"Very lucky am I to live to see this day," gobbled the turkey as he ate
breakfast with Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane. "If I hadn't run away with
the cranberry sauce I'd be roasting in the oven now!"
"Well, I'm glad you aren't," spoke the bunny. "Though of course it
wasn't right for you to take the cranberry sauce."
"They'll have that for Thanksgiving, anyhow," remarked Nurse Jane. "But
now, Wiggy," she went on, "if I get the baskets ready, will you start
out with them?"
"Yes, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," answered the bunny gentleman, twinkling his
pink nose.
"What baskets are you speaking of?" asked Mr. Gobble Obble, as he saw
the muskrat lady putting carrot cakes, turnip flopovers and lettuce
sandwiches up in little bundles.
"These are for the poor folk of animal land," answered Uncle Wiggily.
"Each year, at Thanksgiving, Nurse Jane puts up a good dinner for
them, and I take the baskets around in my automobile."
"How nice!" gobbled the turkey. "May I help? I'm so thankful for not
being in the oven, that I'd like to make some one else thankful too, if
I could."
"That's the idea!" cried the bunny. "Yes, come along, Mr. Gobble Obble!"
Soon the bunny gentleman had filled his automobile with baskets of good
things packed by Nurse Jane. Over the fields and through the woods rode
Uncle Wiggily and the turkey gentleman, and many a poor animal family
was the happier for Uncle Wiggily's visit.
And at last, when the final basket had been left, and Uncle Wiggily and
the turkey were on their way back to the bungalow, out from behind a
bush jumped the bad old Fuzzy Fox.
"I want to nibble Uncle Wiggily's ears for my Thanksgiving dinner!"
howled the Fox. "I want ears to nibble!"
"Well, you can't--not to-day!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, and he made the
auto go so fast that the Fox was left far, far behind.
"Oh, ho!" gobbled the turkey as they came within sight of the stump
bungalow. "This ride will give us a good appetite for the Thanksgiving
dinner."
"Indeed it will!" laughed the bunny.
But when they went inside, and met Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady looked
at them in such a queer way that Uncle Wiggily asked:
"What is the matter, Miss Fuzz Wuzz?" (He sometimes called her that in
fun.) "Has anything happened?" "Yes, Uncle Wiggily, there has," sadly
answered the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I will not keep it from you!"
"Have--have they come after me?" asked the turkey in a faint and
far-off voice. "Have they?"
"Oh, no," said Nurse Jane. "But by mistake I packed up everything in
the house to eat in those Thanksgiving baskets, Uncle Wiggily! I didn't
save out a thing for ourselves, and what to do about your Thanksgiving
dinner I don't know! I'm so sorry----"
"Tut! Tut! Never mind," broke in Uncle Wiggily kindly. "I dare say we
shall find something to nibble on. A couple of carrots will do me."
"Well, I have _those_," Nurse Jane said, "and a little corn."
"I love corn!" gobbled the turkey.
"I can eat it myself," the muskrat lady declared. "So if you can put up
with that for Thanksgiving, we'll eat!"
Then they sat down to the corn and carrots, and Uncle Wiggily said:
"I'm thankful I could make the auto go so fast that we ran away from
the fox."
"So am I," agreed the gobbler. "And I'm thankful I'm here sitting up to
the dining table, instead of being nicely roasted on _top_ of it! And
I'm thankful I could help you feed the poor animal families."
"I'm thankful," spoke Nurse Jane, "because you two gentlemen didn't
scold and make a fuss when you found what a mistake I'd made about the
dinner."
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Then we are _all_ thankful, and
there could not possibly be a better Thanksgiving than this!"
So they ate the corn and carrots and were very happy. And if the
jumping jack doesn't waggle his tail like a skyrocket and knock over
the milk bottles so they think they're roller skates and slide down the
back stoop, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the circus.
STORY XXIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE CIRCUS
Jackie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boy, came running up to Uncle
Wiggily one morning, so excited that he barked three times and fell
down twice, stubbing his toe over a lollypop stick on the path.
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" barked Jackie. "What you think? There's pictures
of elephants, and tigers and lions and camels! There's a man putting up
a big tent! There are red wagons and golden chariots, and blue wagons
and one that plays funny tunes!"
"And there's a man with his face all painted red, white and blue, just
like your rheumatism crutch!" barked Peetie Bow Wow, the other little
puppy dog chap, as he ran up wagging his tail. "And there's popcorn,
peanuts and pink lemonade! Wuff! Wuff!"
"What's it all about?" asked the bunny rabbit gentleman, as he sat down
on the steps of his hollow stump bungalow, while the puppy dog boys
caught their breaths, which had nearly run away from them.
"It's a circus!" cried Jackie and Peetie just like twins, which they
almost were. "A real circus!"
"A circus!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That's nice! Do you mean it is
the kind you animal boys sometimes get up; where you charge two pins to
get in and three pins for a seat?"
"Oh, no! It's a regular man-circus, that real boys and girls go to
see!" barked Jackie.
"It's like the kind we once ran away and joined, where we learned to do
jumping, to turn somersaults and other tricks," explained Peetie.
"Well, if it's that kind of a circus," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "we needn't
bother our heads about it. We animal folk can't go to any real circus,
you know!"
"Oh, but that's what we came to see you for!" whined Jackie. "We want
you to take us to the circus!"
"Take you to the circus!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why, the very idea!
How would an old rabbit gentleman and two funny puppy dog boys look
walking into a real circus? The men would think we belonged to it, and
had somehow gotten out of our cages. They'd shut us up behind the iron
bars, as the lions and tigers are kept. Take you two to the circus! Oh,
no! It couldn't be thought of!"
"Oh, dear!" sighed Jackie.
"We told the others that you'd take us," softly barked Peetie.
"What others?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know, curious like.
"Oh, Sammie and Susie Littletail, Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, Lulu,
Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and a lot of the animal boys and girls,"
went on Peetie. "We were over on the edge of the woods, looking at the
circus men put up the tent and the colored posters, and we all thought
you'd take us."
"Baby Bunty will be so disappointed!" said Jackie.
Uncle Wiggily twinkled his pink nose serious like and thoughtful.
"Hum! Circus!" murmured the old rabbit gentleman. "So Baby Bunty
wants to go, does she? Well, she never saw a circus, not even a
make-believe one, such as you boys get up. Now I don't care for a
circus _myself_--I've seen too many of 'em. But I'll go--just to take
Baby Bunty!"
"And may we come?" asked Jackie, eagerly.
"Oh, well, yes, I s'pose so!" slowly answered Mr. Longears. "Nurse Jane
will say I'm queer; but what matter? A circus comes but once a year!
Now run along, doggie boys. I'll have to think up some way of getting
all of you into the circus tent, for we can't buy tickets and go in the
regular way. The circus men wouldn't understand."
Jackie and Peetie were so delighted that they turned somersaults all
the way across the field as they ran to tell the other animal boys and
girls. Meanwhile Uncle Wiggily hopped along on his red, white and blue
twinkling nose----Oh, listen to me, would you! I mean his rheumatism
crutch. I guess I'm getting excited about the circus.
Anyhow Uncle Wiggily hopped across the field to the edge of the forest
where Jackie and Peetie had said the big show was going to be given
that afternoon. Surely enough there was the large white tent, much
larger than the one the camping boys had used the time Uncle Wiggily
helped dig a rain-water canal for the lads, so they would have dry beds
to sleep in.
There was the circus tent!
And there were red, green, yellow, blue and purple posters showing
pictures of lions, tigers, camels, elephants and all such wild animals.
"It's a regular circus surely enough," said Uncle Wiggily to himself.
"But how am I going to get in with the animal boys and girls? I can't
go up to the wagon and buy tickets, much as I'd like to. I can't speak
man-talk, though I can understand it. How can I get in?"
Just then Uncle Wiggily saw two real boys slowly walking around outside
the big tent. They seemed to be looking for something.
[Illustration: "It's a circus, surely enough," said Uncle Wiggily.]
"I hope they haven't lost their ticket money," thought the bunny. One
boy said to the other:
"Here's a good place to get in!"
"All right! Crawl under!" exclaimed the other.
Then those two boys suddenly crawled under the circus tent, because
they had no money to buy tickets. Uncle Wiggily watched them.
"Why! The idea!" exclaimed Mr. Longears. "What a way to get in! Why--I
have it! That's how I can get in with the animal children! I can crawl
under the tent! Of course I wouldn't do it that way if I could buy
them tickets, and get in the regular way. But I can't--the ticket man
wouldn't understand if I hopped up with green or yellow leaf money.
Crawling under the tent is the only way."
Uncle Wiggily hopped back to the woods where he had built his hollow
stump bungalow. The animal children were gathered about waiting for him.
"Come on. It's time to start!" said Susie Littletail, who had on her
best hat made of green ferns.
"Where are you going, Wiggy?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she
saw the bunny gentleman starting off at the head of the procession of
animal boys and girls.
"Oh, I'm just going to take Baby Bunty to the circus," said Mr.
Longears, holding the littlest rabbit girl by her paw.
"Are you sure you aren't going for _yourself_?" asked Nurse Jane with a
laugh.
"Of course not!" exclaimed the bunny. "The idea!"
On he hopped with the animal children, and when they came near to the
edge of the woods, where the circus tent gleamed white amid the green
trees, Uncle Wiggily said:
"Wait here, children, until I hop ahead and see if everything is all
right."
The bunny, hiding behind a bush, looked across a little field at the
tent. He saw two more boys walk softly up and try to crawl under the
white canvas, but all at once a man with a big club rushed up, drove
away the boys, and cried:
"No, you don't! You can't get in this circus that way!"
"Oh, dear!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "If men are on guard to keep boys
from crawling under the tent, they won't let me in with the animal
children! What can I do? Baby Bunty will be so disappointed! Ha! I
know! I'll start here in this field, and dig a burrow, or tunnel under
ground. I'll slant it down until I'm beneath the tent, and then I'll
slant it up, so when we come out we'll be inside the tent. In that way
the men with clubs will not see us!"
Uncle Wiggily hopped back to the waiting animal children.
"I'll have to dig a tunnel-burrow to get you into the circus," said the
bunny. "Stay here and keep quiet!"
Starting in the field, behind the bushes and a little way from the
circus tent, Uncle Wiggily began to dig. He was a fast worker, and soon
he had dug the burrow all the way through.
He came out inside the circus tent, beneath the rows of seats on which
were perched many boys, girls and grown folk watching the funny clowns,
listening to the band, seeing the men on the high trapeze bars and
looking at the horses.
"Ha! The circus is just beginning!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as
the big bass drum boomed out: "Zoom! Zoom!"
He crawled back through the burrow and got the animal children in line.
"Forward march!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and through the underground
burrow crawled the rabbits, squirrels, puppy dogs, pussy cats,
chickens, ducks, guinea pigs and all the smaller animal friends of the
rabbit gentleman.
They were not seen by the men with clubs, because they crawled beneath
the tent far below the ground. Then they came up inside the circus,
under the high tier of seats.
"Oh, isn't it wonderful!" cried Baby Bunty, keeping hold of Uncle
Wiggily's paw.
"Hush!" whispered the rabbit gentleman. "Don't let the people up above
know we're down here or they might chase us out!"
So there sat Mr. Longears and his little friends, having a fine view
of the circus almost from start to finish. And the people sitting on
the seats above dropped peanuts and kernels of popcorn which the animal
children picked up and ate. The only thing they didn't have was pink
lemonade, but perhaps that was not good for them.
And at last, when the band began to play like anything, and the horses
and elephants raced around the big ring, Uncle Wiggily said:
"Come, now. The circus is ended. We had better get out before the crowd
starts or we may be stepped on. Did you like it, Baby Bunty?"
"Oh, it was the most wonderful thing I ever saw!" sighed the little
rabbit girl. "Thank you, ever so much!"
"Yes, and we thank you also, Uncle Wiggily," called the other animal
children.
Then they crawled down through the burrow again, outside the tent and
came into the woods, through which they scampered to their different
homes. But they had been to the circus!
And if the window curtain doesn't roll up so fast that it flies to the
top of the ceiling, taking the gold fish with it, you shall next hear
about Uncle Wiggily and the lion.
STORY XXX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LION
Once upon a time, as Uncle Wiggily was hopping through the woods, he
heard a roaring sound, coming, it seemed, from a distant clump of trees.
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the bunny rabbit gentleman. "That's thunder! I
suppose we are going to have a storm. I didn't bring my umbrella, but I
can find a large toadstool, or mushroom. That will do as well."
The animal folk often use toadstools for umbrellas, you know, and Uncle
Wiggily had done this more than once. The bunny hopped on a little
farther, and the roaring, rumbling sound boomed out again.
"The thunder is coming nearer," thought Mr. Longears. "I had better
hurry if I am going to pick a toadstool umbrella!"
He limped on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch over
toward a large mushroom (which, of course, isn't the same as a
toadstool, though they look alike), and Uncle Wiggily was just breaking
off the stem, so he would not get wet in the thunder shower, when, all
of a sudden, a loud voice asked:
"Can you please tell me where the circus went to?"
Uncle Wiggily turned so quickly that he nearly lost the twinkle from
the end of his pink nose. For the voice that spoke was almost as loud
as thunder.
"Was that you making the noise like a storm?" asked the bunny as he
saw a large yellow creature, with a great head, surrounded by a fluffy
mane, and a tail on the end of which was a bunch of hair.
"It was," answered the big animal. "I'll try to speak more gently if it
hurts your ears. But, naturally, I have a loud voice, being a lion, you
know."
"Yes, I knew you were a lion. I remember seeing you in the circus,"
spoke the bunny gentleman, who was not at all afraid. "But tell me, why
aren't you with the show now?"
"Because I ran away," the lion answered. "I got tired of being shut up
in my cage all the while, and, when the man left the iron door open I
slipped out. I've been hiding in the woods ever since; but it is not as
much fun as I thought it would be. Now I wish I could go back to the
circus. Can you please tell me where it is?"
"I am sorry to say I cannot," Uncle Wiggily answered. "But if you will
come with me to my hollow stump bungalow--not that you can get inside,
for you are too large--why, perhaps Nurse Jane may know where your
circus is. She knows nearly everything."
"Who is Nurse Jane?" asked the lion.
"She is Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat lady housekeeper," replied the
bunny gentleman.
"A rat, is she?" went on the lion. "I don't know much about rats, but
once a mouse gnawed the ropes, when I was caught in a net, and set me
free--that was before I joined the circus."
"Well, a muskrat is something like a big mouse," said Uncle Wiggily,
"so I think you will like Nurse Jane."
"I'm sure I shall," the lion rumbled, trying to make his voice soft and
gentle.
"Well, then," went on Uncle Wiggily, "please come along with me, and
I'll try to find the circus for you. Nurse Jane may know where it moved
to, or some of the animal boys and girls may tell us."
So Uncle Wiggily hopped through the woods, the lion stalking along
beside him, and soon they reached the hollow stump bungalow of the
bunny gentleman.
"Nurse Jane! Nurse Jane!" called Mr. Longears. "I have brought home a
friend with me!"
"Not to dinner, I hope, Wiggy," remarked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, from inside
the bungalow. "I have a dreadful headache! I haven't been able to wash
the breakfast dishes yet, and as for making the beds, and dusting the
furniture--it is out of the question! So if you want dinner----"
"Please tell her not to bother," whispered the lion. "I am not hungry
and----"
"Is that thunder?" asked the muskrat lady, thrusting her head, tied up
in a wet towel, from her bedroom window.
And when the muskrat lady saw the big lion she screamed.
"Pray do not be frightened, my dear Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," the lion said.
"I just came with Uncle Wiggily to inquire where I might find the
circus, from which I foolishly ran away. But I'll toddle on, and not
bother you, since you are ill."
"Oh, it isn't really any bother," spoke the muskrat lady. "I could get
you a cup of tea. It was only your loud voice that startled me."
"I'm sorry," rumbled the lion, as gently as he could. "I'm afraid my
voice is rather louder than the purr of a pussy cat. But I can't help
it."
"Oh, of course not!" agreed Nurse Jane. "I wish I could ask you in, but
our bungalow was not made for lions."
"I'll come in and get him something he can eat outside," offered Uncle
Wiggily. "By that time some of the animal boys or girls, who know where
the circus went, may come along, since you don't know, Nurse Jane."
[Illustration: He ate nearly all the bungalow]
"No, I am sorry to say I don't know," spoke the muskrat lady, as she
went back to bed with her headache.
Uncle Wiggily took some carrot soup and some lettuce tea out to the
lion, but though the tawny creature said he was not hungry, he ate
nearly all there was in the bungalow, for his appetite was much larger
than that of the muskrat lady or Mr. Longears.
"And now I would like to do you and Nurse Jane a favor," went on the
circus chap, licking the soup off his whiskers with his red tongue.
"Couldn't I help wash the dishes or make the beds?"
"I'm afraid not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, thinking how funny it would
look to see a lion making a rabbit's bed.
"Yes, I suppose I am too large to get in the bungalow," went on the
roaring chap, in as gentle a voice as he could make come from his
throat. "But I know one way in which I can help!"
"How?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"With my tail," said the lion. "That isn't too large to put through one
of your windows. And on the end of my tail is a tuft of fluffy hair,
just like a dusting brush. Please let me stick my tail in through the
different windows. Then I can switch it around, and dust the furniture
for Nurse Jane."
"Do you think you can?" asked the bunny, doubtful-like.
"Of course!" said the lion. "True, I never before have dusted furniture
in a bunny's hollow stump bungalow, but that is no reason for not
trying. Please give me a chance!"
So Uncle Wiggily opened all the windows. The lion backed up, and thrust
his tail first in one and then in another. When his tail was in the
parlor he switched it around--I mean he switched his tail around--and
the fluffy tuft of hair on the end knocked all the dust off the chairs,
table and piano. Soon the parlor was as nicely dusted as Nurse Jane
could have done it herself.
In this way, with his tail, the lion dusted all the rooms in the
bungalow, even the one where Nurse Jane was lying down with a headache.
And when the muskrat lady saw the lion's fluffy tail switching around
on her chairs in such a funny way, she laughed, and then, in a little
while, her headache was all better.
"You certainly are a good houseworker," said the muskrat lady as she
got up and drank a cup of tea. "And you have done me a great favor."
"Pray do not mention it," spoke the lion politely as he flapped his
tail in the air to rid it of dust. "It was a pleasure!"
Then along came Jacko Kinkytail, the monkey boy, and he said the circus
had moved on to a town about ten miles away.
"Thank you! I'll travel there and get back in my cage," rumbled the
lion. Then, with a polite bow to Nurse Jane and Mr. Longears, the
tawny, yellow chap with the big voice walked away through the forest.
And every time the muskrat lady thought of the lion thrusting his tail
in through the window to dust the furniture she had to laugh.
Now would you like to hear a story about Uncle Wiggily and the tiger?
Well, you may if the scrubbing brush doesn't take the cake of soap out
to the washrag's party and forget to bring it back for the bathtub to
play ball with.
STORY XXXI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TIGER
"Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called a voice after the rabbit
gentleman, as he was hopping away from his hollow stump bungalow one
morning.
"What's the matter now?" inquired the bunny, turning around so quickly
that his tall silk hat nearly slipped down over his pink, twinkling
nose. "Does the Woozie Wolf or the Fuzzy Fox wish to nibble my ears?"
"I hope not!" exclaimed Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady housekeeper, for
she it was who had called. "But will you please take my scissors with
you, Uncle Wiggily?"
"Take your scissors? What for?" asked Mr. Longears.
"To have them sharpened," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "They are so dull
I can hardly cut anything, and I want to cut some linen up into new
sheets and pillow cases. Take my scissors along with you, Wiggy dear,
and have them made good and sharp."
"I will," promised the bunny rabbit gentleman. Then, wrapping the dull
scissors in a grape-vine leaf, Uncle Wiggily put them in the top of his
tall silk hat, and set the hat on his head.
"Why do you put them there?" asked Nurse Jane.
"So I'll remember them," the rabbit gentleman answered. "If I put them
in my pocket I'd forget them. But now, if I meet Mrs. Twistytail, the
pig lady, or Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, and bow to them, I'll
take off my hat. Out will slide the scissors, and then I'll remember
that I am to get them sharpened."
"That's a good idea," said Nurse Jane. "Now don't forget to bring them
back to me good and sharp. If you don't I can't cut up into sheets and
pillow cases the new linen I have bought."
"I'll not forget," promised the bunny gentleman.
He hopped on and on through the woods, and he had not gone very far
before, all of a sudden, he heard a growling, rumbling-umbling noise, a
little like far-off thunder.
"I wonder if that can be the lion again?" thought Uncle Wiggily.
"Perhaps he couldn't find the circus and he has come back to dust more
furniture for Nurse Jane with the end of his tail stuck through a
window in the bungalow."
Uncle Wiggily looked through the forest, but he saw no tawny lion.
Instead he saw, limping toward him, a beast almost as big as the lion,
but with a beautiful black and yellow striped coat.
"Oh, ho! Mr. Tiger--the one I saw when I went to the circus with Baby
Bunty!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "This is a tiger!"
"Yes, I am the striped tiger," answered the other animal. "And, oh,
what trouble I am in!"
"What is the matter?" kindly asked the rabbit gentleman, for he could
see that the tiger was limping and in pain.
"I ran a thorn in my foot," went on the black and yellow fellow, "and
my eyes are so poor I can't see to pull it out."
"Perhaps I can," Uncle Wiggily said. "I have strong glasses."
So the bunny gentleman looked through his spectacles, and soon saw the
thorn that was in the tiger's foot. It did not take Uncle Wiggily long
to pull it out.
"Oh, thank you, so much!" growled the tiger, though not in a cross
voice. "It serves me right, I suppose, for having run away from the
circus."
"Did you run away, too, as the lion did?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Yes," answered the striped beast, "we ran away together--the lion,
some other animals and myself. But now I'd be glad to run back again."
"The lion was," said Uncle Wiggily. "He was very glad to go back."
"Don't tell me you have met _him_!" exclaimed the tiger. "Where is he?"