"Well, I think I will go off and see if I can find my fortune," said
Uncle Wiggily. "I'll come back to dinner," and off he hopped, looking
on all sides for gold or diamonds so that he could get rich and go
back home to live in peace and comfort.
Well, the old gentleman rabbit hadn't gone on very far before he came
to a place where there was a hole in the ground, and in front of it
was a sign, which read:
"HOP DOWN HERE AND GET
RICH."
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Indeed, I'll not do that. There must
be a bad fox or a bear down there. I'll keep away." So he hopped on
very quickly, and a voice called out after him:
"Aren't you coming down and get rich?"
"No, I'm not!" answered the rabbit, as he looked back and saw a savage
mud turtle sticking his long neck and snaky head out of the hole. Then
the rabbit kept on, and he went so fast that the turtle couldn't catch
up to him.
Well, the next place he came to was a little pond of water, and in
front of this was a piece of paper on which was written:
"JUMP IN HERE AND GET RICH."
"Ah, ha! No, indeed!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, foxy-like. "They can't
catch me that way! There is probably an alligator in that pond."
So away he ran as fast as he could go, and a voice cried after him:
"Aren't you coming in?" And, looking back, he saw a big, savage water
rat.
"No, indeed; I'm not coming in," said the old gentleman rabbit, and he
hurried on, while the water rat gnashed his sharp teeth, because he
was so disappointed at not catching the rabbit.
Well, the next place Uncle Wiggily came to was a big, bright, tin can
standing beside the path that led through the woods.
"Ha! I wonder what that can be?" thought the rabbit. "Perhaps there is
a sign on it telling me to climb in and get rich." So he looked all
around the tin can, but there was no sign. "That must be a safe
place," thought the rabbit. "It may be full of gold or diamonds. I'm
going to have a look in."
He tried to climb up the sides of the can, but they were too smooth,
so he got some long sticks and some short ones, and, by tying them
together with ribbon grass, Uncle Wiggily made a little ladder. Then,
by standing this up against the tin can, he could climb up and look
in.
When he first looked over the top of the can he couldn't see anything.
Then he leaned away far over, and the first thing he knew, in he had
fallen ker-splash! and the can was full of molasses--yes, there poor
Uncle Wiggily was in a can of molasses and he was so stuck up that he
didn't know what to do.
He tried to swim out, but the molasses was too thick. And he kept
sinking deeper and deeper.
"Oh, dear! What shall I do?" he cried. "I can never get out!"
And then, all of a sudden, a voice outside the can called:
"Who are you, and what is the trouble?"
"Oh, please help me," begged the rabbit.
"I will," said the voice again. "I am the hippity-hop toad, and I am
going to take that can up on my back, and hippity-hop up and down with
it until I turn all the molasses into molasses candy, and then you can
climb out on that. Hold fast, please."
Well, Uncle Wiggily held fast, and the first thing he knew the can in
which he was a prisoner gave a lurch and a swaying motion, and then it
almost turned upside down, and then he knew it must be up on the back
of the hippity-hop toad.
Then, my goodness! I wish you could have seen that toad hop. Up and
down he went like the dasher in a churn, or like a steam pump. Up and
down! Up and down, faster and faster! The molasses splashed all over
and some got up Uncle Wiggily's nose and some in his eyes, and it was
all he could do to hold on to the sides of the can. But somehow he
managed it.
But pretty soon the molasses got thicker and thicker, and then it
began to get harder and harder, and pretty soon it was turned into
sticks of molasses candy. Then Uncle Wiggily took these candy sticks
and made a ladder of them, and when the hippity-hop toad set down the
can off his back the rabbit climbed up the inside of it on his candy
ladder, went down his wooden ladder outside the can and he was safe.
Of course he had lots of spots of molasses on him, but the toad showed
him where there was a brook of water in which he washed himself. Then
he thanked the hippity-hop toad and went back to the monkey house,
though still without his fortune.
Now in the next story, in case the mucilage bottle doesn't upset on
the doormat and make the letterman stick fast to it so he can't
whistle, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the angle worms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY XXVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WORMS
"Well, where in the world have you been?" asked the red monkey of
Uncle Wiggily, as the old gentleman rabbit hopped along after he had
gotten out of the molasses can.
"Oh, I had an adventure," replied the rabbit, and he told how the
hippity-hop toad had saved him from the sticky stuff. "But can you
whistle yet, red monkey?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"No, he doesn't seem to be able to do it," spoke the green parrot, in
a sort of sad and hopeless tone. "Every time he tries to whistle he
puckers his face up in such a funny way that I have to laugh, and when
I laugh I can't whistle. Can't you keep your face straight, so I won't
have to giggle?" asked the green bird, solemn-like.
Illustration: Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator
"I can't seem to," replied the monkey, and he made another effort to
whistle, but he puckered up such a funny face, and his tail got all
tied up in a hard knot, and he looked so queer that even Uncle Wiggily
had to laugh.
"You see how it is," said the parrot. "I can't give whistling lessons
and laugh at the same time," and then he had to laugh "Ha! Ha!" and
"Ho! Ho!" because you see the monkey made another queer face trying to
get the knots out of his tail.
"I think I have a plan," said Uncle Wiggily after a bit.
"What is it?" asked the monkey.
"You must get behind a tree, red monkey," said the rabbit. "Then the
parrot can tell you how to whistle, and give you a lesson without
seeing the funny faces you make. Then he can whistle, to show you how,
and he won't have to laugh."
"The very thing!" cried the parrot. So they tried that way, and they
got along quite nicely. Well, by that time it was the dinner hour,
and, after the meal, Uncle Wiggily said he would go out again to look
for his fortune, and would come back to supper.
"But don't fall into any more molasses cans," cautioned the monkey,
and the rabbit gentleman said he would not. Away Uncle Wiggily hopped
over the hills, across the fields and through the woods. Pretty soon
he came to a pile of nice brown dirt.
"Ha, some one has been digging here," thought the rabbit. "Perhaps
some one else is also looking for a fortune of gold or diamonds. If
that is so I had better dig here, too."
So, with his sharp paws, the rabbit began to dig in the dirt near the
pile of earth. Faster and faster he dug until, all of a sudden, he saw
something moving in the hole he had made.
"Ha! I wonder if there is moving-gold here?" he thought.
But when he looked again he saw that it was only a little angleworm,
or earth worm, as some people call them, who was crawling out to sun
himself.
"Oh, I hope I haven't hurt you!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, kindly, as
he lifted up the worm gently in his paws.
"Not a bit of it," answered the worm, twisting about to see if his
tail was all there. "But I'm glad you're not a fisherman, Mr. Rabbit."
"Why so?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he shook some dirt out of his left
ear.
"Because if you were you might stick me on a sharp hook and toss me
into the water for the fish to eat. Nothing is worse than to have a
hook stuck into you," said the worm, moving around until he was in two
knots. Then he untied himself again.
"I should think hooks might be unpleasant," spoke the rabbit. "But I
won't hurt you, and here is a bit of cherry pie for you."
"Thank you, most kindly," said the angle worm, as he sat up on the end
of his tail and ate the cherry pie, juice and all. "But why are you
digging in the earth, Uncle Wiggily?"
"To find my fortune," answered the rabbit, and he told how long he had
been looking for gold or diamonds and how he hadn't found any yet. "Is
there any gold down under the ground where you live?" asked the
rabbit, sad-like.
"Not a bit, I'm sorry to say," answered the worm. "I live down there
with numbers of my friends, but there is no gold. You had better dig
somewhere else. But you have been very kind to me, and if ever I can
do you a favor I will."
"Thank you," said Uncle Wiggily, so he hopped out of the hole he had
made, and, after saying good-bye to the worm, he traveled on to find
another place where he might dig for his fortune.
He came to a place in the woods, where the ground was nice and soft,
and there he started to make another hole. Well, he hadn't gone down
very far before, all of a sudden, he heard a growling voice behind him
calling out:
"Here! Who said you could dig in my land?"
"Oh, I beg your pardon. Is this your land?" asked the rabbit, and he
looked up to see the skillery-scalery alligator glaring down at him.
"Yes, this is my land, and these are my woods, and because you were so
bold as to dig here I'm going to eat you up!" shouted the 'gator,
lashing his double-jointed tail around in the dried leaves. "Here I
come!" he cried.
Then he made a dive, with his big, wide-open jaws, down into the hole
Uncle Wiggily had dug, but the rabbit didn't wait for him. Out he
jumped, and away he hopped, and the 'gator crawled after him. Faster
and faster ran the rabbit, and faster and faster came the alligator.
"Oh, I know he'll catch me!" thought poor Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, help!
Will no one help me?" he cried.
"Yes, we'll help you!" called a little voice on the ground, and,
looking down the rabbit saw the angle worm. And, crawling along with
him were about a million other worms, some larger and some smaller
than he. "Run along as fast as you can," said the first angle worm,
"and we'll twine ourselves in knots around the alligator's legs so
that he can't chase you any more. Run! Run!"
Well, you may be sure Uncle Wiggily ran as hard as he could.
"I'll get you!" cried the alligator, and he made a jump after the
rabbit, but it was the last jump the skillery-scalery creature made
that day. For the next instant those million angle worms just tied
themselves in hard knots, and sailor knots, and bow knots, and double
knots, and true lovers' knots and all sorts of knots around the tail
and legs of the alligator, and he couldn't move another inch.
"Now's your chance! Hop away, Uncle Wiggily!" cried the first worm.
"We'll hold the alligator here because you were so kind to me."
And the rabbit hopped safely away, and the ugly 'gator couldn't even
wiggle his double-jointed tail. Then, when the rabbit was safe at the
monkey's house, all the angle worms untied their knots off the
alligator, and they scurried down into the ground before he could bite
them. So that's how it all happened, just as true as I'm telling you.
And that 'gator was so angry that he almost bit a piece out of his own
tail. Then he went off in the woods and wasn't seen again for some
time.
But this wasn't the last of Uncle Wiggily's adventures; no, indeed. In
case the fish-hook doesn't catch the baseball and make the lamp
chimney all smoky, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the
black beetle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY XXVII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEETLE
One beautiful sunshiny day, when the wind was blowing through the
tree-tops, making music like a church organ many miles away, Uncle
Wiggily awakened in the little house which the red monkey had built
for him in the deep woods.
"Well, I'm going to make another search for my fortune this morning,"
he said as he wiggled his whiskers to get the dried leaves out of
them, for he had slept on a bed of leaves, you know.
"And I'll go with you," said the red monkey; "Because the last two or
three times you went off by yourself you got into trouble."
"Trouble? I should say I did!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit.
"There was the time when you fell into the can of molasses, and the
hippity-hop toad had to jump up and down with it on his back, until it
was made into sticks of candy," said the red monkey.
"True enough," spoke Uncle Wiggily.
"And then there was the time when the skillery-scalery alligator
chased you," went on the red monkey, "and the angle worms tied
themselves into knots about his legs to stop him. Do you remember
that?"
"Indeed I do," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And I will be very glad
to have you come along with me and help me. We will start right after
breakfast."
So the two friends built a little camp-fire in front of the wooden
house in the woods and they cooked some oatmeal and some carrots and
turnips, and Uncle Wiggily made a cherry pie with plenty of red juice
in it. And the monkey found a bag of peanuts under a chestnut tree and
he roasted them for his breakfast. Then they started off.
On and on they went through the woods, over the hills, up one side and
down the other, around the corner, where a big gray rock rested on
some green moss, and then, all of a sudden, there was a queer noise up
in the air. It was like wings fluttering and a voice calling. And the
voice said:
"Is the red monkey down there?"
"Oh, my! I wonder who can want you?" said Uncle Wiggily.
"Maybe it's the bear who once climbed up a tree after me," cried the
red monkey. "I'm going to hide." So he crawled under a big, broad
leaf. Then once more the voice called:
"I want the red monkey!"
"Oh, please Uncle Wiggily, don't let him get me!" begged the shivering
and shaking monkey. "Throw a stone at that bear, will you?"
"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "I don't very well see
how it can be a bear. Bears don't fly in the air, for they have no
wings. I'll take a look."
So he looked up in the air, and there, instead of a bear flying
overhead, it was only Dickie Chip-Chip, the little sparrow boy.
"Well, bless me!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What are you doing up there,
Dickie?"
"Oh, I'm making believe I'm a messenger boy," said the sparrow. "I
have a telegram for the red monkey."
"Oh, ho! So that's why you wanted me, is it?" asked the long-tailed
chap, as he crawled out from under the leaf. "What is the message
about, if you please?"
"Here it is," spoke Dickie, and then from under his wing he took a
piece of white cocoanut with writing on it. And no sooner had the red
monkey read it than he began to cry.
"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, dear!" sobbed the red monkey, "my little brother who works on a
hand organ nearly had his tail cut off by getting it twisted around
the handle. He is very sick, and I must go home right away. Oh, how
sorry I am!" and then the red monkey ate up the piece of cocoanut that
had the message written on it.
"You had better go home at once," said Uncle Wiggily.
"But I don't like to leave you," said the red monkey.
"Oh, I will get along all right!" spoke the brave old rabbit
gentleman. "Go ahead, and when your brother is well, come back."
"I will," promised the red monkey, as he started for home.
"And I'll fly on ahead to tell them he is coming," said Dickie
Chip-Chip. So they both called good-by to Uncle Wiggily, and hurried
away through the woods, while the rabbit gentleman kept on in search
of his fortune. And now for the black beetle.
Uncle Wiggily was walking along under a green tree, looking for some
gold or diamonds when, all of a sudden something jumped out of the
bushes and grabbed his crutch away from him. Then Uncle Wiggily saw
that it was a wolf, and the wolf sprang down into a big hole in the
ground, taking the crutch with him.
"Now," called the wolf, showing his ugly teeth, "if you want your
crutch, Mr. Rabbit, you'll have to come down this hole after it. Come
on down."
But Uncle Wiggily knew better than that, for just as surely as he
jumped down into that hole the wolf would have eaten him all up. And
the rabbit didn't know what to do, for he couldn't walk without his
crutch on account of being lame with the rheumatism.
"Oh, this is terrible!" cried the rabbit. "Whatever shall I do? I
can't stay in these woods forever."
And just then there was a rustling in the leaves, and out walked a big
black, pinching beetle. In front of his head he had two things just
like fire tongs, or a crab's claws, with which to pinch.
"What is the trouble?" asked the black beetle politely.
"The wolf, down the hole, has my crutch, and he won't give it to me,"
said the rabbit.
"Ha! we will very soon fix that," spoke the beetle. "Just tie a string
around me, Uncle Wiggily, and lower me down into the hole. Then I'll
pick up the crutch in my strong pincers, and you can haul me up again
as I hold fast to it."
"But the wolf may get you," said the rabbit.
"I'll fix that wolf," replied the beetle, winking his two little eyes,
real jolly-like.
So Uncle Wiggily tied a string around the black insect, and lowered
him down into the hole. The wolf saw him coming and cried out:
"Oh! You can't get this crutch, for I'm sitting on it, and I'll bite
you."
"Just you watch," spoke the black beetle, winking one eye this time.
So he looked down, and, surely enough, the wolf was sitting on the
crutch. But the beetle knew a good trick. He swung himself around on
the end of the string, which the rabbit held, and, as he got near to
the wolf, the beetle suddenly pinched the savage creature on the tail.
"Oh, my! Ouch!" cried the wolf, and he jumped up in a hurry. And that
was just what the beetle wanted, for now he could reach the crutch as
the wolf was not sitting on it any more. In his strong pincers he took
hold of it.
"Pull me up!" called the beetle to the rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily did
so, crutch and all, by the string, and they left the wolf down in the
hole as angry as a mud pie. So that's how the beetle got back the
rabbit's crutch for him, and that's the end of this story.
But there'll be another one soon, about Uncle Wiggily and Kittie
Kat--that is if the puppy dog across the street doesn't chew a hole in
the milk bottle and scare the iceman all to pieces so that he goes
roller skating with the jumping rope.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY XXVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND KITTIE KAT
"Well," said Uncle Wiggily, as he and the black beetle went along
through the woods, after the rabbit's crutch had been taken away from
the savage wolf, "don't you want to come along with me, Mr. Beetle,
and help me look for my fortune?"
"Indeed, I would like to very much," said the funny little insect,
"but the truth of the matter is that I have to go to work to-morrow,
and so I can't come."
"Work--what work do you do?" inquired Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, I am going to punch holes in trolley car transfers with my strong
pincers," answered the beetle. "Now, I will have to bid you good-by,
but if ever any one takes your crutch down a hole again, send for me
and I'll get it back for you."
So the beetle said good-by to the old gentleman rabbit, and went his
way, and Uncle Wiggily, after looking at his crutch to be sure the
wolf had not bitten a piece out of it, went on looking for his
fortune.
"My! It's quite lonesome going by yourself," said the rabbit, as he
hopped along through the woods. "I miss the red monkey and the
grasshopper and the black beetle. But then they can't always be with
me, so I'll have to travel on alone."
On and on he went. Sometimes in the fields he stopped to hear the
birds sing, and he heard them talking among themselves about how they
must soon get ready to go down South, for cold weather was coming.
That made the old gentleman rabbit feel a little sad, and he wished
that he could soon go back home, where Sammie and Susie Littletail
were waiting for him.
"But I can't go until I find my fortune," he said. "I must look harder
than ever for it."
Then, sometimes, when he went through the woods, he heard the little
brooks whispering to the ferns, how that soon there would be ice and
snow all over, with boys and girls skating and sliding down hill.
"Burr-r-r-r-r-r! That makes me shiver!" exclaimed the rabbit. "I, too,
must get ready for winter. Oh, if I could only find that gold and
those diamonds I'd go right straight home, and never travel about any
more."
So he looked under stones and down in hollow stumps, but not a piece
of gold nor a sparkling diamond could he find. Then it began to get
late, and the sun was darkened behind the clouds.
"I wonder where I can stay to-night?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "I must
pick out a nice, big stump, fill it with leaves, and sleep in there."
Well, it didn't take him long to find what he wanted, and he prepared
his bed for the night. Then he built a little fire in front of the
stump and cooked his supper. He ate some carrots and a turnip sandwich
with peanut butter on it, and the last thing he ate was a large piece
of cherry pie. Then he washed the dishes and, curling up on the soft
leaves, he was soon asleep, dreaming of his little nephew and niece,
Sammie and Susie.
Now, about midnight, the savage alligator, who hadn't had anything to
eat in a long time, started out to find something. And pretty soon he
came to the stump where Uncle Wiggily was sleeping.
"Ah, there is a good meal for me!" cried the skillery-scalery
creature, as he reared up on the end of his double-jointed tail and
put his long nose down in the hollow stump.
"Hey! What's this? Who is it? Has the red monkey come back?" cried the
rabbit, suddenly awakening. "I'm glad to see you, Mr. Monkey. Here is
some cherry pie for you."
And then, being only half awake, Uncle Wiggily took a large piece of
the pie and held it out, thinking he was giving it to the monkey. But
it slipped from his hand and it fell right into the alligator's face.
And the cherry juice ran down into the eyes of the skillery-scalery
creature, and tickled him so that he sneezed, and then he ran away,
for he thought the red monkey might possibly be in the stump, and the
alligator was afraid the monkey might throw hot potatoes down his
throat.
Uncle Wiggily looked out of the stump, and by the light of the silvery
moon he saw the alligator running away, and that was the first time he
knew it was the skillery creature, and not the monkey, who had come in
so suddenly.
"My! That was a narrow escape!" cried the rabbit. "It's a good thing I
took that cherry pie to bed with me. I must be on the watch, for the
alligator may come back." But the skillery-scalery creature, with the
double-jointed tail, didn't return, though Uncle Wiggily didn't sleep
very good the rest of the night on account of being so anxious and
worrying so much.
And in the morning when he awakened from a little nap the old
gentleman rabbit felt very strange. He tried to get up, but he found
that he couldn't. He was as dizzy as if he had been on a
merry-go-round and he felt very ill.
"It must have been the fright the alligator gave me," he thought. "Oh,
dear, what shall I do? Here I am, all alone in this stump in the
woods, and no one to help me. Oh, I'm a poor, forsaken old rabbit, and
nobody loves me! Oh, if Sammie or Susie were only here. I'm sure----"
And just then there was a scratching sound outside the stump.
"Hark! What's that?" whispered the rabbit. "That must be the alligator
coming back to get me! And I can't even get up to throw some cherry
pie at him. Oh, if the red monkey or the black beetle would only
come!"
Then the scratching noise sounded some more, and Uncle Wiggily was
getting so frightened that he didn't know what to do. And then, all of
a sudden, he saw something white at the top hole of the stump, and a
voice exclaimed:
"Well, if there isn't my dear old Uncle Wiggily! And you are ill, I
know you are. I can tell by the way your nose twinkles."
"Indeed, I am ill," said the poor rabbit, "but who are you?" For you
know he couldn't see well, as his glasses had fallen off.
"Oh, I am Kittie Kat," said the voice, and there, surely enough, was
the little pussy girl. She had been away on her summer vacation, and
was just coming back to get ready for school when she happened to walk
through the woods. There she heard a voice in the stump, and, going to
look, she saw Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, how glad I am to see you, Kittie Kat," said the rabbit.
"And how sorry I am to see you ill," said the pussy girl. "But don't
worry. I'm going to make you well. Just keep quiet."
Then that brave little pussy girl scurried around, and gathered some
leaves from a plant called catnip.