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.
* * * * *