bear-creature had done, and also how he had used the cones to tickle him.
"Well, that's too bad," said Grandfather Goosey, "but here, I'll give you
money to buy more cones with," and he put his hand in his pocket, but lo
and behold! he had lost all his money.
"Never mind, perhaps _I_ have some pennies," said the rabbit; so he
looked, but, oh, dear me, suz-dud and the mustard pot! All of Uncle
Wiggily's money was gone, too.
"Well, I guess we can't get any ice cream cones this week," said the old
gentleman duck. "We'll have to drink water."
"Oh, no you won't," said a buzzing voice. "I'll get you each an ice cream
cone, because you have always been so kind--both of you." And with that
out from the bushes flew a big, sweet, honey bee, with a load of honey.
"Have you got any ice cream cones, Mr. Bee?" asked the rabbit.
"No, but I have sweet honey, and if I go down to the ice cream cone store,
and give the man some of my honey he'll give me three cones, and there'll
be one for you and one for me and----"
"One for Sister Sallie!" interrupted Grandfather Goosey. "I wish she was
here now."
"She could have a cone if she was here," said the honey bee, "as I could
get four. But, as long as she is not, the extra cone will go to you,
Grandpa. Now, come on, and I'll take my honey to the ice-cream-cone-man."
So they went with him and on the way the bee sung a funny little song like
this:
"I buzz, buzz, buzz
All day long.
I make my honey
Good and strong.
I fly about
To every flower
And sometimes stay
'Most half an hour."
Uncle Wiggily didn't know whether or not the bee was really in earnest
about what he said, but, surely enough, when they got to the ice cream
store, the man took the bee's honey, and handed out four ice cream cones,
each larger than the first ones. Two were for the duck as he was so fond
of them.
"Oh, let's eat them here, so that if the bear meets us he can't take them
away," suggested Grandfather Goosey, and they did. Then the bee flew home
to his hive, and Uncle Wiggily and the old gentleman duck found a nice
place to sleep under a haystack.
In the morning Grandfather Goosey said he thought he had better go back
home, as he had traveled enough. He wanted the rabbit to come with him,
but Uncle Wiggily said:
"No, I have not yet found my fortune, and until I do I will keep on
traveling." So he kept on, and the duck went home.
Well, it was about two days after that when, along toward evening, as
Uncle Wiggily was walking down the road, he saw a real big house standing
beside a lake. Oh, it was a very big house, about as big as a mountain,
and the chimney on it was so tall as almost to reach the sky.
"Hum! I wonder who lives there?" said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps I can find
my fortune in that house."
"Oh, no; never go there!" cried a voice down on the ground, and, looking
toward his toes, Uncle Wiggily saw a little red ant.
"Ah, ha! Why shouldn't I go up to the big house, little red ant?" asked
the rabbit.
"Because a monstrous giant lives there," was the answer, "and he could eat
you up at one mouthful. So stay away."
"I guess I will," said the rabbit. "But I wonder where I can sleep
to-night. I guess I'll go----"
"Oh, look out! Look out!" cried another red ant. "There is the giant
coming now."
Uncle Wiggily looked, and he saw something like a big tree moving, and
that was the giant. Then he felt the ground trembling as if a railroad
train was rumbling past, and he heard a noise like thunder, and that was
the giant walking and speaking:
"I smell rabbits! I smell rabbits!" cried the giant. "I must have them for
supper!" Then he came on straight to where Uncle Wiggily was, but he
hadn't yet seen him.
"Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" cried the bunny. "Let me hide
behind that stone." He made a jump for a rock, taking his valise and
crutch with him, but the first red ant said:
"It is no good hiding there, Uncle Wiggily, for the giant can see you."
"Oh, what shall I do?" he asked again, trembling with fear.
"I know!" cried the second little red ant. "Let's all bring grains of
sand, and cover Uncle Wiggily up, leaving just a little hole for his nose,
so he can breathe. Then the giant won't see him. It will be like down at
the seashore, when they cover people on the beach up with the sand."
"Oh, it will take many grains of sand to cover the rabbit," said the first
red ant, but still they were not discouraged. The first two ants called
their brothers and sisters, and aunts, and uncles, and papas, and mammas,
and cousins, and nephews, and forty-second granduncles. Soon there were
twenty-two million four hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred
and ninety-one ants, and a little baby ant, who counted as a half a one,
and he carried baby grains of dirt.
Then each big ant took up a grain of sand, and then they all hurried up,
and put them on Uncle Wiggily, who stretched out in the grass. Now all
those ants together could carry lots of sand, you see, and soon the rabbit
was completely buried from sight, all but the tip of his nose, so he could
breathe, and when the giant came rumbling, stumbling by, he couldn't see
the bunny, and so he didn't eat him. And, of course, the giant didn't eat
the ants, either for he didn't like them.
"Hum! I thought I smelled a rabbit, but I guess I was mistaken," said the
giant, grumbling and growling, as he tramped around.
And that's how Uncle Wiggily was saved, and pretty soon, if there isn't
any sand in my rice pudding, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the bad
giant.
STORY XXVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BAD GIANT
Do you remember about the giant, of whom I told you a little while ago,
and how he couldn't find Uncle Wiggily, because the rabbit was covered
with sand that the ants carried? Yes, I guess you do remember. Well, now
I'm going to tell you what that giant did.
At first he was real surprised, because he couldn't find the bunny-rabbit,
and he tramped around, making the ground shake with his heavy steps, and
growling in his rumbling voice until you would have thought that it was
thundering.
"My, my!" growled the giant. "To think that I can't have a rabbit supper
after all. Oh, I'm so hungry that I could eat fourteen thousand, seven
hundred and eighty-seven rabbits, and part of another one. But I guess
I'll have to take a barrel of milk and a wagon load of crackers for my
supper."
So that's what he did, and my how much he ate!
Well, after the giant had gone away, Uncle Wiggily crawled out from under
the sand, and he said to the ants:
"I guess I'd better not stay around here, for it is too dangerous. I'll
never find my fortune here, and if that giant were to see me he'd step on
me, and make me as flat as a sheet of paper. I'm going."
"But wait," said the biggest ant of all. "You know there are two giants
around here. One is a good one, and one is bad. Now if you go to the good
giant I'm sure he will help you find your fortune."
"I'll try it," said the rabbit. "Where does the good giant live?"
"Just up the hill, in that house where you see the flag," said the big
ant, as she ate two crumbs of bread and jam. "That's where the good giant
lives. You must go where you see the fluttering flag, and you may find
your fortune."
"I will," said Uncle Wiggily, "I'll go in the morning, the first thing
after breakfast."
So the next morning he started off. But in the night something had
happened and the rabbit didn't know a thing about it. After dark the bad
giant got up, and he went over, and took the flag from the pole in front
of the house of the good giant, and hoisted it up over his own house.
"I haven't any flag of my own," said the bad giant, "so I will take his."
For you see, the two giants lived not far apart. In fact they were
neighbors, but they were very different, one from the other, for one was
kind and the other was cruel.
So it happened, that when Uncle Wiggily started to go to the giant's house
he looked for the fluttering flag, and when he saw it on the bad giant's
house he didn't know any better, but he thought it was the home of the
good giant.
Well, the old gentleman rabbit walked on and on, having said good-by to
the ants, and pretty soon he was right close to the bad giant's house.
But, all the while, he thought it was the good giant's place--so don't
forget that.
"I wonder what sort of a fortune he'll give me," thought the rabbit. "I
hope I soon get rich, so I can stop traveling, for I am tired."
Well, as he came near the place where the bad giant lived he heard a voice
singing. And the song, which was sung in a deep, gruff, grumbling,
growling voice, went something like this:
"Oh, bing bang, bung!
Look out of the way for me.
For I'm so mad,
I feel so bad,
I could eat a hickory tree!
Oh, snip, snap, snoop!
Get off my big front stoop,
Or I'll tear my hair
In wild despair,
And burn you with hot soup!"
"My, that's a queer song for a good giant to sing," thought Uncle Wiggily.
"But perhaps he just sings that for fun. I'm sure I'll find him a jolly
enough fellow, when I get to know him."
Well, he went on a little farther, and pretty soon he came to the gate of
the castle where the bad giant lived. The rabbit looked about, and saw no
one there, so he kept right on, until, all of a sudden, he felt as if a
big balloon had swooped down out of the sky, and had lifted him up. Higher
and higher he went, until he found himself away up toward the roof of the
castle, and then he looked and he saw two big fingers, about as big as a
trolley car, holding him just as you would hold a bug.
"Oh, who has me?" cried Uncle Wiggily, very much frightened. "Let me go,
please. Who are you?"
"I am the bad giant," was the answer, "and if I let you go now you'd fall
to the ground and be killed. So I'll hold on to you."
"Are you the bad giant?" asked the rabbit. "Why, I thought I was coming
to the good giant's house. Oh, please let me go!"
"No, I'm going to keep you," said the giant. "I just took the good giant's
flag to fool you. Now, let me see, I think I'll just sprinkle sugar on you
and eat you all up--no, I'll use salt--no, I think pepper would be better;
I feel like pepper to-day."
So the bad giant started toward the cupboard to get the pepper caster, and
poor Uncle Wiggily thought it was all up with him.
"Oh, I wish I'd never thought of coming to see any giant, good or bad,"
the rabbit gentleman said. "Now good-by to all my friends!"
"Hum! Let me see," spoke the bad giant, standing still. "Pepper--no, I
think I'll put some mustard on you--no, I'll try ketchup--no, I mean
horseradish. Oh, dear, I can't seem to make up my mind what to flavor you
with," and he held Uncle Wiggily there in his fingers, away up about a
hundred feet high in the air, and wondered what he'd do with the old
gentleman rabbit.
And it's a good thing he didn't eat him right away, for that was the means
of saving Uncle Wiggily's life. Right after breakfast the good giant found
out that his bad neighbor had taken his flag, so he went and told the ants
all about it.
"Oh, then Uncle Wiggily must have been mixed up about the flag, and he has
gone to the wrong place, and he'll be eaten," said the big ant. "We must
save him. Come on, everybody!"
So all the ants hurried along together, and crawled to the castle of the
bad giant, and they got there just as he was putting some molasses on
Uncle Wiggily to eat him. And those ants crawled all over the giant, on
his legs and arms, and nose and ears and toes, and they tickled him so
that he squiggled and wiggled and squirreled and whirled, and finally he
let Uncle Wiggily fall on a feather bed, not hurting him a bit, and the
rabbit gentleman hopped safely away and the ants crawled with him far from
the castle of the bad giant.
So Uncle Wiggily was saved by the ants, and in case the trolley car
doesn't run over my stick of peppermint candy, and make it look like a
lolly-pop, I'll tell you soon about Uncle Wiggily and the good giant.
STORY XXIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GOOD GIANT
Now what do you s'pose that bad giant had for supper the night after the
ants helped Uncle Wiggily get away? You'd never guess, so I'll tell you.
It was beans--just baked beans, and that giant was so disappointed, and
altogether so cut-up about not having rabbit stew, that he ate so many
beans, that I'm almost afraid to tell you just how many.
But if all the boys in your school were to take their bean shooters, and
shoot beans out of a bag for a million years, and Fourth of July also,
that giant could eat all of them, and more too--that is, if he could get
the beans after the boys shot them away.
"Well, I certainly must be more careful after this," said Uncle Wiggily to
the ants, as they crawled along down the hill with him, when he hopped
away from the bad giant's house.
"Oh, it wasn't your fault," said the second size big red ant, with black
and yellow stripes on his stockings. "That bad giant changed the flags,
and that's what fooled you. But I guess the good giant will have his flag
back by to-morrow, and then you can go to the right house. We'll go along
and show you, and you may get your fortune from him."
So, surely enough, the next day, the good giant went over and took his
flag away from the bad giant, and put it upon his own house.
"Now you'll be all right," said the pink ant, with purple spots on his
necktie. "You won't make any mistake now, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sure the good
giant will give you a good fortune."
"Yes, and he'll give you lots to eat," said the black ant with white rings
around his nose.
Well, Uncle Wiggily took his valise and his crutch and up toward the good
giant's house he went, with the ants crawling along in the sand to show
him the way.
Pretty soon they came to a big bridge, over a stream of water, and this
was the beginning of the place where the good giant lived.
"We'll all have to go back now," said the purple ant, with the green
patchwork squares on his checks. "If we crossed over the bridge we might
fall off and be drowned. We'll go back, but you go ahead, and we wish you
good luck, Uncle Wiggily."
"Indeed we do," said a white ant with gold buckles on her shoes.
Well, after a little while Uncle Wiggily found himself right inside the
good giant's house. And oh! what a big place it was. Why, even the door
mat was so big that it took the rabbit three hops to get to the top of it.
And that front door! I wish you could have seen it! It was as large as one
of your whole houses, and it was only a door, mind you.
"Hello! hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he pounded with his crutch on the
floor. "Is any one at home?"
"But no one answered, and there wasn't a sound except the ticking of the
clock, and that made as much noise as a railroad train going over a
bridge, for the clock was a big as a church steeple.
"Hum! No one is home," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll just sit down and make
myself comfortable." So he sat down on the floor by the table that was
away over his head, and waited for the giant to come back.
And, all of a sudden, the rabbit heard a noise like a steam engine going,
and he was quite surprised, until he happened to look up, and there stood
a pussy cat as big as a cow, and the cat was purring, which made the noise
like a steam engine.
"My, if that's the size of the cat, what must the giant be," thought the
rabbit. "I do hope he's good-natured when he comes home."
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, as Uncle Wiggily was sitting there,
listening to the big cat purr, he felt sleepy, and he was just going to
sleep, when he heard a gentle voice singing:
"Oh, see the blackbird, sitting in the tree,
Hear him singing, jolly as can be.
Now he'll whistle a pretty little tune,
Isn't it delicious in the month of June?
"Hear the bees a-buzzing, hour by hour,
Gathering the honey from every little flower.
The katydid is singing by his own front door,
Now I'll have to stop this song--I don't know any more."
"Well, whoever that is, he's a jolly chap," said the rabbit, and with that
who should come in but the giant himself.
"Ho! Ho! Whom have we here?" the giant asked, looking at Uncle Wiggily.
"What do you want, my little furry friend with the long ears? You must be
able to hear very well with them."
"I can hear pretty well," said the rabbit. "But I came to seek my
fortune."
"Fine," cried the good giant, for he it was. "I'll do all I can for you,"
and he laughed so long and hard that part of the ceiling and the gas
chandelier fell down, but the giant caught them in his strong hands, and
not even the pussy cat was hurt. Then the giant sung another song, like
the first, only different, and he fixed the broken ceiling, and said:
"Now for something to eat! Then we'll talk about your fortune. I'll get
you some carrots." So he went out, and pretty soon he came back, carrying
ten barrels of carrots in one hand and seventeen bushels of cabbage in the
other.
"Here's a little light lunch for you," he said to Uncle Wiggily. "Eat
this, and I'll get you some more, when we have a regular meal."
"Oh, why this is more than I could eat in a year," said the rabbit, "but I
thank you very much," so he nibbled at one carrot, while the good giant
ate fifteen thousand seven hundred and eight loaves of bread, and two
million bushels of jam. Then he felt better.
"So you want to find your fortune, eh?" the giant said to the rabbit.
"Well, now I'll help you all I can. How would you like to stay here and
work for me? You have good ears, and you could listen for burglars in the
night when I am asleep. Will you?"
"I think I will," said Uncle Wiggily. And he was just reaching for
another carrot, when suddenly from outside sounded a terrible racket.
"Where is he? Let me get at him! I want him right away--that rabbit I
mean!" cried a voice, and Uncle Wiggily jumped up in great fright, and
looked for some place to hide. The giant jumped up, too, and grabbed his
big club.
But don't be alarmed. Nothing bad is going to happen to our Uncle
Wiggily--in fact he is going to have lots of fun soon.
So if my motorboat doesn't turn upside down and spill out the pink
lemonade, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the
giant's little boy.
STORY XXX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GIANT'S BOY
Let me see, I believe I left off where Uncle Wiggily was in the house of
the good giant, and the old gentleman rabbit heard a terrible noise.
Didn't I?
"My goodness!" exclaimed the rabbit, jumping up so quickly that he upset
one of the giant's toothpicks, on which he had been sitting for a chair,
for the giant's toothpicks were as large as a big chestnut tree. "My
goodness!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "what in the world is that?"
"I guess it's my little boy coming home from school," said the good giant
as softly as he could, but, even then, his voice was like thunder. "He
must have heard that you were here."
"Will he hurt me? Does he love animals?" asked the rabbit, for he was
getting frightened. "Will your little boy be kind to me?"
"Oh, indeed he will!" cried the good giant. "I have taught him to love
animals, for you know he is so big and strong, even though I do call him
my _little_ boy, that it would be no trouble for him to take a bear or a
lion, and squeeze him in one hand so that the bear or lion would never
hurt any one any more. But, just because he is big and strong, though not
so big and strong as I am, I have taught my boy to be kind to the little
animals."
"Then I will have no fear," said Uncle Wiggily, winking his nose--I mean
his eyes--and just then the door of the giant's house opened and in came
his little boy.
Well, at first Uncle Wiggily was so frightened that he did not know what
to do. I wonder what you would say if you were suddenly to see a boy
almost as big as your house, or mine, walk into the parlor, and sit down
at the piano? Well, that's what the old gentleman rabbit saw.
"Ah, my little boy is home from school," said the giant, kindly. "Did you
have your lessons, my son?"
"Yes, father, I did," was the answer. "And I learned a new song. I'll sing
it for you."
So he began to play the piano with his little finger nail, and still, and
with all that, he made as much noise as a circus band of music can make on
a hot day in the tent. Oh, he played terribly loud, the giant's boy did,
and Uncle Wiggily had to put his paws over his ears, or he might have been
made deaf. Then the giant's little boy sang, and even when he hummed it
the noise was like a thunder storm, only different. Now, this is the boy
giant's song, and you will have to sing it with all your might, as hard as
you can, but not if the baby is asleep.
"I am a little fellow,
But soon I will grow big.
And then I'll sit beside the sea,
And in the white sand dig.
"I'll make a hole so very deep,
To China it will go.
And then I'll fill it up with shells
Wherein the wild waves blow."
And with that the giant's little boy banged so hard on the piano with his
little finger nail that he broke a string, and made a funny sound, like a
banjo out of tune.
"Oh, I didn't mean to do that!" the giant's boy cried. "I'm sorry!"
"Dear me! I wonder when you'll grow up?" asked the giant, sort of
sad-like.
"I think he's pretty big now," said Uncle Wiggily. And, indeed, the
boy-giant was so tall that when the rabbit stood up as high as he could
stand, he only came up to the tip end of the shoe laces on the giant
boy's big shoes.
"Oh, he grows very slowly," said the giant, and then the boy noticed the
rabbit for the first time. Well, that boy-giant wanted to know all about
Uncle Wiggily, where he came from and where he was going, and all that,
and Uncle Wiggily told about how he was traveling around to seek his
fortune.
"Oh, I believe I know where you can find lots of money, Uncle Wiggily,"
said the giant's boy kindly, as he reached over and stroked the rabbit's
ears. "I have always heard that there is a pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. The next time we see one, you and I will go out and search for
the money. Then you will have your fortune, and you won't have to travel
around any more."
"That will be fine!" cried the rabbit, "for, to tell you the truth, I am
getting pretty tired of going about the country. Still, I will not give up
until I find my fortune."
"All right. But we will have to wait until it rains, and then we'll see
where the end of the rainbow is," said the giant's boy. "Now we will have
some games together. Let's play tag."
Well, they started to play that, but, land's sake, flopsy dub and a basket
of ice cream cones! Uncle Wiggily ran here, and there, and everywhere, and
he jumped and leaped about so that the giant's little boy couldn't catch
him, for the big-little fellow wasn't very spry on his feet.
"Oh, I guess we had better not play that game any more," said the boy
giant, as he accidentally nearly stepped on Uncle Wiggily's left ear. "I
might hurt you. Let's play hide-and-go-seek."
But Uncle Wiggily was even better at this game than he had been at tag,
for he could hide in such small holes that the boy giant couldn't even see
them, so of course that wouldn't do for a game. It was no fun.
Then all at once it began to rain. My! how it did pour! It rained snips
and snails and puppy dogs' tails, with the puppies fast to the tails, of
course, and the streets were covered with them. Then it rained a few ice
cream cones, and Uncle Wiggily and the giant boy had all they wanted to
eat, the giant eating fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, and
part of another one, while Uncle Wiggily had only two cones.
"Oh, there is the rainbow!" cried the boy giant at last, as he saw the
beautiful gold and green and orange and red colors in the sky. "Now for
the pot of gold."
So he and Uncle Wiggily started off together to find it. But they had not
gone very far through the woods before they met the papa giant.
"Where are you going?" he asked of them.
"To the end of the rainbow to get the pot of gold," said the giant's
little boy.
"You don't need to," said the giant, "for there is none there. That is
only a fairy story. Wait, I'll show you."
So he stretched out his long arm as far as it would go and he reached away
down to the end of the rainbow and he felt all around with his long
fingers, and sure enough, there wasn't a bit of gold there, for his hand
came back empty.
"It's too bad," said the giant's little boy to Uncle Wiggily. "There is
nothing there for you. But perhaps you will find your fortune to-morrow.
Come and stay with me until morning."
So Uncle Wiggily went back to the giant's house, and the next day quite a
surprising adventure occurred to him, and in case the gasoline in my
motorboat doesn't wash all the paint off my red necktie I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Grand-daddy Longlegs.
STORY XXXI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND DADDY LONGLEGS