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Bedtime Stories
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
by
HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of "Sammie and Susie Littletail," "Uncle Wiggily and Mother
Goose," "The Bedtime Series of Animal Stories," "The Daddy Series," Etc.
Illustrated by Louis Wisa
[Frontispiece: She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and
Jillie gave her a little push.]
A. L. Burt Company
Publishers ------------ New York
Copyright 1917, by
R. F. Fenno & Company
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
CONTENTS
STORY
I Uncle Wiggily and the Willow Tree
II Uncle Wiggily and the Wintergreen
III Uncle Wiggily and the Slippery Elm
IV Uncle Wiggily and the Sassafras
V Uncle Wiggily and the Pulpit-Jack
VI Uncle Wiggily and the Violets
VII Uncle Wiggily and the High Tree
VIII Uncle Wiggily and the Peppermint
IX Uncle Wiggily and the Birch Tree
X Uncle Wiggily and the Butternut Tree
XI Uncle Wiggily and Lulu's Hat
XII Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Drops
XIII Uncle Wiggily and the Horse Chestnut
XIV Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Tree
XV Uncle Wiggily and the Green Rushes
XVI Uncle Wiggily and the Bee Tree
XVII Uncle Wiggily and the Dogwood
XVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Hazel Nuts
XIX Uncle Wiggily and Susie's Dress
XX Uncle Wiggily and Tommie's Kite
XXI Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie's Marbles
XXII Uncle Wiggily and Billie's Top
XXIII Uncle Wiggily and the Sunbeam
XXIV Uncle Wiggily and the Puff Ball
XXV Uncle Wiggily and the May Flowers
XXVI Uncle Wiggily and the Beech Tree
XXVII Uncle Wiggily and the Bitter Medicine
XXVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Cones
XXIX Uncle Wiggily and His Torn Coat
XXX Uncle Wiggily and the Sycamore Tree
XXXI Uncle Wiggily and the Red Spots
ILLUSTRATIONS
She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a
little push . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt.
As they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped the bad old
tail-pulling monkey.
The tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes were
frightened and were glad enough to run away.
Up, up and up into the air blew the kite and, as the string was tangled
around the babboon's paws, it took him up with it.
"Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from
the puff balls went up his nose and into his eyes.
Jackie was so surprised that he opened his mouth.
Before Uncle Wiggily could stop himself he had run into the bush.
STORY I
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WILLOW TREE
"Well, it's all settled!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit
gentleman, one day, as he hopped up the steps of his hollow stump
bungalow where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper,
was fanning herself with a cabbage leaf tied to her tail. "It's all
settled."
"What is?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "You don't mean to tell me anything
has happened to you?" and she looked quite anxious.
"No, I'm all right," laughed Uncle Wiggily, "and I hope you are the
same. What I meant was that it's all settled where we are going to
spend our vacation this Summer."
"Oh, tell me where!" exclaimed the muskrat lady clapping her paws,
anxious like.
"In a hollow stump bungalow, just like this, but in the woods instead
of in the country," answered Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, that _will_ be fine!" cried Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I love the woods.
When are we to go?"
"Very soon now," answered the bunny gentleman uncle. "You may begin to
pack up as quickly as you please."
And Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily moved to the woods very next day and
his adventures began.
I guess most of you know about the rabbit gentleman and his muskrat
lady housekeeper who nursed him when he was ill with the rheumatism.
Uncle Wiggily had lots and lots of adventures, about which I have told
you in the books before this one.
He had traveled about seeking his fortune, he had even gone sailing in
his airship, and once he met Mother Goose and all her friends from Old
King Cole down to Little Jack Horner.
Uncle Wiggily had many friends among the animal boys and girls. There
was Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, who have a book all to
themselves; just as have Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys,
and Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the mice children.
"And I s'pose we'll meet all your friends in the woods, won't we, Uncle
Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane, as they moved from the old hollow stump
bungalow to the new one.
"Oh, yes, I s'pose so, of course," he laughed in answer, as he pulled
his tall silk hat more tightly down on his head, fastened on his
glasses and took his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism
crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
So, once upon a time, not very many years ago, as all good stories
should begin, Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane found themselves in the
woods. It was lovely among the trees, and as soon as the rabbit
gentleman had helped Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy put the hollow stump bungalow to
rights he started out for a walk.
"I want to see what sort of adventures I shall have in the woods," said
Mr. Longears as he hopped along.
Now in these woods lived, among many other creatures good and bad, two
skillery-scalery alligators who were not exactly friends of the bunny
uncle. But don't let that worry you, for though the alligators, and
other unpleasant animals, may, once in a while, make trouble for Uncle
Wiggily, I'll never really let them hurt him. I'll fix that part all
right!
So, one day, the skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail,
and his brother, another skillery-scalery chap, whose tail was double
jointed, were taking a walk through the woods together just as Uncle
Wiggily was doing.
"Brother," began the hump-tailed 'gator (which I call him for short),
"brother, wouldn't you like a nice rabbit?"
"Indeed I would," answered the double-jointed tail 'gator, who could
wobble his flippers both ways. "And I know of no nicer rabbit than
Uncle Wiggily Longears."
"The very same one about whom I was thinking!" exclaimed the other
alligator. "Let's catch him!"
"That's what we'll do!" said the double-jointed chap. "We'll hide in
the woods until he comes along, as he does every day, and the we'll
jump out and grab him. Oh, you yum-yum!"
"Fine!" grunted his brother. "Come on!"
Off they crawled through the woods, and pretty soon they came to a
willow tree, where the branches grew so low down that they looked like
a curtain that had unwound itself off the roller, when the cat hangs on
it.
"This is the place for us to hide--by the weeping willow tree," said
the skillery-scalery alligator with bumps on his tail.
"The very place," agreed his brother.
So they hid behind the thick branches of the tree, which had leafed out
for early spring, and there the two bad creatures waited.
Just before this Uncle Wiggily himself had started out from his hollow
stump bungalow to walk in the woods and across the fields, as he did
every day.
"I wonder what sort of an adventure I shall have this time?" he said to
himself. "I hope it will be a real nice one."
Oh! If Uncle Wiggily had known what was in store for him, I think he
would have stayed in his hollow stump bungalow. But never mind, I'll
make it all come out right in the end, you see if I don't. I don't
know just how I'm going to do it, yet, but I'll find a way, never fear.
Uncle Wiggily hopped on and on, now and then swinging his
red-white-and-blue-striped rheumatism crutch like a cane, because he
felt so young and spry and spring-like. Pretty soon he came to the
willow tree. He was sort of looking up at it, wondering if a nibble of
some of the green leaves would not do him good, when, all of a sudden,
out jumped the two bad alligators and grabbed the bunny gentleman.
"Now we have you!" cried the humped-tail 'gator.
"And you can't get away from us," said the other chap--the
double-jointed tail one.
"Oh, please let me go!" begged Uncle Wiggily, but they hooked their
claws in his fur, and pulled him back under the tree, which held its
branches so low. I told you it was a weeping willow tree, and just now
it was weeping, I think, because Uncle Wiggily was in such trouble.
"Let's see now," said the double-jointed tail alligator. "I'll carry
this rabbit home, and then--"
"You'll do nothing of the sort!" interrupted the other, and not very
politely, either. "I'll carry him myself. Why, I caught him as much
as you did!"
"Well, maybe you did, but I saw him first."
"I don't care! It was my idea. I first thought of this way of
catching him!"
And then those two alligators disputed, and talked very unpleasantly,
indeed, to one another.
But, all the while, they kept tight hold of the bunny uncle, so he
could not get away.
"Well," said the double-jointed tail alligator after a while, "we must
settle this one way or the other. Am I to carry him to our den, or
you?"
"Me! I'll do it. If you took him you'd keep him all for yourself. I
know you!"
"No, I wouldn't! But that's just what you'd do. I know you only too
well. No, if I can't carry this rabbit home myself, you shan't!"
"I say the same thing. I'm going to have my rights."
Now, while the two bad alligators were talking this way they did not
pay much attention to Uncle Wiggily. They held him so tightly in their
claws that he could not get away, but he could use his own paws, and,
when the two bad creatures were talking right in each other's face, and
using big words, Uncle Wiggily reached up and cut off a piece of willow
wood with the bark on.
And then, still when the 'gators were disputing, and not looking, the
bunny uncle made himself a whistle out of the willow tree stick. He
loosened the bark, which came off like a kid glove, and then he cut a
place to blow his breath in, and another place to let the air out and
so on, until he had a very fine whistle indeed, almost as loud-blowing
as those the policemen have to stop the automobiles from splashing mud
on you so a trolley car can bump into you.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," said the hump-tail alligator at last.
"Since you won't let me carry him home, and I won't let you, let's both
carry him together. You take hold of him on one side, and I'll take
the other."
"Good!" cried the second alligator.
"Oh, ho! I guess not!" cried the bunny uncle suddenly. "I guess you
won't either, or both of you take me off to your den. No, indeed!"
"Why not?" asked the hump-tailed 'gator, sort of impolite like and
sarcastic.
"Because I'm going to blow my whistle and call the police!" went on the
bunny uncle. "Toot! Toot! Tootity-ti-toot-toot!"
And then and there he blew such a loud, shrill blast on his willow tree
whistle that the alligators had to put their paws over their ears. And
when they did that they had to let go of bunny uncle. He had his tall
silk hat down over his ears, so it didn't matter how loudly he blew the
whistle. He couldn't hear it.
"Toot! Toot! Tootity-toot-toot!" he blew on the willow whistle.
"Oh, stop! Stop!" cried the hump-tailed 'gator.
"Come on, run away before the police come!" said his brother. And out
from under the willow tree they both ran, leaving Uncle Wiggily safely
behind.
"Well," said the bunny gentleman as he hopped along home to his
bungalow, "it is a good thing I learned, when a boy rabbit, how to make
whistles." And I think so myself.
So if the vinegar jug doesn't jump into the molasses barrel and turn
its face sour like a lemon pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle
Wiggily and the winter green.
STORY II
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WINTERGREEN
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, knocked on the
door of the hollow tree in the woods where Johnnie and Billie
Bushytail, the two little squirrel boys, lived.
"Come in!" invited Mrs. Bushytail. So Uncle Wiggily went in.
"I thought I'd come around and see you," he said to the squirrel lady.
"I'm living in the woods this Summer and just now I am out taking a
walk, as I do every day, and I hoped I might meet with an adventure.
But, so far, I haven't. Do you know where I could find an adventure,
Mrs. Bushytail?"
"No, I'm sorry to say I don't, Uncle Wiggily," answered the squirrel
lady. "But I wish you could find something to make my little boy
Billie feel better."
"Why, is he ill?" asked the bunny uncle, surprised like, and he looked
across the room where Billy Bushytail was curled up in a big rocking
chair, with his tail held over his head like an umbrella, though it was
not raining.
"No, Billie isn't ill," said Mrs. Bushytail. "But he says he doesn't
know what to do to have any fun, and I am afraid he is a little
peevish."
"Oh, that isn't right," said Mr. Longears. "Little boys, whether they
are squirrels, rabbits or real children, should try to be jolly and
happy, and not peevish."
"How can a fellow be happy when there's no fun?" asked Billie, sort of
cross-like. "My brother Johnnie got out of school early, and he and
the other animal boys have gone off to play where I can't find them. I
had to stay in, because I didn't know my nut-cracking lesson, and now I
can't have any fun. Oh, dear! I don't care!"
Billie meant, I suppose, that he didn't care what he said or did, and
that isn't right. But Uncle Wiggily only pinkled his twink nose. No,
wait just a moment if you please. He just twinkled his pink nose
behind the squirrel boy's back, and then the bunny uncle said:
"How would you like to come for a walk in the woods with me, Billie?"
"Oh, that will be nice!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "Do go, Billie."
"No, I don't want to!" chattered the boy squirrel, most impolitely.
"Oh, that isn't at all nice," said Mrs. Bushy-tail. "At least thank
Uncle Wiggily for asking you."
"Oh, excuse me, Uncle Wiggily," said Billie, sorrylike. "I do thank
you. But I want very much to have some fun, and there's no fun in the
woods. I know all about them. I know every tree and bush and stump.
I want to go to a new place."
"Well, new places are nice," said the bunny uncle, "but old ones are
nice, too, if you know where to look for the niceness. Now come along
with me, and we'll see if we can't have some fun. It is lovely in the
woods now."
"I won't have any fun there," said Billie, crossly. "The woods are no
good. Nothing good to eat grows there."
"Oh, yes there does--lots!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Why the nuts you
squirrels eat grow in the woods."
"Yes, but there are no nuts now," spoke the squirrel boy. "They only
come in the Fall."
"Well, come, scamper along, anyhow," invited Uncle Wiggily. "Who knows
what may happen? It may even be an adventure. Come along, Billie."
So, though he did not care much about it, Billie went. Uncle Wiggily
showed the squirrel boy where the early spring flowers were coming up,
and how the Jacks, in their pulpits, were getting ready to preach
sermons to the trees and bushes.
"Hark! What's that?" asked Billie, suddenly, hearing a noise.
"What does it sound like?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Like bells ringing."
"Oh, it's the bluebells--the bluebell flowers," answered the bunny
uncle.
"Why do they ring?" asked the little boy squirrel.
"To call the little ants and lightning bugs to school," spoke Uncle
Wiggily, and Billy smiled. He was beginning to see that there were
more things in the woods than he had dreamed of, even if he had
scampered here and there among the trees ever since he was a little
squirrel chap.
On and on through the woods went the bunny uncle and Billie. They
picked big, leafy ferns to fan themselves with, and then they drank
with green leaf-cups from a spring of cool water.
But no sooner had Billie taken the cold water than he suddenly cried:
"Ouch! Oh, dear! Oh, my, how it hurts!"
"What is it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you bite your tongue or step
on a thorn?"
"It's my tooth," chattered Billie. "The cold water made it ache again.
I need to go to Mr. Stubtail, the bear dentist, who will pull it out
with his long claws. But I've been putting it off, and putting it off,
and now--Oh, dear, how it aches! Wow!"
"I'll cure it for you!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Just walk along through
the woods with me and I'll soon stop your aching tooth."
"How can you?" asked Billie, holding his paw to his jaw to warm the
aching tooth, for heat will often stop pain. "There isn't anything
here in the woods to cure toothache; is there?"
"I think we shall find something," spoke the bunny uncle.
"Well, I wish we could find it soon!" cried Billie, "for my tooth hurts
very much. Ouch!" and he hopped up and down, for the toothache was of
the jumping kind.
"Ah, ha! Here we have it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he stooped over
some shiny green leaves, growing close to the ground, and he pulled
some of them up. "Just chew these leaves a little and let them rest
inside your mouth near the aching tooth," said Mr. Longears. "I think
they will help you, Billie."
So Billie chewed the green leaves. They smarted and burned a little,
but when he put them near his tooth they made it nice and warm and soon
the ache all stopped.
"What was that you gave me, Uncle Wiggily?" Billie asked.
"Wintergreen," answered Uncle Wiggily. "It grows in the woods, and is
good for flavoring candy, as well as for stopping toothache."
"I am glad to know that," said Billie. "The woods are a nicer place
than I thought, and there is ever so much more in them than I dreamed.
Thank you, Uncle Wiggily."
So, as his toothache was all better, Billie had good fun in the woods
with the bunny uncle, until it was time to go home. And in the next
story, if the top doesn't fly off the coffee pot and let the baked
potato hide away from the egg-beater, when they play tag, I'll tell you
about Uncle Wiggily and the slippery elm.
STORY III
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SLIPPERY ELM
"Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the
muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman standing on
the front steps of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods one morning.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, just for a walk through the forest," spoke the bunny uncle. "It
is so nice in the woods, with the flowers coming up, and the leaves
getting larger and greener every day, that I just love to walk there."
"Well," said Nurse Jane with a laugh, "if you happen to see a
bread-tree in the woods, bring home a loaf for supper."
"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "You know, Nurse Jane, there really
are trees on which bread fruit grows, though not in this country. But
I can get you a loaf of bread at the five and ten cent store, I dare
say."
"Do, please," asked the muskrat lady. "And if you see a cocoanut tree
you might bring home a cocoanut cake for supper."
"Oh, my!" laughed the rabbit gentleman. "I'm afraid there are no
cocoanut trees in my woods. I could bring you home a hickory nut cake,
perhaps."
"Well, whatever you like," spoke Nurse Jane. "But don't get lost,
whatever you do, and if you meet with an adventure I hope it will be a
nice one."
"So do I," Uncle Wiggily said, as he hopped off, leaning on his red,
white and blue stripped [Transcriber's note: striped?] rheumatism
crutch which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
The old rabbit gentleman had not gone very far before he met Dr. Possum
walking along in the woods, with his satchel of medicine on his tail,
for Dr. Possum cured all the ill animals, you know.
"What in the world are you doing, Dr. Possum?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as
he saw the animal doctor pulling some bark off a tree. "Are you going
to make a canoe, as the Indians used to do?"
"Oh, no," answered Dr. Possum. "This is a slippery elm tree. The
underside of the bark, next to the tree, and the tree itself, is very
slippery when it is wet. Very slippery indeed."
"Well, I hope you don't slip," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly.
"I hope so, too," Dr. Possum said. "But I am taking this slippery elm
bark to mix with some of the bitter medicine I have to give Billie
Wagtail, the goat boy. When I put some bark from the slippery elm tree
in Billie's medicine it will slip down his throat so quickly that he
will never know he took it."
"Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, laughing. Then the bunny uncle went close
to the tree, off which Dr. Possum was taking some bark, and felt of it
with his paw. The tree was indeed as slippery as an icy sidewalk slide
on Christmas eve.
"My!" exclaimed Mr. Longears. "If I tried to climb up that tree I'd do
nothing but slip down."
"That's right," said Dr. Possum. "But I must hurry on now to give
Billie Wagtail his medicine."
So Dr. Possum went on his way and Uncle Wiggily hopped along until,
pretty soon, he heard a rustling in the bushes, and a voice said:
"But, Squeaky-Eeky dear, I can't find any snow hill for you to ride
down on your sled. The snow is all gone, you see. It is Spring now."
"Oh, dear!" cried another voice. "Such a lot of trouble. Oh, dear!
Oh, dear!"
"Ha! Trouble!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "This is where I come
in. I must see if I cannot help them."
He looked through the bushes, and there he saw Jillie Longtail, the
little girl mouse, and with her was Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse.
And Squeaky-Eeky had a small sled with her.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, for he saw that
Squeaky-Eeky had been crying. "What is the matter, little mice?"
"Oh, hello. Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "I don't know what to do
with my little cousin mouse. You see she wants to slide down hill on
her Christmas sled, but there isn't any snow on any of the hills now."
"No, that's true, there isn't," said the bunny uncle. "But, Squeaky,
why didn't you slide down hill in the Winter, when there was snow?"
"Because, I had the mouse-trap fever, then," answered Squeaky-Eeky,
"and I couldn't go out. But now I am all better and I can be out, and
oh, dear! I do so much want a ride down hill on my sled. Boo, hoo!"
"Don't cry, Squeaky, dear," said Jillie. "If there is no snow you
can't slide down hill, you know."
"But I want to," said the little cousin mouse, unreasonable like.
"But you can't; so please be nice," begged Jillie.
"Oh, dear!" cried Squeaky. "I do so much want to slide down hill on my
sled."
"And you shall!" suddenly exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Come with me,
Squeaky."
"Why, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "How can you give Squeaky a slide
down hill when there is no snow? You need a slippery snow hill for
sleigh-riding."
"I am not so sure of that," spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a smile. "Let us
see."
Off through the woods he hopped, with Jillie and Squeaky following.
Pretty soon Uncle Wiggily came to a big tree that had fallen down, one
end being raised up higher than the other, like a hill, slanting.
With his strong paws and his sharp teeth, the rabbit gentleman began
peeling the bark off the tree, showing the white wood underneath.
"What are you doing, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jillie.
"This is a slippery elm tree, and I am making a hill so Squeaky-Eeky
can slide down," answered the bunny uncle. "Underneath the bark the
trunk of the elm tree is very slippery. Dr. Possum told me so. See
how my paw slips!" And indeed it did, sliding down the sloping tree
almost as fast as you can eat a lollypop.
Uncle Wiggily took off a lot of bark from the elm tree, making a long,
sliding, slippery place.
"Now, try that with your sled, Squeaky-Eeky," said the bunny uncle.
And the little cousin mouse did. She put her sled on the slanting
tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a little push. Down the slippery
elm tree went Squeaky as fast as anything, coming to a stop in a pile
of soft leaves.
"Oh, what a lovely slide!" cried Squeaky. "You try it, Jillie." And
the little mouse girl did.
"Who would think," she said, "that you could slide down a slippery elm
tree? But you can."
Then she and Squeaky took turns sliding down hill, even though there
was no snow, and the slippery elm tree didn't mind it a bit, but rather
liked it.
And if the coal man doesn't take away our gas shovel to shoot some
tooth powder into the wax doll's pop gun, I'll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and the sassafras.
STORY IV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SASSAFRAS
"Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Get up!" called Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she stood at the foot of the
stairs of the hollow stump bungalow and called up to the rabbit
gentleman one morning.
"Hurry down, Mr. Longears," she went on. "This is the last day I am
going to bake buckwheat cakes, and if you want some nice hot ones, with
maple sugar sauce on, you'd better hurry."
No answer came from the bunny uncle.
"Why, this is strange," said Nurse Jane to herself. "I wonder if
anything can have happened to him? Did he have an adventure in the
night? Did the bad skillery-scalery alligator, with humps on its tail,
carry him off?"
Then she called again:
"Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Aren't you going to get up? Come down
to breakfast. Aren't you going to get up and come down?"
"No, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy," replied the bunny uncle, "not to give you a
short answer, I am not going to get up, or come down or eat breakfast
or do anything," and Mr. Longears spoke as though his head was hidden
under the bed clothes, which it was.
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, whatever is the matter?" asked Nurse Jane,
surprised like and anxious.
"I don't feel at all well," was the answer. "I think I have the
epizootic, and I don't want any breakfast."
"Oh, dear!" cried Nurse Jane. "And all the nice cakes I have baked. I
know what I'll do," she said to herself. "I'll call in Dr. Possum.
Perhaps Uncle Wiggily needs some of the roots and herbs that grow in
the woods--wintergreen, slippery elm or something like that. I'll call
Dr. Possum."
And when the animal doctor came he looked at the bunny uncle's tongue,
felt of his ears, and said:
"Ha! Hum! You have the Spring fever, Uncle Wiggily. What you need is
sassafras."
"Nurse Jane has some in the bungalow," spoke Mr. Longears. "Tell her
to make me some tea from that."
"No, what is needed is fresh sassafras," said Dr. Possum. "And, what
is more, you must go out in the woods and dig it yourself. That will
be almost as good for your Spring fever as the sassafras itself. So
hop out, and dig some of the roots."
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, fussy like. "I don't want to. I'd
rather stay here in bed."
"But you can't!" cried Dr. Possum in his jolly voice. "Out with you!"
and he pulled the bed clothes off the bunny uncle so he had to get up
to keep warm.
"Well, I'll just go out and dig a little sassafras root to please him,"
thought Uncle Wiggily to himself, "and then I'll come back and stay in
bed as long as I please. It's all nonsense thinking I have to have
fresh root--the old is good enough."
"I do feel quite wretched and lazy like," said Uncle Wiggily to
himself, as he limped along on his red, white and blue-striped
barber-pole rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out
of a cornstalk. "As soon as I find some sassafras I'll pull up a bit
of the root and hurry back home and to bed."
Pretty soon the bunny uncle saw where some of the sassafras roots were
growing, with their queer three-pointed leaves, like a mitten, with a
place for your finger and thumb.
"Now to pull up the root," said the bunny uncle, as he dug down in the
ground a little way with his paws, to get a better hold.
But pulling up sassafras roots is not as easy as it sounds, as you know
if you have ever tried it. The roots go away down in the earth, and
they are very strong.
Uncle Wiggily pulled and tugged and twisted and turned, but he could
break off only little bits of the underground stalk.
"This won't do!" he said to himself. "If I don't get a big root Dr.
Possum will, perhaps, send me hack for more. I'll try again."
He got his paws under a nice, big root, and he was straining his back
to pull it up, when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying:
"How do you do?"
"Oh, hello!" exclaimed the bunny, looking up quickly, and expecting to
see some friend of his, like Grandpa Goosey Gander, or Sammie
Littletail, the rabbit boy. But, instead, he saw the bad old fox, who
had, so many times, tried to catch the rabbit gentleman.
"Oh!" said Uncle Wiggily, astonished like. And again he said: "Oh!"
"Surprised, are you?" asked the fox, sort of curling his whiskers
around his tongue, sarcastic fashion.
"A little--yes," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I didn't expect to see you."
"But I've been expecting you a long time," said the fox, grinning most
impolitely. "In fact, I've been waiting for you. Just as soon as you
have pulled up that sassafras root you may come with me. I'll take you
off to my den, to my dear little foxes Eight, Nine and Ten. Those are
their numbers. It's easier to number them than name them."
"Oh, indeed?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as politely as he could, considering
everything. "And so you won't take me until I pull this sassafras
root?"
"No, I'll wait until you have finished," spoke the fox. "I like you
better, anyhow, flavored with sassafras. So pull away."
Uncle Wiggily tried to pull up the root, but he did not pull very hard.
"For," he thought, "as soon as I pull it up then the fox will take me,
but if I don't pull it he may not."
"What's the matter? Can't you get that root up?" asked the fox, after
a while. "I can't wait all day."
"Then perhaps you will kindly pull it up for me," said the bunny uncle.
"I can't seem to do it."
"All right, I will," the fox said. Uncle Wiggily hopped to one side.
The fox put his paws under the sassafras root. And he pulled and he
pulled and he pulled, and finally, with a double extra strong pull, he
pulled up the root. But it came up so suddenly, just as when you break
the point off your pencil, that the fox keeled over backward in a
peppersault and somersault also.
"Oh, wow!" cried the fox, as he bumped his nose. "What happened?" But
Uncle Wiggily did not stay to tell. Away ran the bunny through the
woods, as fast as he could go, forgetting all about his Spring fever.
He was all over it.
"I thought the sassafras would cure you," said Dr. Possum, when Uncle
Wiggily was safely home once more.
"The fox helped some," said the bunny uncle, with a laugh.
And if the black cat doesn't cover himself with talcum powder and make
believe he's a white kid glove going to a dance, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
STORY V
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PULPIT-JACK
"Well, how are you feeling today, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit
gentleman taking his tall silk hat down off the china closet, getting
ready to go for a walk in the woods one morning.
"Why, I'm feeling pretty fine, Nurse Jane," answered the bunny uncle.
"Since I ran home to get away from the fox, after he turned a
peppersault from pulling too strong to get up the sassafras root, I
feel much better, thank you."
"Good!" cried Nurse Jane. "Then perhaps you would not mind going to
the store for me."
"Certainly not," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "What do you wish?"
"A loaf of bread," replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, "also a box of matches and
some sugar and crackers. But don't forget the matches whatever you
do."
"I won't," promised the bunny uncle, and soon he was hopping along
through the woods wondering what sort of an adventure he would have
this day.
As he was going along keeping a sharp look-out for the bad fox, or the
skillery-scalery alligator with the double jointed tail. Uncle Wiggily
heard a voice saying:
"Oh, dear! I'll never be able to get out from under the stone and grow
tall as I ought. I've pushed and pushed on it, but I can't raise it.
Oh, dear; what a heavy stone!"
"Ha! Some one under a stone!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "That
certainly is bad trouble. I wonder if I cannot help?"
The bunny uncle looked all around and down on the ground he saw a flat
stone. Underneath it something green and brown was peeping out.
"Was that you who called?" asked Mr. Longears.
"It was," came the answer. "I am a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant, you see,
and I started to grow up, as all plants and flowers do when summer
comes. But when I had raised my head out of the earth I found a big
stone over me, and now I can grow no more. I've pushed and pushed
until my back aches, and I can't lift the stone."
"I'll do it for you," said Uncle Wiggily kindly, and he did, taking it
off the Pulpit-Jack.
Then the Jack began growing up, and he had been held down so long that
he grew quite quickly, so that even while Uncle Wiggily was watching,
the Jack and his pulpit were almost regular size.
A Jack-in-the-Pulpit, you know, is a queer flower that grows in our
woods. Sometimes it is called an Indian turnip, but don't eat it, for
it is very biting. The Jack is a tall green chap, who stands in the
middle of his pulpit, which is like a little pitcher, with a curved top
to it. A pulpit, you know, is where some one preaches on Sunday.
"Thank you very much for lifting the stone off me so I could grow,"
said the Jack to Uncle Wiggily. "If ever I can do you a favor I will."
"Oh, pray don't mention it," replied the rabbit gentleman, with a low
bow. "It was a mere pleasure, I assure you."
Then the rabbit gentleman hopped on to the store, to get the matches,
the crackers, the bread and other things for Nurse Jane.
"And I must be sure not to forget the matches," Uncle Wiggily said to
himself. "If I did Nurse Jane could not make a fire to cook supper."
There was an April shower while Uncle Wiggily was in the store, and he
waited for the rain to stop falling before he started back to his
hollow stump bungalow. Then the sun came out very hot and strong and
shone down through the wet leaves of the trees in the woods.
Along hopped the bunny uncle, and he was wondering what he would have
for supper that night.
"I hope it's something good," he said, "to make up for not having an
adventure."
"Don't you call that an adventure--lifting the stone off the
Jack-in-the-Pulpit so he could grow?" asked a bird, sitting up in a
tree.
"Well, that was a little adventure." said Uncle Wiggily. "But I want
one more exciting; a big one."
And he is going to have one in about a minute. Just you wait and
you'll hear all about it.
The sun was shining hotter and hotter, and Uncle Wiggily was thinking
that it was about time to get out his extra-thin fur coat when, all of
a sudden, he felt something very hot behind him.
"Why, that sun is really burning!" cried the bunny. Then he heard a
little ant boy, who was crawling on the ground, cry out:
"Fire! Fire! Fire! Uncle Wiggily's bundle of groceries is on fire!
Fire! Fire!"
"Oh, my!" cried the bunny uncle, as he felt hotter and hotter, "The sun
must have set fire to the box of matches. Oh, what shall I do?" He
dropped his bundle of groceries, and looking around at them he saw,
surely enough, the matches were on fire. They were all blazing.
"Call the fire department! Get out the water bugs!" cried the little
ant boy. "Fire! Water! Water! Fire!"
"That's what I want--water," cried the bunny uncle. "Oh, if I could
find a spring of water. I could put the blazing matches, save some of
them, perhaps, and surely save the bread and crackers. Oh, for some
water!"
Uncle Wiggily and the ant boy ran here and there in the woods looking
for a spring of water. But they could find none, and the bread and
crackers were just beginning to burn when a voice cried:
"Here is water, Uncle Wiggily!"
"Where? Where?" asked the rabbit gentleman, all excited like. "Where?"
"Inside my pulpit," was the answer, and Uncle Wiggily saw, not far
away, the Jack-plant he had helped from under the stone.
"When it rained a while ago, my pitcher-pulpit became filled with
water," went on Jack. "If you will just tip me over, sideways, I'll
splash the water on the blazing matches and put them out."
"I'll do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and he quickly did. The pulpit held
water as good as a milk pitcher could, and when the water splashed on
the fire that fire gave one hiss, like a goose, and went out.
"Oh, you certainly did me a favor, Mr. Pulpit-Jack," said Uncle
Wiggily. "Though the matches are burned, the bread and crackers are
saved, and I can get more matches." Which he did, so Nurse Jane could
make a fire in the stove.
So you see Uncle Wiggily had an adventure after all, and quite an
exciting one, too, and if the lemon drop doesn't fall on the stick of
peppermint candy and make it sneeze when it goes to the moving
pictures, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the violets.
STORY VI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE VIOLETS
Down in the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow there was a great
clattering of pots and pans. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit
gentleman who lived in the bungalow, sat up in bed, having been
awakened by the noise, and he said:
"Well, I wonder what Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy is doing now? She
certainly is busy at something, and it can't be making the breakfast
buckwheat cakes, either, for she has stopped baking them."
"I say, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, what's going on down in your kitchen?" called
the rabbit gentleman out loud.
"I'm washing," answered the muskrat lady.
"Washing what; the dishes?" the bunny uncle wanted to know. "If you
wash them as hard as it sounds, there won't be any of them left for
dinner, and I haven't had my breakfast yet."
"No, I'm getting ready to wash the clothes, and I wish you'd come down
and eat, so I can clear away the table things!" called the muskrat lady.
"Oh, dear! Clothes-washing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his pink nose
twinkle in a funny way. "I don't like to be around the bungalow when
that is being done. I guess I'll get my breakfast and go for a walk.
Clothes have to be washed, I suppose," went on the rabbit gentleman,
"and when Nurse Jane has been ill I have washed them myself, but I do
not like it. I'll go off in the woods."
And so, having had his breakfast of carrot pudding, with turnip sauce
sprinkled over the top, Uncle Wiggily took his red, white and blue
striped rheumatism crutch, and hopped along.
The woods were getting more and more beautiful every day as the weather
grew warmer. The leaves on the trees were larger, and here and there,
down in the green moss, that was like a carpet on the ground, could be
seen wild flowers growing up.
"I wonder what sort of an adventure I will have today?" thought the
bunny uncle as he went on and on. "A nice one, I hope."
And, as he said this, Uncle Wiggily heard some voices speaking.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed a sad little voice, "no one will ever see us
here! Of what use are we in the world? We are so small that we cannot
be noticed. We are not brightly colored, like the red rose, and all
that will happen to us will be that a cow will come along and eat us,
or step on us with her big foot."
"Hush! You musn't talk that way," said another voice. "You were put
here to grow, and do the best you know how. Don't be finding fault."
"I wonder who can be talking?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I must look
around." So he looked up in the air, but though he heard the leaves
whispering he knew they had not spoken. Then he looked to the right,
to the left, in front and behind, but he saw no one. Then he looked
down, and right at his feet was a clump of blue violet flowers.
"Did you speak?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the violets.
"Yes," answered one who had been finding fault. "I was telling my
sisters and brothers that we are of no use in the world. We just grow
up here in the woods, where no one sees us, and we never can have any
fun. I want to be a big, red rose and grow in a garden."
"Oh, my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I never heard of a violet turning into
a rose." Then the mother violet spoke and said:
"I tell my little girl-flower that she ought to be happy to grow here
in the nice woods, in the green moss, where it is so cool and moist.
But she does not seem to be happy, nor are some of the other violets."
"Well, that isn't right," Uncle Wiggily said, kindly. "I am sure you
violets can do some good in this world. You are pretty to look at, and
nice to smell, and that is more than can be said of some things."
"Oh, I want to do something big!" said the fault-finding violet. "I
want to go out in the world and see things."
"So do I! And I! And I!" cried other violets.
Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute, and then he said:
"I'll do this. I'll dig up a bunch of you violets, who want a change,
and take you with me for a walk. I will leave some earth on your roots
so you won't die, and we shall see what happens."
"Oh, goodie!" cried the violets. So Uncle Wiggily dug them up with his
paws, putting some cool moss around their roots, and when they had said
good-by to the mother violet away they went traveling with the bunny
uncle.
"Oh, this is fine!" cried the first violet, nodding her head in the
breeze. "It is very kind of you, Uncle Wiggily to take us with you. I
wish we could do you a kindness."
And then a bad old fox jumped out from behind a stump, and started to
grab the rabbit gentleman. But when the fox saw the pretty violets and
smelled their sweetness, the fox felt sorry at having been bad and said:
"Excuse me, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sorry I tried to bite you. The sight
of those pretty violets makes me feel happier than I did. I am going
to try to be good."
"I am glad of it," said Mr. Longears, as he hopped on through the
woods. "You see, you have already done some good in this world, even
if you are only tiny flowers," he said to the violets.
Then Uncle Wiggily went on to his hollow stump bungalow, and, reaching
there, he heard Nurse Jane saying:
"Oh, dear! This is terrible. Here I have the clothes almost washed,
and not a bit of bluing to rinse them in. Oh, why didn't I tell Wiggy
to bring me some blueing from the store? Oh, dear!"
"Ha! Perhaps these will do to make blue water," said the bunny uncle,
holding out the bunch of violets. "Would you like to help Nurse Jane?"
he asked the flowers.
"Oh, yes, very much!" cried the violets.
Then Uncle Wiggily dipped their blue heads in the clean rinsing
water--just a little dip so as not to make them catch cold--and enough
color came out of the violets to make the water properly blue for Nurse
Jane's clothes, so she could finish the washing.
"So you see you have done more good in the world," said Uncle Wiggily
to the flowers. Then he took them back and planted them in the woods
where they lived, and very glad they were to return, too.
"We have seen enough of the world," they said, and thereafter they were
glad enough to live down in the moss with the mother violet. And if
the umbrella doesn't turn inside out so the handle tickles its ribs and
makes it laugh in school, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and
the high tree.
STORY VII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HIGH TREE
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, stood in front of
the looking glass trying on a new tall silk hat he had just bought
ready for Easter Sunday, which would happen in about a week or two.
"Do you think it looks well on me, Nurse Jane?" asked the bunny uncle,
of the muskrat lady housekeeper, who came in from the kitchen of the
hollow stump bungalow, having just finished washing the dishes.
"Why, yes, I think your new hat is very nice," she said.
"Do you think I ought to have the holes for my ears cut a little
larger?" asked the bunny uncle. "I mean the holes cut, not my ears."
"Well, just a little larger wouldn't hurt any," replied Miss Fuzzy
Wuzzy. "I'll cut them for you," and she did, with her scissors. For
Uncle Wiggily had to wear his tall silk hat with his ears sticking up
through holes cut in it. His ears were too large to go under the hat,
and he could not very well fold them down.
"There, now I guess I'm all right to go for a walk in the woods," said
the rabbit gentleman, taking another look at himself in the glass. It
was not a proud look, you understand. Uncle Wiggily just wanted to
look right and proper, and he wasn't at all stuck up, even if his ears
were, but he couldn't help that.
So off he started, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have
that day. He passed the place where the blue violets were growing in
the green moss--the same violets he had used to make Nurse Jane's
blueing water for her clothes the other day, as I told you. And the
violets were glad to see the bunny uncle.
Then Uncle Wiggily met Grandfather Goosey Gander, the nice old goose
gentleman, and the two friends walked on together, talking about how
much cornmeal you could buy with a lollypop, and all about the best way
to eat fried ice cream carrots.
"That's a very nice hat you have on, Uncle Wiggily," said Grandpa
Goosey, after a bit.
"Glad you like it," answered the bunny uncle. "It's for Easter."
"I think I'll get one for myself," went on Mr. Gander. "Do you think I
would look well in it?"
"Try on mine and see," offered Uncle Wiggily most kindly. So he took
his new, tall silk hat off his head, pulling his ears out of the holes
Nurse Jane had cut for them, and handed it to Grandfather Goosey
Gander--handed the hat, I mean, not his ears, though of course the
holes went with the hat.
"There, how do I look?" asked the goose gentleman.
"Quite stylish and proper," replied Mr. Longears.
"I'd like to see myself before I buy a hat like this," went on Grandpa
Goosey. "I hope it doesn't make me look too tall."
"Here's a spring of water over by this old stump," spoke Uncle Wiggily.
"You can see yourself in that, for it is just like a looking glass."
Grandpa Goosey leaned over to see how Uncle Wiggily's tall, silk hat
looked, when, all of a sudden, along came a puff of wind, caught the
hat under the brim, and as Grandpa Goosey had no ears to hold it on his
head (as the bunny uncle had) away sailed the hat up in the air, and it
landed right in the top of a big, high tree.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, dear!" said Grandpa Goosey. "I'm very sorry that happened. Oh,
dear!"
"It wasn't your fault at all," spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly. "It was the
wind."
"But with your nice, new tall silk hat up in that high tree, how are we
ever going to get it down," asked the goose gentleman.
"I don't know," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Let me think."
So he thought for a minute or two, and then he said:
"There are three ways by which we may get the hat down. One is to ask
the wind to blow it back to us, another is to climb up the tree and get
the hat ourselves, and the third is to ask the tree to shake it down to
us. We'll try the wind first."
So Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey asked the wind that had blown the
hat up in the top of the high tree to kindly blow it back again. But
the wind had gone far out to sea, and would not be back for a week. So
that way of getting the hat was of no use.
"Mr. High Tree, will you kindly shake my hat down to me?" begged Uncle
Wiggily next.
"I would like to, very much," the tree answered politely, "but I cannot
shake when there is no wind to blow me. We trees cannot shake
ourselves, you know. We can only shake when the wind blows us, and
until the wind comes back I cannot shake."
"Too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Then the only way left for us to do,
Grandpa Goosey, is to climb the tree."
But this was easier said than done, for neither a rabbit nor a goose
gentleman is made for climbing up trees, though when he was a young
chap Grandpa Goosey had flown up into little trees, and Uncle Wiggily
had jumped over them. But that was long, long ago.
Try as they did, neither the rabbit gentleman nor the goose gentleman
could climb up after the tall silk hat.
"What are we going to do?" asked Grandpa Goosey.
"I don't know," replied Mr. Longears. "I guess I'll have to go get
Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boys, to climb the tree for
us. Yes, that's what I'll do; and then I can get my hat."
Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods to look for one of the
Bushytail chaps, while Grandpa Goosey stayed near the tree, to catch
the hat in case it should happen to fall by itself.
All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily heard some one coming along whistling,
and then he heard a loud pounding sound, and next he saw Toodle
Flat-tail, the beaver boy, walking in the woods.
"Oh, Toodle! You're the very one I want!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "My
hat is in a high tree and I can't get it. With your strong teeth, just
made for cutting down trees, will you kindly cut down this one, and get
my hat for me?"
"I will," said the little beaver chap. But when he began to gnaw the
tree, to make it fall, the tree cried:
"Oh, Mr. Wind, please come and blow on me so I can shake Uncle
Wiggily's hat to him, and then I won't have to be gnawed down. Please
blow, Mr. Wind."
So the wind hurried back and blew the tree this way and that. Down
toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt, and so everything
was all right again, and Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey and Toodle
Flat-tail were happy. And the tree was extra glad as it did not have
to be gnawed down.
[Illustration: Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt.]
And if the little mouse doesn't go to sleep in the cat's cradle and
scare poor pussy so her tail swells up like a balloon, I'll tell you
next about Uncle Wiggily and the peppermint.
STORY VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEPPERMINT