everything. Fastened to the toy was a little rubber hose and a rubber
ball was on the end of the hose.
When the toy rabbit was placed on the ground, and the rubber ball was
pressed, some air was squeezed inside the bunny's legs, and he would
hop across the floor; and his ears would flop up, too, because he had
springs and other things inside him.
"There's no use squeezing the ball," sadly said the little girl. "My
toy bunny is broken, and won't ever hop again! Oh, dear! Boo hoo!"
"My! This is too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder what I can do
to make that little girl feel happier? I might get Sammie or Susie
Littletail, the rabbit children, to come and stay with the real
children for a while. They seem to be kind--this boy and girl. They
wouldn't hurt Sammie or Susie. That's what I'll do! I'll go get the
Littletail brother and sister, and have them hop over here so this boy
and girl can easily catch them and play with them a while."
Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods. The boy and girl sat in
a moss-covered dingly dell, trying to mend the broken toy. And Mr.
Longears had not gone very far before, all of a sudden, he came to a
little hollow place, filled with leaves. There he heard a voice saying:
"Oh dear! Oh what a pain! Oh what trouble I am in!"
"Ha! This seems to be my busy day for trouble!" exclaimed Uncle
Wiggily, as he looked at the leaf-filled hollow. "Who are you, and what
is the matter?" asked the bunny gentleman.
"Oh, I'm the wild rabbit," was the answer. "The wild rabbit who was
eating the carrots in your garden. But alas! I can eat no more!"
"Why not?" Uncle Wiggily asked.
"Because I have fallen and broken my leg," was the answer. "I can hop
no more, and I suppose I shall have to stay here and starve. I'm sorry
I was bad, and tried to spoil your garden, Uncle Wiggily."
"Oh, perhaps you didn't really mean it," the bunny gentleman said. "But
wait here a minute. I think I can help you."
"Oh, if you only would!" sighed the wild rabbit with a broken leg.
"I think I see a chance here," said Uncle Wiggily softly to himself,
"to help that boy and girl, and also the wild rabbit."
Off hopped Uncle Wiggily through the woods. It did not take him long
to reach the place where the boy and girl had been playing with the
hippity-hop rabbit toy that was now broken. The children were still
there. The little girl had sat down on a log to cry, and the boy was
trying to make her a willow whistle so she wouldn't feel so unhappy.
The broken toy rabbit lay on a pile of leaves some distance away from
the boy and girl. I suppose they had tossed it there, thinking it was
of no more use.
[Illustration: "He's hopping off by himself!"]
"This is just what I want," said Uncle Wiggily. He found a long piece
of wild grape vine, like a small rope, and, when the boy and girl
weren't looking, Uncle Wiggily slipped up and fastened one end of the
grape-vine cord to the broken toy. Then, hopping off behind the bushes,
Uncle Wiggily began pulling the piece of vine. Of course he also
pulled the toy rabbit along the ground.
"Oh, look!" suddenly cried the little girl. "Look, Donald! My toy
rabbit is all right again! He's hopping off by himself!"
And, surely enough, the toy did seem to be hopping away. But this, as
you know, was because Uncle Wiggily was pulling it by the grape-vine
string.
"Come on! Help me catch him!" begged the little girl.
"I will!" her brother said. Together they raced on after the toy, which
Uncle Wiggily jerked along the forest path. The bunny gentleman kept
out of sight behind the bushes, and as the wild grape vine was just the
color of the earth and leaves the children did not see it. To them it
looked as if the toy was hopping away all by itself.
"I say, Mab!" called Donald. "He hops better than he ever did before! I
wonder who is squeezing the rubber ball? I can't see anyone."
"Maybe it's fairies," suggested Mab, in a low voice.
"Pooh! There aren't any fairies!" laughed Donald.
On and on ran the boy and girl after the skipping toy rabbit, and Uncle
Wiggily pulled it so fast as he hopped along, out of sight, that Donald
and Mab could not get their hands on the toy. It kept ahead of them all
the way.
Uncle Wiggily knew what he was doing and, in a little while, he led the
boy and girl up to the place where the wild rabbit with a broken leg
lay in the bed of leaves. Uncle Wiggily jerked the toy rabbit close to
the wild one, and then pulled the toy out of sight behind a clump of
ferns.
"Oh, Don! Look!" cried the girl. "Our toy rabbit has changed into a
real one!" And she pointed to the wild rabbit, which could not move
away, though he wanted to very much, as his heart beat very fast.
"A toy rabbit couldn't change into a real one!" said the boy.
"Well, mine did; else how could this live rabbit be here, and my toy
one gone?" asked Mab. For that is what seemed to have happened, all on
account of Uncle Wiggily.
"And see, Don," went on the little girl, as she knelt down beside the
poor, wild bunny. "His leg is broken, just as my toy rabbit's leg was
broken. Oh, it is the same one! My toy has changed into a live rabbit!
Oh, you poor, sweet, lovely darling!" cried the little girl, as she
cuddled the wild rabbit up in her arms.
"Say! This sure is queer!" exclaimed the boy. "Very queer!"
Uncle Wiggily, peering through the bushes where he was hiding with the
broken toy rabbit, looked out and saw the little girl holding the wild
rabbit with its broken leg. The wild rabbit would have hopped away if
it could, but was not able.
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Is this how you help me?" sadly
cried the wild rabbit. Of course, he spoke in rabbit talk, which
neither the boy nor girl understood. But Uncle Wiggily, hiding in the
bushes, heard and softly answered:
"Don't be afraid, wild rabbit. These children will be kind to you, I
know. They will take you home, and mend your broken leg and you will be
as stylish as I am."
"Oh, if I'm going to be _stylish_, that's different!" said the wild
rabbit. Then he nestled down in the girl's arms, and she and the boy
took the bunny home and their father mended the broken leg with splints
of wood and soft cloth bandages.
"Well, I guess that wild rabbit won't spoil my carrots any more,"
laughed Uncle Wiggily as he hopped along. "I'll take this broken toy
home to Sammie and Susie."
As for the wild rabbit, he was no longer frightened when he heard Uncle
Wiggily say that the children would be kind. And no one could have been
more kind than were Donald and Mab. When the wild rabbit had to stay
quiet until his leg healed, they brought him, every day, fresh lettuce
and carrots, with cool water to drink. And when the leg was all well,
the wild rabbit was so tame that he never wanted to leave the boy and
girl, and go back to spoil Uncle Wiggily's garden. He lived happily
with Donald and Mab all the rest of his life.
Sammie and Susie had fun playing with the broken toy, and they thought
Mr. Longears was very clever to think of a way to not only help the
wild bunny and the boy and girl, but also to save his carrots from
being eaten.
So if the strawberry shortcake doesn't try to stretch itself up tall
and look like a big mince pie, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily
and the tame squirrel.
STORY XXXV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TAME SQUIRREL
Once upon a time, as Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit
gentleman, was hopping through the woods, he heard a rustling in the
bushes, and he crouched down to hide himself.
"For," thought the bunny, "this may be the Pipsisewah or the Skeezicks,
or even the Woozie Wolf or the Fuzzy Fox. I had better be careful!"
But when Uncle Wiggily looked over the top of the bush, whence the
rustling sound had come, all he saw was the tame rabbit, who once had a
broken leg. The rabbit, who was now tame, was hopping along the forest
path.
"Hello!" called Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly voice, as he twinkled
his pink nose upside down, just for a change. "Where are you going,
Tame Rabbit? I shall call you that as a new name. I hope you are not
going to run away from Donald and Mab, the boy and girl who were so
kind to you."
"Indeed I am not running away," answered the Tame Rabbit. "I am just
going to the woods to look for some flowers. Don and Mab are going to
have a little woodland party this afternoon, and I want to get them
some flowers to put on the flat stump which they will use for a table."
"That is very kind of you," Uncle Wiggily said. "I'll help!"
"Wouldn't you like to come to the party?" asked the Tame Rabbit, as he
and the bunny gentleman hopped into the forest together. "There will be
lots of good things to eat--even ice cream!"
"Thank you, I'd better not come, as some of the boys and girls might
not be as thoughtful as Mab and Don," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Some of
them might throw peanut shells at my tall, silk hat; just for fun, you
know."
"Well, perhaps they might," admitted the Tame Rabbit. "I don't wear
anything but an old cap--nobody tries to knock that off," he added with
a laugh. "But can't you just look in at the party, Uncle Wiggily? Just
stop for a moment?"
"Yes, I'll do that," promised Mr. Longears. And when he had nibbled,
with his teeth, some wild flowers for the Tame Bunny, Uncle Wiggily
hopped to his hollow stump bungalow, promising to peek through the
bushes at the children's party later in the day.
That afternoon, as he was hopping through the woods, Uncle Wiggily
heard the sounds of shouting and laughter.
"That must be the party," thought the bunny gentleman. "I'll skip over
and take a look."
In a little moss-covered dingly dell among the trees, Uncle Wiggily saw
Don, Mab and many of their little boy and girl friends dancing about a
broad, flat stump, which was set like a table. And in the middle was
the bunch of flowers, some of which Uncle Wiggily had helped gather.
"Those children are certainly having a good time!" thought Uncle
Wiggily, twinkling his pink nose so that it almost turned a somersault.
"And the Tame Rabbit, who used to be wild, is enjoying himself, too."
The other bunny surely was having fun, hopping here and there almost
as if playing tag with the children.
All at once Mab cried:
"Come on now! We'll eat!"
"Hurray!" cried all the boys.
The girls didn't get so excited about it, but I think they were just as
glad to eat as were the boys. The children gathered around the stump
table, and I wish I could tell you all the good things they had for the
woodland party. But I'm not allowed to do this for fear it would make
you too hungry.
All I can say is that there was just the most lovely party-things you
ever heard of! The Tame Rabbit sat near Don and Mab, eating what they
gave him.
"Now we'll crack the nuts and play more games!" called Mab, after a
while.
But when she went to pass the nuts she found that they were not
cracked, and some of them had very hard shells.
"Oh, Don! Didn't you bring the nut cracker?" asked Mab.
"No, I thought you did," answered her brother.
"And I thought you did!" exclaimed Mab. "Oh, what shall we do?"
"We can crack the nuts with stones on top of the stump," said one boy.
But when they tried this, some of the nuts flew away over in the
bushes, without getting cracked at all. Others hit the girls on the
ends of their noses. And some of the children pounded their fingers
instead of cracking the nuts.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Mab, as she saw what was going on. "My party will be
spoiled, all because we haven't a nut cracker."
The Tame Rabbit heard all this. So did Uncle Wiggily, who was looking
on, hidden in the bushes. Both bunnies knew what was said though they
couldn't speak boy and girl talk.
"Can't you help the children, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the Tame Rabbit, as
he hopped out to the bush where the bunny gentleman was hidden. None of
the children saw the two animals talking together.
"How do you mean help them?" asked Mr. Longears.
"By getting them a nut cracker," went on the Tame Rabbit.
"A nut cracker?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "A squirrel is the best
nut cracker I know of. Ha! I have it! I'll send one of the Bushytail
brothers over here to crack nuts for the children. I think the boys and
girls will be kind to him. I'll go get Johnnie or Billie."
Away hopped Uncle Wiggily through the woods, and soon he met Johnnie
Bushytail.
"Johnnie, don't you want to come and be a nut cracker for some
children?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Why, of course!" chattered Johnnie, who was a very tame squirrel. "I
love children," he said. "And I suppose I may eat a few of the nuts I
crack."
"Oh, surely," answered Uncle Wiggily.
The bunny gentleman led Johnnie back through the woods to the
children's party. The boys and girls were still trying to crack the
hard nuts, but they could not do it well at all. Johnnie suddenly
scrambled out of the bushes and up on the flat stump, and, taking a
nut in his paws, he cracked it, by gnawing through the hard shell with
his sharp teeth. Then he took out the meat and laid it on a birch-bark
plate.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed Don, pointing to the Bushytail chap. "A tame
squirrel is cracking the nuts for us! Look!"
[Illustration: "Maybe he's a fairy!" she whispered.]
"Oh, the dear little thing!" cried Mab. "And see, he's all dressed up
like a real boy. Maybe he's a fairy!" she whispered as Johnnie cracked
more nuts.
"Pooh! There aren't any fairies!" said Don. "But he sure is helping us!"
Johnnie sat up on the stump, his tail held straight up behind his back,
and he cracked nut after nut.
"This is fine!" whispered the Tame Rabbit to Johnnie, the tame
squirrel, while Uncle Wiggily, hiding behind a bush, saw and heard it
all. "The children will love you for this."
"I'm glad of that," answered Johnnie, in animal talk, which the boys
and girls could not hear. Then the tame squirrel cracked many more
nuts, eating some himself, for there were more than enough for all the
children at the party.
"Oh, I wonder if we could take this squirrel home with us, as we took
the Wild Tame Rabbit?" said the boy, as Johnnie cracked the last nut.
"Try it," suggested Mab to her brother.
But when Donald put out his hand, and tried to catch Johnnie, the
squirrel boy just flipped his tail and scampered away.
"Thank you, I'd rather not be caught," chattered Johnnie, though of
course Don and Mab did not know what he was saying. Then, when the
woodland party was over, the children went home.
So that's how it all happened, as true as I'm telling you. And if the
Jumping Jack doesn't stick beans in the sugar cookies, in place of the
raisins he takes out to put in the molasses candy, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the wolf.
STORY XXXVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WOLF
Uncle Wiggily was hopping through the woods with Nurse Jane one day,
wondering what sort of an adventure he might have, and he was helping
the muskrat lady housekeeper carry some clothes pins that she had
bought at the three and four cent store when, all of a sudden, Miss
Fuzzy Wuzzy called loudly:
"Look out!"
"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Am I spilling the clothes
pins?"
"No," answered the muskrat housekeeper of the hollow stump bungalow.
"But, see that big wolf! Let's run!"
"Where's any wolf?" asked the bunny gentleman. "I don't see any," and
he began searching in his pockets for his spectacles, which he had
taken off, as they tickled his pink, twinkling nose.
"There's a big, gold wolf, over behind that mulberry bush," whispered
Nurse Jane.
"What's that? A _gold_ wolf? I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed
Uncle Wiggily. "You must be mistaken, Nurse Jane. I'll take a look!"
Then bravely singing the song--"Here we go 'round the Mulberry Bush,"
Uncle Wiggily hopped up to where Nurse Jane pointed. Surely enough,
something was gleaming gold-like among the trees, and as soon as Uncle
Wiggily had put on his glasses, and had taken a good look, he cried:
"Well, well, Nurse Jane! This is a gold wolf, surely enough! But it
cannot hurt us!"
"Why not?" asked the muskrat lady, who was getting ready to run.
"Because it is only a wolf carved out of _wood_, and painted like
gold," answered the bunny gentleman. "I see what this is--it is one of
the gilded wolves that were on the Little Red Riding Hood chariot from
the circus. This golden, wooden wolf fell off the wagon and the circus
people did not stop to pick it up."
"Well, I'm glad it's a wooden wolf," spoke the muskrat lady. "Then it
can't nibble your ears; can it?"
"Not in the least," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "But if I had a wheelbarrow,
or something, I'd take this wolf home to my bungalow."
"What for?" Nurse Jane wanted to know.
"Oh, I'd set it in the hall, near the umbrella rack," said Uncle
Wiggily. "Just think! A golden, wooden wolf would be quite an ornament."
"Yes," agreed Nurse Jane, "it might look nice. But how can you get it
home? It is too heavy to drag, and it has no wheels on as the animals
have in the Noah's arks."
"Hum! Let me see, now," said Uncle Wiggily, walking around the golden,
wooden wolf. "If I only had some wheels!"
And just then, along through the woods came Billie and Nannie Wagtail,
the goat boy and girl, each with roller skates dangling by a strap over
their shoulders.
"Oh, Billie! The very chap I wanted!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Let me
take your roller skates for the golden wolf! And you too, Nan!"
"With pleasure," bleated Billie, shaking his horns. "I'll help you
fasten them on."
"Will the wolf bite?" asked Nannie, a bit timidly.
"Of course not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily.
So the roller skates were fastened on the paws of the golden, wooden
wolf, and then, with a bit of wild grape vine for a rope, the gilded
animal from the Red Riding Hood circus wagon was dragged through the
woods to Uncle Wiggily's bungalow.
There the savage creature, who couldn't bite even a lollypop stick, was
placed in the hall near the front door.
"Our friends will think us quite stylish like and proper," said Uncle
Wiggily, admiring the wolf ornament.
"Yes," agreed Nurse Jane. "As long as it doesn't scare any of the
animal children it will be all right."
But the animal children soon learned that the wolf was only made of
gilded wood, and though his mouth was widely open, showing his sharp
teeth, he could never, never bite them.
One day, about a week after he had brought the gilded wolf to his
bungalow, Uncle Wiggily was home all alone. Nurse Jane had gone to the
movies, with Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, and the bunny gentleman
was just thinking of going to look for an adventure, or a piece of pie
in the pantry, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock at his door.
"That must be Nurse Jane," said Uncle Wiggily. "She is back a bit
early, and has, I suppose, forgotten her key. I'll let her in."
The bunny gentleman opened his bungalow door, but, instead of his
muskrat lady housekeeper he saw the bad old Skeezicks.
"Ah ha!" cried the Skeezicks. "I fooled you, didn't I? You thought I
was Nurse Jane and you came to let me in! Now I'm going to nibble your
ears! Ha! Ha!"
Uncle Wiggily tried to shut the door, but the bad Skeezicks pushed his
way in, and was just going to nibble the bunny's ears when, all of a
sudden, the impolite Skee saw the golden wolf.
Coming into the dark hall, as he did from the bright outdoors, the
Skeezicks could not see that the wolf was not real. It looked so
natural that the Skee stopped short and then he cried:
"Oh, excuse me! Oh, I didn't know you were here, Mr. Wolf, or I never
would have come in. You are going to nibble Uncle Wiggily's ears, I
suppose. You have the first turn. Well, I'll nibble them some other
time, when you have finished. Please excuse and don't bite me! I'll
skip right long!"
And with that, out of the door the Skeezicks jumped, never hurting the
bunny gentleman at all.
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, as he closed the door. "The golden,
wooden wolf did me a good turn after all! He scared away the Skeezicks.
I'm glad the circus wolf lives in my bungalow!"
And Nurse Jane said the same thing when she came home from the movies.
So this teaches us that it is a good thing to have something of gold
around the house, even if it is only a gold dollar.
But now we have come to the end of this book. Not that Uncle Wiggily's
adventures were over, for he had many more. But these are all I have
room for here. Enough to say that the bunny rabbit lived happily for
many, many years in his hollow stump bungalow in the woods, with Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. And there you may, perhaps, see him some day.
Who knows?
+ADIEU+
[Illustration]
Transcriber's Note
Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected.
Blank pages have been removed.
Character names vary from story to story and have been handled thus:
Peetie Bow Wow was mis-spelled twice. These have been corrected
Jackie is called Jackie Bow Wow in two places. These have been retained.
Mr. Longears was referred to as Dr. Longears once. This has been corrected
Billie was referred to as Billy in a caption. This has been retained
Emphasised text is handled thus:
_italic_
+small capital+
End of Project Gutenberg's Uncle Wiggily's Story Book, by Howard R. Garis