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?"