the ball game, and the broken window, but they didn't scold Jimmie very
much, and pretty soon, oh, in a little while after supper, you know, it
was bedtime for the duck children and they went to bed.
Well, it got darker and darker, and soon it was nice and quiet around the
pond where the ducks lived. Only the frogs seemed to be awake, and they
were croaking away in the water. And pretty soon Lulu and Alice were
dreaming and so was Jimmie, and the funny part of it is that they all
dreamed different things.
Pretty soon it got even darker, and then up popped the silvery moon, and
it wasn't quite so dark. But it was more quiet. Oh my, yes! It was so
quiet that I believe if a feather had fallen off a duck's back it would
have made a noise when it struck the ground. Oh, it was very quiet.
Then, all of a sudden Jimmie awakened. He sniffed and he snuffed, and he
smelled smoke. So he got up and he called to Lulu and Alice in the next
room:
"Say, don't you smell smoke?"
"Yes," said Alice, "I do."
"Maybe it's Grandfather Goosey-Gander smoking his pipe," suggested Lulu.
"No, he doesn't smoke as late as this," said Jimmie.
Then the smell of smoke got stronger, and, in about as long as it would
take you to count one and a half, what should happen but that the whole
duckhouse was suddenly lighted up. Then there came a crackling, roaring
sound, and Papa and Mamma Wibblewobble jumped up.
"Oh, dear! It's burglars! I know it's burglars!" cried Mrs. Wibblewobble.
"Quack real loud, Leander" (you see Mr. Wibblewobble's name was Leander).
"Quack real loud, and call the police!"
So Mr. Leander Wibblewobble quacked as loudly as he could, and just then
Aunt Lettie jumped out of bed.
"Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!" she cried, three times, just like that. "The
house is on fire! The house is burning up! Run! Jump, everybody!"
And, sure enough, the ducks' house was on fire, and it wasn't a burglar at
all; no sir! Whether the moon was so hot that it caused the fire, or
whether it was sparks from grandfather's pipe, I can't say, but anyhow,
the house was on fire, and it was burning fiercely.
"Oh dear! Oh dear!" cried Aunt Lettie again. And Mamma Wibblewobble cried
just the same, too. Then they all ran and jumped out of the second-story
window, but it didn't hurt them, for they could fly a little bit, you
know, and they came down like balloons. That is all but Aunt Lettie, and
she was used to jumping, so she came down like a lot of dishes falling
off the table.
Well, you should have seen that house burn! Oh, it was a dreadful sight.
All the other ducks and the geese and the chickens gathered around. The
rooster crowed the alarm. Box number twenty-one it was, but of course
there were no engines to come and put out the fire.
"Oh, we must save the house!" shouted Papa Wibblewobble.
"Everybody bring water from the pond and throw it on the fire!" cried Aunt
Lettie, and she ran down and filled her two horns, which she carried on
her head. The horns were hollow and had the tops sawed off, so she could
fill them quickly and pour out the water just as easily. She splashed some
water on the fire, but it didn't do much good. Then Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie, they filled their bills with water and threw it on the blaze, but
that didn't do much good.
No, sad to tell, all the water the ducks and the geese and Aunt Lettie
could carry, to say nothing of the rooster who couldn't bring much,
because he stopped to crow every now and then--all this water didn't do a
bit of good, and the house was burning faster and faster.
Then, what do you think happened? Why, all at once there came running up
old Nero, the big, shaggy, yellow dog, who was so old and kind that he
would never hurt any one. Yes, he ran right up and called out:
"Make way, if you please. I will put out that fire!"
So he ran down into the pond as fast as he could run and soaked himself in
the water. Then he ran up close to the fire and shook himself hard, and
the drops of water scattered from his shaggy sides all over the blaze,
just like a rain storm. And the fire was partly out.
Then he ran down again and got all wet and shook himself, and scattered
some more water over the fire. And that fire was pretty nearly out.
Then for the third time that dog, Nero, ran down into the water and got
all soaking wet, and scattered the drops over the blaze, like two showers
and a half. And then that fire was all completely out! Oh, wasn't he a
good dog, though?
Well, the house wasn't burned so much after all, and the ducks could go
back into it. And maybe they weren't thankful to Nero, but he only said:
"Ah, you should have watched me gnaw bones when I was a young dog. That
was a sight worth seeing." But I think it was great for him to put out
the fire, don't you? Now, to-morrow night's story, providing my automobile
doesn't hit a balloon, will be about how the fairy prince was caught.
STORY XVII
HOW THE FAIRY PRINCE WAS CAUGHT
Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, wanted Lulu and Alice and Jimmie to
have a good time, so one day she fixed them up a basket of lunch to take
off in the woods and eat. She made some jam tarts--oh, such lovely, flaky
ones!--and there were cookies and bread and butter and I don't know what
all. I just wish I had that basket of lunch now, don't you? But, of
course, we wouldn't want to take it away from the duck children, would we?
So they started off, and as they passed by Nero, he opened one eye--only
one, mind you, and looked at them. And he said: "I am feeling a little
hungry, but I don't s'pose you have anything for me."
"Yes," said Lulu, "you may have a jam tart because you saved our house
from burning up."
So they gave Nero one tart, and he gobbled it up as quickly as you can
cross your "t" or dot your "i" when you're writing in school.
Pretty soon, well, not so very long, you know, the three duck children
came to the woods. Oh, the woods were the nicest place you ever saw!
There was a little brook running in and out among the trees, and it
sounded like music when it went over the stones. Well, they sat down on
the grass, near a mossy old stump, and ate their lunch, until there wasn't
even so much as a crumb of a jam tart left. They had just gotten through
when, all of a sudden, they heard a big noise. It was like some one
stamping his feet down and breaking sticks.
The duck children were terribly frightened, for they thought maybe it was
an elephant or a rhinoceros coming along, but Jimmie peeked through the
bushes and whispered to his sisters:
"It's a big boy!"
"What's he doing?" asked Alice.
"I guess he's going fishing," said Lulu, "for he has a fish pole over his
shoulder."
And, sure enough, that boy was going fishing! He walked on a little
farther, stepping on sticks and breaking them, and then he sat down on the
edge of the little brook and began to fish. Then the duck children weren't
so much afraid, and they watched him.
Pretty soon the boy pulled up his line with a jerk, but there wasn't
anything on it. Then he said:
"Oh, dear! That was a big fish, but he got away."
"I'm glad it got away," whispered Alice, "for I don't like to see the poor
fish caught."
Then, in about two quacks and a waddle, the boy pulled up his pole again,
and this time he didn't have anything on the hook, either. So he said
again:
"Oh, dear me, and an angle worm! That's two big fish that have gotten
loose."
Then he threw in his line again, and the next time when he pulled it up
something came with it. Something wiggily, and black and yellow and
red-spotted with wrinkly legs and a long snaky neck and head.
"Ker-thump!" it landed on the bank and the boy ran up to it. "Why, I've
caught a mud turtle!" he cried.
"I am not!" the mud turtle called out, only he couldn't speak very
plainly, for the hook was in his mouth. "I'm a fairy prince, and you had
no right to catch me," he said.
Now, of course, the boy couldn't hear this, for he didn't understand the
language used by the fairy prince. But Alice heard him, and so did Lulu
and Jimmie.
"Oh, dear!" cried Alice. "That bad boy has caught the fairy prince! Let's
run out and make him let the prince go!"
"Oh, no!" answered Lulu, "the boy might catch us then."
"I know what let's do," whispered Jimmie. "We'll get in the bushes right
behind that boy, and quack and squawk as loud as we can: That will scare
him and make him run away. I don't believe the mud turtle is fairy prince,
but I don't want to see him hurt. Come on, girls. Now when I say: 'ready,'
quack real loud."
So the three duck children went softly up to a bush right behind where
that fisherman--I mean fisherboy--was sitting.
All this while the fairy prince was talking to the boy, and asking to be
let go, for the hook hurt him. The boy finally did take the hook out, not
hurting the mud-turtle any more than he could help, for he was not a bad
boy.
Then, in an instant, or maybe in an instant and a half, Jimmie cried,
"Ready!" and he and his sisters quacked as loudly as possible, or even
louder. The boy was just going to put the mud turtle into the basket, but
when he heard the quacking, coming right out of the bushes behind him, he
was so frightened that he dropped the fairy prince on the ground.
And the fairy prince crawled off as fast as he could, let me tell you.
Then the boy saw that it was the duck children who had frightened him, and
he laughed; but they didn't care, not a bit.
Then the boy said: "Oh, I guess there is no good fishing here. I'm going
to try a new place," so he walked away.
Then Alice went right up to the mud turtle and said: "O fairy prince, art
thou much hurt?"
"I am hurt considerable," said the mud turtle. "I am hurt in two ways. My
mouth hurts where the hook went in, and my feelings are hurt because the
boy didn't believe I was a fairy prince."
"Well, if you are a fairy prince," asked Jimmie, "why didn't you turn him
into an elephant or a lion and scare him, or why didn't you change him
into a bug or a mosquito, so he could fly away? Why didn't you do that,
eh?"
"There are several reasons," replied the mud turtle.
"Oh, wilt thou tell them to us?" asked Alice, romantically.
"Not now," replied the fairy prince, "but I will later. Return here
to-morrow and I will tell you," and he stretched first one wrinkly leg,
and then the other, and went to sleep.
"We will return," said Alice, and then the duck children hurried home, and
to-morrow night you shall hear about a magic trick and why the fairy
prince didn't turn that boy into an elephant or a lion. That is, if the
Thanksgiving turkey doesn't go to a football game.
STORY XVIII
THE FAIRY PRINCE DOES A MAGIC TRICK
One day, after they had been out roller skating, Lulu and Alice and Jimmie
Wibblewobble suddenly remembered that it was time they went back to the
woods to meet the fairy prince, who was to tell them why he didn't turn
that fisher-boy into a lion or an elephant. So they took off their skates
and hurried to the place, and by and by, after awhile, not so very long,
they got there. Then they stopped and looked around.
"Hu!" exclaimed Jimmie. "He isn't here. I _thought_ he was fooling us."
"Hush!" begged Alice. "He may be only hiding to test us, to see if we
really believe in him. He may appear any moment in a big balloon or on the
back of a great bird."
"Somebody's coming now," said Lulu, suddenly, for she heard a rustling in
the bushes. They all turned around, and whom do you think they saw coming
right out of the woods? Why, Uncle Wiggily Longears! The old gentleman
rabbit was limping along, making his nose go up and down and sideways at
the same time, the way you have seen all the bunnies do, you know.
"Ha! Ha!" he exclaimed. "What have we here? Why, I do declare! If it isn't
Jimmie Wibblewobble and his sisters! What are you doing here, little
ones?"
"We came here to meet the fairy prince," replied Jimmie. "He was going to
tell us about why he didn't change a boy into an elephant. But he isn't
here."
"Who--the fairy prince, the boy or the elephant?" asked Uncle Wiggily,
gently rubbing a horse chestnut on his left hind leg, that had the worst
rheumatism in it.
"Neither one," said Alice, "but the fairy prince is sure to come."
"Stuff and nonsense. Nonsense and stuff, also snuff and red pepper!" cried
Uncle Wiggily. "Fairy prince indeed! There's no such thing!"
"Oh, yes, there is!" said Alice. "Pray do not speak so loudly. He might
hear you."
"Thank you, my dear, for trusting in me!" exclaimed a voice suddenly, and
honestly, you may not believe me, but if there wasn't that mud turtle!
Yes, sir, as true as I'm telling you, he appeared right from behind a
bush!
"Thank you, my dear, for believing me," said the fairy prince to Alice
again. "As for this--ahem!--this person!" and the mud turtle looked very
severely at Uncle Wiggily, very severely indeed, "as for this person, I
will soon show him! Oh, my, yes! and a tortoiseshell comb in addition," he
said; and then the turtle stuck out its long neck, straight at the old
rabbit, until Uncle Wiggily thought it was a snake.
"Fairy prince, we salute thee!" exclaimed Alice, making a low bow.
"Good, very good," remarked the mud turtle. "I believe I promised you I
would tell you why I did not change the boy, who caught me, into something
strange, say an elephant or a lion."
"Yes," replied Jimmie, "you did promise us. Go ahead, please."
"That's not the way to talk to a fairy prince," objected Alice. "You
should speak more politely."
"Never mind him, he doesn't know any better," went on the mud turtle. "I
will now give you my reasons. In the first place I did not want to scare
that boy after the way you frightened him. He had been punished enough, I
thought. Besides, if I had turned him into a lion or an elephant he would
have run through the woods, scaring every one he met, and that would not
have been right. And the reason I didn't change him into a bug or a
mosquito was because he might fly away, and then, when the magic spell
had passed off, and he was changed back into a boy again, the
transformation might have happened in the air, and he would fall right
down on somebody's head, and that would never do, never, never, not in a
year and a half. So I concluded not to do anything to him."
"I don't believe you could have changed him into anything at all," said
Uncle Wiggily, quite boldly. "I don't even believe you are a fairy
prince."
"There it goes again!" cried the mud turtle, and he wept big tears that
made a little puddle of water. "Very few persons do believe in me. But I
assure you I am a fairy prince," he added, "and, what's more, all I would
have had to say to that boy was 'Oskaluluhinniumhaddy,' and he would have
been turned into anything I liked. But I see you still do not believe
me--that is, all but Alice. So I will just do a magic trick for you.
Return here in an hour, and in this very spot you shall find a round
stone. Take a rock and break open the stone and you will see what
happens."
So the Wibblewobble children and Uncle Wiggily went away, wondering what
was going to happen. They came back in an hour, and, sure enough, right
where the mud turtle had been standing was a large, round stone.
"Wonderful!" cried Alice.
"Let's see what's inside," suggested Jimmie.
So he and Uncle Wiggily took up a rock, and hit that stone once, and they
hit it twice, and they hit it three times, and, at the third blow, if that
stone didn't break open, and out stepped the mud turtle fairy prince! He
was right inside that stone! Now, wasn't that a magic trick? I think so,
anyhow.
"Oh, tell us how you did it!" begged Lulu.
"It was very simple, very simple," said the turtle, as he flicked a bit of
mud off his nose. "You see, I just rolled myself up in some soft clay, and
then made it round like a stone. Then I stayed in the sun until it was
baked as hard as a rock, and then I rolled along here to wait for you.
Very simple, indeed. But, now, do you believe I am a fairy prince?" And
they all declared they did, even Uncle Wiggily, and Alice said three
times: "We salute thee, fairy prince." Oh, it was as good as a play!
Well, now, let's see about to-morrow night. How about a story of the rat
who took the eggs? Do you think you would like that? Very well, then, you
shall hear it, providing my golden slipper doesn't fall off.
STORY XIX
THE RATS WHO TOOK THE EGGS
Nothing had happened at the Wibblewobble house in several days, and Jimmie
and Lulu and Alice were beginning to feel that it was about time they went
off on another picnic, or else tried to find the fairy prince again. But,
one day, just as Jimmie was looking for his baseball and his catching
glove, his mamma came out of the pantry, where she had gone to get some
dishes to set the table.
"Did any of you children take my eggs?" she asked, and she looked very
severely at them.
"What? Are the eggs gone?" asked Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat.
"Yes," said Mamma Wibblewobble, "there were just thirteen eggs, and now
there are only ten. Three have been taken, and I hope Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie didn't touch them."
"Oh, no indeed, mamma," spoke Alice very quickly, as she finished tying a
sky-blue-pink ribbon around her neck. "I never touched them."
"Neither did I," added Lulu.
"Nor me," said Jimmie. "I don't like eggs anyhow."
"I was saving them to hatch more little ducklings out of," went on Mamma
Wibblewobble, in sorrowful tones. "Now I shall have to wait. Oh, it's such
a disappointment to me!"
"Maybe they fell off the shelf," suggested Jimmie.
"No," replied his mother. "If they had fallen from the shelf out of the
basket, where I had them, the eggs would have broken, and made a mark on
the floor," and, of course, you know they would, for when an egg breaks on
the floor it makes a splish and a splash and a big yellow and white spot
that you can't help but see; now, doesn't it? So Mamma Wibblewobble knew
the eggs couldn't have fallen.
"Well," remarked Aunt Lettie, "it's very strange. Perhaps they have been
stolen. You should notify the police."
"Or tell Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster," added Jimmie. "He would crow
over it; and if we offered a reward, maybe we would get the eggs back."
"Well, I'm glad you children didn't take them, at all events," said their
mother. "Run along and play now. Aunt Lettie has made some molasses
cookies, with corn meal and raisins on top, and you may have some of
them."
So Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went out to play, but all the while they were
thinking of the missing eggs. It was very strange. Their mamma and Aunt
Lettie hunted all over the duck pen for them, but the eggs couldn't be
found, any more than you can find a penny after you drop it down a crack
in the board walk.
Well, when Papa Wibblewobble came home, he was told about the three
missing eggs. He was much surprised, but he said at once:
"Why, a burglar has taken them; that's what! I remember now I heard a
suspicious noise last night. It was some one sneezing. That was the
burglar taking the eggs. I thought of getting up and going down to catch
him, but I was too sleepy, so I stayed in bed."
"No, it wasn't a burglar who sneezed," said Aunt Lettie. "It was I. I left
my window open, and I caught a little cold."
"Then who did sneeze and take the eggs?" asked Papa Wibblewobble.
But no one could tell him, and it was more mysterious and wonderful than
ever, yes indeed. Not a trace of those eggs could be found, and Mamma
Wibblewobble felt terribly.
[Illustration]
Well, that night Jimmie thought of a plan. He decided he would catch
the bad burglar, or whoever it was that had taken the eggs, for the little
boy duck thought if they took three eggs they would come back for more.
"I'm going to hide in the pantry to-night," he said to Lulu and Alice,
"and when the burglar comes I'm going to grab him."
"Won't you be afraid?" asked Alice, shivering.
"Afraid? Humph! I guess not," replied her brother.
So that night, after every one had gone to bed, and it was all still and
quiet in the house, and Aunt Lettie was snoring the least little bit,
Jimmie crawled softly out of bed. Oh, so softly, and went and hid in the
pantry.
It was dark, so he took a candle and was all ready to light it whenever he
heard a sound. Well, he had to wait quite some time, and it was getting
pretty lonesome, and he was beginning to feel sleepy when, all of a
sudden, he heard a noise! Then he heard another noise, and then a
scratching and a squeaking. Then he lighted the candle as quickly as he
could, and what do you suppose he saw?
Why, two great big rats, no relation to good, kind Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy,
the muskrat, oh, not at all, but two other bad rats!
Well, as true as I'm telling you, if one rat didn't climb up on the
shelf, where the duck eggs were in the basket, and take one up in his
paws; and then what do you suppose he did? Why, he went to the edge of the
shelf and dropped the egg to the rat on the floor below.
Then the rat on the floor caught it and lay down on his back, and hugged
the egg in his four paws, and the rat on the shelf ran down and got hold
of the tail of the rat that had the egg and began pulling him along the
floor, just as if he were a little wagon or sled with an egg on it. All
this Jimmie saw, and he cried out:
"Oh, you bad rats, you, to steal my mamma's eggs!"
Well, you should have seen how frightened those rats were at that! One
dropped the egg out of his paws and ran away, and the other followed. Oh,
but they were frightened, though! and wasn't Jimmie brave to hide in the
pantry and discover them? So that's how the first three eggs were taken,
but no more were, for Papa Wibblewobble stopped up the rat hole.
And that's the end of this story. The one to-morrow night will be about
how Jimmie tried to stand on his head, that is, if the pussy cat doesn't
go to sleep in the milk bottle.
STORY XX
HOW JIMMIE STOOD ON HIS HEAD
Jimmie Wibblewobble was quite a hero after he had found out about the rats
taking the eggs, and every time he walked in the chicken yard the old
rooster would crow and say:
"There goes Jimmie, the boy who scared the rats."
But do you s'pose Jimmie was proud? Not a bit of it. He was just as nice
as ever, and Lulu and Alice thought a lot of him, let me tell you.
Well, one day, Bully, the frog, came over to play with Jimmie. They tossed
a baseball around, Bully catching it in his mouth. All of a sudden the
frog boy cried out:
"Oh, my, I'm so warm, I think I'll jump in the pond and cool off." So he
jumped into the pond just as easily as butter melts on a hot stove, and
when he came up he felt better. Then he said to Jimmie:
"Why don't you dive down under the water the way I do? It's lots of fun."
"I would," answered Jimmie, "only I can't stay under water as you do. I
have to float on top. I can put my head under, to dig in the mud for
snails and sweet, spicy weeds, but I can't get my whole body under."
"I know how you could do it," went on Bully.
"How?" asked Jimmie, and he wobbled his tail so fast you could hardly see
it move.
"Tie a stone around your neck," went on Bully. That will make you sink
under water, and you can then dive as good as I can. Come on, we'll have
some fun."
"Oh, don't you do it, Jimmie!" cried Lulu, who came along just then with
Alice. "Maybe you can't get the stone loose, and you'll be drowned!"
"Oh, I guess not," answered Jimmie. "I can stay under water a long time. I
want to see how it feels to dive in--ker plunk!--like a frog."
"I'm going to tell mamma," cried Alice.
"Tattle-tale! Tattle-tale!" called Jimmie. "I never tell on you!"
"Well, then, I won't tell," said Alice, "but Lulu and I will stay close
by, so if you can't get the stone off we can help you."
"Well, that's kind of you," spoke her brother, "but I'll be all right. You
will see me stand on my head, just like Bully does, and dive under the
water."
So he got a stone and a piece of long grass for a string, and Bully tied
the stone around Jimmie's neck. Now, this was a very risky thing to do,
but, you see, Jimmie didn't know any better. Neither did Bully. But you
just wait and see what happens. I'm coming to it very shortly now.
Pretty soon the stone was tied on good and tight, and then Jimmie and
Bully stood on the edge of the pond.
"Are you all ready?" asked Bully.
"Yep," replied Jimmie, and he stretched out his neck, for it felt funny to
have a stone tied around it. Oh, how foolish some ducks are; now, aren't
they, honestly?
"All ready," went on Bully. "One for the money, two for a show, three to
make ready and FOUR to go!" and he yelled the "FOUR" real loudly.