know."
"I hope it will be a pleasant one today," went on Nurse Jane.
"So do I," said Uncle Wiggily, and away he went hopping over the fields
and through the woods. He had not gone very far before he heard a queer
buzzing sound, and a sort of splashing in the water and a tiny voice
cried:
"Help! Help! Save me! I am drowning!"
"My goodness me sakes alive and some horse radish lollypops!" cried the
bunny uncle. "Some one drowning? I don't see any water around here,
though I do hear some splashing. Who are you?" he cried. "And where are
you, so that I may save you?"
"Here I am, right down by your foot!" was the answer. "I am a honey bee,
and I have fallen into this Jack-in-the pulpit flower, which is full of
water. Please get me out!"
"To be sure I will!" cried Mr. Longears, and then, stooping down he
carefully lifted the poor bee out of the water in the Jack-in-the-pulpit.
The Jack is a plant that looks like a little pitcher and it holds water.
In the middle is a green stem, that is called Jack, because he looks like
a minister preaching in the pulpit. The Jack happened to be out when the
bee fell in the water that had rained in the plant-pitcher, or Jack
himself would have saved the honey chap. But Uncle Wiggily did it just
as well.
"Oh, thank you so much for not letting me drown," said the bee, as she
dried her wings in the sun on a big green leaf. "I was on my way to the
hive tree with a load of honey when I stopped for a drink. But I leaned
over too far and fell in. I can not thank you enough!"
"Oh, once is enough!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly voice. "But
did I understand you to say you lived in a hive-tree?"
"Yes, a lot of us bees have our hive in a hollow tree in the woods, not
far away. It is there we store the honey we gather from Summer flowers,
so we will have something to eat in the Winter when there are no
blossoms. Would you like to see the bee tree?"
"Indeed, I would," Uncle Wiggily said.
"Follow me, then," buzzed the bee. "I will fly on ahead, very slowly,
and you can follow me through the woods."
Uncle Wiggily did so, and soon he heard a great buzzing sound, and he saw
hundreds of bees flying in and out of a hollow tree. At first some of
the bees were going to sting the bunny uncle, but his little friend cried:
"Hold on, sisters! Don't sting this rabbit gentleman. He is Uncle
Wiggily and he saved me from being drowned."
So the bees did not sting the bunny uncle, but, instead, gave him a lot
of honey, in a little box made of birch bark, which he took home to Nurse
Jane.
"Oh, I had the sweetest adventure!" he said to her, and he told her about
the bee tree and the honey, which he and the muskrat lady ate on their
carrot cake for dinner.
It was about a week after this, and Uncle Wiggily was once more in the
woods, looking for an adventure, when, all at once a big bear jumped out
from behind a tree and grabbed him.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why did you do that? Why have you
caught me, Mr. Bear?"
"Because I am going to carry you off to my den," answered the bear. "I
am hungry, and I have been looking for something to eat. You came along
just in time. Come on!"
The hear was leading Uncle Wiggily away when the bunny uncle happened to
think of something, and it was this--that bears are very fond of sweet
things.
"Would you not rather eat some honey than me?" Uncle Wiggily asked of the
bear.
"Much rather," answered the shaggy creature, "but where is the honey?" he
asked, cautious like and foxy.
"Come with me and I will show you where it is," went on the bunny uncle,
for he felt sure that his friends the bees, would give the bear honey so
the bad animal would let the rabbit gentleman go.
Uncle Wiggily led the way through the wood to the bee tree, the bear
keeping hold of him all the while. Pretty soon a loud buzzing was heard,
and when they came to where the honey was stored in the hollow tree, all
of a sudden out flew hundreds of bees, and they stung the bear so hard
all over, especially on his soft and tender nose, that the bear cried:
"Wow! Wouch! Oh, dear!" and, letting go of the rabbit, ran away to jump
in the ice water to cool off.
But the bees did not sting Uncle Wiggily, for they liked him, and he
thanked them for driving away the bear. So everything came out all
right, you see, and if the foot-stool gets up to the head of the class
and writes its name on the blackboard, with pink chalk, I'll tell you
next about Uncle Wiggily and the dogwood tree.
STORY XVII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOGWOOD
"Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the
muskrat lady housekeeper, as the nice old rabbit gentleman started out
from his hollow stump bungalow one afternoon.
"Oh, just for a walk in the woods," he answered. "Neddie Stubtail, the
little bear boy, told me last night that there were many adventures in
the forest, and I want to see if I can find one."
"My goodness! You seem very fond of adventures!" said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.
"I am," went on Uncle Wiggily, with a smile that made his pink nose
twinkle and his whiskers sort of chase themselves around the back of
his neck, as though they were playing tag with his collar button. "I
just love to have adventures."
"Well, while you are out walking among the trees would you mind doing
me a favor?" asked Nurse Jane.
"I wouldn't mind in the least," spoke the bunny uncle. "What would you
like me to do?"
"Just leave this thimble at Mrs. Bow Wow's house. I borrowed the dog
lady's thimble to use when I couldn't find mine, but now that I have my
own back again I'll return hers."
"Where was yours?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.
"Jimmie Caw-Caw, the crow boy, had picked it up to hide under the
pump," answered Nurse Jane. "Crows, you know, like to pick up bright
and shining things."
"Yes, I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "Very well, I'll give Mrs. Bow
Wow her thimble," and off the old gentleman rabbit started, limping
along on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, that Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a bean-pole. Excuse me, I
mean corn stalk.
When Uncle Wiggily came to the place where Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow,
the little puppy dog boys lived, he saw Mrs. Bow Wow, the dog lady, out
in front of the kennel house looking up and down the path that led
through the woods.
"Were you looking for me?" asked Uncle Wiggily, making a low and polite
bow with his tall silk hat.
"Looking for you? Why, no, not specially," said Mrs. Bow Wow, "though
I am always glad to see you."
"I thought perhaps you might be looking for your thimble," went on the
bunny uncle. "Nurse Jane has sent it back to you."
"Oh, thank you!" said the mother of the puppy dog boys. "I'm glad to
get my thimble back, but I was really looking for Peetie and Jackie."
"You don't mean to say they have run away, do you?" asked Uncle
Wiggily, in surprise.
"No, not exactly run away. But they have not come home from school,
though the lady mouse, who teaches in the hollow stump, must have let
the animal children out long ago."
"She did," Uncle Wiggily said. "I came past the hollow stump school on
my way here, and every one was gone."
"Then where can Jackie and Peetie be keeping themselves?" asked Mrs.
Bow Wow. "Oh, I'm so worried about them!"
"Don't be worried or frightened," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll go
look for them for you."
"Oh, if you will I'll be so glad!" cried Mrs. Bow Wow. "And if you
find them please tell them to come home at once."
"I will," promised the bunny uncle.
Giving the dog lady her thimble, Uncle Wiggily set off through the
woods to look for Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow. On every side of the
woodland path he peered, under trees and bushes and around the corners
of moss-covered rocks and big stumps.
But no little puppy dog chaps could he find.
All at once, as Mr. Longears was going past an old log he heard a
rustling in the bushes, and a voice said:
"Well, we nearly caught them, didn't we?"
"We surely did," said another voice. "And I think if we race after
them once more we'll certainly have them. Let's rest here a bit, and
then chase those puppy dogs some more. That Jackie is a good runner."
"I think Peetie is better," said the other voice. "Anyhow, they both
got away from us."
"Ha! This must be Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow they are talking about,"
said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "This sounds like trouble. So the
puppy dogs were chased, were they? I must see by whom."
He peeked through the bushes, and there he saw two big, bad foxes,
whose tongues were hanging out over their white teeth, for the foxes
had run far and they were tired.
"I see how it is," Uncle Wiggily thought. "The foxes chased the little
puppy dogs as they were coming from school and Jackie and Peetie have
run somewhere and hidden. I must find them."
Just then one of the foxes cried:
"Come on. Now we'll chase after those puppies, and get them. Come on!"
"Ha! I must go, too!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Maybe I can scare away
the foxes, and save Jackie and Peetie."
So the foxes ran and Uncle Wiggily also ran, and pretty soon the rabbit
gentleman came to a place in the woods where grew a tree with big white
blossoms on it, and in the center the blossoms were colored a dark red.
"Ha! There are the puppy boys under that tree!" cried one fox, and,
surely enough, there, right under the tree, Jackie and Peetie were
crouched, trembling and much frightened.
"We'll get them!" cried the other fox. "Come on!"
And then, all of a sudden, as the foxes leaped toward the poor little
puppy dog boys, that tree began to hark and growl and it cried out loud:
"Get away from here, you bad foxes! Leave Jackie and Peetie alone!
Wow! Bow-wow! Gurr-r-r-r!" and the tree barked and roared so like a
lion that the foxes were frightened and were glad enough to run away,
taking their tails with them. Then Jackie and Peetie came safely out,
and thanked the tree for taking care of them.
[Illustration: The tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes
were frightened and were glad enough to run away.]
"Oh, you are welcome," said the tree. "I am the dogwood tree, you
know, so why should I not bark and growl to scare foxes, and take care
of you little puppy chaps? Come to me again whenever any bad foxes
chase you." And Peetie and Jackie said they would.
So Uncle Wiggily, after also thanking the tree, took the doggie boys
home, and they told him how the foxes had chased them soon after they
came from school, so they had to run.
But everything came out all right, you see, and if the black cat
doesn't dip his tail in the ink, and make chalk marks all over the
piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the hazel nuts.
STORY XVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HAZEL NUTS
"Going out again, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, one
morning, as she saw the rabbit gentleman taking his red, white and
blue-striped rheumatism crutch down off the clock shelf.
"Well, yes, Janie, I did think of going out for a little stroll in the
forest," answered the bunny uncle, talking like a phonograph. What he
meant was that he was going for a walk in the woods, but he thought
he'd be polite about it, and stylish, just for once.
"Don't forget your umbrella," went on Nurse Jane. "It looks to me very
much as though there would be a storm."
"I think you're right," Uncle Wiggily said. "Our April showers are not
yet over. I shall take my umbrella."
So, with his umbrella, and the rheumatism crutch which Nurse Jane had
gnawed for him out of a cornstalk, off started the bunny uncle, hopping
along over the fields and through the woods.
Pretty soon Uncle Wiggily met Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy.
"Where are you going, Johnnie?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "Are you
here in the woods, looking for an adventure? That's what I'm doing."
"No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the squirrel boy. "I'm not looking for
an adventure. I'm looking for hazel nuts."
"Hazel nuts?" cried the bunny uncle in surprise.
"Yes," went on Johnnie. "You know they're something like chestnuts,
only without the prickly burrs, and they're very good to eat. They
grow on bushes, instead of trees. I'm looking for some to eat. They
are nice, brown, shiny nuts."
"Good!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "We'll go together looking for
hazel nuts, and perhaps we may also find an adventure. I'll take the
adventure and you can take the hazel nuts."
"All right!" laughed Johnnie, and off they started.
On and over the fields and through the woods went the bunny uncle and
Johnnie, until, just as they were close to the place where some extra
early new kind of Spring hazel nuts grew on bushes, there was a noise
behind a big black stump--and suddenly out pounced a bear!
"Oh, hello, Neddie Stubtail!" called Johnnie. And he was just going up
and shake paws when Uncle Wiggily cried:
"Look out, Johnnie! Wait a minute! That isn't your friend Neddie!"
"Isn't it?" asked Johnnie, surprised-like, and he drew back.
"No, it's a bad old bear--not our nice Neddie, at all! And I think he
is going to chase us! Get ready to run!"
So Johnnie Bushytail and Uncle Wiggily got ready to run. And it was a
good thing they did, for just then the bear gave a growl, like a
lollypop when it falls off the stick, and the bear said:
"Ah, ha! And oh, ho! A rabbit and a squirrel! Fine for me!
Tag--your it!" he cried, and he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily and
Johnnie.
But do you s'pose the bunny uncle and the squirrel boy stayed there to
be caught? Indeed, they did not!
"Over this way! Quick!" cried Johnnie. "Here is a hazel nut bush,
Uncle Wiggily. We can hide under that and the bear can't get us!"
"Good!" said the bunny uncle. And he and Johnnie quickly ran and hid
under the hazel nut bush, which was nearby.
The bear looked all around as he heard Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie
running away, and when he saw where they had gone he laughed until his
whiskers twinkled, almost like the rabbit gentleman's pink nose, and
then the bear said:
"Ha, ha! and Ho, ho! So you thought you could get away from me that
way, did you? Well, you can't. I can see you hiding under that bush
almost as plainly as I can see the sun shining. Here I come after you."
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What shall we do, Johnnie? I don't
want the bear to get you or me."
"And I don't either," spoke the little squirrel boy.
"I wonder if I could scare him away with my umbrella, Johnnie?" went on
Uncle Wiggily. "I might if I could make believe it was a gun. Have
you any talcum powder to shoot?"
"No," said Johnnie, sadly, "I have not, I am sorry to say."
"Have you any bullets?" asked the bunny uncle.
"No bullets, either," answered Johnnie, more sadly.
"Then I don't see anything for us to do but let the bear get us,"
sorrowfully said Mr. Longears. "Here he comes, Johnnie."
"But he sha'n't get us!" quickly cried the squirrel boy, as the bear
made a jump for the bush under which the bunny and Johnnie were hiding.
"He sha'n't get us!"
"Why not?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Because," said Johnnie, "I have just thought of something. You asked
me for bullets a while ago. I have none, but the hazel nut bush has.
Come, good Mr. Hazel Bush, will you save us from the bear?" asked
Johnnie.
"Right gladly will I do that," the kind bush said.
"Then, when he comes for us!" cried Johnnie, "just rattle down, all
over on him, all the hard nuts you can let fall. They will hit him on
his ears, and on his soft and tender nose, and that will make him run
away and leave us alone."
"Good!" whispered the hazel nut bush, rustling its leaves. "But what
about you and Uncle Wiggily? If I rattle the nuts on the bear they
will also fall on you two, as long as you are hiding under me."
"Have no fear of that!" said the bunny uncle. "I have my umbrella, and
I will raise that and keep off the falling nuts."
Then the bear, with a growl, made a dash to get Uncle Wiggily and
Johnnie. But the hazel bush shivered and shook himself and
"Rattle-te-bang! Bung-bung! Bang!" down came the hazel nuts all over
the bear.
"Oh, wow!" he cried, as they hit him on his soft and tender nose. "Oh,
wow! I guess I'd better run away. It's hailing!"
And he did run. And because of Uncle Wiggily's umbrella held over his
head, the nuts did not hurt him or Johnnie at all. And when the bear
had run far away the squirrel boy gathered all the nuts he wanted, and
he and Uncle Wiggily went safely home. And the bear's nose was sore
for a week.
So if the hickory nut cake doesn't try to sit in the same seat with the
apple pie and get all squeezed like a lemon pudding, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Susie's dress.
STORY XIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND SUSIE'S DRESS
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was reading the
paper in his hollow stump bungalow, in the woods, while Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady house-keeper, was out in the kitchen
washing the dinner dishes one afternoon.
All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily fell asleep because he was reading a
bed-time story in the paper, and while he slept he heard a noise at the
front door, which sounded like:
"Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!"
"My goodness!" suddenly exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, awakening out of his
sleep. "That sounds like the forest woodpecker bird making holes in a
tree."
"No, it isn't that," spoke Nurse Jane. "It's some one tapping at our
front door. I can't answer because my paws are all covered with
soapy-suds dishwater."
"Oh, I'll go," said Uncle Wiggily, and laying aside the paper over
which he had fallen asleep, he opened the door. On the porch stood
Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl.
"Why, hello Susie!" exclaimed the bunny uncle. "Where are you going
with your nice new dress?" for Susie did have on a fine new waist and
skirt, or maybe it was made in one piece for all I know. And her new
dress had on it ruffles and thing-a-ma-bobs and curley-cues and
insertions and Georgette crepe and all sorts of things like that.
"Where are you going, Susie?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"I am going to a party," answered the little rabbit girl. "Lulu and
Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls, are going to have a party, and they
asked me to come. So I came for you."
"But I'm not going to the party!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I haven't
been invited."
"That doesn't make any difference," spoke Susie with a laugh. "You
know they'll be glad to see you, anyhow. And I know Lulu meant to ask
you, only she must have forgotten about it, because there is so much to
do when you have a party."
"I know there is," Uncle Wiggily said, "and I don't blame Lulu and
Alice a bit for not asking me. Anyhow I couldn't go, for I promised to
come over this afternoon and play checkers with Grandfather Goosey
Gander."
"Oh, but won't you walk with me to the party?" asked Susie, sort of
teasing like. "I'm afraid to go through the woods alone, because
Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, said you and he met a bear there
yesterday."
"We did!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "But the hazel bush drove him away by
showering nuts on his nose."
"Well, I might not be so lucky as to have a hazelnut bush to help me,"
spoke Susie. "So I'd be very glad if you would walk through the woods
with me. You can scare away the bear if we meet him."
"How?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "With my red, white and blue crutch or my
umbrella?"
"With this popgun, which shoots toothpowder," said Susie. "It belongs
to Sammie, my brother, but he let me take it. We'll bring the popgun
with us, Uncle Wiggily, and scare the bear."
"All right," said the bunny uncle. "That's what we'll do. I'll go as
far as the Wibblewobble duck house with you and leave you there at the
party."
This made Susie very glad and happy, and soon she and Uncle Wiggily
were going through the woods together. Susie's new dress was very fine
and she kept looking at it as she hopped along.
All of a sudden, as the little rabbit girl and the bunny uncle were
going along through the woods, they came to a mud puddle.
"Look out, now!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Don't fall in that, Susie."
"I won't," said the little rabbit girl. "I can easily jump across it."
But when she tried to, alas! Likewise unhappiness. Her hind paws
slipped and into the mud puddle she fell with her new dress. "Splash!"
she went.
"Oh, dear!" cried Susie.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily.
"Look at my nice, new dress," went on Susie. "It isn't at all nice and
new now. It's all mud and water and all splashed up, and--oh, dear!
Isn't it too bad!"
"Yes, besides two it is even six, seven and eight bad," said Uncle
Wiggily sadly. "Oh, dear!"
"I can't go to the Wibblewobble party this way," cried Susie. "I'll
have to go back home to get another dress, and it won't be my new
one--and oh, dear!"
"Perhaps I can wipe off the mud with some leaves and moss," Uncle
Wiggily spoke. "I'll try."
But the more he rubbed at the mud spots on Susie's dress the worse they
looked.
"Oh, you can't do it, Uncle Wiggily!" sighed the little rabbit girl.
"No, I don't believe I can," Uncle Wiggily admitted, sadly-like and
sorry.
"Oh, dear!" cried Susie. "Whatever shall I do? I can't go to a party
looking like this! I just must have a new dress."
Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then, through the woods, he spied
a tree with white, shiny bark on, just like satin.
"Ha! I know what to do!" he cried. "That is a white birch tree.
Indians make boats of the bark, and from it I can also make a new dress
for you, Susie. Or, at least, a sort of dress, or apron, to go over
the dress you have on, and so cover the mud spots."
"Please do!" begged Susie.
"I will!" promised Uncle Wiggily, and he did.
He stripped off some bark from the birch tree and he sewed the pieces
together with ribbon grass, and some needles from the pine tree. And
when Susie put on the bark dress over her party one, not a mud spot
showed!
"Oh, that's fine, Uncle Wiggily!" she cried. "Now I can go to the
Wibblewobbles!"
And so she went, and the bad bear never came out to so much as growl,
nor did the fox, so the popgun was not needed. And all the girls at
the party thought Susie's dress that Uncle Wiggily had made was just
fine.
So if the rain drop doesn't fall out of bed, and stub its toe on the
rocking chair, which might make it so lame that it couldn't dance, I'll
tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tommie's kite.
STORY XX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE'S KITE
"Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do today?" asked Tommie
Kat, the little kitten boy, one morning as he knocked on the door of
the hollow stump bungalow, where Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman,
lived.
"Anything special to do? Why, no, I guess not," answered the bunny
uncle. "I just have to go walking to look for an adventure to happen
to me, and then--"
"Didn't you promise to go to the five and ten cent store for me, and
buy me a pair of diamond earrings?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the
muskrat lady housekeeper.
"Oh, so I did!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I had forgotten about that. But
I'll go. What was it you wanted of me?" he asked Tommie Kat, who was
making a fishpole of his tail by standing it straight up in the air.
"Oh, I wanted you to come and help me build a kite, and then come with
me and fly it," said the kitten boy. "Could you do that, Uncle
Wiggily?"
"Well, perhaps I could," said the bunny uncle. "I will first go to the
store and get Nurse Jane's diamond earrings. Then, on the way back,
I'll stop and help you with your kite. And after that is done I'll go
along and see if I can find an adventure."
"That will be fun!" cried Tommie. "I have everything all ready to make
the kite--paper, sticks, paste and string. We'll make a big one and
fly it away up in the air."
So off through the woods started Uncle Wiggily and Tommie to the five
and ten cent store. There they bought the diamond earrings for Nurse
Jane, who wanted to wear them to a party Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the hen
lady, was going to have next week.
"And now to make the kite!" cried Tommie, as he and Uncle Wiggily
reached the house where the Kat family lived.
The bunny uncle and the little kitten boy cut out some red paper in the
shape of a kite. Then they pasted it on the crossed sticks, which were
tied together with string.
"The kite is almost done," said Uncle Wiggily, as he held it up. "And
can you tell me, Tommie, why your kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig
boy?"
"Can I tell you why my kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?"
repeated Tommie, like a man in a minstrel show. "No, Uncle Wiggily, I
can not. Why is my kite like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?"
"Because," laughed the old rabbit gentleman, "this kite has no tail and
neither has Buddy."
"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Tommie. "That's right!"
For guinea pigs have no tails, you know, though if you ask me why I
can't tell you. Some kites do have tails, though, and others do not.