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!"