busy lady bug, who was fast asleep.
"Ha! This must never be!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I must save her. How can I
do it?" So he looked around, and he saw a broom, which the busy bug had
left behind when she finished sweeping. "That will do!" cried the rabbit.
He took it in his paws and, leaning out of the window, he held it just as
if it was a gun, and cried:
"Now, you bad owls, fly away or I'll shoot all your feathers off! Fly away
and don't you harm my friend, the busy lady bug!"
Well, sir, those owls were so frightened, thinking that Uncle Wiggily was
going to shoot them with the broom-gun (only, of course, they didn't know
it was only a broom), and, would you believe it, they were terribly afraid
and they flew off into the dark woods, and so didn't eat up the busy bug
after all, and she slept in peace and quietness, never even waking up, she
was so tired after being busy all day.
Then Uncle Wiggily went back to bed, and the owls didn't disturb him again
that night. And in the morning the busy bug got his breakfast and thanked
him when he told her about scaring the owls away with the make-believe
broom-gun.
Uncle Wiggily traveled on, and soon he had another adventure. What it was
I'll tell you almost right away, when, in case the cake of ice doesn't
melt, and make a mud puddle for the baby to fall into, I'll tell you about
Uncle Wiggily and the funny monkey.
STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FUNNY MONKEY
It was a bright and beautiful sunshiny day, and Uncle Wiggily was hopping
along the road, thinking many thoughts and about the busy bug and the
black cricket and all things like that and how hard it was to look and
look for your fortune and never find it, when all of a sudden, just as he
happened to put his crutch down on a round stone, it slipped, and down he
fell kerthump.
"Oh, wow! Ouch!" cried the old gentleman rabbit as he bumped his nose on a
sharp stick. "That hurt! My, I hope I haven't broken one of my ears or
paw-nails. If I did I'll have to get in the ambulance and go to the
hospital."
So he sat up very slowly and carefully and looked himself all over and he
was glad to see that he hadn't broken anything except a lettuce sandwich
that he carried in his satchel and, as it was just as good broken as it
was whole, it didn't matter much.
"Oh, are you hurt?" suddenly cried a voice, as Uncle Wiggily took some
dirt out of his left ear. "If you are I can give you something to put on
your cuts," and out from under a big leaf came a beautiful butterfly.
"What can you put on my cuts?" asked the rabbit.
"Oh, I can get some sticky gum from a tree or a flower and spread it on a
leaf and make some court plaster," spoke the butterfly. "It will cure a
cut very quickly."
"Thank you very much," said Uncle Wiggily, "but very luckily I haven't any
cuts. I'm all right, I guess, but because you are so kind to me here is
just a drop of honey that I found in the bottom of my satchel. The bee
gave it to me." So he handed to the kind butterfly a little honey he had
left. The butterfly was very glad to get it, and fluttered away, jumping
from one flower to another as easily as a boy can spin his top.
Then the old gentleman rabbit traveled on, and pretty soon, when it was
just about time for dinner, he came to a beautiful place in the woods. The
trees were nice and green and shady, and there was a little brook that was
bubbling and babbling over the mossy stones and then all at once Uncle
Wiggily heard the queerest music he had ever heard. It was like
forty-'leven bands all playing in the park at once.
"My, I must be near a big picnic!" cried the rabbit. "I shall have to look
out for myself, or some boys may chase me."
The music kept getting louder but still the old gentleman rabbit didn't
see any people, and he went on very slowly until he came to a little house
built of shingles, and there in front of it sat a monkey. And he was the
funniest monkey you ever saw.
For that monkey was playing five hand organs all at once. Yes, just as
true as I'm telling you, he was. He played one organ with his left paw and
he played another organ with his right paw, and he played still another
with his left foot and he twisted the crank of another with his right
foot. And then, to finish off with, he whirled around the crank of the
fifth organ with his long tail. Oh, he was a smart monkey, I tell you!
"My! This is almost as good as a circus!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'm
glad I came this way."
Well, that funny monkey played faster than ever, and on one organ he
played the tune "Please Bring Your Umbrella Inside When it Rains," and on
another he played "May I Have Some of Your Ice Cream Cone if I Give You a
Kiss?" And on the third hand organ the monkey was playing the tune "Come
Out Into the Hammock and See Who'll Fall Out First," and another tune was
"Please Don't Let that Big Black Bug Tickle Me," and on the organ that he
twisted with his tail the monkey ground out the song "Come On Inside the
Motorboat and Have a Nice, Cool Swim."
"My, how do you do it?" asked the rabbit of the monkey. "You must be very
musical."
"Oh, it comes natural to me," said the monkey, not a bit proud like.
"But where did you get so many organs?"
"Oh, I saved up my pennies for them," said the monkey. "You see, it was
this way. I used to work for a man who had a hand organ, and he used to
take me around with him to climb up on the porches, and in the
second-story windows to get the pennies from the children. Well, I always
loved music, and I wanted the man to let me play his organ, but he never
would. So I made up my mind I would save up all my pennies and some day
buy an organ for myself.
"Well, I did that, for you know often when I used to go around to collect
pennies for the man, some children would give me a few for myself. Finally
I got rich and I didn't work for the man any longer, and I had enough to
buy five hand organs, for I can play five at once. Then I came here, and
built this shingle house and every day I amuse myself by playing tunes,
and I never have to climb up the rainwater pipe to get money. Oh, it is a
happy life," and the monkey felt so funny that he hung by his tail from a
tree branch, and made faces at Uncle Wiggily--just in fun, you understand.
Uncle Wiggily was very glad he had met the monkey, and he listened to the
music, and the monkey even let the rabbit play one tune for himself, and
it was called, "When You Wiggle Your Wiggily Ears Wiggle Them Good and
Hard."
And then, all of a sudden, just as that tune was finished, there was a
terrible noise in the bushes.
"My goodness! What's that?" cried the monkey as he hopped up on top of one
of his hand organs and curled his tail around the handle.
"It sounds like a bear!" said the rabbit. "But don't worry. I'll do just
as the cricket did to the alligator and make him laugh so that he won't
hurt us."
"Good!" cried the monkey. And then the noise became louder and out from
the bushes popped a big animal. But it was an elephant instead of a bear,
and as soon as he saw the monkey and Uncle Wiggily he ran up to them and
shook his trunk at them and cried:
"Oh, I'm so glad to see you! I just got away from the circus, and I want
to have some fun!" and he was as kind and gentle as he could be and he and
Uncle Wiggily had quite an adventure the next day.
I'll tell you about it on the next page, when, in case the little boy
across the street doesn't tickle my pussy cat and make him sneeze the
rubbers off the umbrella plant, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and
the big dog.
STORY XIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIG DOG
Let's see, I left off in the last story just where the elephant came out
of the woods and shook his tail--I mean his trunk--at Uncle Wiggily and
the funny monkey, didn't I? Well, now, I'm going to tell you what happened
after that.
"Why did you run away from the circus?" asked the old gentleman rabbit of
the elephant. "I should think you would like it there. I know Sammie and
Susie Littletail would love a circus."
"Yes, some folks like it," spoke the elephant slow and thoughtful-like, as
he sat down on his trunk, "but I do not care for it. You see of late the
children ate all the peanuts, instead of giving me my share, and I just
couldn't stand it any longer. Why, it got so, finally, that when a man
would give his little boy five cents to buy a bag of peanuts for me the
little boy would eat all but two or three of the nuts, and those were all
he gave to me. It wasn't enough, so I ran away."
"I don't in the least blame you," said the monkey, "and I'm going to let
you play some of my hand organs."
Well, the elephant was delighted at that, and he played one organ with his
trunk and another one with his tail, making some very nice music.
Uncle Wiggily stayed in the monkey's house that night, and the elephant
wanted to come in also, but of course he was far too big, so he had to
sleep outside under a tree. It was an apple tree, and in the middle of the
night the elephant snored so hard and heavily through his trunk that he
shook the tree and all the apples fell off, and in the morning the monkey
made an apple pie from some of them.
"I think I had better start off on my travels again," said the old
gentleman rabbit after breakfast. "There must be a fortune for me
somewhere if I can only find it. So I'll trot along."
"I'll go with you," said the kind elephant. "Perhaps you might see your
fortune in the top of a tall tree, and then you couldn't get it. But I
would pull the tree down for you."
"That would be fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be glad to have you
travel with me."
So they said good-by to the monkey, and off they started together, the
rabbit and the elephant. They talked of many things, about how hot it
was, and whether there would be rain soon, and about how much ice cream
cones cost, and sometimes what a little bit of ice cream the man puts in
the cones when he is in a hurry.
"Speaking of ice cream cones," said the elephant, "makes me hungry for
some. I wish I had one."
"I wish I had one also," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "You would have to have a
very large one, though, Mr. Elephant, but a small one would do for me."
"Don't say another word," cried the elephant as he waved his trunk in the
air. "I'm going right off and get us some ice cream cones. I know where
there's a store. You hop along slowly and I'll catch up to you."
So the elephant went off to the ice cream cone store, and Uncle Wiggily,
with his valise and the barber pole crutch, hopped on through the woods,
looking about to see if his fortune was up in any of the trees, but it
wasn't there yet.
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, all of a sudden
the old gentleman rabbit heard a sniffing-sniffing noise in the woods. And
then there was a rustling in the bushes.
"Ha, hum!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Perhaps that may be a bear. I had better
look out for myself."
He started to hop softly away, so the bear, or whatever it was, wouldn't
hear him, but he was too late. In an instant out of the bushes popped
something big and black and shaggy, and the rabbit, taking one look at it,
saw that it was a big dog.
"New is the time for me to run!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That dog will eat
me up, sure pop!"
Away hopped the old gentleman rabbit, his heart going "pitter-patter-pat,"
he was so frightened. On and on he ran down a path in the woods.
"Here, come back here! Come back!" cried the dog.
"Indeed, I will not," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I know what you want to do.
You want to eat me."
"No, I don't, honestly!" cried the dog. "But come back, for if you run any
farther on that road you'll fall into a lake and be drowned."
"Humph! I don't believe that!" cried the rabbit. "You are saying that to
scare me," and on he hopped faster than ever.
"Come back! Come back!" cried the dog again, but Uncle Wiggily wouldn't.
My! how fast he did hop, until, all of a sudden, as he returned around the
corner of a stump, he saw a lake of water right in front of him. And
before he could stop himself he had fallen plump into it; crutch, satchel
and all, and of course he couldn't swim. And he could hear the dog coming
barking down the path after him.
"Oh, this is the end of me, sure pop!" thought poor Uncle Wiggily. "I'll
never get any fortune now."
"Oh, dear!" cried the dog. "I told you how it would be. I tried to save
you from getting in the water," and then the rabbit knew the big dog had
been telling the truth. But it was too late now. Uncle Wiggily was going
down under the deep, dark, cold water when, all of a sudden, along came
the elephant with a great big ice cream cone for himself, and a little one
for Uncle Wiggily. He saw the rabbit in the water and he also saw the big
shaggy dog.
"Did you push Uncle Wiggily in the water?" asked the elephant, "because if
you did I'm going to throw you in."
"No, indeed, I didn't," answered the dog. "It was an accident," and he
told the elephant how it happened. "But I'll jump in, grab him and swim
out with him," said the dog.
"No, don't do that, you might accidentally bite him," spoke the elephant.
"I have a better plan." So he laid down the ice cream cones and then he
put the end of his hollow trunk in the lake, and he began to suck up and
drink the water, just as you suck lemonade up through a straw.
And presto chango! in a few seconds all the water was sucked out of the
lake by the elephant, and it was dry land and the rabbit could walk safely
to shore, and so he wasn't drowned after all. And how he did thank the
elephant! Uncle Wiggily ate his ice cream cone, and the elephant gave some
of his to the dog, and they were all happy.
Now, if the elephant doesn't get a sliver in his foot so he can't dance at
the hoptoads' picnic, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily
and the peanut man.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEANUT MAN
After Uncle Wiggily and the elephant and the big dog had eaten up the ice
cream cones, they sat in the woods a while and looked at the place where
the watery lake had been before the elephant drank it up to save the
rabbit from drowning.
"My, but you must be strong to take up all that water," said the dog.
"Yes, I guess I am pretty strong," said the elephant, though he was not at
all proud-like. "I will show you how I can pull up a tree," he said. So he
wound his trunk around a big tree and he gave one great, heaving pull and
up that tree came by the roots. Then, all of a sudden a voice cried:
"Oh, you're upsetting all my eggs!" and a robin, who had her nest in the
tree, fluttered around feeling very sad.
"Oh, excuse me, Mrs. Robin," said the elephant. "I would not have
disturbed you for the world had I known that your nest was in that tree.
I'll plant it right back again in the same place I pulled it up. Anyhow, I
intended to do it, as it is not a good thing to kill a tree. I'll plant it
again."
So he put the tree back in the hole, and with his big feet he stamped down
the earth around it. Then the robin's nest and eggs were safe, and she
sang a pretty song because she was thankful to the elephant.
Well, the elephant had to sleep out-of-doors again that night, because he
couldn't find a house large enough for him, but Uncle Wiggily slept in the
big dog's kennel. In the morning the rabbit said:
"It is very nice here, and I like it very much, but I must travel along, I
s'pose, and see if I can't find my fortune. Are you coming, Mr. Elephant?"
"Why, certainly. I will go along with you," said the big chap. "Perhaps
the dog will come also."
"No, thank you," said the dog. "I am going to meet a friend of mine, named
Percival, and we are going to call on Lulu and Alice and Jimmie
Wibblewobble, the duck children."
"Is that so?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Why, Percival and the
Wibblewobbles are friends of mine. Kindly give them my love and say that
I hope soon to get back home with my fortune."
So the dog said he would, and he started off to meet Percival, who used to
work in the same circus where the elephant came from. And the rabbit and
the elephant hurried off together down the road.
"Are you ever going back to the circus?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the
elephant as they went along.
"Not unless they catch me and make me go," he answered. "I like this sort
of life much better, and besides, no one gave me ice cream cones in the
circus."
Well, pretty soon the rabbit and the elephant came to a place where there
was a high mountain.
"Oh, we'll never get up that," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Yes, we will," said the elephant, "I'll make a hole through it with my
tusks, and we can walk under it instead of climbing over."
So with his long, sharp tusks he made a tunnel right through the mountain,
and, though it was a bit darkish, he and the rabbit went through it as
easily as a mouse can nibble a bit of cheese.
[Illustration]
Then, a little later they came to a place where there was a big river
to cross, and there was no bridge.
"Oh, we can never get over that," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Yes, we can," said the elephant.
"Are you going to drink it up as you did the lake?" asked the rabbit.
"No," said the elephant, "but I will make a bridge to go over the river."
So he found a great big tree that the wind had blown down, and, taking
this in his strong trunk, the elephant laid it across the river, and then
he laid another tree and another, and pretty soon he had as good a bridge
as one could wish, and he and Uncle Wiggily crossed over on it.
Well, they hadn't gone on very far, before, all of a sudden the elephant
fell down, and he was so heavy that he shook the ground just like when a
locomotive choo-choo engine rushes past.
"Oh, whatever is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you hurt
yourself?"
"No," said the elephant, sad-like, "I am not hurt, but I am sick. I guess
I drank too much ice water, which is a bad thing to do in hot weather. Oh,
how ill I am! You had better go for a doctor."
Well, that poor elephant was so ill that he had to lie down on the ground,
and he cried and groaned, and the big tears rolled down his trunk, and
made quite a mud puddle on the earth. For when an elephant is ill he is
very ill, indeed, as there is so much of him.
"I'll cover you with leaves so you won't get sunburned," said Uncle
Wiggily, "and then I'll hop off for a doctor." Well, it takes a great
number of leaves to cover up an elephant, but finally the rabbit did it,
and then away he started.
He looked everywhere for an elephant doctor, but he couldn't seem to find
any. There were dog doctors and horse doctors and cat doctors and even
doctors for boys and girls, but none for the elephant.
"Oh, what shall I do?" thought the rabbit. "My poor, dear elephant may
die."
Just then he heard some one singing in the woods like this:
"Peanuts, they are good to eat,
Mine are most especially neat,
I am going to make them hot
So that you will eat a lot."
"Oh, are you an elephant doctor?" cried Uncle Wiggily.
"No, I am a hot-peanut-man," said the voice, and then the peanut roaster
began to whistle like a tea-kettle. "But, perhaps I can cure a sick
elephant," said the peanut man. So he and Uncle Wiggily hurried off
through the woods to where the elephant was groaning, and, would you
believe it? as soon as the big chap heard the whistle of the hot-peanut
wagon and smelled the nuts roasting he got well all of a sudden and he ate
a bushel of the nuts and Uncle Wiggily had some also. So that's how the
elephant got well, and he and the rabbit traveled on the next day.
They had quite an adventure, too, as I shall have the pleasure of telling
you in the next story which will be about Uncle Wiggily and the crawly
snake--that is if the baby doesn't drop his bread and butter down the
stovepipe and make the rice pudding laugh.
STORY XV.
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRAWLY SNAKE
"Do you feel all right to travel to-day?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the
elephant the next morning, after the hot-peanut-man had cured the big
chap.
"Oh, yes, I feel very fine!" said the elephant. "We will travel along
together again, and perhaps we may find your fortune this time."
"Hadn't we better take some extra peanuts with us, in case you become ill
again?" asked the rabbit, as he looked in the satchel to see if he had any
sandwiches, in case he got hungry.
"Oh, to be sure, we must have peanuts!" exclaimed the elephant. "Take as
many as we can carry, for I just love 'em!"
So they hunted up the hot-peanut-man, and bought all the rest of his
peanuts, besides paying for those the elephant had eaten to make himself
get well.
"Good luck to you!" cried the peanut man, as he wheeled away his empty
wagon, "I wish I had elephants for customers every day, then I would soon
get rich," and away he went singing:
"I sell peanuts good and hot,
Five cents buys you quite a lot.
Get your money and come here,
Buy my peanuts, children dear.
"My peanuts are hot and brown,
Finest ones in all the town.
Nice and juicy--good to chew,
I have some for all of you."
"Well, come on," said the elephant to Uncle Wiggily, "put some peanuts in
your valise, and I will carry the rest."
"How; in your trunk?" asked the rabbit.
"No, I'm going to wrap them up in a bundle, and tie them on my back. I
want my trunk to squirt water through when it gets hot, as I think the sun
is going to be very scorchy to-day."
So he tied the bundle of peanuts on his back, and then the two friends
journeyed on together. Well, it did get very hot, and it kept on getting
hotter, and there wasn't much shade.
"Oh my, I wish it would rain a little shower!" said Uncle Wiggily, as he
wiped his ears with his handkerchief. "I am as hot as an oven."
"I can soon fix that part of it," said the elephant. And pretty soon he
came to a spring of cold water, and he sucked a lot of it up in his hollow
trunk, and then he squirted a nice cool, fine spray of it over the rabbit,
just as if it came out of a hose with which papa waters the garden or
lawn.
"My! That feels fine!" said the rabbit. Then the elephant squirted some
water on himself, and they went on, feeling much better.
But still they were warm again in a short time, and then the elephant
said:
"I know what I am going to do. I am going to get some more ice cream
cones. They will cool us off better than anything else. I'll go for them
and bring back some big ones. You stay here in the shade, Uncle Wiggily,
but don't walk on ahead, or you may tumble into the water again."
"I'll not," promised the rabbit. "I'll wait right here for you."
Off the elephant started to get the ice cream cones and pretty soon he
came to the store where the man sold them.
[Illustration]
"I want two of your very coldest cones," said the elephant to the man, for
sometimes, in stories, you know, elephants can talk to people. "I want a
big strawberry cone for myself," the elephant went on, "and a smaller
one for my friend, Uncle Wiggily, the rabbit."
"Very well," said the man, "but you will have to wait until I make a large
cone for you."
So that man took seventeen thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven little
cones and made them into one big one for the elephant. Then he took
eighteen thousand, two hundred and ninety-one quarts of strawberry ice
cream, and an extra pint, and put it into the big cone. Then he made a
rabbit-sized ice cream cone for Uncle Wiggily and gave them both to the
elephant, who carried them in his trunk so they wouldn't melt.
But I must tell you what was happening to Uncle Wiggily all this while. As
he sat there in the shade of the apple tree, thinking, about his fortune
and whether he would ever find it, all of a sudden he saw something round
and squirming sticking itself toward him through the bushes.
"Ha! the elephant has come back so quietly that I didn't hear him,"
thought the rabbit. "That is his trunk he is sticking out at me. I guess
he thinks I don't see him, and he is going to tickle me. I hope he has
those ice cream cones."
Well, the crawly, squirming, round thing, which was like the small end of
an elephant's trunk, kept coming closer and closer to the rabbit.
"Now, I'll play a trick on that elephant--I'll tickle his trunk for him,
and he'll think it's a mosquito!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself.
He was just about to do this, when suddenly the crawly thing made a sort
of jump toward him, and before the rabbit could move he found himself
grasped by a big, ugly snake, who wrapped himself around the rabbit just
as ladies wrap their fur around their necks in the winter. It wasn't the
elephant's trunk at all, but a bad snake.
"Now, I have you!" hissed the snake like a steam radiator in Uncle
Wiggily's left ear. "I'm going to squeeze you to death and then eat you,"
and he began to squeeze that poor rabbit just like the wash-lady squeezes
clothes in the wringer.
"Oh, my breath! You are crushing all the breath out of me!" cried Uncle
Wiggily. "Please let go of me!"
"No!" hissed the snake, and he squeezed harder than ever.