rubber plant doesn't stretch too far, and tickle the gold fish under
the chin making it sneeze, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily
and the snow drops.
STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SNOW DROPS
"Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Will you come with me?" called a voice
under the window of the hollow stump bungalow, where the old gentleman
rabbit was sitting, half asleep, one nice, warm afternoon.
"Ha! Come with you? Who is it wants me to come with them?" asked the
bunny gentleman. "I hope it isn't the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery
alligator with humps on his tail that is calling. They're always
wanting me to go with them."
The rabbit looked out of the window and he heard some one laughing.
"That doesn't sound like a bad fox, nor yet an unpleasant alligator,"
said Mr. Longears. "Who is it wants me to come with them?"
"It is I--Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl," was the answer.
"And where do you want me to come?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"To the woods, to pick some flowers," answered Susie. "The lady mouse
teacher wants me to see how many kinds I can find. You know so much
about the woods, Uncle Wiggily, that I wish you'd come with me."
"I will," said the nice rabbit gentleman. "Wait until I get my tall
silk hat and my red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism
crutch."
And, when he had them, off he started, holding Susie's paw in his, and
limping along under the green trees and over the carpet of green moss.
Uncle Wiggily and the little rabbit girl found many kinds of flowers in
the woods. There were violets, some white, some yellow and some
purple, with others blue, like the ones Uncle Wiggily used to make
blueing water for Nurse Jane's clothes. And there were red flowers and
yellow ones, and some Jacks-in-their-pulpits, which are very queer
flowers indeed.
"Here, Susie, is a new kind of blossom. Maybe you would like some of
these," said Uncle Wiggily, pointing to a bush that was covered with
little round, white balls.
"Oh, I didn't know the snow had lasted this long!" Susie cried. "I
thought it had melted long ago."
"I don't see any snow," said Uncle Wiggily, looking around.
"On that bush," said Susie, pointing to the white one.
"Oh!" laughed the bunny uncle. "That does look like snow, to be sure.
But it isn't, though the name of the flowers is snowdrop."
"Flowers! I don't call them flowers!" said Susie. "They are only
white balls."
"Don't you want to pick any?" asked the rabbit.
"Thank you, no," Susie said. "I like prettier colored flowers than
those, which are just plain white."
"Well, I like them, and I'll take some to Nurse Jane," spoke the bunny
uncle. So he picked a bunch of the snowdrops and carried them in his
paws, while Susie gathered the brighter flowers.
"I think those will be all teacher will want," said the little rabbit
girl at last.
"Yes, we had better be getting home," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane
will soon have supper ready. Won't you come and eat with me, Susie?"
"Thank you, I will, Uncle Wiggily," and the little bunny girl clapped
her paws; that is, as well as she could, on account of holding her
flowers, for she loved to eat at Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump bungalow,
as did all the animal children.
Well, Uncle Wiggily and Susie were going along and along through the
woods, when, all of a sudden, as they passed a high rock, out from
behind it jumped the bad old tail-pulling monkey.
[Illustration: As they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped
the bad old tail-pulling monkey.]
"Ah, ha!" chattered the monkey chap. "I am just in time, I see."
"Time for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, suspicious like.
"To pull your tails," answered the monkey. "I haven't had any tails to
pull in a long while, and I must pull some. So, though you rabbits
haven't very good tails, for pulling, I must do the best I can. Now
come to me and have your tails pulled. Come on!"
"Oh, dear!" cried Susie. "I don't want my tail pulled, even if it is
very short."
"Nor I mine," Uncle Wiggily said.
"That makes no manner of difference to me," chattered the monkey. "I'm
a tail-pulling chap, and tails I must pull. So you might as well have
it over with, now as later." And he spoke just like a dentist who
wants to take your lolly-pop away from you.
"Pull our tails! Well, I guess you won't!" cried Uncle Wiggily
suddenly. "Come on, Susie! Let's run away!"
Before the monkey could grab them Uncle Wiggily and Susie started to
run. But soon the monkey was running after them, crying:
"Stop! Stop! I must pull your tails!"
"But we don't want you to," answered Susie.
"Oh, but you must let me!" cried the monkey. Then he gave a great big,
long, strong and double-jointed jump, like a circus clown going over
the backs of fourteen elephants, and part of another one, and the
monkey grabbed Uncle Wiggily by his ears.
"Oh, let go of me, if you please!" begged the bunny. "I thought you
said you pulled tails and not ears."
"I do pull tails when I can get hold of them," said the malicious
monkey. "But as I can't easily get hold of your tail, and as your ears
are so large that I can easily grab them, I'll pull them instead. All
ready now, a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether!"
"Stop!" cried the bunny uncle, just as the monkey was going to give the
three kinds of pull at once. "Stop!"
"No!" answered the monkey. "No! No!"
"Yes! Yes!" cried the bunny uncle. "If you don't stop pulling my ears
you'll freeze!" and with that the bunny uncle pulled out from behind
him, where he had kept them hidden, the bunch of white snowdrops.
"Ah, ha!" cried Mr. Longears to the monkey. "You come from a warm
country, where there is no snow or snowdrops. Now when you see these
snow drops, shiver and shake--see how cold it is! Shiver and shake!
Shake and shiver! Burr-r-r-r-r!"
Uncle Wiggily made believe the flowers were real snow, sort of
shivering himself (pretend like) and the tail-pulling chap, who was
very much afraid of cold and snow and ice, chattered and said:
"Oh, dear! Oh, how cold I am! Oh, I'm freezing. I am going back to
my warm nest in the tree and not pull any tails until next summer!"
And then the monkey ran away, thinking the snowdrops Uncle Wiggily had
picked were bits of real snow.
"I'm sorry I said the snowdrops weren't nice," spoke Susie, as she and
Uncle Wiggily went safely home. "They are very nice. Only for them
the monkey would have pulled our tails."
But he didn't, you see, and if the hookworm doesn't go to the moving
pictures with the gold fish and forget to come back to play tag with
the toy piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the horse
chestnut tree.
STORY XIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HORSE CHESTNUT
"Bang! Bango! Bunko! Bunk! Slam!"
Something made a big noise on the front
porch of the hollow stump bungalow, where, in
the woods, lived Uncle Wiggily Longears, the
rabbit gentleman.
"My goodness!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I hope
nothing has happened!"
"Well, from what I heard I should say it is
quite certain that SOMETHING has happened,"
spoke the bunny uncle, sort of twisting
his ears very anxious like.
"I only hope the chimney hasn't turned a
somersault, and that the roof is not trying to
play tag with the back steps," went on Miss
Fuzzy Wuzzy, a bit scared like.
"I'll go see what it is," offered Uncle Wiggily,
and as he went to the front door there, on
the piazza, he saw Billie Wagtail, the little goat boy.
"Oh, good morning, Uncle Wiggily," spoke
Billie, politely. "Here's a note for you. I just
brought it."
"And did you bring all that noise with you?"
Mr. Longears wanted to know.
"Well, yes, I guess I did," Billie said, sort of
bashful like and shy as he wiggled his horns.
"I was seeing how fast I could run, and I ran
down hill and got going so lickity-split like that
I couldn't stop. I fell right up your front
steps, rattle-te-bang!"
"I should say it was rattle-te-bang!" laughed
Uncle Wiggily. "But please don't do it again, Billie."
"I won't," promised the goat boy. "Grandpa
Goosey Gander gave me that note to leave for
you on my way to the store for my mother.
And now I must hurry on," and Billie jumped
off the porch and skipped along through the
Woodland trees as happy as a huckleberry pie
and a piece of cheese.
"What was it all about?" asked Nurse Jane,
when Uncle Wiggily came in.
"Oh, just Billie Wagtail," answered the
bunny uncle. "He brought a note from
Grandpa Goosey, who wants me to come over
and see him. I'll go. He has the epizootic,
and can't get out, so he wants some one to talk
to and to play checkers with him."
Off through the woods went Uncle Wiggily
and he was almost at Grandpa Goosey's house
when he heard some voices talking. One voice said:
"Oh, dear! How thirsty I am!"
"And so am I!" said another.
"Well, children, I am sorry," spoke a third
voice, "but I cannot give you any water. I am
thirsty myself, but we cannot drink until it
rains, and it has not rained in a long, long time."
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried the
other voices again. "How thirsty we are!"
"That's too bad," thought Uncle Wiggily.
"I would not wish even the bad fox to be thirsty.
I must see if I can not be of some help."
So he peeked through the bushes and saw some trees.
"Was it you who were talking about being
thirsty?" asked the rabbit gentleman, curious like.
"Yes," answered the big voice. "I am a horse
chestnut tree, and these are my children," and
the large tree waved some branches, like fingers,
at some small trees growing under her.
"And they, I suppose, are pony chestnut
trees," said Uncle Wiggily.
"That's what we are!" cried the little trees,
"and we are very thirsty."
"Indeed they are," said the mother tree. "You
see we are not like you animals. We cannot
walk to a spring or well to get a drink when
we are thirsty. We have to stay, rooted in one
place, and wait for the rain, or until some one waters us."
"Well, some one is going to water you right
away!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice.
"I'll bring you some water from the duck pond,
which is near by."
Then, borrowing a pail from Mrs. Wibblewobble,
the duck lady, Uncle Wiggily poured
water all around the dry earth, in which grew
the horse chestnut tree and the little pony trees.
"Oh! How fine that is!" cried the thirsty
trees. "It is almost as nice as rain. You are
very good, Uncle Wiggily," said the mother
tree, "and if ever we can do you a favor we will."
"Thank you," spoke Uncle Wiggily, making
a low bow with his tall silk hat. Then he went
on to Grandpa Goosey's where he visited with
his epizootic friend and played checkers.
On his way home through the woods, Uncle
Wiggily was unpleasantly surprised when, all
of a sudden out from behind a stone jumped
a bad bear. He wasn't at all a good, nice bear
like Beckie or Neddie Stubtail.
"Bur-r-r-r-r!" growled the bear at Uncle
Wiggily. "I guess I'll scratch you."
"Oh, please don't," begged the bunny uncle.
"Yes, I shall!" grumbled the bear. "And I'll
hug you, too!"
"Oh, no! I'd rather you wouldn't!" said the
bunny uncle. For well he knew that a bear
doesn't hug for love. It's more of a hard,
rib-cracking squeeze than a hug. If ever a bear
wants to hug you, just don't you let him. Of
course if daddy or mother wants to hug, why,
that's all right.
"Yes, I'm going to scratch you and hug you,"
went on the bad bear, "and after that--well,
after that I guess I'll take you off to my den."
"Oh, please don't!" begged Uncle Wiggily,
twinkling his nose and thinking that he might
make the bear laugh. For if ever you can get
a bear to laugh he won't hurt you a bit. Just
remember that. Tickle him, or do anything to
get him to laugh. But this bear wouldn't even
smile. He just growled again and said:
"Well, here I come, Uncle Wiggily, to hug you!"
"Oh, no you don't!" all of a sudden cried a
voice in the air.
"Ha! Who says I don't?" grumbled the bear, impolite like.
"I do," went on the voice. And the bear saw
some trees waving their branches at him.
"Pooh! I'm not afraid of you!" growled
the bear, and he made a rush for the bunny.
"I'm not afraid of trees."
"Not afraid of us, eh? Well, you'd better
be!" said the mother tree. "I'm a strong horse
chestnut and these are my strong little ponies.
Come on, children, we won't let the bear get
Uncle Wiggily." Then the strong horse chestnut
tree and the pony trees reached down with
their powerful branches and, catching hold of
the bear, they tossed him up in the air, far away
over in the woods, at the same time pelting him
with green, prickly horse chestnuts, and the
bear came down ker-bunko in a bramble brier bush.
"Oh, wow!" cried the bear, as he felt his soft
and tender nose being scratched. "I'll be good!
I'll be good!"
And he was, for a little while, anyhow. So
this shows you how a horse chestnut tree saved
the bunny gentleman, and if the postman
doesn't stick a stamp on our cat's nose so it can't
eat molasses cake when it goes to the puppy
dog's party, I'll tell you next about Uncle
Wiggily and the pine tree.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PINE TREE
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, put on his tall
silk hat, polished his glasses with the tip of his tail, to make them
shiny so he could see better through them, and then, taking his red,
white and blue striped rheumatism crutch down off the mantel, he
started out of his hollow stump bungalow one day.
"Better take an umbrella, hadn't you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy,
the muskrat lady housekeeper. "It looks as though we might have an
April shower."
"An umbrella? Yes, I think I will take one," spoke the bunny uncle, as
he saw some dark clouds in the sky. "They look as though they might
have rain in them."
"Are you going anywhere in particular?" asked the muskrat lady, as she
tied her tail in a soft knot.
"No, not special," Uncle Wiggily answered. "May I have the pleasure of
doing something for you?" he asked with a polite bow, like a little
girl speaking a piece in school on Friday afternoon.
"Well," said Nurse Jane, "I have baked some apple dumplings with
oranges inside, and I thought perhaps you might like to take one to
Grandfather Goosey Gander to cheer him up."
"The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I'll do it, Nurse
Jane."
So with an apple dumpling carefully wrapped up in a napkin and put in a
basket, Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods and over the fields
to Grandpa Goosey's house.
"I wonder if I shall have an adventure today?" thought the rabbit
gentleman as he waved his ears to and fro like the pendulum of a clock.
"I think I would like one to give me an appetite for supper. I must
watch for something to happen."
He looked all around the woods, but all he could see were some trees.
"I can't have any adventures with them," said the bunny uncle, "though
the horse chestnut tree did help me the other day by tossing the bad
bear over into the briar bush. But these trees are not like that."
Still Uncle Wiggily was to have an adventure with one of the trees very
soon. Just you wait, now, and you shall hear about it.
Uncle Wiggily walked on a little farther and he heard a funny tapping
noise in the woods.
"Tap! Tap! Tap! Tappity-tap-tap!" it sounded.
"My! Some one is knocking on a door trying to get in," thought the
bunny. "I wonder who it can be?"
Just then he saw a big bird perched on the side of a pine tree, tapping
with his bill.
"Tap! Tap! Tap!" went the bird.
"Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but you are making a mistake. No
one lives in that tree."
"Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I know that no one lives here," said
the bird. "But you see I am a woodpecker, and I am pecking holes in
the tree to get some of the sweet juice, or sap. The sap is running in
the trees now, for it is Spring. Later on I will tap holes in the bark
to get at bugs and worms, when there is no more sap for me to eat."
And the woodpecker went on tapping, tapping, tapping.
"My! That is a funny way to get something to eat," said the bunny
gentleman to himself. He watched the bird until it flew away, and then
Uncle Wiggily was about to hop on to Grandpa Goosey's house when, all
of a sudden, before he could run away, out popped the bad old bear once
more.
"Ah, ha! We meet again, I see," growled the bear. "I was not looking
for you, Mr. Longears, but all the same I am glad to meet you, for I
want to eat you."
"Well," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nose
with his ear, surprised like. "I can't exactly say I'm glad to see
you, good Mr. Bear."
"No, I s'pose not," agreed the fuzzy creature. "But you are mistaken.
I am the Bad Mr. Bear, not the Good."
"Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily. All the while he knew the bear
was bad, but he hoped by calling him good, to make him so.
"I'm very bad!" growled the bear, "and I'm going to take you off to my
den with me. Come along!"
"Oh, I don't want to," said the bunny uncle, shivering his tail.
"But you must!" growled the bear. "Come on, now!"
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Will you let me go if I give you
what's in my basket?" he asked, and he held up the basket with the nice
orange apple turnover in it. "Let me go if I give you this," begged
the bunny uncle.
"Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," said the bear, cunning like. "Let
me see what it is."
He took the basket from Uncle Wiggily, and looking in, said:
"Ah, ha! An apple turnover-dumpling with oranges in it! I just love
them! Ah, ha!"
"Oh," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I hope he eats it, for then maybe I can
get away when he doesn't notice me. I hope he eats it!"
And the bear, leaning his back against the pine tree in which the
woodpecker had been boring holes, began to take bites out of the apple
dumpling which Nurse Jane had baked for Grandpa Goosey.
"Now's my chance to get away!" thought the bunny gentleman. But when
he tried to hop softly off, as the bear was eating the sweet stuff, the
bad creature saw him and cried:
"Ah, ha! No you don't! Come hack here!" and with his claws he pulled
Uncle Wiggily close to him again.
Then the bunny uncle noticed that some sweet, sticky juice or gum, like
that on fly paper, was running down the trunk of the tree from the
holes the woodpecker had drilled in it.
"Oh, if the bear only leans back hard enough and long enough against
that sticky pine tree," thought Mr. Longears, "he'll be stuck fast by
his furry hair and he can't get me. I hope he sticks!"
And that is just what happened. The bear enjoyed eating the apple
dumpling so much that he leaned back harder and harder against the
sticky tree. His fur stuck fast in the gum that ran out. Finally the
bear ate the last crumb of the dumpling.
"And now I'll get you!" he cried to the bunny uncle; "I'll get you!"
But did the bear get Uncle Wiggily? He did not. The bear tried to
jump toward the rabbit, but could not. He was stuck fast to the sticky
pine tree and Uncle Wiggily could now run safely back to his hollow
stump bungalow to get another dumpling for Grandpa Goosey.
So the bear had no rabbit, after all, and all he did was to stay stuck
fast to the pine tree until a big fox came along and helped him to get
loose, and the bear cried "Wouch!" because his fur was pulled.
So Uncle Wiggily was all right, you see, after all, and very thankful
he was to the pine tree for holding fast to the bear.
And in the next story, if our cat doesn't go hunting for the poll
parrot's cracker in the gold fish bowl and get his whiskers all wet,
I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the green rushes.
STORY XV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GREEN RUSHES
Once upon a time Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was
taking a walk in the woods, looking for an adventure, as he often did,
when, as he happened to go past the hollow tree, where Billie and
Johnnie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys lived, he saw them just poking
their noses out of the front door, which was a knot-hole.
"Hello, boys!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Why haven't you gone to school
today? It is time, I'm sure."
"Oh, we don't have to go today," answered Billie, as he looked at his
tail to see if any chestnut burrs were sticking in it. But none was, I
am glad to say.
"Don't have to go to school? Why not?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.
"This isn't Saturday, is it?"
"No," spoke Johnnie. "But you see, Sister Sallie, our little squirrel
sister, has the measles, and we can't go to school until she gets over
them."
"And we don't know what to do to have some fun," went on Billie, "for
lots of the animal children are home from school with the measles, and
they can't be out to play with us. We've had the measles, so we can't
get them the second time, but the animal boys and girls, who haven't
broken out, don't want us to come and see them for fear we'll bring the
red spots to them."
"I see," said Uncle Wiggily, laughing until his pink nose twinkled like
a jelly roll. "So you can't have any fun? Well, suppose you come with
me for a walk in the woods."
"Fine!" cried Billie and Johnnie and soon they were walking in the
woods with the rabbit gentleman. They had not gone very far before,
all of a sudden, they came to a place where a mud turtle gentleman had
fallen on his back, and he could not turn over, right-side up again.
He tried and tried, but he could not right himself.
"Oh, that is too bad!" cried Uncle Wiggily, when he saw what had
happened. "I must help him to get right-side up again," which he did.
"Oh, thank you for putting me on my legs once more, Uncle Wiggily,"
said the mud turtle. "I would like to do you a favor for helping me,
but all I have to give you are these," and in one claw he picked some
green stalks growing near him, and handed them to the bunny uncle,
afterward crawling away.
"Pooh! Those are no good!" cried Billie, the boy squirrel.
"I should say not!" laughed Johnnie, "They are only green rushes that
grow all about in the woods, and we could give Uncle Wiggily all he
wanted."
"Hush, boys! Don't talk that way," said the bunny uncle. "The mud
turtle tried to do the best he could for me, and I am sure the green
rushes are very nice. I'll take them with me. I may find use for
them."
Billie and Johnnie wanted to laugh, for they thought green rushes were
of no use at all. But Uncle Wiggily said to the squirrel boys:
"Billie and Johnnie, though green rushes, which grow in the woods and
swamps are very common, still they are a wonderful plant. See how
smooth they are when you rub them up and down. But if you rub them
sideways they are as rough as a stiff brush or a nutmeg grater."
Well, Billie and Johnnie thought more of the rushes after that, but, as
they walked on with Uncle Wiggily, when he had put them in his pocket,
they could think of no way in which he could use them.
In a little while they came to where Mother Goose lived, and the dear
old lady herself was out in front of her house, looking up and down the
woodland path, anxious like.
"What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Are you looking for some
of your lost ones--Little Bopeep or Tommy Tucker, who sings for his
supper?"
"Well, no, not exactly," answered Mother Goose. "I sent Simple Simon
to the store to get me a scrubbing brush, so I could clean the kitchen
floor. But he hasn't come back, and I am afraid he has gone fishing in
his mother's pail, to try to catch a whale. Oh, dear! My kitchen is
so dirty that it needs scrubbing right away. But I cannot do it
without a scrubbing brush."
"Ha! Say no more!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. "I have no
scrubbing brush, but I have a lot of green rushes the mud turtle gave
me for turning him right-side up. The rushes are as rough as a
scrubbing brush, and will do just as nicely to clean your kitchen."
"Oh, thank you! I'm sure they will," said Mother Goose. So she took
the green rushes from Uncle Wiggily and by using them with soap and
water soon her kitchen floor was scrubbed as clean as an eggshell, for
the green, rough stems scraped off all the dirt.
Then Mother Goose thanked Uncle Wiggily very much, and Billie and
Johnnie sort of looked at one another with blinking eyes, for they saw
that green rushes are of some use in this world after all.
And if the strawberry jam doesn't go to the moving pictures with the
bread and butter and forget to come home for supper, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the bee tree.
STORY XVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEE TREE
"Well, you're off again, I see!" spoke Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the
muskrat lady housekeeper, one morning, as she saw Uncle Wiggily Longears,
the rabbit gentleman, starting away from his hollow stump bungalow. He
was limping on his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism
crutch, that Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
"Off again!" she cried.