went the straw house. But, just as it was falling down, Uncle Wiggily cried: "Quick, Grunter, come with me! I'll dig a hole for us in the pile of snow that I made back of your house and in there we'll hide where the wolf can't find us!" Then the rabbit gentleman, with his strong paws, just made for digging, burrowed a hole in the snow-bank, and as the straw house toppled down, into this hole he crawled with Grunter. "Now I've got you!" cried the wolf, as he blew down the first little pig's straw house. But when the wolf looked he couldn't see Grunter or Uncle Wiggily at all, because they were hiding in the snow-bank. "Well, well!" howled the wolf. "This isn't like the book at all! Where is that little pig?" But the wolf could not find Grunter, and soon the bad creature went away, fearing to catch cold in his eyes. Then Uncle Wiggily and Grunter came out of the snow-bank and were safe, and Uncle Wiggily took Grunter home to the rabbit house to stay until Mother Goose came, some time afterward, to get the first little pig boy. "Thank you very much, Uncle Wiggily," said Mother Goose, "for being kind to one of my friends." "Pray don't mention it. I had a fine adventure, besides saving a little pig," said the rabbit gentleman. "I wonder what will happen to me to-morrow?" And we shall soon see for, if the snowball doesn't wrap itself up in the parlor rug to hide away from the jam tart, when it comes home from the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the second little pig. CHAPTER III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND PIG "There! It's all done!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the nice muskrat lady housekeeper, who, with Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was staying in the Littletail rabbit house, since the hollow-stump bungalow had burned down. "What's all done?" asked Uncle Wiggily, looking over the tops of his spectacles. "These jam tarts I baked for Billie and Nannie Wagtail, the goat children," said Nurse Jane. "Will you take them with you when you go out for a walk, Uncle Wiggily, and leave them at the goat house?" "I most certainly will," said the rabbit gentleman, very politely. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Nurse Jane?" But the muskrat lady wanted nothing more, and, wrapping up the jam tarts in a napkin so they would not catch cold, she gave them to Mr. Longears to take to the two goat children. Uncle Wiggily was walking along, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have that day, or whether he would meet Mother Goose again, when all at once he heard a voice speaking from behind some bushes. "Yes, I think I will build my house here," the voice said. "The wolf is sure to find me anyhow, and I might as well have it over with. I'll make my house here." Uncle Wiggily looked over the bushes, and there he saw a funny little animal boy, with some pieces of wood on his shoulder. "Hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his nose twinkle in a most jilly-jolly way. "Who are you, and what are you going to do?" "Why, I am Squeaker, the second little pig, and I am going to make a house of wood," was the answer. "Don't you remember how it reads in the Mother Goose book? 'Once upon a time there were three little pigs, named Grunter, Squeaker and----'" "Oh, yes, I remember!" Uncle Wiggily said. "I met your brother Grunter yesterday, and helped him build his straw house." "That was kind of you," spoke Squeaker. "I suppose the bad old wolf got him, though. Too bad! Well, it can't be helped, as it is that way in the book." [Illustration: "Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!"] Uncle Wiggily didn't say anything about having saved Grunter, for he wanted to surprise Squeaker, so the rabbit gentleman just twinkled his nose again and asked: "May I have the pleasure of helping you build your house of wood?" "Indeed you may, thank you," said Squeaker. "I suppose the old wolf will be along soon, so we had better hurry to get the house finished." Then the second little pig and Uncle Wiggily built the wooden house. When it was almost finished Uncle Wiggily went out near the back door, and began piling up some cakes of ice to make a sort of box. "What are you doing?" asked Squeaker. "Oh, I'm just making a place where I can put these jam tarts I have for Nannie and Billie Wagtail," the rabbit gentleman answered. "I don't want the wolf to get them when he blows down your house." "Oh, dear!" sighed Squeaker. "I rather wish, now, he didn't have to blow over my nice wooden house, and get me. But he has to, I s'pose, 'cause it's in the book." Still, Uncle Wiggily didn't say anything, but he just sort of blinked his eyes and twinkled his pink nose, until, all of a sudden, Squeaker looked across the snowy fields, and he cried: "Here comes the bad old wolf now!" And, surely enough, along came the growling, howling creature. He ran up to the second little pig's wooden house, and, rapping on the door with his paw, cried: "Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!" "No, no! By the hair on my chinny-chin-chin I will not let you in," said the second little pig, bravely. "Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll puff and I'll blow, and blow your house in!" howled the wolf. Then he puffed out his cheeks, and he took a long breath and he blew with all his might and main and suddenly: "Cracko!" Down went the wooden house of the second little piggie, and only that Uncle Wiggily and Squeaker jumped to one side they would have been squashed as flat as a pancake, or even two pancakes. "Quick!" cried the rabbit gentleman in the piggie boy's ear. "This way! Come with me!" "Where are we going?" asked Squeaker, as he followed the rabbit gentleman over the cracked and broken boards, which were all that was left of the house. "We are going to the little cabin that I made out of cakes of ice, behind your wooden house," said Uncle Wiggily. "I put the jam tarts in it, but there is also room for us, and we can hide there until the bad wolf goes off." "Well, that isn't the way it is in the book," said the second little pig. "But----" "No matter!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Hurry!" So he and Squeaker hid in the ice cabin back of the blown-down house, and when the bad wolf came poking along among the broken boards, to get the little pig, he couldn't find him. For Uncle Wiggily had closed the door of the ice place, and as it was partly covered with snow the wolf could not see through. "Oh, dear!" howled the wolf. "That's twice I've been fooled by those pigs! It isn't like the book at all. I wonder where he can have gone?" But he could not find Squeaker or Uncle Wiggily either, and finally the wolf's nose became so cold from sniffing the ice that he had to go home to warm it, and so Uncle Wiggily and Squeaker were safe. "Oh, I don't know how to thank you," said the second little piggie boy as the rabbit gentleman took him home to Mother Goose, after having left the jam tarts at the home of the Wagtail goats. "Pray do not mention it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, modest like, and shy. "It was just an adventure for me." He had another adventure the following day, Uncle Wiggily did. And if the dusting brush doesn't go swimming in the soap dish, and get all lather so that it looks like a marshmallow cocoanut cake, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the third little pig. CHAPTER IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD PIG Uncle Wiggily Longears sat in the burrow, or house under the ground, where he and Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, lived with the Littletail family of rabbits since the hollow-stump bungalow had burned. "Oh, dear!" sounded a grunting, woofing sort of voice over near one window. "Oh, dear!" squealed another voice from under the table. "Well, well! What is the matter with you two piggie boys?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he took down from the sideboard his red, white and blue barber-pole striped rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. "What's the trouble, Grunter and Squeaker?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "We are lonesome for our brother," said the two little piggie boys No. 1 and No. 2. "We want to see Twisty-Tail." For the first and second little pigs, after having been saved by Uncle Wiggily, and taken home to Mother Goose, had come back to pay a visit to the bunny gentleman. "Well, perhaps I may meet Twisty-Tail when I go walking to-day," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "If I do I'll bring him home with me." "Oh, goodie!" cried Grunter and Squeaker. For they were the first and second little pigs, you see. Uncle Wiggily had saved Grunter from the bad wolf when the growling creature blew down Grunter's straw house. And, in almost the same way, the bunny uncle had saved Squeaker, when his wooden house was blown over by the wolf. But Twisty-Tail, the third little pig, Uncle Wiggily had not yet helped. "I'll look for Twisty-Tail to-day," said the rabbit gentleman as he started off for his adventure walk, which he took every afternoon and morning. On and on went Uncle Wiggily Longears over the snow-covered fields and through the wood, until just as he was turning around the corner near an old red stump, the rabbit gentleman heard a clinkity-clankity sort of a noise, and the sound of whistling. "Ha! Some one is happy!" thought the bunny uncle. "That's a good sign--whistling. I wonder who it is?" He looked around the stump corner and he saw a little animal chap, with blue rompers on, and a fur cap stuck back of his left ear, and this little animal chap was whistling away as merrily as a butterfly eating butterscotch candy. "Why, that must be the third little pig!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Hello!" called the rabbit gentleman. "Are you Twisty-Tail?" "That's my name," answered the little pig, "and, as you see, I am building my house of bricks, just as it tells about in the Mother Goose book." And, surely enough, Twisty-Tail was building a little house of red bricks, and it was the tap-tap-tapping of his trowel, or mortar-shovel, that made the clinkity-clankity noise. "Do you know me, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the piggie boy. "You see I am in a book. 'Once upon a time there were three little pigs, and----'" "I know all about you," interrupted Uncle Wiggily. "I have met Mother Goose, and also your two brothers." "They didn't know how to build the right kind of houses, and so the wolf got them," said Twisty-Tail. "I am sorry, but it had to happen that way, just as it is in the book." Uncle Wiggily smiled, but said nothing. "I met a man with a load of bricks, and I begged some of them to build my house," said Twisty-Tail. "No wolf can get me. No, sir-ee! I'll build my house very strong, not weak like my brothers'. No, indeed!" "I'll help you build your house," offered Uncle Wiggily, kindly, and just as he and Twisty-Tail finished the brick house and put on the roof it began to rain and freeze. "We are through just in time," said Twisty-Tail, as he and the rabbit gentleman hurried inside. "I don't believe the wolf will come out in such weather." But just as he said that and looked from the window, the little piggie boy gave a cry, and said: "Oh, here comes the bad animal now! But he can't get in my house, or blow it over, 'cause the book says he didn't." The wolf came up through the freezing rain and knocking on the third piggie boy's brick house, said: "Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!" "No! No! By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I will not let you in!" grunted Twisty-Tail. "Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll blow your house in!" howled the wolf. "You can't! The book says so!" laughed the little pig. "My house is a strong, brick one. You can't get me!" "Just you wait!" growled the wolf. So he puffed out his cheeks, and he blew and he blew, but he could not blow down the brick house, because it was so strong. "Well, I'm in no hurry," the wolf said. "I'll sit down and wait for you to come out." So the wolf sat down on his tail to wait outside the brick house. After a while Twisty-Tail began to get hungry. "Did you bring anything to eat, Uncle Wiggily?" he asked. "No, I didn't," answered the rabbit gentleman. "But if the old wolf would go away I'd take you where your two brothers are visiting with me in the Littletail family rabbit house and you could have all you want to eat." Rut the wolf would not go away, even when Uncle Wiggily asked him to, most politely, making a bow and twinkling his nose. "I'm going to stay here all night," the wolf growled. "I am not going away. I am going to get that third little pig!" "Are you? Well, we'll see about that!" cried the rabbit gentleman. Then he took a rib out of his umbrella, and with a piece of his shoe lace (that he didn't need) for a string he made a bow like the Indians used to have. "If I only had an arrow now I could shoot it from my umbrella-bow, hit the wolf on the nose and make him go away," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he looked out of the window and saw where the rain, dripping from the roof, had frozen into long, sharp icicles. "Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "An icicle will make the best kind of an arrow! Now I'll shoot the wolf, not hard enough to hurt him, but just hard enough to make him run away." Reaching out the window Uncle Wiggily broke off a sharp icicle. He put this ice arrow in his bow and, pulling back the shoe string, "twang!" he shot the wolf on the nose. "Oh, wow! Oh, double-wow! Oh, custard cake!" howled the wolf. "This isn't in the Mother Goose book at all. Not a single pig did I get! Oh, my nose! Ouch!" Then he ran away, and Uncle Wiggily and Twisty-Tail could come safely out of the brick house, which they did, hurrying home to the bunny house where Grunter and Squeaker were, to get something to eat. So everything came out right, you see, and Uncle Wiggily saved the three little pigs, one after the other. And if the canary bird doesn't go swimming in the rice pudding, and eat out all the raisin seeds, so none is left for the parrot, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and Little Boy Blue. CHAPTER V UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BOY BLUE "Uncle Wiggily, are you very busy to-day?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, who, with the old rabbit gentleman, was on a visit to the Bushytail family of squirrels in their hollow-tree home. After staying a while with the Littletail rabbits, when his hollow-stump bungalow had burned down, the bunny uncle went to visit Johnnie and Billie Bushytail. "Are you very busy, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the muskrat lady. "Why, no, Nurse Jane, not so very," answered the bunny uncle. "Is there something you would like me to do for you?" he asked, with a polite bow. "Well, Mrs. Bushytail and I have just baked some pies," said the muskrat lady, "and we thought perhaps you might like to take one to your friend, Grandfather Goosey Gander." [Illustration] "Fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his nose twinkle like a star on a Christmas tree in the dark. "Grandpa Goosey will be glad to get a pie. I'll take him one." "We have it all ready for you," said Mrs. Bushytail, the squirrel mother of Johnnie and Billie, as she came in the sitting-room. "It's a nice hot pie, and it will keep your paws warm, Uncle Wiggily, as you go over the ice and snow through the woods and across the fields." "Fine!" cried the bunny uncle again. "I'll get ready and go at once." Uncle Wiggily put on his warm fur coat, fastened his tall silk hat on his head, with his ears sticking up through holes cut in the brim, so it would not blow off, and then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk, away he started. He carried the hot apple pie in a basket over his paw. "Grandpa Goosey will surely like this pie," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he lifted the napkin that was over it to take a little sniff. "It makes me hungry myself. And how nice and warm it is," he went on, as he put one cold paw in the basket to warm it; warm his paw I mean, not the basket. Over the fields and through the woods hopped the bunny uncle. It began to snow a little, but Uncle Wiggily did not mind that, for he was well wrapped up. When he was about halfway to Grandpa Goosey's house Uncle Wiggily heard, from behind a pile of snow, a sad sort of crying voice. "Hello!" exclaimed the bunny uncle, "that sounds like some one in trouble. I must see if I can help them." Uncle Wiggily looked over the top of the pile of snow, and, sitting on the ground, in front of a big icicle, was a boy all dressed in blue. Even his eyes were blue, but you could not very well see them, as they were filled with tears. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "This is quite too bad! What is the matter, little fellow; and who are you?" "I am Little Boy Blue, from the home of Mother Goose," was the answer, "and the matter is that it's lost!" "What is lost?" asked Uncle. "If it's a penny I will help you find it." "It isn't a penny," answered Boy Blue. "It's the hay stack which I have to sleep under. I can't find it, and I must see where it is or else things won't be as they are in the Mother Goose book. Don't you know what it says?" And he sang: "Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn, There are sheep in the meadow and cows in the corn. Where's Little Boy Blue, who looks after the sheep? Why he's under the hay stack, fast asleep. "Only I can't go to sleep under the hay stack, Uncle Wiggily, because I can't find it. And, oh, dear! I don't know what to do!" and Little Boy Blue cried harder than ever, so that some of his tears froze into little round marbles of ice, like hail stones. "There, there, now!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Of course you can't find a hay stack in the winter. They are all covered with snow." "Are they?" asked Boy Blue, real surprised like. "Of course, they are!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his most jolly voice. "Besides, you wouldn't want to sleep under a hay stack, even if there was one here, in the winter. You would catch cold and have the sniffle-snuffles." "That's so, I might," Boy Blue said, and he did not cry so hard now. "But that isn't all, Uncle Wiggily," he went on, nodding at the rabbit gentleman. "It isn't all my trouble." "What else is the matter?" asked the bunny uncle. "It's my horn," spoke the little boy who looked after the cows and sheep. "I can't make any music tunes on my horn. And I really have to blow my horn, you know, for it says in the Mother Goose book that I must. See, I can't blow it a bit." And Boy Blue put his horn to his lips, puffed out his cheeks and blew as hard as he could, but no sound came out. "Let me try," said Uncle Wiggily. The rabbit gentleman took the horn and he, also, tried to blow. He blew so hard he almost blew off his tall silk hat, but no sound came from the horn. "Ah, I see what the trouble is!" cried the bunny uncle with a jolly laugh, looking down inside the "toot-tooter." "It is so cold that the tunes are all frozen solid in your horn. But I have a hot apple pie here in my basket that I was taking to Grandpa Goosey Gander. I'll hold the cold horn on the hot pie and the tunes will thaw out." "Oh, have you a pie in there?" asked Little Boy Blue. "Is it the Christmas pie into which Little Jack Horner put in his thumb and pulled out a plum?" "Not quite, but nearly the same," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Now to thaw out the frozen horn." The bunny uncle put Little Boy Blue's horn in the basket with the hot apple pie. Soon the ice was melted out of the horn, and Uncle Wiggily could blow on it, and play tunes, and so could Boy Blue. Tootity-toot-toot tunes they both played. "Now you are all right!" cried the bunny uncle. "Come along with me and you may have a piece of this pie for yourself. And you may stay with Grandpa Goosey Gander until summer comes, and then blow your horn for the sheep in the meadow and the cows in the corn. There is no need, now, for you to stay out in the cold and look for a haystack under which to sleep." "No, I guess not," said Boy Blue. "I'll come with you, Uncle Wiggily. And thank you, so much, for helping me. I don't know what would have happened only for you." "Pray do not mention it," politely said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh. Then he and little Boy Blue hurried on through the snow, and soon they were at Grandpa Goosey's house with the warm apple pie, and oh! how good it tasted! Oh, yum-yum! And if the church steeple doesn't drop the ding-dong bell down in the pulpit and scare the organ, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Higgledee Piggledee. CHAPTER VI UNCLE WIGGILY AND HIGGLEDEE PIGGLEDEE One day Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was sitting in an easy chair in the hollow-stump house of the Bushytail squirrel family, where he was paying a visit to Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys. There came a knock on the door, but the bunny uncle did not pay much attention to it, as he was sort of taking a little sleep after his dinner of cabbage soup with carrot ice cream on top. Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, went out in the hall, and when she came back, with her tail all tied up in a pink ribbon, (for she was sweeping) she said: "Uncle Wiggily, a friend of yours has come to see you." "A friend of mine!" cried Uncle Wiggily, awakening so suddenly that his nose stopped twinkling. "I hope it isn't the bad old fox from the Orange Mountains." "No," answered Nurse Jane with a smile, "it is a lady." "A lady?" exclaimed the old rabbit gentleman, getting up quickly, and looking in the glass to see that his ears were not criss-crossed. "Who can it be?" "It is Mother Goose," went on Nurse Jane. "She says you were so kind as to help Little Boy Blue the other day, when his horn was frozen, and you thawed it on the warm pie, that perhaps you will now help her. She is in trouble." "In trouble, eh?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, sort of smoothing down his vest, fastidious like and stylish. "I didn't know she blew a horn." "She doesn't," said Nurse Jane. "But I'll bring her in and she can tell you, herself, what she wants." "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Mother Goose, as she set her broom down in one corner, for she never went out unless she carried it with her. She said she never could tell when she might have to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am in such a lot of trouble!" "Well, I will be very glad to help you if I can," said the bunny uncle. "What is it?" "It's about Higgledee Piggledee," answered Mother Goose. "Higgledee Piggledee!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "why that sounds like----" "She's my black hen," went on Mother Goose. "You know how the verse goes in the book about me and my friends." And, taking off her tall peaked hat, which she wore when she rode on the back of the old gander, Mother Goose sang: "Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen. Sometimes nine and sometimes ten. Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen. Gentlemen come every day, To see what my black hen doth lay." "Well," asked Uncle Wiggily, "what is the trouble? Has Higgledee Piggledee stopped laying? If she has I am afraid I can't help you, for hens don't lay many eggs in winter, you know." "Oh, it isn't that!" said Mother Goose, quickly. "Higgledee Piggledee lays as many eggs as ever for gentlemen--sometimes nine and sometimes ten. But the trouble is the gentlemen don't get them." "Don't they come for them?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzled like and wondering. "Oh, yes, they come every day," said Mother Goose, "but there are no eggs for them. Some one else is getting the eggs Higgledee Piggledee lays." "Do you s'pose she eats them herself?" asked the old rabbit gentleman, in a whisper. "Hens sometimes do, you know." "Not Higgledee Piggledee," quickly spoke Mother Goose. "She is too good to do that. She and I are both worried about the missing eggs, and as you have been so kind I thought perhaps you could help us." "I'll try," Uncle Wiggily said. "Then come right along to Higgledee Piggledee's coop," invited Mother Goose. "Maybe you can find out where her eggs go to. She lays them in her nest, comes off, once in a while, to get something to eat, but when she goes back to lay more eggs the first ones are gone." Uncle Wiggily twinkled his nose, tied his ears in a hard knot, as he always did when he was thinking, and then, putting on his fur coat and taking his rheumatism crutch with him, he went out with Mother Goose. Uncle Wiggily rode in his airship, made of a clothes-basket, with toy circus balloons on top, and Mother Goose rode on the back of a big gander, who was a brother to Grandfather Goosey Gander. Soon they were at the hen coop where Higgledee Piggledee lived. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am so glad you came!" cackled the black hen. "Did Mother Goose tell you about the egg trouble?" "She did, Higgledee Piggledee, and I will see if I can stop it. Now, you go on the nest and lay some eggs and then we will see what happens," spoke Uncle Wiggily. So Higgledee Piggledee, the black hen, laid some eggs for gentlemen, and then she went out in the yard to get some corn to eat, just as she always did. And, while she was gone, Uncle Wiggily hid himself in some straw in the hen coop. Pretty soon the old gentleman heard a gnawing, rustling sound and up out of a hole in the ground popped two big rats, with red eyes. "Did Higgledee Piggledee lay any eggs today?" asked one rat, in a whisper. "Yes," spoke the other, "she did." "Then we will take them," said the first rat. "Hurray! More eggs for us! No gentlemen will get these eggs because we'll take them ourselves. Hurray!" He got down on his back, with his paws sticking up in the air. Then the other rat rolled one of the black hen's eggs over so the first rat could hold it in among his four legs. Next, the second rat took hold of the first rat's tail and began pulling him along, egg and all, just as if he were a sled on a slippery hill, the rat sliding on his back over the smooth straw. And the eggs rode on the rat-sled as nicely as you please. "Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jumping suddenly out of his hiding-place. "So this is where Higgledee Piggledee's eggs have been going, eh? You rats have been taking them. Scatt! Shoo! Boo! Skedaddle! Scoot!" And the rats were so scared that they skedaddled away and shooed themselves and did everything else Mr. Longears told them to do, and they took no eggs that day. Then Uncle Wiggily showed Mother Goose the rat hole, and it was stopped up with stones so the rats could not come in the coop again. And ever after that Higgledee Piggledee, the black hen, could lay eggs for gentlemen, sometimes nine and sometimes ten, and there was no more trouble as there had been before Uncle Wiggily caught the rats and made them skedaddle. So Mother Goose and the black hen thanked Uncle Wiggily very much. And if the stylish lady who lives next door doesn't take our feather bed to wear on her hat when she goes to the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Little Bo Peep. CHAPTER VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BO PEEP "What are you going to do, Nurse Jane?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he saw the muskrat lady housekeeper going out in the kitchen one morning, with an apron on, and a dab of white flour on the end of her nose. "I am going to make a chocolate cake with carrot icing on top," replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "Oh, good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and almost before he knew it he started to clap his paws, just as Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, might have done, and as they often did do when they were pleased about anything. "I just love chocolate cake!" cried the bunny uncle, who was almost like a boy-bunny himself. "Do you?" asked Nurse Jane. "Then I am glad I am going to make one," and, going into the kitchen of the hollow-stump bungalow, she began rattling away among the pots, pans and kettles. For now Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily were living together once more in their own hollow-stump bungalow. It had burned down, you remember, but Uncle Wiggily had had it built up again, and now he did not have to visit around among his animal friends, though he still called on them every now and then. "Oh, dear!" suddenly cried Nurse Jane from the kitchen. "Oh, dear!" "What is the matter, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?" asked the bunny uncle. "Did you drop a pan on your paw?" "No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the muskrat lady. "It is worse than that. I can't make the chocolate cake after all, I am sorry to say." "Oh, dear! That is too bad! Why not?" asked the bunny uncle, in a sad and sorrowful voice. "Because there is no chocolate," went on Nurse Jane. "Since we came to our new hollow-stump bungalow I have not made any cakes, and to-day I forgot to order the chocolate from the store for this one." "Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll go to the store and get the chocolate for you. In fact, I would go to two stores and part of another one for the sake of having a chocolate cake." "All right," spoke Nurse Jane. "If you get me the chocolate I'll make one." Putting on his overcoat, with his tall silk hat tied down over his ears so they would not blow away--I mean so his hat would not blow off--and with his rheumatism crutch under his paw, off started the old gentleman rabbit, across the fields and through the woods to the chocolate store. After buying what he wanted for Nurse Jane's cake, the old gentleman rabbit started back for the hollow-stump bungalow. On the way, he passed a toy store, and he stopped to look in the window at the pop-guns, the spinning-tops, the dolls, the Noah's Arks, with the animals marching out of them, and all things like that. "It makes me young again to look at toys," said the bunny uncle. Then he went on a little farther until, all at once, as he was passing a bush, he heard from behind it the sound of crying. "Ha! Some one in trouble again," said Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if it can be Little Boy Blue?" He looked, but, instead of seeing the sheep-boy, whom he had once helped, Uncle Wiggily saw a little girl. "Ha! Who are you?" the bunny uncle asked, "and what is the matter?" "I am Little Bo Peep," was the answer, "and I have lost my sheep, and don't know where to find them." "Why, let them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them," said Uncle Wiggily quickly, and he laughed jolly like and happy, because he had made a rhyme to go with what Bo Peep said. "Yes, I know that's the way it is in the Mother Goose book," said Little Bo Peep, "but I've waited and waited, and let them alone ever so long, but they haven't come home. And now I'm afraid they'll freeze." "Ha! That's so. It _is_ pretty cold for sheep to be out," said Uncle Wiggily, as he looked across the snow-covered field, and toward the woods where there were icicles hanging down from the trees. "Look here, Little Bo Peep," went on the bunny uncle. "I think your sheep must have gone home long ago, wagging their tails behind them. And you, too, had better run home to Mother Goose. Tell her you met me and that I sent you home. And, if I find your sheep, I'll send them along, too. So don't worry." "Oh, but I don't like to go home without my sheep," said Bo Peep, and tears came into her eyes. "I ought to bring them with me. But today I went skating on Crystal Lake, up in the Lemon-Orange Mountains, and I forgot all about my sheep. Now I am afraid to go home without them. Oh, dear!" Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute, then he said: "Ha! I have it! I know where I can get you some sheep to take home with you. Then Mother Goose will say it is all right. Come with me." "Where are you going?" asked Bo Peep. "To get you some sheep." And Uncle Wiggily led the little shepardess girl back to the toy store, in the window of which he had stopped to look a while ago. "Give Bo Peep some of your toy woolly sheep, if you please," said Uncle Wiggily to the toy store man. "She can take them home with her, while her own sheep are safe in some warm place, I'm sure. But now she must have some sort of sheep to take home with her in place of the lost ones, so it will come out all right, as it is in the book. And these toy woolly sheep will do as well as any; won't they, Little Bo Peep?" "Oh, yes, they will; thank you very much, Uncle Wiggily," answered Bo Peep, making a pretty little bow. Then the rabbit gentleman bought her ten little toy, woolly sheep, each one with a tail which Bo Peep could wag for them, and one toy lamb went: "Baa! Baa! Baa!" as real as anything, having a little phonograph talking machine inside him. "Now I can go home to Mother Goose and make believe these are my lost sheep," said Bo Peep, "and it will be all right." "And here is a piece of chocolate for you to eat," said Uncle Wiggily. Then Bo Peep hurried home with her fleecy toy sheep, and, later on, she found her real ones, all nice and warm, in the barn where the Cow with the Crumpled Horn lived. Mother Goose laughed in her jolliest way when she saw the toy sheep Uncle Wiggily had bought Bo Peep. "It's just like him!" said Mother Goose. And if the goldfish doesn't climb out of his tank and hide in the sardine tin, where the stuffed olives can't find him, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tommie Tucker. CHAPTER VIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE TUCKER "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, one day, as she went over to see her bunny uncle in his hollow-stump bungalow. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Isn't it too bad?" "Isn't what too bad?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as he scratched his nose with his left ear, and put his glasses in his pocket, for he was tired of reading the paper, and felt like going out for a walk. "Too bad about my talking and singing doll, that I got for Christmas," said Susie. "She won't sing any more. Something inside her is broken." "Broken? That's too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Let me see. What's her name?" "Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake," answered Susie. "What a funny name," laughed the bunny uncle. Uncle Wiggily took Susie's doll, which had been given her at Christmas, and looked at it. Inside the doll was a sort of phonograph, or talking machine--a very small one, you know--and when you pushed on a little button in back of the doll's dress she would laugh and talk. But, best of all, when she was in working order, she would sing a verse, which went something like this: "I hope you'll like my little song, I will not sing it very long. I have two shoes upon my feet, And when I'm hungry, then I eat." Uncle Wiggily wound up the spring in the doll's side, and then he pressed the button--like a shoe button--in her back. But this time Susie's doll did not talk, she did not laugh, and, instead of singing, she only made a scratchy noise like a phonograph when it doesn't want to play, or like Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, when he has a cold in his head. "Oh, dear! This is quite too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Quite indeed." "Isn't it!" exclaimed Susie. "Do you think you can fix her, Uncle?" Mr. Longears turned the doll upside down and shook her. Things rattled inside her, but even then she did not sing. "Oh, dear!" cried Susie, her little pink nose going twinkle-inkle, just as did Uncle Wiggily's. "What can we do?" "You leave it to me, Susie," spoke the old rabbit gentleman. "I'll take the doll to the toy shop, where I bought Little Bo Peep's sheep, and have her mended." "Oh, goodie!" cried Susie, clasping her paws. "Now I know it will be all right," and she kissed Uncle Wiggily right between his ears. "Well, I'm sure I _hope_ it will be all right after _that_," said the bunny uncle, laughing, and feeling sort of tickled inside. Off hopped Uncle Wiggily to the toy shop, and there he found the same monkey-doodle gentleman who had sold him the toy woolly sheep for Little Bo Peep. "Here is more trouble," said Uncle Wiggily. "Can you fix Susie's doll so she will sing, for the doll is a little girl one, just like Susie, and her name is Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake." The monkey-doodle man in the toy store looked at the doll. "I can fix her," he said. Going in his back-room workshop, where there were rocking-horses that needed new legs, wooden soldiers who had lost their guns, and steamboats that had forgotten their whistles, the toy man soon had Susie's doll mended again as well as ever. So that she said: "Papa! Mama! I love you! I am hungry!" And she laughed: "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" and she sang: "I am a little dollie, 'Bout one year old. Please take me where it's warm, for I Am feeling rather cold. If you're not in a hurry, It won't take me very long, To whistle or to sing for you My pretty little song." "Hurray!" cried Uncle Wiggily when he heard this. "Susie's dolly is all right again. Thank you, Mr. Monkey-Doodle, I'll take her to Susie." Then Uncle Wiggily paid the toy-store keeper and hurried off with Susie's doll. Uncle Wiggily had not gone very far before, all at once from around the corner of a snowbank he heard a sad, little voice crying: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" "My goodness!" said the bunny uncle. "Some one else is in trouble. I wonder who it can be this time?" He looked, and saw a little boy standing in the snow. "Hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice. "Who are you, and what's the matter?" "I am Little Tommie Tucker," was the answer. "And the matter is I'm hungry." "Hungry, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Well, why don't you eat?" "I guess you forgot about me and the Mother Goose book," spoke the boy. "I'm in that book, and it says about me: "'Little Tommie Tucker, Must sing for his supper. What shall he eat? Jam and bread and butter.'" "Well?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why don't you sing?" "I--I can't!" answered Tommie. "That's the trouble. I have caught such a cold that I can't sing. And if I don't sing Mother Goose won't know it is I, and she won't give me any supper. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! And I am so hungry!" "There now, there! Don't cry," kindly said the bunny uncle, patting Tommie Tucker on the head. "I'll soon have you singing for your supper." "But how can you when I have such a cold?" asked the little boy. "Listen. I am as hoarse as a crow." And, truly, he could no more sing than a rusty gate, or a last year's door-knob. "Ah, I can soon fix that!" said Uncle Wiggily. "See, here I have Susie Littletail's talking and singing doll, which I have just had mended. Now you take the doll in your pocket, go to Mother Goose, and when she asks you to sing for your supper, just push the button in the doll's back. Then the doll will sing and Mother Goose will think it is you, and give you bread and jam." "Oh, how fine!" cried Tommie Tucker. "I'll do it!" "But afterward," said Uncle Wiggily, slowly shaking his paw at Tommie, "afterward you must tell Mother Goose all about the little joke you played, or it would not be fair. Tell her the doll sang and not you." "I will," said Tommie. He and Uncle Wiggily went to Mother Goose's house, and when Tommie had to sing for his supper the doll did it for him. And when Mother Goose heard about it she said it was a fine trick, and that Uncle Wiggily was very good to think of it. Then the bunny uncle took Susie's mended doll to her, and the next day Tommie's cold was all better and he could sing for his supper himself, just as the book tells about. And if the little mouse doesn't go to sleep in the cat's cradle and scare the milk bottle so it rolls off the back stoop, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Pussy Cat Mole. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND PUSSY CAT MOLE "Oh, dear! I don't believe he's ever coming!" said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she stood at the window of the hollow-stump bungalow one day, and looked down through the woods. "For whom are you looking, Nurse Jane?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman. "If it's for the letter-man, I think he went past some time ago." "No, I wasn't looking for the letter-man," said the muskrat lady. "I am expecting a messenger-boy cat to bring home my new dress from the dressmaker's, but I don't see him." "A new dress, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Pray, what is going on?" "My dress is going on me, as soon as it comes home, Uncle Wiggily," the muskrat lady answered, laughingly. "And then I am going on over to the house of Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady. She and I are going to have a little tea party together, if you don't mind." "Mind? Certainly not! I'm glad to have you go out and enjoy yourself," said Uncle Wiggily, jolly like and also laughing. "But I can't go if my new dress doesn't come," went on Nurse Jane. "That is, I don't want to." "Look here!" said the bunny uncle, "I'll tell you what I'll do, Nurse Jane, I'll go for your dress myself and bring it home. I have nothing to do. I'll go get your dress at the dressmaker's." "Will you, really?" cried the muskrat lady. "That will be fine! Then I can curl my whiskers and tie a new pink bow for my tail. You are very good, Uncle Wiggily." "Oh, not at all! Not at all!" the rabbit gentleman said, modest like and shy. Then he hopped out of the hollow-stump bungalow and across the fields and through the woods to where Nurse Jane's dressmaker made dresses. "Oh, yes, Nurse Jane's dress!" exclaimed Mrs. Spin-Spider, who wove silk for all the dresses worn by the lady animals of Woodland. "Yes, I have just finished it. I was about to call a messenger-boy cat and send it home, but now you are here you may take it. And here is some cloth I had left over. Nurse Jane might want it if ever she tears a hole in her dress." Uncle Wiggily put the extra pieces of cloth in his pocket, and then Mrs. Spin-Spider wrapped Nurse Jane's dress up nicely for him in tissue paper, as fine as the web which she had spun for the silk, and the rabbit gentleman started back to the hollow-stump bungalow. Mrs. Spin-Spider lived on Second Mountain, and, as Uncle Wiggily's bungalow was on First Mountain, he had quite a way to go to get home. And when he was about half way there he passed a little house near a gray rock that looked like an eagle, and in the house he heard a voice saying: "Oh, dear! Oh, isn't it too bad? Now I can't go!" "Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought the rabbit gentleman. "It sounds like some one in trouble. I will ask if I can do anything to help." The rabbit gentleman knocked on the door of the little house, and a voice said: "Come in!" Uncle Wiggily entered, and there in the middle of the room he saw a pussy cat lady holding up a dress with a big hole burned in it. "I beg your pardon, but who are you and what is the matter?" politely asked the bunny uncle, making a low bow. "My name is Pussy Cat Mole," was the answer, "and you can see the trouble for yourself. I am Pussy Cat Mole; I jumped over a coal, and----" "In your best petticoat burned a great hole," finished Uncle Wiggily. "I know you, now. You are from Mother Goose's book and I met you at a party in Belleville, where they have a bluebell flower on the school to call the animal children to their lessons." "That's it!" meowed Pussy Cat Mole. "I am glad you remember me, Uncle Wiggily. It was at a party I met you, and now I am going to another. Or, rather, I was going until I jumped over a coal, and in my best petticoat burned a great hole. Now I can't go," and she held up the burned dress, sorrowful like and sad. "How did you happen to jump over the coal?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, it fell out of my stove," said Pussy Cat Mole, "and I jumped over it in a hurry to get the fire shovel to take it up. That's how I burned my dress. And now I can't go to the party, for it was my best petticoat, and Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, asked me to be there early, too; and now--Oh, dear!" and Pussy Cat Mole felt very badly, indeed. "Mrs. Wibblewobble's!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why, Nurse Jane is going there to a little tea party, too! This is her new dress I am taking home." "Has she burned a hole in it?" asked the pussy cat lady. "No, she has not, I am glad to say," the bunny uncle replied. "She hasn't had it on, yet." "Then she can go to the party, but I can't," said Pussy Cat Mole, sorrowfully. "Oh, dear!" "Yes, you can go!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily. "See here! I have some extra pieces of cloth, left over when Mrs. Spin-Spider made Nurse Jane's dress. Now you can take these pieces of cloth and mend the hole burned by the coal in your best petticoat. Then you can go to the party." "Oh, so I can," meowed the pussy cat. So, with a needle and thread, and the cloth she mended her best petticoat. All around the edges and over the top of the burned hole the pussy cat lady sewed the left-over pieces of Nurse Jane's dress which was almost the same color. Then, when the mended place was pressed with a warm flat-iron, Uncle Wiggily cried: "You would never know there had been a burned hole!" "That's fine!" meowed Pussy Cat Mole. "Thank you so much, Uncle Wiggily, for helping me!" "Pray do not mention it," said the rabbit gentleman, bashful like and casual. Then he hurried to the hollow-stump bungalow with Nurse Jane's dress, and the muskrat lady said he had done just right to help mend Pussy Cat Mole's dress with the left-over pieces. So she and Nurse Jane both went to Mrs. Wibblewobble's little tea party, and had a good time. And so, you see, it came out just as it did in the book: Pussy Cat Mole jumped over a coal, and in her best petticoat burned a great hole. But the hole it was mended, and my story is ended. Only never before was it known how the hole was mended. Uncle Wiggily did it. And, if the apple doesn't jump out of the peach dumpling and hide in the lemon pie when the knife and fork try to play tag with it, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Jack and Jill, and it will be a Valentine story. CHAPTER X UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK AND JILL Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was asleep in an easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow one morning when he heard some one calling: "Hi, Jack! Ho, Jill! Where are you? Come at once, if you please!" "Ha! What's that? Some one calling me?" asked the bunny uncle, sitting up so suddenly that he knocked over his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a corn-stalk. "Is any one calling me?" asked Mr. Longears. "No," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "That's Mother Goose calling Jack and Jill to get a pail of water." "Oh! is that all?" asked the rabbit gentleman, rubbing his pink eyes and making his nose twinkle like the sharp end of an ice cream cone. "Just Mother Goose calling Jack and Jill; eh? Well, I'll go out and see if I can find them for her." Uncle Wiggily was always that way, you know, wanting to help some one. This time it was Mother Goose. His new hollow-stump bungalow was built right near where Mother Goose lived, with all her big family; Peter-Peter Pumpkin-Eater, Little Jack Horner, Bo Peep and many others. "Ho, Jack! Hi, Jill! Where are you?" called Mother Goose, as Uncle Wiggily came out of his hollow stump. "Can't you find those two children?" asked the rabbit gentleman, making a polite good morning bow. "I am sorry to say I cannot," answered Mother Goose. "They were over to see the Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe, a while ago, but where they are now I can't guess, and I need a pail of water for Simple Simon to go fishing in, for to catch a whale." "Oh, I'll get the water for you," said Uncle Wiggily, taking the pail. "Perhaps Jack and Jill are off playing somewhere, and they have forgotten all about getting the water." "And I suppose they'll forget about tumbling down hill, too," went on Mother Goose, sort of nervous like. "But they must not. If they don't fall down, so Jack can break his crown, it won't be like the story in my book, and everything will be upside down." "So Jack has to break his crown; eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "That's too bad. I hope he won't hurt himself too much." "Oh, he's used to it by this time," Mother Goose said. "He doesn't mind falling, nor does Jill mind tumbling down after." "Very well, then, I'll get the pail of water for you," spoke the bunny uncle, "and Jack and Jill can do the tumbling-down-hill part." Uncle Wiggily took the water pail and started for the hill, on top of which was the well owned by Mother Goose. As the bunny uncle was walking along he suddenly heard a voice calling to him from behind a bush. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, will you do me a favor?" "I certainly will," said Mr. Longears, "but who are you, and where are you?" "Here I am, over here," the voice went on. "I'm Jack, and will you please give this to Jill when you see her?" Out from behind the bush stepped Jack, the little Mother Goose boy. In his hand he held a piece of white birch bark, prettily colored red, green and pink, and on it was a little verse which read: "Can you tell me, pretty maid, Tell me and not be afraid, Who's the sweetest girl, and true?-- I can; for she's surely you!" "What's this? What's this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "What's this?" "It's a valentine for Jill," said Jack. "To-day is Valentine's Day, you see, but I don't want Jill to know I sent it, so I went off here and hid until I could see you to ask you to take it to her." "All right, I'll do it," Uncle Wiggily said, laughing. "I'll take your valentine to Jill for you. So that's why you weren't 'round to get the pail of water; is it?" "Yes," answered Jack. "I wanted to finish making my valentine. As soon as you give it to Jill I'll get the water." "Oh, never mind that," said the bunny uncle. "I'll get the water, just you do the falling-down-hill part. I'm too old for that." "I will," promised Jack. Then Uncle Wiggily went on up the hill, and pretty soon he heard some one else calling him, and, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump stepped Jill, the little Mother Goose girl. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" said Jill, bashfully holding out a pretty red leaf, shaped like a heart, "will you please give this to Jack. I don't want him to know I sent it." "Of course, I'll give it to him," promised the rabbit gentleman. "It's a valentine, I suppose, and here is something for you," and while Jill was reading the valentine Jack had sent her, Uncle Wiggily looked at the red heart-shaped leaf. On it Jill had written in blue ink: "One day when I went to school, Teacher taught to me this rule: Eight and one add up to nine; So I'll be your valentine." "My, that's nice!" said Uncle Wiggily, laughing. "So that's why you're hiding off here for, Jill, to make a valentine for Jack?" "That's it," Jill answered, blushing sort of pink, like the frosting on a strawberry cake. "But I don't want Jack to know it." "I'll never tell him," said Uncle Wiggily. So he went on up the hill to get a pail of water for Mother Goose. And on his way back he gave Jill's valentine to Jack, who liked it very much. "And now, since you got the water, Jill and I will go tumble down hill," said Jack, as he found the little girl, where she was reading his valentine again. Up the hill they went, near the well of water, and Jack fell down, and broke his crown, while Jill came tumbling after, while Uncle Wiggily looked on and laughed. So it all happened just as it did in the book, you see. Mother Goose was very glad Uncle Wiggily had brought the water for Simple Simon to go fishing in, and that afternoon she gave a valentine party for Sammie and Susie Littletail, the Bushytail squirrel brothers, Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goats, and all the other animal friends of Uncle Wiggily. And every one had a fine time. And if the cup doesn't jump out of the saucer and hide in the spoonholder, where the coffee cake can't find it, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and little Jack Horner. CHAPTER XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK HORNER "Well, I think I'll go for a walk," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one afternoon, when he was sitting out on the front porch of his hollow-stump bungalow. He had just eaten a nice dinner that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had gotten ready for him. "Go for a walk!" exclaimed Nurse Jane. "Why, Mr. Longears, excuse me for saying so, but you went walking this morning." "I know I did," answered the bunny uncle, "but no adventure happened to me then. I don't really count it a good day unless I have had an adventure. So I'll go walking again, and perhaps I may find one. If I do, I'll come home and tell you all about it." "All right," said Nurse Jane. "You are a funny rabbit, to be sure! Going off in the woods, looking for adventures when you might sit quietly here on the bungalow front porch." "That's just it!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "I don't like to be too quiet. Off I go!" "I hope you have a nice adventure!" Nurse Jane called after him. "Thank you," answered Uncle Wiggily, politely. Away over the fields and through the woods went the bunny uncle, looking on all sides for an adventure, when, all of a sudden he heard behind him a sound that went: "Honk! Honk! Honkity-honk-honk!" "Ha! That must be a wild goose!" thought the rabbit gentleman. So he looked up in the air, over his head, where the wild geese always fly, but, instead of seeing any of the big birds, Uncle Wiggily felt something whizz past him, and again he heard the loud "Honk-honk!" noise, and then he sneezed, for a lot of dust from the road flew up his nose. "My!" he heard some one cry. "We nearly ran over a rabbit! Did you see?" And a big automobile, with real people in it, shot past. It was the horn of the auto that Uncle Wiggily had heard, and not a wild goose. "Ha! That came pretty close to me," thought Uncle Wiggily, as the auto went on down the road. "I never ride my automobile as fast as that, even when I sprinkle pepper on the bologna sausage tires. I don't like to scare any one." Perhaps the people in the auto did not mean to so nearly run over Uncle Wiggily. Let us hope so. The old gentleman rabbit hopped on down the road, that was between the woods and the fields, and, pretty soon, he saw something bright and shining in the dust, near where the auto had passed. "Oh, maybe that's a diamond," he said, as he stooped over to pick it up. But it was only a shiny button-hook, and not a diamond at all. Some one in the automobile had dropped it. "Well, I'll put it in my pocket," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "It may come in useful to button Nurse Jane's shoes, or mine." The bunny gentleman went on a little farther, and, pretty soon, he came to a tiny house, with a red chimney sticking up out of the roof. "Ha! I wonder who lives there?" said Uncle Wiggily. He stood still for a moment, looking through his glasses at the house and then, all of a sudden, he saw a little lady, with a tall, peaked hat on, run out and look up and down the road. Her hat was just like an ice cream cone turned upside down. Only don't turn your ice cream cone upside down if it has any cream in it, for you might spill your treat. "Help! Help! Help!" cried the lady, who had come out of the house with the red chimney. "Ha! That sounds like trouble!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I think I had better hurry over there and see what it is all about." He hopped over toward the little house, and, when he reached it he saw that the little lady who was calling for help was Mother Goose herself. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" exclaimed Mother Goose. "I am so glad to see you! Will you please go for help for me?" "Why, certainly I will," answered the bunny gentleman. "But what kind of help do you want; help for the kitchen, or a wash-lady help or----" "Neither of those," said Mother Goose. "I want help so Little Jack Horner can get his thumb out of the pie." "Get his thumb out of the pie!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What in the world do you mean?" "Why, you see it's this way," went on Mother Goose. "Jack Horner lives here. You must have heard about him. He is in my book. His verse goes like this: "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating a Christmas pie. He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said what a great boy am I. "That's the boy I mean," cried Mother Goose. "But the trouble is that Jack can't get his thumb out. He put it in the pie, to pull out the plum, but it won't come out--neither the plum nor the thumb. They are stuck fast for some reason or other. I wish you'd go for Dr. Possum, so he can help us." "I will," said Uncle Wiggily. "But is Jack Horner sitting in a corner, as it says in the book?" "Oh, he's doing that all right," answered Mother Goose. "But, corner or no corner, he can't pull out his thumb." "I'll get the doctor at once," promised the bunny uncle. He hurried over to Dr. Possum's house, but could not find him, as Dr. Possum was, just then, called to see Jillie Longtail, who had the mouse-trap fever. "Dr. Possum not in!" cried Mother Goose, when Uncle Wiggily had hopped back and told her. "That's too bad! Oh, we must do something for Jack. He's crying and going on terribly because he can't get his thumb out." Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then, putting his paw in his pocket, he felt the button-hook which had dropped from the automobile that nearly ran over him. "Ha! I know what to do!" cried the bunny uncle, suddenly. "What?" asked Mother Goose. "I'll pull out Jack's thumb myself, with this button-hook," said Mr. Longears. "I'll make him all right without waiting for Dr. Possum." Into the room, where, in the corner, Jack was sitting, went the bunny gentleman. There he saw the Christmas-pie boy, with his thumb away down deep under the top crust. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jack. "I'm in such trouble. Oh, dear! I can't get my thumb out. It must be caught on the edge of the pan, or something!" "Don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll get it out for you." [Illustration: "I wish you'd go for Dr. Possum."] So he put the button-hook through the hole in the top pie crust, close to Jack's thumb. Then, getting the hook on the plum, Uncle Wiggily, with his strong paws, pulled and pulled and pulled, and---- All of a sudden out came the plum and Jack Homer's thumb, and they weren't stuck fast any more. "Oh, thank you, so much!" said Jack, as he got up out of his corner. "Pray don't mention it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I am glad I could help you, and it also makes an adventure for me." Then Jack Horner, went back to his corner and ate the plum that stuck to his thumb. And Uncle Wiggily, putting the button-hook back in his pocket, went on to his hollow-stump bungalow. He had had his adventure. So everything came out all right, you see, and if the snow-shovel doesn't go off by itself, sliding down hill with the ash can, when it ought to be boiling the cups and saucers for supper, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Mr. Pop-Goes. CHAPTER XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND MR. POP-GOES "Uncle Wiggily," said Mrs. Littletail, the rabbit lady, one morning, as she came in the dining-room where Mr. Longears was reading the cabbage leaf paper after breakfast, "Uncle Wiggily, I don't like you to go out in such a storm as this, but I do need some things from the store, and I have no one to send." "Why, I'll be only too glad to go," cried the bunny uncle, who was spending a few days visiting the Littletail family in their underground burrow-house. "It isn't snowing very hard," and he looked out through the window, which was up a little way above ground to make the burrow light. "What do you want, Mrs. Littletail?" he asked. "Oh, I want a loaf of bread and some sugar," said the bunny mother of Sammie and Susie Littletail. "And you shall certainly have what you want!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he got ready to go to the store. Soon he was on his way, wearing his fur coat, and hopping along on his corn-stalk rheumatism crutch, while his pink nose was twinkling in the frosty air like a red lantern on the back of an automobile. "A loaf of home-made bread and three and a half pounds of granulated sugar," said Uncle Wiggily to the monkey-doodle gentleman who kept the grocery store. "And the best that you have, if you please, as it's for Mrs. Littletail." "You shall certainly have the best!" cried the monkey-doodle gentleman, with a jolly laugh. And while he was wrapping up the things for Uncle Wiggily to carry home, all at once there sounded in the store a loud: "Pop!" "My! What's that?" asked Uncle Wiggily, surprised like and excited. "I heard a bang like a gun. Are there any hunter-men, with their dogs about? If there are I must be careful." "No, that wasn't a gun," said the monkey-doodle gentleman. "That was only one of the toy balloons in my window. I had some left over from last year, so I blew them up and put them in my window to make it look pretty. Now and then one of them bursts." And just then, surely enough, "Pop! Bang!" went another toy balloon, bursting and shriveling all up. Uncle Wiggily looked in the front window of the store and saw some blown-up balloons that had not burst. "I'll take two of those," he said to the monkey-doodle gentleman. "Sammie and Susie Littletail will like to play with them." "Better take two or three," said the monkey-doodle gentleman. "I'll let you have them cheap, as they are old balloons, and they will burst easily." So he let the air out of four balloons and gave them to Uncle Wiggily to take home to the bunny children. The rabbit gentleman started off through the snow-storm toward the underground house, but he had not gone very far before, just as he was coming out from behind a big stump, he heard voices talking. "Now, I'll tell you how we can get those rabbits," Uncle Wiggily heard one voice say. "I'll crawl down in the burrow, and as soon as they see me they'll be scared and run out--Uncle Wiggily, Mrs. Littletail, the two children, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy and all. Then you can grab them, Mr. Bigtail! I am glad I happened to meet you!" "Ah, ha!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Mr. Bigtail! I ought to know that name. It's the fox, and he and some one else seem to be after us rabbits. But I thought the fox promised to be good and let me alone. He must have changed his mind." Uncle Wiggily peeked cautiously around the stump, taking care to make no noise, and there he saw a fox and another animal talking. And the rabbit gentleman saw that it was not the fox who had promised to be good, but another one, of the same name, who was bad. "Yes, I'll go down the hole and drive out the rabbits and you can grab them," said the queer animal. "That's good," growled the fox, "but to whom have I the honor of speaking?" That was his way of asking the name of the other animal, you see. "Oh, I'm called Mr. Pop-Goes," said the other. "Mr. Pop-Goes! What a queer name," said the fox, and all the while Uncle Wiggily was listening with his big ears, and wondering what it all meant. "Oh, Pop-Goes isn't all my name," said the queer animal. "Don't you know the story in the book? The monkey chased the cobbler's wife all around the steeple. That's the way the money goes, Pop! goes the weasel. I'm Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, you see. I'm 'specially good at chasing rabbits." "Oh, I see!" barked Mr. Bigtail, the fox. "Well, I'll be glad if you can help me get those rabbits. I've been over to that Uncle Wiggily's hollow-stump bungalow, but he isn't around." "No, he's visiting the Littletail rabbits," said Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel. "But we'll drive him out." Then Uncle Wiggily felt very badly, indeed, for he knew that a weasel is the worst animal a rabbit can have after him. Weasels are very fond of rabbits. They love them so much they want to eat them, and Uncle Wiggily did not want to be eaten, even by Mr. Pop-Goes. "Oh, dear!" he thought. "What can I do to scare away the bad fox and Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel? Oh, dear!" Then he thought of the toy balloons, that made a noise like a gun when they were blown up and burst. "The very thing!" thought the rabbit gentleman. Carefully, as he hid behind the stump, Uncle Wiggily took out one of the toy balloons. Carefully he blew it up, bigger and bigger and bigger, until, all at once: "Bang!" exploded the toy balloon, even making Uncle Wiggily jump. And as for the fox and Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, why they were so kerslostrated (if you will kindly excuse me for using such a word) that they turned a somersault, jumped up in the air, came down, turned a peppersault, and started to run. "Did you hear that noise?" asked the weasel. "That was a pop, and whenever I hear a pop I have to go! And I'm going fast!" "So am I!" barked the fox. "That was a hunter with a gun after us, I guess. We'll get those rabbits some other time." "Maybe you will, and maybe not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, as he hurried on to the burrow with the bread, sugar and the rest of the toy balloons, with which Sammie and Susie had lots of fun. So you see Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, didn't get Uncle Wiggily after all, and if the pepper caster doesn't throw dust in the potato's eyes, and make it sneeze at the rag doll, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Simple Simon. CHAPTER XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND SIMPLE SIMON "There!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, who, with Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was visiting at the Littletail rabbit burrow one day. "There they are, Uncle Wiggily, all nicely wrapped up for you to carry." "What's nicely wrapped up?" asked the bunny uncle. "And what do you want me to carry?" And he looked over the tops of his spectacles at the muskrat lady, sort of surprised and wondering. "I want you to carry the jam tarts, and they are all nicely wrapped up," went on Nurse Jane. "Don't you remember, I said I was going to make some for you to take over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady?" "Oh, of course!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "The jam tarts are for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children. I remember now. I'll take them right over." "They are all nicely wrapped up in a clean napkin," went on the muskrat lady, "so be careful not to squash them and squeeze out the jam, as they are very fresh." "I'll be careful," promised the old rabbit gentleman, as he put on his fur coat and took down off the parlor mantle his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, made of a corn-stalk. "Oh, wait a minute, Uncle Wiggily! Wait a minute!" cried Mrs. Littletail, the bunny mother of Sammie and Susie, the rabbit children, as Mr. Longears started out. "Where are you going?" "Over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady's house, with some jam tarts for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Then would you mind carrying, also, this little rubber plant over to her?" asked Mrs. Littletail. "I told Mrs. Wibblewobble I would send one to her the first chance I had." "Right gladly will I take it," said Uncle Wiggily. So Mrs. Littletail, the rabbit lady, wrapped the pot of the little rubber plant, with its thick, shiny green leaves, in a piece of paper, and Uncle Wiggily, tucking it under one paw, while with the other he leaned on his crutch, started off over the fields and through the woods, with the jam tarts in his pocket. Over toward the home of the Wibblewobble duck family he hopped. Mr. Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, had not gone very far before, all at once, from behind a snow-covered stump, he heard a voice saying: "Oh, dear! I know I'll never find him! I've looked all over and I can't see him anywhere. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?" "My! That sounds like some one in trouble," Uncle Wiggily said to himself. "I wonder if that is any of my little animal friends? I must look." So the rabbit gentleman peeked over the top of the stump, and there he saw a queer-looking boy, with a funny smile on his face, which was as round and shiny as the bottom of a new dish pan. And the boy looked so kind that Uncle Wiggily knew he would not hurt even a lollypop, much less a rabbit gentleman. "Oh, hello!" cried the boy, as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily. "Who are you?" "I am Mr. Longears," replied the bunny uncle. "And who are you?" "Why, I'm Simple Simon," was the answer. "I'm in the Mother Goose book, you know." "Oh, yes, I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "But you seem to be _out_ of the book, just now." "I am," said Simple Simon. "The page with my picture on it fell out of the book, and so I ran away. But I can't find him anywhere and I don't know what to do." "Who is it you can't find?" asked the rabbit. "The pie-man," answered the funny, round-faced boy. "Don't you remember, it says in the book, 'Simple Simon met a pie-man going to the fair?'" "Oh, yes, I remember," Uncle Wiggily answered. "What's next?" "Well, I can't find him anywhere," said Simple Simon. "I guess the pie-man didn't fall out of the book when I did." "That's too bad," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "It is," said Simple Simon. "For you know he ought to ask me for my penny, when I want to taste of his pies, and indeed, I haven't any penny--not any, and I'm _so_ hungry for a piece of pie!" And Simple Simon began to cry. "Oh, don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily. "See, in my pocket I have some jam tarts. They are for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the ducks, but there are enough to let you have one." "Why, you are a regular pie-man yourself; aren't you?" laughed Simple Simon, as he ate one of Nurse Jane's nice jam tarts. "Well, you might call me that," said the bunny uncle. "Though I s'pose a tart-man would be nearer right." "But there's something else," went on Simple Simon. "You know in the Mother Goose book I have to go for water, in my mother's sieve. But soon it all ran through." And then, cried Simple Simon, "Oh, dear, what shall I do?" And he held out a sieve, just like a coffee strainer, full of little holes. "How can I ever get water in that?" he asked. "I've tried and tried, but I can't. No one can! It all runs through!" Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then he cried: "I have it! I'll pull some leaves off the rubber plant I am taking to Mrs. Wibblewobble. We'll put the leaves in the bottom of the sieve, and, being of rubber, water can't get through them. Then the sieve will hold water, or milk either, and you can bring it to your mother." "Oh, fine!" cried Simple Simon, licking the sticky squeegee jam off his fingers. So Uncle Wiggily put some rubber plant leaves in the bottom of the sieve, and Simple Simon, filling it full of water, carried it home to his mother, and not a drop ran through, which, of course, wasn't at all like the story in the book. "But that isn't my fault," said Uncle Wiggily, as he took the rest of the jam tarts to the Wibblewobble children. "I just had to help Simple Simon." Which was very kind of Uncle Wiggily, I think; don't you? It didn't matter if, just once, something happened that wasn't in the book. And Mrs. Wibblewobble didn't at all mind some of the leaves being off her rubber plant. So you see we should always be kind when we can; and if the canary bird doesn't go to sleep in the bowl with the goldfish, and forget to whistle like an alarm clock in the morning, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the crumple-horn cow. CHAPTER XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRUMPLE-HORN COW "Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman starting out from his hollow-stump bungalow one day. He was back again from his visit to Sammie and Susie Littletail. "Oh, I'm just going for a walk," answered Mr. Longears. "I have not had an exciting adventure since I carried the valentines for Jack and Jill, before they tumbled down hill, and perhaps to-day I may find something else to make me lively, and happy and skippy like." "Too much hopping and skipping is not good for you," the muskrat lady said. "Yes, I think it is, if you will excuse me for saying so," spoke Uncle Wiggily politely. "It keeps my rheumatism from getting too painful." Then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch from inside the talking machine horn, Uncle Wiggily started off. Over the fields and through the woods went the rabbit gentleman, until, pretty soon, as he was walking along, wondering what would happen to him that day, he heard a voice saying: "Moo! Moo! Moo-o-o-o-o!" "Ah! That sounds rather sad and unhappy like," spoke the rabbit gentleman to himself. "I wonder if it can be any one in trouble?" So he peeked through the bushes and there he saw a nice cow, who was standing with one foot in the hollow of a big stump. "Moo! Moo!" cried the cow. "Oh, dear, will no one help me?" "Why, of course, I'll help you," kindly said Uncle Wiggily. "What is the matter, and who are you?" "Why, I am the Mother Goose cow with the crumpled horn," was the answer, "and my foot is caught so tightly in the hole of this stump that I cannot get it out." "Why, I'll help you, Mrs. Crumpled-horn Cow," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. Then, with his rheumatism crutch, the rabbit gentleman pushed loose the cow's hoof from where it was caught in the stump, and she was all right again. "Oh, thank you so much, Uncle Wiggily," spoke the crumpled-horn cow. "If ever I can do you a favor I will." "Thank you," said the rabbit gentleman, politely. "I'm sure you will. But how did you happen to get your hoof caught in that stump?" "Oh, I was standing on it, trying to see if I could jump over the moon," was the answer. "Jump over the moon!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "You surprise me! Why in the world----" "It's this way, you see," spoke the crumpled-horn lady cow. "In the Mother Goose book it says: 'Hi-diddle-diddle, the cat's in the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.' Well, if one cow did that, I don't see why another one can't. I got up on the stump, to try and jump over the moon, but my foot slipped and I was caught fast. "I suppose I should not have tried it, for I am the cow with the crumpled horn. You have heard of me, I dare say. I'm the cow with the crumpled horn, that little Boy Blue drove out of the corn. I tossed the dog that worried that cat that caught the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built." "Oh, I remember you now," said Uncle Wiggily. "And this is my crumpled horn," went on the cow, and she showed the rabbit gentleman how one of her horns was all crumpled and crooked and twisted, just like a corkscrew that is used to pull hard corks out of bottles. "Well, thank you again for pulling out my foot," said the cow, as she turned away. "Now I must go toss that dog once more, for he's always worrying the cat." So the cow went away, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on through the woods and over the fields. He had had an adventure, you see, helping the cow, and later on he had another one, for he met Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, who had lost his penny going to the store for a cornmeal-flavored lollypop. Uncle Wiggily found the penny in the snow, and Jimmie was happy once more. The next day when Uncle Wiggily awakened in his hollow-stump bungalow, and tried to get out of bed, he was so lame and stiff that he could hardly move. "Oh, dear!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "Ouch! Oh, what a pain!" "What is it?" asked Nurse Jane. "What's the matter?" "My rheumatism," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Please send to Dr. Possum and get some medicine. Ouch! Oh, my!" "I'll go for the medicine myself," Nurse Jane said, and, tying her tail up in a double bow-knot, so she would not step on it, and trip, as she hurried along, over to Dr. Possum's she went. The doctor was just starting out to go to see Nannie Wagtail, the little goat girl, who had the hornache, but before going there Dr. Possum ran back into his office, got a big bottle of medicine, which he gave to Nurse Jane, saying: "When you get back to the hollow-stump bungalow pull out the cork and rub some on Uncle Wiggily's pain." "Rub the cork on?" asked Nurse Jane, sort of surprised like. "No, rub on some of the medicine from the bottle," answered Dr. Possum, laughing as he hurried off. Uncle Wiggily had a bad pain when Nurse Jane got back. "I'll soon fix you," said the muskrat lady. "Wait until I get the cork out of this bottle." But that was more easily said than done. Nurse Jane tried with all her might to pull out the cork with her paws and even with her teeth. Then she used a hair pin, but it only bent and twisted itself all up in a knot. "Oh, hurry with the medicine!" begged Uncle Wiggily. "Hurry, please!" "I can't get the cork out," said Nurse Jane. "The cork is stuck in the bottle." "Let me try," spoke the bunny uncle. But he could not get the cork out, either, and his pain was getting worse all the while. Just then came a knock on the bungalow door, and a voice said: "I am the cow with the crumpled horn. I just met Dr. Possum, and he told me Uncle Wiggily had the rheumatism. Is there anything I can do for him? I'd like to do him a favor as he did me one." "Yes, you can help me," said the rabbit gentleman. "Can you pull a tight cork out of a bottle?" "Indeed I can!" mooed the cow. "Just watch me!" She put her crooked, crumpled horn, which was just like a corkscrew, in the cork, and, with one twist, out it came from the bottle as easily as anything. Then Nurse Jane could rub some medicine on Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism, which soon felt much better. So you see Mother Goose's crumpled-horn cow can do other things besides tossing cat-worrying dogs. And if the fried egg doesn't go to sleep in the dish pan, so the knives and forks can't play tag there, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard. CHAPTER XV UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD "Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do this morning?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper for the rabbit gentleman, as she saw him get up from the breakfast table in his hollow-stump bungalow. "Anything special? Why, no, I guess not," answered the bunny uncle. "I was going out for a walk, and perhaps I may meet with an adventure on the way, or I may help some friends of Mother Goose, as I sometimes do." "You are always being kind to some one," said Nurse Jane, "and that is what I want you to do now. I have just made an orange cake, and----" "An orange cake?" cried Uncle Wiggily, his pink nose twinkling. "How nice! Where did you get the oranges?" "Up on the Orange Mountains, to be sure," answered the muskrat lady, with a laugh. "I have made two orange cakes, to tell the exact truth, which I always do. There is one for us and I wanted to send one to Dr. Possum, who was so good to cure you of the rheumatism, when the cow with the crumpled horn pulled the hard cork out of the medicine bottle for us." "Send an orange cake to Dr. Possum? The very thing! Oh, fine!" cried the bunny uncle. "I'll take it right over to him. Put it in a basket, so it will not take cold, Nurse Jane." The muskrat lady wrapped the orange cake in a clean napkin, and then put it in the basket for Uncle Wiggily to carry to Dr. Possum. Off started the old rabbit gentleman, over the woods and through the fields--oh, excuse me just a minute. He did not go over the woods this time. He only did that when he had his airship, which he was not using to-day, for fear of spilling the oranges out of the cake. So he went over the fields and through the woods to Dr. Possum's office. "Well, I wonder if I will have any adventure to-day?" thought the old rabbit gentleman, as he hopped along. "I hope I do, for----" And then he suddenly stopped thinking and listened, for he heard a dog barking, and a voice was sadly saying: "Oh, dear! It's too bad, I know it is, but I can't help it. It's that way in the book, so you'll have to go hungry." Then the dog barked again and Uncle Wiggily said: "More trouble for some one. I hope it isn't the bad dog who used to bother me. I wonder if I can help any one?" He looked around, and, nearby, he saw a little wooden house on the top of a hill. The barking and talking was coming from that house. "I'll go up and see what is the matter?" said the rabbit gentleman. "Perhaps I can help." He looked through a window of the house before going in, and he saw a lady, somewhat like Mother Goose, wearing a tall, peaked hat, like an ice cream cone turned upside down. And with her was a big dog, who was looking in an open cupboard and barking. And the lady was singing: "Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard To get her poor dog a bone. But, when she got there, The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none." "And isn't there anything else in the house to eat, except a bone, Mother Hubbard?" the dog asked. "I'm so hungry?" "There isn't, I'm sorry to say," she answered. "But I'll go to the baker's to get you some bread----" "And when you come back you will think I am dead," said the dog, quickly. "I'll look so, anyhow," he went on, "for I am so hungry. Isn't there any way of getting me anything to eat without going to the baker's? I don't care much for bread, anyhow." "How would you like a piece of orange cake?" asked Uncle Wiggily, all of a sudden, as he walked in Mother Hubbard's house. "Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but I could not help hearing what your dog said. I know how hard it is to be hungry, and I have an orange cake in my basket. It is for Dr. Possum, but I am sure he would be glad to let your dog have some." "That is very kind of you," said Mother Hubbard. "And I certainly would like orange cake," spoke the dog, making a bow and wagging his nose--I mean his tail. "Then you shall have it," said Uncle Wiggily, opening the basket. He set the orange cake on the table, and the dog began to eat it, and Mother Hubbard also ate some, for she was hungry, too, and, what do you think? Before Uncle Wiggily, or any one else knew it, the orange cake was all gone--eaten up--and there was none for Dr. Possum. "Oh, see what we have done!" cried Mother Hubbard, sadly. "We have eaten all your cake, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sure we did not mean to, but with a hungry dog----" "Pray do not mention it," said the rabbit gentleman, politely. "I know just how it is. I have another orange cake of my own at home. I'll go get that for Dr. Possum. He won't mind which one he has." "No. I can't let you do that," spoke Mother Hubbard. "You were too kind to be put to all that trouble. Next door to me lives Paddy Kake, the baker-man. I'll have him bake you a cake as fast as he can, and you can take that to Dr. Possum. How will that do?" "Why, that will be just fine!" said Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his pink nose at the dog, who was licking up the last of the cake crumbs with his red tongue. So Mother Hubbard went next door, where lived Paddy Kake, the baker. And she said to him: "Paddy Kake, Paddy Kake, baker-man, Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Into it please put a raisin and plum, And mark it with D. P. for Dr. Possum." "I will," said Paddy Kake. "I'll do it right away." And he did, and as soon as the cake was baked Uncle Wiggily put it in the basket where the orange one had been, and took it to Dr. Possum, who was very glad to get it. For the raisin and plum cake was as good as the orange one Mother Hubbard and her dog had eaten. So you see everything came out all right after all, and if the cork doesn't pop out of the ink bottle and go to sleep in the middle of the white bedspread, like our black cat, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Little Miss Muffet. CHAPTER XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND MISS MUFFET "Rat-a-tat-tat!" came a knock on the door of the hollow-stump bungalow, where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "Rat-a-tat-tat!" "Come in," called Nurse Jane, who was sitting by a window, mending a pair of Uncle Wiggily's socks, which had holes in them. The door opened, and into the bungalow stepped a little girl. Oh, she was such a tiny thing that she was not much larger than a doll. "How do you do, Nurse Jane," said the little girl, making a low bow, and shaking her curly hair. "Why, I am very well, thank you," the muskrat lady said. "How are you?" "Oh, I'm very well, too, Nurse Jane." "Ha! You seem to know me, but I am not so sure I know you," said Uncle Wiggily's housekeeper. "Are you Little Bo Peep?" "No, Nurse Jane," answered the little girl, with a smile. "Are you Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" Nurse Jane wanted to know. "I am not Mistress Mary," answered the little girl. "Then who are you?" Nurse Jane asked. "I am little Miss Muffet, if you please, and I have come to sit on a tuffet, and eat some curds and whey. I want to see Uncle Wiggily, too, before I go away." "All right," spoke Nurse Jane. "I'll get you the tuffet and the curds and whey," and she went out to the kitchen. The muskrat lady noticed that Miss Muffet said nothing about the spider frightening her away. "Perhaps she doesn't like to talk about it," thought Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, "though it's in the Mother Goose book. Well, I'll not say anything, either." So she got the tuffet for little Miss Muffet; a tuffet being a sort of baby footstool. And, indeed, the little girl had to sit on something quite small, for her legs were very short. "And here are your curds and whey," went on Nurse Jane, bringing in a bowl. Curds and whey are very good to eat. They are made from milk, sweetened, and are something like a custard in a cup. So little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey, just as she ought to have done. "And," said Nurse Jane to herself, "I do hope no spider will come sit beside her to frighten Miss Muffet away, before Uncle Wiggily sees her, for she is a dear little child." Pretty soon some one was heard hopping up the front steps of the bungalow, and Nurse Jane said: "There is Uncle Wiggily now, I think." "Oh, I'm glad!" exclaimed little Miss Muffet, as she handed the muskrat lady the empty bowl of curds and whey. "I want to see him very specially." In came hopping the nice old rabbit gentleman, and he knew Little Miss Muffet right away, and was very glad to see her. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried the little girl. "I have been waiting to see you. I want you to do me a very special extra favor; will you?" "Why, of course, if I can," answered the bunny uncle, with a polite bow. "I am always glad to do favors." "You can easily do this one," said Little Miss Muffet. "I want you to come----" And just then Uncle Wiggily saw a big spider crawling over the floor toward the little girl, who was still on her tuffet, having finished her curds and whey. "And if she sees that spider, sit down beside her, it surely will frighten her away," thought Uncle Wiggily, "and I will not be able to find out what she wants me to do for her. Let me see, she hasn't yet noticed the spider. I wonder if I could get her out of the room while I asked the spider to kindly not to do any frightening, at least for a while?" So Uncle Wiggily, who was quite worried, sort of waved his paw sideways at the spider, and twinkled his pink nose and said "Ahem!" which meant that the spider was to keep on crawling, and not go near Miss Muffet. Uncle Wiggily himself was not afraid of spiders. "Yes, Uncle Wiggily," went on little Miss Muffet, who had not yet seen the spider. "I want you to come to----" and then she saw the rabbit gentleman making funny noses behind her back, and waving his paw at something, and Miss Muffet cried: "Why, what in the world is the matter, Uncle Wiggily? Have you hurt yourself?" "No, no," the rabbit gentleman quickly exclaimed. "It's the spider. She's crawling toward you, and I don't want her to sit down beside you, and frighten you away." Little Miss Muffet laughed a jolly laugh. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" she cried. "I'm not at all afraid of spiders! I'd let a dozen of them sit beside me if they wanted to, for I know they will not harm me, if I do not harm them. And besides, I knew this spider was coming all the while." "You did?" cried Nurse Jane, surprised like. "To be sure I did. She is Mrs. Spin-Spider, and she has come to measure me for a new cobweb silk dress; haven't you, Mrs. Spin-Spider?" "Yes, child, I have," answered the lady spider. "No one need be afraid of me." "I'm not," Uncle Wiggily said, "only I did not want you to frighten Miss Muffet away before she had her curds and whey." "Oh, I had them," the little girl said. "Nurse Jane gave them to me before you came in, Uncle Wiggily. But now let me tell you what I came for, and then Mrs. Spin-Spider can measure me for a new dress. I came to ask if you would do me the favor to come to my birthday party next week. Will you?" "Of course I will!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be delighted." "Good!" laughed Little Miss Muffet. Then along came Mrs. Spin-Spider, and sat down beside her and did not frighten the little girl away, but, instead, measured her for a new dress. So from this we may learn that cobwebs are good for something else than catching flies, and in the next chapter, if the piano doesn't come upstairs to lie down on the brass bed so the pillow has to go down in the coal bin to sleep, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the first little kitten. CHAPTER XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST KITTEN Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was asleep in his easy chair by the fire which burned brightly on the hearth in his hollow-stump bungalow. Mr. Longears was dreaming that he had just eaten a piece of cherry pie for lunch, and that the cherry pits were dropping on the floor with a "rat-a-tat-tat!" when he suddenly awakened and heard some one knocking on the front door. "Ha! Who is there? Come in!" cried the rabbit gentleman, hardly awake yet. Then he happened to think: "I hope it isn't the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery alligator, whom I have invited in. I ought not to have been so quick." But it was none of these unpleasant creatures who had knocked on Uncle Wiggily's door. It was Mrs. Purr, the nice cat lady, and when the rabbit gentleman had let her in she looked so sad and sorrowful that he said: "What is the matter, Mrs. Purr? Has anything happened?" "Indeed there has, Mr. Longears," the cat lady answered. "You know my three little kittens, don't you?" "Why, yes, I know them," replied the bunny uncle. "They are Fuzzo, Muzzo and Wuzzo. I hope they are not ill?" "No, they are not ill," said the cat lady, mewing sadly, "but they have run away, and I came to see if you would help me get them back." "Run away! Your dear little kittens!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You don't mean it! How did it happen?" "Well, you know my little kittens had each a new pair of mittens," said Mrs. Purr. "Yes, I read about that in the Mother Goose book," said the rabbit gentleman. "It must be nice to have new mittens." "My little kittens thought so," went on Mrs. Purr. "Their grandmother, Pussy Cat Mole, knitted them." "I have met Pussy Cat Mole," said Uncle Wiggily. "After she jumped over a coal, and in her best petticoat burned a great hole, I helped her mend it so she could go to the party." "I heard about that; it was very good of you," mewed Mrs. Purr. "But about my little kittens, when they got their mittens, what do you think they did?" "Why, I suppose they went out and played in the snow," Uncle Wiggily said. "I know that is what I would have done, when I was a little rabbit, if I had had a new pair of mittens." "I only wish they had done that," Mrs. Purr said. "But, instead, they went and ate some cherry pie. The red pie-juice got all over their new mittens, and when they saw it they became afraid I would scold them, and they ran away. I was not home when they ate the pie and soiled their mittens, but the cat lady who lives next door told me. "Now I want to know if you will try to find my three little kittens for me; Fuzzo, Wuzzo and Muzzo? I want them to come home so badly!" "I'll go look for them," promised the old rabbit gentleman. So taking his red, white and blue rheumatism crutch, off he started over the fields and through the woods. Mrs. Purr went back home to get supper, in case her kittens, with their pie-soiled mittens, should come back by themselves before Uncle Wiggily found them. On and on went the old rabbit gentleman. He looked on all sides and through the middle for any signs of the lost kittens, but he saw none for quite a while. Then, all at once, he heard a mewing sound over in the bushes, and he said: "Ha! There is the first little kitten!" And there, surely enough she was--Fuzzo! "Oh, dear!" Fuzzo was saying, "I don't believe I'll ever get them clean!" "What's the matter now?" asked the rabbit gentleman, though he knew quite well what it was, and only pretended he did not. "Who are you and what is the matter?" he asked. "Oh, I'm in such trouble," said the first little kitten. "My sisters and I ate some pie in our new mittens. We soiled them badly with the red pie-juice. Weren't we naughty kittens?" "Well, perhaps just a little bit naughty," Uncle Wiggily said. "But you should not have run away from your mamma. She feels very badly. Where are Muzzo and Wuzzo?" "I don't know!" answered Fuzzo. "They ran one way and I ran another. I'm trying to get the pie-juice out of my mittens, but I can't seem to do it." "How did you try?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. [Illustration: "Weren't we naughty kittens?"] "I am rubbing my mittens up and down on the rough bark of trees and on stones," answered Fuzzo. "I thought that would take the pie stains out, but it doesn't." "Of course not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Now you come with me. I am going to take you home. Your mother sent me to look for you." "Oh, but I'm afraid to go home," mewed Fuzzo. "My mother will scold me for soiling my nice, new mittens. It says so in the book." "No, she won't!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "You just leave it to me. But first you come to my hollow-stump bungalow." So Fuzzo, the first little kitten, put one paw in Uncle Wiggily's, and carrying her mittens in the other, along they went together. "Where are you, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy?" called the rabbit gentleman, when they reached his hollow-stump bungalow. "I want you to make some nice, hot, soapy suds and water, and wash this first little kitten's mittens. Then they will be clean, and she can take them home with her." So the muskrat lady made some nice, hot, soap-bubbily suds and in them she washed the kitten's mittens. Then, when they were dry, Uncle Wiggily took the mittens, and also Fuzzo to Mrs. Purr's house. "Oh, how glad I am to have you back!" cried the cat mother. "I wouldn't have scolded you, Fuzzo, for soiling your mittens. You must not be afraid any more." "I won't," promised the first little kitten, showing her nice, clean mittens. And then Uncle Wiggily said he would go find the other two lost baby cats. And so, if the milkman doesn't put goldfish in the ink bottle, to make the puppy dog laugh when he goes to bed, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the second kittie. CHAPTER XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND KITTEN "Well, where are you going now, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman, one day as she saw him starting out of his hollow-stump bungalow, after he had found the first of the little kittens who had soiled their mittens. "I am going to look for the second little lost kitten," replied the bunny uncle, "though where she may be I don't know. Her name is Muzzo." "Why, her name is almost like mine, isn't it?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. "A little like it," said Uncle Wiggily. "Poor little Muzzo! She and the other two kittens ran off after they had soiled their mittens, eating cherry pie when their mother, Mrs. Purr, was not at home." "It is very good of you to go looking for them," said Nurse Jane. "Oh, I just love to do things like that," spoke the rabbit gentleman. "Well, good-by. I'll see if I can't find the second kitten now." Away started the rabbit gentleman, over the fields and through the woods, looking on all sides for the second lost kitten, whose name was Muzzo. "Where are you, kittie?" called Uncle Wiggily. "Where are you, Muzzo? Come to me! Never mind if your mittens are soiled by cherry-pie-juice. I'll find a way to clean them." But no Muzzo answered. Uncle Wiggily looked everywhere, under bushes and in the tree tops; for sometimes kitty cats climb trees, you know; but no Muzzo could he find. Then Uncle Wiggily walked a little farther, and he saw Billie Wagtail, the goat boy, butting his head in a snow-bank. "What are you doing, Billie?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Oh, just having some fun," answered Billie, standing up on his hind legs. "You haven't seen a little lost kitten, with cherry-pie-juice on her new mittens, have you?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "No, I am sorry to say I have not," said Billie, politely. "Did you lose one?" "No, she lost herself," said Uncle Wiggily, and he told about Muzzo. "I'll help you look for her," offered the goat boy, so he and Uncle Wiggily started off together to try to find poor little lost Muzzo, and bring her home to her mother, Mrs. Purr. Pretty soon, as the rabbit gentleman and the goat boy were walking along they heard a little mewing cry behind a pile of snow, and Uncle Wiggily said: "That sounds like Muzzo now." "Perhaps it is. Let's look," said Billie Wagtail. He and the bunny uncle looked over the pile of snow, and there, surely enough, they saw a little white pussy cat sitting on a stone, looking at her mittens, which were all covered with red pie-juice. "Oh, dear!" the little pussy was saying. "I don't know how to get them clean! What shall I do? I can't go home with my mittens all soiled, or my mamma will whip me." Of course, Mrs. Purr, the cat lady, would not do anything like that, but Muzzo thought she would. "What are you trying to do to clean your mittens, Muzzo?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, how you surprised me!" exclaimed the second little lost kitten. "I did not know you were here." "Billie Wagtail and I came to look for you," said Uncle Wiggily. "But what about your mittens?" "Oh, I have been dipping them in snow, trying to clean them," said Muzzo. "Only the pie-juice will not come out." "Of course not," spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. "It needs hot soap-suds and water to clean them. You come home to my bungalow and we will get some." "Oh, I am so cold and tired I can't go another step," said the second little kitten, who had run away from home after she soiled her mittens. "I just can't." "Well, then, I don't know how you are going to get your mittens washed, out here in the cold and snow," said the rabbit gentleman. "Ha! I know a way!" said Billie Wagtail, the goat boy. "How?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'll get an empty tomato can," spoke Billie. "I know where there is one, for I was eating the paper off it, to get the paste, just before you came along." Goats like to eat paper off tomato cans, you know, because the paper is stuck on with sweet paste, and that is as good to goat children as candy is to you. "I'll go get the tomato can," said Billie, "and you can make a fire, Uncle Wiggily." "And then what?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Then we will melt some snow, and make some hot water," went on Billie. "I have a cake of soap in my pocket, that I just bought at the store for my mother. "With the hot water in the can, and the soap, we can make a suds, and wash Muzzo's mittens out here as well as at your bungalow." "So we can, Billie!" cried the bunny uncle. "You go get the empty tomato tin and I'll make the fire. You needn't try to wash your soiled mittens in the snow any more, Muzzo," he said to the second lost kittie. "We will do it for you, in soapy water, which is better." Soon Uncle Wiggily made a fire. Back came Billie Wagtail with the tomato can. Some snow was put in it, and it was set over the blaze. Soon the snow melted into water, and then when the water was hot Uncle Wiggily made a soapy suds as Nurse Jane had done. "Now I can wash my mittens!" cried Muzzo, and she did. And when they were nice and clean she went home with them, and oh! how glad her mother was to see her! "Never run away again, Muzzo," said the cat lady. "I won't," promised the kitten. "But where is Wuzzo?" "She is still lost," said Mrs. Purr. "But I will go find her, too," said Uncle Wiggily. And if the apple pie doesn't go out snowballing with the piece of cheese, and forget to come back to dinner, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the third little kitten. CHAPTER XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD KITTEN Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, came walking slowly up the front path that led to his hollow-stump bungalow. He was limping a little on his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a corn-stalk. "Well, I'm glad to be home again," said the rabbit uncle, sitting down on the front porch to rest a minute. And just then the door in the hollow stump opened, and Nurse Jane, looking out, said: "Oh, here he is now, Mrs. Purr." With that a cat lady came to the door and she said: "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! I thought you never would come back. Did you find her?" "Find who?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "I was not looking for any one. I have just been down to Lincoln Park to see some squirrels who live in a hollow tree. They are second cousins to Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels who live in our woods. I had a nice visit with them." "Then you didn't find Wuzzo, my third little lost kitten, did you?" asked Mrs. Purr, the cat mother. "What! Is Wuzzo still lost?" asked the bunny uncle, in great surprise. "I thought she had come home." "No, she hasn't," said Mrs. Purr. "You know you found my other kittens, Fuzzo and Muzzo, for me, but Wuzzo, the third little kitten, is still lost. She has been away all night, and I came over here the first thing this morning to see if you would not kindly go look for her. But you had already left and I have been waiting here ever since for you to come back." "Yes, I stayed longer with the park squirrels than I meant to," said Uncle Wiggily. "But now I am back I will start off and try to find Wuzzo. It's too bad your three little kittens ran away." They had, you know, as I told you in the two stories before this one. The three little kittens ate cherry pie with their new mittens on. And they soiled their mittens. Then they were so afraid their mother, Mrs. Purr, would scold them that they all ran away. But Mrs. Purr was a kind cat, and would not have scolded at all. And when she found her little kittens were gone she asked Uncle Wiggily to find them. "And you did find the first two, Fuzzo and Muzzo," said the cat lady. "So I am sure you can find the third one, Wuzzo." "I hope I can," Uncle Wiggily said. "I remember now I started off to find her, but my rheumatism hurt me so I had to come back to my bungalow. Then I forgot all about Wuzzo. But I'm all right now, and I'll start off." So away over the fields and through the woods went Uncle Wiggily, looking for the third little lost kitten. When he had found the two others he had helped them wash the pie-juice off their mittens, so they were nice and clean. And then the kittens were not afraid to go home. Uncle Wiggily looked all over for the third little kitten, under bushes, up in trees (for cats climb trees, you know), and even behind big rocks Uncle Wiggily looked. But no Wuzzo could he find. At last, when the rabbit gentleman came to a big hollow log that was lying on the ground, he sat down on it to rest, and, all of a sudden, he heard a voice inside the log speaking. And the voice asked: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" "I've been to London to see the Queen," answered another voice. "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you do there?" "I frightened a little mouse, under her chair," came the answer, and this time it was a little pussy cat kitten speaking, Uncle Wiggily was certain. The old rabbit gentleman looked in one end of the hollow log, and there surely enough, he saw Wuzzo, the third lost kitten. And besides Wuzzo, Uncle Wiggily saw Neddie Stubtail, the little bear boy, who always slept in a hollow log all Winter. But this time Neddie was awake, for it was near Spring. "Wuzzo, Wuzzo! Is that you? What are you doing there?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Don't you know your poor mother is looking all over for you, and that she has sent me to find you? Why don't you come home?" "I--I'm afraid to," said Wuzzo, crawling out of the hollow log, and Neddie, the boy bear also crawled out, saying: "Hello, Uncle Wiggily!" "How do you do, Neddie," spoke the bunny uncle. "How long has Wuzzo been staying with you?" "She just ran in my hollow log," said the little bear chap, "and her tail, brushing against my nose, tickled me so that I sneezed and awakened from my Winter sleep." "Where have you been all night, since you ran away, Wuzzo?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Well," answered the third little kitten. "After Fuzzo, Muzzo and I soiled our mittens with cherry pie we all ran away." "Yes, I know that part," spoke the bunny uncle. "It was not right to do, but I have found the two other lost kitties. I couldn't find you, though. Why was that?" "Because I met Mother Goose," said Wuzzo, "and she asked me to go to London to see the Queen. She took me through the air on the back of her big gander, and we flew as quickly as you could have gone in your airship." "You went to London to see the Queen!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "Well, well! What did you do there?" "I frightened a little mouse under her chair, just as Mother Goose wanted me to do," said Wuzzo. "Then the big gander flew with me to these woods and went back to get Mother Goose, who stayed to talk with the Queen. So here I am, but I don't know the way home." "Oh, I'll take you home all right," said Uncle Wiggily. "But first we must wash your mittens." "Oh, I did that for her, in the log," said Neddie Stubtail, laughing. "With my red tongue I licked off all the sweet cherry-pie-juice, which I liked very much. So, now the mittens are clean." "Good!" cried the bunny uncle. "Now we will go to your mother, Wuzzo. She will be glad to know that you frightened a little mouse under the Queen's chair." So Uncle Wiggily took the third little kitten home, and thus they were all found. And if the cat on our roof doesn't jump down the chimney, and scare the lemon pie so it turns into an apple dumpling, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Jack horse. CHAPTER XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JACK HORSE "Well, where are you going to-day, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman putting on his tall silk hat, and taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch down off the mantel. "I am going over to see Nannie and Billy Wagtail, the goat children," answered the bunny uncle. "I have not seen them in a long while." "But they'll be at school," said Nurse Jane. "I'll wait until they come home, then," said Uncle Wiggily. "And while I'm waiting I'll talk to Uncle Butter, the nice old gentleman goat." So off started Uncle Wiggily over the fields and through the woods. Pretty soon he came to the house where the family of Wagtail goats lived. They were given that name because they wagged their little short tails so very fast, sometimes up and down, and again sideways. "Why, how do you do, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Mrs. Wagtail, as she opened the door for the rabbit gentleman. "Come and sit down." "Thank you," he answered. "I called to see Nannie and Billie. But I suppose they are at school." "Yes, they are studying their lessons." "Well, I'll come in then, and talk to Uncle Butter, for I suppose you are busy." "Yes, I am, but not too busy to talk to you, Mr. Longears," said the goat lady. "Uncle Butter is away, pasting up some circus posters on the billboard, and I wish he'd come back, for I want him to go to the store for me." "Couldn't I go?" asked Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I have nothing special to do, and I often go to the store for Nurse Jane. I'd like to go for you." "Very well, you may," said Mrs. Wagtail. "I want for supper some papers off a tomato can, and a few more off a can of corn, and here is a basket to put them in. And you might bring a bit of brown paper, so I can make soup of it." "I will," said Uncle Wiggily, starting off with the basket on his paw. Goats, you know, like the papers that come off cans, as the papers have sweet paste on them. And they also like brown grocery paper itself, for it has straw in it, and goats like straw. Of course, goats eat other things besides paper, though. Uncle Wiggily was going carefully along, for there was ice and snow on the ground, and it was slippery, and he did not want to fall. Soon he was at the paper store, where he bought what Mrs. Wagtail wanted. And on the way back to the goat lady's house something happened to the old rabbit gentleman. As he stepped over a big icicle he put his foot down on a slippery snowball some little animal chap had left on the path, and, all of a sudden, bango! down went Uncle Wiggily, basket of paper, rheumatism crutch and all. "Ouch!" cried the rabbit gentleman, "I fear something is broken," for he heard a cracking sound as he fell. He looked at his paws and legs and felt of his big ears. They seemed all right. Then he looked at the basket of paper. That was crumpled up, but not broken, and the bunny uncle's tall silk hat, while it had a few dents in, was not smashed. "Oh, dear! It's my rheumatism crutch," cried Uncle Wiggily. "It's broken in two, and how am I ever going to walk without it this slippery day I don't see. Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some bang-bang tooth powder!" Carefully the rabbit gentleman arose, but as he had no red, white and blue striped crutch to lean on, he nearly fell again. "I guess I'd better stay sitting down," thought Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps some one may come along, and I can ask them go get Nurse Jane to gnaw for me another rheumatism crutch out of a corn-stalk. I'll wait here until help comes." Uncle Wiggily waited quite a while, but no one passed by. "It will soon be time for Billie and Nannie Wagtail to pass by on their way from school," thought the bunny uncle. "I could send them for another crutch, I suppose." So he waited a little longer, and then, as no one came, he tried to walk with his broken crutch. But he could not. Then Uncle Wiggily cried: "Help! Help! Help!" but still no one came. "Oh, dear!" said the rabbit gentleman, "if only Mother Goose would fly past, riding on the back of her gander, she might take me home." He looked up, but Mother Goose was not sweeping cobwebs out of the sky that day, so he did not see her. Then, all of a sudden, as the rabbit gentleman sat there, wondering how he was going to walk on the slippery ice and snow without his crutch to help him, he heard a jolly voice singing: "Ride a Jack horse to Banbury Cross, To see an old lady jump on a white horse. With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, She shall have music wherever she goes." And with that along through the woods came riding a nice, old lady on a rocking-horse. And on the side of the rocking-horse was painted in red ink the name: JACK "Why, hello, Uncle Wiggily!" called the nice old lady, shaking her toes and making the bells jingle a pretty tune. "What is the matter with you?" she asked. "Oh, I am in such trouble," replied the bunny uncle. "I fell down on a slippery snowball, and broke my crutch. Without it I cannot walk, and I want to take these papers to Mrs. Wagtail, the goat lady, to eat." "Ha! If that is all your trouble I can soon fix matters!" cried the jolly old lady. "Here, get up beside me on my Jack horse, and I'll ride you to Mrs. Wagtail's, and then take you home to your hollow-stump bungalow." "Oh, will you? How kind!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Thank you! But have you the time?" "Lots of time," laughed the old lady. "It doesn't really matter when I get to Banbury Cross. Come on!" Uncle Wiggily got up on the back of the Jack horse, behind the old lady. She tinkled the rings on her fingers and jingled the bells on her toes, and so, of course, she'll have music wherever she goes. "Just as the Mother Goose books says," spoke the bunny uncle. "Oh, I'm glad you came along." "So am I," said the nice old lady. Then she took Uncle Wiggily to the Wagtail house, where he left the basket of papers, and next he rode on the Jack horse to his bungalow, and, after the bunny uncle had thanked the old lady, she, herself, rode on to Banbury Cross, to see another old lady jump on a white horse. And very nicely she did it too, let me tell you. So everything came out all right, and in the next chapter, if the apple pie doesn't turn a somersault and crack its crust so the juice runs out, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the clock-mouse. CHAPTER XXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLOCK-MOUSE Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, sat in an easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow. He had just eaten a nice lunch, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had put on the table for him, and he was feeling a bit sleepy. "Are you going out this afternoon?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she cleared away the dishes. "Hum! Ho! Well, I hardly know," Uncle Wiggily answered, in a sleepy voice. "I may, after I have a little nap." "Your new red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch is ready for you," went on Nurse Jane. "I gnawed it for you out of a fine large corn-stalk." Uncle Wiggily had broken his other crutch, if you will kindly remember, when he slipped as he was coming back from the store, where he went for Mrs. Wagtail, the goat lady. And it was so slippery that the rabbit gentleman never would have gotten home, only he rode on a Jack horse with the lady, who had rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, as I told you in the story before this one. "Thank you for making me a new crutch, Nurse Jane," spoke the bunny uncle. "If I go out I'll take it." Then he went to sleep in his easy chair, but he was suddenly awakened by hearing the bungalow clock strike one. Then, as he sat up and rubbed his eyes with his paws, Uncle Wiggily heard a thumping noise on the hall floor and a little voice squeaked out: "Ouch! I've hurt my leg! Oh, dear!" "My! I wonder what that can be? It seemed to come out of my clock," spoke Mr. Longears. "I did come out of your clock," said some one. "You did? Who are you, if you please?" asked the bunny uncle, looking all around. "I can't see you." "That's because I'm so small," was the answer. "But here I am, right by the table. I can't walk as my leg is hurt." Uncle Wiggily looked, and saw a little mouse, who was holding his left hind leg in his right front paw. "Who are you?" asked the bunny uncle. "I am Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse," was the answer. "And I am a clock-mouse." "A clock-mouse!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "I never heard of such a thing." "Oh, don't you remember me? I'm in Mother Goose's book. This is how it goes: "'Hickory Dickory Dock, The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, And down he come, Hickory Dickory Dock!'" "Oh, now I remember you," said Uncle Wiggily. "And so you are a clock-mouse." "Yes, I ran up your clock, and then when the clock struck one, down I had to come. But I ran down so fast that I tripped over the pendulum. The clock reached down its hands and tried to catch me, but it had no eyes in its face to see me, so I slipped, anyhow, and I hurt my leg." "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps I can fix it for you. Nurse Jane, bring me some salve for Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse," he called. The muskrat lady brought some salve, and, with a rag, Uncle Wiggily bound up the leg of the clock-mouse so it did not hurt so much. "And I'll lend you a piece of my old crutch, so you can hobble along on it," said Uncle Wiggily. "Thank you," spoke Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse. "You have been very kind to me, and some day, I hope, I may do you a favor. If I can I will." "Thank you," Uncle Wiggily said. Then Hickory Dickory Dock limped away, but in a few days he was better, and he could run up more clocks, and run down when they struck one. It was about a week after this that Uncle Wiggily went walking through the woods on his way to see Grandfather Goosey Gander. And just before he reached his friend's house he met Mother Goose. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily," she said, swinging her cobweb broom up and down, "I want to thank you for being so kind to Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse." "It was a pleasure to be kind to him," said Uncle Wiggily. "Is he all better now?" "Yes, he is all well again," replied Mother Goose. "He is coming to run up and down your clock again soon." "I'll be glad to see him," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he went to call on Grandpa Goosey, and he told about Hickory Dickory Dock, falling down from out the clock. On his way back to his hollow-stump bungalow, Uncle Wiggily took a short cut through the woods. And, as he was passing along, his paw slipped and he became all tangled up in a wild grape vine, which was like a lot of ropes, all twisted together into hard knots. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm caught!" The more he tried to untangle himself the tighter he was held fast, until it seemed he would never get out. "Oh!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "This is terrible. Will no one come to get me out? Help! Help! Will some one please help me?" "Yes, I will help you, Uncle Wiggily," answered a kind, little squeaking voice. "Who are you?" asked the rabbit gentleman, moving a piece of the grape vine away from his nose, so he could speak plainly. "I am Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse," was the answer, "and with my sharp teeth I will gnaw the grape vine in many pieces so you will be free." "That will be very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily, who was quite tired out with his struggles to get loose. So Hickory Dickory Dock, with his sharp teeth, gnawed the grape vine, and, in a little while, Uncle Wiggily was loose and all right again. "Thank you," said the bunny uncle to the clock-mouse, as he hopped off, and Hickory Dickory Dock went with him, for his leg was all better now. "Thank you very much, nice little clock-mouse." "You did me a favor," said Hickory Dickory Dock, "and now I have done you one, so we are even." And that's a good way to be in this world. So, if the ink bottle doesn't turn pale when it sees the fountain pen jump in the goldfish bowl and swim I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the late scholar. CHAPTER XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LATE SCHOLAR "Heigh-ho!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, one morning, as he hopped from bed and went to the window of his hollow-stump bungalow to look out. "Heigh-ho! It will soon be Spring, I hope, for I am tired of Winter." Then he went down-stairs, where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had his breakfast ready on the table. Uncle Wiggily ate some cabbage pancakes with carrot maple sugar sprinkled over them, and then as he wiped his whiskers on his red tongue, which he used for a napkin, and as he twinkled his pink nose to see if it was all right, Nurse Jane said: "Yesterday, Uncle Wiggily, you told me you would like me to make some lettuce cakes today; did you not?" "I did," answered Uncle Wiggily, sort of slow and solemn like. "But what is the matter, Nurse Jane? I hope you are not going to tell me that you cannot, or will not, make those lettuce cakes." "Oh, I'll make them, all right enough, Wiggy," the muskrat lady answered, "only I have no lettuce. You will have to go to the store for me." "And right gladly will I go!" exclaimed the bunny uncle, speaking like some one in an old-fashioned story book. "I'll get my automobile out and go at once." Uncle Wiggily had not used his machine often that Winter, as there had been so much snow and ice. But now it was getting close to Spring and the weather was very nice. There was no snow in the woods and fields, though, of course, some might fall later. "It will do my auto good to have me ride in it," said the bunny uncle. He blew some hot air in the bologna sausage tires, put some talcum powder on the steering-wheel so it would not catch cold, and then, having tickled the whizzicum-whazzicum with a goose feather, away he started for the lettuce store. It did not take him long to get there, and, having bought a nice head of the green stuff, the bunny uncle started back again for his hollow-stump bungalow. "Nurse Jane will make some fine lettuce cakes, with clover ice cream cones on top," he said to himself, as he hurried along in his automobile. He had not gone very far, and he was about halfway home, when from behind a bush he heard the sound of crying. Now, whenever Uncle Wiggily heard any one crying he knew some one was in trouble, and as he always tried to help those in trouble, he did it this time. Stopping his automobile, he called: "Who are you, and what is the matter? Perhaps I can help you." Out from behind the bush came a boy, a nice sort of boy, except that he was crying. "Oh, are you Simple Simon?" asked Uncle Wiggily, "and are you crying because you cannot catch a whale in your mother's water pail?" "No; I am not Simple Simon," was the answer of the boy. "Well, you cannot be Jack Horner, because you have no pie with you, and you're not Little Boy Blue, because I see you wear a red necktie," went on the bunny uncle. "Do you belong to Mother Goose at all?" [Illustration] "Yes," answered the boy. "I do. You must have heard about me. I am Diller-a-Dollar, a ten o'clock scholar, why do you come so soon? I used to come at ten o'clock, but now I'll come at noon. Don't you know me?" "Ha! Why, of course, I know you!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice, as he put some lollypop oil on the doodle-oodleum of his auto. "But, why are you crying?" "Because I'm going to be late at school again," said the boy. "You see of late I have been late a good many mornings, but this morning I got up early, and was sure I would get there before noon." "And so you will, if you hurry," Uncle Wiggily said, looking at his watch, that was a cousin to the clock, up which, and down which, ran Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse. "It isn't anywhere near noon yet," went on the rabbit gentleman. "You can almost get to school on time this morning." "I suppose I could," said the boy, "and I got up early on purpose to do that. But now I have lost my way, and I don't know where the school is. Oh, dear! Boo hoo! I'll never get to school this week, I fear." "Oh, yes, you will!" said Uncle Wiggily, still more kindly. "I'll tell you what to do. Hop up in the automobile here with me, and I'll take you to the school. I know just where it is. Sammie and Susie Littletail, my rabbit friends, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, as well as Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goats, go there. Hop in!" So Diller-a-Dollar, the late scholar, hopped in the auto, and he and Uncle Wiggily started off together. "You'll not be late this morning," said the bunny uncle. "I'll get you there just about nine o'clock." Well, Uncle Wiggily meant to do it, and he might have, only for what happened. First a hungry dog bit a piece out of one of the bologna sausage tires on the auto wheels, and they had to go slower. Then a hungry cat took another piece and they had to go still more slowly. A little farther on the tinkerum-tankerum of the automobile, which drinks gasolene, grew thirsty and Uncle Wiggily had to give it a glass of lemonade. This took more time. And finally when the machine went over a bump the cork came out of the box of talcum powder and it flew in the face of Uncle Wiggily and the late scholar and they both sneezed so hard that the auto stopped. "See! I told you we'd never get to school," sadly said the boy. "Oh, dear! And I thought this time teacher would not laugh, and ask me why I came so soon, when I was really late." "It's too bad!" Uncle Wiggily said. "I did hope I could get you there on time. But wait a minute. Let me think. Ha! I have it! We are close to my bungalow. We'll run there and get in my airship. That goes ever so much faster than my auto, and I'll have you to school in no time." No sooner said than done! In the airship the late scholar and Uncle Wiggily reached school just as the nine o'clock bell was ringing, and so Diller-a-Dollar was on time this time after all. And the teacher said: "Oh, Diller-a-Dollar, my ten o'clock scholar, you may stand up in line. You used to come in very late, but now you come at nine." So the late scholar was not late after all, thanks to Uncle Wiggily, and if the egg beater doesn't go to sleep in the rice pudding, where it can't get out to go sleigh-riding with the potato masher, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Baa-Baa, the black sheep. CHAPTER XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND BAA-BAA BLACK SHEEP "My goodness! But it's cold to-day!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, as he came down to breakfast in his hollow-stump bungalow one morning. "It is very cold." "Indeed it is," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she put the hot buttered cabbage cakes on the table. "If you go out you had better wear your fur coat." "I shall," spoke the bunny uncle. "And I probably shall call on Mother Goose. She asked me to stop in the next time I went past." "What for?" Nurse Jane wanted to know. "Oh, Little Jack Horner hurt his thumb the last time he pulled a plum out of his Christmas pie, and Mother Goose wanted me to look at it, and see if she had better call in Dr. Possum. So I'll stop and have a look." "Well, give her my love," said Nurse Jane, and Uncle Wiggily promised that he would. A little later he started off across the fields and through the woods to the place where Mother Goose lived, not far from his own hollow-stump bungalow. Uncle Wiggily had on his fur overcoat, for it was cold. It had been warm the day before, when he had taken Diller-a-Dollar, the ten o'clock scholar, to school, but now the weather had turned cold again. "Come in!" called Mother Goose, when Uncle Wiggily had tapped with his paw on her door. "Come in!" The bunny uncle went in, and looked at the thumb of Little Jack Horner, who was playing marbles with Little Boy Blue. "Does your thumb hurt you much, Jack?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Yes, I am sorry to say it does. I'm not going to pull any more plums out of Christmas pies. I'm going to eat cake instead," said Jack Horner. "Well, I'll go get Dr. Possum for you," offered Uncle Wiggily. "I think that will be best," he remarked to Mother Goose. Wrapped in his warm fur overcoat, Uncle Wiggily once more started off over the fields and through the woods. He had not gone very far before he heard a queer sort of crying noise, like: "Baa! Baa! Baa!" "Ha! That sounds like a little lost lamb," said the bunny uncle, "only there are no little lambs out this time of year. I'll take a look. It may be some one in trouble, whom I can help." Uncle Wiggily looked around the corner of a stone fence, and there he saw a sheep shivering in the cold, for most of his warm, fleecy wool had been sheared off. Oh! how the sheep shivered in the cold. "Why, what is the matter with you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I am c-c-c-c-cold," said the sheep, shiveringly. "What makes you cold?" the bunny uncle wanted to know. "Because they cut off so much of my wool. You know how it is with me, for I am in the Mother Goose book. Listen! "'Baa-baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir; yes, sir; three bags full. One for the master, one for the man, And one for the little boy who lives in the lane.' "That's the way I answered when they asked me if I had any wool," said Baa-baa. "And what did they do?" asked the bunny uncle. "Why they sheared off my fleece, three bags of it. I didn't mind them taking the first bag full, for I had plenty and it was so warm I thought Spring was coming. And it doesn't hurt to cut off my fleecy wool, any more than it hurts to cut a boy's hair. And after they took the first bag full of wool for the master they took a second bag for the man. I didn't mind that, either. But when they took the third----" "Then they really did take three?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "Oh, yes, to be sure. Why it's that way in the book of Mother Goose, you know, and they had to do just as the book says." "I suppose so," agreed Uncle Wiggily, sadly like. "Well, after they took the third bag of wool off my back the weather grew colder, and I began to shiver. Oh! how cold I was; and how I shivered and shook. Of course if the master and the man, and the little boy who lives in the lane, had known I was going to shiver so, they would not have taken the last bag of wool. Especially the little boy, as he is very kind to me. "But now it is done, and it will be a long while before my wool grows out again. And as long as it is cold weather I will shiver, I suppose," said Baa-baa, the black sheep. "No, you shall not shiver!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "How can you stop me?" asked the black sheep. "By wrapping my old fur coat around you," said the rabbit gentleman. "I have two fur overcoats, a new one and an old one. I am wearing the new one. The old one is at my hollow-stump bungalow. You go there and tell Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy to give it to you. Tell her I said so. Or you can go there and wait for me, as I am going to get Dr. Possum to fix the thumb of Little Jack Horner, who sat in a corner, eating a Christmas pie." "You are very kind," said Baa-baa. "I'll go to your bungalow and wait there for you." So he did, shaking and shivering all the way, but he soon became warm when he sat by Nurse Jane's fire. And when Uncle Wiggily came back from having sent Dr. Possum to Little Jack Horner, the rabbit gentleman wrapped his old fur coat around Baa-baa, the black sheep, who was soon as warm as toast. And Baa-baa wore Uncle Wiggily's old fur coat until warm weather came, when the sheep's wool grew out long again. So everything was all right, you see. And now, having learned the lesson that if you cut your hair too short you may have to wear a fur cap to stop yourself from getting cold, we will wait for the next story, which, if the pencil box doesn't jump into the ink well and get a pail of glue to make the lollypop stick fast to the roller-skates, will be about Uncle Wiggily and Polly Flinders. CHAPTER XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND POLLY FLINDERS "There!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, who took care of the hollow-stump bungalow for Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman. "There, it is all finished at last!" "What's all finished?" asked the bunny uncle, who was reading the paper in his easy chair near the fire, for the weather was still cold. "I hope you don't mean you have finished living with me, Nurse Jane? For I would be very lonesome if you were to go away." "Oh, don't worry, I'll not leave you, Wiggy," she said. "What I meant was that I had finished making the new dress for Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl." "Good!" cried the bunny uncle. "A new dress for my little niece Susie. That's fine! If you like, Nurse Jane, I'll take it to her." "I wish you would," spoke the muskrat lady. "I have not time myself. Just be careful of it. Don't let the bad fox or the skillery-scalery alligator with humps on his ears bite holes in it." "I won't," promised Uncle Wiggily. So taking the dress, which Nurse Jane had sewed for Susie, over his paw, and with his tall silk hat over his ears, and carrying his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, off Uncle Wiggily started for the Littletail home. "Susie will surely like her dress," thought the rabbit gentleman. "It has such pretty colors." For it had, being pink and blue and red and yellow and purple and lavender and strawberry and lemon and Orange Mountain colors. There may have been other colors in it, but I can think of no more right away. Uncle Wiggily was going along past Old Mother Hubbard's house, and past the place where Mother Goose lived, when, coming to a place near a big tree, Uncle Wiggily saw another house. And from inside the house came a crying sound. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?" sobbed a voice. "Ah, ha! More trouble!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I seem to be finding lots of people in trouble lately. Well, now to see who this is!" Going up to the house, and peering in a window, Uncle Wiggily saw a little girl sitting before a fireplace. And this little girl was crying. "Hello!" called Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice, as he opened the window. "What is the matter? Are you Little Bo Peep, and are you crying because you have lost your sheep?" "No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the little girl. "I am crying because I have spoiled my nice new dress, and when my mother comes home and finds it out she will whip me." "Oh, no!" cried the bunny uncle. "Your mother will never do that. But who are you?" "Why, don't you know? I am little Polly Flinders, I sat among the cinders, warming my pretty little toes. 'And her mother came and caught her, and she whipped her little daughter, for spoiling her nice new clothes.' "That's what it says in the Mother Goose book," said Polly Flinders, "and, of course, that's what will happen to me. Oh, dear! I don't want to be whipped. And I didn't really spoil quite all my nice new clothes. It's only my dress, and some hot ashes got on that." "Well, that isn't so bad," said Uncle Wiggily. "It may be that I can clean it for you." But when he looked at Polly's dress he saw that it could not be fixed, for, like Pussy Cat Mole's best petticoat, Polly's dress had been burned through with hot coals, so that it was full of holes. "No, that can't be fixed, I'm sorry to say," said Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, dear!" sobbed Polly Flinders, as she sat among the cinders. "What shall I do? I don't want to be whipped by my mother." "And you shall not be," said the bunny uncle. "Not that I think she would whip you, but we will not give her a chance. See here, I have a new dress that I was taking to Susie Littletail. Nurse Jane can easily make my little rabbit niece another. "So you take this one, and give me your old one. And when your mother comes she will not see the holes in your dress. Only you must tell her what happened, or it would not be fair. Always tell mothers and fathers everything that happens to you." "I will," promised Polly Flinders. She soon took off her old dress and put on the new one intended for Susie, and it just fitted her. "Oh, how lovely!" cried Polly Flinders, looking at her toes. "And now," said Uncle Wiggily, "you must sit no more among the cinders." "I'll not," Polly promised, and she went and sat down in front of the looking-glass, where she could look proudly at the new dress--not too proudly, you understand, but just proud enough. Polly thanked Uncle Wiggily, who took the old soiled and burned dress to Susie's house. When the rabbit girl saw the bunny uncle coming she ran to meet him, crying: "Oh! did Nurse Jane send you with my new dress?" "She did," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but see what happened to it on the way," and he showed Susie the burned holes and all. "Oh, dear!" cried the little rabbit girl, sadly. "Oh, dear!" "Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly, and he told all that had happened. It was a sort of adventure, you see. "Oh, I'm glad you gave Polly my dress!" said Susie, clapping her paws. "Nurse Jane shall make you another dress," promised Uncle Wiggily, and the muskrat lady did. And when the mother of Polly Flinders came home she thought the new dress was just fine, and she did not whip her little daughter. In fact, she said she would not have done so anyhow. So that part of the Mother Goose book is wrong. And thus everything came out all right, and if the shaving brush doesn't whitewash the blackboard, so the chalk can't dance on it with the pencil sharpener, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the garden maid. CHAPTER XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GARDEN MAID "Hey, ho, hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he stretched up his twinkling, pink nose, and reached his paws around his back to scratch an itchy place. "Ho, hum! I wonder what will happen to me to-day?" "Are you going out again?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "It seems to me that you go out a great deal, Mr. Longears." "Well, yes; perhaps I do," admitted the bunny uncle. "But more things happen to me when I go out than when I stay in the house." "And do you like to have things happen to you?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "When they are adventures I do," answered the rabbit gentleman. "So here I go off for an adventure." Off started the nice, old, bunny uncle, carrying his red, white and blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch--over his shoulder this time. For his pain did not hurt him much, as the sun was shining, so he did not have to limp on the crutch, which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a corn-stalk. Uncle Wiggily had not gone very far toward the fields and woods before he heard Nurse Jane calling to him. "Oh, Wiggy! Wiggy, I say! Wait a moment!" "Yes, what is it?" asked the rabbit gentleman, turning around and looking over his shoulder. "Have I forgotten anything?" "No, it was I who forgot," said the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I forgot to tell you to bring me a bottle of perfume. Mine is all gone." "All right, I'll bring you some," promised Mr. Longears. "It will give me something to do--to go to the perfume store. Perhaps an adventure may happen to me there." Once more he was on his way, and soon he reached the perfume store, kept by a nice buzzing bee lady, who gathered sweet smelling perfume, as well as honey, from the flowers in Summer and put it carefully away for the Winter. "Some perfume for Nurse Jane, eh?" said the bee lady, as the rabbit gentleman knocked on her hollow-tree house. "There you are, Uncle Wiggily," and she gave him a bottle of the nice scent made from a number of flowers. "My! That smells lovely!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he pulled out the cork, and took a long sniff. "Nurse Jane will surely like that perfume!" With the sweet scented bottle in his paw, the rabbit gentleman started back toward his hollow-stump bungalow. He had not gone very far before he saw a nurse maid, out in the garden, back of a big house. There was a basket in front of the maid, with some clothes in it, and stretched across the garden was a line, with more clothes on it, flapping in the wind. "Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if that garden maid, hanging up the clothes, wouldn't like to smell Nurse Jane's perfume? Nurse Jane will not mind, and perhaps it will be doing that maid a kindness to let her smell something sweet, after she has been smelling washing-soap-suds all morning." So the bunny uncle, who was always doing kind things, hopped over to the garden maid, and politely asked: "Wouldn't you like to smell this perfume?" and he held out the bottle he had bought of the bee lady. The garden maid turned around, and said in a sad voice: "Thank you, Uncle Wiggily. It is very kind of you, I'm sure, and I would like to smell your perfume. But I can't." "Why not?" asked the bunny uncle. "The cork is out of the bottle. See!" "That may very well be," went on the garden maid, "but the truth of the matter is that I cannot smell, because a blackbird has nipped off my nose." Uncle Wiggily, in great surprise, looked, and, surely enough, a blackbird had nipped off the nose of the garden maid. "Bless my whiskers!" cried the bunny uncle. "What a thing for a blackbird to do--nip off your nose! Why did he do such an impolite thing as that?" "Why, he had to do it, because it's that way in the Mother Goose book," said the maid. "Don't you remember? It goes this way: "'The King was in the parlor, Counting out his money, The Queen was in the kitchen, Eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes, Along came a blackbird And nipped off her nose.' "That's the way it was," said the garden maid. "Oh, yes, I remember now," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Well, I'm the maid who was in the garden, hanging out the clothes," said she, "and, as you can see, along came a blackbird and nipped off my nose. That is, you can't see the blackbird, but you can see the place where my nose ought to be." "Yes," answered Uncle Wiggily, "I can. It's too bad. That blackbird ought to have his feathers ruffled." "Oh, he didn't mean to be bad," said the garden maid. "He had to do as it says in the book, and he had to nip off my nose. So that's why I can't smell Nurse Jane's nice perfume." Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then he said: "Just you wait here. I think I can fix it so you can smell as well as ever." Then the bunny uncle hurried off through the woods until he found Jimmie Caw-Caw, the big black crow boy. "Jimmie," said the bunny uncle, "will you fly off, find the blackbird, and ask him to give back the garden maid's nose so she can smell perfume?" "I will," said Jimmie Caw-Caw, very politely. "I certainly will!" Away he flew, and, after a while, in the deep, dark part of the woods he found the blackbird, sitting on a tree. "Please give me back the garden maid's nose," said Jimmie, politely. "Certainly," answered the blackbird, also politely. "I only took it off in fun. Here it is back. I'm sorry I bothered the garden maid, but I had to, as it's that way in the Mother Goose book." Off to Uncle Wiggily flew Jimmie, the crow boy, with the young lady's nose, and soon Dr. Possum had fastened it back on the garden maid's face as good as ever. "Now you can smell the perfume," said Uncle Wiggily, and when he held up the bottle the maid said: "Oh, what a lovely smell!" So the bunny uncle left a little perfume in a bottle for the garden maid, and then she went on hanging up the clothes, and she felt very happy because she had a nose. So you see how kind Uncle Wiggily and Jimmie were, and Nurse Jane, too, liked the perfume very much. So if the little girl's roller-skates don't run over the pussy's tail and ruffle it all up so she can't go to the moving picture party, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and the King. CHAPTER XXVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE KING Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was sitting in an easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow, one day, looking out of the window at the blue sky, and he was feeling quite happy. And why should he not be happy? Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, had just given him a nice breakfast of cabbage pancakes, with carrot maple sugar tied in a bow-knot in the middle, and Uncle Wiggily had eaten nine. Nine cakes, I mean, not nine bows. "And now," said the bunny uncle to himself, "I think I shall go out and take a walk. Perhaps I may have an adventure. Do you want any perfume, or anything like that from the store?" asked Mr. Longears of Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "No, thank you, I think not," answered the muskrat lady. "Just bring yourself home, and that will be all." "Oh, I'll do that all right," promised the bunny gentleman. So away he hopped, over the fields and through the woods, humming to himself a little song which went something like this: "I'm feeling happy now and gay, Why shouldn't I, this lovely day? 'Tis time enough to be quite sad, When wind and rain make weather bad. But, even then, one ought to try To think that soon it will be dry. So then, no matter what the weather, Smile, as though tickled by a feather." Uncle Wiggily felt happier than ever when he had sung this song, but, as he went along a little further, he came, all at once, to a very nice house indeed, out of which floated the sound of a sad voice. Uncle Wiggily was surprised to hear this, for the house was such a nice one that it seemed no one ought to be unhappy who lived there. The house was made of gold and silver, with diamond windows, and the chimney was made of a red ruby stone, which, as every one knows, is very expensive. But with all that the sad voice came sailing out of one of the opened diamond windows, and the voice said: "Oh, dear! It's gone! I can't find it! I dropped it and it rolled down a crack in the floor. Now I'll never get it again. Oh, dear!" "Well, that sounds like some one in trouble," said the bunny uncle. "I must see if I cannot help them," for Uncle Wiggily helped real folk, who lived in fine houses, as well as woodland animals, who lived in hollow trees. Uncle Wiggily hopped up to the open diamond window of the gold and silver house, with the red ruby chimney, and, poking his nose inside, the rabbit gentleman asked: "Is there some one here in trouble whom I may have the pleasure of helping?" "Yes," answered a voice. "I'm here, and I'm surely in trouble." "Who are you, and what is the trouble, if I may ask?" politely went on Uncle Wiggily. "I am the king," was the answer. "This is my palace, but, with all that, I am in trouble. Come in." In hopped Uncle Wiggily, and there, surely enough, was the king, but he was in the kitchen, down on his hands and knees, looking with one eye through a crack in the floor, which is something kings hardly ever do. "It's down there," he said. "And I can't get it. I'm too fat to go through the crack." "What's down there?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. "My money," answered the king. "You may have heard about me," and he recited this little verse: "The king was in the kitchen, Counting out his money; The queen was in the parlor, Eating bread and honey; The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes, Along came a blackbird, Who nipped off her nose." The fat man got up off the kitchen floor. "I'm the king," he said, taking up his gold and diamond crown from a kitchen chair, where he had put it as he kneeled down, so it would not fall off and be dented. "From Mother Goose, you know; don't you?" "Yes, I know," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I dare say you'll find the queen in the parlor eating bread and honey," went on the king. "At least I saw her start for there with a plate, knife and fork as I was coming here. And, no doubt, the maid is in the garden, where she'll pretty soon have her nose nipped off by a blackbird." "That part happened yesterday," said Uncle Wiggily. "I was there just after it happened, and I got Jimmie Caw-Caw, the crow boy, to fly after the blackbird and bring back the maid's nose. She is as well as ever now and can smell all kinds of perfume." "Good!" cried the fat king. "You were very kind to help her. I only wish you could help me. But I don't see how you can. My money, which I was counting, fell out of my hands and dropped down a crack in the floor. I can see it lying down there in the dirt, but I can't get at it unless I move to one side my gold and silver palace, and I don't want to do that. I don't suppose you can move a palace, can you?" And he looked askingly at Uncle Wiggily. "No, I can't do that," said the bunny uncle. "But still I think I can get your money without moving the palace." "How?" asked the king. "Why, I can go outside," said Mr. Longears, "and with my strong paws, which are just made for digging, I can burrow, or dig, a place through the dirt under your palace-house, crawl in and get what you dropped." "Oh, please do!" cried the king. So Uncle Wiggily did. Down under the cellar wall of the palace, through the dirt, dug the bunny gentleman, with his strong paws. Pretty soon he was right under the kitchen, and there, just where they had dropped through the crack, were the king's gold and silver pennies and other pieces of money. Uncle Wiggily picked them up, put them in his pocket and crawled out again. "There you are, king," he said. "You have your money back." "Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried the king. "I'll have the cook give you some carrots." And he did, before he went on counting his money in the kitchen. And this time he stuffed a dish-rag in the crack so no more pennies would fall through. "Well, Uncle Wiggily, where are you going now?" asked the King, as he saw the bunny gentleman hopping away with the bunch of carrots. "I hardly know that myself," answered the rabbit. "I want to have more adventures, either with the friends of Old Mother Hubbard and Mother Goose, or with some of the animal or birds that live in the woods." "I think some adventures with birds would be exciting," spoke the King. "This blackbird who nipped off the maid's nose was a lively sort of chap." "He was, indeed," agreed the bunny gentleman. "I think I should like some adventures with my feathered friends who fly in the air. When I come back I'll tell you about them, Mr. King." "Please do," begged the gentleman with the gold and diamond crown. And so, as long as the rabbit wishes it, and if the condensed milk doesn't jump out of the molasses jug and scare the coffee pot so that it drinks tea, I shall make the next book "Uncle Wiggily and the Birds," and I hope you will like it. 
15281	----	UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES By HOWARD R. GARIS _Author of "Sammie and Susie Littletail," "Johnnie and Billie Bushytail." "Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble," "Jackie and Peetie Bow-Wow," "Those Smith Boys," "The Island Boys" etc._ Illustrations by LOUIS WISA A.L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK THE FAMOUS BED TIME SERIES Five groups of books, intended for reading aloud to the little folks each night. Each volume contains 8 colored illustrations, 31 stories, one for each day of the month. Handsomely bound in cloth. Size 6-1/2 x 8-1/4. HOWARD R. GARIS =Bed Time Animal Stories= No. 1. SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL No. 2. JOHNNY AND BILLY BUSHYTAIL No. 3. LULU, ALICE & JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE No. 5. JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW-WOW No. 7. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG No. 9. JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT No. 10 CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK No. 14 NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL No. 16 BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL No. 20 NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL No. 28 JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL =Uncle Wiggily Bed Time Stories= No. 4 UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES No. 6 UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS No. 8 UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE No. 11 UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE No. 19 UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE No. 21 UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP No. 27 UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY * * * * * For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers =A.L. BURT CO., 114-120 East 23d St., New York= * * * * * COPYRIGHT, 1912 By R.F. FENNO & COMPANY _Uncle Wiggily's Adventures_ =UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES= STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY STARTS OFF Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, hopped out of bed one morning and started to go to the window, to see if the sun was shining. But, no sooner had he stepped on the floor, than he cried out: "Oh! Ouch! Oh, dear me and a potato pancake! Oh, I believe I stepped on a tack! Sammie Littletail must have left it there! How careless of him!" You see this was the same Uncle Wiggily, of whom I have told you in the Bedtime Books--the very same Uncle Wiggily. He was an Uncle to Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, and also to Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boys, and to Alice and Lulu and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, and I have written for you, books about all those characters. Now I thought I would write something just about Uncle Wiggily himself, though of course I'll tell you what all his nephews and nieces did, too. Well, when Uncle Wiggily felt that sharp pain, he stood still for a moment, and wondered what could have happened. "Yes, I'm almost sure it was a tack," he said. "I must pick it up so no one else will step on it." So Uncle Wiggily looked on the floor, but there was no tack there, only some crumbs from a sugar cookie that Susie Littletail had been eating the night before, when her uncle had told her a go-to-sleep story. "Oh, I know what it was; it must have been my rheumatism that gave me the pain!" said the old gentleman rabbit as he looked for his red, white and blue crutch, striped like a barber pole. He found it under the bed, and then he managed to limp to the window. Surely enough, the sun was shining. "I'll certainly have to do something about this rheumatism," said Uncle Wiggily as he carefully shaved himself by looking in the glass. "I guess I'll see Dr. Possum." So after breakfast, when Sammie and Susie had gone to school, Dr. Possum was telephoned for, and he called to see Uncle Wiggily. "Ha! Hum!" exclaimed the doctor, looking very wise. "You have the rheumatism very bad, Mr. Longears." "Why, I knew that before you came," said the old gentleman rabbit, blinking his eyes. "What I want is something to cure it." "Ha! Hum!" said Dr. Possum, again looking very wise. "I think you need a change of air. You must travel about. Go on a journey, get out and see strange birds, and pick the pretty flowers. You don't get exercise enough." "Exercise enough!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why, my goodness me sakes alive and a bunch of lilacs! Don't I play checkers almost every night with Grandfather Goosey Gander?" "That is not enough," said the doctor, "you must travel here and there, and see things." "Very well," said Uncle Wiggily, "then I will travel. I'll pack my valise at once, and I'll go off and seek my fortune, and maybe, on the way, I can lose this rheumatism." So the next day Uncle Wiggily started out with his crutch, and his valise packed full of clean clothes, and something in it to eat. "Oh, we are very sorry to have you go, dear uncle," said Susie Littletail, "but we hope you'll come back good and strong." "Thank you," said Uncle Wiggily, as he kissed the two rabbit children and their mamma, and shook hands with Papa Littletail. Then off the old gentleman bunny hopped with his crutch. Well, he went along for quite a distance, over the hills, and down the road, and through the woods, and, as the sun got higher and warmer, his rheumatism felt better. "I do believe Dr. Possum was right!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Traveling is just the thing for me," and he felt so very jolly that he whistled a little tune about a peanut wagon, which roasted lemonade, and boiled and frizzled Easter eggs that Mrs. Cluk-Cluk laid. "Ha! Where are you going?" suddenly asked a voice, as Uncle Wiggily finished the tune. "I'm going to seek my fortune," replied Uncle Wiggily. "Who are you, pray?" "Oh, I'm a friend of yours," said the voice, and Uncle Wiggily looked all around, but he couldn't discover any one. "But where are you?" the puzzled old gentleman rabbit wanted to know. "I can't see you." "No, and for a very good reason," answered the voice. "You see I have very weak eyes, and if I came out in the sun, without my smoked glasses on, I might get blind. So I have to hide down in this hollow stump." "Then put on your glasses and come out where I can see you," invited the old gentleman rabbit, and all the while he was trying to remember where he had heard that voice before. At first he thought it might be Grandfather Goosey Gander, or Uncle Butter, the goat, yet it didn't sound like either of them. "I have sent my glasses to the store to be fixed, so I can't wear them and come out," went on the voice. "But if you are seeking your fortune I know the very place where you can find it." "Where?" asked Uncle Wiggily, eagerly. "Right down in this hollow stump," was the reply. "There are all kinds of fortunes here, and you may take any kind you like Mr. Longears." "Ha! That is very nice," thought the rabbit. "I have not had to travel far before finding my fortune. I wonder if there is a cure for rheumatism in that stump, too?" So he asked about it. "Of course, your rheumatism can be cured in here," came the quick answer. "In fact, I guarantee to cure any disease--measles, chicken-pox, mumps and even toothache. So if you have any friends you want cured send them to me." "I wish I could find out who you were," spoke the rabbit. "I seem to know your voice, but I can't think of your name." "Oh, you'll know me as soon as you see me," said the voice. "Just hop down inside this hollow stump, and your fortune is as good as made, and your rheumatism will soon be gone. Hop right down." Well, Uncle Wiggily didn't like the looks of the black hole down inside the stump, and he peered into it to see what he could see, but it was so black that all he could make out was something like a lump of coal. "Well, Dr. Possum said I needed to have a change of scene, and some adventures," said the rabbit, "so I guess I'll chance it. I'll go down, and perhaps I may find my fortune." Then, carefully holding his crutch and his satchel, Uncle Wiggily hopped down inside the stump. He felt something soft, and furry, and fuzzy, pressing close to him, and at first he thought he had bumped into Dottie or Willie Lambkin. But then, all of a sudden, a harsh voice cried out: "Ha! Now I have you! I was just wishing some one would come along with my dinner, and you did! Get in there, and see if you can find your fortune, Uncle Wiggily!" And with that what should happen but that big, black bear, who had been hiding in the stump, pushed Uncle Wiggily into a dark closet, and locked the door! And there the poor rabbit was, and the bear was getting ready to eat him up. But don't worry, I'll find a way to get him out, and in case we have ice cream pancakes for supper I'll tell you, in the next story, how Uncle Wiggily got out of the bear's den, and how he went fishing--I mean Uncle Wiggily went fishing, not the bear. STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING At first, after he found himself shut up in the bear's dark closet, where we left him in the story before this, poor Uncle Wiggily didn't know what to think. He just sat there, on the edge of a chair, and he tried to look around, and see something, but it was too black, so he couldn't. "Perhaps this is only a joke," thought the old gentleman rabbit, "though I never knew a black bear to joke before. But perhaps it is. I'll ask him." So Uncle Wiggily called out: "Is this a joke, Mr. Bear?" "Not a bit of it!" was the growling answer. "You'll soon see what's going to happen to you! I'm getting the fire ready now." "Getting the fire ready for what; the adventure, or for my fortune?" asked the rabbit, for he still hoped the bear was only joking with him. "Ready to cook you!" was the reply. "That's what the fire is for!" and the bear gnashed his teeth together something terrible, and, with his sharp claws, he clawed big splinters off the stump, and with them he started the fire in the stove, with the splinters, I mean, not his claws. The blazing fire made it a little brighter in the hollow stump, which was the black bear's den, and Uncle Wiggily could look out of a crack in the door, and see what a savage fellow the shaggy bear was. You see, that bear just hid in the stump, waiting for helpless animals to come along, and then he'd trick them into jumping down inside of it, and there wasn't a word of truth about him having sore eyes, or about him having to wear dark spectacles, either. "Oh, my! I guess this is the end of my adventures," thought the rabbit. "I should have been more careful. Well, I wish I could see Sammie and Susie before he eats me, but I'm afraid I can't. I shouldn't have jumped down here." But as Uncle Wiggily happened to think of Sammie Littletail, the boy rabbit, he also thought of something else. And this was that Sammie had put something in the old gentleman rabbit's valise that morning, before his uncle had started off. "If you ever get into trouble, Uncle Wiggily," Sammie had said, "this may come in useful for you." Uncle Wiggily didn't look at the time to see what it was that his nephew put in the valise, but he made up his mind he would do so now. So he opened his satchel, and there, among other things, was a long piece of thin, but strong rope. And pinned to it was a note which read: "Dear Uncle Wiggily. This is good to help you get out of a window, in case of fire." "My goodness!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "that's fine. There the bear is making a fire to cook me, and with this rope I can get away from it. Now if there's only a window in this closet I'm all right." So he looked, and sure enough there was a window. And with his crutch Uncle Wiggily raised it. Then he threw out his satchel, and he tied the rope to a hook on the window sill, and, being a strong old gentleman, he crawled out of the window, and slid down the cord. And Uncle Wiggily got out just as the bear opened the closet door to grab him, and put him in the pot, and when the savage black creature saw his fine rabbit dinner getting away he was as angry as anything, really he was. "Here! Come back here!" cried the bear, but of course Uncle Wiggily knew better than to come back. He slid down the rope to the ground, and then he cut off as much of the rope as he could, and put it in his pocket, for he didn't know when he might need it again. Then, catching up his valise, he ran on and on, before the bear could get to him. It was still quite a dark place in which Uncle Wiggily was, for you see he was underground, down by the roots of the stump. But he looked ahead and he saw a little glimmer of light, and then he knew he could get out. Limping on his crutch, and carrying his valise, he went on and on, and pretty soon he came out of a dark cave and found himself on the bank of a nice little brook, that was running over mossy, green stones. "Ha! This is better than being in a bear's den!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "My, I was so frightened that I forgot about my rheumatism hurting me. That was an adventure all right, and Sammie was a good boy to think of that strong cord. Now what shall I do next?" Well, Uncle Wiggily sat down on the bank of the brook, and he looked in the water. Then he happened to see a fish jump up to catch a bug, so he said to himself: "I guess I will go fishing, just for fun. But if I do happen to catch any fish I'll put them right back in the water again. For I don't need any fish, as I have some lettuce and cabbage sandwiches, and some peanut-butter cakes, that Susie's mamma put up in a cracker-box for me." Well, Uncle Wiggily looked in his valise, to make sure his lunch was safe, and then, taking a bent pin from under his vest, he fastened it to a part of the string Sammie had given him. Then he fastened the string to a pole, and he was ready to fish, but he needed something to make the fishes bite--that is, bite the pinhook, not bite him, you know. "Oh, I guess they'll like a bit of sweet cracker," Uncle Wiggily thought; so he put some on the end of the pin-hook, and threw it toward the water. It fell in with a splash, and made a lot of little circles, like ring-around the rosies, and the rabbit sat there looking at them, sort of nodding, and half asleep and wondering what adventure would happen to him next, and where he would stay that night. All of a sudden he felt something tugging at the hook and line. "Oh, I've got a fish! I've got a fish!" he cried, as he lifted up the pole. Up out of the water with a sizzling rush flew the string and the sweet cracker bait, and the next minute out leaped the big, savage alligator that had escaped from a circus. "Oh, ho! So you tried to catch me, eh?" the alligator shouted at Uncle Wiggily. "No--no, if you please," said the rabbit. "I was after fish." "And I'm after you!" cried the alligator, and, scrambling up the bank, he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily, and with one sweep of his kinky, scaly tail he flopped and he threw the old gentleman rabbit and his crutch and valise right up into a big tree that grew near the brook. "There you'll stay until I get ready to eat you!" exclaimed the alligator, as he stood up on the end of his tail under the tree, and opened his mouth as wide as he could so that if Uncle Wiggily fell down he'd fall into it, just like down a funnel, you know. Well, the poor gentleman rabbit clung to the topmost tree branch, wondering how in the world he was going to escape from the alligator. Oh, it was a dreadful position to be in! But please don't worry or stay awake over it, for I'll find a way to get him down safely. And in the story after this, if the milkman doesn't leave us sour cream for our lemonade, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the black crow. STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CROW Let me see, where did I leave off in the last story? Oh! I remember. It was about Uncle Wiggily Longears being up in the top of the tall tree, and the alligator keeping guard down below, ready to eat him. Well, the old gentleman rabbit was wondering how he could ever escape, and he felt quite badly about it. "I guess this is the end of my adventures," he said to himself. "It would have been much better had I stayed at home with Sammie and Susie." And as he thought of the two rabbit children he felt still sadder, and very lonely. "I wonder if Susie could have put anything in my satchel with which to scare an alligator," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll look." So he looked, and what should he find but a bottle of toothache drops. Yes, there it was, and wrapped ground it was a little note Susie had written. "Dear Uncle Wiggily," she said in the note, "if you ever get the toothache on your travels, this will stop it." "Ha! That is very kind of Susie, I'm sure," said the rabbit, "but I don't see how that is going to make the alligator go away. And, even if he does go, I wonder how I'm to get down out of this tall tree, with my crutch, my valise and my rheumatism?" Well, just then the alligator got tired of standing on the end of his tail, with his mouth open, and he began crawling around. Then he thought of what a good supper he was going to have of Uncle Wiggily, and that alligator said: "I guess I'll sharpen my teeth so I can eat him better," and with that the savage and unpleasant creature began to gnaw on a stone, to sharpen his teeth. Then he stood up on the end of his tail once more, under the tree, and opened his mouth as wide as he could. "Come on now!" he called to Uncle Wiggily. "Jump down and have it over with." "Oh, but I don't want to," objected the rabbit. "You'll have to, whether you want to or not," went on the alligator. "If you don't come down, I'll take my scaly, naily tail, and I'll saw down the tree, and then you'll fall." "Oh, dear!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "What shall I do?" Then he happened to think of the bottle of toothache medicine that he held in his hand, and, taking out the cork, he dropped the bottle, medicine and all, right into the open mouth of the alligator, who was again up on his tail. And the alligator thought it was Uncle Wiggily falling into his jaws, and he shut them quickly like a steel trap and chewed on that bottle of hot toothache drops before he knew what it was. Well, you can just imagine what happened. The medicine was as hot as pepper and mustard and vinegar and cloves and horse radish all made into one! My! how it did burn that alligator's mouth. "Oh my! I'm shot! I'm poisoned! I'm bitten by a mosquito! I'm stabbed! I'm all scrambled up" cried the alligator. "Water, water, quick! I must have water!" Then he gave a big jump, and, with his kinkery-scalery tail, he leaped into a big puddle of water, and went away down in under, out of sight, to cool off his mouth. "Oh, now is my chance! If I could only get down out of the tree!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "But with my rheumatism I'm afraid I'll fall. Oh dear! What shall I do?" "Don't be afraid, I'll help you!" exclaimed a kind voice, and then the voice went on: "Caw! Caw! Caw!" and Uncle Wiggily, looking up, saw a big black crow perched on a limb over his head. "Oh, how do you do!" spoke Uncle Wiggily, making a bow as well as he could. "Can you really help me down?' "Yes," said the crow, "I can. Wait until I get my market basket. I was just going to the grocery, but I'm in no hurry. I'll save you first." So that crow flew off, and in a moment he came back with a big basket in its bill. "Hop in!" the black crow called to Uncle Wiggily, "and I'll fly down to the ground with you, and you can run off before the alligator comes out of the water. I saw what you did to him with those toothache drops, and it served him right. Come on, hop in the basket." So Uncle Wiggily got in the basket, and the crow, taking the handle in his strong beak, flew safely to the ground with him. And that's how the old gentleman rabbit got down out of the tree, just as I told you he would. So he and the crow walked on some distance through the woods together, after Uncle Wiggily had picked up his crutch and valise, which had fallen out of the basket, and they got safely away before the alligator came out of the water. And wasn't he the provoked old beastie, though, when he saw that his rabbit supper was gone? "Where are you going?" asked the crow of Uncle Wiggily, after a bit, when they got to a nice big stone, and sat down for a rest. "I am seeking my fortune," replied the old gentleman rabbit, "and trying to get better of my rheumatism. Dr. Possum told me to travel, and have adventures, and I've had quite a few already." "Well, I hope you find your fortune and that it turns out to be a very good one," said the kind crow. "But it is coming on night now. Have you any place to stay?" "No," replied the rabbit, "I haven't. I never thought about that. What shall I do?" "Oh, don't worry," said the crow. "I'd let you stay in my nest, but it is up a high tree, and you would have trouble climbing in and out. But near my nest-house is an old hollow stump, and you can stay in that very nicely." "Are there any bears in it?" asked Uncle Wiggily, careful-like. "Oh, no; not a one. It is very safe." So the crow showed Uncle Wiggily where the hollow stump was, and he slept there all night, on a soft bed of leaves. And when he awakened in the morning he had breakfast with the crow and once more started off to seek his fortune. Well, pretty soon, in a short while, not so very long, he came to a little house made of bark, standing in the middle of a deep, dark, dismal woods. And on the door of the house was a sign which read: "If you want to be surprised, open this door and come in." "Perhaps I can find my fortune in there, and get rid of the rheumatism," thought Uncle Wiggily, so he hopped forward. And just as he did so he heard a voice calling to him: "Don't go in! Don't go in there, Uncle Wiggily!" The rabbit looked up, and saw Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, waving his paws at him. Well, Uncle Wiggily started to jump back away from the door of the little house, but it was too late. Out came a scraggily-raggily claw, which grabbed him, while a voice cried out: "Ah, ha! Now I have you! Come right in!" And then, before you could shake a stick at a bad dog, the door was slammed shut and locked, and there Uncle Wiggily was inside the house, and Johnnie Bushytail was crying outside. "That's the end of poor Uncle Wiggily!" said Johnnie. But it wasn't. For I'll not leave the old gentleman rabbit alone in the house with that clawy creature. And in the next story, providing our wash lady doesn't put my new straw hat in the soap suds, and take all the color out of the ribbon, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Fido Flip-Flop. STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND FIDO FLIP-FLOP Well, as soon as Uncle Wiggily found himself inside the bear's den--oh, just listen to me! That was in the other story, wasn't it? Yes, we left him in the funny little house in the woods, with the clawy creature grabbing him. Now, what do you suppose that clawy creature was? Why, a great, big owl, to be sure, with round, staring, yellow eyes, and he had grabbed Uncle Wiggily in his claws, and pulled him inside the house. "Now, I've got you!" cried the owl. "I was just wishing some one would come along, and you did. Some of my friends are coming to tea this afternoon, and you'll do very nicely made up into sandwiches." Wasn't that a perfectly dreadful way to talk about our Uncle Wiggily? Well, I guess yes! "Now you're here, make yourself at home," went on the owl, sarcastic-like, as he locked the front door and put the key in his pocket. "Did you see the sign?" "Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, "I did. But I don't call it fair. I thought I would find my fortune in here." "The sign says you'll be surprised, and I guess you are surprised, aren't you?" asked the owl. "Yes," answered the rabbit, "very much so. But I'd rather have a nice surprise party, with peanuts and lemonade, than this." "No matter," said the owl, snapping his beak like a pair of shears, "here you are and here you'll stay! My friends will soon arrive. I'll now put the kettle on, to boil for tea." Well, poor Uncle Wiggily didn't know what to do. He couldn't look in his valise to see if there was anything in it by which he might escape, for he had dropped the satchel outside when the owl grabbed him, and he only had his barber-pole crutch. "Oh, this is worse and worse!" thought the poor old rabbit. But listen, Johnnie Bushytail is outside the owl's house, and he's going to do a wonderful trick. As soon as he saw the door shut on Uncle Wiggily, that brave squirrel boy began to plan how he could save him, and the first thing he did was to gather up a lot of acorns. Then he perched himself in a tree, right in front of the owl's door, and Johnnie began throwing acorns at it. "Rat-a-tat-tat!" went the acorns on the wooden panels. "Ha! Those must be my friends!" exclaimed the bad owl, opening the door a little crack so he could peek out, but taking care to stand in front of it, so that Uncle Wiggily couldn't slip out. But, of course, the owl saw no one. "It must have been the wind," he said as he shut the door. Then Johnnie Bushytail threw some more acorns at the door. "Pitter-patter-patter-pit!" they went, like hailstones in an ice cream can. "Ah, there are my friends, sure, this time!" thought the owl, and once more he peered out, but no one was there. "It must have been a tree branch hitting against the door," said the owl, as he sharpened a big knife with which to make the sandwiches. Then Johnnie threw some more acorns, and the owl now thought positively his friends were there, and when he opened it and saw no one he was real mad. "Some one is playing tricks on me!" exclaimed the savage bird. "I'll catch them next time!" Now this was just what Johnnie Bushytail wanted, so he threw a whole double handful of acorns at the door, and when the owl heard them pattering against the wood he rushed out. "Now, I've got you!" he cried, but he hadn't, for Johnnie was up a tree. And, for the moment, the owl forgot about Uncle Wiggily, and there the door was wide open. "Run out, Uncle Wiggily! Run out!" cried Johnnie, and out the old gentleman rabbit hopped, catching up his valise, and away into the woods he ran, with Johnnie scurrying along in the tree tops above him, and laughing at the owl, who flew back to his house, but too late to catch the bunny. "That's what you get for fooling people so they'll come into your house," called the squirrel boy. "It serves you right, Mr. Owl. Come on, Uncle Wiggily, we'll get away from here." So they went on together until it was time for Johnnie to go home, and he said he'd tell Uncle Wiggily's friends that he had met the old gentleman rabbit, and that he hadn't found his fortune yet, but that he was looking for it every minute, and had had many adventures. Well, Uncle Wiggily went on some more, for quite a distance, until it was noon time, and then he sat down in the cool, green woods, where there were some jacks-in-the-pulpit growing near some ferns, and there Uncle Wiggily ate his lunch of lettuce sandwiches, with carrot butter on them, and gnawed on a bit of potato. Just as he was almost through, he heard a rustling in the bushes, and a voice exclaimed: "Oh, dear!" "Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, thinking perhaps an adventure was going to happen to him. "Who are you?" "Oh, dear!" exclaimed the voice again. Then, before the old rabbit could jump up and run away, even if he had wanted to, out from under a big bush came a little white poodle dog, with curly, silky hair. He walked right up to Uncle Wiggily, that dog did, and the rabbit wasn't a bit afraid, for the dog wasn't much bigger than he was, and looked very kind. "What do you want, doggie?" gently asked Uncle Wiggily. The dog didn't answer, but he gave a little short bark, and then he began turning somersaults. Over and over he went, sometimes backward and sometimes frontward, and sometimes sideways. And when he was finished, he made a low bow, and walked around on his two hind legs, just to show he wasn't proud or stuck up. "There!" exclaimed the poodle doggie. "Is that worth something to eat, Mr. Rabbit?" "Indeed it is," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but I would have given you something to eat without you doing all those tricks, though I enjoyed them very much. Where did you learn to do them?" "Oh, in the circus where I used to be, I always had to do tricks for my dinner," said the doggie. "What is your name?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Fido Flip-Flop," was the answer. "You see they call me that because I turn so many flip-flops," and then Uncle Wiggily gave him some lunch, and told the dog about how he, himself, was traveling all over in search of his fortune. "Why, that's just what I'm doing, too," exclaimed Fido Flip-Flop. "Suppose we travel together? and maybe we'll each find a fortune." "That's just what we'll do," agreed Uncle Wiggily. And then, all of a sudden, before you could open your eyes and shut them again, two savage foxes jumped out from behind a big stump. "You grab the dog and I'll grab the rabbit," called the biggest fox, and right at Uncle Wiggily and Fido they sprang, gnashing their teeth. But don't worry. I'll find a way to save them, and if the canary bird doesn't take my lead pencil and stick it in his seed dish I'll tell you in the following story about Uncle Wiggily doing some tricks. STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY DOES SOME TRICKS When those two savage ducks--oh, I mean foxes--when those two savage foxes jumped out of the bushes at Uncle Wiggily Longears and Fido Flip-Flop, as I told you in the other story, the rabbit and the poodle doggie didn't know what in the world to do. "Run this way!" called Fido, starting off to the left. "No, hop this way!" said Uncle Wiggily, hopping to the right. "Stand right where you are!" ordered the two foxes together. And with that one made a grab for Uncle Wiggily. But what did that brave rabbit gentleman do but stick his red-white-and-blue crutch out in front of him, and the fox bit on that instead of on Uncle Wiggily. Right into the crutch the fox's teeth sank, and for a moment Uncle Wiggily was safe. But not for long. "Ah, you fooled me that time, but now I'll get you!" cried the fox, and, letting go of the crutch, he made another grab for the rabbit. But at that instant Fido Flip-Flop, who had been jumping about, keeping out of the way of the fox that was after him, cried out quite loudly: "Look here, everybody but Uncle Wiggily, and, as for you, shut both your eyes tight." Now the old gentleman rabbit couldn't imagine why he was to shut his eyes tight, but he did so, and then what do you s'pose Fido Flip-Flop did? Why, he began turning somersaults so fast that he looked just like a pinwheel going around, or an automobile tire whizzing along. Faster and faster did Fido Flip-Flop turn around, and then, all of a sudden, he began chasing his tail, making motions just like a merry-go-round in a circus, until those two foxes were fairly dizzy from watching him. "Stop! Stop!" cried one fox. "Yes do stop! We're so dizzy that we can't stand up!" cried the other fox, staggering about. "Stop!" "No, I'll not!" answered Fido Flip-Flop, and he went around faster that ever, faster and faster and faster, until those two bad foxes got so dizzy-izzy that they fell right over on their backs, with their legs sticking straight up in the air like clothes posts, and their tails were wiggling back and forth in the dirt, like dusting brushes. Oh, but they were the dizzy foxes, though. "Now's your chance! Run! Run! Uncle Wiggily! Run!" called Fido Flip-Flop "Open your eyes and run!" So the old gentleman rabbit opened his eyes, took up his valise which he had dropped, and, hopping on his crutch, he and the poodle doggie ran on through the woods, leaving the two surprised and disappointed foxes still lying on their backs, wiggling their tails in the dust, and too dizzy, from having watched Fido Flip-Flop do somersaults, and chase his tail, to be able to get up. "Why did you want me to shut my eyes?" asked Uncle Wiggily, when they were so far away from the foxes that there was no more danger. "That was so _you_ wouldn't get dizzy from watching me do the flip-flops," answered the doggie. "My, but that was a narrow escape, though. Have you had many adventures like that since you started out to seek your fortune?" "Yes, several," answered the rabbit. "But turning flip-flops is a very good thing to know how to do. I wonder if you could teach me, so that when any more foxes or alligators chase me I can make them dizzy by turning around? Can you teach me?" "I'm sure I can," said Fido. "Here, this is the way to begin," and he did some flip-flops slow and easy-like. Then Uncle Wiggily tried them, and, though he couldn't do them very well at first, he practised until he was quite good at it. Then Fido showed him how to stand on one ear, and wiggle the other, and how to blink his eyes while standing on the end of his little tail, and then Uncle Wiggily thought of a new trick, all by himself. "I'll stick my crutch in the ground, like a clothes pole," he said to Fido, "and then I'll hop up on it and sing a song," which he did, singing a song that went like this: "Did you ever see a rabbit Do a flipper-flopper-flap? If not just kindly watch me, As I wear my baseball cap. "It's very strange, some folks may say, And also rather funny, To see a kinky poodle dog Play with a flip-flop bunny. "But we are on our travels, Adventures for to seek, We may find one, or two, or three, 'Most any day next week." And then Uncle Wiggily hopped down, and waved both ears backward and forward, and made a low bow to a make-believe crowd of people, only, of course, there were none there. "Fine! Fine!" cried Fido Flip-Flop. "That's better than I did when I was in the circus. Now I'll tell you what let's do." "What?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Let's go around and give little shows and entertainments, for little folks to see," went on the poodle doggie. "I can turn flip-flops, and you can stand on your head on your crutch, and sing a song, and then we'll take up a collection. I'll pass my hat, and perhaps we may make our fortune--who knows?" "Who, indeed?" said Uncle Wiggily. "We'll do it." So off they started together to give a little show, and make some money, and, as they went on through the woods, they practised doing the tricks Uncle Wiggily had learned. Well, in a little while, not so very long, they came to a nice place in the forest--an open place where no trees grew. "Here is a good spot for our show," said Uncle Wiggily. "But there is no one to see us do the tricks," objected Fido. "Oh, yes, there are some ants, and an angle worm, and a black bug and a grasshopper," said Uncle Wiggily. "They will do to start on, and after they see us do the tricks they'll tell other folks, and we'll have quite a crowd." So they started in to do their tricks. Fido turned a lot of flip-flops, and Uncle Wiggily did a dance on the end of his crutch, and sang a song about a monkey-doodle, which the angle worm said was just fine, being quite cute, and the grasshopper made believe play a fiddle with his two hind legs, scratching one on the other, and making lovely music. But, all of a sudden, just as Uncle Wiggily was standing on his left ear, and wiggling his feet in the air, which is a very hard trick for a rabbit, what should happen but that out of the woods sprang two boys. "There's the dog! Grab him!" cried one boy. "Never mind about the rabbit! Get the trick dog!" And the boys rushed right up, knocking Uncle Wiggily down, and grabbing Fido Flip-Flop. And they started off through the woods with him, while Uncle Wiggily cried out for them to come back. But they wouldn't. Now please don't feel badly, for I'm going to tell you in the next story how Uncle Wiggily saved Fido, and also how the rabbit went to Arabella Chick's surprise party--that is I will if our automobile doesn't turn upside down, and break my ice cream cone. STORY VI UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE PARTY Well, when Uncle Wiggily Longears found that the elephant wouldn't get off his trunk--oh, listen to me! What I meant to say was, that when Uncle Wiggily saw those two boys running off with Fido Flip-Flop, the little trick dog, as I told you about in the story before this, the old gentleman rabbit was so surprised at first that he didn't know what to do. "Won't you please come back with that little doggie?" begged Uncle Wiggily, but the bad boys kept right on. I guess they knew how smart Fido was, and they wanted to get up a show with him. Anyhow, they kept on running through the woods, holding him tightly in their arms. "Oh, dear! This is terrible!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'll never get any good fortune if Fido has such bad luck. And it was partly my fault, too, for if we hadn't been doing tricks, we would have heard these boys coming, and could have run away. Well, now I must save Fido." So Uncle Wiggily sat down on a stump, and thought, and thought, and thought of all the plans he could think of, to save the doggie from the two boys, and at last he decided the only way to do was to scare them. "Then they'll drop Fido, and run away," said the old gentleman rabbit. "Let me see, how can I scare them? I know, I'll make believe I'm a tiger!" So what did that brave Uncle Wiggily do? but go to a mud hole, and with his crutch dipped into the mud, he made himself all striped over like a tiger that you see in a circus. Oh, he was a most ferocious sight when he finished decorating himself! Then he hid his satchel in the bushes, and he started off on a short cut through the woods, to get ahead of the boys. Faster and faster through the woods went Uncle Wiggily, and he looked so peculiarly terrifying that all the animals who saw him were scared out of their wits, and one old blue-jay bird was so frightened that he wiggled his tail up and down, and hid his head in a hollow tree. Well, by and by, after a while, Uncle Wiggily got to a place in the woods where he knew those boys, with Fido Flip-Flop, would soon come by. Then the rabbit hid himself in the bushes, so that his long ears wouldn't show. For he knew that if the boys saw them, they would know right away he wasn't a tiger, no matter if he was striped like one. In a few minutes along came the boys, and they were talking about what they were going to do to Fido, and how they would put him in a cage, and make him do lots of tricks. All of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes, and Uncle Wiggily just stuck out his head and part of his body, laying his ears flat back where they could not be seen. But the boys could see the mud stripes, only they didn't know they were just mud, you understand. "Oh! See that!" cried one boy. "Yes, it's a tigery-tiger!" exclaimed the other boy. "Let's run!" shouted both the boys together. "The tiger will eat us up!" And just then Uncle Wiggily growled as loudly as he could, a real fierce growl, and he rattled the bushes and stuck out his striped paws, and those boys dropped Fido Flip-Flop, and ran away, as hard as they could through the woods, leaving Fido to join the rabbit. "Thank you very much for saving me, Uncle Wiggily," said the dog, as soon as he got over being frightened. "That was a good trick, to pretend you were a tiger. But I knew you right away, only, of course, I wasn't going to tell those boys who you were. It served them right, for squeezing me the way they did. Now we'll go on, and see if we can find a fortune for you." So they went back to where Uncle Wiggily had left his valise, and there it was safe and sound, and inside it were some nice things to eat, and the rabbit and doggie had a dinner there in the woods, after the mud stripes were washed off. Then they went on and on, for ever so long, and nothing happened, except that a mosquito bit Fido on the end of his nose, and every time he sneezed it tickled him. "Well, I guess we won't have any more adventures to-day, Uncle Wiggily," spoke the doggie, but, a moment later, they heard a rustling in the bushes and, before they could hide themselves, out jumped Arabella Chick, the sister of Charlie, the rooster boy. "Oh, you dear Uncle Wiggily!" she exclaimed, "you're just in time." "What for?" asked Uncle Wiggily; "for the train?" "No, for my party," answered Arabella. "I'm going to have one for all my friends, and I want you to come. Will you?" "Oh, I guess so, Arabella. But you see, I have a friend with me, and----" "Oh, he can come too," spoke Arabella, making a bow to Fido Flip-Flop. So Uncle Wiggily introduced the doggie to the chickie girl, and the chickie girl to the doggie. Then they went on together to the party, which was held in a nice big chicken coop. Oh, I wish you could have been there! It was just too nice for anything! Sammie and Susie Littletail were there, and they were so glad to see Uncle Wiggily again. He said he hadn't been very lucky in finding his fortune so far, but his rheumatism was not much worse, and he was going to keep on traveling. He sent his love to all the folks, and said he'd be home some time later. Then, of course, all the other animal friends were at the party and they played games--games of all kinds, including a new one called "Please don't sit on my hat, and I won't sit on yours." It was too funny for anything, really it was. Then, of course, there were good things to eat. Buddy Pigg passed around the ice cream, and just as he was handing a plate of it to Jennie Chipmunk it slipped--I mean the ice cream slipped--and went right into Uncle Butter's lap. But the old goat didn't care a bit. He said it reminded him of a pail of paste, and he ate the ice cream, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy got Jennie some more. Then Flip-Flop and Uncle Wiggily did some of their tricks, and every one said they were fine, and they thought it was the best party they had ever been at. But all of a sudden, just as they were playing the game called "Jump on the piano, and play a queer tune," there came a knock at the door. "Who's there?" asked Arabella Chick. "I am," answered a voice, "and I want Uncle Wiggily Longears instantly! He must come with me!" And they all looked from the window, and there stood a big dog, dressed up like a soldier, and he had a gun with him. And he wanted Uncle Wiggily to come out, and every one was frightened, for fear he'd shoot the old gentleman rabbit. But please don't you get alarmed. I wouldn't have that happen for worlds, and in the next story, if I catch a fish in the milk bottle, and he doesn't bite my finger, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily in a parade. And it will be a Decoration Day story. STORY VII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A PARADE Arabella Chick's party seemed to break up very suddenly when the guests saw that soldier-dog with the gun waiting outside the door. Buddy Pigg slipped out of a back window, and ran home with his tail behind him. Oh, excuse me, guinea pigs don't have a tail, do they? Anyhow he ran home, and so did Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and the Wibblewobble children, and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow too. But, of course, Arabella Chick couldn't run home because she was at home already, so she just looked out of the window once more, and there the dog-soldier stood, and he was looking in his gun to see if it was loaded. "Well, is Uncle Wiggily coming out?" called the dog again. "I guess I am--that is--are you sure you want me?" asked the poor old gentleman rabbit, puzzled like. "Yes, of course I want you," replied the dog. "Then I guess I've got to go!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he looked for his crutch and valise. "I guess this is the end of my fortune-hunting. Goodbye everybody!" And he felt so badly that two big tears rolled down his ears--I mean his eyes. Well, he bravely walked out of the door, and as he did so the dog-soldier, with the gun, exclaimed: "Ah, here you are at last! Now hurry up, Uncle Wiggily, or we'll be late for the parade!" And, would you believe it? that dog was good, kind, old Percival, who used to be in a circus. And of course he wouldn't hurt the rabbit gentleman for anything. Percival just put his gun to his shoulder, and said: "Come on, we'll get in the parade now." "Parade? What parade?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh my! how you frightened me!" "Why the Decoration Day parade," answered Percival. "To-day is the day when we put flowers on the soldiers' graves, and remember them for being so brave as to go to war. All old soldiers march in the parade, and so do all their friends. I'm going to march, and I'm going to put flowers on a lot of soldiers' graves. I happened to remember that you were once in the war, so I came for you. I didn't mean to scare you. You were in the war, weren't you?" "Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, happy now because he knew he wasn't going to get shot, "I once went to war, and killed a lot of mosquitoes." "Good! I thought so!" exclaimed Percival. "Well, I met Grandfather Goosey Gander, and he said he thought you were at this party, so I came for you. Come on, now, the parade is almost ready to start." "Oh, how you did frighten us!" exclaimed Arabella, whose heart was still going pitter-patter. "We thought you were going to hurt Uncle Wiggily, Percival." "Oh, I'm so sorry I alarmed you," spoke the circus dog politely. "I won't do it again." Well, in a little while Percival and Uncle Wiggily were at the parade. The old gentleman rabbit left his satchel at Arabella's house, and only took his crutch. But he limped along just like a real soldier, and Percival carried his gun as bravely as one could wish. Oh, I wish you could have heard the bands playing, and the drums beating--the little kind that sound like when you drop beans on the kitchen oil-cloth, and the big drums, that go "Boom-boom!" like thunder and lightning, and the fifes that squeak like a mouse in the cheese trap, and then the big blaring horns, that make a sound like a circus performance. They were all there, and there were lots of soldiers and horses and wagons filled with flowers to put on the graves of the soldiers, who were so brave that they didn't mind going to war to fight for their country, though war is a terrible thing. Then the march began, and Uncle Wiggily and Percival stepped out as brave as anyone in all the parade. Oh, how fine they looked! and, when they marched past, all the animal people, and some real boys and girls, and papas and mammas clapped their hands and cried "Hurrah!" at the sight of the old gentleman rabbit limping along on his crutch, with the dog-soldier marching beside him. "Who knows," whispered Percival to Uncle Wiggily, "who knows but what you may discover your fortune to-day?" "Indeed I may," answer Uncle Wiggily. "Who knows?" Well, that was a fine parade. But something happened. I was afraid it would, but I'll tell you all about it, and you can see for yourself whether or not I was right. All of a sudden one man, with a big horn--a horn large enough to put a loaf of mother's bread down inside the noisy end--all of a sudden this man blew a terrible blast--"Umpty-umpty-Umph! Umph!" My, what a noise he made on that horn. Now, right in front of this man was a little boy-duck riding on a pony. Yes, you've guessed who he was--he was Jimmy Wibblewobble. And when that man blew the loud blast, the pony was frightened, and ran away with Jimmie on his back. Faster and faster ran the pony, and Jimmie Wibblewobble clung to his back, fearing every moment he would be thrown off. In and out among the people and animals in the parade, in and out among trolley cars and automobiles, in and out, and from one side to another of the street ran the frightened pony. "Oh, poor Jimmie will be killed!" cried Percival. "No, he will not, for I will save him!" shouted Uncle Wiggily. So that brave rabbit ran right out to where he saw Munchie Trot, the little pony boy. "Let me jump on your back, Munchie," said Uncle Wiggily, "and then we'll race after that runaway pony and grab off poor Jimmie. And run as fast as you can, Munchie!" "I certainly will!" cried Munchie. So Uncle Wiggily got on Munchie's back, and away they started after the runaway pony. Faster and faster ran Munchie, and by this time the other little horsie was getting tired. Jimmie was still clinging to his back, and asking him not to run so fast, but the pony was so frightened he didn't listen to the duck-boy. Then, just as he was going to run into a hot peanut wagon, and maybe toss Jimmie off into the red-hot roaster, all at once Uncle Wiggily, on Munchie's back, galloped up alongside of the runaway pony. And as quick as you can drink a glass of lemonade, Uncle Wiggily grabbed Jimmie up on Munchie's back beside him, and so saved the duck-boy's life. And then the runaway pony stopped short, all of a sudden, and didn't bump into the hot peanut wagon, after all, and he was sorry he had run away, and scared folks. Then the Decoration Day parade went on, and everyone said how brave Uncle Wiggily was. But he hadn't yet found his fortune, and so in the story after this in case our front porch doesn't run away, and take the back steps with it, so I have to sleep on the doormat, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily in the fountain. STORY VIII UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE FOUNTAIN Well, after the Decoration Day parade, and the things that happened in it, such as the pony running away with Jimmie Wibblewobble, Uncle Wiggily Longears thought he'd like to go off to some quiet place and rest. "Oh, can't you come with me?" asked Percival, the old circus dog. "We'll go to the Bow-Wows house, and have something to eat." "No, I'm afraid I can't go," replied the old gentleman rabbit. "You see I must travel on to seek my fortune, for I haven't found it yet, and I still have the rheumatism." "Why don't you try to lose that rheumatism somewhere?" asked Percival. "I would, if it's such a bother." "Oh, I've tried and tried and tried, but I can't seem to lose it," replied Uncle Wiggily. "So I think I'll travel on. I'm much obliged to you for letting me march in the parade." Then the old gentleman rabbit got his valise, and, with his crutch, he once more started off. He went on and on, up one hill and down another, over the fields where the horses and cows and sheep were pulling up the grass, and chewing it, so the man wouldn't have to cut it with the lawn mower; on and on he went. Then Uncle Wiggily reached the woods, where the ferns and wild flowers grow. "This is a fine place," he said as he sat down on a flat stump. "I think I will eat my dinner," so he opened the satchel, and took out a sandwich made of yellow carrots and red beets, and very pretty they looked on the white bread, let me tell you; very nice indeed! Uncle Wiggily was eating away, and he was brushing the crumbs off his nose by wiggling his ears, when, all of a sudden, he heard a cat crying. Oh, such a loud cry as it was! "Why, some poor kittie must be lost," thought the old gentleman rabbit. "I'll see if I can find it." Then the cry sounded again, and, in another moment, out of a tree flew a big bird. "Oh, maybe that bird stuck his sharp beak in the kittie and made it cry," thought Uncle Wiggily. "Bird, did you do that?" he asked, calling to the bird, who was flying around in the air. "Did I do what?" asked the bird. "Did you stick the kittie, and make it cry?" "Oh, no," answered the bird. "I made that cat-crying noise myself. I am a cat-bird, you know," and surely enough that bird went "Mew! Mew! Mew!" three times, just like that, exactly as if a cat had cried under your window, when you were trying to go to sleep. "Ha! That is very strange!" exclaimed the rabbit. "So you are a cat-bird." "Yes, and my little birds are kittie-birds," was the answer. "I'll show you." So the bird went "Mew! Mew! Mew!" again, and a lot of the little birds came flying around and they all went "Mew! Mew!" too, just like kitties. Oh, I tell you cat-birds are queer things! and how they do love cherries when they are ripe! Eh? "That is very good crying, birdies," said Uncle Wiggily, "and I think I'll give you something to eat, to pay for it." So he took out from his valise some peanuts, that Percival, the circus dog, had given him, and Uncle Wiggily fed them to the cat-bird and her kittie-birds. "You are very kind," said the mamma bird, "and if we can ever do you a favor we will." And now listen, as the telephone girl says, those birds are going to do Uncle Wiggily a favor in a short time--a very short time indeed. Well, after the birds had eaten all the peanuts they flew away, and Uncle Wiggily started off once more. He hadn't gone very far before he came to a fountain. You know what that is. It's a thing in a park that squirts up water, just like when you fill a rubber ball with milk or lemonade and squeeze it. Only a fountain is bigger, of course. This fountain that Uncle Wiggily came to had no water in it, for it was being cleaned. There was a big basin, with a pipe up through the middle, and this was where the water spouted up when it was running. "This is very strange," said Uncle Wiggily, for he had never seen a fountain before, "perhaps I can find my fortune in here. I'll go look." So down he jumped into the big empty fountain basin, which was as large as seven wash tubs made into one. And it was so nice and comfortable there, and so shady, for there were trees near it, that, before he knew it, Uncle Wiggily fell fast asleep, with his head on his satchel for a pillow. And then he had a funny dream. He dreamed that it was raining, and that his umbrella turned inside out, and got full of holes, and that he was getting all wet. "My!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he gave a big sneeze. "This is a very real dream. I actually believe I _am_ wet!" Then he got real wide awake all of a sudden, and he found that he was right in the middle of a lot of wetness, for the man had turned the water on in the fountain unexpectedly, not knowing that the old gentleman rabbit was asleep there. "I must get out of here!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he grabbed up his valise and crutch. Then the water came up to his little short, stumpy tail. Next it rose higher, up to his knees. Then it rose still faster up to his front feet and then almost up to his chin. "Oh, I'm afraid I'm going to drown!" he cried. "I must get out!" So he tried to swim to the edge of the fountain, but you can't swim very well with a crutch and a valise, you know, and Uncle Wiggily didn't want to lose either one. Then the water from the top of the fountain splashed in his eyes and he couldn't see which way to swim. "Oh, help! Help!" he cried. "Will no one help me?" "Yes, we will help you!" answered a voice, and up flew the big cat-bird, and her little kitten-birds. "Quick, children!" she cried, "we must save Uncle Wiggily, who was so kind to us! Every one of you get a stick, and we'll make a little boat, or raft, for him!" Well, I wish you could have seen how quickly the mamma cat-bird and her kittie-birds gathered a lot of sticks, and twigs, and laid them together crossways on the water in that fountain basin, until they had a regular little boat. Upon this Uncle Wiggily climbed, with his crutch and valise, and then the mamma cat-bird flew on ahead, and pulled the boat by a string to the edge of the fountain, where the rabbit could safely get out. So that's how the bunny was saved from drowning in the water, and in the next story, if a big, red ant doesn't crawl upon our porch and carry away the hammock, I'll tell you another adventure Uncle Wiggily had. It will be a story of the old gentleman rabbit and the bad dog. STORY IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOG Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism was quite bad after he got wet in the fountain, as I told you in the other story, and when he thanked the mamma cat-bird and her kitten-birds for saving him, he found that he could hardly walk, much less carry his heavy valise. "Oh, we'll help you," said Mrs. Cat-Bird. "Here, Flitter and Flutter, you carry the satchel for Uncle Wiggily, and we'll take him to our house." "But, mamma," said Flutter, who was getting to be quite a big bird-boy, "Uncle Wiggily can't climb up a tree to our nest." "No, but we can make him a nice warm bed on the ground," said the mamma bird. "So you and Flitter carry the satchel. Put a long blade of grass through the handle, and then each of you take hold of one end of the grass in your bills, and fly away with it. Skimmer, you and Dartie go on ahead, and get something ready to eat, and I'll show Uncle Wiggily the way." So Flitter and Flutter, the two boy birds, flew away with the satchel, and Skimmer and Dartie, the girl birds, flew on ahead to set the table, and put on the teakettle on the stove to boil, and Mrs. Cat-Bird flew slowly on over Uncle Wiggily, to show him the way. Well, pretty soon, not so so very long, they came to where the birds lived. And those good children had already started to make a nest on the ground for the old gentleman rabbit. They had it almost finished, and by the time supper was ready it was all done. Then came the meal, and those birds couldn't do enough for Uncle Wiggily, because they liked him so. When it got dark, they covered him all up, with soft leaves in the nest on the ground, and there he slept until morning. His rheumatism wasn't quite so bad when, after breakfast, he had sat out in the warm sun for a while, and after a bit he said: "Well, I think I'll travel along now, and see if I can find my fortune to-day. Perhaps I may, and if I do I'll come back and bring you more peanuts." "Oh, that'll be fine and dandy!" cried Flitter and Flutter, and Skimmer and Dartie. So they said good-by to the old gentleman rabbit, and once more he started off. "My! I'm certainly getting to be a great traveler," he thought as he walked along through the woods and over the fields. "But I don't ever seem to get to any place. Something always happens to me. I hope everything goes along nicely to-day." But you just wait and see what takes place. I'm afraid something is going to happen very shortly, but it's not my fault, and all I can do is to tell you exactly all about it. Wait! There, it's beginning to happen now. All of a sudden, as Uncle Wiggily was traveling along, he came to a place in the woods where a whole lot of Gypsies had their wagons and tents. And on one tent, in which was an old brown and wrinkled Gypsy lady, there was a sign which read: FORTUNES TOLD HERE. "Ha! If they tell fortunes in that tent, perhaps the Gypsy lady can tell me where to find mine," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I'll go up and ask her." Well, he was just going to the tent when he happened to think that perhaps the Gypsy woman wouldn't understand rabbit talk. So he sat there in the bushes thinking what he had better do, when all at once, before he could wiggle his ears more than four times, a great big, bad, ugly dog sprang at him, barking, oh! so loudly. "Come on, Browser!" cried this dog to another one. "Here is a fat rabbit that we can catch for dinner. Come on, let's chase him!" Well, you can just imagine how frightened Uncle Wiggily was. He didn't sit there, waiting for that dog to catch him, either. No, indeed, and a bag of popcorn besides! Up jumped Uncle Wiggily, with his crutch and his valise, and he hopped as hard and as fast as he could run. My! How his legs did twist in and out. "Come on! Come!" barked the first dog to the second one. "I'm coming! I'm coming! Woof! Woof! Bow-w-w Bow-wow!" barked the second dog. Poor Uncle Wiggily's heart beat faster and faster, and he didn't know which way to run. Every way he turned the dogs were after him, and soon more of the savage animals came to join the first two, until all the dogs in that Gypsy camp were chasing the poor old gentleman rabbit. "I guess I'll have to drop my satchel or my crutch," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I can't carry them much farther. Still, I don't want to lose them." So he held on to them a little longer, took a good breath and ran on some more. He thought he saw a chance to escape by running across in front of the fortune-telling tent, and he started that way, but a Gypsy man, with a gun, saw him and fired at him. I'm glad to say, however, that he didn't shoot Uncle Wiggily, or else I couldn't tell any more stories about him. Uncle Wiggily got safely past the tent, but the dogs were almost up to him now. One of them was just going to catch him by his left hind leg, when one of the Gypsy men cried out: "Grab him, Biter! Grab him! We'll have rabbit potpie for dinner; that's what we'll have!" Wasn't that a perfectly dreadful way to talk about our Uncle Wiggily? But just wait, if you please. Biter, the bad dog, was just going to grab the rabbit, when all of a sudden, Uncle Wiggily saw a big hole in the ground. "That's what I'm looking for!" he exclaimed. "I'm going down there, and hide away from these dogs!" So into the hole he popped, valise, crutch and all, and oh! how glad he was to get into the cool, quiet darkness, leaving those savage, barking dogs outside. But wait a moment longer, if you please. Biter and Browser stopped short at the hole. "He's gone--gotten clean away!" exclaimed Browser. "Isn't that too bad?" "No, we'll get him yet!" cried Biter. "Here, you watch at this hole, while I go get a pail of water. We'll pour the water down, under the ground where the rabbit is, and that will make him come out, and we'll eat him." "Good!" cried Browser. So while he stood there and watched, Biter went for the water. But, mind you, Uncle Wiggily had sharp ears and he heard what they were saying, and what do you think he did? Why, with his sharp claws he went right to work, and he dug, and dug, and dug in the back part of that underground place, until he had made another hole, far off from the first one, and he crawled out of that, with his crutch and valise, just as Biter was pouring the water down the first hole. "Ah, ha! I think this will astonish those dogs!" thought Uncle Wiggily, and he took a peep at them from behind a bush where they couldn't see him, and then he hopped on through the woods, to look for more adventures, leaving the dogs still pouring water. And one happened to him shortly after that, as I shall tell you on the next page, when, in case the rocking chair doesn't tip over backwards and spill out the sofa cushion into the rubber plant, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the monkey. STORY X UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MONKEY Let me see, we left those two bad dogs pouring water down the hole, to get Uncle Wiggily out, didn't we? And the old gentleman rabbit fooled them, didn't he? He got out of another hole that he dug around by the back door, you remember. Well, I just wish you could have seen those two dogs, after they had poured pail after pail of water down the hole, and no rabbit came floating up. "This hole must go all the way down to China!" said Browser, breathing very fast. "Yes, I'm tired of carrying water," said Biter. And just then another dog cried out: "Why, foolish dogs, the water's all running out the back way!" And, surely enough, it was. Then they knew Uncle Wiggily had escaped, and they were as angry as anything, but it served them right, I think. "My! I wonder what will happen next?" thought the old gentleman rabbit, as he hopped along. "That was a narrow escape." So, having nothing else to do, Uncle Wiggily sat down on a nice, smooth stump, and he ate some lunch out of his valise. And a red ant came up, and very politely asked if she might not pick up the crumbs which the old rabbit dropped. "Of course you may," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "And I'll give you a whole slice of bread and butter, also." "Oh, you are too generous," spoke the red ant. "I never could carry a slice of bread and butter. But if you will leave it on the stump I'll get some of my friends, and we'll bite off little crumbs, a few at a time, and in that way carry it to our houses." So that's what Uncle Wiggily did, and the ants had a fine feast, and they were very thankful. Uncle Wiggily asked them if they knew where he could find his fortune. "Why don't you go to work, instead of traveling around so much?" asked the biggest red ant. "The best fortune is the one you work for." "Is it? I never thought of that," said Uncle Wiggily. "I will look for work at once. I wonder if you ants have any for me." "We'd like to help you," they said, "but you see you are so large that you couldn't get into our houses to do any work. You had much better travel along, and work for some one larger than we are." "I will," decided the old gentleman rabbit. "I'll ask every one I meet if they want me to work for them." So he started off once more, and the first place he came to was a house where a mouse lady lived. "Have you any work I can do?" asked Uncle Wiggily politely. "What work can you do?" asked the mouse lady. "Well, I can peel carrots or turnips with my teeth," said Uncle Wiggily, "and I can look after children, and tell them stories, and I can do some funny tricks----" "Then you had better go join a circus," interrupted the mouse lady. "I have no children, and I can peel my own carrots, thank you. As for turnips, I never eat them." "Then I must go on a little further," said Uncle Wiggily, as he picked up his valise, and walked off on his crutch. So he went on, until he came to another house in the woods, and he knocked on the door. "Have you any work I can do?" inquired Uncle Wiggily politely. "No! Get away and don't bother me!" growled a most unpleasant voice, and the rabbit was just going down the steps, when the door opened a crack, and a long, sharp nose and a mouth full of sharp teeth, and some long legs with sharp claws on them, were stuck out. "Oh, hold on!" cried the voice. "I guess I can find some work for you after all. You can get up a dinner for me!" and then the savage creature, who had opened the door, made a grab for the rabbit and nearly caught him. Only Uncle Wiggily jumped away, just in time, and the wolf, for he it was who had called out, caught his own tail in the crack of the door and howled most frightfully. "Come back! Come back!" cried the wolf, but, of course, Uncle Wiggily wouldn't do such a foolish thing as that, and the wolf couldn't chase after him, for his tail was fast in the door hinge. "My, I must be more careful after this how I knock at doors, and ask for work," the old gentleman rabbit thought. "I was nearly caught that time. I'll try again, and I may have better luck." So he walked along through the woods, and pretty soon he heard a voice singing, and this is the song, as nearly as I can remember it: Here I sit and wonder What I'm going to do. I've no one to help me, I think it's sad; don't you? I have to play the fiddle, But still I'd give a cent To any one who'd keep the boys From crawling in the tent. "Well, I wonder who that can be?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "He'll give a cent, eh? to any one who keeps the boys from crawling in the tent. Now, if that isn't a bear or a fox or a wolf maybe I can work for him, and earn that money. I'll try." So he peeped out of the bushes, and there he saw a nice monkey, all dressed up in a clown's suit, spotted red, white and blue. And the monkey was playing a tune on a fiddle. Then, all of a sudden, he laid aside the fiddle, and began to beat the bass drum. Then he blew on a horn, next he jumped up and down, and turned a somersault, and then, finally, he grabbed up a whip with a whistle in the tail--I mean in the end--and that monkey began to pretend he was chasing make-believe boys from around a real tent that was in a little place under the trees. "Oh, I guess that monkey won't hurt me," said Uncle Wiggily as he stepped boldly out, and as soon as the monkey saw the rabbit, he called most politely: "Well, what do you want?" "I want to earn a cent, by chasing boys from out the tent," replied Uncle Wiggily. "Good!" cried the monkey. "So you heard me sing? I'm tired of being the whole show. I need some one to help me. Come over here and I'll explain all about it. If you like it, you can go to work for me, and if you do, your fortune is as good as made." "That's fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "And I can do tricks in the show, too." "Fine!" exclaimed the monkey, hanging by his tail from a green apple tree. "Now, I'll explain." But, just as he was going to do so, out jumped a big black bear from the bushes, making a grab for Uncle Wiggily. He might have caught him, too, only the monkey picked up a cocoanut pie off the ground and hit the bear so hard on the head, that the savage creature was frightened, and ran away, sneezing, leaving the monkey and the rabbit alone by the show-tent. "Now, we'll get ready to have some fun," said the monkey, and what he and Uncle Wiggily did I'll tell you in the following story which will be about the old gentleman rabbit and the boys--that is, if the molasses jug doesn't tip over on my plate, and spoil my bread and butter peanut sandwich. STORY XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BOYS "Well," said the monkey after the bear had run away. "I guess we can now sit down and talk quietly together; eh, Uncle Wiggily?" "Yes," said the old gentleman rabbit. "But what is it that you want me to do? I heard you sing that funny little song, about the boys coming in the tent. But I don't exactly understand." "That's just it," replied the monkey. "You see, it's this way. I have a little sort of a circus-show here, and the troublesome boys don't want to pay any money to get in. So when my back is turned they crawl under the tent, and so they see the show for nothing--just like at the circus." "Oh, so that's how it is?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "And you want me to keep out the boys?" "That's it," said the monkey. "Here's a big stick, with which to tickle the boys who crawl in under the tent without paying. Now I'll practice my tricks." So the monkey did a lot of tricks. He stood on his head, and he hung by his tail, and he danced around in a circle. Then he pounded the drum, not so hard as to hurt it, but hard enough to make a noise, and he played the fiddle and blew on the horn, and then he ran inside the tent and jumped over a bench, making believe it was an elephant, and he did all sorts of funny tricks like that. He even stood on his head, and made a funny face. "That will make a very nice show," said Uncle Wiggily after he had watched the monkey. "Now I'll stay outside, and keep the boys from coming in unless they pay their money. And you can be inside, doing the tricks." "And I'll give you money for working for me," said the monkey. "Then perhaps you can make your fortune, and, besides that, I'll give you a cocoanut, and you can make a cocoanut pie with it." "That will be fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. So he and the monkey practiced to get ready for their show. It was a nice little tent in which it was to be given, and there were seats for the people, who would come, and a platform, and flying rings and trapeze bars and paper hoops, and all things like that, just the same as in a real circus. Well, finally the time came for the show. It was the day after Uncle Wiggily got to the place where the tent was, and he had slept that night in a hammock, put up between two trees. "Now we're almost ready for the show," said the monkey to the old gentleman rabbit, after a bit, "so I hope you will be sure to keep out the troublesome boys. They always creep under the tent, and see the show for nothing. I can't have that going on if I'm to make any money." "Oh, I'll stop 'em!" declared Uncle Wiggily. "And here's the club to do it with," said the monkey, handing Uncle Wiggily a stick. "Oh, I don't know about that," answered the rabbit. "I never hurt boys if I can help it. Perhaps I shan't need the club. I'll leave it here." So Uncle Wiggily hid the club under an apple tree, but the monkey said it would be needed, and he wanted Uncle Wiggily to keep it, and take a whip, too. But the old rabbit shook his head. "I'll try being kind to the boys," he said. "You let me have my way, Mr. Monkey." Well, pretty soon, not so very long, the show began. The monkey went inside the tent, and he blew on the horn, and he made music on the fiddle, and sang a funny song about a little great big pussy, who had a red balloon. She stuck a pin inside it, and it played a go-bang! tune. Of course, as soon as the show started the people came crowding up to the tent, just as they do at the circus. There were men and women, and little boys and girls, and big boys and girls, and they all wanted to get inside to see what the monkey was doing. But, do you know, I believe all that he was doing was playing monkey-doodle tricks--but, of course, I might be mistaken. Well, as it always happens, some boys didn't have any money with which to pay their way inside the tent. And, of course, as it will sometimes happen, one boy said to another: "Hey! I know a way we can crawl in under the tent, and see the show, and not have anything to pay." "But that wouldn't be fair," spoke the other boy. "It would be cheating, and there's nothing meaner in this world than to cheat, whether it's playing a baseball game or going to a circus." "I guess you're right," said the first boy. "What shall we do, though? I want to see the show." "Well, we must be fair, anyhow," spoke the second boy. "We can't crawl in under the tent, but perhaps if we ask the monkey to let us in for nothing he'll do it." "Very well, we will," said the first boy. So they went up to the monkey and asked if they could go in for nothing, but, of course, he wouldn't let them. "May we crawl in under the tent, then?" asked the second boy. "If Uncle Wiggily will let you," answered the monkey, blinking his two eyes and wrapping his tail around his neck. So those boys tried to crawl in under the tent, and as soon as Uncle Wiggily saw them he rushed up and cried out: "Hey! Hold on there! Nobody must go under the tent. You must buy a ticket," and he shook a feather at the boys and, instead of hitting them, he only tickled them, and didn't hurt them a bit, for they sneezed. Well, those boys were very troublesome. They kept on trying to crawl under the tent, and Uncle Wiggily rushed here, there and around the corner trying to stop them, and he cracked the lash on his whip, just like the man in the circus ring. But those boys kept on trying to crawl under the tent, for the monkey had given them permission, you see. So finally Uncle Wiggily said: "I'll give those boys a little show myself, outside the tent, for nothing. Then maybe they'll stop bothering me." So he stood on his left ear, and then on his right ear, and then he jumped through a hoop, and rolled over, and barked liked a dog, and all the boys that had tried to crawl under the tent to see the monkey-show for nothing, ran out to see Uncle Wiggily's show. And he did lots of tricks and kept them all from crawling in under the tent, and he even ate a popcorn ball, standing on his hind legs, and wiggling his left ear with a pin-wheel on it. Then, after a while, the monkey-show was all over, and the monkey said: "Uncle Wiggily, you did very well. You treated those troublesome boys just fine! So I'll give you ten pennies, and perhaps they will make you have a good fortune." Then the monkey gave Uncle Wiggily ten pennies, and he went to sleep in a feather bed, while the old gentleman rabbit went down to the drug store to get an ice cream soda. And what happened after the show was over, and what Uncle Wiggily did after he had his ice cream, I'll tell you in the next story which will be about Uncle Wiggily in a balloon. That is, if our pussy cat doesn't get all covered with red paint, and look like a tomato growing on a strawberry vine. So watch out, and don't let that happen. STORY XII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A BALLOON Well, just as I expected, something happened to my pussy-cat named Peter. He didn't fall into the pot of red paint, but he either ran away, or else some one took him. So now I have no pussy-cat. But I'll tell you a story about Uncle Wiggily just the same. The old gentleman rabbit stayed with the monkey for several days, and he was so kind and good to the troublesome boys--Uncle Wiggily was, I mean--and he did such funny tricks for them, that they didn't crawl under the tent any more, and the monkey could do his tricks in peace and quietness. "Oh, you have been a great help to me," said the monkey to the rabbit, "and I would like you to work for me all Summer. I am now going to travel on to the next town, and if you like you may go with me and keep the boys there from crawling under the tent." "No, I thank you," replied Uncle Wiggily slowly, as he put some bread and butter, and a piece of pie, into his satchel. "I think I will travel farther on by myself, and seek my fortune." "Well, I'm sorry to see you go," said the monkey. "And here is fifty cents for your work. I hope you have good luck." And then Uncle Wiggily started off again, over the fields and through the woods, seeking his fortune, while the monkey got ready to move his show to the next town. Well, for some time nothing happened to the old gentleman rabbit. He walked on and on, and once he saw a little red ant, trying to drag a piece of cake home for dinner. The cake was so big that the ant was having a dreadful time with it, but Uncle Wiggily took his left ear, and just brushed that cake into the ant's house as easily as anything. "My, how strong and brave you are," cried the little red ant. "Won't you let me get you a glass of water?" "I would like it," said the rabbit, "for it is quite warm to-day." Well, that ant got Uncle Wiggily a glass of water, but you know how it is--an ant's glass is so very small that it only holds as much water as you could put on the point of a pin, and really, I'm not exaggerating a bit, when I say that Uncle Wiggily drank seventeen thousand four hundred and twenty-six and a half ant-glasses of water before he had enough. It took all the ants for a mile around to bring the water to him, but they didn't mind, because they liked him. Then the old gentleman rabbit traveled on again, and when it came night he slept under a haystack. "I am sure I'll find my fortune to-day," thought Uncle Wiggily as he got up and brushed the hay seed out of his ears the next morning. It was a bright, beautiful day, and he hadn't gone very far before he heard some fine music. "My, there must be a hand-organ around here," he said to himself. "And perhaps there is another monkey. I'll watch out." So he stood on his hind legs, Uncle Wiggily did, and the music played louder, and all of a sudden the rabbit looked down the road, and there was a nice circus, with the white tents, all covered with flags, and bands playing, and elephants squirting water through their long noses over their backs to wash the dust off. And lions and tigers were roaring, and the horses were running, and the fat lady was drinking pink lemonade, and Oh! it was fine! "I've got fifty cents, and I guess I'll go to the circus," thought Uncle Wiggily, and he was just entering the big tent when he happened to see a man with a lot of red and green and yellow and pink balloons. Now, you would have thought that man would have been happy, having so many balloons, but he wasn't. He looked very sad, that man did, and he was almost crying. "Poor man!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps he has no money to go in the circus. I'll give him mine. Here is fifty cents, Mr. Man," said the old gentleman rabbit, kindly. "Take it and go see the elephant eat peanuts." "Oh, that is very good of you," spoke the balloon man, "but I don't want to go to the circus. I want to sell my balloons, but no one will buy them." "Why not?" asked the rabbit. "Oh, because there are so many other things to buy," said the man, "red peanuts and lemonade in shells--oh, I've got that wrong, it is red lemonade, isn't it? And peanuts in shells. But no matter. What I need," said the man, "is to get the people to listen to me--I need to make them look at me, and when they see what fine balloons I have they'll buy some. But there are so many other things to look at that they never look toward me at all." "Ha! I know the very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You ought to have some one go up in a balloon. That would surprise the people like anything. They'd be sure to look at that, and they'd all run over here and buy all your balloons." "Yes, but who can I get to go up in a balloon?" asked the man. "I will!" cried Uncle Wiggily bravely. "Perhaps I may find my fortune up in the sky, so I'll go in a balloon." Well, the man thought that was fine. So he made a little basket for the rabbit to sit in, and he fastened the basket to a big red balloon, and then he took care of the rabbit's valise for him, while Uncle Wiggily got ready to go toward the clouds, taking only his crutch with him. When the man had everything fixed and when the rabbit was sitting in the basket as easily as in a soft chair at home, the man cried: "Over here! Over here, everybody! Over here, people! A rabbit is going up in a balloon! A most wonderful sight! Over here!" And then the man let go of the balloon, and Uncle Wiggily shot right up toward the sky, only, of course, the man had a string fast to the balloon to pull it down again. Up and up went the balloon carrying Uncle Wiggily. Up and up! And my! how surprised the people were. They rushed over and bought so many balloons that the man couldn't take in the money fast enough. And Uncle Wiggily stayed up there, high in the air, looking for his fortune. And then, all of a sudden, a bad boy, with a bean shooter, shot at the balloon, and "bang!" it burst, with a big hole in it. Down came Uncle Wiggily, head over heels, bursted balloon, basket, crutch and all. "Oh, he'll be killed! He'll be killed!" cried all the people. "No, he'll not! We'll save him!" cried Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the boy and girl sparrow, who happened to be at the circus. "We'll save Uncle Wiggily!" So up into the air they flew, and before Uncle Wiggily could fall to the ground Dickie and Nellie grabbed the basket in their bills, and, by fluttering their wings, they let it come very gently to earth just like a feather falling, and the rabbit wasn't hurt a bit. But, of course, the balloon was broken. So that's how Uncle Wiggily went up in a balloon and came down again, but he hadn't yet found his fortune. And now in the next story, if our fire shovel doesn't go out to play in the sand pile, and get its ears full of dirt, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily in an automobile. STORY XIII UNCLE WIGGILY IN AN AUTO Well, after Uncle Wiggily had been saved from the falling balloon by Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrow children, the people were so excited that they wanted the bad boy arrested for making a hole in the balloon with his bean-shooter. "No, let him go," said the rabbit gentleman, kindly. "I'm sure he won't do it again." And do you know, that boy never did. It was a good lesson to him. Then the people bought all the balloons, until the man had none left, and I guess if he could have sent for forty-'leven more he would have sold them also. "I will pay you good wages to stay with me, and go up in a balloon every day," said the man to the rabbit. "You would help me do lots of business." "No," said Uncle Wiggily. "I must travel on and seek my fortune. I didn't find it up in the air." But before the old gentleman rabbit traveled on, he went into the circus with Dickie and Nellie. For they had an extra ticket that Bully the frog was going to use, only Bully went in swimming and caught cold, and had to stay home. So Uncle Wiggily enjoyed the show very much in his place. "Give my love to Sammie and Susie Littletail and to all my friends," said the rabbit, as he took his crutch and valise, after the circus was over, and started to travel on, looking for his fortune. Well, the first place he came to that day was an old hollow stump, and on the door was a card which read: COME IN. "Ha! Come in; eh?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess not much! You can't fool me again. There is a bad bear, or a savage owl inside that stump, and they want to eat me. I'll just stay outside." He was just hurrying past, when the door of the stump-house opened, and an old grandfather fox stuck out his head. This fox was almost blind, and he had no teeth, and he had no claws, and his tail was just like a last year's dusting brush, that the moths have eaten most up, and altogether that fox was so old and feeble that he couldn't have hurt a mosquito. So Uncle Wiggily wasn't a bit afraid of him. "I say, is there anything good to eat out there?" asked the fox, looking over the tops of his spectacles at the rabbit. "Anything nice and juicy to eat?" "Yes, I am good to eat," said Uncle Wiggily, "but you are not going to eat me. Good-by!" "Hold on!" cried the old fox, "don't be afraid. I can only eat soup, for I have no teeth to chew with, so unless you are soup you are of no use to me." "Well, I'm not soup, but I know how to make some," replied the rabbit, for he felt sorry for the grandfather fox. So what do you think our Uncle Wiggily did? Why, he went into the fox's stump-house and made a big pot full of the finest kind of soup, and the rabbit and the fox ate it all up, and, because the fox had no teeth or claws, he couldn't hurt his visitor. "I wish you would stay with me forever," said the old fox, as he blinked his eyes at Uncle Wiggily. "I have a young and strong grandson coming home soon, and you might show him how to make soup." "No, thank you," replied the rabbit. "I'm afraid that young and strong grandson of yours would want to eat me instead of the soup, I guess I'll travel on." So the old gentleman rabbit took his crutch and valise and traveled on. Well, pretty soon, it began to get dark, and Uncle Wiggily knew night was coming on. And he wondered where he could stay, for he didn't see any haystacks to sleep under. He was thinking that he'd have to dig a burrow in the ground for himself, and he was looking for a soft place to begin, when, all at once, he heard a loud "Honk-Honk!" back of him in the road. "Ha, an automobile is coming!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I must get out of the way!" So he hopped on ahead, going down the road quite fast, until he got to a place where there were prickly briar bushes on both sides of the highway. "My! I'll have to keep in the middle of the road if I don't want to get scratched," said the rabbit. And then the automobile horn behind him honked louder than ever. "They are certainly coming along fast," thought Uncle Wiggily. "If I don't look out I'll be run over." So he hopped along quicker than before, until, all of a sudden, as he looked down the road, he saw a savage dog standing there. "Well, now! Isn't that just my bad luck!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "If I go on the dog will catch me, and if I stand here the auto will run on top of me. I just guess I'll run back and see if there is a hole where I can crawl through the bushes." So he started to run back, but, no sooner had he done so, than the dog saw him, and came rushing at him with a loud, "Bow-wow-wow! Bow-wow-wow!" "My, but he's savage!" thought the rabbit. "I wonder if I can get away in time?" And then the auto honked louder than before, and all of a sudden it came whizzing down the road, right toward the rabbit. "Oh, dear; I'm going to be caught, sure!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and indeed it did look so, for there was the dog running from one direction, and the auto coming in the other, and prickly briar bushes were on both sides of the road, and Uncle Wiggily couldn't crawl through them without pulling all the fur off his back, and his ears, too. "Honk-Honk!" went the auto. "Bow-wow!" went the dog. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he thought of a plan. "I'll give a big run and a long jump and maybe I can jump over the auto, and then the auto will bump into the dog, and I will be safe!" he cried. So he took a long run, and just as the auto was going to hit him, Uncle Wiggily gave a big jump, right up into the air. He didn't jump quite quickly enough, however, for one of the big rubber tires ran over his toe, but he wasn't much hurt. And what do you think he did? Why, he landed right in the auto, on the seat beside a little boy. And that dog was so frightened of the automobile that he howled and yowled, and his teeth chattered, and he tucked his tail between his legs, and ran home. "Oh, the bunny! The bunny!" cried the little boy, as he saw Uncle Wiggly. "May we keep him, papa?" "I guess so," said the boy's papa. "Anyhow his foot is hurt, and we'll take care of him until it gets well. My, but he is a good jumper, though!" So the man stopped the auto, and picked up Uncle Wiggily's crutch and valise, which the old gentleman rabbit had dropped when he jumped upon the seat beside the boy, and then the car went on. And Uncle Wiggily wasn't a bit frightened at being in an auto, for he knew the boy and man would be kind to him. "Perhaps I shall find my fortune now," the rabbit gentleman said. And the little boy patted him on the back, and stroked his long ears. Now, in the story after this I'll tell you what happened to Uncle Wiggily at the little boy's house, and in case our door key doesn't get locked out, and have to sleep in the park, you are going to hear about Uncle Wiggily in a boat. STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY IN A BOAT "Poor rabbit!" exclaimed the little boy in the automobile, as he rubbed Uncle Wiggily's ears. "I wonder if his foot is much hurt, papa?" "I don't know," answered the man, as he steered the machine down the road. "I'll have the doctor look at it." "Oh, indeed, it isn't hurt much," spoke up Uncle Wiggily. "The rubber tire was soft, you see. But my rheumatism is much worse on account of running so fast." "What's this? Well, of all things! This rabbit can talk!" cried the man in surprise. "Of course he can, papa," said the boy. "Lots of rabbits can talk. Why, there's Sammie and Susie Littletail; they can talk, and maybe this rabbit knows them." "I'm their uncle," said the old gentleman rabbit, making a bow. "Oh, then, you must be Uncle Wiggily Longears!" cried the little boy. "Oh, I've always wanted to see you, and now I can!" "Well, it is very strange to meet you this way," said the man. "Still, I am glad you are not hurt, Uncle Wiggily. And so you are out seeking your fortune," for the rabbit had told them about his travels. "Perhaps you would like to rest at our house for a few days. We can give you a nice room, with a brass bed, and a bath-tub to yourself, and you can have your meals in bed, if you can't come down stairs." "Oh, I am not used to that kind of a life," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I would rather live out of doors. If you can get me some clean straw to lie on, and once in a while a carrot or a turnip, and a bit of lettuce and some cabbage leaves now and then, I'll be all right. And as soon as my foot is well I'll travel on." "Oh, what good times we'll have!" cried the little boy. "Our house is near a lake, and I have a motor boat. And I'll give you a ride in it." Well, Uncle Wiggily thought that would be nice, and he was rather glad, after all, that he had jumped into the auto. So pretty soon they came to the place where the boy lived. Oh, it was a fine, large house, with lots of grounds, lawns and gardens all around it. And there were several dogs on the place, but the little boy spoke to them all, telling them that the rabbit was his friend Uncle Wiggily, who must not be bitten or barked at on any account. "Oh, we heard about him from Fido Flip-Flop," said big dog Rover. "We wouldn't hurt Uncle Wiggily for two worlds, and part of another one, and a bag of peanuts." So Uncle Wiggily was given a nice bed of straw in one of the empty dog-houses, and the boy got him some cabbage and lettuce, and the rabbit made himself a sandwich of them, with some bread and butter which he had in his satchel. Then the rabbit and the dogs talked together, and the rabbit told of his travels, and what had happened to him so far. "Wonderful! Wonderful!" exclaimed the old dog Rover. "You should write a book about your fortune." "I haven't found it yet, but perhaps I may, and then I'll write the book," said Uncle Wiggily, combing out his whiskers. That night the boy put a soft rag and some salve on the rabbit's sore foot, and he also gave him some liniment for his rheumatism, and in the morning Uncle Wiggily was much better. He and the boy and the dogs had lots of fun playing together on the smooth, green, grassy lawn. They played tag, and hide-and-go-seek, and a new game called "Don't Let the Ragman Take Your Rubber Boots." And the dog Rover pretended he was the ragman. "Now, then, we'll all go out in my motor boat," said the boy, so he and Uncle Wiggily and the dogs went down to the lake and, surely enough, there was the boat, the nicest one you could wish for. There was a little cabin in it, and seats out on deck, and a little engine that went "choo-choo!" and pushed the boat through the water. In the boat they all had a fine ride around the lake, which was almost like the one where you go to a Sunday-school picnic, and then it was time for dinner. And, as a special treat, when they got on shore, Uncle Wiggily was given carrot ice cream, with chopped-up turnips in it. And oh, how good it was to him! Well, the days passed, and Uncle Wiggily was getting so he could walk along pretty well, for his foot was all cured, and he began to think of going on once more to seek his fortune. And then something happened. One day the boy went out alone in a rowboat to see if he could find any fish. And before he knew it his boat had tipped over, spilling him out into the water, and he couldn't swim. Wasn't that dreadful? "Oh! Help! Help!" he cried, as the water came up to his chin. My, but it's awful to be tipped over in a boat! and I and I hope if you can't swim you'll never go out in one alone. And there was that poor boy splashing around in the water, and almost drowned. "Save me! Save me!" the boy cried. "Oh, save me!" Well, as it happened, Uncle Wiggily was walking along the shore of the lake just then. He saw the little boy fall out of the boat, and he heard him cry. "I'll save you if I can!" exclaimed the brave old rabbit. "Come on, Rover, we'll go out in the motor boat and rescue him." "Bow-wow! Bow-wow! Sure! Sure!" cried Cover, wagging his tail. So he and Uncle Wiggily ran down, and jumped into the motor boat. And they knew just how to start the engine and run it, for the boy had showed them. "Bang-bang!" went the engine. "Whizz-whizz!" went the boat through the water. "Faster! Faster!" cried Uncle Wiggily, who was steering the boat, while Rover ran the engine. "Go faster!" So Rover made it go as fast as he could, and then all of a sudden that boy went down under the water, out of sight. "Oh, he's drowned!" cried Uncle Wiggily sorrowfully. But he wasn't, I'm glad to say. Just then along came Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat, swimming. And she dived away down under and helped bring that boy up to the top of the water, and then Uncle Wiggily and Cover grabbed him as the muskrat lifted him up, and they pulled him into the motor boat, and so saved his life. And oh! how thankful he was when he was safe on shore, and he was careful never to fall in the water again. Now, in case the clothes wringer doesn't squeeze all the juice out of my breakfast orange, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily making a cherry pie. STORY XV UNCLE WIGGILY MAKES A PIE Do you remember the little boy whom Uncle Wiggily helped save after he fell out of the boat? Well, that boy's papa was so glad because Uncle Wiggily had helped save the little chap from drowning that he couldn't do enough for the old gentleman rabbit. "You can stay here forever, and have carrot ice cream every day if you like," the man said. "Oh, thank you very much, but I think I'll travel on," replied Uncle Wiggily. "I have still to seek my fortune." "Why, _I_ will give you a fortune!" said the boy's papa. "I will give you a thousand million dollars, and a penny besides." "That would be a fine fortune," spoke the rabbit, "but I would much rather find my own. It is no fun when you get a thing given to you. It is better to earn it yourself, and then you think more of it." "Yes, that is so," said the man. "Well, we will be sorry to see you go." Uncle Wiggily started off the next day, once more to seek his fortune, and the little boy felt so sad at seeing him go that he cried, and put his arms around the old gentleman rabbit, and kissed him between the ears. And Uncle Wiggily felt badly, too. Well, the old gentleman rabbit traveled on and on for several days after that, sleeping under hay stacks part of the time, or in empty hollow stumps, and sometimes he dug a burrow for himself in the soft ground. And one afternoon, just as the sun was getting ready to go to bed for the night, Uncle Wiggily came to an open place in the woods where there was a cave, made of a lot of little stones piled up together. "My! I wonder who lives there?" thought the rabbit. "It is too small for a giant to live in, but there may be a bad bear or a savage fox in there. I guess I'd better get away from here." Well, Uncle Wiggily was just going, when, all at once, a voice cried out: "Here, hold on there!" The rabbit looked back, and he saw a great big porcupine, or hedgehog--you know, those animals like a big gray rabbit, only their fur is the stickery-prickery kind, like needles, and the quills come out and stick in anybody who bites a hedgehog. So I hope none of you ever bite one. And they won't bite you if you don't bother them. So as soon as Uncle Wiggily saw that it was Mr. Hedgehog who was speaking he wasn't a bit afraid, for he knew him. "Oh, it's you, is it?" asked the rabbit. "I'm real glad to see you. I was going to travel on, but----" "Don't say another word!" cried the hedgehog heartily. "You can stay in my cave all night. I have two beds, and it's a good thing I have, for if you slept with me you might get full of my stickery-stickers." "Yes, I guess I had better sleep alone," said Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. "But it seems to me, Mr. Hedgehog, that you are not looking well." "I'm not," answered the porcupine, as he shivered so that several of his quills fell out on the grass. "I'm suffering for some cherry pie. Oh, cherry pie! If I only had some I know I'd feel better at once. I just love it!" "Why don't you make some yourself?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I have tried," replied the hedgehog. "I've tried and tried again, but, somehow, it never comes out right. Here, I'll show you. I made a cherry pie just before I looked out of the door and saw you. I'll show it to you." He went into his little stone house, and Uncle Wiggily went with him. "There's the pie--it's no good!" cried the porcupine, as he pointed to something on the table. Well, as soon as Uncle Wiggily saw it he laughed so hard that his ears waved back and forth. "What's the matter? I don't see anything funny," asked Mr. Hedgehog, shivering so that more quills fell out. "Why, you've gone and put the cherry pits into the pie instead of the cherries," said the rabbit. "That's no way to do. You must take out the stones from inside the cherries and put the outside part of them inside the pie, and throw the inside or stony part of the cherries away." "Oh, good land!" cried the hedgehog, "no wonder I couldn't eat the pie. You see, I thought cherries were like peanuts. For you know you throw away the outside part of the peanut, and eat the inside." "Yes, and cherries are just the opposite," said the rabbit, laughing again. "For you eat the outside of a cherry and throw away the pit or stone that is inside. Now, I'll make you a cherry pie." "I wish you would," said the porcupine. "I'll go get the cherries." So he went out in the orchard, and he shot his sharp stickery quills, like little arrows at the cherries on the tree, and they fell down, so he could pick them up in a basket. I mean the cherries fell down, though of course the quills did also though the hedgehog didn't pick them up. And while he was doing that Uncle Wiggily was making the pie crust. He took flour and lard and water, and mixed them together, and then he put in other things--Oh, well, you just ask your mamma or the cook what they were, for I might get it wrong--and soon the pie crust was ready. Then Uncle Wiggily built a hot fire in the stove, and he waited for Mr. Hedgehog to come in with the cherries. And pretty soon the porcupine came back with his basket full, and he and Uncle Wiggily shelled the peanuts--I mean the cherries--taking out the pits. "Now I'll put them in the pie, and put sugar on them, bake it in the oven, and soon it will be done, and we can eat it," said the rabbit. "Oh, joy!" cried the hedgehog. "That will be fine!" So Uncle Wiggily put the cherries in the pie, and threw the pits away, and he put the pie in the oven, and then he and Mr. Hedgehog sat down to wait for it to bake. And oh, how delicious and scrumptious it did smell! if you will excuse me for saying so. Well, in a little while, the pie was baked, and Uncle Wiggily took it from the oven. "I can hardly wait to eat it!" cried the hedgehog, and just then there came a terribly loud knock on the door. "Oh, maybe it's that bad fox come for some of my pie!" exclaimed the hedgehog. "If it is, I'll stick him full of stickery-stickers." But when he went to the door there stood old Percival, the circus dog, and he was crying as hard as he could cry. "Come in," invited Uncle Wiggily. "Come in, and have some cherry pie, and you'll feel better." So Percival came in, and they all three sat down, and ate the cherry pie all up, and sure enough Percival did feel better, and stopped crying. Then the circus dog and Uncle Wiggily stayed all night with Mr. Hedgehog, and they had more cherry pie next day, and it was very fine and sweet. Now, if our cook makes some nice watermelon sandwiches, with maple syrup on them, for supper, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and old dog Percival, and why Percival cried. STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND PERCIVAL Now I'm going to tell you, before I forget it, why old dog Percival was crying that time when he came to the little stone house where the hedgehog lived, and where Uncle Wiggily gave him some cherry pie. And the reason Percival was crying, was because he had stepped on a sharp stone, and hurt his foot. "But I don't in the least mind now," said Percival, after he had eaten about sixty-'leven pieces of the pie. "My foot is all better." "I should think that cherry pie would make almost any one better," said the hedgehog, laughing with joy, for he felt better, too. "I know some bad boys to whom I'm going to give some cherry pie, and I hope it makes them better. And to think I threw away the good part of the cherries and cooked the stones in the pie. Oh, excuse me while I laugh again!" And the hedgehog laughed so hard that he spilled some of the red cherry pie juice on his shirt front, but he didn't care, for he had another shirt. Well, Uncle Wiggily and Percival, the old circus dog, stayed for some days at the home of the hedgehog, and they had cherry pie, or fritters with maple syrup, at almost every meal. Then, finally, Uncle Wiggily said: "Well, I guess I must travel on. I can't find my fortune here. I must start off to-morrow." "And I'll go with you," spoke Percival. "We'll go together, and see what we can find." Well, he and Uncle Wiggily went on together for some time, and nothing happened, except that they met a poor pussy cat without any tail, and Uncle Wiggily gave her some of the pie. And the next day they met a cat and seven little kittens, and they all had tails, so they had to have some pie, too. But one night, after Percival and Uncle Wiggily had been traveling all day, they came to a deep, dark, dismal woods. "Oh, have we got to go through that forest?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, wrinkling up his ears--I mean his nose. "I guess we have," replied the circus dog. "We may find our fortunes in there." "It is a pretty dark spot to look for money, or fortunes," said the rabbit. "The best thing we can do is to look for a place to sleep, and in the morning we will hurry out of the woods." Well, the two animal friends started into the grove of trees, and they hadn't gone very far before it got so dark that they couldn't see to go any farther. Oh, but it was black and lonesome and sort of scary-like! and Uncle Wiggily said: "Let's stay here, Percival. We'll make a little bed under the trees to sleep in, and we'll build a fire to keep us warm, and cook a little supper." So Percival thought that would be nice, and soon he and the rabbit had a cheerful little fire blazing, and then it wasn't quite so lonely. Only there was a big owl in a tree, and he kept hollering "Who? Who? Who?" and Percival thought it meant him, and Uncle Wiggily thought it meant him, and they were rather frightened, so they didn't either of them answer the owl, who kept on calling "Who? Who? Who?" They were just cooking their supper, and cutting up the cherry pie, and putting it on some oak leaves for plates, and they had picked out a nice smooth stump for a table, when, all of a sudden, they heard a voice saying: "Now you make a jump and grab the rabbit and I'll take the dog. Then we can carry them off to our dens, and that will be the last of them. Get ready now!" "Did you hear that?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the circus dog. "Indeed I did," replied Percival. "I wonder if it can be those owls?" "It doesn't sound like them," said Uncle Wiggily. "I think it is a bad fox, or maybe two of them." And just then they looked off through the woods, and by the light of the fire they saw two big, savage, ugly wolves. Oh, how their sharp teeth gleamed in the dancing flames, and how red their tongues were! "Come on! Grab 'em both!" cried one savage wolf. "Grab the rabbit and the dog!" "Sure! I'm with you!" growled the other savage wolf. "Oh, what shall we do, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Percival. "They'll eat us up! "Let me think a minute," said the rabbit. So he thought for maybe half a minute, and then exclaimed: "Oh! I know a good thing to do." "What?" asked Percival. "Say it quickly, Uncle Wiggily, for those wolves are creeping up on us, and it's so dark we can't see to run away." And surely enough, those wolves were sneaking up, with their red tongues hanging out longer than ever, for all the world just as if they had eaten cherry pie. "We must do some funny tricks!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "You know how, Percival, for you were once in a circus, and I learned some when I was with the monkey, and with Fido Flip-Flop. Do some tricks, and maybe these wolves will feel so good-natured that they won't bite us." So brave Uncle Wiggily stood up on one ear and waved his feet in the air. Then he stood on his nose and turned a somersault. Next he went around and around as fast as a pinwheel, and he whistled a funny tune about a little rubber ball that flew into the air, and when it landed on the ground it would not stay down there. But I wish you could have seen the tricks Percival did. He jumped through between Uncle Wiggily's long ears, and he walked on his hind legs, and on his front ones. Then he stood on his head, and he made believe he was begging for something to eat, and Uncle Wiggily fed him a carrot, and a piece of pie. Then he put a piece of bread on his nose, tossed it up into the air--tossed the bread, I mean, not his nose--and when it came down he caught it and ate it. Oh, it was great! Well, those wolves were too surprised for anything. They had never seen tricks like those. First they smiled a bit. Then they smiled some more. Then one laughed, then the other laughed, and finally, when Uncle Wiggily and Percival took turns jumping over each other's backs, the wolves thought it so funny that they had to lie down on the leaves and roll over and over because they were laughing so hard. And, of course, after that they didn't feel like hurting Uncle Wiggily or Percival. And just then the big alligator came along and chased the wolves away, so the rabbit and dog had no one to bother them except the alligator, and, as he had just had his supper, he wasn't hungry, so he didn't eat them. So Uncle Wiggily and Percival went to sleep, and so must you, and if the vegetable man brings me a pumpkin Jack o' Lantern, with a pink ribbon on the end of the stem, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily in a well. STORY XVII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A WELL Well, I didn't get the pumpkin Jack o' Lantern with the pink ribbon on, but some one mailed me an ice cream cone, so it's just as well. That is, I suppose it was an ice cream cone when it started on its journey, but when I got it there was only the cone part left. Maybe the postman took out the ice cream, with which to stick a stamp on the letter. But there, I must tell you what happened to Uncle Wiggily after he and Percival did those tricks, and made the wolves laugh so hard. The rabbit and the circus dog stayed in the woods all that night, and nothing bothered them. "Now, Percival, you make the coffee, and I'll spread the bread and butter for breakfast," said Uncle Wiggily the next morning. "Where are you going to get the bread and butter?" asked the dog. "Oh, I have it in my satchel," spoke the old rabbit, and, surely enough, he did have several large, fine slices. So he and Percival ate their breakfast, and then they started off again. They hadn't gone very far before they met a grasshopper, who was limping along on top of a fence rail, and looking quite sad--I mean the grasshopper was looking sad, not the fence rail. "What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Are you sad and lonesome because you can't have some cherry pie, or some bread and butter; or because you can't see any funny tricks? If you are, don't worry, Mr. Grasshopper, for Percival and I can give you something to eat, and also do some tricks to make you laugh." "No, I am not sad about any of those things," replied the grasshopper, "but you see I gave a big jump over a large stone a little while ago, and I sprained my left hind leg. Now I can't jump any more, and here it is Summer, and, of course, we grasshoppers have to hop, or we don't make any money." "Oh, don't let a little thing like that worry you," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "I have some very nice salve, that a gentleman and his boy gave me when their automobile ran over me, and it cured my sore toe, so I think it will cure your left hind leg." Then he put some salve on the grasshopper's leg, and in a little while it was much better. "Now we must travel on again, to seek our fortune," said Uncle Wiggily. "Come, Percival." "I will just do one little trick, to make the grasshopper feel better before we leave," said the circus dog, so he stood up on the end of his tail, and went around and around, and winked first one eye and then the other, it was too funny for anything, really it was. Well, the alligator laughed at that--oh there I go again--I mean the grasshopper laughed, and then Uncle Wiggily and Percival went off together, very glad indeed that they had had a chance to do a kindness, even to a grasshopper. Pretty soon they came to a place where there were two roads branching off, one to the right hand and the other to the left, like the letter "Y." "I'll tell you what we'll do," said Percival, "you go to the right, Uncle Wiggily, and I'll go to the left, and, later on, we'll meet by the mill pond, and perhaps each of us may have found his fortune by that time." "Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "We'll do it!" So he went off one way, and the circus dog took the other path through the woods, and now I must tell you what happened to the old gentleman rabbit. Uncle Wiggily went along for some time, and just as he got to a place where there was a large stone, all of a sudden out popped a big fat toad. And it wasn't a nice toad, either, but a bad toad. "Hello, Uncle Wiggily," said the squatty-watty toad. "I haven't seen you in some time. I guess you must be getting pretty old. You can't jump as good as you once could, can you?" "Of course, I can," exclaimed the rabbit, a bit pettish-like, for he didn't care to have even a toad think he couldn't jump as well as ever he could. "I'd like to see you," went on the toad. "See if you jump from here over on that pile of leaves," and he pointed to them with his warty toes. "I'll do it," exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. So he laid aside his crutch and his valise, gave a little run and a big jump, and then he came down kerthump on the pile of leaves. But wait. Oh! I have something sad to tell you. That toad was only playing a trick on the rabbit, and those leaves were right over a big, deep, dark well. And as soon as Uncle Wiggily landed on the leaves he fell through, for there were no boards under them to cover up the well, and down, down, down he went, and if there had been water in the well he would have been drowned. But the well was dry, I'm glad to say. Still Uncle Wiggily had a great fall--almost like the tumble of Humpty-Dumpty. "Ah, ha!" exclaimed the mean, squatty-squirmy toad. "Now you are in the well, and I'm going off, and tell the wolves, so they can come and get you out, and eat you. Ah, ha!" Oh! but wasn't that toad a most unpleasant one? You see, he used to work for the wolves, doing all sorts of mean things for them, and trapping all the animals he could for them. So off the toad hopped, to call the wolves to come and get Uncle Wiggily, and the poor rabbit was left alone at the bottom of the well. He tried his best to get up, but he couldn't. "I guess I'll have to stay here until the wolves come," he thought, sadly. "But I'll call for help, and see what happens." So he called: "Help! Help! Help!" as loudly as he could. And all of a sudden a voice answered and asked: "Where are you?" "In the well," shouted Uncle Wiggily, and he was afraid it was the wolves coming to eat him. But it wasn't, it was the limpy grasshopper, and he tried to pull Uncle Wiggily out of the well, but, of course, he wasn't strong enough. "But I'll get Percival, the circus dog, and he'll pull you out before the wolves come," said the grasshopper. "Now I have a chance to do you a kindness for the one you did me." So he hopped off, as his leg was nearly all better, and he found Percival on the left road and told him what had happened. And, my! how that circus dog did rush back to help Uncle Wiggily. And he got him out of the well in no time, by lowering a long rope to him, and pulling the rabbit gentleman up, and then the rabbit and dog ran away, before the toad could come back with the savage wolves, who didn't get any supper out of the well, after all, and it served them right. So that's all of this story, but I have some more, about the adventures of Uncle Wiggily, and next, in case the load of hay doesn't fall on my puppy-dog, and break off his curly tail, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Jennie Chipmunk. STORY XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK After Uncle Wiggily had been pulled up out of the well by Percival, the old circus dog, and they had run far enough off so that the wolves couldn't get them, the rabbit and the grasshopper and Percival sat down on the ground to rest. For you see Uncle Wiggily was tired from having fallen down the well, and the grasshopper was tired from having run so fast to call back Percival, and of course Percival was tired from having pulled up the old gentleman rabbit. So they were all pretty well tired out. "I'm sure I can't thank you enough for what you did for me," said Uncle Wiggily to Percival, and the grasshopper. "And as a little treat I'm going to give you some cherry pie that I made for the hedgehog." So they ate some cherry pie, and then they felt better. And they were just going to travel on together again, when, all at once, there was a rustling in the bushes, and out flew Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy. "Oh, my" cried Uncle Wiggily, wrinkling up his nose. "At first I thought you were a savage owl." "Oh, no, I'm not an owl," said Dickie. "But I'm in a great hurry, and perhaps I made a noise like an owl. Percival, you must come back home to the Bow Wow house right away." "Why?" asked Percival, sticking up his two ears so that he could hear better. "Because Peetie Bow Wow is very ill with the German measles, and he wants to see you do some of your funny circus tricks," spoke Dickie. "He thinks that will make him better." "Ha! I've no doubt that it will!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If I were not traveling about, seeking my fortune, I'd go back with you, Percival. I love Peetie Bow Wow, and Jackie, too." "Oh, I'll go," said the grasshopper. "I will play Peetie a funny fiddle tune, on my left hind leg, and that may make him laugh." "And Nellie and I will sail through the air, and go off to find some pretty flowers for him," said Dickie. So the sparrow boy, the grasshopper and old Percival, the circus dog, started off together to see poor sick Peetie Bow Wow, leaving Uncle Wiggily there on the grass. "Give my love to Peetie!" called the old gentleman rabbit after them, "and tell him that I'll come and see him as soon as I find my fortune." Uncle Wiggily felt a little bit sad and lonely when his friends were gone, but he ate another piece of cherry pie, taking care to get none of the juice, on his blue necktie, and then he was a little happier. "Now to start off once more," he said. "I wonder what will happen next? But I know one thing, I'm never going to do any jumping for any squatty old toads any more." So Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, and when it came night he didn't have any place to sleep. But as it happened he met a kind old water snake, who had a nice house in an old pile of wood, and there the rabbit stayed until morning, when the water snake got him a nice breakfast of pond lilies, with crinkly eel-grass sauce on. Pretty soon it was nearly noon that day, and Uncle Wiggily was about to sit down on a nice green mossy bank in the woods--not a toy bank with money in it, you understand, but a dirt-bank, with moss on it like a carpet. That's where he was going to sit. "I think I'll eat my dinner," said the old gentleman rabbit as he opened his valise, and just then he heard a voice in the woods singing. And this was the song: "Oh dear! I'm lost, I know I am, I don't know what to do. I had a big red ribbon, and I had one colored blue. But now I haven't got a one Because a savage bear Took both of them, and tied a string Around my curly hair. I wish I had a penny bright, To buy a trolley car. I'd ride home then, because, you see, To walk it is too far." "I guess that's some one in trouble, all right," said Uncle Wiggily, as he cautiously peeped through the bushes. "Though, perhaps, it is a little wolf boy, or a fox." But when he looked, whom should he see but little Jennie Chipmunk, and she was crying as hard as she could cry, so she couldn't sing any more. "Why, Jennie, what is the matter?" kindly asked Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, I came out in the woods to gather acorns in a little basket for supper," she said, "and I guess I must have come too far. The first thing I knew a big bear jumped out of the bushes at me, and he took off both my nice, new hair ribbons and put on this old string." And, sure enough, there was only just an old black shoestring on Jennie's nice hair. "Where is that bear?" asked Uncle Wiggily, quite savage like. "Just tell me where he is, and I'll make him give you back those ribbons, and then I'll show you the way home." "Oh, the bear ran off after he scared me," said the little chipmunk girl. "Please don't look for him, Uncle Wiggily, or he might eat you all up." "Pooh!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "I'm not afraid of a bear. I have traveled around a great deal of late, and I have had many adventures. It takes more than a bear to scare me!" "Oh, it does; does it?" suddenly cried a growly-scowly voice, and, would you believe me? right out from the bushes jumped that savage bear! And he had Jennie's blue ribbon tied on his left ear, and the red one tied on his right ear, and he looked too queer for anything. "I can't scare you; eh?" he cried to the rabbit. "Well, I'm just going to eat you, and that chipmunk girl all up, and maybe that will scare you!" So he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily, but do you s'pose the rabbit gentleman was afraid? Not a bit of it. He knew what he was going to do. "Quick, Jennie!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Get in front of me. I'll fix this bear all right." So Jennie got in front, and the rabbit turned his back on the bear, and, then Uncle Wiggily began scratching in the dirt with his sharp claws. My! how he did make the dirt fly. It was just like a regular rain-shower of sand and gravel. And the dirt flew all over that bear; in his eyes and nose and mouth and ears, it went, and he sneezed, and he couldn't see out of his eyes, and he fairly howled. And by that time Uncle Wiggily had dug a big hole in the ground with his feet, and he and Jennie hid there until the bear ran off to get some water to wash the dirt off his face, and then the rabbit and the chipmunk girl came out safely. Then Uncle Wiggily gave Jennie some pennies to buy two new hair ribbons, and he showed her the way home with her basket of acorns, and he himself went on with his travels. And he had another adventure the next day. Now in case a cowboy doesn't come along, and take my little pussy cat off to the wild west show I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the paper lantern. STORY XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LANTERN After Uncle Wiggily had taken Jennie Chipmunk home, so that the bear couldn't get her, as I told you about in the story before this one, the old gentleman rabbit walked on over the fields and through the woods, seeking his fortune. He looked everywhere for it; down in hollow stumps, behind big stones, and even in an old well, but you may be sure he didn't jump down any more wells. No, I guess not! "Ha! Here is a little brook!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, after a while, as he came to a small stream of water flowing over green, mossy stones, with a nice gurgling sound like an ice cream soda, "perhaps I may find my fortune here." But he looked and he looked in the water without seeing anything but a goldfish. "I might sell the goldfish for money," thought the fortune-hunting rabbit, "but it wouldn't be kind to take him out of the brook, so I won't. I'll look a little farther, on the other side." Then, taking up his crutch and his valise, Uncle Wiggily gave a big jump, and leaped safely across the water. Then, once more, he traveled on. Pretty soon he came to a place where there was a tree, and on one branch of this tree there hung a funny round ball, that looked as if it was made of gray-colored paper. And there was a funny buzzing sound coming from it. "Ha! Do you see that?" asked a big, fat hop-toad, as he suddenly bobbed up out of the grass. It was the same toad who had made the rabbit jump down in the leaf-covered well. "Do you see that?" asked the toad. "Well, if you want to find your fortune, take a stick and hit that ball." "Indeed I will not!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I know you and your tricks! That is a hornets' nest, and if I struck it they would fly out, and sting me. Oh, no! You can't catch me again. Now you go away, or I'll tell a policeman dog to arrest you." So the toad knew it was of no use to try to fool Uncle Wiggily again, and he hopped away, scratching his warty back on a sharp stone. Well, the old gentleman rabbit traveled on and on, and when it came night he wondered where he was going to stay, for he hadn't yet found his fortune and the weather looked as if it was going to rain. Then, all of a sudden, he heard voices calling like this: "Come on, Nannie, you've got to blind your eyes now, and I'll go hide." "All right, Billie," was the answer. "And after that we'll get Uncle Butter to tell us a story." "I guess I know who those children are," thought Uncle Wiggily, though he had not yet seen them. "That's Billie and Nannie Goat talking," and surely enough it was, and, most unexpectedly the rabbit had come right up to the house where they lived, on the edge of the woods. Well, you can just imagine how glad Billie and Nannie were to see Uncle Wiggily. They danced all around him, and held him by the paws, and kissed him between his long ears, and Billie carried his satchel for him. "Oh, we're so glad you are here!" they cried. "Mamma! Papa! Uncle Butter! Here is Uncle Wiggily!" Well, the whole goat family was glad to see the rabbit-traveler, and after supper he told them of his adventures, and how he was out seeking his fortune. And Billie and Nannie told what they had been doing, and Nannie showed how she could cut things out of paper, like the children do in the kindergarten class in school. She could make little houses, with smoke coming out of the chimney, and paper lanterns, and boxes, and, oh! ever so many things. The lanterns she made were especially fine, just like Chinese ones. Then it came time to go to bed, and in the night a very strange thing happened, and I'm going to tell you all about it. Along about 12 o'clock, when all was still and quiet, and when the little mice were beginning to think it was time for them to creep, creep out of their holes, and hunt for bread and cheese; about this time there sounded a queer noise down at the front door of the goat-house. "Ha! What is that?" asked Mrs. Goat. "I guess it was the cats," said Mr. Goat, getting ready to go to sleep again. "No, I'm sure it was a burglar-fox!" said the lady goat. "Please get up and look." Well, of course, Mr. Goat had to do so, after his wife asked him like that. So he poked his head out of the upstairs window, over the front door, and he called out: "Who is down there?" "I'm a burglar-fox!" was the answer. "I'm coming to rob you." "Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Goat, when she heard that. "Get a gun, and shoot him, Mr. Goat." And at that Billie and Nannie began to cry, for they were afraid of burglars, and Uncle Butter got up, and began looking for a whistle, with which to call a policeman dog, but he couldn't find it. Then the burglar-fox started in breaking down the door, so that he could get in, and still Mr. Goat couldn't find his gun. "Oh, we'll all be killed!" cried Mrs. Goat. "Oh, if some one would only help us!" "Ha! I will help you!" cried Uncle Wiggily jumping out of bed. "I'll scare that fox so that he'll run away." "But I can't find my gun," said Mr. Goat. "No matter," answered the brave rabbit. "I can scare him with a paper lantern such as Nannie can make. Quick, Nannie, make me a big paper lantern." Well, the little goat girl stopped crying then, and she got her paper, and her scissors, and the paste pot, and she began to make a paper lantern, as big as a water pail. Uncle Wiggily and Billie helped her. And all the while the burglar-fox was banging on the door, and crying out: "Let me in! Let me in!" "Quick! is the lantern ready?" Asked Uncle Wiggily, jumping around in a circle like "Ring Around the Rosie." "Here it is," said Nannie. So the rabbit gentleman took it, all nicely made as it was, and inside of it he put a hot, blazing candle. And the lantern was so big that the candle didn't burn the sides of the paper. Then Uncle Wiggily tied the lantern to a string, and he lowered it right down out of the window; down in front of the burglar-fox, and the hot candle in the lantern burned the fox's nose, and he thought it was a policeman climbing down out of a tree to catch him, and before you could count forty-'leven the bad burglar-fox ran away, and so he didn't rob the goats after all. And, oh! how thankful Nannie and Billie and their papa and mamma were to Uncle Wiggily. Now, in case the little boy next door doesn't take our clothes line, to make a swing for his puppy dog, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the paper house in the following story. STORY XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PAPER HOUSE Bright and early next morning Uncle Wiggily got up, and he took a careful look around to see if there were any signs of the burglar-fox, about whom I told you in another story. "I guess he's far enough off by this time," said Billie Goat, as he polished his horns with a green leaf. "Yes, indeed," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "It is a good thing that Nannie knew how to make a paper lantern." "Oh, I can make lots of things out of paper," said the little goat girl. "Our teacher in school shows us how. Why I can even make a paper house." "Can you, indeed?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as he washed his paws and face for breakfast. "Now I should dearly like to know how to make a paper house." "Why?" asked Billie Goat, curious like. "So that when I am traveling about, looking for my fortune, and night comes on, and I have no place to stay, then I could make me a paper house, and be all nice and dry in case it rained," replied the rabbit. "Oh, but the water would soon soak through the paper," said Billie. "I know, for once I made a paper boat, and sailed it on the pond, and soon it was soaked through, and sank away down." "Oh, but if I use that funny, greasy paper which comes inside cracker boxes--the kind with wax on it--that wouldn't wet through," spoke the rabbit as he went inside the goat-house with the children, for Mrs. Goat had called them in to breakfast. "That would be just fine!" exclaimed Nannie, as she passed some apple sauce and oatmeal to Uncle Wiggily. "After breakfast I'll show you how to make a paper house." Well, surely enough, as soon as breakfast was over, and before she and Billie had gone to school, Nannie showed the old gentleman rabbit how to make a paper house. You take some paper and some scissors, and you cut out the sides of the house and the roof, and you make windows and doors in these sides, and then you make a chimney, and you fasten them all together, with paste or glue, and, there you are. Isn't it easy? And if you only make the paper house large enough, you can get inside of it and have a play party, and perhaps you can make paper dishes and knives and forks; but listen! If you make paper things to eat, like cake or cookies or anything like that, please only make-believe to eat them, for they are bad for the digestion if you _really_ chew them. "Well, I think I'll travel along now, and once more seek my fortune," said Uncle Wiggily, when Billie and Nannie were ready to go to school. So Mrs. Goat packed up for the rabbit a nice lunch in his valise, and Nannie gave him some waxed paper, that the rain wouldn't melt, and Billie gave his uncle a pair of scissors, and off Mr. Longears started. Well, he traveled on and on, over the fields and through the woods, and across little brooks, and pretty soon it was coming on dark night, and the rabbit gentleman hadn't found his fortune. "Now I wonder where I can stay to-night?" thought Uncle Wiggily, as he looked about him. He could see nothing but an old stump, which was not hollow, so he couldn't get inside of it, and the only other thing that happened to be there was a flat stone, and he couldn't get under that. "I guess I must make me a paper house," said the old gentleman rabbit. "Then I can sleep in it in peace and quietness, and I'll travel on again in the morning." So he got out the waxed paper, and he took the scissors, and, sitting down on the green grass, he cut out the sides and roof of the paper house. Then he made the chimney, and put it on the roof, and then he fastened the house together, and crawled inside, with his valise and his barber-pole crutch. "I guess I won't make too many windows or doors," thought Uncle Wiggily, "for a savage bear or a burglar-fox might come along in the night, and try to get in." So he only made one door, and one window in the house. But he made a little fireplace out of stones, and built a little fire in it, to cook his supper. But listen, you children must never, never make a fire, unless some big person is near to put it out in case it happens to run away, and chases after you, to catch you. Fires are dreadfully scary things for little folks, so please be careful. Well, Uncle Wiggily cooked his supper, frying some carrots in a little tin frying pan he had with him, and then he said his prayers, and went to bed. Soon he was fast, fast asleep. Well, in the middle of the night, Uncle Wiggily was awakened in his paper house by hearing a funny noise outside. "Ha! I wonder what that can be?" he exclaimed, sitting up, and reaching out for his crutch. The noise kept on, "pitter-patter; pitter-patter-patter-pitter; pat-pit-pat-pit." "Oh, that sounds like the toe nails of the burglar-fox, running around the house!" said the rabbit. Then he listened more carefully, and suddenly he laughed: "Ha! Ha!" Then he got up and looked out of the window. "Why, it's only the rain drops pit-pattering on the roof," he said. "Isn't it jolly to be in a house when it rains, and you can't get wet? After this every night I'm going to always build a waxed-paper house," said Uncle Wiggily. So he listened to the rain drops, and he thought how nice it was not to be wet, and he went to sleep again. And pretty soon he woke up once more, for he heard another noise. This time it was a sniffing, snooping, woofing sort of a noise, and Uncle Wiggily knew that it wasn't the rain. "I'm sure that's the burglar-fox," he said. "What shall I do? He can smash my paper house with his teeth and claws, and then eat me. I should have built a wooden house. But it's too late now. I know what I'll do. I'll dig a cellar underneath my paper house, and I'll hide there, in case that fox smashes the roof." So Uncle Wiggily got up very softly, and right in the middle of the dirt floor of his paper house he began to burrow down to dig a cellar. My, how his paws made the sand and gravel fly, and soon he had dug quite a large cellar, in which to hide. And all this time the sniffing, snooping sound kept on, until, all of a sudden a voice cried: "Let me in!" "Who are you?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'm the bad alligator," was the answer, "and if you don't let me in, I'll smash down your paper house with one swoop of my scalery-ailery tail." "You can't come in!" cried the rabbit, and then that bad alligator gave one swoop of his tail, and smashed Uncle Wiggily's nice paper house all to pieces! But do you s'pose the rabbit was there? No, indeed. He just grabbed up his crutch and valise, and ran down into his cellar as far and as fast as he could run, just as the roof fell in. And the cellar wasn't big enough for the alligator to get in, and so he had to stay outside, and he couldn't get Uncle Wiggily. And then it rained, and thundered and lightninged, and the alligator got scared, and ran off, but the rabbit gentleman was safe down in his cellar, and he didn't get a bit wet, and went to sleep there for the rest of the night. Now, please go to bed, and in case my toothbrush, doesn't go out roller skating, and fall down and get bald-headed, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the paper boat. STORY XXI UNCLE WIGGILY IN A PAPER BOAT When the morning dawned, after he had slept all night in the cellar under his paper house, that the alligator, with his swooping scalery-ailery tail, had knocked down, Uncle Wiggily awakened, brushed the dirt from his ears, and crawled out. "My!" he exclaimed as he saw the paper house all flat on the ground, like a pancake, "Nannie Goat would certainly be sorry to see this. But I suppose it can't be helped. Anyhow, it's a good thing that I am not squashed as flat as that house is. Now I'll see about my breakfast, and then I'll travel on again." So the old gentleman rabbit got his breakfast, eating almost the last piece of the cherry pie, which he had left from the time when he made some for the hedgehog, and then, taking his crutch, striped red, white and blue, like a barber pole, off he started. Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily came to a pond of water, and, looking down into it, he saw the most beautiful goldfish that you can imagine. It was a big fish, too, and the scales on it were as round as gold dollars. "My!" exclaimed the rabbit. "If I had that fish, and I could take him to a jewelry shop, and sell him, I would get so much money that my fortune would be made, and I wouldn't have to travel any farther. But I guess the fish would rather stay in the pond than in a jewelry shop." "Indeed, I would," answered the fish, looking up. "And I am glad you are so kind as to be thoughtful of my feelings. Perhaps I may be able to help you, some day." And with that the fish dived away down under the water, after calling good-bye to the rabbit, and then Uncle Wiggily hopped on, and he didn't think any more about the goldfish, until some time after that. Well, as soon as the elephant had his trunk packed--Oh, hold on, if you please. I wonder what's the matter with me? There's no elephant in this story. He comes in it about five pages farther on. Well, after traveling for several hours, Uncle Wiggily ate his dinner, then he hopped on some more, and he looked all around for his fortune, but he couldn't find it. Then it began to get dark, and he wondered where he could stay that night. "I might build a paper house," he said, "but if I do the alligator might come along and smash it, and this time he would probably catch me. I wonder what I'd better do?" So he looked ahead, and there he saw a stream of water. It was quite a wide brook, but on the other side of it he saw a nice little wooden house, that no one lived in. "Now, if I could only get over there I'd be safe," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I guess I'll wade across." Well, he started to do so, but he soon found that the water was too deep for him to wade. It was over his head. "I'll have to swim across," said Uncle Wiggily. But, as soon as he got ready to do that, he found himself in more trouble. For he couldn't carry his crutch and valise across with him if he swam, and he didn't like to leave them on the shore, for fear the alligator would get them. "Oh, I certainly am in great trouble," said the rabbit. "It's getting darker and darker, and I have no place to stay. I haven't even any paper with which to make me a paper house, but if I could only get across to the wooden house, I'd be safe." And, just as he spoke, there came a little puff of wind, and lo and behold! a nice piece of paper was blown right down out of a tree, where it had been caught on a branch. Right at Uncle Wiggily's side it fell; that paper did. "Oh, joy!" the rabbit gentleman cried. "Here is paper to make me a house with." But when he looked more closely at it, he saw that it wasn't big enough for a house, and it wasn't the kind of paper that would keep out the rain, either. "That will never do," said Uncle Wiggily, sadly. "Ah! But I have an idea. I will make me a paper boat, as Billie Goat once did, and in the boat I'll sail across the stream, and sleep in the little wooden house." So he folded up the paper, first like a soldier's hat, and then like a fireman's hat, and then he pulled on the two ends, and, presto change! he had a paper boat. Then he took his crutch, and stuck it up in the middle of the boat, and put a piece of paper on the crutch, and he had a sail. Then he put the boat in the water, and got in it himself. I mean he got in the boat, not the water--with his valise. "Here we go!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, and he shoved the boat out from the shore. The wind caught in the little paper sail, and away Uncle Wiggily went, as fine as fine could be. "I'll soon be on the other shore," he said, and just then he looked down, and he saw some water coming inside the boat. "Hum! That's bad," he cried. "I'm afraid my boat is leaking." The wind blew harder, and the boat went faster, but more water came in, for you see the paper was sort of melting, and falling apart, like an ice cream cone, for it wasn't the waxed kind of paper from the inside of cracker boxes--the kind that water won't hurt. Well, the boat began to sink, and the water came up to Uncle Wiggily's knees, and then, all of a sudden there was a funny sound on shore, a snipping snooping woofing-woofing sound, and into the water jumped the alligator with the skiller-scalery, swooping tail. "Now I've got you!" he cried, snapping his jaws at the poor old gentleman rabbit. And really it did seem as if Uncle Wiggily would be eaten up. But you never can tell what is going to happen in this world; never indeed. All of a sudden, just as the paper boat was melting all to pieces, and Uncle Wiggily was trying, as best he could, to swim to shore with his crutch and valise, and just as the alligator was going to grab him, along came the big, kind goldfish. "Jump on my back, Uncle Wiggily!" cried the fish, and the rabbit did so, in the twinkling of an eye. And before the alligator could grab Uncle Wiggily, the goldfish swam to shore with him, and he was safe. And the alligator got some soap in his eye, from washing his face too hard, and went sloshing away as mad as could be, but it served him right. And Uncle Wiggily slept safely in the wooden house all night, and dreamed about finding a gold dollar. Now in case the banana man brings me some pink oranges for the elephant's little boy, I'll tell you in another story about Uncle Wiggily and the mud pie.[Transcriber's Note: in the above sentence, the word "tell" was omitted in the original text.] STORY XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MUD PIE Uncle Wiggily slept very soundly that night in the little wooden house, across on the other side of the brook, where the alligator tried to catch him, but didn't. And when he awakened in the morning the rabbit traveler wondered what he was going to have for breakfast. But he didn't wonder very long. For, as soon as he had gotten up, and had washed his paws and face, and combed out his ears--oh, dear me--I mean his whiskers--as soon as he had done that, he heard a knock on the door. "Oh, my, suz dud and a bottle of milk!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "I hope that isn't the scary-flary alligator again." So he peeped out of the window, but to his surprise, he didn't see any one. "I'm sure I heard a knock," he said, "but I guess I was mistaken." Well, he was going over to his valise to see if it had in it anything to eat, when the knock again sounded on the door. "No, I wasn't mistaken," said Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder who that can be? I'll peep, and find out." So he hid behind the window curtain, and kept a close watch, and the first things he saw were some little stones flying through the air. And they hit against the front door with a rattlety-bang, and it was these stones that had made the sound that was like a knock. "Oh! it must be some bad boys after me," thought the poor old gentleman rabbit. "My! I do seem to be having a dreadful time seeking my fortune. There is always some kind of trouble." And then more stones came through the air, and banged on the door and this time Uncle Wiggily saw that they came from the stream, and, what is more, he saw the goldfish throwing the stones and pebbles out of the brook with his tail. Then the rabbit knew it was all right, for the goldfish was a friend of his, so he ran out. "Were you throwing stones at the house?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Yes," replied the fish, "it was the only way in which I could knock on your door. You see I dare not leave the water, and I wanted you to know that I had some breakfast for you." And with that the kind goldfish took a little basket, made of watercress, from off his left front fin, and handed Uncle Wiggily the basket, not his fin, for he needed that to swim with. "You'll find some cabbage-salad with snorkery-snickery ell-grass dressing on it, some water-lily cake, and some moss covered eggs for your breakfast," said the fish. "And I wish you good luck on your travels to-day." "Thank you very much," said Uncle Wiggily, "and I am very much obliged to you for saving me from the alligator last night." "Pray do not mention it," spoke the fish most condescendingly. "I always like to help my friends." And with that he swam away, and Uncle Wiggily ate his breakfast, and then, taking his crutch and valise, he set off on his travels again. He hopped on for some time, and finally he came to a place where there were some high, prickly bramble-briar bushes. "I will rest here in their shade a bit," thought the old gentleman rabbit, "and then I will go on." So he sat down, and, as the sun was quite warm, he fell asleep before he knew it. But he was suddenly awakened by a hissing sound, just like when steam comes out of the parlor radiator on a frosty night. Then a voice cried: "Now I've got you!" Uncle Wiggily looked up, and there was a big snake, just going to grab him. But do you s'pose the rabbit waited for that snake? Not a bit of it. Catching up his crutch and valise, he gave one tremendous and extraordinary springery-spring, and over the prickery stickery briar and bramble bushes he went, flying through the air, and the snake couldn't get him. But when Uncle Wiggily came down on the other side of the bushes! Oh, my! that was a different story. For where do you imagine he landed? Where, indeed, but right in the middle of a big mud pie that two little hedgehog boys were making there. Yes, sir, right into the middle of that squasher-squawshery mud pie fell Uncle Wiggily. Oh! How the mud splashed up! It went all over the rabbit, and some got on the two little hedgehog boys. Well, they were as surprised as anything when they saw a nice old gentleman rabbit come down in the middle of their pie, and at first they thought he had done it on purpose. "Let's stick him full of our stickery-stockery quills," said one hedgehog boy. "Yes, and then let's pull his ears," said the other hedgehog boy. But, mind you, they didn't really mean anything bad, only, perhaps, they thought Uncle Wiggily was a savage fox, or a little white bear. "Oh, boys, I'm sorry!" said the old gentleman rabbit as soon as he could dig the mud out of his mouth. "What made you do it?" asked the biggest hedgehog boy, wiping some mud out of his eye. "Yes, our pie is all spoiled," said his brother, "and we were just going to bake it." "Oh, it is too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily, sorrowfully, "but you see I had to get away from that snake, and I didn't have time to look where I was jumping. I'm glad, though, that I left the snake on the other side of the bushes." "So are we," said the two hedgehog boys. "But you didn't leave me there. I'm here!" suddenly cried a voice, and out wiggled the snake again. He started to catch the rabbit, but those two brave hedgehog boys grabbed up a lot of mud, and plastered it in that snake's eyes so that he couldn't see, and he had to wiggle down to the pond to wash it out. Then Uncle Wiggily and the boys were safe, and he helped them to make another mud pie, with stones in for raisins, and he gave them some of his real cherry pie, and oh! how they liked it! Then they were all happy, and Uncle Wiggily stayed at the hedgehog's house until the next morning. Now, in case the little girl in the next house brings me a watermelon ice cream cone with a rose on top, I'll tell you on the next page about Uncle Wiggily and the elephant. STORY XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE ELEPHANT Uncle Wiggily didn't sleep very well at the hedgehog's house that night, and the reason for it was this: You see they didn't have many beds there, and first the rabbit gentleman lay down with the smallest little porcupine boy, in his bed. But pretty soon, along about in the middle of the night, this little boy got to dreaming that he was a rubber ball. And he rolled over in the bed, and he rolled up against Uncle Wiggily, and the stickery-stickers from the little hedgehog chap stuck in the old gentleman rabbit. "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "I think I'll have to go and sleep with your brother Jimmie." So he went over to the other hedgehog boy's bed, but land sakes flopsy-dub and a basket of soap bubbles! As soon as the rabbit got in there that other hedgehog chap began to dream that he was a jumping jack, and so he jumped up and down, and he jumped on top of Uncle Wiggily, and stuck more stickery-stickers in him, until at last the rabbit got up and said: "Oh, dear, I guess I'll have to go to sleep on the floor." So he did that, putting his head on his satchel for a pillow and pulling his red-white-and-blue-striped-barber-pole crutch over him for a cover. And, in the morning, he felt a little better. "Well, I think I will travel on once more," said Uncle Wiggily after a breakfast of strawberries, and mush and milk. "I may find my fortune to-day." The hedgehog boys wanted him to stay with them, and make more mud pies, or even a cherry one, but the rabbit gentleman said he had no time. So off he went over hills and down dales, and along through the woods. Pretty soon, not so very long, just as Uncle Wiggily was walking behind a big rock, as large as a house, he heard some one crying. Oh, such a loud crying voice as it was, and the old rabbit gentleman was a bit frightened. "For it sounds like a giant crying," he said to himself. "And if it's a giant he may be a bad one, who would hurt me. I guess I'll run back the other way." Well, he started to run, but, just as he did so, he heard the voice crying again, and this time it said: "Oh, dear me! Oh, if some one would only help me! Oh, I am in such trouble!" "Come, I don't believe that is a giant after all," thought the rabbit. "It may be Sammie Littletail, who has grown to be such a big boy that I won't know him any more." So he took a careful look, but instead of seeing his little rabbit nephew, he saw a big elephant, sitting on the ground, crying as hard as he could cry. Now, you know, when an elephant cries it isn't like when you cry once in a great while, or when baby cries every day. No, indeed! An elephant cries so very many tears that if you don't have a water pail near you, to catch them, you may get your feet wet; that is, if you don't have on rubbers. Well, that's the way it was this time. The elephant was crying big, salty tears, about the size of rubber balls, and they were rolling down from his eyes and along his trunk, which was like a fire engine hose, until there was quite a little stream of water flowing down the hill toward the rabbit. "Oh, please don't cry any more!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Why not?" asked the elephant, sadly-like, and he cried harder than before. "Because if you do," replied the rabbit, "I will have to get a pair of rubber boots, in which to wade out to see you." "I'll try to stop," said the big animal, but, instead, he cried harder than before, boo-hooing and hoo-booing, until you would have thought it was raining, and Uncle Wiggily wished he had an umbrella. "Why, whatever is the matter?" asked the rabbit. "Oh, I stepped on a tack," answered the elephant, "and it is sticking in my foot. I can't walk, and I can't dance and I can't get back to the circus. Oh, dear! Oh, dear me, suz-dud and a red balloon! Oh, how miserable I am!" "Too bad," said Uncle Wiggily. "Was it a large tack that you stepped on?" "Was it?" asked the elephant, sort of painful-like. "Why, it feels as big as a dishpan in my foot. Here, you look, and perhaps you can pull it out." He raised up one of his big feet, which were about as large as a washtub full of clothes, on Monday morning, and he held it out to Uncle Wiggily. "Why, I can't see anything here," said the rabbit, looking at the big foot through his spectacles. "Oh, dear! It's there all right!" cried the elephant. "It feels like two wash tubs now," and he began to cry some more. "Here! Hold on, if you please!" shouted Uncle Wiggily. "I'll have to make a boat, if you keep on shedding so many tears, for there will be a lake here. Wait, I'll look once more." So he looked again, and this time he saw just the little, tiniest, baby-tack you can imagine--about the size of a pinhead--sticking in the elephant's foot. "Wait! I have it! Was this it?" suddenly asked the rabbit, as he took hold of the tack in his paw and pulled it out. "That's it!" exclaimed the elephant, waving his trunk. "It's out! Oh, how much better I feel. Whoop-de-doodle-do!" and then he felt so fine that he began to dance. Then, all of a sudden, he began to cry once more. "Why, what in the world is the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily, wishing he had a pail, so that he might catch the elephant's salty tears. "Oh, I feel so happy that I can't help crying, because my pain is gone!" exclaimed the big creature. Then he cried about forty-'leven bushels of tears, and a milk bottle full besides, and there was a little pond around him, and Uncle Wiggily was in it up to his neck. Then, all of a sudden, in came swimming the alligator, right toward the rabbit. "Ah, now I'll get you!" cried the skillery-scalery beast. "No you won't!" shouted the elephant, "Uncle Wiggily is my friend!" So he put his trunk down in the water, and sucked it all up, and then he squirted it over the trees. That left the alligator on dry land, and then the elephant grabbed the alligator up in his strong trunk, and tossed him into the briar bushes, scalery-ailery tail and all, and the alligator crawled away after a while. So that's how Uncle Wiggily was saved from the alligator by the crying elephant, and the rabbit and elephant traveled on together for some days. Now, as I see the sand man coming, I must stop. But, in case I don't fall into the washtub with my new suit on, and get it all colored sky-blue-pink, so I can't go to the picnic, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the cherry tree. STORY XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHERRY TREE Uncle Wiggily Longears and the crying elephant were walking along together one day, talking about the weather, and wondering if it would rain, and all things like that. Only the elephant wasn't crying any more, for the rabbit had pulled the tack that was hurting him, out of the big beast's foot, you remember. "We'll travel on together to find our fortune, and look for adventures," said the elephant, as he capered about, and stood on his hind legs, because he felt so jolly. "Won't we have fun, Uncle Wiggily?" "Well, we may," spoke the old gentleman rabbit, "but I don't see how we are going to carry along on our travels enough for us to eat. Of course, _I_ don't need much, but _you_ are such a big chap that you will have to have quite a lot, and my valise is small." "Don't worry about that," replied the elephant. "Of course you might think I could carry a lot of pie and cake and bread and butter in my trunk, but really I can't you know, for about all that my trunk will hold is water. However, I think I can pick what hay and grass I want from along the road." "Yes, and perhaps we may meet a man with a hot peanut wagon, once in a while," suggested Uncle Wiggily, "and he may give you some peanuts." "Oh, joy! I hope he does!" cried the big fellow. "I just love hot peanuts!" Well, they went on together for some time, when, all of a sudden a man jumped out from behind the bushes, and exclaimed: "Ha, Mr. Elephant! I've been looking for you. Now you come right back with me to the circus where you belong." And he went up to the elephant and took hold of his trunk. "Oh, I don't want to go," whined the tremendous creature. "I want to stay with Uncle Wiggily, and have some fun." "But you can't," said the man. "You are needed in the circus. A lot of boys and girls are waiting in the tent, to give you peanuts and popcorn." "Well, then, I s'pose I'd better go back," sighed the wobbly animal with the long tusks. "I'll see you again, Uncle Wiggily." So the elephant said good-bye to the rabbit, and went back to the circus with the man, while the rabbit gentleman hopped on by himself. He hadn't gone very far before he heard a loud "Honk-honk!" in the bushes. "Oh, there is another one of those terrible automobiles!" thought the rabbit. But it wasn't at all. No, it was Grandfather Goosey Gander, and there he sat on a flat stone, "honk-honking" through his yellow bill as hard as he could, and, at the same time crying salty tears that ran down his nose, making it all wet. "Why, whatever is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he went up to his friend, the duck-drake gentleman. "Have you stepped on a tack, too?" "No, it isn't that," was the answer. "But I am so sick that I don't know what to do, and I'm far from my home, and from my friends, the Wibblewobble family, and, oh, dear! it's just awful." "Let me look at your tongue," said the rabbit, and when Grandfather Goosey Gander stuck it out, Uncle Wiggily said: "Why, you have the epizootic very bad. Very bad, indeed! But perhaps I can cure you. Let me see, I think you need some bread and butter, and a cup of catnip tea. I'll make you some." So Uncle Wiggily made a little fire of sticks, and then he found an empty tin tomato can, and he boiled some water in it over the fire, and made the catnip tea. Then he gave some to Grandfather Goosey Gander, together with some bread and butter. "Well, I feel a little better," said the old gentleman duck-drake, when he had eaten, "but I am not well yet. It seems to me that if I could have some cherry pie I would feel better." "Perhaps you would," agreed Uncle Wiggily, "but, though I know how to make nice cherry pie, and though I made some for the hedgehog, I don't see any cherry trees around here, so I can't make you one. There are no cherry trees." "Yes, there is one over there," said the duck-drake, and he waved one foot toward it, while he quacked real faint and sorrowful-like. "Sure enough, that _is_ a cherry tree," said Uncle Wiggily, as he hopped over and looked at it. "And the cherries are ripe, too. Now, if I could only get some of them down I could make a cherry pie, and cure Grandfather Goosey Gander." But it wasn't easy to get the cherries off the tree, and Uncle Wiggily couldn't climb up after them. So he sat down and looked up at them, hoping some would fall off the stems. But none did. "Oh, dear, I wonder how I'm going to get them?" sighed the rabbit. "Perhaps I can knock off some with a stone." So he threw a stone, but no cherries came down. The stone did, though, and hit Uncle Wiggily on the nose, making him sneeze. "Stones are no good!" exclaimed the rabbit. "I'll throw up my crutch." So he threw that into the tree, but it brought no cherries down, and the crutch, in falling, nearly hit Grandfather Goosey Gander, and almost gave him the measles and mumps. "Well, I'll try and see what throwing up my valise will do," said the rabbit, and he tossed up the satchel, but bless you, that stayed up in the tree, and didn't come down at all, neither did any cherries. "Oh, I'll have to give up," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'm afraid you can't have any cherry pie, Grandfather Goosey." "Oh, then I'll never get well," said the old duck-drake gentleman sorrowfully. "Yes, you will, too!" suddenly cried out a voice, and out from the bushes ran the elephant. "I'll pick the cherries off the tree with my long, nosey trunk," he said, "and you can make all the pie you want to, Uncle Wiggily." "Why, I thought you went back to the circus," said the rabbit. "No, I ran away from the man," spoke the elephant. Then he reached up with his long nose, and he picked a bushel of red, ripe, sweet delicious cherries in less than a minute. Then he pulled down Uncle Wiggily's valise out of the tree and then the old gentleman rabbit made three cherry pies. One for Grandfather Goosey Gander, and another, a tremendous big one, as large as a washtub, for the elephant, and a little one for himself. Then they ate their pies, and the old gentleman duck-drake got well almost at once. So all three of them traveled on together, to help the rabbit seek his fortune. Now in case the ice cream man brings some nice, hot roast chestnuts for our canary bird, I'll tell you in another story about Uncle Wiggily, and Grandfather Goosey Gander. STORY XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND GRANDPA GOOSEY One day, not very long after the elephant had picked the cherries off the tree, so that Uncle Wiggily could make the cherry pies for Grandpa Goosey, the three friends were traveling along together through a deep, dark, dismal woods. "Where are we going?" asked the elephant, who had run away from the circus man to travel by himself. "Oh, to some place where we may find our fortune," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I would much rather find some snails to eat," said Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old gentleman duck, as I shall call him for short. "For I am very hungry." "What's that?" cried the rabbit. "Hungry after the nice pie I made for you?" "Oh, that was some time ago. I could eat another pie right now," spoke the old duck. But there wasn't any pie for him, so he had to eat a cornmeal sandwich with watercress salad on, and Uncle Wiggily ate some carrots and cabbage, and the elephant ate a lot of grass from a field--oh! a terrible lot--about ten bushels, I guess. Then, all at once, as they were walking along over a bridge, a man suddenly jumped out from behind a tree, and cried: "Ah, ha! Now you won't get away from me, Mr. Elephant. This time I am surely going to take you back to the circus." And with that he threw a rope around the elephant's trunk, and led him away. The elephant cried so many tears that there was a muddy puddle right near the bridge, and the big animal begged to be allowed to stay with Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey Gander, but the man said it could not be done. "Well, then, you and I will have to go on together," said the old gentleman rabbit to the duck, after a bit. "Perhaps we may find our fortune." "I think I could make money calling out 'honk-honk!' on an automobile," said the grandfather. "Jimmie Wibblewobble once did that for a man. I think I'll look for a nice automobile gentleman to work for, and if I get money enough we'll be rich." Well, he looked and looked, but no one seemed to want an old duck for an auto horn, and the rabbit and Grandfather Goosey Gander kept on traveling together, over the fields and through the woods. Pretty soon they came to a place where a June bug was sitting on the edge of a stone wall, buzzing his wings. "Let's ask him where we can find our fortunes," said Uncle Wiggily. So they asked the June bug. "Well," replied the buzzing creature, "I am not sure, but a little way from here are two roads. One or the other might bring you to your fortune. One goes to the right, the other to the left hand." "We will take the left hand road," said Uncle Wiggily. "We will go down that for some distance, and if we do not find a pot of gold, or some ice cream cones at the end of it, we will come back, and try the other road." So Uncle Wiggily and Grandfather Goosey Gander went down the left road. On and on they went, walking in the dust when there was any dust, and in the mud when there was any mud. But they didn't find any gold. "Oh, let's go back and try the other road," said the rabbit gentleman after a bit. "Perhaps that will be better." So back they went, stopping on the way to look at a big apple tree, to see if there were any ripe apples on it. But there was none, so they didn't eat any. And I hope you children do the same this summer. Never eat green apples, never, never, never! Wait until they are ripe. Well, by and by, after a while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily, who was hopping along on his crutch, suddenly exclaimed: "Oh, I've lost my valise! What shall I do? I can't go on without it, for it has our lunch in it." "I think you left it under the green-apple tree," said the duck. "You had better go back for it, and I will wait here in the shade," for Grandpa Goosey knew the rabbit could hop faster than he could waddle. Back Uncle Wiggily started, and, surely enough, he found his valise under the apple tree, where he had forgotten it. He picked it up, and was walking along with it back to where Grandfather Goosey Gander was waiting for him when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump came Jennie Chipmunk, with a basket of popcorn balls. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" she exclaimed. "Don't you want to buy some popcorn balls? Our church is having a little fair, and we are all trying to earn some money. I am selling popcorn, to help the little heathen children buy red-colored handkerchiefs." "Of course, I'll take some," said the old gentleman rabbit, "popcorn balls, I mean--not children, or hankerchiefs," he said quickly. So he bought a pink one, and a white one, and a chocolate colored one, popcorn balls you know--not children--and put them in his valise. Then Uncle Wiggily sent his love to Sammie and Susie Littletail, by Jennie Chipmunk, and off he started to go back to where Grandfather Goosey Gander was waiting for him. Well, something terrible was happening to the poor old gentleman duck, and I'll tell you all about it. No sooner had the rabbit gotten near the shady tree under which the grandfather gentleman was resting, than he heard a cry: "Help! Help! Help!" called the duck. "Oh, help me quickly, somebody!" "What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, limping along as fast as he could. "Oh, a bad snake has caught me!" cried the duck. "He has wound himself around my legs, and I can't walk, and he is going to eat me up! He jumped on me out of the bushes. He will eat me!" "He shall never do that!" cried the rabbit, bravely. "I will save you." So he ran up to that snake, but the snake stuck out his tongue, like a fork, at the rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily was frightened. Then he tried to hit the snake with a stick, but the crawly creature hid down behind Grandfather Goosey, and so got out of the way. "I have it!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily. "The popcorn balls. Snakes love them! I'll make him eat them, and then he'll let Grandpa Goosey go." So from his valise the brave rabbit took the red and the white and the chocolate colored popcorn balls, and he rolled them along the ground, close to the snake's nose. And the snake smelled them, and he was so hungry for them that he uncoiled himself from Grandfather Goosey's legs, and let the old gentleman duck go. And the snake chased after the corn balls and ate them all up, and then he didn't want anything more for a long while, and he went to sleep for six months and dreamed about turning into a hoop, and so he didn't bother anybody. So that's how Uncle Wiggily saved the duck, and next, in case the pretty baby across the street doesn't fall down and bump its nose, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the ice cream cones. STORY XXVI UNCLE WIGGILY'S ICE CREAM CONES It didn't take Uncle Wiggily and Grandfather Goosey Gander long to get away from the place where the bad snake was, let me tell you, even if the crawly creature had eaten three popcorn balls, and would sleep for six months. "This is no place for us," said the rabbit. "We must see if we can't find our fortune somewhere else." "I believe you," spoke Grandfather Goosey, rubbing his yellow legs, where the snake had wound tight around him like a clothesline. "We'll look for a place in which to stay to-night, and we'll see what we can find to-morrow." Well, they hurried on for some time, and pretty soon it began to get dark, and they couldn't find any place to stay. "I guess I'll have to dig a hole in the ground, and make a burrow," said the rabbit. "Oh, but I couldn't stay underground," said the duck. "I'm used to sleeping in a wooden house." "That's so," said Uncle Wiggily. "Well, if I had some paper I could make you a paper house, but I haven't any, so I don't know what to do." And just then, away in the air, there sounded a voice saying: "Caw! Caw! Caw!" "Ha! That's a crow," exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "There must be green corn that is ready to pull up somewhere around here." "There is," said the black crow, flying down. "I know a nice field of corn that a farmer has planted, and to-morrow I am going to pick some." "But aren't you afraid of the scarecrow?" asked the duck. "No; I'm not," said the crow. "The scarecrow is only some old clothes stuffed with straw, and it is set out in the field to drive us crows away. We're not a bit afraid of it. Would you be?" "No, of course not," answered Grandfather Goosey Gander. "But then, you see, I'm not a crow--the scary figure wasn't meant for me." "Then you can stay in one of the pockets of the scarecrow's coat all night," said the crow. "It will be a good place for you to sleep." "The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily. So that night he dug himself a little house under the ground, and the duck gentleman flew up, and got inside the pocket of the old coat which the scarecrow figure wore, and there the duck stayed all night, sleeping very soundly. "Well, now we'll travel on again," said Uncle Wiggily, the next morning after breakfast. So he and Grandfather Goosey started off. Well, pretty soon it became hotter and hotter, for the sun was just beaming down as hard as it could, and Uncle Wiggily exclaimed: "I know what would taste good! An ice cream cone for each of us. Wait here, grandfather, and I'll get two of them." "Fine!" cried the grandfather duck. "But you seem to do all the hopping around, Uncle Wiggily. Why can't I go, while you rest?" "Oh, I don't in the least mind going," replied the kind rabbit. "Besides, while I do not say it to be proud, and far be it from me to boast, I can go a little faster than you can in one hop. So I'll go." And go he did, leaving his valise in charge of Grandfather Goosey, who sat down with it, under a shady tree. Pretty soon the old gentleman rabbit came to a little ice cream store, that stood beside the road, right near a little pond of water, where the ice-cream-man could wash his dishes when he had to make them clean. "I'll have two, nice, big, cold strawberry ice cream cones, and please put plenty of ice cream in them," said Uncle Wiggily to the man. "Right you are!" cried the ice-cream-man in a jolly voice, and, say, I just wish you could have seen those cones! They were piled up heaping full of ice cream. Oh, my! It just makes me hungry to write about them. Well, Uncle Wiggily, carefully carrying the cones, started to hop back to where he had left Grandfather Goosey. He hadn't gone far before he heard a growling voice cry out: "Hold on there a moment, Uncle Wiggily!" "Why?" asked the rabbit. "Because I want to see what you've got," was the answer. "Ah, I see ice cream cones!" and with that a great, big, black bear jumped out of the bushes, and stood right in front of Uncle Wiggily. "Let me pass!" cried the rabbit, holding the ice cream cones so that the bear couldn't get them. "Indeed I will not!" cried the furry creature. "Ice cream cones, indeed! If there is one thing that I'm fonder of than another, ice cream cones is it! Let me taste one!" Then before the rabbit could do anything, that bad bear took one ice cream cone right away from him. And that bear did more than that, so he did. He stuck his long, red tongue down inside the cone, and he licked out every bit of cream, with one, long lick. "My but that's good!" he cried, smacking his lips. "I guess I'll try the second one," he said, and he dropped the empty cone, not eating it, mind you, and he took the other full cone away from poor Uncle Wiggily before the rabbit gentleman could stand on his head, or even wave his short tail. "Oh, don't eat that cone. It belongs to Grandfather Goosey," cried the rabbit, sadly-like. "Too late!" cried the bear, in a growlery voice. "Here it goes!" and with that he stuck his long, red tongue down inside the second cone, and with one lick he licked all the ice cream out and threw the empty cone on the ground. "Now I feel good and hungry, and I guess I'll eat you," cried the bear. He made a grab for the poor gentleman rabbit, and folded him tight in his paws. But before that Uncle Wiggily had reached down and had picked up the two empty ice cream cones. "Oh, let me go!" cried Uncle Wiggily to the bear. "Indeed I'll not!" shouted the savage creature. "I want you for supper." Well, he was just going to eat Uncle Wiggily up, when that brave rabbit just took the sharp points of those two empty ice cream cones, and he stuck them in the bear's ticklish ribs, and Uncle Wiggily tickled the bear so that the furry, savage creature sneezed out loud, and laughed so hard that Uncle Wiggily easily slipped out of his paws, and hopped away before he could be caught again. So that's how the rabbit got safely away, and the empty ice cream cones were of some use after all. But Uncle Wiggily wondered how he could get a full one for Grandfather Goosey Gander, and how he did I'll tell you pretty soon, when, in case a butterfly doesn't bite a hole in my straw hat, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the red ants. STORY XXVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED ANTS When Uncle Wiggily got to where Grandfather Goosey Gander was waiting for him, under the shady tree, the old gentleman duck jumped up and cried out: "Oh, how glad I am to see you! I've just been wishing you would hurry back with those ice cream cones. My! I never knew the weather to be so warm at this time of the year. Oh, won't they taste most delicious--those cones!" You see he didn't yet know what the bear had done--eaten all the ice cream out of the cones, as I told you in the other story. "Oh, dear!" cried the rabbit. "How sorry I am to have to disappoint you, Grandfather, but there is no ice cream!" "No ice cream!" cried the alligator--oh, dear me! I mean the duck. "No ice cream?" "Not a bit," said Uncle Wiggily, and then he told about what the savage bear-creature had done, and also how he had used the cones to tickle him. "Well, that's too bad," said Grandfather Goosey, "but here, I'll give you money to buy more cones with," and he put his hand in his pocket, but lo and behold! he had lost all his money. "Never mind, perhaps _I_ have some pennies," said the rabbit; so he looked, but, oh, dear me, suz-dud and the mustard pot! All of Uncle Wiggily's money was gone, too. "Well, I guess we can't get any ice cream cones this week," said the old gentleman duck. "We'll have to drink water." "Oh, no you won't," said a buzzing voice. "I'll get you each an ice cream cone, because you have always been so kind--both of you." And with that out from the bushes flew a big, sweet, honey bee, with a load of honey. "Have you got any ice cream cones, Mr. Bee?" asked the rabbit. "No, but I have sweet honey, and if I go down to the ice cream cone store, and give the man some of my honey he'll give me three cones, and there'll be one for you and one for me and----" "One for Sister Sallie!" interrupted Grandfather Goosey. "I wish she was here now." "She could have a cone if she was here," said the honey bee, "as I could get four. But, as long as she is not, the extra cone will go to you, Grandpa. Now, come on, and I'll take my honey to the ice-cream-cone-man." So they went with him and on the way the bee sung a funny little song like this: "I buzz, buzz, buzz All day long. I make my honey Good and strong. I fly about To every flower And sometimes stay 'Most half an hour." Uncle Wiggily didn't know whether or not the bee was really in earnest about what he said, but, surely enough, when they got to the ice cream store, the man took the bee's honey, and handed out four ice cream cones, each larger than the first ones. Two were for the duck as he was so fond of them. "Oh, let's eat them here, so that if the bear meets us he can't take them away," suggested Grandfather Goosey, and they did. Then the bee flew home to his hive, and Uncle Wiggily and the old gentleman duck found a nice place to sleep under a haystack. In the morning Grandfather Goosey said he thought he had better go back home, as he had traveled enough. He wanted the rabbit to come with him, but Uncle Wiggily said: "No, I have not yet found my fortune, and until I do I will keep on traveling." So he kept on, and the duck went home. Well, it was about two days after that when, along toward evening, as Uncle Wiggily was walking down the road, he saw a real big house standing beside a lake. Oh, it was a very big house, about as big as a mountain, and the chimney on it was so tall as almost to reach the sky. "Hum! I wonder who lives there?" said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps I can find my fortune in that house." "Oh, no; never go there!" cried a voice down on the ground, and, looking toward his toes, Uncle Wiggily saw a little red ant. "Ah, ha! Why shouldn't I go up to the big house, little red ant?" asked the rabbit. "Because a monstrous giant lives there," was the answer, "and he could eat you up at one mouthful. So stay away." "I guess I will," said the rabbit. "But I wonder where I can sleep to-night. I guess I'll go----" "Oh, look out! Look out!" cried another red ant. "There is the giant coming now." Uncle Wiggily looked, and he saw something like a big tree moving, and that was the giant. Then he felt the ground trembling as if a railroad train was rumbling past, and he heard a noise like thunder, and that was the giant walking and speaking: "I smell rabbits! I smell rabbits!" cried the giant. "I must have them for supper!" Then he came on straight to where Uncle Wiggily was, but he hadn't yet seen him. "Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" cried the bunny. "Let me hide behind that stone." He made a jump for a rock, taking his valise and crutch with him, but the first red ant said: "It is no good hiding there, Uncle Wiggily, for the giant can see you." "Oh, what shall I do?" he asked again, trembling with fear. "I know!" cried the second little red ant. "Let's all bring grains of sand, and cover Uncle Wiggily up, leaving just a little hole for his nose, so he can breathe. Then the giant won't see him. It will be like down at the seashore, when they cover people on the beach up with the sand." "Oh, it will take many grains of sand to cover the rabbit," said the first red ant, but still they were not discouraged. The first two ants called their brothers and sisters, and aunts, and uncles, and papas, and mammas, and cousins, and nephews, and forty-second granduncles. Soon there were twenty-two million four hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety-one ants, and a little baby ant, who counted as a half a one, and he carried baby grains of dirt. Then each big ant took up a grain of sand, and then they all hurried up, and put them on Uncle Wiggily, who stretched out in the grass. Now all those ants together could carry lots of sand, you see, and soon the rabbit was completely buried from sight, all but the tip of his nose, so he could breathe, and when the giant came rumbling, stumbling by, he couldn't see the bunny, and so he didn't eat him. And, of course, the giant didn't eat the ants, either for he didn't like them. "Hum! I thought I smelled a rabbit, but I guess I was mistaken," said the giant, grumbling and growling, as he tramped around. And that's how Uncle Wiggily was saved, and pretty soon, if there isn't any sand in my rice pudding, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the bad giant. STORY XXVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BAD GIANT Do you remember about the giant, of whom I told you a little while ago, and how he couldn't find Uncle Wiggily, because the rabbit was covered with sand that the ants carried? Yes, I guess you do remember. Well, now I'm going to tell you what that giant did. At first he was real surprised, because he couldn't find the bunny-rabbit, and he tramped around, making the ground shake with his heavy steps, and growling in his rumbling voice until you would have thought that it was thundering. "My, my!" growled the giant. "To think that I can't have a rabbit supper after all. Oh, I'm so hungry that I could eat fourteen thousand, seven hundred and eighty-seven rabbits, and part of another one. But I guess I'll have to take a barrel of milk and a wagon load of crackers for my supper." So that's what he did, and my how much he ate! Well, after the giant had gone away, Uncle Wiggily crawled out from under the sand, and he said to the ants: "I guess I'd better not stay around here, for it is too dangerous. I'll never find my fortune here, and if that giant were to see me he'd step on me, and make me as flat as a sheet of paper. I'm going." "But wait," said the biggest ant of all. "You know there are two giants around here. One is a good one, and one is bad. Now if you go to the good giant I'm sure he will help you find your fortune." "I'll try it," said the rabbit. "Where does the good giant live?" "Just up the hill, in that house where you see the flag," said the big ant, as she ate two crumbs of bread and jam. "That's where the good giant lives. You must go where you see the fluttering flag, and you may find your fortune." "I will," said Uncle Wiggily, "I'll go in the morning, the first thing after breakfast." So the next morning he started off. But in the night something had happened and the rabbit didn't know a thing about it. After dark the bad giant got up, and he went over, and took the flag from the pole in front of the house of the good giant, and hoisted it up over his own house. "I haven't any flag of my own," said the bad giant, "so I will take his." For you see, the two giants lived not far apart. In fact they were neighbors, but they were very different, one from the other, for one was kind and the other was cruel. So it happened, that when Uncle Wiggily started to go to the giant's house he looked for the fluttering flag, and when he saw it on the bad giant's house he didn't know any better, but he thought it was the home of the good giant. Well, the old gentleman rabbit walked on and on, having said good-by to the ants, and pretty soon he was right close to the bad giant's house. But, all the while, he thought it was the good giant's place--so don't forget that. "I wonder what sort of a fortune he'll give me," thought the rabbit. "I hope I soon get rich, so I can stop traveling, for I am tired." Well, as he came near the place where the bad giant lived he heard a voice singing. And the song, which was sung in a deep, gruff, grumbling, growling voice, went something like this: "Oh, bing bang, bung! Look out of the way for me. For I'm so mad, I feel so bad, I could eat a hickory tree! Oh, snip, snap, snoop! Get off my big front stoop, Or I'll tear my hair In wild despair, And burn you with hot soup!" "My, that's a queer song for a good giant to sing," thought Uncle Wiggily. "But perhaps he just sings that for fun. I'm sure I'll find him a jolly enough fellow, when I get to know him." Well, he went on a little farther, and pretty soon he came to the gate of the castle where the bad giant lived. The rabbit looked about, and saw no one there, so he kept right on, until, all of a sudden, he felt as if a big balloon had swooped down out of the sky, and had lifted him up. Higher and higher he went, until he found himself away up toward the roof of the castle, and then he looked and he saw two big fingers, about as big as a trolley car, holding him just as you would hold a bug. "Oh, who has me?" cried Uncle Wiggily, very much frightened. "Let me go, please. Who are you?" "I am the bad giant," was the answer, "and if I let you go now you'd fall to the ground and be killed. So I'll hold on to you." "Are you the bad giant?" asked the rabbit. "Why, I thought I was coming to the good giant's house. Oh, please let me go!" "No, I'm going to keep you," said the giant. "I just took the good giant's flag to fool you. Now, let me see, I think I'll just sprinkle sugar on you and eat you all up--no, I'll use salt--no, I think pepper would be better; I feel like pepper to-day." So the bad giant started toward the cupboard to get the pepper caster, and poor Uncle Wiggily thought it was all up with him. "Oh, I wish I'd never thought of coming to see any giant, good or bad," the rabbit gentleman said. "Now good-by to all my friends!" "Hum! Let me see," spoke the bad giant, standing still. "Pepper--no, I think I'll put some mustard on you--no, I'll try ketchup--no, I mean horseradish. Oh, dear, I can't seem to make up my mind what to flavor you with," and he held Uncle Wiggily there in his fingers, away up about a hundred feet high in the air, and wondered what he'd do with the old gentleman rabbit. And it's a good thing he didn't eat him right away, for that was the means of saving Uncle Wiggily's life. Right after breakfast the good giant found out that his bad neighbor had taken his flag, so he went and told the ants all about it. "Oh, then Uncle Wiggily must have been mixed up about the flag, and he has gone to the wrong place, and he'll be eaten," said the big ant. "We must save him. Come on, everybody!" So all the ants hurried along together, and crawled to the castle of the bad giant, and they got there just as he was putting some molasses on Uncle Wiggily to eat him. And those ants crawled all over the giant, on his legs and arms, and nose and ears and toes, and they tickled him so that he squiggled and wiggled and squirreled and whirled, and finally he let Uncle Wiggily fall on a feather bed, not hurting him a bit, and the rabbit gentleman hopped safely away and the ants crawled with him far from the castle of the bad giant. So Uncle Wiggily was saved by the ants, and in case the trolley car doesn't run over my stick of peppermint candy, and make it look like a lolly-pop, I'll tell you soon about Uncle Wiggily and the good giant. STORY XXIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GOOD GIANT Now what do you s'pose that bad giant had for supper the night after the ants helped Uncle Wiggily get away? You'd never guess, so I'll tell you. It was beans--just baked beans, and that giant was so disappointed, and altogether so cut-up about not having rabbit stew, that he ate so many beans, that I'm almost afraid to tell you just how many. But if all the boys in your school were to take their bean shooters, and shoot beans out of a bag for a million years, and Fourth of July also, that giant could eat all of them, and more too--that is, if he could get the beans after the boys shot them away. "Well, I certainly must be more careful after this," said Uncle Wiggily to the ants, as they crawled along down the hill with him, when he hopped away from the bad giant's house. "Oh, it wasn't your fault," said the second size big red ant, with black and yellow stripes on his stockings. "That bad giant changed the flags, and that's what fooled you. But I guess the good giant will have his flag back by to-morrow, and then you can go to the right house. We'll go along and show you, and you may get your fortune from him." So, surely enough, the next day, the good giant went over and took his flag away from the bad giant, and put it upon his own house. "Now you'll be all right," said the pink ant, with purple spots on his necktie. "You won't make any mistake now, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sure the good giant will give you a good fortune." "Yes, and he'll give you lots to eat," said the black ant with white rings around his nose. Well, Uncle Wiggily took his valise and his crutch and up toward the good giant's house he went, with the ants crawling along in the sand to show him the way. Pretty soon they came to a big bridge, over a stream of water, and this was the beginning of the place where the good giant lived. "We'll all have to go back now," said the purple ant, with the green patchwork squares on his checks. "If we crossed over the bridge we might fall off and be drowned. We'll go back, but you go ahead, and we wish you good luck, Uncle Wiggily." "Indeed we do," said a white ant with gold buckles on her shoes. Well, after a little while Uncle Wiggily found himself right inside the good giant's house. And oh! what a big place it was. Why, even the door mat was so big that it took the rabbit three hops to get to the top of it. And that front door! I wish you could have seen it! It was as large as one of your whole houses, and it was only a door, mind you. "Hello! hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he pounded with his crutch on the floor. "Is any one at home?" "But no one answered, and there wasn't a sound except the ticking of the clock, and that made as much noise as a railroad train going over a bridge, for the clock was a big as a church steeple. "Hum! No one is home," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll just sit down and make myself comfortable." So he sat down on the floor by the table that was away over his head, and waited for the giant to come back. And, all of a sudden, the rabbit heard a noise like a steam engine going, and he was quite surprised, until he happened to look up, and there stood a pussy cat as big as a cow, and the cat was purring, which made the noise like a steam engine. "My, if that's the size of the cat, what must the giant be," thought the rabbit. "I do hope he's good-natured when he comes home." Well, pretty soon, in a little while, as Uncle Wiggily was sitting there, listening to the big cat purr, he felt sleepy, and he was just going to sleep, when he heard a gentle voice singing: "Oh, see the blackbird, sitting in the tree, Hear him singing, jolly as can be. Now he'll whistle a pretty little tune, Isn't it delicious in the month of June? "Hear the bees a-buzzing, hour by hour, Gathering the honey from every little flower. The katydid is singing by his own front door, Now I'll have to stop this song--I don't know any more." "Well, whoever that is, he's a jolly chap," said the rabbit, and with that who should come in but the giant himself. "Ho! Ho! Whom have we here?" the giant asked, looking at Uncle Wiggily. "What do you want, my little furry friend with the long ears? You must be able to hear very well with them." "I can hear pretty well," said the rabbit. "But I came to seek my fortune." "Fine," cried the good giant, for he it was. "I'll do all I can for you," and he laughed so long and hard that part of the ceiling and the gas chandelier fell down, but the giant caught them in his strong hands, and not even the pussy cat was hurt. Then the giant sung another song, like the first, only different, and he fixed the broken ceiling, and said: "Now for something to eat! Then we'll talk about your fortune. I'll get you some carrots." So he went out, and pretty soon he came back, carrying ten barrels of carrots in one hand and seventeen bushels of cabbage in the other. "Here's a little light lunch for you," he said to Uncle Wiggily. "Eat this, and I'll get you some more, when we have a regular meal." "Oh, why this is more than I could eat in a year," said the rabbit, "but I thank you very much," so he nibbled at one carrot, while the good giant ate fifteen thousand seven hundred and eight loaves of bread, and two million bushels of jam. Then he felt better. "So you want to find your fortune, eh?" the giant said to the rabbit. "Well, now I'll help you all I can. How would you like to stay here and work for me? You have good ears, and you could listen for burglars in the night when I am asleep. Will you?" "I think I will," said Uncle Wiggily. And he was just reaching for another carrot, when suddenly from outside sounded a terrible racket. "Where is he? Let me get at him! I want him right away--that rabbit I mean!" cried a voice, and Uncle Wiggily jumped up in great fright, and looked for some place to hide. The giant jumped up, too, and grabbed his big club. But don't be alarmed. Nothing bad is going to happen to our Uncle Wiggily--in fact he is going to have lots of fun soon. So if my motorboat doesn't turn upside down and spill out the pink lemonade, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the giant's little boy. STORY XXX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GIANT'S BOY Let me see, I believe I left off where Uncle Wiggily was in the house of the good giant, and the old gentleman rabbit heard a terrible noise. Didn't I? "My goodness!" exclaimed the rabbit, jumping up so quickly that he upset one of the giant's toothpicks, on which he had been sitting for a chair, for the giant's toothpicks were as large as a big chestnut tree. "My goodness!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "what in the world is that?" "I guess it's my little boy coming home from school," said the good giant as softly as he could, but, even then, his voice was like thunder. "He must have heard that you were here." "Will he hurt me? Does he love animals?" asked the rabbit, for he was getting frightened. "Will your little boy be kind to me?" "Oh, indeed he will!" cried the good giant. "I have taught him to love animals, for you know he is so big and strong, even though I do call him my _little_ boy, that it would be no trouble for him to take a bear or a lion, and squeeze him in one hand so that the bear or lion would never hurt any one any more. But, just because he is big and strong, though not so big and strong as I am, I have taught my boy to be kind to the little animals." "Then I will have no fear," said Uncle Wiggily, winking his nose--I mean his eyes--and just then the door of the giant's house opened and in came his little boy. Well, at first Uncle Wiggily was so frightened that he did not know what to do. I wonder what you would say if you were suddenly to see a boy almost as big as your house, or mine, walk into the parlor, and sit down at the piano? Well, that's what the old gentleman rabbit saw. "Ah, my little boy is home from school," said the giant, kindly. "Did you have your lessons, my son?" "Yes, father, I did," was the answer. "And I learned a new song. I'll sing it for you." So he began to play the piano with his little finger nail, and still, and with all that, he made as much noise as a circus band of music can make on a hot day in the tent. Oh, he played terribly loud, the giant's boy did, and Uncle Wiggily had to put his paws over his ears, or he might have been made deaf. Then the giant's little boy sang, and even when he hummed it the noise was like a thunder storm, only different. Now, this is the boy giant's song, and you will have to sing it with all your might, as hard as you can, but not if the baby is asleep. "I am a little fellow, But soon I will grow big. And then I'll sit beside the sea, And in the white sand dig. "I'll make a hole so very deep, To China it will go. And then I'll fill it up with shells Wherein the wild waves blow." And with that the giant's little boy banged so hard on the piano with his little finger nail that he broke a string, and made a funny sound, like a banjo out of tune. "Oh, I didn't mean to do that!" the giant's boy cried. "I'm sorry!" "Dear me! I wonder when you'll grow up?" asked the giant, sort of sad-like. "I think he's pretty big now," said Uncle Wiggily. And, indeed, the boy-giant was so tall that when the rabbit stood up as high as he could stand, he only came up to the tip end of the shoe laces on the giant boy's big shoes. "Oh, he grows very slowly," said the giant, and then the boy noticed the rabbit for the first time. Well, that boy-giant wanted to know all about Uncle Wiggily, where he came from and where he was going, and all that, and Uncle Wiggily told about how he was traveling around to seek his fortune. "Oh, I believe I know where you can find lots of money, Uncle Wiggily," said the giant's boy kindly, as he reached over and stroked the rabbit's ears. "I have always heard that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The next time we see one, you and I will go out and search for the money. Then you will have your fortune, and you won't have to travel around any more." "That will be fine!" cried the rabbit, "for, to tell you the truth, I am getting pretty tired of going about the country. Still, I will not give up until I find my fortune." "All right. But we will have to wait until it rains, and then we'll see where the end of the rainbow is," said the giant's boy. "Now we will have some games together. Let's play tag." Well, they started to play that, but, land's sake, flopsy dub and a basket of ice cream cones! Uncle Wiggily ran here, and there, and everywhere, and he jumped and leaped about so that the giant's little boy couldn't catch him, for the big-little fellow wasn't very spry on his feet. "Oh, I guess we had better not play that game any more," said the boy giant, as he accidentally nearly stepped on Uncle Wiggily's left ear. "I might hurt you. Let's play hide-and-go-seek." But Uncle Wiggily was even better at this game than he had been at tag, for he could hide in such small holes that the boy giant couldn't even see them, so of course that wouldn't do for a game. It was no fun. Then all at once it began to rain. My! how it did pour! It rained snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails, with the puppies fast to the tails, of course, and the streets were covered with them. Then it rained a few ice cream cones, and Uncle Wiggily and the giant boy had all they wanted to eat, the giant eating fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, and part of another one, while Uncle Wiggily had only two cones. "Oh, there is the rainbow!" cried the boy giant at last, as he saw the beautiful gold and green and orange and red colors in the sky. "Now for the pot of gold." So he and Uncle Wiggily started off together to find it. But they had not gone very far through the woods before they met the papa giant. "Where are you going?" he asked of them. "To the end of the rainbow to get the pot of gold," said the giant's little boy. "You don't need to," said the giant, "for there is none there. That is only a fairy story. Wait, I'll show you." So he stretched out his long arm as far as it would go and he reached away down to the end of the rainbow and he felt all around with his long fingers, and sure enough, there wasn't a bit of gold there, for his hand came back empty. "It's too bad," said the giant's little boy to Uncle Wiggily. "There is nothing there for you. But perhaps you will find your fortune to-morrow. Come and stay with me until morning." So Uncle Wiggily went back to the giant's house, and the next day quite a surprising adventure occurred to him, and in case the gasoline in my motorboat doesn't wash all the paint off my red necktie I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Grand-daddy Longlegs. STORY XXXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND DADDY LONGLEGS Uncle Wiggily got up early the morning after the good giant had shown him that there wasn't any gold at the end of the rainbow. The old gentleman rabbit looked where a place had been set for him at the table, but alas and alack a-day, the table was almost as high from the floor as the church steeple is from the ground, and Uncle Wiggily could not reach up to it. "Hum, let's see what we will do," spoke the papa giant. "I know, I'll get a spool of thread from the lady giant next door, and that will answer for a table for you, Uncle Wiggily, and you can use another toothpick for a chair." So while the boy giant went for the spool of thread, the papa giant served Uncle Wiggily's breakfast. First he brought in a washtub full of milk and a bushel basket full of oatmeal. "What is that for?" asked the rabbit in surprise. "That is for your breakfast," was the answer. "Isn't it enough? Because I can get you more in a jiffy, if you want it." "Oh, it is entirely too much," said Uncle Wiggily. "I can only take a little of that oatmeal." "Very well, then, I will take this myself, and get you a small dish full," spoke the papa giant, and he ate all that oatmeal and milk up at one mouthful, but even then it was hardly enough to fill his hollow tooth. Then the boy giant came back with the spool, which was as big as the dining-room table in a rabbit's house. Up at this new table the traveling uncle sat, and he ate a very good breakfast indeed. "Now I must start off again to seek my fortune," he said, as he took his crutch, striped red, green and yellow, like a cow's horn. Oh, excuse me! I was thinking of circus balloons, I guess. Anyhow Uncle Wiggily took his crutch and valise, and, as he was about to start off, the boy giant said: "I will walk along a short distance with you, and in case any bad animals try to hurt you I'll drive them away." "Oh, I don't believe any one will harm me," spoke the rabbit, but nevertheless something did happen to him. As he and the boy giant were walking along, all of a sudden there was a noise from behind a big, black stump, and out jumped a big, black bear. He rushed right at the rabbit, and called out: "Ha! Now I have you! I've been waiting a long while for you, and I thought you'd never come. But, better late than never. Now for my dinner! I've had the fire made for some time to cook you, and the kettle is boiling for tea." He was just going to grab our Uncle Wiggily, when the giant's little boy called out: "Here, you let that rabbit alone! He's a friend of mine!" But, listen to this, the bear never thought a thing about a boy giant being with Uncle Wiggily, and he never even looked up at him. Only when the bear heard the giant's boy speaking he thought it was distant thunder, and he said: "Oh, I must hurry home with that rabbit before it rains. I don't like to get wet!" "Yes, I guess you _will_ hurry home!" cried the giant's boy, and with that he reached over, and he grabbed that black, ugly bear by his short, stumpy tail and he flung him away over the tree tops, like a skyrocket, and it was some time before that bear came down. And when he did, he didn't feel like bothering Uncle Wiggily any more. "Now I guess you'll be all right for a while on your travels," said the boy giant as he called good-by to the old gentleman rabbit. "Send me a souvenir postal when you find your fortune, and if any bad animals bother you, just telephone for me, and I'll come and serve them as I did the bear." Then the old gentleman rabbit thanked the boy giant, and started off again. He traveled on and on, over hills and down in little valleys, and across brooks that flowed over green mossy stones in the meadow, and pretty soon Uncle Wiggily came to a big gray stone in the middle of a field. And, as he looked at the stone, the old gentleman rabbit saw something red fluttering behind it, and he heard a noise like some one crying. "Ha! Here is where I must be careful!" exclaimed the rabbit to himself. "Perhaps that is a red fox behind the stone, and he is making believe cry, so as to bring me up close, and then he'll jump out and grab me. No indeed, I'm going to run back." Well, Uncle Wiggily was just going to run back, when he happened to look again, and there, instead of a fox behind the stone, it was a little boy, with red trousers on, and he was crying as hard as he could cry, that boy was. "What is the matter, my little chap?" asked the rabbit kindly. "Are you crying because you have on red trousers instead of blue? I think red is a lovely color myself. I wish I had red ears, as well as red eyes." "Oh, I am not crying for that," said the little boy, wiping away his tears on a big green leaf, "but you see I am like Bo-peep, only I have lost my cows, instead of my sheep, and I don't know where to find them." "Oh, I'll help you look," said Uncle Wiggily. "I am pretty good at finding lost cows. Come, we'll hunt farther." So off they started together, Uncle Wiggily holding the little boy by one of his paws--one of the rabbit's paws, I mean. Well, they looked and looked, but they couldn't seem to find those cows. They looked at one hill, and on top of another hill, and down in the hollows, and under the trees by the brook, but no cows were to be seen. "Oh, dear!" cried the little boy, "if I don't find them soon there'll be no milk for dinner." "And I am very thirsty, too," said the rabbit. "I wish I had a drink of milk. But where in the world can those cows be?" and he looked up into the sky, not because he thought the cows were there, but so that he might think better. Then he looked down at the ground, and, as he did so he saw a little red creature with eight long legs, and the creature wiggled one leg at the rabbit friendly-like as if to shake hands. "Why don't you ask me where the cows are?" said the long-legged insect. "Why, can you tell?" inquired Uncle Wiggily. "Of course I can. I'm a grand-daddy longlegs, and I can always tell where the cows are," was the reply. "Just you ask me." So Uncle Wiggily and the little boy, both together, politely asked where they could find the cows, and the grand-daddy just pointed with one long leg off toward the woods where the rabbit and boy hadn't thought of looking before that. "You'll find your cows there," said grand-daddy longlegs, and then he hurried home to his dinner. And Uncle Wiggily and the boy went over to the woods, and there in the shade by a brook--sure enough were the cows, chewing their gum--I mean their cuds. And they were just waiting to be driven home. So Uncle Wiggily, and the boy with the red trousers, drove the cows home, and they were milked, and the old gentleman rabbit had several glasses full--glasses full of milk, not cows, you know. Goodness me! A cow couldn't get into a glass could it? I guess not! And after that Uncle Wiggily---- Well, but see here now. I think I've put enough adventures about Uncle Wiggily in this book, and I must save some for another one. So I think I will call the following book "Uncle Wiggily's Travels," for he still kept on traveling after his fortune you know. And he found it, too, which is the best part of it. Oh, my yes! He found his fortune all right. Don't worry about that. And in the next book, the very first thing he did, was to have an adventure with a red squirrel-girl, who was some relation to Johnnie and Billie Bushytail. So that's all there is to Uncle Wiggily, for a little while, if you please, but if you want to hear anything else about him I'll try, later on, to tell you some more stories. And now, dear children, good-bye. THE END. [Transcriber note: The last line of Chapter VI actually ended: "...in their rams." Chapter XI: original reads: He thought he saw a chance to escape runing across]