the poor old gentleman rabbit is still fast asleep.
The big lobster stuck out his bulgy eyes, and he moved them this way
and that way, and he even looked over his shoulder with them, and then
he saw the little house which the rabbit had made.
"Ha! I must see what is in that!" the lobster exclaimed and he crawled
toward it. "Perhaps it is something good to eat, and I am very
hungry," he said.
So the lobster looked in through the little window which Uncle Wiggily
had made, and he saw the rabbit fast asleep.
"Oh, ho! Now for a good meal!" cried the lobster. Then he took one big
claw and he softly pulled away some of the boards which Uncle Wiggily
had used to make his house. That left a hole, and through this hole
the lobster stuck his other claw, and he caught hold of the rabbit by
his two ears.
"Oh! who has me? Who is it? What are you doing? Oh, my poor ears! Let
go! Please let go!"
That is how Uncle Wiggily cried as he suddenly awakened.
"No, I will not!" exclaimed the lobster in a sort of a boiled-egg
voice. "I'm going to crawl off with you to the bottom of the ocean!"
"Then this is the last of me and my fortune," thought the rabbit. "I
might as well say good-by."
So the lobster pulled the rabbit right out of the wood-and-seaweed
house, holding him by the two long ears, and he started down the sandy
beach with him toward the rolling, tumbling ocean. Uncle Wiggily tried
to get away, but he couldn't.
Well, if you'll believe me, the big lobster nearly had the rabbit in
the rolling, tumbling waves of the surf, when suddenly a flashing
lantern showed glimmeringly over the sand, and a voice exclaimed:
"Shiver my timbers! If the big lobster hasn't caught a rabbit. Oh, ho!
And he's trying to drown him. That will never do. I will save him. Yo
ho! Heave ho!"
Uncle Wiggily looked up and he saw a big, brown, life-saving man, who
was out taking a walk along the beach with a lantern to see if anybody
needed to be saved. And before that lobster could drag the rabbit into
the water that life guard just reached over and took the lobster up by
his back, where the crawly creature couldn't pinch, and the lobster
was so frightened that he let go of Uncle Wiggily's ears at once.
"Now, hop away, Mr. Rabbit," said the life guard, kindly, and you may
be sure that Uncle Wiggily didn't waste any time hopping. "I'll attend
to this lobster," went on the big, brown man, and then the rabbit
hopped back to his wood-and-seaweed house, where he slept in peace and
quietness the rest of the night. And, as for the lobster, the man put
him in a pot and boiled him until he was as red as your coral
necklace, or your pink necktie, and that was the end of the lobster.
So that's all to this story, if you please, but in case the
clothes-wringer doesn't squeeze all the rice out of the ice-cream
pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the little clam.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLAM
Uncle Wiggily awakened in his wood-and-seaweed house in the morning,
and he rubbed his sleepy eyes with his paws. Then he got up off his
seaweed bed and as he heard a noise he exclaimed:
"Ha! That sounds like thunder. I wonder if we are going to have a
storm?" And, truly, there was quite a booming and rumbling racket
outside. Then the rabbit laughed at himself.
"Why, how silly of me!" he exclaimed. "That is the waves pounding on
the beach. I forgot that I was at the seashore. Now I must look out
and see if there are any more lobsters waiting to catch me."
Well, he was just peering out of the window, when there came a knock
on the door, and Uncle Wiggily jumped back.
"My sakes alive and some baked beans!" he cried. "What's that?"
"It is only I," said a small voice. "I'm your friend, the grasshopper.
How are you?"
"Oh, I'm very well, thank you," replied the rabbit. "I'm coming right
out. I must tell you about the terrible time I had with the big
lobster last night."
So Uncle Wiggily hopped out of the little house and told the
grasshopper all about it, and the grasshopper was so frightened that
he kept looking behind him all the while, for fear the lobster might
be coming after him. But we all know what happened to that lobster;
don't we?
"What are you going to do now?" asked the grasshopper after a while,
when Uncle Wiggily was washing his face and paws, and combing out his
whiskers, which had some seaweed in them.
"Oh, I am going to look for my fortune to-day," answered the rabbit.
"I may find it, for I have heard that often very valuable things are
cast up on the seashore by the waves. Yes, I think I shall find my
fortune to-day. But won't you have some breakfast, Mr. Grasshopper? I
have some cherry pie left, and a few lettuce and carrot sandwiches
with parsley trimmings."
"Oh, I might have a bit of parsley," spoke the jumping insect, and he
ate quite a bit of it, while the rabbit ate the other things. Then
they both hopped along the beach, looking for a fortune of gold or
diamonds for the old gentleman rabbit.
And, just as on the other day, there were children playing in the
sand, making little wells of water, and tunnels, and sandhouses, and
gardens, and castles and all things like that. But there was no chest
of gold, nor bag of diamonds, to be seen, though the two friends
looked in every place they could think of, and in some other places,
too.
"I don't believe the seashore is a very good place to find your
fortune," said the rabbit, sadly, as he hopped along. And then he had
to stop to take some sand out of his left ear.
"Perhaps if we ask some of the children they may be able to help us,"
suggested the grasshopper. Well, they did this, but, though the
children were very kind, they hadn't seen any gold or diamonds,
either.
"Then we'll ask some of the clams or starfish on the beach," said the
grasshopper, but the clams or starfish hadn't seen anything of the
rabbit's fortune, though they were very polite about it.
"Oh, I know what let's do," exclaimed the grasshopper.
"What?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"We'll go in bathing," went on the jumping insect, "and that will cool
us off, and perhaps down under the water we may find your fortune."
"The very thing," cried Uncle Wiggily; "in bathing we shall go."
Well, the old gentleman rabbit could swim a little bit, you know, and
the grasshopper could float on his back as nicely as a fat man can,
and together they had a very good time. It was so warm that the water
didn't make Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism any worse, I'm glad to say.
Then, after a bit, the grasshopper said he thought he'd take a little
hop on the sand to dry off, and that left Uncle Wiggily alone in the
water. And now comes the second part of the story.
The old gentleman rabbit was swimming slowly along, looking down under
the waves every once in a while to see if there was any gold on the
sand beneath, when, all of a sudden, he felt something grab hold of
his left hind leg.
"Oh, my! I wonder if that's the bad lobster again?" cried the rabbit,
and then he saw a most curious fish, called the toggle-taggle, and
this fish had hold of him.
"Oh, please let go of me!" cried the rabbit.
"No, indeed, I will not," said the toggle-taggle, speaking under
water, and making a lot of bubbles come up from his breath. "I am
going to drag you off to my den beneath the rocks."
"Oh, don't be so cruel!" begged the rabbit. "If you do that I can
never find my fortune, and I never can go back and see Sammie and
Susie Littletail again."
"That makes no difference to me at all," said the toggle-taggle,
speaking in a thin, watery sort of voice, "no matter of difference at
all. Here we go!" and he started to drag poor Uncle Wiggily to the
bottom of the ocean, under the rocks.
"Ha! I guess I'm not going as easily as that!" cried the rabbit, and
at once he began to swim as hard as he could toward land, and Uncle
Wiggily could swim pretty well when he tried, let me tell you. This
time he swam so hard that he pulled the toggle-taggle fish along with
him, and in a second or two Uncle Wiggily was out on the sand, but the
toggle-taggle still had hold of him.
"Dry land or water is all the same to me!" cried the odd fish, and
then the rabbit saw that the toggle-taggle had legs, as well as fins
and a tail, and so he could walk on dry land. "Now you come with me!"
cried the bad fish, and he braced with his legs in the sand and was
pulling the rabbit back into the water again.
"Oh, will no one help me?" cried Uncle Wiggily, for he was getting
weak. And just then a little voice whispered:
"Turn him around, Uncle Wiggily, so I can get hold of his tail. Then
I'll pinch him and make him let go of you."
"Uncle Wiggily looked, and there was a nice little clam on the sand
behind the toggle-taggle, and the clam had his two shells wide open,
ready to pinch the bad fish. Well, the rabbit at once began to push
the toggle-taggle toward the clam, and the fish didn't know what this
meant. But before he could say anything, his tail came right close to
the clam's open shells, and in an instant that brave clam shut his
sharp shells down very hard on the tail of the bad toggle-taggle and
held on tight.
"Oh, who has me?" cried the fish, and he turned around to see what it
was, and with that of course he let go of the rabbit. And then Uncle
Wiggily gave a big hop and got safely away. And when the toggle-taggle
saw the clam he was so frightened (for he knew that he couldn't bite
through the hard shells) that the bad fish at once jumped back into
the ocean, taking the brave little clam with him. But the clam didn't
mind that--in fact, it was just where he wanted to go--so everything
was all right.
"My! That clam saved my life, and I didn't get a chance to thank him!"
said Uncle Wiggily, somewhat sadly, as he sat away up on the beach.
"But I will the next time I see him." Then the grasshopper came back,
and had to hear all about what had happened.
Then he and Uncle Wiggily went on looking for the fortune, and they
had some more adventures before they found it.
So in the next story, if the doorknob doesn't drop off and fall into
the boiled eggs, making a big white and yellow splash, I'll tell you
about Uncle Wiggily and the starfish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY IX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE STARFISH
Let me see, where did we leave off? Oh, I remember, it was where the
red monkey jumped up on the elephant's back and tickled him with an
ice-cream cone, wasn't it? No, I beg your pardon, I'm wrong. I
promised to tell you about the old gentleman rabbit and the starfish.
So if you're all ready, and are sitting comfortably, I'll begin.
It was the day after Uncle Wiggily had gotten away from the
toggle-taggle fish that walked, and the little clam had pinched the
bad creature on his tail. Uncle Wiggily was hopping along the sand at
the seashore beach, and he was looking all around for his fortune of
gold or diamonds, he didn't care much which it was, so long as he got
rich and could go back home.
"I wonder what has happened to the grasshopper?" said the rabbit, for
he hadn't seen the jumping insect that morning.
"Here I am," exclaimed the little chap, and with a hop he landed down
beside Uncle Wiggily on the sand.
"Where have you been?" asked the rabbit. "I was beginning to think
that you had left me."
"Not yet, but I am going to soon," replied the grasshopper. "You see,
there is going to be a big jumping race back where I live and the
hopper who jumps the farthest will get a bag of popcorn. And, as I
think I will go back home to jump, I came to say good-by. Afterward, I
will come here again and help you to look for your fortune."
Well, Uncle Wiggily felt a little sad to have his friend, the
hoppergrass, go away, but there was no help for it. So they shook legs
with each other, the grasshopper gave a big spring and a jump and away
over the sea he sailed to take part in the hopping races at his home.
"Well, now, I wonder what will happen to me to-day?" thought Uncle
Wiggily as he walked along the beach, looked down at the sand and
listened to the waves washing up on the shore. "Perhaps I may find a
bag of diamonds," he said.
And just then, if you'll believe me, he looked ahead and there, on the
sand, was something that looked like a black bag, with a long, thin
handle on it with which to carry it.
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the rabbit, "I believe that is my fortune." He
hopped forward, intending to pick it up, when, all of a sudden, the
thing like a bag moved slowly along.
"Hum! That's queer," said the rabbit, "I never heard of a bag that
could move. I must see what this is." So he went up a little closer
and he saw that it wasn't a bag at all. It was a queer creature with a
long sharp tail like an ice pick, or a black lead pencil, and it was
crawling along, but the funny part of it was that Uncle Wiggily
couldn't see any legs on which the animal walked.
"Stranger and still more strange!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily; "what can
that be?"
"If you please, I am a horseshoe crab," said a voice from under the
black shell, "and if you lift me up you can see my legs."
"How shall I lift you up, Mr. Horseshoe Crab?"
"By my long tail, like an ice pick," was the answer, and when the
rabbit did this, underneath a shell that was shaped somewhat like the
hoof of a horse, he saw the legs of the crab. They were all covered up
when the crab walked, so no one could step on his toes.
"That is very fine," said the rabbit. "Perhaps you can tell me where
to find my fortune."
"I'm sorry, but I can't," said the horseshoe crab, and then he crawled
on again, very slowly, and Uncle Wiggily hopped forward looking for
the bag of diamonds, or gold.
Well, in a little while it got quite warm on the sandy beach, and the
old gentleman rabbit felt sleepy. He yawned and he twinkled his nose
like two stars on a frosty night, and then he said:
"Oh, me! Oh, my! I think I'll lie down and take a little nap on the
sands." So he took some sticks and stuck them up in the beach, and
over them he put some seaweed to make a shady shelter, and down under
this he stretched himself out, very nice and comfortable.
Well, the first thing you know Uncle Wiggily was fast asleep. And now
listen and see what happened to him. All of a sudden, up from the
ocean, on her thin, kinky legs came a big sea spider, a creature
something like a crab. She shot forward her big, bulgy eyes, and she
saw the rabbit under the seaweed shelter.
"Ah, ha!" cried the sea spider to herself, "here is where I have a
good rabbit dinner."
Slowly and softly she went on until she was quite close to the old
gentleman rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily never awakened. Then the sea
spider began to weave a web around the rabbit, just as a land spider
weaves a web around a fly that gets into her trap. Strand after strand
of the cobwebs did the sea spider throw around the sleeping rabbit,
until Uncle Wiggily was as tightly fast as if he had been tied with
ropes.
"Now, I'll bite him and that will be the end of him," said the sea
spider, and she was just going to do this when, all of a sudden, some
of the cobweb blew down and tickled Uncle Wiggily on the end of his
twinkling nose, and he woke up.
"Ha! What's this?" he exclaimed, and then he found that he could not
move, for he was fast in the web. "What does this mean?" he asked.
"It means that I have you!" cried the sea spider, wiggling her legs
like a trolley car.
"Oh, please let me go," begged the rabbit.
"Never! Never! Never!" exclaimed the spider. Then Uncle Wiggily tried,
and he tried, and he tried again, but he couldn't get loose from the
web.
"Oh, will no one help me?" cried the rabbit. And just then, if you'll
believe me, the waves washed something up on the sand, close to where
the sea spider had Uncle Wiggily fast. And that something was a
curious little fish, shaped like a star. In fact, it was a starfish
with five sharp points to it. And that starfish heard Uncle Wiggily
calling.
"I'll help you, Mr. Rabbit!" kindly exclaimed the fish.
"Now, you get right away from here," cried the sea spider, for well
she knew that the sharp-pointed starfish could cut her cobweb in a
second. "Keep away or I'll bite you!" the spider said.
"Oh, you can't scare me!" shouted the starfish. "I'm not afraid of
you, and I'm going to help Uncle Wiggily." So the starfish began to
roll over and over on the sand like a pinwheel, a hoop, or a wheel
that has no rim, and only spokes to it. Bumpity-bump on its five
points went the starfish, until it was close to Uncle Wiggily.
Then right into the sea spider's cobweb rolled the sharp-pointed
starfish until, with his points, he had cut the web all to pieces and
set Uncle Wiggily free, as easily as you can eat bread and jam on
Saturday afternoon.
"Now you get away from here!" cried the starfish to the spider, and he
threw sand at her until the crawly creature was glad enough to go back
into the ocean where she belonged. And the old gentleman rabbit
thanked the fish very much, and gave him a piece of lemon pie, because
he was all out of the cherry kind.
"Now, I must hurry on to seek my fortune," said Uncle Wiggily, for the
day was cooler now. So on he hopped, and he had another adventure.
In case the dishpan doesn't fall down off the nail, and smash the
watermelon all to pieces, so there's no supper for the little mouse
who lives under the ice-box, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily
and the slippery eel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY X
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE EEL
My, how it did rain! The water just dripped down from the clouds as if
it came from a fountain turned wrong side up, and as Uncle Wiggily
walked along the seashore beach, with a toadstool held over him for an
umbrella he thought he had never seen such a storm.
"But, I can't stay indoors, because it rains," he said to himself as
he started out that morning to look for his fortune. "That would never
do. A little water can't hurt me, and besides, with this toadstool
umbrella, it isn't as bad as it might be."
So he hopped along, leaning on his
red-white-and-blue-striped-barber-pole crutch, and with his valise
strapped to his back, and holding the toadstool umbrella over his
head. And he felt so happy in spite of the rain that he sang a little
song.
Illustration: Uncle Wiggily and the Eel
It went something like this, to the tune of "Hum tum-tum ti
tiddle-i-um:"
"I feel so very happy,
No matter if it rains,
For I don't ride on trolley cars,
Nor yet on railroad trains.
"Whenever I feel thirsty,
I take a drink of tea,
Or, if I can't find any,
Why, milk will do for me.
"I haven't found my fortune,
Perhaps I never can,
But I can hop upon the beach,
And beat an old tin pan."
And just then the gentleman rabbit saw an old tin pan lying on the
sand, and he went up to it and pounded on it with his crutch. Not hard
you understand--not so hard as to hurt it, but enough to make a noise
like a drum.
"There, perhaps that will wake the people up," thought the rabbit for
the beach was very lonesome in the rainstorm, with no children
building sand houses, and no one in bathing. So Uncle Wiggily beat the
tin pan again, and made a great racket, and, all of a sudden something
glided out from under the pan. It was something long and thin, and it
had a long, thin tail.
"Oh, my! It's the bad snake!" cried the rabbit, and he jumped back so
quickly that he dropped his toadstool umbrella and the rain came down
on the end of his twinkling nose. He was just about to hop away as
fast as he could when the long, thin creature, who had been under the
tin pan, exclaimed:
"I'm not a snake."
"No? Then pray tell what you are?" asked Uncle Wiggily quickly.
"I am a slippery eel," was the answer. "Just see if you can hold me,
and that will show you how slippery I am."
So Uncle Wiggily very politely took hold of the eel by the tail. But,
my goodness me, sakes alive and a piece of ice! In an instant that
slippery eel had slipped away.
"What did I tell you?" the eel called to the rabbit, as he crawled
back toward the tin.
"Well, you are certainly very slippery," said Uncle Wiggily. "I hope I
didn't squeeze you too hard."
"Oh, pray do not mention it," said the eel, politely. "I am used to
being squeezed, and that's why I'm so slippery; in order that I may
get away easily."
"I hope I didn't wake you up from your sleep under the tin pan," went
on the rabbit, who was very kind-hearted.
"Pray do not mention that, either," said the slippery eel, who was
very polite. "It was time I awakened, anyhow. But, since you have been
so nice about it, if ever I can do you a favor please let me know."
Then he stood up on the end of his thin tail and made a low bow, and
slipped into the ocean.
"Ha! That is a curious sort of chap," said Uncle Wiggily as he hopped
on. "I should like to meet him again, when I have more time to talk to
him. But now I must look for my fortune." So he went on looking along
the beach in the rain, but never a bit of his fortune could he find.
Now, in a little while, something is going to happen. In fact it's
time for it now, so I'll tell you all about it. As Uncle Wiggily was
hopping along the beach, where some bushes grew close down to the
water, he thought he saw something shining in the sand.
"Perhaps that may be a diamond," he said. "I'll dig it up." So he got
a nice pink shell with which to dig, and he set to work, laying aside
his toadstool umbrella, and not minding the rain in the least.
Then, all of a sudden, up behind the bushes came sneaking the old
fuzzy fox. He had been looking all over for something to eat, but all
he could find were hard shell clams, and they were too rough on his
teeth, so he couldn't eat them.
"Oh, but there is a soft, delicious morsel!" exclaimed the fox, as he
saw Uncle Wiggily digging in the sand, and the fox smacked his lips,
and sharpened his teeth on a stone. "Now I will have a good dinner,"
he added.
So he crept closer and closer to Uncle Wiggily, and the old gentleman
rabbit never heard him, for he was busy digging for his fortune.
"Now the thing for me to do," thought the fox, "is to spring out on
him before he has a chance to move. And I think I can do it, because
his back is toward me, and he can't see."
So the fox got ready to spring right on Uncle Wiggily and maybe carry
him off to his den in the woods, and the old gentleman rabbit didn't
know a thing about it, but kept on digging for his fortune.
"Here I go!" said the fox to himself, and he crouched down for a
spring, just as your kittie does when she plays she is after a mouse.
Up into the air leaped the fox, right toward the rabbit. And then,
suddenly a voice cried:
"Look out, Uncle Wiggily! Look out!"
The rabbit glanced up, but he was down in the sand hole and he
couldn't get out quickly on account of his rheumatism. Right toward
him the fox was springing, and then, all at once, the slippery
eel--for it was he who had called to the rabbit--the kind eel wiggled
up out of the ocean. Up along the beach he crawled quickly, until he
was right in front of the rabbit in the hole. Then the eel stretched
out like a piece of rope and waited.
And then the fox came down on his four feet, but, instead of landing
on Uncle Wiggily he landed right on the slippery eel, and that eel was
truly as slippery as a piece of ice. Right out from under him slipped
the feet of the old fuzzy fox, and down he fell. Slippery, sloppery,
slappery he went, sliding along on the eel until he slid all the way
off and plumped into the ocean, where he was nearly drowned, for the
water got in his nose and mouth and eyes.
"Now, you can get away, Uncle Wiggily," said the eel, and the rabbit
kindly thanked the slippery creature, and grabbed up the shining thing
he had dug out of the sand, for he thought it was a diamond. Then the
fox slunk away, taking his wet and bushy tail with him, and Uncle
Wiggily was safe for that time, anyhow, and the eel wiggled along
after the old gentleman rabbit, who thought he had better look for a
good place to sleep.
But he soon had another adventure, and I'll tell you what it was on
the next page, when, in case the parlor lamp doesn't go out to a
moving picture show and melt all the ice in the gas stove, the bedtime
story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the horseshoe crab.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY XI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRAB
"My, that was a narrow escape!" said the rabbit to the slippery eel,
after the fuzzy fox had gone away, as I told you in the last story. "I
never can thank you enough."
"Oh, that is a mere nothing!" said the slippery eel, as he dug his
tail down in the sand, modest-like. "I am always happy to do a
kindness for my friends."