to eat, and pretty soon he sniffed and snuffed until he came to where
Uncle Wiggily was fast asleep, dreaming that he had found his fortune. And
the worst part of it was that the bluebell flower also was sleeping, and
she couldn't tell the rabbit what was going to happen.
"Oh, I'll have a fine meal in about a minute," said the scalery-tailery
alligator as he smacked his big jaws. Then he shuffled up closer to Uncle
Wiggily, and was about to bite him when all of a sudden the nutmeg grater
tail of the scalery alligator accidentally hit against the bluebell
flower, and she awoke quickly.
"Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" rang out the bluebell,
just like an alarm clock in the morning. "Ding-dong-dong! Tinkle! Tinkle!"
Up jumped Uncle Wiggily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked
through the woods, and by the light of the silvery moon he saw the
grinning alligator, with his open mouth, close to him.
"Run, Uncle Wiggily! Run!" cried the bluebell, and then she made such a
jingling-jangling noise that all the birds in the woods awakened, and by
the moonlight, they flew down at that alligator, and stuck him with their
sharp bills, so that he was glad to crawl away, and he didn't forget to
take his scalery tail with him, either.
"My, that was a narrow escape!" said the rabbit. "I am glad he didn't eat
me."
"So am I," said the bluebell, "and I'll not go to sleep again, either, I
promise you."
So the flower stayed wide awake the rest of the night, and the rabbit
slept on the soft moss, and in the morning he awakened and ate his
breakfast out of his valise, and then, saying good-by to the flower and
thanking her, he set off once more to seek his fortune.
Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, looking in all the places he could think
of for some gold, but he couldn't seem to find any. And then, just when he
got on top of a little hill, and started down the other side he heard some
one crying--no, I'm just a bit wrong, he heard three some ones
crying--three separate and distinct cries.
"Oh, dear, I've got a sliver in my foot!" blubbered one voice.
"And I've stepped on a stone and there's a big bruise on my foot!"
sniffled another voice.
"Oh! none of you is as badly off as I am," quivered a third voice, "for
I've cut my two feet on a piece of glass! Oh, whatever shall we do?"
"My, I wonder who they can be?" thought the rabbit, for he could see no
one as yet. "Maybe those are the little children of the burglar fox, and
if they are, then the burglar fox must be somewhere around here, and I had
better be careful of myself."
Well, the rabbit was about to turn, and run back down the hill, up which
he had just come, when he saw something white fluttering like a piece of
paper.
"A fox isn't white," Uncle Wiggily said to himself, "at least not the
foxes around here. That must be something else." So he took another
careful look, and he saw three nice little duck children--I guess you
remember their names--Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble. And as soon
as they saw the old gentleman rabbit, those three duck children exclaimed:
"Oh, joy! Oh, happiness!" and they didn't think about the slivers and the
bruises and the cuts in their feet any more.
"My goodness me sakes alive and a potato pancake!" cried Uncle Wiggily.
"What are you children doing so far away from home? You must be lost."
"We are lost," said Jimmie Wibblewobble, "all three of us."
"Yes," went on Lulu, "we are certainly lost, and it's Jimmie's fault, for
he asked us to come."
"Oh! it's not all Jimmie's fault," said Alice gently, as she looked at her
brother. "You see, Uncle Wiggily, we are visiting our Aunt Lettie, the old
lady goat, who lives in the country near here. We are at her house for our
vacation, and to-day we started to go to the woods to have a good time,
but we took the wrong path and we are lost, and I have a big sliver in my
foot."
"Yes, and I stepped on a stone, and have a big bruise," whimpered Jimmie.
"And I've cut both feet on a piece of glass," cried Lulu Wibblewobble,
"and Oh, we are all so miserable!"
"Well, well!" exclaimed the rabbit in a jolly voice, "this is too bad. I
must see what I can do for you. First we will take the sliver out of
Alice's foot," and he did so with a sharp needle. It hurt a little, but
Alice never cried.
"Now for Jimmie's bruise," said the rabbit, and he took some soft green
leaves, and made a plaster of them, and with some ribbon-grass for a
string he tied the plaster on Jimmie's foot, and that was almost well.
Then Uncle Wiggily made a little salve, from some gum out of a cherry
tree, and bound up the glass cuts on Lulu's feet.
"Now, I will lead you to your Aunt Lettie's house," said the rabbit, "and
you won't be lost any more." So the three Wibblewobble children felt much
better and happier, and when they were almost at their aunt's house, a big
hawk swooped down out of the sky and tried to bite Lulu. But Uncle Wiggily
hit the bad bird with his barber-pole crutch, and the hawk flew away,
flopping his wings and tail.
"Oh, how good, and brave, and strong you are!" cried Lulu to Uncle
Wiggily, and then all three duck children kissed him. Soon they were at
the goat-lady's home, and Aunt Lettie was very glad to see the rabbit
gentleman, and also glad to have the children back. So she invited Uncle
Wiggily to stay to supper, and very glad he was to do so.
He also stayed all night at Aunt Lettie's house, and he had quite an
adventure, too, which I shall tell you about directly, when, in case the
fire shovel doesn't slide down hill on a cake of ice and break its roller
skates the next bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the berry
bush.
STORY XXVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BERRY BUSH
"Well, children, I think I will soon have to be leaving you," said Uncle
Wiggily Longears one morning to the three Wibblewobbles, when he had
stayed all night at their Aunt Lettie's house. That was after the old
gentleman rabbit had found the three ducks lost in the woods, you
remember, and had taken them to where they were visiting the old lady
goat. "I must pack my valise and travel on," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, can't you stay a little longer?" asked Alice Wibblewobble, as she
tied her sky-blue-pink hair ribbon in a flopsy-dub kind of a bow knot.
"Yes, do stay!" urged Jimmie as he tossed up his ball, which Lulu, his
sister, caught. "We'll have some fun together and you can play on my ball
team, Uncle Wiggily."
"Oh! I am much too old for that," said the rabbit, "though I like to watch
you play. Besides, I have the rheumatism, and I have to keep on looking
for my fortune. So I will travel forward once more."
"Well, if you must go, I suppose you must," said Aunt Lettie, the old lady
goat. "But at least let me put you up a little lunch. Let me see, what
shall it be? I think a tomato can sandwich, and some brown paper cake with
paste frosting on would be nice. And then, too, I can give you some fine
wooden pie."
"Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed the rabbit, "but while it is very kind of you,
I cannot eat such things. I never could chew a tomato can, nor yet a
wooden, or even a sawdust pie."
"No more you could," cried Aunt Lettie in confusion. "I was thinking of
what I liked to eat. Very well, I will give you some carrots and cabbage
and a piece of cherry pie. I know you will like those."
So she made Uncle Wiggily that kind of a lunch, and he put it in his
valise, and after saying good-by to the old lady goat, and the three
Wibblewobbles, off he started to seek his fortune once more.
On and on he traveled up some hills, and down others and through the
woods, and pretty soon he came to a place where there was a big hole in
the ground.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the rabbit, "perhaps this is a gold mine. I will get
some gold dollars out of it and then I will be rich." So he went close to
the hole and looked down it, but all of a sudden out popped a great big
rat, and she gnashed her teeth at Uncle Wiggily and tried to bite him.
"What are you doing at my house?" she cried, real savagely. "Get away at
once before I eat you."
"Indeed I will," said the rabbit, politely. "I thought your hole was a
gold mine. Excuse me, I'll get right along," so he hopped away as fast as
he could hop, very thankful that he had not gone down the hole.
Well, the next place he came to was where a great big stone was sticking
out of the side of a hill. And the stone glittered in the sunshine just
like diamonds or dewdrops.
"Oh, how delightful!" cried the rabbit. "This surely is a gold stone. I
will break off some pieces of it and take them home, and then I will have
my fortune."
So, taking his crutch, Uncle Wiggily tried to break off pieces of the
glittering stone. But, my goodness me, sakes alive and a chocolate ice
cream cone! that stone was very hard, and try as he did, Uncle Wiggily
couldn't break off a piece even as big as baby's tiny pink toe.
"I'll just sing a little song, and then, perhaps, I can get some of the
gold," he said. So he sang this song, which goes to the tune
"Tiddily-um-tum-tum:"
"My fortune I've found,
On top of the ground,
I'm lucky as lucky can be.
But really this stone,
Is hard as a bone,
I wish that some one would help me."
After singing, Uncle Wiggily hammered away at the stone with his crutch
again, but the song did no good. And then, all at once, before you could
shake your finger at a pink pussy cat, out from behind the glittering
stone there jumped the savage wushky-woshky, which is a very curious beast
with two tails and three heads and only one crinkly leg, so that it has to
go hippity-hop, or else fall down ker thump!
"What are you doing to my stone?" cried the wushky-woshky.
"Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily politely. "I didn't know it was your
stone. I was only trying to break off a small piece for my fortune."
"Wow! Oh, wow!" cried the wushky-woshky, as savage as savage could be, and
he gnashed the teeth in all three of his mouths, and he lashed his two
tails on the ground. "I'm going to catch you!" he called to the rabbit.
"Not if I know it you won't catch me," said Uncle Wiggily bravely, and off
he hopped down the hill.
"Yes, I will catch you!" cried the wushky-woshky, and off he hopped on his
one crinkly leg after the rabbit. Faster and faster hopped Uncle Wiggily,
but still faster and faster hopped the wushky-woshky.
"Oh, he'll surely catch me!" thought the rabbit. "I wonder what I can do?
I know. I'll open my valise, and I'll scatter on the ground my nice lunch
that Aunt Lettie put up for me, and the wushky-woshky will stop to eat the
good things, and then I can get away."
So the rabbit did this. Out on the ground from the valise tumbled all the
nice carrot and lettuce sandwiches. But the savage wushky-woshky gobbled
them up with three mouthfuls, and didn't stop hopping after Uncle Wiggily
on his one crinkly leg.
"Oh, he'll surely catch me now!" cried the rabbit.
"No, he won't! Jump up in the air, and come down inside of me!" cried a
voice, and Uncle Wiggily saw a nice blackberry bush waving its long arms
at him. "Jump down inside of me, where there are no thorns to scratch
you," said the berry bush, "but if the wushky-woshky tries to come after
you I'll scratch his six eyes out. I'll save you. Jump down inside me!"
"Thank you, I will," said the rabbit, and he gave a big spring and a hop,
over the outer edge of the bush, and down he landed safely inside of it,
not scratched a bit. Up came the three-headed, two-tailed and one
crinkly-legged wushky-woshky, but when he saw the prickly briar berry bush
he stopped short, for he did not want his six eyes scratched out.
"Come out of there!" cried the wushky-woshky to the rabbit.
"Indeed, I will not," said Uncle Wiggily, politely.
"Then I'll stay here forever and you can't ever come out," said the savage
creature. "For if you come out I'll eat you!"
"Don't let him scare you," said the briar berry bush to Uncle Wiggily,
"I'll fix him," so the berry bush reached out a long arm all covered with
stickers, and she stickered and prickered the wushky-woshky on his three
heads and two tails and one leg, so that the savage creature ran away
howling, and Uncle Wiggily was safe, and not hurt a bit, I'm glad to say.
So he stayed in the briar bush that night and had berries for breakfast,
and the next day he had another adventure. What it was I will tell you on
the page after this one, when the bedtime story will be about Uncle
Wiggily and the camp fire--that is, if the cat across the street doesn't
untie the pink ribbon off our pussy's neck and put it on his ice cream
cone.
STORY XXIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CAMP FIRE
"Well, how do you find yourself this morning?" asked the berry bush of
Uncle Wiggily as the old gentleman rabbit peeped out to see if the bad
three-headed wushky-woshky had come back. "Are you all right?"
"Oh, yes, thank you kindly," spoke the rabbit, "but I was just wondering
how I could get out of here to go on and seek my fortune without being
scratched all to pieces."
"Can't you jump out just as you jumped in?" asked the bush, waving her
prickly arms, but taking care not to so much as even tickle Uncle Wiggily.
"No, there isn't room enough for me to get started to jump out," replied
the rabbit. "I'm afraid I'll have to stay here a long time, and I really
ought to be going on."
"Oh, I have a plan!" suddenly cried the bush. "You are a very good digger,
so why can't you dig a tunnel right under me? Start it inside here and
curve it up so that it comes outside of my prickly branches, and then you
won't be scratched."
"I'll do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, so with his strong front feet he dug a
tunnel, just as you sometimes make in the sand, and soon he was safely
outside the berry bush.
"Take some of my berries with you," said the bush, "so you won't get
hungry."
"I will," answered the rabbit, and he filled his valise with nice, big
blackberries. He felt a little sad about the nice lunch the wushky-woshky
had eaten, but there was no help for it--that lunch was gone completely.
So Uncle Wiggily said good-by to the kind berry bush, and traveled on once
more to seek his fortune.
"Watch out for the wushky-woshky," called the bush to the rabbit, as she
waved her friendly stickery branches at him.
"I will," he said, and then he passed up over the hill and out of sight.
The first place he came to was an old hollow stump, where an old owl had
once lived. The rabbit looked down inside the stump, but there was no
fortune there.
The second place he came to was a curious little house built of bark,
where an old dog, who was a friend to Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, used to
live, but the old dog was away on his vacation at Ocean Grove, so he
wasn't at home.
"Perhaps there is a fortune in here," thought the rabbit, but there wasn't
any and he went on.
Now the third place he came to was a little house, made out of
clothespins, where a pussy cat lived, and the pussy wasn't home, for she
had just gone to the store to get some milk.
But the rabbit didn't know this, so he went inside the house to see if
there was any fortune there. And the first thing he saw on the mantelpiece
was a tin bank, and when he shook it something inside of it rattled, and
when he peeped in Uncle Wiggily saw a whole lot of pennies in the tin
bank.
"Oh fine!" he cried, "now I have my fortune at last. Some one has gone
away and left all this money, so I might as well take it."
Well, he was just putting the bank full of pennies into his valise, when
the pussy came back with the bottle of milk.
"Oh! are you going to take my bank away from me?" she cried, very sadly.
"I have been saving up my pennies for a long time, and now you have them."
"Oh, I wouldn't take them for the world!" cried the rabbit. "I didn't know
they were yours, it's all a mistake," and he placed the bank right back
on the mantel. "But perhaps you could tell me where to find my fortune,"
said Uncle Wiggily, and he told the pussy all about his travels.
"First we will have a drink of milk," said the pussy, and she poured out
some for the rabbit. "Then I will go into the woods a little way with you
and help you look for your fortune."
"Perhaps we had better take some lunch with us," said the rabbit, so he
went to the store and got a nice lunch, which he put up in his valise, and
then he and the pussy started off together to the woods.
They looked here and there and everywhere and even around corners, but no
fortune could they find, and pretty soon it began to get a little dark.
And then suddenly it got all dark.
"Oh, I can never find my way back home!" cried the pussy. "And I am afraid
in these lonesome woods."
"Oh! don't be frightened," said Uncle Wiggily, who was very brave. "I will
build a camp fire and we can stay here all night. I will cook some supper
and in the morning I will take you home."
Then the pussy wasn't afraid any more. She helped the rabbit to gather up
some dry leaves and little sticks, and also some big sticks, and soon
Uncle Wiggily had a fine fire merrily blazing away in the woods, and it
was nice and light. Then he took some leafy branches and made a little
house for himself and the pussy and then they cooked supper, making some
coffee in an old empty tomato can they found near a wrinkly-crinkly stump.
"Oh, this is real jolly!" cried the pussy, as she warmed her paws and her
nose at the blaze. "It is much better than drinking milk out of a bottle."
"I think so myself," said the rabbit. "Now, if I could only find my
fortune I would be happy. But, perhaps, I shall to-morrow."
Well, pretty soon Uncle Wiggily and the pussy became sleepy so they
thought they would go to bed. They made their beds in the little green
bower-house on some soft, dried leaves.
"And I must have plenty of wood to put on the camp fire," said the rabbit,
"for in the night some bad animal might try to eat us, but when they see
the blaze they will be afraid and run away."
So he gathered a big pile of wood, and then he and the pussy went to
sleep. And in the middle of the night, as true as I'm telling you, yes,
indeed, along came sneaking the wushky-woshky with his three heads and
two tails and his one crinkly leg.
"Now, I'll have a fine meal," thought the wushky-woshky as he saw the
rabbit and the pussy sleeping. "Which one shall I take first?"
But all of a sudden his foot slipped on a stone and he made a noise, and
Uncle Wiggily awakened in an instant and cried out:
"Some one is after us!" Then the brave rabbit threw some wood on the camp
fire, and it blazed up so quickly that it burned the whiskers of the
wushky-woshky and he gave three howls, one with each of his mouths, and
away he hopped on his one leg, taking his two tails with him.
"My!" cried the pussy, "it's a good thing we had the camp fire, or we
would have been eaten up."
"Indeed it is," said the rabbit. "I'll keep it blazing all night." So he
did this, and no more wushky-woshkys came to bother them. And in the
morning the pussy and the rabbit traveled on together and they had quite
an adventure.
What it was I'll relate to you almost immediately, when, in case a little
girl named Elizabeth learns how to swim by standing on one toe and holding
a red balloon under water, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the
cowbird.
STORY XXX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE COWBIRD
"Do you think you can help me find my way back home again?" asked the
pussy of Uncle Wiggily as they awakened the next morning, after having
spent the night in the woods by the camp fire.
"Oh, I'm sure I can," answered the rabbit. "As soon as we have our
breakfast we'll start off to look for your clothespin house."
Then Uncle Wiggily made up the camp fire again, putting on some more wood,
and he boiled the coffee, in a tomato can, and fried some pieces of bacon
he had in his valise. The way he cooked them was to take a sharp stick and
put a piece of bacon on the end of it, and then he held the bacon up in
front of the blaze, where it sizzled away, and got nice and curly and
brown, and oh! how good it did smell, and so did the coffee! Oh! it's
great to cook over a camp fire when the smoke doesn't get in your eyes and
when it doesn't rain.
"Now we must put out the fire," said the rabbit, as he and the pussy were
ready to go look for the clothespin house.
"Why must we do that, Uncle Wiggily?"
"Oh, so that it will not set fire to the woods, and burn down the nice
trees after we are gone. Always put out your camp fire when you leave it,"
said the rabbit, as he threw water on the blaze, making clouds of steam.
Well, he and the pussy traveled on for some time longer together, but
somehow or other they couldn't seem to find the place where the pussy
lived, and the little cat was beginning to be sorry that she had gone
camping in the woods.
"Oh, I know I'll never find my home again!" she cried.
"Oh, yes, we will," said the rabbit kindly. "Don't worry."
And just then they heard some one else crying, a little, tiny, sobbing
voice.
"What's that?" exclaimed the pussy. "Perhaps it is one of the
skillery-scalery alligator's children."
"No, I do not think so," said the rabbit. "It sounds to me as if some one
else were lost in the woods, and I may have to find their home, too. We'll
take a look."
So they looked all around, but they couldn't seem to find any one, though
the crying was still to be heard.
"That's queer," said the rabbit, "I'll call to them."
So he called as loudly as he could like this:
"Is any one lost? Do you want me to help you find your home?"
"Oh, I'd be very glad to have you help me," said the crying voice, "but I
am not lost."
"Then who are you, and what is the matter?" asked the rabbit.
"Oh, I am a robin bird," was the answer, "and I am in this bush over your
heads."
"Ha, no wonder we couldn't see you," said the rabbit, as he and the pussy
looked up, and there, sure enough, was the nice mamma robin bird, and she
was crying, as she sat in the bush.
"What is the matter?" asked the rabbit.
"I will tell you," said the robin. "You know there is a bird called the
cowbird or cuckoo, and that bird is too lazy to build a nest for itself.
So what do you think it does?"
"What?" asked the pussy.
"Why it goes around, laying its eggs in the nests of other birds," said
the robin. "Then we birds have to hatch out the cowbird's eggs, and when
her children come out they are so unpleasant that they shove our little
birdies right out of the nest, and eat all the things we mamma birds
bring home to our little ones."
"Ha! That is very unpleasant, to say the least," spoke the rabbit. "And
are there any cowbirds in your nest now, Mrs. Robin?"
"Not yet, but there are three of the cowbird's eggs here, and they will
soon hatch out."
"Why don't you toss out the cowbird's eggs?" asked the pussy. "Then you
won't have to hatch them."
"I would," said the robin, "only I am not strong enough, for I have been
ill, and my husband is out of work and he is looking for some. So I don't
know what to do about it. Oh, dear!" and she cried again.
"Ha! We must see what we can do," said Uncle Wiggily, who always liked to
help people who were in trouble. "I think I have a plan."
"What is it?" asked the robin.
"Well, I can't climb up that bush, for my paws are not built for that sort
of thing, but the pussy can climb very nicely, as she has sharp claws."
"Indeed I can," said the pussy, "and I will, and I'll throw out the
cowbird's eggs for you, so those bad birds won't bother your little
birds."
So Uncle Wiggily gave the pussy a boost up the bush, in which the robin's
nest was built, and then the pussy, with her sharp claws climbed up the
rest of the distance all alone very nicely.
"Now show me which are the eggs of the cowbird?" said the kittie-cat to
the robin when the nest was reached. So the robin mamma pointed out the
eggs with her claw, and then with her foot the pussy clawed those cowbird
eggs out on the ground where they wouldn't hatch.
"Now, that will be the last of those bad birds," said the pussy as she
started to climb down to where Uncle Wiggily was waiting for her.
"Yes, indeed, and thank you very much," spoke the robin. "Now, my little
ones will have a chance to grow and live."
And just then there was a fluttering and a rustling in the bushes, and the
bad cowbird came flying past. And when she saw what had been done, and how
her eggs had been tossed out of the robin's nest where they didn't belong,
that cowbird flew at the pussy and was going to pick her eyes out.
But Uncle Wiggily took his crutch, and tickled the cowbird so that she
sneezed, and had to fly away without doing any harm. And Uncle Wiggily
called after her that she ought to be ashamed of herself not to build her
own nests. And I guess that cowbird was ashamed, but I'm not sure. Anyhow
she came back a little later and gathered up her eggs off the ground, and
flew away with them, and what she did with them I'll tell you; oh, just as
soon as you like.
The bedtime story then will be about Uncle Wiggily and the tailor
bird--that is, if the needle and thread don't dance up and down on the pin
cushion, and make it full of holes so the sawdust stuffing comes out and
tickles the baby's pink toes.