UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK-BE-NIMBLE
“UNCLE WIGGILY! Uncle Wiggily!” called Sammie Littletail, the little
rabbit boy, one Saturday morning, as he hopped up to the hollow-stump
bungalow, where the nice, old bunny uncle lived. “Come on out and play,
Uncle Wiggily. Please do!”
“Oh, hop away, Sammie!” called Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady
housekeeper, looking out of the kitchen window. “Here, take this cabbage
jam tart and run away. Uncle Wiggily can’t bother to play with you
to-day.”
“I haven’t any one else to play with,” said Sammie. “Johnnie and Billie
Bushytail, the squirrels, are taking their nut-gnawing lesson, and
Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppies, are taking their bone-gnawing
lessons.”
“Haven’t you any lessons?” asked Nurse Jane.
“No. I’ve done mine. I had to practice jumping a little. But there’s no
school, as it’s Saturday, and I do want some one to play with. My sister
Susie has gone off with Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the ducks, and
anyhow I don’t want to play with girl animals. Won’t Uncle Wiggily come
out?”
“No, Sammie. Here, take this carrot cookie and hop along,” said Nurse
Jane.
“Wait a minute,” spoke another voice, and Uncle Wiggily himself went out
on the back stoop. “What is it you want, Sammie?”
“He wants you to come out and play with him!” cried Nurse Jane. “The
idea!”
“Oh, I’ll come,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “I haven’t much to do, and
perhaps we may have an adventure together. Come on, Sammie, we’ll go off
in the woods, and we’ll play.”
So the old gentleman rabbit and his little bunny nephew hopped off in
the woods together, and soon were having a fine time, scurrying in among
the dried leaves, and hiding behind old logs and stumps.
“I wonder if there is any new cabbage growing around here?” said Sammie,
after a bit. “I’m hungry.”
“It is too soon for cabbage yet,” answered Uncle Wiggily. “It will not
be Spring for several weeks. Nor are there any new carrots to be had.
But pretty soon we’ll pass a lollypop store, and you may have a lettuce
flavored one.”
“That will be nice—thank you,” said Sammie.
“Did you do your jumping lesson to-day?” asked the old gentleman rabbit,
after a bit.
“Yes,” said Sammie. “I practiced half an hour.”
“Let me see how well you can jump,” spoke the bunny uncle. “I used to be
a pretty good jumper when I was young.”
So Sammie jumped from one stump, far over a log, to another.
“Fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “That’s better than I can do, but I’ll
try.”
He did try, and, though he could not leap as far as Sammie had done, Mr.
Longears did very well. If it had not been for his rheumatism he could
have done better.
He and Sammie jumped about for some time, and all at once they were
surprised to hear a voice saying:
“Oh, dear! I wish I could jump as far as that. But I don’t believe I
shall ever be able to. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!”
“Ha! That sounds like trouble,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Who are you and
where are you?”
“I’m Jack, and I’m behind this big stone,” was the answer, and out
stepped a boy.
“Ha! I thought at first it might be Jackie Bow Wow,” spoke Uncle
Wiggily.
“No; I am another Jack,” said the boy. “I’m one of Mother Goose’s
friends.”
“Are you Jack Sprat?” Sammie wanted to know, “who could eat no fat?”
But still the boy did not look like that Jack.
“I’ll tell you who I am,” the boy said. “I’m Jack-be-Nimble,
Jack-be-Quick, Jack jump over the candlestick.”
“Oh, now I remember,” spoke Uncle Wiggily. “How do you do,
Jack-be-Nimble?”
“But the trouble is I _can’t_ do it,” went on Jack.
“Can’t do what?” asked Sammie Littletail.
“I can’t be nimble and jump over the candlestick,” was the answer. “I’ve
tried and tried. But it seems of no use. Every time I jump I either hit
the candle, and put it out, or I come down ker-flunk! in it, and get my
shoes all grease. Mother Goose says I ought to be ashamed of myself. If
I can’t jump over the candlestick, I can’t be in her book, she says, and
Oh, dear! I don’t want to be put out of the nice book.”
“That’s too bad,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Now, Jack, I’ll tell you what to
do. You watch Sammie and me jump, and perhaps that will teach you how.
Watch us. Come on, Sammie, we must jump some more to teach Jack.”
So the old rabbit gentleman and the little rabbit boy jumped about on
the soft, dried leaves in the wood. Jack watched them, and then he
tried. Of course, having only two legs, he could not leap as far as
could the rabbits, with four. But still Jack did very well.
“Now, come here every day to the woods,” said Uncle Wiggily, “and we
will give you a jumping lesson. Don’t say anything to Mother Goose about
it, and you will soon give her a nice surprise by jumping over the
candlestick easily some day. I once took dancing lessons from a waltzing
mouse lady without saying anything to Nurse Jane about it, and my! how
surprised she was when I did the fox trot.”
“I’ll come,” promised Jack-be-Nimble. And he did. Every day for a week,
he took jumping lessons secretly in the woods, of Uncle Wiggily and
Sammie, until finally Jack was a very good jumper, indeed. Then one day
Old Mother Goose said:
“Well, Jack, I fear it is of no use. You can’t jump over the
candlestick, as you ought to do to be in my book, so you’ll have to go
out. I’ll get the cow, who leaped over the moon, to jump for me.”
“Oh, please give me one more chance!” begged Jack. “Please!”
Mother Goose kindly did so, and lo! and behold! when next he tried,
Jack-be-Nimble jumped over the candlestick as easily as anything. Away
over it he jumped and came down on the other side.
“Why, Jack! Where did you learn to jump so well?” asked Mother Goose, in
great surprise.
“Uncle Wiggily and Sammie taught me,” he answered. And ever after that
nimble Jack had no trouble.
And if the apple pie doesn’t go out skating with the jam tart, and
forget to come in to supper, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and
Tommie Tinker’s dog.
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