straight at those foxes he flew, bumping and banging them on their noses
and in the eyes, so that they gave two separate and distinct howls, and
ran away, taking their big tails with them.
So that is how the July bug saved everybody from being eaten up, and then
the picnic was over and every one said it was lovely.
"Well, I'll start on my travels again to-morrow," said Uncle Wiggily, as
his friends told him good-by.
Now what happened to him the next day I'll tell you very soon, for, in
case I see a chipmunk with a blue tail and a red nose climbing up the
clothes pole, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and
Jack-in-the-pulpit.
STORY VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT
Uncle Wiggily was slowly hopping along through the woods, sometimes
leaning on his crutch, when his rheumatism pained him, and again skipping
along when he got out into the warm sunshine. It was the day after the
picnic, and the old gentleman rabbit felt a bit lonesome as all his
friends had gone back to their homes.
"I do declare!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he walked slowly along by a
little lake, where an August rabbit was running his motor boat, "if I
don't find my fortune pretty soon I won't have any vacation this year. I
must look carefully to-day, and see if I can't find a pot full of gold."
Well, he looked as carefully as he could, but my land sakes and a pair of
white gloves! he couldn't seem to find a smitch of gold and not so much as
a crumb of diamonds.
[Illustration]
"Hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "at this rate I guess I'll have to keep on
traveling for several years before I find my fortune. But never mind,
I'm having a good time, anyhow. I'll keep on searching."
So he kept on, and all of a sudden when he was walking past a prickly
briar bush, he heard a voice calling:
"Hey, Uncle Wiggily, come on in here."
"Ha! Who are you, and why do you want me to come in there?" asked the old
gentleman rabbit.
"Oh, I am a friend of yours," was the answer, "and I will give you a lot
of money if you come in here."
"Let me see your face," asked the rabbit, "I want to know who you are."
"Oh! I have a dreadful toothache," said the creature hiding in the bushes.
"I don't want to stick my face out in the cold. But if you will take my
word for it I am a good friend of yours. I would like very much for you to
come in here."
"Well, perhaps I had better," said the old gentleman rabbit, "for I
certainly need money."
And he was just going to crawl in under the prickly briar bush when all of
a sudden he happened to look, and he saw the skillery-scallery tail of the
alligator accidentally sticking out. Yes, it was the alligator trying to
fool dear old Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, ho!" cried the wise old rabbit. "I guess I won't go in there after
all," so he hopped to one side and the alligator kept waiting for him to
come in so he could eat him, but when the rabbit didn't come in the savage
creature with the skillery-scallery tail cried:
"Well, aren't you coming in?"
"No, thank you," said the rabbit. "I have to go on to seek my fortune,"
and away he hopped. Well, that alligator was so angry that he gnashed his
teeth and nearly broke them, and he crawled after Uncle Wiggily, but of
course, he couldn't catch him.
Uncle Wiggily was pretty careful after that, and whenever he came near a
prickly briar bush he listened with both his long ears stuck up straight
to see if he could hear any sounds like an alligator. But he didn't, and
so he kept on.
Well, it was coming on toward evening, one afternoon, and the old
gentleman rabbit was tramping along the road, wondering where he would
sleep, when all of a sudden something came bursting out of the bushes
toward the rabbit, and a voice cried out:
"Hide! Hide! Uncle Wiggily. Hide as quickly as you can!"
"Why should I hide?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "Is there a giant
coming after me?"
"Worse than a giant," said the voice. "It is a bad wolf that jumped out of
his cage from the circus, and he is just ready to eat up anything he
sees," and the July bug, for it was he who had fluttered out of the
bushes, to tell Uncle Wiggily, made his wings go slowly to and fro like an
electric palm-leaf fan.
"A wolf, eh?" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "And do you think he will
eat me?"
"He surely will," said the July bug. "I happened to fly past his house,
and I heard him say to his wife that he was going out to see if he could
find a rabbit supper. So I know he's coming for you. You'd better hide."
"Oh! where can I hide?" asked the rabbit, as he looked around for a hollow
stump. But there wasn't any, and there were no holes in the ground, and he
didn't know what to do.
Then, all at once there was a crashing in the bushes and it sounded like
an elephant coming through, breaking all the sticks in his path.
"There's the wolf! There's the wolf!" cried the July bug. "Hide, Uncle
Wiggily," and then the bug perched on the high limb of a tree where the
wolf couldn't catch him.
Well, the poor old gentleman rabbit looked for a place to hide himself
away from the wolf but he couldn't seem to find any, and he was just going
to crawl under a stone and maybe hurt himself, when all at once he heard a
voice say:
"Jump up here, Uncle Wiggily. I'll hide you from the wolf."
So the rabbit traveler looked up, and there he saw a flower called
Jack-in-the-pulpit looking down on him. I've told you about them before,
how the frog once took his bath in one, and how, when you pick a
wood-bouquet you put them in with some ferns to make the bouquet look
pretty. They are a flower like a vase, with a top curling over, and a
thing standing up in the centre whose name is "Jack."
"Jump in here," said the Jack. "I'll fold my top down over you like an
umbrella, and the wolf can't find you."
"But you are so small that I can't get inside," said the rabbit.
"Oh, I'll make myself bigger," cried the Jack, I and he took a long
breath, and puffed himself up and swelled himself up, until he was large
enough for Uncle Wiggily to jump down inside. Then the Jack-in-the-pulpit
closed down the umbrella top over the rabbit, and he was hidden away as
nice and snug as could be wished.
Pretty soon that bad savage wolf came prancing along, and he looked all
over for the rabbit. Then he sniffed and cried:
"Ha! I smell him somewhere around here! I'll find him!" But he couldn't
see Uncle Wiggily because he was safely hidden in the Jack-in-the-pulpit.
So the wolf raged around some more and chased after his tail, and just as
he smelled the rabbit hidden in the flower, the July bug flew down out of
the tree, bang! right into the eyes of the wolf, and then the savage
creature felt so badly that he ran home and ate cold bread and water for
supper, and he didn't bother Uncle Wiggily any more that day.
So that's how the Jack-in-the-pulpit saved the rabbit and very thankful
Uncle Wiggily was. And he stayed that night in a hollow stump, and the
next day he went on to seek his fortune.
And quite a curious thing happened to him, as I shall have the pleasure of
telling you about soon, when in case our canoe boat doesn't turn upside
down and spill out the breakfast oatmeal, the next bedtime story will be
about Uncle Wiggily and the lost chipmunk.
STORY IX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOST CHIPMUNK
Uncle Wiggily was walking along the road one morning, after he had slept
all night in the hollow stump. He didn't have any breakfast either, for
there was nothing left in his valise, and of course he couldn't eat his
barber-pole crutch. If the crutch had had a hole in it, like in the
elephant's trunk, then the old gentleman rabbit could have carried along
some sandwiches. But, as it was, he had nothing for breakfast, and he
hadn't had much supper either, the night before.
"Oh, how hungry I am!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If only I had a piece of
cherry pie now, or an ice cream cone, or a bit of bread and butter and jam
I would be all right."
Well, he just happened to open his valise, and there on the very bottom,
among some papers he found a few crumbs of the honey sandwiches the bumble
bee had given him. Well, you never can imagine how good those few crumbs
tasted to the old gentleman rabbit, which shows you that it is a good
thing to be hungry once in a while, because even common things taste good.
But the crumbs weren't enough for Uncle Wiggily. As he walked along he
kept getting hungrier and hungrier and he didn't know how he was going to
stand it.
Then, all of a sudden, as he was passing by a hollow stump, he saw a whole
lot of little black creatures crawling around it. They were going up and
down, and they were very busy.
"Why, these are ants," said the rabbit. "Well, I s'pose they have plenty
to eat. I almost wish I was an ant."
"Well! Well!" exclaimed a voice all at once. "If here isn't Uncle Wiggily.
Where did you come from?" and there stood a second cousin to the ant for
whom Uncle Wiggily had once carried home a pound of beefsteak with
mushrooms on it.
"Oh, I am traveling about seeking my fortune," said the rabbit. "But I
haven't been very successful. I couldn't even find my breakfast this
morning."
"That's too bad!" exclaimed the ant who wore glasses. "We can give you
something, however. Come on! everybody, help get breakfast for Uncle
Wiggily."
So all the ants came running up, and some of them brought pieces of
boiled eggs, and others brought oatmeal and others parts of oranges and
still others parts of cups of coffee. So take it altogether, with
seventeen million, four hundred and seventeen thousand, one hundred and
eighty-five ants and a baby ant to wait on him, Uncle Wiggily managed to
make out a pretty fair sort of a breakfast.
Well, after the old gentleman rabbit had eaten all the breakfast he could,
he thanked the kind ants and said good-by to them. Then he started off
again. He hadn't gone on very far through the woods, before, all of a
sudden he saw something bright and shining under a blackberry bush.
"Well, I do declare!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I think that looks
like gold. I hope I'm not fooled this time. I will go up very slowly and
carefully. Perhaps I shall find my fortune now."
So up he walked very softly, and he stooped down and picked up the shining
thing. And what do you think it was? Why a bright new penny--as shiny as
gold.
"Good luck!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "I am beginning to find money. Soon I
will be rich, and then I can stop traveling," and he put the penny in his
pocket.
Well, no sooner had he done so than he heard some one crying over behind a
raspberry bush. Oh, such a sad cry as it was, and the old gentleman rabbit
knew right away that some one was in trouble.
"Who is there?" he asked, as he felt in his pocket to see if his penny was
safe, for he thought that was the beginning of his fortune.
"Oh, I'm lost!" cried the voice. "I came to the store to buy a chocolate
lollypop, and I can't find my way back," and then out from behind the
raspberry bush came a tiny, little striped chipmunk with the tears falling
down on her little paws.
"Oh, you poor little dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "And so you are lost?
Well, don't you know what to do? As soon as you are lost you must go to a
policeman and ask him to take you home. Policemen always know where
everybody lives."
"But there are no policemen here," said the chipmunk, who was something
like a squirrel, only smaller.
"That's so," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Well, pretend that I am a policeman,
and I'll take you home. Where do you live?"
"If I knew," said the chipmunk, "I would go home myself. All that I know
is that I live in a hollow stump."
"Hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "There are so many hollow stumps here,
that I can't tell which one it is. We will go to each one, and when you
find the one that is your home, just tell me."
"But that is not the worst," said the chipmunk. "I have lost my bright,
new penny that my mamma gave me for a chocolate lollypop. Oh dear. Isn't
it terrible."
"Perhaps this is your penny," said the old gentleman rabbit a bit sadly,
taking from his pocket the one he had found.
"It is the very one!" cried the lost chipmunk, joyfully. "Oh, how good of
you to find it for me."
"Well," thought Uncle Wiggily with a sorrowful sigh as he handed over the
penny, "I thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, but I've lost
it again. Never mind. I'll try to-morrow."
So he gave the penny to the chipmunk, and she stopped crying right away,
and took hold of Uncle Wiggily's paw, and he led her around to all the
hollow stumps until she found the right one where she lived.
And he bought her an ice cream cone because he felt sorry for her. And,
just as she was eating it, along came a big, black bear and he wanted
half of it, but very luckily the July bug flew past just then, and he bit
the bear in the eyes, so that the bad bear was glad enough to run home,
taking his little stumpy tail with him. Then the chipmunk took Uncle
Wiggily back to her home, and he stayed with her papa and mamma all night.
Now, in case the rocking chair on our porch doesn't tip over in the middle
of the night, and scare the pussy cat off the railing, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the black cricket.
STORY X
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CRICKET
Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was feeling quite sad one
morning as he hopped along the dusty road. It was a few days after he had
helped the lost chipmunk find her way back home, and he had given her the
lost penny which he had also picked up.
"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he thought of the penny.
"That's generally the way it is in this world. Nothing seems to go right.
I naturally thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, even if it
was only a penny, and it turned out that the money belonged to somebody
else. Oh dear!"
Well, the old rabbit traveler actually felt so badly that he didn't much
care whether he found his fortune or not, and that is a very poor way to
feel in this world, for one must never give up trying, no matter what
happens.
Then Uncle Wiggily looked in his satchel to see if he had anything to eat,
but my goodness sakes alive and a ham sandwich! There wasn't a thing in
the valise! You see he was thinking so much about the penny that he forgot
to put up his lunch.
"Humph! This is a pretty state of affairs!" exclaimed the old rabbit
gentleman. "Worse and worse, and some more besides! I do declare! Hum!
Suz! Dud!"
Well, he didn't know what to do, so he sat down on a log beside a shady
bush and thought it all over. And the more he thought the sadder he
became, until he began to believe he was the most miserable rabbit in all
the world.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I might as well go back
home and done with it."
But no sooner had he said this, than Uncle Wiggily heard the jolliest
laugh he had ever known. Oh! it was such a rippling, happy joyous laugh
that it would almost cure the toothache just to listen to it.
"Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" laughed the voice, and Uncle Wiggily looked up,
and he looked down, and then he looked sideways and around a corner, but
he could see no one. Still the laugh kept up, more jolly than ever.
"Humph! I wonder who that is?" said the rabbit. "I wish I could laugh like
that," and Uncle Wiggily actually smiled the least little bit, and he
didn't feel quite so sad.
Then, all at once, there was a voice singing, and this is the song, and if
you feel sad when you sing it, just get some one to tickle you, or watch
baby's face when he smiles, and you will feel jolly enough to sing this
song, even if you have been crying because you stubbed your toe.
"Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! I gladly sing,
I sing about most anything.
I sing about a pussy cat,
Who caught a little mousie-rat.
I sing about a doggie-dog,
Who saw a turtle on a log.
I sing about a little boy,
Who cried because he broke his toy.
And then he laughed, 'Ha! Ha! He! He!'
Because he couldn't help it; see?"
"Well, well!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "I wish I knew who that was.
Perhaps it is a fairy, and if it is, I'm going to ask her for my fortune.
I'm getting tired of not finding it," and when he thought about that he
was sad again.
But a moment later a little black creature hopped out from under a leaf,
and who should it be but a cricket.
"Was that you laughing?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as he again
looked in his valise to see if he had any sandwiches there. "Was it you?"
"It was," said the cricket. "I was just going--Oh, kindly excuse me, while
I laugh again!" the cricket said, and then he laughed more jolly than
before.
"What makes you so good-natured?" asked the rabbit.
"I just can't help it," said the cricket. "Everything is so lovely. The
sun shines, and the birds sing, and the water in the brooks babble such
jolly songs, and well--Oh, excuse me again if you please, I'm going to
laugh once more," and so he did then and there. He just laughed and
laughed and laughed, that cricket did.
"Well," said Uncle Wiggily, still speaking sadly, "of course it's nice to
be jolly, anybody can be that way when the sun shines, but what about the
rain? There! I guess you can't be jolly when it rains."
"Oh! when it rains I laugh because I know it will soon clear off, and
then, too, I can think about the days when the sun did shine," said the
cricket.
"Well," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "there is something in that, to be sure. And
as you are such a jolly chap, will you travel along with me? Perhaps with
you I could find my fortune."
"Of course I'll come," said the cricket, and he laughed again, and then he
and the old gentleman rabbit hopped on together and Uncle Wiggily kept
feeling more and more happy until he had forgotten all about the
chipmunk's penny that wasn't his.
Well, in a little while, not so very long, the rabbit and the cricket came
to a dark place in the woods. Oh! it was quite dismal, and, just as they
passed a big, black stump with a hole in it, all of a sudden out popped
the skillery-scalery-tailery alligator.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the unpleasant creature. "Now I have you both. I'm
going to eat you both, first you, Mr. Cricket, and then you, Uncle
Wiggily."
"Oh, please don't," begged the rabbit. "I haven't found my fortune yet."
"No matter," cried the alligator, "here we go!"
He made a grab for the cricket, but the little black insect hopped to one
side, and then, all of a sudden he began to laugh. Oh, how hard he
laughed.
"Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" My, it was wonderful! At first the alligator
didn't know what to make of it. Harder and harder did the black cricket
laugh, and then Uncle Wiggily began. He just couldn't help it. Harder and
harder laughed the cricket and Uncle Wiggily together, and then, all at
once, the alligator began to laugh. He couldn't help it either.
"Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! He! He!" laughed the 'gator, and great big alligator
tears rolled down his scaly cheeks, he laughed so hard. Why, he giggled so
that he couldn't even have eaten a mosquito with mustard on.
"Come on, now!" suddenly cried the cricket to Uncle Wiggily. "Now is our
chance to get away."
And before the alligator had stopped laughing they both hopped away in the
woods together, and so the bad scalery-ailery-tailery creature didn't get
either of them.
"My! it's a good thing you made him laugh," said the rabbit when they were
safely away.
"It's a good thing to make anybody laugh," said the black cricket, and
then he and Uncle Wiggily went on to seek the old gentleman rabbit's
fortune.
And in the next story, in case the sunshine doesn't make my pussy cat
sneeze and spill his milk, on the new door mat, I'll tell you all about
Uncle Wiggily and the busy bug.
STORY XI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUSY BUG
Everywhere Uncle Wiggily and the black cricket went in the next few days,
every one was glad to see them. For they were both so jolly, and laughed
and joked so much along the road, that no one who heard them could be sad.
They came to one place where there was a boy sick with the toothache, and
his mamma had done everything for him that she could think of, even to
putting mustard on it, but still that boy's tooth ached.
Well, as soon as that boy saw the cricket and the old gentleman rabbit,
and heard them laugh, why the boy smiled, and then the pain, somehow,
seemed to be better, and he smiled some more, and then he laughed.
Then Uncle Wiggily told a funny story about a monkey who made faces at
himself in a looking-glass, and got so excited about it that he jumped
around behind the glass, thinking another monkey was there, and there
wasn't, and the monkey fell into the freezer full of ice cream and caught
cold because he ate so much of it.
Well, that boy opened his mouth real wide to laugh at the funny story and
his mamma all of a sudden slipped a string around the aching tooth and she
pulled it out in a moment, and it never ached again.
"Oh, how glad I am!" cried the little boy. "I wish you would always stay
with me, Uncle Wiggily--you and the jolly cricket."
"I'd like to, but I can't," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I must keep on
after my fortune."
"I'll stay with you for a little while," said the cricket, and he did,
telling some funny stories to other boys who had the toothache, and right
away after that they allowed their bad teeth to be pulled, and their pain
was over.
So Uncle Wiggily said good-by to the cricket and went on by himself. He
was feeling very good now, for he and the cricket had met a kind muskrat,
a thirty-fifth cousin to Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and this muskrat gave
Uncle Wiggily a lot of sandwiches for his satchel, so he wouldn't be
hungry again for some time.
"And I don't mind so much about the cent, either," thought the rabbit, as
he remembered the one that belonged to the chipmunk. "After all a cent is
not so much, and I need more than that for my fortune. Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!"
He just had to laugh, you see, when he thought of the jolly cricket. So he
traveled on and on, over hill and dale, until one evening, just as the sun
was going down behind the clouds, all red and golden and violet colored,
he saw a little house built of green leaves.
"Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That is a very fine house. I wish I had
one like it in which to stay to-night. But it's too small for me. I guess
I'll have to keep on and look for a haystack under which to crawl."
Well, just as he said that, all of a sudden there was a little rustling,
scratching noise, and a bug came to the door of the queer little green
leaf house. The bug had a broom and she began sweeping off the front porch
and then she knocked the dirt out of the doormat, and then she swept some
cobwebs off the shutters and then she hurried out and swept off the
sidewalk, all so quickly that you could scarcely see her move.
"My, but she is a fast worker," said Uncle Wiggily. "She is almost as
quick as Jennie Chipmunk."
"I have to be!" exclaimed the bug, for the old gentleman rabbit had spoken
out loud without thinking, and the bug had heard him. "I have to hustle
around," she said, "for I am the busy bug, and I have to keep busy. I work
from morning to night to keep my house in order. Now excuse me; I have to
go in and dust the piano," and she was just going to run in the house,
when Uncle Wiggily said:
"Do you happen to know of a place where I can stay to-night?"
"Why, yes," said the busy bug. "Next door is a house where Mr. Groundhog
used to live. But now he is away on his vacation, and I have the keys. I'm
sure he wouldn't mind you staying in there over night. I'll get it in
order for you. Come along, hurry up, no time to lose!"
And before Uncle Wiggily knew what was happening the busy bug had run in,
got the keys, opened the front door of the groundhog's house. Then she
flew in, and she began dusting it. My! what a dust she raised. Uncle
Wiggily had to sneeze, there was so much of it.
And the funny part of it was that the house was already just as neat and
clean as a piece of cocoanut or custard, or maybe even apple pie.
"Don't fuss any more with it," said Uncle Wiggily. "It will do very well
as it is."
"Oh, it must be made cleaner," said the busy bug, and she swept and dusted
until Uncle Wiggily sneezed again. Then the bug dusted a little more, and
at last she said the house was in pretty fair shape and Uncle Wiggily
could sleep there.
Then the busy bug flew back home and she kept busy up to nine o'clock,
making beds and dusting the crumbs off the mantelpiece and picking up
grains of sand off the floor. Then she went to sleep.
Well, along in the middle of the night Uncle Wiggily was awakened by
hearing some one talking under his window. He looked out, and there were
two savage old owls.
"Now, we'll fly right in through her window," said one owl, "and we'll eat
her all up, and then we'll tear her house down."