heard a great crashing in the bushes. Then a voice cried:
"Here, you bad snake, let go of Uncle Wiggily."
And bless my hat! If the elephant didn't rush up, just in time, and he
grabbed hold of that snake's tail in his trunk, and unwound the snake from
around the rabbit, and then the elephant with a long swing of his trunk
threw the snake so high up in the air that I guess he hasn't yet come
down.
"I was just in time to save you!" said the elephant to Uncle Wiggily.
"Here, eat this ice cream cone and you'll feel better."
So the rabbit did this, and his breath came back and he was all right
again, but he made up his mind never to try to tickle a crawly thing again
until he was sure it wasn't a snake.
So that's all for the present, if you please, but in case my fur hat
doesn't sleep out in the hammock all night, and catch cold in the head so
that it sneezes and wakes up the alarm clock, I'll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and the water lilies.
STORY XVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATER LILIES
Uncle Wiggily was hopping along through the woods one day, and pretty
soon, as he went past a cute little house, made out of corncobs, he heard
some one calling to him.
"Oh, Mr. Rabbit," a voice said, "have you seen anything of my little
girl?" And there stood a nice mamma cat, looking anxiously about.
"I don't know," answered Uncle Wiggily, as he stopped in the shade of a
tree, and set down his valise. "Was your little girl named Sarah, Mrs.
Cat?"
"Oh, indeed, my little girl is not named Sarah," said Mrs. Cat. "She is
called Snowball, and she is just as cute as she can be. She is all white,
like a ball of snow, and so we call her Snowball. But she is lost, and I'm
afraid I'll never find her again," and the kittie's mamma began to cry,
and she wiped her tears on her apron.
"Oh, don't worry. Never mind. I'll find her for you," said the kind old
gentleman rabbit.
"I can't find my fortune but I believe I can find Snowball. Now, tell me
which way she went away, and I'll go search for her."
"I didn't see her go out of the house," said Mrs. Cat, "because I was
making a cherry pie, and I was very busy. Snowball was playing on the
floor, with a ball of soft yarn, and it rolled out of doors. She raced out
after it, and I thought she would soon be back. I put the cherry pie in
the oven and then when I went to look for her she was gone. Oh, dear! I
just know some horrid dog has hurt her."
"Please don't worry," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll find her for you. I'll
start right off, and if I can't find her I'll get a policeman, and he can,
for the police always find lost children."
So Uncle Wiggily started off, leaving his valise with Mrs. Cat, but taking
his crutch with him, for he thought he might need it to beat off any bad
dogs if they chased after Snowball.
First the old gentleman rabbit looked carefully all along the road, but he
couldn't see anything of the lost pussy cat.
"Perhaps she may be up a tree," he said to himself. "If a dog chased her
she would climb up one, and perhaps she is afraid to come down."
So he looked up into all the trees, and he even shook some of them in
order to see up them better, but he did not discover the pussy cat. Then
he called:
"Snowball! Snowball! Snowball! Where are you?"
But there was no answer.
"Oh, if there was only some bird who could call 'Snowball' I would get
them to call for the lost pussy," thought Uncle Wiggily.
Then he looked up and he saw a big black bird sitting on a tree.
"Can you call 'Snowball' for me?" asked the rabbit, politely. "She is lost
and her mamma wants her very much. Just call 'Snowball' as loudly as you
can."
"I can't," said the big black bird. "All I can cry is 'Caw! Caw! Caw!' I
am a crow, you see."
"That is too bad," said the rabbit. "Then I will have to keep on searching
by myself," so he did, and the crow flew away to look for a cornfield that
had no scarecrow in it to frighten him.
Well, Uncle Wiggily looked in all the places he could think of, but still
there was no pussy to be seen, and he was just thinking he had better go
for a policeman. But he thought he would try just one more place, so he
looked down a hollow stump, but Snowball was not there.
"I'll have to get a policeman after all," said the rabbit, so he told a
policeman cat about the lost pussy, and the policeman cat searched for
Snowball, but he couldn't find her, either.
"I guess she is gone," said the policeman. "You had better go back and
tell her mamma that she hasn't any little pussy girl any more."
"Oh, how sad it will be to do that!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I just can't
bear to."
But he started back to the corncob house to tell Mrs. Cat that he couldn't
find her Snowball. And all the while he kept feeling more and more sad,
until he was almost ready to cry.
"But I must be brave," said the old gentleman rabbit, and just then he
came to a pond where a whole lot of beautiful, white water lilies were
growing. Oh, they are a lovely flower, with such a sweet, spicy smell. As
soon as Uncle Wiggily saw them he said:
"I'll pick some and take them home to Mrs. Cat. Perhaps they will make her
feel a little happy, even if her Snowball is gone forever."
So with his long crutch Uncle Wiggily pulled toward shore some of the
water lilies, until he could pick them on their slender stems. Some of the
flowers were wide open, and some were closed, like rosebuds.
He took both kinds home to Mrs. Cat, and when he told her he couldn't find
Snowball she was very sorrowful and she cried. But she loved the flowers
very much, and put them in a bowl of water.
"I'll stay here to-night," said the rabbit, "and in the morning I'll look
for Snowball again. I'm sure I'll find her."
"Oh, you are very kind," said Mrs. Cat, as she wiped away her tears.
Well, the next morning Uncle Wiggily got up real early, and the first
thing he saw was the bowl of water lilies on the parlor table. They had
all closed up like buds in the night, but in the sunlight they all opened
again into beautiful flowers.
And, would you believe me, right in the middle of one of the flowers
something white moved and wiggled. Then it gave a little "Mew!" and then
Uncle Wiggily cried:
"Oh, Mrs. Cat, come here quickly! Here is Snowball! She was asleep inside
of one of the water lilies!"
And, surely enough, there was the little lost kittie, just awakening in
one of the flowers, and she was exactly the color of it. And, oh, how glad
she was to see her mamma again, and how her mamma did hug her!
"How did you get in that flower?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, when I went after my ball a big dog chased me," said Snowball, "so I
jumped into one of the lilies and I fell asleep, and the flower went shut
and I stayed there. But now I'm home, and I'm glad of it," and she just
kissed Uncle Wiggily on the tip end of his nose, that twinkled like a star
on a frosty night.
So that's how Snowball was lost and found, and I'm going to tell you about
Uncle Wiggily and the sunflower, that is if the sunfish doesn't spread the
butter too thick on the baby's bread with his tail and make her slide out
of her high chair.
STORY XVII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFLOWER
Mrs. Cat and her daughter Snowball liked Uncle Wiggily so much that they
wanted him to stay with them a long time.
"You can build yourself a nice little corncob house next to ours," said
Snowball, "and live in it; and you can tell me a story every night."
"Oh, but rabbits live underground, and not in corncob houses, though such
houses are very nice," said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll have to be
traveling on."
"If you stay, I'll bake you a cherry pie every day," said Mrs. Cat. "And
you can help find Snowball when she gets lost again."
"Cherry pie is very good, and you are very kind," said the rabbit
politely, "but I have my fortune to find."
"Well, if you can't stay you can't, I s'pose," said Snowball; "but I'm
never going to get lost again," and she put her little nose down deep
inside a water lily and smelled it, and oh, how sweet and spicy it
smelled!
So Uncle Wiggily got ready to start off on his travels again, and in his
satchel he put a whole cherry pie that Mrs. Cat had baked for him.
"It will taste good when you are hungry," she said.
"Indeed it will," agreed Uncle Wiggily, and he wished he was hungry then
and there, because he just loved cherry pie.
He was walking on through the woods, when, all at once, he heard some
music playing, and the name of the song was "Never Take Your Ice Cream
Cone and Drop it in the Mud."
"Ha! I believe that is the funny monkey and one of his hand organs!"
exclaimed the rabbit. "I shall be glad to see him again."
So he looked through the trees, and there, surely enough, was the monkey,
and he was playing the organ with his tail, and in one paw he held a
cocoanut and in the other paw an orange, and first he would take a bite of
the orange, and then a bite of the cocoanut.
"I always like music when I eat," said the monkey as he threw a bit of
orange skin over his left shoulder.
"How comes it that you are away off here," asked the rabbit.
"Oh! I got tired of staying home," said the monkey. "I thought I would go
out and see if I could make a few pennies by playing music." Then he
played another tune called, "Don't Sit Down When You Stand Up."
Well, Uncle Wiggily listened to the music, which he liked very much, and
he began to feel hungry. Then he thought of the cherry pie, that the cat
lady had put in his valise.
"I guess I'll eat some of that and give the monkey a bit," he said, and he
did so.
"Oh, this is most delicious and scrumptious!" cried the monkey, as he and
Uncle Wiggily sat there eating the pie, and wiping off the juice with
green leaves, so as not to soil their clothing.
"Indeed, it is very delectable," said the rabbit, hungry-like. "Have
another piece."
Well, he was just cutting it off, when, all of a sudden, before you could
say "Boo!" to an elephant, a terrible voice cried:
"Here! Give me that pie! I must have cherry pie!" and before the monkey or
Uncle Wiggily knew what was happening, out from behind the bushes jumped
the skillery-scallery-tailery alligator, gnashing his teeth.
"Give me that pie!" he cried again, opening his mouth wide enough to
swallow a cake as big as a wash-tub.
"No, you cannot have it," said Uncle Wiggily, and, as quick as a wink, he
popped the pie into his valise and closed it up. "Now you can't get it!"
the rabbit said.
"Then I'll get you and the monkey!" cried the alligator, as he made a dash
for both of them.
"Not me! You can't catch me!" exclaimed the monkey, as he skipped up into
the top of a tall tree. Then, of course, as the alligator couldn't climb a
tree he couldn't get the monkey. The skillery-scallery creature tried to
eat the hand organ, and he tried to play it, but he could do neither. Then
he got real angry.
"I'll chase after Uncle Wiggily and eat him!" he cried out, for by this
time the rabbit was hopping along down the road. After him went the
'gator, coming nearer and nearer.
"Stop! Stop! I want you!" cried the alligator to the rabbit.
"I know you do, but you can't have me!" replied the rabbit. "I don't want
to be eaten up!"
So he ran on as fast as he could, but still the alligator came on after
him, and the savage beast was almost up to Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, if I only had some place to hide!" panted the poor rabbit. "Then
maybe the alligator would pass me by."
So he looked around for a place in which to hide, but just then he found
himself in a field, and all that he could see were a whole lot of
sunflowers growing near a fence.
"Oh, I can't hide behind those flowers because the stems are so small
around," thought Uncle Wiggily. "And I can't climb up them, and sit on the
big flower, because I can't climb, and besides the stems are too slender
to hold me up. Oh, what shall I do?"
Well, the alligator was coming nearer and nearer, and the rabbit could
hear the gnashing of his teeth, when, all at once one of the sunflowers
called out.
"Gnaw through my stem, and cut me down, Uncle Wiggily. Then you can hold
my big blossom up in front of you and the alligator can't see you."
"But won't it hurt you to cut you down?" asked the rabbit.
"No, for I will grow up again next year," said the big sunflower. "Hurry
and cut me down, and hide behind me, and I'll shine in the eyes of the
alligator and blind him."
So Uncle Wiggily quickly gnawed through the sunflower stalk with his sharp
teeth, and down the flower came. Then the rabbit held the blossom up in
front of himself, and hid behind it, and the yellow flower, which is
round, just like the sun, shone so brightly into the alligator's face
that he couldn't look out of his eyes, and so he was partly blinded, and
he couldn't see to catch Uncle Wiggily, and he had to crawl away without
eating the rabbit.
Then Uncle Wiggily thanked the sunflower, and laid it gently down, and
hopped on his way again to seek his fortune.
And the story after this, in case the washbowl and pitcher don't do a
funny dance in the middle of the night and wake up my puppy dog, I'll tell
you about Uncle Wiggily and the lightning bugs.
STORY XVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LIGHTNING BUG
It was a very warm day, and as Uncle Wiggily walked along, carrying his
satchel, and sort of leaning on his crutch, for his rheumatism hurt him a
bit, he said:
"It is very hard to have to look for your fortune on a hot day, I wish it
was nice and cool, and then I would feel better."
"I can tell you where there is a cool place," said a little yellow bird,
as she flew along in the air over the head of the old gentleman rabbit.
"Do you mean in an icehouse?" asked the traveling rabbit as he took off
his hat to see if the sun had burned it any.
"No, but of course that is a cold place," said the bird, as she sang a
funny little song about a curly-headed dog who hadn't any nose and every
time he walked along he stepped upon his toes. "But I don't mean an
icehouse," went on the bird, as she turned her head to one side. "However,
I know a nice cool place in the woods where you can lie down and have a
little sleep. By that time the hot sun will go down behind the clouds, and
then you can travel on in comfort."
"I believe that will be a good plan," spoke the rabbit. "I'll do it.
Please show me the way to the cool place."
So the bird flew on ahead, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on behind, and pretty
soon he came to a place in the woods where there was a little babbling
brook, flowing over mossy green stones, and telling them secrets about the
fishes that swam in the cool water. Then there were long, green ferns
leaning over, and nodding their heads as they dipped down to take a drink
out of the brook. There was also a nice little cave, made of stones, and
that was almost as cool as an icehouse.
"Oh, this will be just fine for me!" exclaimed the rabbit, as he hopped
inside the stone cave. "I'll go to sleep here."
So he stretched out on a pile of leaves, and the little yellow bird began
to sing a sleepy song. This is how it went, to the tune "Lum-tum-tum
tiddily-iddily-um:"
"Sleep, Uncle Wiggily, sleep.
Don't open your eyes to peep.
I'll sing you a song,
That's not very long.
It's not sad, so please do not weep."
Well, as true as I'm telling you, before she had sung more than
forty-'leven verses the old gentleman rabbit was fast, fast asleep, and,
no matter how hot the sun shone down, Uncle Wiggily was nice and cool.
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, a savage, bad hawk-bird flew down
from high in the air, where he had seen the little yellow bird sitting on
the tree, near the cave, where the rabbit was sleeping. And the hawk made
a dash for the yellow bird, and would have eaten her up only the bird flew
quickly away and hid in a hollow stump, and that hawk was so mad that he
bit a leaf off a tree and tore it into three pieces--the leaf, I mean, not
the tree.
Well, after that the yellow bird didn't dare stay near the cave, for the
hawk was on the watch to catch her, and, of course, Uncle Wiggily had no
one to awaken him when it was cool enough for him to travel on and seek
his fortune.
He slept and he slept, and then he slept a little more, and all of a
sudden he awakened and it was nearly night. My! how he did jump up then
and rub his eyes with his paws, and he couldn't think, for a minute or so,
just where he was.
"Oh, now I remember!" he exclaimed. "I'm in the cave. Oh, dear me! but
it's coming on night. The yellow bird must have forgotten to wake me up. I
wonder what I shall do?"
So he went out of the cave to look for the bird, but he couldn't find her.
The savage hawk was there, however, but when he saw Uncle Wiggily and
noted how brave he was, even if he did have the rheumatism, that hawk just
gnashed his beak and flew away.
Then it got darker and darker, and poor Uncle Wiggily didn't know what to
do, for he didn't know whether or not it would be safe to stay in the
cave.
"A bear might come along and eat me," he thought. "This cave might be a
bear's den. I guess I will travel ahead and look for some other place
where I can spend the night. But I don't like traveling in the dark."
However, there was no help for it, so the old gentleman rabbit, after
eating a lettuce sandwich, took up his satchel, grasped his crutch firmly,
and started away.
He traveled on through the woods, and it kept getting darker and darker,
until at last Uncle Wiggily couldn't see anything in front of him but just
blackness.
"Oh, this will never do!" he cried. "I can't go on this way. If I only
had a lantern it would be all right."
Then, all at once, he heard a sort of growling noise in the bushes, and
then he heard a sniffing-snuffling noise, and pretty soon a voice cried:
"Oh, ha! Oh, hum! I smell fresh rabbit. Now, I will have a good supper!"
"That must be a savage bear or a fox!" cried the rabbit. "I guess this is
the last of me!"
Then he saw two round circles shining in the darkness, two flashing,
bright, shining things, and he was more frightened than ever.
"Oh, those are the glaring eyes of the fox or bear!" thought Uncle
Wiggily. "I'm done for, sure!"
Then something made a jump for him, out of the bushes, but the rabbit
crouched down, and the beast jumped over him. Then, would you ever believe
it? those two shining things flew nearer, and instead of being the eyes of
a fox or bear they were two, good, kind, lightning bugs, who were flitting
about.
"Oh, you'll be a lantern for me, won't you?" cried the rabbit, anxiously.
"Will you please light me out of these woods, and keep the savage beasts
away?"
"Of course, we will!" cried the two lightning bugs. And they flew closer
to the rabbit. Then the savage fox, for he it was who had made a jump for
Uncle Wiggily, was so afraid of the sparkling lights, that he ran away and
hid in the bushes, fearing he would be burned. Then the two bugs called
for all of their friends to come and make the woods light so the old
gentleman rabbit could see.
And pretty soon seventeen thousand, four hundred and eighty-three big
lightning bugs, and a little baby one besides, came flying along, and the
woods were almost as light as day, and Uncle Wiggily could see to hop on.
The bugs flew ahead, shining themselves like fairy lanterns, and pretty
soon the rabbit came to a nice hollow stump, where he remained all night.
And some of the bugs stayed with him to keep the bears and foxes away.
Then, in the morning, after thanking the bugs, the rabbit traveled on
again, and he had another adventure. What it was I'll tell you on the next
page, when, in case my pussy cat goes in swimming and doesn't get her fur
wet, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the Phoebe birds.
STORY XIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PHOEBE BIRDS
"Well, I don't seem to be finding my fortune very fast," said Uncle
Wiggily to himself the next day, as he traveled on, after the lightning
bugs had shown him the way out of the woods. "Here I've been tramping
around the country for a considerable while, and all I've found was one
cent, and that belonged to the chipmunk.
"I wish I could find a little money. Then I would buy some peanuts and
sell them, and make more money, and pretty soon I would be rich, and I
could go back home and see Sammie and Susie Littletail."
So he walked along, looking very carefully on the ground for money. All he
found for some time were only old acorns, and, as he couldn't eat them,
they were of no use to him.
"If Johnnie or Billie Bushytail were here now I would give them some," he
said. But the squirrels were far away frisking about in the tops.
Now, as true as I'm telling you, a moment after that, just as Uncle
Wiggily was going past a big stone, he saw something bright and shining in
the leaves.
"Oh, good luck!" he cried. "I've found ten cents, and that will buy two
bags of peanuts. Now I'll get rich!"
So he picked up the shining thing, and oh! how disappointed he was, for it
was only a round piece of tin, such as they make penny whistles of.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Fooled again! Well, all I can do is to
keep on."
He went on a little farther, until he came to a place where there were a
whole lot of prickly briar bushes, with red berries growing on them.
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Some of those berries will do for my
dinner, as I'm getting hungry. I'll pick a few."
He was just going to pick some of the berries, when he happened to notice
a big, red thing, like a red flannel bag, standing wide open near a hole
in the bushes. And in front of the red place was a sign, which said:
"Come in, one and all. Everybody welcome."
"It looks very nice in there," thought the rabbit. "Perhaps it is the
opening of a circus tent. I'm going in, for I haven't seen a show in some
time. And, maybe, my friend, the elephant, will be in there."
Uncle Wiggily was just going to hop into the funny red opening that had
the sign on it, when a little ant came crawling along, carrying a small
loaf of bread.
"Hello, Uncle Wiggily," said the ant. "Where are you going?"
"I am going inside this red circus tent," said the rabbit. "Won't you come
in with me? I'll buy you a ticket."
"Oh, never go in there--don't you do it!" cried the ant, and she got so
excited that she nearly dropped her loaf of bread. "That is not a circus
tent; it is only the skillery-scalery-tailery alligator, and he has opened
his mouth wide hoping some one will come in, so he can have a meal. Don't
go in."
"I won't," said Uncle Wiggily, quickly as he hopped away, and then he took
up a stone and tossed it into the red mouth of the scalery-tailery-wailery
alligator. The alligator shut his jaws very quickly, thinking he had
something good to eat, but he only bit on the stone, and he was so angry
that he lashed out with his tail and nearly knocked over a hickory-nut
tree.
Then the ant crawled home, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on out of danger and
the alligator opened his mouth again, hoping some foolish animal would
walk into the trap he had all ready for them.
Well, in a little while after that, as the old gentleman rabbit was going
along under the big tree, all of a sudden he heard a voice calling, rather
sadly and sweetly:
"Phoebe! Phoebe!"
"My goodness, that must be some little lost girl named Phoebe, and her
sister is calling for her," he thought. "I wonder if I could help find
her?" For, you know, Uncle Wiggily was just as kind as he could be, and
always wanting to help some one.
Then he heard the voice again:
"Phoebe! Phoebe!"
"Where are you?" asked the rabbit. "I'll help you hunt for your sister
Phoebe. Where are you, little girl?"
But the voice only called again:
"Phoebe! Phoebe!"
"I guess she can't hear me," said the rabbit. "I'll shout more loudly."
So he cried out at the top of his voice:
"I'll help you find Phoebe. Tell me where you are, and we'll go off
together to hunt for her."
But this time the calling voice was farther off, though still the rabbit
could hear it saying:
"Phoebe! Phoebe!"
"My goodness me, sakes alive, and a bottle of stove polish! I can't make
this out," said Uncle Wiggily. "That little girl is so worried about her
lost sister that she doesn't pay any attention to me. But I'll help her
just the same."
So he hopped on toward where he heard the voice calling, and pretty soon,
believe me, he heard two voices. One cried out:
"Phoebe! Phoebe!"
And the other one called just the same, only a little more slowly, like
this:
"Phoe-be! Phoe-be!"
"Now, there are two of her sisters calling for the lost one," said the
rabbit. "They must be very much worried about Phoebe. Perhaps a bear has
eaten her. That would be dreadful! I must help them!"
So he hopped on through the woods, faster than ever, crying out:
"I'm coming! I'm coming! Old Uncle Wiggily is going to help you find
Phoebe."
And then, would you believe me, Uncle Wiggily heard seven voices, all
calling at once:
"Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe!"