Wiggily felt that he must not hop around in too lively a fashion, until
he found out whether the boy was bad or good. For there are some bad
boys, you know.
"He seems quiet enough," said Nurse Jane, as she spread some lettuce
marmalade on a slice of bread for Uncle Wiggily. "He sits there flying
his kite. I guess it will be safe for you to go to the store for me,
Wiggy."
"What do you want from the store?" asked the bunny gentleman, as he
took his tall, silk hat down off the piano. Sometimes he went to the
store quite dressed up. At other times he would put on an old cap and
overalls, just as he came from the garden.
"I want another ball of red yarn," Nurse Jane answered. "I did not
have quite enough to knit the mittens for Sammie and Susie, the rabbit
children."
"I suppose that's because I gave some of the yarn to the three little
kittens who lost their mittens," said the bunny, twinkling his pink
nose upside down, to make sure it would not fall off as he hopped along.
"Well, that's one of the reasons," Nurse Jane answered. "But I'm glad
you helped the little kittens. You can easily get me another ball of
yarn."
"Of course," Uncle Wiggily agreed, and soon he was hopping over the
fields and through the woods, on his way to the store. Not one of the
stores where the boys and girls bought their toys and lollypops, but a
special animal store, kept by a Monkey Doodle gentleman.
And as Uncle Wiggily hopped along under the bushes, near the house of
the Kite Boy, the bunny heard the boy's mother say:
"Don't go away and get lost, Buddie!"
"No'm, I won't!" promised the boy, as he held his kite string in his
hand and watched his toy fly high in the air.
Uncle Wiggily stopped for a moment, underneath a big burdock plant, and
looked at Buddie, which was the boy's pet name. Buddie could not see
the rabbit gentleman. If he had, Buddie would have been much surprised
to notice a bunny with glasses and a tall silk hat.
The wind blew the kite higher into the air, and Uncle Wiggily thought
of the many times he had helped Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the
squirrels, fly their kites, and how he had, more than once, made kites
for Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys.
Then the bunny gentleman hopped on to the store to get the ball of red
yarn for Nurse Jane. He stayed some little time, Mr. Longears did, for
he met Grandfather Goosey Gander, and talked to the old gentleman duck
about rheumatism, and what to do when you sneezed too much.
But finally Uncle Wiggily started back for his hollow stump bungalow,
and soon he was in the middle of the wood, about half way home. And all
of a sudden the bunny gentleman heard a crying voice saying:
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I don't know where my home is! I'm lost! Oh, dear!
I'm lost!"
Mr. Longears peered through the bushes, and there he saw the boy from
the red brick house, who held in his hand a broken kite.
"Ah, I see what has happened!" said the bunny. "His kite broke loose
from the string. Forgetting what he promised his mother, about not
going away, the boy ran after his kite, over into the woods, and now he
is lost. I wonder if I can help him find his way home?"
Uncle Wiggily did not show himself yet. Hiding behind the bushes, the
bunny followed the lost boy as he wandered about among the trees, not
knowing which way to go.
"Oh, where is my house?" said the boy over and over again. "Why can't I
find it?"
Then a mournful voice cried:
"Woo! Woo! Woo!"
"Oh, dear! What's that?" exclaimed the lost boy, suddenly stopping.
"It's only an owl bird," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. He wished he
might speak to the boy, and tell him this, but though the bunny could
understand boy-talk, the boy couldn't understand rabbit language.
The Kite Boy went on a little farther, and then he heard a rustling in
the dried leaves.
"Oh-o-o-o!" gasped the lost boy. "Maybe that's a snake!"
"Nonsense!" laughed Uncle Wiggily to himself. "It is only a brown
thrush bird, scattering the leaves to look for something to eat. And,
even if it were a snake it wouldn't hurt the boy. I wish I might tell
him so."
The boy wandered along a little farther, and suddenly there boomed out
through the forest a sound of:
"Ga-rump! Ga-roomp! Ga-Zing!"
"Oh, maybe that's a giant!" cried the boy, dropping his broken kite.
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "That's only Grandpa Croaker, the big
bull frog who tells such funny stories to Bully and Bawly No-Tail, the
frog boys! How Grandpa Croaker will laugh when I tell him the lost boy
thought him a giant! But I must help this boy out of the woods, or his
mother will be worried."
"Let me see, how can I do it without letting him see me? Ha! I have
it. This ball of red yarn. I'll hop to the edge of the wood, near his
house, and fasten one end of the red yarn to a tree there. Then I'll
come back, unwinding the ball on the way, and when I get to the boy,
I'll toss him what is left of the ball. Then all he'll have to do will
be to follow the red cord right to his house."
[Illustration: It lead the boy home]
No sooner said than done! Uncle Wiggily knew his way through the
forest, even in the dark, and he soon reached the edge of the wood and
saw the boy's red brick house.
Then, tying one end of the red yarn to the bush near where the boy had
been sitting to fly his kite, Uncle Wiggily turned back, unrolling the
ball as he hopped along. He soon came to the lost boy again, and the
poor little chap was crying harder than ever.
Over the bush and at the feet of the boy, the bunny tossed the little
ball of yarn that remained.
"Oh, what's that?" cried Buddie, almost ready to jump out of his skin.
But when he saw the little red ball, and the red string
stretching off through the trees, he was no longer afraid.
"Oh, maybe this is a fairy string, and will lead me home!" he joyfully
cried, as he began to follow it. And, though we know it wasn't a fairy
string, still it was just as good, for it led the boy home, as he
followed the yarn, winding up the ball as he walked along. And, oh,
how fast he ran when he came within sight of his house, crying, as he
dropped the ball:
"Here I am, Mother! Here I am. I'm not lost any more!"
"Well, I'm glad of that," Mother answered. "You shouldn't have gone
into the woods. I was just coming to look for you."
"Well," whispered Uncle Wiggily to himself, "I'm glad I could be of
some help in this world." Then the rabbit, who had followed the lost
boy until Buddie found his home, wound up the red yarn again, and took
it to Nurse Jane.
"My! That was quite an adventure," said the muskrat lady when the
bunny gentleman told her about it. And if the boiled egg doesn't try
to go sailing in the gravy boat, and splash condensed milk on the
bread-knife, I'll tell you on the page after this about Uncle Wiggily
and Stubby Toes.
STORY X
UNCLE WIGGILY AND STUBBY TOES
There are some children who are always stubbing their toes and falling
down. That was what happened, far too often, to the little boy in this
story. And I am going to tell you how Uncle Wiggily helped cure him.
Perhaps you may think it strange that an old rabbit gentleman, with a
pink, twinkling nose and a tall, silk hat could cure a boy of stubbing
his toes. But this only goes to show that you never can tell what is
going to happen in this world.
So we shall start by saying that, once upon a time, there was a boy who
slipped and stumbled so often that he was called "Stubby Toes."
Stubby Toes was not a very big boy. In fact, one of the reasons he
stubbed his toe so often (first the big toe of one foot, and then the
big toe of the other foot), the reason, I say, was because he was so
small. He had not yet grown up so that he knew how to step over things
that lay in his path, causing him to stumble.
Why, sometimes that boy would stumble over a pin on the sidewalk. And
again I have known him to trip and almost fall because he saw, in his
way, a leaf from a tree.
"Upsi-daisey!" his sister would cry as she caught him by the hand, so
he would not fall. "Upsi-daisey, Stubby Toes!"
It was Sister who really gave Stubby Toes his name, but she was only in
fun, of course.
Well, one day when Uncle Wiggily had started out of his hollow stump
bungalow to look for an adventure, Sister took her little brother
Stubby Toes for a walk. And, as it happened, the path taken by Sister
and Stubby Toes stretched along through the woodland where the bunny
gentleman lived.
"I think I'll go see Baby Bunty to-day," said Uncle Wiggily to himself,
as he hopped along, twinkling his pink nose in the sunshine. "I have
a little touch of the rheumatism, and Baby Bunty is so lively, always
playing tag, or something like that in the way of games, that she'll
make me spry, and chase the pain away."
But as the bunny gentleman came near the place where the little boy
and his sister were walking, all of a sudden Stubby Toes tripped over
a little stone, about as large as the end of your lollypop stick,
and--down he almost fell!
"Upsi-daisey!" cried Sister as she pulled Brother to his feet.
"Upsi-daisey!"
"Oh, ho! Boo hoo! I--I stubbed my toe!" cried the little boy.
"Of course you did!" said Sister, laughing.
I think I forgot to tell you that Stubby Toes often cried when he
slipped this way. Yes, almost every time he cried, and Sister wished he
wouldn't, and so did Mother.
"Boo hoo! Boo hoo!" the boy wailed. "I bunked myself!"
Sister laughed and recited this little verse, which is a good one to
sing whenever anything happens. It is a verse I read once, many years
ago.
"Oh, fie,
Do not cry,
If you stub your toe.
Say 'Oh!'
And let it go.
Be a man,
If you can,
And do not cry!"
After Sister had sung this for Brother, she wiped away his tears, which
just started to trickle down his cheeks, and they walked on again.
"This is a good little girl," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, for,
hidden in the bushes he had heard and seen all that went on. "I wish
I could teach Stubby Toes not to stumble so much. I wonder how I can?
I'll ask Baby Bunty about it."
So Uncle Wiggily hopped on to Baby Bunty's bungalow, and, meanwhile
Brother and Sister walked through the woods.
Well, I wish you could have seen what happened to Stubby Toes! But, no!
Perhaps, on second thought, it is better that you did not. But, oh! So
many times as he almost fell!
He tripped over a little baby angle worm, who was crawling to the store
to get a loaf of cake for his mother. And next Stubby Toes almost
landed on his nose, because the shadow of a bird flitted across his
path.
"Oh, Stubby Toes!" cried Sister, as she kept him from falling on his
face. "Will you ever learn to walk without stumbling?"
"Boo hoo!" was all that Stubby Toes answered, for, just then he
tripped over a blade of grass, and this time he fell down all the way.
Only he happened to land on some soft, green moss, so he was not much
hurt, I'm glad to say.
"This is too bad!" Uncle Wiggily said to himself, for he had heard and
seen it all. "I must get Baby Bunty to teach this little chap how to
walk more carefully."
It was not far to the home of Baby Bunty. That little rabbit girl was
out skipping her rope in front of her house.
"Tag, Uncle Wiggily! You're it!" she cried, as soon as she saw the
bunny gentleman.
"Tut! Tut! We have no time for a game now," said Mr. Longears. "I want
you to come with me, Baby Bunty, and teach Stubby Toes a lesson," and
he told about the little boy.
"Oh, I see what you mean," said Baby Bunty. "You want me to hop along
in front of him, and show him how not to stub his toe."
"That's it!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Stubby Toes and Sister are kind to
animals and will not harm us."
So, a little later, Uncle Wiggily and Baby Bunty were walking along the
woodland path just ahead of the little boy and his sister.
"Now, Baby Bunty," said Mr. Longears, "show this boy how nicely you can
hop along, even if there are sticks and stones on the path."
Away skipped the little rabbit girl. She came to a stone, but over it
she stepped as nicely as you please. She reached a stick, but she gave
a hop, and there she was on the other side! And she never stubbed her
toe once, because she was careful!
By this time the little boy and his sister had seen Uncle Wiggily and
Baby Bunty.
"Oh, look at the funny rabbits!" cried Stubby Toes. "I want to catch
'em!"
"No! No! Mustn't touch!" said Sister, and she reached out to catch hold
of Stubby Toes, but it was too late! He tripped his foot on a dandelion
blossom in the grass, and down he went!
"Boo hoo!" he cried.
"Oh, fie!" said Sister, singing the little verse again. "Look at the
baby rabbit! She doesn't stub her toes!"
And, surely enough, Baby Bunty, skipping along on the path in front
of Stubby Toes, never fell once. She skipped over pebbles and stones,
sticks and clumps of grass, and never once stepped on a flower.
"See if you can't do that, Stubby Toes!" begged Sister.
And of course that boy didn't want a little baby rabbit girl to walk
better than he did. So he dried his tears, stood up straight and began
to walk more firmly, watching where he set down his feet.
He came to a big stone and--over it he stepped without stumbling. He
reached a stick--and, over that he put both feet without falling! He
passed a lump of dirt--and right over it he JUMPED--and he didn't stub
his toe once! What do you think of that?
"Oh, I'm not going to call you Stubby Toes any more!" laughed Sister.
"Now you have learned to walk as well as that baby rabbit."
Uncle Wiggily laughed so hard that his tall silk hat almost slipped
down over his pink, twinkling nose.
"I think we have done enough, Baby Bunty," he said, "Come on now, and
I'll buy you a carrot lollypop!"
Away hopped the bunnies, and back home went Sister and Brother who was
Stubby Toes no longer. Baby Bunty had taught him a good lesson.
And if the jumping jack doesn't fall off his stick when he is trying
to play hop scotch with the bean bag, you shall next hear about Uncle
Wiggily's Christmas.
STORY XI
UNCLE WIGGILY'S CHRISTMAS
Down swirled the snow, its white flakes blown by the cold December
wind. From the North it came, this wind; and a bird--not a robin, for
they had long ago flown South--a bird went in the barn, and hid his
head under his wing, poor thing!
It was cold in the woods around Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump bungalow,
and the rabbit gentleman brought in stick after stick of wood for Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy to pile on the blazing fire that roared up the chimney.
Uncle Wiggily, having filled the wood box, took his cap, and his
fur-lined coat down from the rack.
"Dear me, Wiggy! You aren't going out on a day like this, are you?"
asked Nurse Jane.
"Yes," answered the bunny gentleman, "I am, if you please, Nurse Jane.
I promised Grandfather Goosey Gander I'd go down town shopping with
him. He wants to look through the five and ten cent stores to see what
they have for Christmas."
"Oh, well, if it's about Christmas, that's different," said the muskrat
lady. "But wrap yourself up well, for it is storming hard. I don't want
you to take cold."
"Nor do I want a cold," said Uncle Wiggily. "My pink nose gets very red
when I sneeze. I'll be careful, Nurse Jane."
Out into the snowy, blowy woods went Uncle Wiggily. He passed the
burrow-house where Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children,
lived. Susie was at the window and waved her paw to the bunny gentleman.
"Only three more days until Christmas! Aren't you glad, Uncle Wiggily?"
called Susie.
"Indeed I am," answered Mr. Longears. "Very glad!"
Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, looked from the window of
their house. Johnnie held up a string of nuts that he was getting ready
to put on the Christmas tree.
"Billie and I are going to help Santa Claus!" chattered Johnnie.
"Good!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Santa Claus needs help!"
The bunny hopped along through the snow until he reached the kennel of
Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys.
"We're popping corn!" barked Jackie. "Getting ready for Christmas!
That's why we can't be out!"
"Stay in the house and keep warm!" called Uncle Wiggily.
He hopped on a little farther until he met Mr. Gander, and the rabbit
gentleman and the goose grandpa made their way through the five and
ten, the three and four and the sixteen and seventeen cent stores. Each
place was piled full of Christmas presents for animal boys and girls,
and animal fathers and mothers were shopping about, to tell Santa Claus
what to bring to the different houses, you know.
Uncle Wiggily saw some things he knew Nurse Jane would like, and
Grandpa Goosey bought some presents that had come directly from the
workshop of Santa Claus.
Then along came Mr. Whitewash, the Polar Bear gentleman.
"Ho! Ho!" roared Mr. Whitewash, in his jolly voice. "Come to my ice
cave, gentlemen, and have a cup of hot, melted icicles!"
"I'd like to, but I can't," said Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane wanted
me to get her some spools of thread. I'll buy them and go back to my
bungalow."
"Then I'll go with you, Mr. Whitewash," quacked Grandpa Goosey, and he
waddled off with the bear gentleman, while Uncle Wiggily, having bought
the thread, hopped toward his bungalow.
The bunny uncle had not gone very far before he heard some children
talking behind a bush around which the snow was piled in a high drift.
Uncle Wiggily could hide behind this drift and hear what was said.
"Is Santa Claus coming to your house?" asked one boy of another.
"I don't guess so," was the answer. "My father said our chimney was so
full of black soot that Santa Claus couldn't get down. He'd look like a
charcoal man if he did, I guess."
"It's the same way at our house," sighed the first boy. "Our chimney is
all stopped up. I guess there'll be no Christmas presents this year."
"My! That's too bad!" thought Uncle Wiggily to himself. "There ought
to be a Christmas for everyone, and a little thing like a soot-filled
chimney ought not to stand in the way. All the animal children whom I
know are going to get presents. I wish I could help these boys. And
they probably have sisters, also, who will get nothing for Christmas.
Too bad!"
Uncle Wiggily peered over the top of the snowbank. He saw the boys,
but they did not notice the rabbit, and Mr. Longears knew where the
boys lived. Their homes were in houses near the brick one, where dwelt
the lad who was once lost in the woods. Uncle Wiggily unwound a ball of
red yarn, if you will kindly remember, and by following this the Kite
Boy found his house.
"I wish I could help those boys who are not going to have any
Christmas," said the bunny gentleman to himself, as he hopped on with
Nurse Jane's spools of thread.
And just then, in the air overhead, he heard the sounds of:
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
"Crows!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "My friends the black crows! They
stay here all winter. Black crows--black--black--why, a chimney is
black inside, just as a crow is black outside! I'm beginning to think
of something! Yes, that's what I am!"
The rabbit's pink nose began twinkling very fast. It always did when he
was thinking, and now it was sparkling almost like a star on a frosty
night.
"Ha! I have it!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "A crow can become no blacker
inside a sooty chimney than outside! If Santa Claus can't go down a
black chimney, why a crow can! I'll have these crows pretend to be St.
Nicholas!"
No sooner thought of than done! Uncle Wiggily put his paws to his lips
and sent out a shrill whistle, just as a policeman does when he wants
the automobiles to stop turning somersaults.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!" croaked the black crows high in the white, snowy air.
"Uncle Wiggily is calling us," said the head crow. "Caw! Caw!"
Down they flew, perching on the bare limbs of trees in the wood not far
from the bunny's hollow stump bungalow.
"How do you do, Crows!" greeted the rabbit. "I called you because I
want you to take a few Christmas presents to some boys who, otherwise,
will not get any. Their chimneys are choked with black soot!"
"Black soot will not bother us," said the largest crow of all. "We
don't mind going down the blackest chimney in the world!"
"I thought you wouldn't," said Uncle Wiggily. "That's why I called you.
Now, of course, I know that the kind of presents that Santa Claus will
bring to the animal children will not all be such as real boys and
girls would like. But still there are some which may do."
"I can get willow whistles, made by Grandpa Lightfoot, the old squirrel
gentleman. I can get wooden puzzles gnawed from the aspen tree by
Grandpa Whackum, the beaver. Grandpa Goosey Gander and I will gather
the round, brown balls from the sycamore tree, and the boys can use
them for marbles."
"Those will be very nice presents, indeed," cawed a middle-sized crow.
"The boys ought to like them."
"And will you take the things down the black chimneys?" asked Uncle
Wiggily. "I'll give you some of Nurse Jane's thread so you may easily
carry the whistles, puzzles, wooden marbles and other presents."
"We'll take them down the chimneys!" cawed the crows. "It matters not
to us how much black soot there is! It will not show on our black
wings."
So among his friends Uncle Wiggily gathered up bundles of woodland
presents. And in the dusk of Christmas eve the black crows fluttered
silently in from the forest, gathered up in their claws the presents
which the bunny had tied with thread, and away they flapped, not only
to the houses of the two boys, but also to the homes of some girls,
about whom Uncle Wiggily had heard. Their chimneys, too, it seemed,
were choked with soot.
But the crows could be made no blacker, not even if you dusted them
with charcoal, so they did not in the least mind fluttering down the
sooty chimneys. And so softly did they make their way, that not a boy
or girl heard them! As silently and as quietly as Santa Claus himself
went the crows!
All during Christmas eve they fluttered down the chimneys at the homes
of poor boys and girls, helping St. Nicholas, until all the presents
that Uncle Wiggily had gathered from his friends had been put in place.
Then, throughout Woodland, in the homes of Sammie and Susie Littletail
the rabbits, of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail the squirrels, Jackie
and Peetie Bow Wow the dogs, Curly and Floppy Twistytail the piggie
boys--in all the homes of Woodland great changes took place. Firefly
lights began to glow on Christmas trees. Mysterious bundles seemed to
come from nowhere, and took their places under the trees, in stockings
and on chairs or mantels.
And then night came, and all was still, and quiet and dark--as dark as
the black crows or the soot in the chimneys.
But in the morning, when the stars had faded, and the moon was pale,
the glorious sun came up and made the snow sparkle like ten million
billion diamonds.
"Merry Christmas, Uncle Wiggily!" called Nurse Jane. "See what Santa
Claus brought me."
"Merry Christmas, Nurse Jane!" answered the bunny. "And what a fine lot
of presents St. Nicholas left for me! See them!"
"Oh, isn't he a great old chap!" laughed Nurse Jane, as she smelled a
bottle of perfume.
And all over the land voices could be heard saying:
"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"
Near the hearth in the homes of some boys and girls who had not gone to
bed with happy thoughts of the morrow, were some delightful presents.
How they opened their eyes and stared--these boys and girls who had
expected no Christmas.
"Why! Why!" exclaimed one of the two lads whom Uncle Wiggily had heard
talking near the snowbank. "How in the world did Santa Claus get down
our black chimney?"
But, of course, they knew nothing of Uncle Wiggily and the crows. And
please don't you tell them.
So all over, in the Land of Boys and Girls, as well as in the Snow
Forest of the Animal Folk, there echoed the happy calls of:
"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" Once again there was joy in the
land.
And if the sunflower doesn't shine in the face of the clock, and make
its hands go whizzing around backward, I shall take pleasure, next, in
telling you about Uncle Wiggily's Fourth of July.
STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY'S FOURTH OF JULY
"You must be extra careful to-morrow, Uncle Wiggily," said Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy to the bunny rabbit gentleman one morning, as he stood on
the steps of his hollow stump bungalow.
"Why be careful to-morrow, more than on any other day in the year?"
asked Mr. Longears. "Is it going to rain or snow?"
"Whoever heard of snow on the Fourth of July?" inquired the muskrat
lady housekeeper, as she fastened a fluffy brush to the end of her
tail, for she was presently going in the house to dust the furniture.