that Snippy-Snappy get me! I won’t hurt you, Uncle Wiggily!” And away
ran the bad chap, not hurting Mr. Longears nor Bunty at all.
“But won’t the Snippy-Snappy get my souse?” asked Mr. Longears, when he
saw that the unpleasant creature was gone. “Aren’t we in danger from the
Snippy-Snappy?”
“Of course not!” laughed Bunty. “I just made the Snippy-Snappy on the
outside of the funny old stump, with my colored paints. I painted the
Snippy-Snappy, Uncle Wiggily, to scare the Magoosielum.”
“And right well you scared him,” spoke the bunny. “You surely are
learning to paint, Bunty.” And if the safety pin doesn’t slide off the
cushion and try to sprinkle soapsuds in the eye of the needle, I’ll tell
you next about Uncle Wiggily and the queer log.
STORY XXI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE QUEER LOG
“Where’s Uncle Wiggily? Where’s Uncle Wiggily?” asked Baby Bunty, the
little rabbit girl, of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, one morning. “Where is
he?”
“Why, Uncle Wiggily has gone to the store for me,” answered the muskrat
lady housekeeper of the hollow stump bungalow. “He has gone to get me
some molasses!”
“Oh, dear!” sighed Baby Bunty, the little rabbit girl, who had been
found in a hollow stump.
“Why, whatever is the matter?” asked Nurse Jane, who had a dab of flour
on her nose. And whenever the muskrat lady had a dab of flour on her
nose you could be sure that she was making a pie. “Don’t you like
molasses cake, Bunty?” Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy asked.
“Oh, yes! Have you any?” Baby Bunty wanted to know.
“I’ll make one as soon as Uncle Wiggily comes back with the jug of
molasses,” went on Nurse Jane. “But why did you say ‘Oh, dear!’ in such
a doleful voice?”
“Because I wished Uncle Wiggily were here to chase me, or play tag, or
something! I’m so afraid he’ll get old and stiff.”
“Well, why don’t you hop off in the woods and meet him?” asked Nurse
Jane of the lively little rabbit girl. Baby Bunty could hardly ever keep
still. “If you go to meet him you’ll see him hopping along with the
molasses jug,” went on the muskrat lady, “and then he’ll chase you, or
play tag or let you help him carry the sweet stuff I’m going to put in a
cake.”
“I’ll do that,” said Baby Bunty, and away she hopped with her rubber
doll named Beatrice Ethelmore Lemonsqueezer.
As she was hopping through the woods to meet Uncle Wiggily, all of a
sudden Baby Bunty heard, near a little spring of water, a sad voice
crying:
“Oh, I’m so wet! Oh, if some one would only help me out of the water!”
“Some one is drowning!” said Baby Bunty. “I wonder if I could save
them?”
On a bed of soft, green moss, she put her wax doll, Sarah Ann Belinda
Washbasin, and hurried to the side of the little spring. There Baby
Bunty saw a poor honey bee splashing in the water.
“I’ll save you!” kindly said the little rabbit girl. With a long stick
she fished the half-drowned bee out of the pool, and placed him on a
leaf in the sun where his wings could dry.
“Thank you for saving me,” buzzed the bee, when he had shaken off some
of the water. “I shall be glad to do you a favor, if I may. Do you want
me to make you some honey?”
“Oh, thank you, no; not now,” answered Baby Bunty. “Uncle Wiggily is
bringing home the molasses jug. But some other time we may want your
honey.”
“Any time you do I’ll give you some,” buzzed the bee. Then he flew away
to look for more honey flowers. Baby Bunty was glad she had saved the
bee, which a big dragon fly had knocked into the spring of water.
On and on through the woods hopped Baby Bunty, and pretty soon she saw
Uncle Wiggily coming toward her, with the molasses jug on his paw.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried the little rabbit girl. “I’m so glad I met
you. Now I’ll help you carry the molasses jug and when we get home
you’ll chase me, and play tag; won’t you?”
“Oh, yes, I guess so,” answered Mr. Longears.
“It will keep you from getting old and stiff, you know,” said Baby Bunty
sweetly, as she took hold of one side of the molasses jug.
She and Uncle Wiggily hopped on, but, all of a sudden, out from behind a
bush jumped the bad old fox.
“Oh, ho!” cried the fox. “This time I have you!”
He made a grab for Uncle Wiggily and Bunty, but they were too quick for
him.
“Run, Bunty! Run!” cried Mr. Longears. And he ran and hopped, and so did
Bunty, and they got away from the fox. But, alas, they dropped the
molasses jug and they didn’t dare stop to pick it up, or go back after
it.
“Oh, dear! What shall I do?” sighed Uncle Wiggily. “I have lost the
molasses and jug, and Nurse Jane will be so disappointed! Oh, dear!” and
he sat down on a queer log, that had a hole in each end, and warts like
a toad all over it.
“It is too bad,” said Baby Bunty.
“What is too bad?” asked a gentle, little voice, and out of one end of
the queer log flew the very same honey bee that Baby Bunty had saved
from the spring. “What is too bad?” asked the bee.
“The fox chased us and I lost the molasses jug,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“Oh, ho! Don’t let that worry you!” buzzed the bee. “Inside this queer
log I and many other bees have a lot of flower honey. It is as sweet as
molasses, and I’ll give you all you want. Here, make a box of some white
birch bark from this tree, and take Nurse Jane a lot of our honey.”
“Oh, that will be just fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Nurse Jane can make
honey cakes!” And the muskrat lady did. So you see losing the molasses
jug didn’t so much matter after all. And if the man in the moon doesn’t
want to come and live in our house and make the lady bug move into the
garage, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the lightning bug.
STORY XXII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LIGHTNING BUG
“Tag! You’re it!” cried Baby Bunty, the little rabbit girl, one morning,
as she ran around on the porch of the hollow stump bungalow and tapped
Uncle Wiggily on his tall silk hat with her paw.
“Oh, dear! Now I suppose I’ve got to chase you!” exclaimed the rabbit
gentleman, as he started his pink nose to twinkling. “And I’m so stiff I
can hardly run this morning!”
But Mr. Longears chased the little rabbit girl, and he really felt
better after a lively race around the hollow stump bungalow, so that
some of his stiffness was gone as he set forth, a little later, to hop
through the woods with Bunty.
“What sort of an adventure do you think we’ll have today, Uncle
Wiggily?” asked Baby Bunty, as she hopped along beside the rabbit
gentleman.
“Oh, you never can tell,” he answered. “I suppose the skillery-scalery
alligator, or the bad old Pipsisewah will come along and——”
Hardly had Uncle Wiggily said these few words than he and Baby Bunty
heard a sad little voice saying:
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear, me! Here I’m caught in a sassafras tree!”
“Who’s that?” asked Baby Bunty.
“I don’t know who it is, but I know who it isn’t!” exclaimed Uncle
Wiggily.
“Then who isn’t it?” asked Baby Bunty.
“It isn’t the Pipsisewah,” spoke the rabbit gentleman. “He never uses
poetry, though he did eat some of your sugary frosted chocolate cake the
other day. But I must see who this is. They may need help.”
“Indeed I do!” went on the sad little voice.
“Who are you?” asked Uncle Wiggily.
“A lightning bug,” was the answer. “Some persons call us fireflies, and
that’s a good name, too. But I am caught fast by my legs in the sticky
gum on this sassafras tree, and I can’t get loose.”
“I’ll help you,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“So will I,” added Baby Bunty.
She and Uncle Wiggily looked, and they saw a little brown and drab bug
on the branch of a sassafras tree not far away.
“You don’t look like a lightning bug,” said Baby Bunty. “You don’t shine
at all.”
“I only shine in the dark,” said the bug.
“Yes, that is true; many times I have seen you, or your friends,”
admitted Uncle Wiggily. Then he gently set the firefly free from the
sticky gum, and the little bug flew away. But before it left it said:
“If ever I can help you, or Baby Bunty, I shall be most glad to do so,
Uncle Wiggily.”
“Oh, pray, don’t mention it,” spoke the rabbit gentleman, diffident-like
and shy.
Uncle Wiggily and Baby Bunty traveled on and on over the fields and
through the woods, looking for an adventure, but they could not seem to
find any, unless you call helping the lightning bug an adventure.
And pretty soon it began to get dark, for Uncle Wiggily had stayed out
later than he meant to.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Baby Bunty. “Hadn’t we better get back to your hollow
stump, Uncle Wiggily?”
“Yes, I think so,” said the rabbit gentleman. But when he tried to find
the path that led to home and Nurse Jane he could not. It was too dark.
“Oh, we are lost in the woods and the bad Pipsisewah will get us,” cried
Baby Bunty.
“Hush!” said Uncle Wiggily. “It will be all right. I’ll light a fire
here on this big stone. The Pipsisewah, or no other wild animal, will
come where there is a fire!”
[Illustration: [Uncle Wiggily]]
“Then please light one,” begged Baby Bunty.
But when Uncle Wiggily tried to make the fire he found he had no
matches. And then, all of a sudden, there was heard a crackling and
rustling in the bushes.
“Oh, the Pipsisewah is coming!” cried Baby Bunty.
“He’d soon go away if I could make these sticks burn!” said Uncle
Wiggily, trying again to find a match, but he could not.
The Pipsisewah came nearer and nearer, howling for rabbit-ear souse. And
then, all of a sudden, a little bright and shining light flew through
the air, and came down on the flat stone where Uncle Wiggily had placed
the sticks to make a fire. And, in another moment ten thousand other
little points of light came flying along. They dropped down among the
dry sticks and branches at the spot where Uncle Wiggily had tried to
make the blaze until it looked as if the whole place were burning.
“Oh, look!” cried Baby Bunty. “We have a bonfire!”
And the Pipsisewah, seeing the bright light, gave a grumble and growl
and quickly sneaked away.
“Just my luck!” he said. “I thought I’d have a bit of souse, but I don’t
even dare go near the fire!”
And Uncle Wiggily, looking among the sticks, said:
“This isn’t burning fire at all; it’s just a lot of lightning bugs
crawling on the pieces of wood.”
“Yes, that’s what we are,” said a voice. “I am the lightning bug you
saved from the sticky gum, and these are my cousins and my sisters and
my aunts.”
“And you saved us from the Pipsisewah!” said Uncle Wiggily, and so the
lightning bugs had. Then the firefly bugs flew on ahead, lighting the
path to the hollow stump bungalow for the bunnies, and all was well.
And if the loaf of bread doesn’t hide in the flower pot when the rice
pudding wants it to help catch the raisins for a pie, I’ll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the roses.
STORY XXIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE ROSES
“Dear me!” exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy one day, as she walked down
to the end of her garden near the hollow stump bungalow. “This is too
bad!”
“What’s the matter now?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears. “Have Jackie and
Peetie Bow Wow, those two little puppy dog boys, been digging up your
seeds?”
“No,” answered the muskrat lady housekeeper to the bunny rabbit
gentleman, “not quite that. But something has been eating my lovely
roses. And I wanted to keep them nice to send a bouquet to Grandpa
Goosey Gander.”
“Ha! Some one has been eating your roses have they, Nurse Jane?”
exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, animosity-like and determined. “Well, do you
think Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, or Jimmie
Wibblewobble, the duck, or perhaps Curly and Floppy Twistytail, the
piggie boys, could have taken the flowers?”
“No, indeed!” said Nurse Jane. “They wouldn’t do that. Some one seems to
have been chewing the lovely rose petals, that are like satin velvet,
and also, many of the green leaves are eaten.”
“Then I just know who did it!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I know who has been
eating your roses!”
“Who?” asked Nurse Jane, all excited like.
“The Skuddlemagoon, the Skeezicks or the Pipsisewah! Either one of those
bad chaps!” said the bunny.
“I think so, too,” said Baby Bunty, who hopped along just then, rolling
her hoop. “Can you catch them, Uncle Wiggily?”
“I’m going to try,” said the brave bunny gentleman.
“Oh, please don’t!” begged Nurse Jane. “I don’t want you to run into
danger, Uncle Wiggily, and catching the Skeezicks, the Pipsisewah or the
Skuddlemagoon would be very dangerous. The roses aren’t worth it.”
“Oh, yes they are,” said Uncle Wiggily. “But I am not going to run into
danger. The way I’ll catch whoever is eating your rose petals will be
this. I’ll hide out here in the grass, and when I see the Skuddlemagoon,
the Pipsisewah or the Skeezicks sneaking up to bite a flower, I’ll run
out, sprinkle some salt on their tails and that will make them behave.”
“Well, perhaps if you do it that way it will be all right,” said Nurse
Jane. “But do take care of yourself, Uncle Wiggily; won’t you?”
“I will,” promised the bunny rabbit gentleman. So he got the big salt
cellar out of the kitchen, and then he hid himself in the tall grass
near the rose bushes in Nurse Jane’s garden.
“I’m going to hide with you, too, and watch,” said Baby Bunty. “I can
tell you when the Pipsisewah is coming, Uncle Wiggily.”
“Yes, you may hide with me,” said Mr. Longears. “You are a lively little
rabbit girl, and you will not fall asleep yourself, nor let me.”
“Indeed, I won’t,” promised Baby Bunty, and she kept tickling Uncle
Wiggily with a piece of ribbon grass on his pink, twinkling nose every
time he looked as though he were going to doze off and fall asleep.
Uncle Wiggily and Baby Bunty had not been hiding and watching very long
before, all of a sudden, the little rabbit girl whispered:
“Here comes the Skeezicks!”
“Eh? The Skeezicks? So he does!” spoke the rabbit gentleman softly, and,
looking over the top of the grass he saw the bad chap sneaking along.
The Skeezicks picked off a rose and held it in his paw.
“Now I’ll slip out and sprinkle salt on his tail!” said Uncle Wiggily.
And he was just going to do this when Baby Bunty said:
“Oh, wait! Here comes the Skuddlemagoon!”
And, surely enough, into the garden came also the bad Skuddlemagoon.
“Two of ’em! This is going to be our busy day!” said Uncle Wiggily
softly, as he looked to see if he had enough salt. “Well, I’ll tame ’em
both! They must learn to let Nurse Jane’s roses alone,” said he.
Uncle Wiggily was just going to hop out and sprinkle salt on the tails
of the Skeezicks and the Skuddlemagoon, when Baby Bunty caught him by
the coat tails—she caught Uncle Wiggily, I mean—and pulled him back down
in the tall grass.
“Look out! Here comes the Pipsisewah!” cried the lively little rabbit
girl, in a shrill whisper.
Uncle Wiggily looked. Surely enough there was the old Pip, and just as
the Skuddlemagoon and the Skeezicks had done, the Pipsisewah picked a
rose.
“Now we know who has been eating Nurse Jane’s flowers,” said Uncle
Wiggily to Baby Bunty. “Well, here I go to sprinkle salt on all three of
their tails, and then we’ll see what happens.”
“Better wait,” said the little rabbit girl, and, as she said that the
Pipsisewah exclaimed:
“Now, gentlemen, I believe we are all ready. Take a smell of your roses
and then we’ll rush up to the bungalow, grab Uncle Wiggily and take away
all his souse.”
“Right you are!” growled the Skuddlemagoon and the Skeezicks. All three
of the bad chaps lifted the roses to their noses to smell the sweet
posies, when, all of a sudden, a big, black pinching beetle flew out of
the rose the Skeezicks had and pinched him on the nose. And a big black
beetle flew out of the rose the Skuddlemagoon held and pinched him on
the nose. And then a big black beetle flew out of the rose the
Pipsisewah held and pinched him on the nose.
“Wow! Wow! Wow!” cried the bad animals. “This is too much!”
And away they ran, not hurting Uncle Wiggily at all, and they never took
any more of Nurse Jane’s flowers. And because the beetles had been so
brave they were given all the rose leaf honey they wanted.
Now if the umbrella doesn’t run out in the rain, and get its rubbers all
wet so it can’t slide down the ironing board, I’ll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and the red tulip.
STORY XXIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED TULIP
Down in Nurse Jane’s garden, near the hollow stump bungalow, grew many
flowers besides the roses, out of which flew the black beetles to nip
the noses of the Skeezicks, the Skuddlemagoon and the Pipsisewah, as I
have told you.
Among the flowers were big tulips, white, golden and pink, and, best of
all, Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, loved a tulip that
was red.
“It makes me think of so many things that are beautiful,” said Uncle
Wiggily. “I could look at the red tulip all day long.”
“Well, please don’t look at it all day just now, if you please!” begged
Nurse Jane with a laugh. “Far be it from me, Uncle Wiggily, to hurt your
feelings,” said she, “or to make you stop loving my flowers. But it is
getting late afternoon now, and I have company coming for tea. There
isn’t a bit of sugar in the bungalow, and unless you go to the seven and
eight cent store and get me some—well, my little tea party will not be
at all nice.”
“Oh, excuse me! I’ll go get the sugar at once,” said Uncle Wiggily.
Then, putting on his tall, silk hat, and taking his red, white and blue
striped rheumatism crutch off the garden gate, Uncle Wiggily started to
hop to the nine and ten cent store for some sugar.
“But I must take just one more look at the red tulip,” said Uncle
Wiggily. “I want to remember how beautiful it was as I hop along to the
store.”
So he went into the garden again, and stood looking at the red flower,
the petals of which were spread wide open to let the sun warm the heart
of the blossom.
Then Uncle Wiggily noticed that some weeds were growing up too near the
red tulip, so he dug them out with the end of his red crutch.
“Weeds are not good for flowers,” said Uncle Wiggily.
Just then Baby Bunty called to him from the back kitchen window:
“Uncle Wiggily, if you don’t stop fussing over that tulip, and hurry on
to the store, it will be closed—I mean the store will be closed. It’s
getting late.”
“Yes, and the tulip will be closed also,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Tulip
flowers close when evening comes and open in the morning. But I’ll
hurry, Baby Bunty.”
Giving one last look at his favorite flower, Uncle Wiggily hopped on to
the ten and eleven cent store. The afternoon was rapidly turning into
evening, and the bunny rabbit gentleman hurried as fast as he could.
But, just as Baby Bunty had said, he had spent too much time over the
red tulip. The store was closed and Uncle Wiggily could get no sugar.
“This is too bad!” he exclaimed. “What am I going to do for sugar for
Nurse Jane’s tea! She’ll be so disappointed. I’ll go see if I can find
another store that isn’t closed, as my red tulip must be closed now.”
So Uncle Wiggily hopped on through the woods, but no other store could
he find. And it was getting later and later, and he knew it must be
almost time for Nurse Jane’s company to arrive and have tea.
“Well, there is no help for it,” said the rabbit gentleman, sort of
ashamed like and perfunctory. “I’ll just have to tell Nurse Jane I
reached the store too late. She’ll have to use molasses to sweeten the
tea. And yet that will not be at all nice.”
Still there was nothing else to be done. If it had been spring he could
have gotten some sweet maple sugar sap from a tree, but the sap had
stopped running.
“I guess molasses is what she’ll have to use,” said the bunny, as he
hopped around the back way into his hollow stump bungalow. “I’ll take
one last look at my red tulip,” he said. He wanted to put off, as long
as possible, telling Nurse Jane the bad news.
Uncle Wiggily reached the garden. His red tulip had closed up its
petals. Just as he had expected, until the blossom looked more like a
bud than a full flower. And, as Uncle Wiggily looked at the red tulip he
heard, coming from it, a voice which said:
“Let me out! Oh, please, let me out!”
“Who are you and where are you?” asked the rabbit gentleman in surprise.
“I am a buzzing bee and I am inside the red tulip,” was the answer. “I
was getting a bit of yellow pollen on my legs, to help make wax, when
the tulip flower suddenly closed its petals and I’m caught.”
“Yes, that is just what happened,” said the red tulip. “I’m sorry, but
it couldn’t be helped. I’d open my petals and let you out, my dear bee,
but I can not, I can not open my petals until morning.”
“Ah, but I can open them and I will, and I’ll let the bee out,” said
Uncle Wiggily. “But I’ll do so very gently, my dear red tulip. I will
not hurt you.”
Very carefully Uncle Wiggily opened the red tulip and out flew the
buzzing bee.
“Thank you, Uncle Wiggily,” it said. And then it went on: “But why do
you look so sad and worried?”
“Because I forget Nurse Jane’s sugar, or, rather, I got to the store too
late,” was the answer.
“Oh, I can easily fix that,” said the bee. “Since you were so kind as to
let me out of the red tulip, I’ll call a lot of my friends and we’ll
bring sweet honey for Nurse Jane’s tea.” And the bees did, and so
everything was all right, and Nurse Jane said the honey was better than
sugar.
And, if the clothes pin doesn’t try to climb out of the thread box when
it’s hiding away from the cake of soap as they play tag, you shall next
hear about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s slippers.
STORY XXV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S SLIPPERS
“Well, I think she is all ready now, except her slippers,” said Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.
“Who is ready?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit
gentleman, as he hopped up the steps of his hollow stump bungalow, in
time to hear his muskrat lady housekeeper ring the dinner bell.
“Baby Bunty,” answered Nurse Jane. “She is all ready except her
slippers, and I thought you’d get them for her.”
“Well, I’ll do almost anything for Baby Bunty except chase her, or play
tag, on the days when I’m too lame and stiff,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he
sat down on the softest side of the porch, for his rheumatism hurt him a
little just then. “But what’s all this about her slippers, and what is
Baby Bunty getting ready for?” he asked.
“Oh, a little party that Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girl, is going to
give,” spoke Nurse Jane. “I have made Baby Bunty a new dress for it, and
she has a new sky-blue-pink hair ribbon, so she is all ready except her
slippers. Will you go to the five and six cent store and get them?”
“Of course I will!” said Uncle Wiggily with a jolly laugh that made his
nose twinkle like a piece of cherry pie going to a moving picture show.
“I’ll hop right along,” said the bunny rabbit gentleman, “and get Baby
Bunty’s slippers. Don’t let her go to the party until I get back.”
“Oh, she can’t go without her slippers,” spoke Nurse Jane. “I’m going in
now and curl her fur.”
So while the muskrat lady did this Uncle Wiggily hopped over the fields
and through the woods to the seven and eight cent store to get Baby
Bunty’s party slippers.
Now the rabbit gentleman had not gone very far over hill and dale than,
all at once, he saw a nice hoptoad lady limping along the woodland path,
trying to carry a loaf of dandelion bread. But she was going very
slowly, was the hoptoad lady, and, every now and then, she would drop
the loaf of bread.
“Why, my dear Mrs. Toad, what’s the matter?” kindly asked Uncle Wiggily
as he caught up to her. “Have you met with an accident?”
“I should say so,” was the answer. “An automobile ran over my toes, and
I can hardly walk; much less carry the loaf of dandelion bread.”
“Then allow me to carry it for you,” said Uncle Wiggily. And he did, and
he helped the hoptoad lady limp to her home under an old log.
“I know what it is to be lame and hardly able to walk,” spoke Mr.
Longears, as the toad lady thanked him. “I am only too glad that I could
help you,” said he.
Then he hopped on a little farther and he met a bumble bee caught fast
in the sticky gum of a pine tree. With his red, white and blue striped
rheumatism crutch, Uncle Wiggily helped the bee get its legs free, and
away it flew.
“If I can ever help you I will, dear Uncle Wiggily,” buzzed the bee.
Then the bunny uncle hopped on and on, and pretty soon he came to the
store where Nurse Jane had told him to get Baby Bunty’s slippers.
But alas! When he reached the place the store was closed, for it was
much later in the afternoon than Uncle Wiggily had thought. It was so
light, and with the clocks being set an hour ahead, you know, that he
thought he had plenty of time. But the store was locked for the night.
“Well, if I can’t get Baby Bunty’s slippers here I’ll have to go to a
drug store or somewhere else,” thought the bunny rabbit. “Drug stores
keep open late.”