They had just finished one game, and were beginning another when Alice
Wibblewobble came alone. "Jimmie," she said, "mamma wants you."
"What does she want?" asked her brother.
"She wants you to come for a walk in the woods with us. Papa is going
along. Come right away."
"Aw, I'd rather play with Bully," answered Jimmie, but just then his mamma
called him, and he had to go. Bully hopped off, and Jimmie and Alice
walked home together.
"Come, Lulu, are you all ready?" asked Mrs. Wibblewobble, as she saw her
other daughter throwing stones in the pond, and making a great splash.
"Yes," was the reply, and then Jimmie said: "Oh, mamma, I don't want to go
walking."
"I think you will want to when you know where we are going," said his
papa.
"Where are we going?"
"To Grandpa Wibblewobble's."
"Oh, goody!" cried Lulu and Jimmie at once, for they always had a nice
time at their grandfather's. So the ducks set off through the woods and
over the fields, and every time they came to a bit of water they swam over
it as fast as a cat can wash her face.
Pretty soon, after awhile, not very long, they came to the pen where
Grandpa Wibblewobble lived with his daughter, Miss Weezy Wibblewobble, who
kept house for him.
"Ha, I think grandpa has company," said Papa Wibblewobble, as they came
close to the pen and heard talking. "Yes, he certainly has." And, sure
enough, the old gentleman duck had. And whom do you suppose it was? My
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit!
"How is your rheumatism?" asked Mrs. Wibblewobble of Uncle Wiggily
Longears, after they had sat down.
"Oh, it doesn't seem to get any better," he answered. "I have carried a
piece of horse chestnut in one ear, and a bit of dried potato in the other
for ever so long, but nothing seems to do me any good. I am going to have
a new doctor soon if I don't get well. Oh my, yes, and some pepper hash on
bread and butter also! Ha! Hum! Oh my! Ouch! and Jack and the Bean
Stalk!" Uncle Wiggily called out that last because his rheumatism hurt so.
Well, Grandpa Wibblewobble gave each of the Wibblewobble children some
nice sugared corn meal, flavored with sweet flag, peppermint and
watercress, and a few snails to eat, and maybe they didn't like them!
"Now," said grandpa, "you children go out to play, while we old folks talk
about the weather and rheumatism," for you see rheumatism was about all
Uncle Wiggily cared to talk about.
Well, the little duck children had a fine time playing around grandpa's
house, and now, in about a minute something is going to happen. They had
wandered off a little way, and, just as they were resting under some
burdock leaves, in the shade, they heard voices talking. And one voice
said:
"Now I'll go up to the front door of Grandpa Wibblewobble's house and you
go up to the back door. We'll both knock at the same time, and the ducks
won't know which door to go to first. Then we'll jump in the windows and
eat them all up--all up--up! There are some extra fine ducks there
to-day."
Oh, maybe Jimmie and his sisters weren't frightened. They trembled so that
the leaves shook as if the wind was blowing them, and when Jimmie got a
little quiet he looked out, and what do you suppose he saw? Why two mean,
wicked, sly old foxes, who were getting ready to go to grandpa's house and
eat him up, and Mamma and Papa Wibblewobble up, and probably Uncle Wiggily
Longears, too; who knows?
"Oh, isn't this awful?" asked Alice in a whisper. "I am going to faint! I
know I am!"
"Silly!" said Jimmie to her. "Don't you dare faint! Here, smell of this,"
and he picked some spearmint, and held it under his sister's nose, which
made her feel better.
"We must do something," said Lulu. "It will never do to have those bad
foxes go to grandpa's house! How can we stop them?"
"Let me think," whispered Jimmie, quite bravely, and he put his head under
his wing, so he could be quiet and think better. "Ah, I have it!" he cried
out. "Come with me, girls!"
So they stepped softly from under the burdock leaves, those three duck
children did, and ran to grandpa's house as fast as they could, leaving
the bad foxes in the woods. Well, you can imagine how surprised all the
folks were, even Uncle Wiggily, when they heard the alarming news which
the children told.
"Oh, whatever shall we do?" cried Weezy Wibblewobble.
"I know what I'd do, if it wasn't for my rheumatism!" said Uncle Wiggily.
"I'd bite those foxes, and jump on them, too, but I can't! Oh, if Nurse
Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy were only here!"
"Never mind. I will save you," spoke Jimmie. "Come now, we must get a lot
of stones and some boards. Hurry, for the foxes will soon be here."
So the ducks, with Uncle Wiggily helping them as much as he could, put a
board over the front door, and one over the back door, just inside the
house. Then they piled a lot of stones on the boards and fixed them with
strings, so that when the cords were pulled the boards would fall down and
the stones would also fall, with a clatter on the head of whoever was at
the door.
Well, after all this was done, the ducks and Uncle Wiggily went and hid in
the house. Then, in a little while, those bad foxes came sneaking along.
And, sure enough, one went to the back door and the other to the front
door.
They knocked at the same time, just as they had said they would, and Papa
Wibblewobble opened one door and Grandpa Wibblewobble the other. Then just
as soon as the doors were opened Jimmie, who had hold of the strings that
were fast to the boards, pulled them with his bill, and down clattered
the stones, rattlety-bang-go-bung-ker-plunk, right on top of the heads of
those two bad foxes! Oh, how scared they were!
"The house is falling! The house is falling! Run away!" cried one fox and
they both ran as fast as they could, glad enough to escape, I tell you.
Now, wasn't that a good trick Jimmie played on those bad animals?
I thought so, myself, and so did his grandpa and his papa and mamma, to
say nothing of Uncle Wiggily Longears. And that's how the foxes didn't eat
up the ducks, and to-morrow night, if the robin sings under my window as
sweetly as he did yesterday morning, you shall hear about how Aunt Lettie
came on a visit.
STORY XIII
A VISIT FROM AUNT LETTIE
One day it was so very pleasant out of doors that Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie Wibblewobble didn't want to go to school. The sun was sparkling on
the water in the duck pond, and Alice said, as she felt the wind blowing
on her feathers:
"Oh, I just wish I could go see the fairy prince again!"
"Pooh! I don't," spoke Jimmie. "But I wish we could stay home from school.
Bully, the frog, and I were going to get up a baseball nine. Let's go ask
papa if we can stay home."
"Can't I play on your ball team?" asked Lulu, who could throw a stone
almost as well as a boy.
"No," said Jimmie. "Girls never play on ball teams."
"Couldn't I even umpire?" went on his sister.
"No, Uncle Wiggily Longears is going to do that," replied Jimmie. "Billie
and Johnnie Bushytail and Sammie Littletail are going to play on the team.
But let's go ask papa if we can stay home. It's too nice to go to
school."
So they went and asked Mr. Wibblewobble, who had remained at home from
work that day, because, you see, he happened to swallow a shoe button by
mistake for a grain of corn, and he had indigestion something awful; yes,
really.
You know it was a tan shoe button, and if your eyesight isn't very good,
why it does look like a grain of corn, especially if you're very hungry
and in a hurry. So Mr. Wibblewobble wasn't feeling very well when Jimmie
and Lulu came in to ask him if they could stay home from school, and he
was the least bit cross, perhaps, because his indigestion was really very
bad at that moment. So he answered them:
"No, indeed, you can't stay home. Go to school at once! Quack!"
Now when a duck says one quack, instead of a double quack-quack, you may
know he is feeling very, very miserable, and you don't want to bother him
any more than you can help.
Lulu and Jimmie knew this, and they hurried out of the pen to go to
school. Then their papa felt sorry for them, because, you see, he did not
really mean to be cross, only he knew it was best for them to learn all
they could. So he said "Quack-quack," which meant he was feeling better,
and he added: "When you come home, my dears, you may each have a penny.
Run along now, like good ducks."
So, though Jimmie felt badly about not being able to get up a ball nine,
he waddled along with his sisters, and pretty soon they were at the owl
school, where they met Sammie and Susie Littletail and Billie and Johnnie
Bushytail, and Sister Sallie and Bully, the frog. Yes, they were all
there, and, what's more, they had their lessons, too, so they were not
kept in.
They hurried home after school, Alice and Lulu and Jimmie, I mean, because
this story is about them, you see; and they got their pennies from their
papa, and each one bought some watercress snails, preserved in salted
cornmeal; very fine they were, too, for ducks.
Just as the three Wibblewobble children were finishing the last of the
snails, who should come hopping along but Bully, the frog. He hopped into
the water to cool himself off and then, when he had hopped out again, he
asked:
"I say, Jimmie, are your folks expecting company?"
"I don't think so," answered Jimmie. "I saw mamma setting the table and
she wasn't putting the clean cloth on. No, I guess we're not going to have
company, or there'd be a clean cloth put on. Why do you ask?"
"Because, as I was coming through the woods just now I met a funny looking
creature asking the way to your pen."
"Who was it?" inquired Lulu.
"Oh, it was a nice old lady. She had long hair and she carried a basket
and she wore such a funny bonnet! Two sharp things stuck right out of the
top of it. I offered to show her the way here, but she said I went in the
water so often that she couldn't follow me, for she didn't want to get her
feet wet. You must be going to have company."
"Maybe we are!" cried Alice. "Let's go ask mamma."
So they went, and asked their mother, but she said she did not know of any
company coming, but, for fear some one might come along unexpectedly she
did put the clean table cloth on, and she got out the napkins, and opened
a jar of preserved sweet flag root.
"Come on," proposed Lulu, after a bit, "let's go through the woods. Bully,
you show us where you met the queer lady, and maybe we'll see her."
So the four started off, Bully hopping along in front, and pretty soon,
just as they got to the place where the weeping willow tree stands, what
should they hear but a funny noise. It sounded like "Ma-a-a-a-a!" You
know, just like a sheep cries.
"There she is!" exclaimed Bully. "That's just the way she talks. And there
she is! Look! The nice old lady!"
The three Wibblewobble children looked, and what should they see but a big
white goat. She was an old lady goat, and she was walking along with her
basket on her arm, and the things sticking out of her bonnet were her
horns. As soon as she saw the children she called:
"Oh, my dears, can you show me the way to Mrs. Wibblewobble's? I'm afraid
I'm lost!"
"Why, Mrs. Wibblewobble is our mamma," answered Lulu, quickly.
"Oh, my dears! You don't mean it!" cried the goat. "Then you must be my
little nieces and nephew I've heard so much about. But who is this little
green boy? I've seen him before."
"Oh, he's the catcher on our base ball nine," said Jimmie. "He catches the
balls in his mouth. But, who are you, if I may be so bold as to ask?"
"I'm your Aunt Lettie," replied the goat. "I've come to pay you a long
visit. Oh, I'm so glad I found you, for I feared I would never get to your
house! See, I have brought you some apple turnovers, and some gooseberry
tarts. Now let's hurry home, but first kiss me."
So Aunt Lettie kissed them all, even Bully, the frog, and then she and the
Wibblewobble children went to the ducks' pen, where she stayed several
days.
And quite a number of things happened, too. In fact, one took place the
very next day, as you shall hear to-morrow night, when I am going to tell
you about Lulu and the pussy willows, provided a doggie with a yellow nose
and pink ears doesn't scare me.
STORY XIV
LULU AND THE PUSSY WILLOWS
"What shall we do now?" asked Lulu the next morning after Aunt Lettie
came, and the duck children had gone out to play, leaving their mamma and
the old lady goat to do the dishes.
"Let's go see the fairy prince," suggested Alice.
"Oh, you're always thinking of that fairy prince," objected Jimmie. "I say
let's go for a walk."
"All right," agreed Lulu. "I know where there are some nice pussy willows.
We'll get some to take to our school teacher next Monday."
So they started off up the pond to the place where the pussy willows grew.
They gathered quite a number, breaking off the stems in their strong
yellow bills, and then, putting the willows under their wings, they
started back home again. They didn't have to hurry because, you see, it
was Saturday, and there wasn't any school. Oh, my no! Ducks don't have to
go to school on Saturday any more than you do, even if they are only in
the kindergarten class.
Now, if you please, pay close attention, for something is going to happen
very shortly, if Uncle Wiggily Longears doesn't come along and bother me,
and I don't believe he will. Well, Lulu and Alice and Jimmie got safely
home with the pussy willows, and as they were putting them in water to
keep until Monday, Aunt Lettie came into the room.
"What have you there, my dears?" she asked, wiggling her horns and looking
over the tops of her glasses as easily as you can draw a picture of a
horse. "What have you there, my dears?"
"They are pussy willows, Aunt Lettie," replied Lulu.
"Oh dearie me! oh Sacramento!" cried Aunt Lettie, who was quite excitable
at times. "Why ever did you bring them here, little ones?"
"Why, we want them for teacher," explained Alice.
"I don't," declared Jimmie. "Boys never bring the teacher flowers; that is
unless they don't want to be kept in when there's a ball game. But don't
you like pussy willows, Aunt Lettie?"
"Oh, no indeed," she answered. "I don't like cats of any description."
"But these are only pussy willows," said Alice.
"Oh, they'll turn into cats quickly enough," remarked Aunt Lettie. "There
was a family who once lived next to us, and they had kittens. Why it
wasn't any time at all before those kittens had turned into cats, and land
goodness, how they did howl nights and keep me awake! And I had lumbago
that summer, too! Oh, yes, indeed, kittens are all very well, but when
they turn into old cats they're not so nice."
"Oh, but Aunt Lettie, you don't understand," explained Jimmie, smiling the
least bit. "You see these are only plant pussies. They can't ever become
real cats you know."
"They grow, don't they?" asked the old lady goat, shaking her horns again,
"Don't they grow?"
"Yes," admitted Lulu. "They certainly grow."
"Well, if they're pussies now they'll grow to be cats soon enough, you
mark my words," went on Aunt Lettie quite sorrowfully. "That is unless
they drown in that water," she added quickly.
"Why, no; pussy willows can't drown in water," said Lulu. "We put them
there to keep them fresh. You don't need to worry about those pussy
willows, dear Aunt Lettie."
[Illustration]
But Aunt Lettie did worry. In fact she had to worry about something,
anyhow, so I suppose it is just as well that she worried about the pussy
willows. And, when they all went to bed that night, the last thing she
said was:
"Now, you mark my words! Those pussies will be cats before you know it."
But Lulu and Alice and Jimmie did not think so. However you just wait and
see what happened.
Along in the middle of the night, when it was all still and quiet, and
when even the frogs had stopped croaking, and it wasn't time for the
roosters to begin to crow; yes, when it was dark, and still and silent and
not a sound was heard, suddenly what should happen but that right in the
Wibblewobble house there came a loud: "Mew! Mew! Mew!"
"There!" exclaimed Aunt Lettie, jumping out of bed. "What did I tell you?
Those pussy willows have turned into cats, and the house will be full of
them! Oh, dear! Why did you bring them in here? It's dreadfully bad luck!"
Lulu and Jimmie and Alice jumped out of bed, too. So did Mr. and Mrs.
Wibblewobble. All the while they kept hearing that: "Mew! Mew! Mew!"
"Whatever can it be?" asked Mamma Wibblewobble. "Maybe it's a burglar."
"Nonsense!" replied Mr. Wibblewobble, "burglars don't mew. I'll go look."
So he went to look, and what do you think he found? Why, right under a
vase of the pussy willows, on a cushion, was a dear, sweet, little white
kitten. Yes, sir, as true as I'm telling you! And so soon as Lulu saw it
she cried: "It's mine! One of my pussy willows has turned into a kittie!
Oh, how glad I am!"
And, honestly, the kittie was right under Lulu's vase of pussy willows,
just as sure as that two and two make four.
"I told you so!" cried Aunt Lettie. "Now, maybe you'll believe me next
time. The pussy willows turned into a kitten."
"Oh, but this kitten can't be from those willows," said Papa Wibblewobble.
"This is a real pussy. It must have come in from out of doors. I guess I
must have left a window open."
And the funny part of it was that he had left a window up, and it was a
real kittie that had wandered in, straying away from its mamma. But Aunt
Lettie was sure it had come from a pussy willow. Lulu didn't care, because
she was allowed to keep the kittie for herself, and what do you think? Why
that kittie joined Jimmie's baseball nine, and to-morrow night I'll tell
you about a game of ball that was played. That is if the man in the moon
doesn't tumble down and hurt his nose.
STORY XV
PLAYING A BALL GAME
One day Jimmie Wibblewobble was going over to where Bully, the frog,
lived.
"Come on!" cried the little boy duck, to the frog. "Let's get up a ball
game. We'll find Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and Sammie Littletail, and
have some fun. Have you seen Uncle Wiggily Longears? He will umpire for
us, I know, and tell who's out, and when the balls go straight, and all
that. Have you seen him?"
"I saw him limping along a while ago," answered Bully. "He can't have gone
very far, for his rheumatism is bad again."
"Let's hurry up and catch him," suggested Jimmie. So they ran on through
the woods as fast as they could and, sure enough, they soon saw the old
gentleman rabbit.
"Will you come to our ball game?" asked Jimmie.
"Why, of course, to be sure," answered Uncle Wiggily. "But I can't play
very well, you know, on account of--Oh my! Ouch! Oh dear! Um Um! Present
arms! Ready! Aim! Fire! Oh! Oh! Oh!" That's the way he cried all of a
sudden.
"What's the matter?" asked Jimmie.
"Matter? Why my rheumatism; that's what's the matter! It does seem to
catch me at the wrong time. I'm afraid I won't be able to play ball to-day
after all, boys. I'm sorry, but--Oh dear! There it goes again!" and that
poor, old gentleman rabbit had to lean on his crutch, because his legs
hurt him so.
"Oh, we only want you to look on, and tell us when the game is going all
right," said Jimmie very kindly. "You can have a seat in the shade, and
you will decide who's out, and who makes a run, and which side wins."
"Well, I might manage that," replied Uncle Wiggily. "Come on, but please
walk very slowly."
So they walked on very slowly, and pretty soon they met Johnnie and Billie
Bushytail with Sister Sallie. And the little girl squirrel was singing:
"Hippity-hop to the barber shop
To buy a lolly-pop-lally.
One for me and one for thee
And one for Sister Sallie."
"Come on, let's play ball," called Jimmie to Johnnie and Billie. The
Bushytail brothers said they would, and on they all went, through the
woods and over the fields, and pretty soon, oh, maybe in about two quacks
and a half, whom should they meet but Sammie and Susie Littletail. Sammie
said he would play ball, and Susie said she would look on. Then along came
Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, and Lulu had her white kittie with her.
"My kittie ought to play, as long as I can't play, especially as she knew
how to roll a ball," spoke Lulu. So Jimmie said the kittie could very
nicely with her paws.
"But that's all the girls who are going to be on the team," said Jimmie
very decidedly.
Well, they started to play, and they had an old wooden door knob for a
ball. I just wish you could have seen them, honestly I do. It was as good
as going to a show, where they charge five pins to get in. Bully, the
frog, was the catcher, for all he had to do was to open his large mouth,
and the ball would go right in. Uncle Wiggily was a sort of judge, or
umpire. That is, he sat in the shade, on a pile of soft leaves, and told
when it was right for one of the players to give up the bat, and let some
one else have a chance.
Now whom do you suppose threw the ball? Why, Johnnie Bushytail. And
Billie was on first base, while Jimmie Wibblewobble had the bat, which was
a piece of hickory stick. He was to hit the ball and Sammie Littletail and
the white kittie, whose name was Sadie, were to chase it.
Oh, what fun they had! Jimmie knocked the ball as hard as he could, and
then he ran, and Sadie and Sammie tried to put him out, that is to tag him
with the ball, for that's the way they played. Then it came Bully's turn
to bat, while Johnnie Bushytail caught, and then you should have seen how
cutely Sadie, the kittie, would roll the ball along to first base whenever
any one hit it.
And as for Billie Bushytail, when it was his turn, he knocked a ball away
over in the field, and Lulu ran after it, even if she wasn't supposed to
play. She threw it back too, and then she went and sat down with Alice and
Susie and Sister Sallie. Uncle Wiggily did fine at umpiring, and he was as
kind and good as could be, so no one found fault with what he said, even
when he had to rub his leg that had rheumatism in it.
But something dreadful happened. I've got to tell about it, or else it
wouldn't be fair, and we must always be honest and fair in this world, no
matter whether we want to or not. It was Jimmie's turn at the bat again.
He hit the ball very hard.
Away it sailed, over the fence and across the field, and then, oh, don't
breathe or wiggle for a few seconds now! then, if that ball didn't smash,
bang, crash right into the window of Grandfather Goosey-Gander's house!
Yes, sir, it broke the window all to flinders, and out rushed Grandfather
Goosey-Gander! Oh, but he was angry! He quacked, and he squawked, and he
called out:
"Who broke my window?"
"I--I did, please sir," answered Jimmie. "But I didn't mean to. It was an
accident."
"Ha, hum! An accident, eh? Well, you'll have to pay for it," said
Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Yes, that's what you will!"
"Oh we'll all chip in and pay for it," said Bully, quickly. "That's what
we always do in a ball game when a window is broken. I'll pay my share."
"Ha! Hum!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and then he sneezed, for he
had run out without his cap on and he was bald headed.
So they all agreed to pay for the window, and even Sister Sallie said she
would help. But they didn't have to. No, sir, as true as I'm telling you,
if Aunt Lettie didn't happen along just then, and, when she heard what
the matter was, she just took out her purse and said:
"I'll pay for the window which Jimmie broke. I am rich, and I'll never
miss the money. Boys and girls must have some fun."
"Fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm the umpire and I say that's just fine."
Now, wasn't that kind of Aunt Lettie? Well, I guess so! Then the game went
on, and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail won, but no more windows were broken.
Now, if we don't get an April shower to-morrow, you shall hear, in the
next story, to-morrow night, about how the duck's pen caught fire, and who
put it out.
STORY XVI
THE WIBBLEWOBBLE HOME ON FIRE
After the ball game, which I told you about last night, all the players,
and those who had looked on, and Uncle Wiggily, the umpire, started for
home. On the way they talked of how kind Aunt Lettie was.
"She's the kindest person I have ever known," said Uncle Wiggily, as he
limped along on his crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had gnawed out of a
cornstalk for him. "She is very--Oh dear! Oh me! Oh my! Oh
disproportionability! Wow! Ouch! My rheumatism again!" and it hurt him so
he had to stand still and waggle his ears as hard as ever he could. Then
he felt better, especially after he had rubbed a horse chestnut on his
sore leg.
You see the rheumatism which was cured by a red fairy, as I told you about
in the first book, came back because Uncle Wiggily got his feet wet going
out one day without his umbrella.