ker-thump! Oh what a lot of water they scattered about, wetting Lulu and
Alice, but the girl ducks didn't mind it. Of course, Bully went right to
the bottom, and so did Jimmie, too. His head went right down in the mud,
the way Lulu's did that terrible day I told you about once. And poor
Jimmie's yellow feet were right up in the air, and that's where a duck's
feet ought never to be. Oh my, no! and some shingle nails besides.
Well, Jimmie tried to swim along under water, as he saw Bully doing, but
he couldn't. No, sir, not the least bit. You see the stone was too heavy,
and it held him down. Besides, his feet were out of the water, and as a
duck has to have his feet in water to swim with, of course, Jimmie
couldn't move along at all.
There he was, held down under water, and all the while his breath was
getting shorter and shorter, and he kept feeling worse and worse, and he
wished he had taken Lulu's advice and not tried to stand on his head and
dive.
Well, naturally, when Jimmie didn't come up in some time, Lulu and Alice
got worried. Bully popped up, after swimming across the pond under water
and out of sight, and they asked him what had become of Jimmie.
"I'll go look," he said, and when he dived down, and came back, he was
pale green instead of dark green as he usually was. You see he turned pale
green because he was so frightened.
"Oh, dear!" cried Bully. "Jimmie is held fast down there by the stone on
his neck, and can't get up."
"Can't you bite the stone loose?" asked Alice. Then Bully tried, but he
couldn't, and Lulu and Alice tried, but they couldn't. And there wasn't
any one else around to help, and it began to look pretty bad for poor
Jimmie.
And then, just as he surely thought he would never see his papa, and
mamma, and sisters, and Aunt Lettie again, who should come walking along
the bottom of the pond but the mud turtle fairy prince. He saw right away
what the matter was, and it didn't take him a second, with his sharp jaws,
to bite through the grass that held, the stone around Jimmie's neck, and
up popped the little boy duck!
His life had been saved just in time, let me tell you! And oh, how
thankful Alice and Lulu were, to say nothing of Jimmie; and how they
thanked the fairy prince.
"Maybe you will believe that I am a fairy now," said the mud turtle to
Jimmie, and Jimmie said he would. He also said he would never stand on his
head again, with a stone tied around his neck, and I'm glad to say he
never did. Now, in case I should see a sky-blue-pink-green rose in blossom
to-morrow I'll tell you a story about Lulu, and how Aunt Lettie did her a
great favor.
STORY XXI
LULU AND AUNT LETTIE
Lulu Wibblewobble was walking in the deep, dark woods, and, what is more,
she was all alone. Yes, and she wasn't afraid. You see, Jimmie had gone
off with the boys in the lots back of the duck pond to play ball, and
Alice had gone shopping with her mamma. Lulu could have gone, too, only
felt she would rather go walking in the woods, so she went.
At first it was very pleasant with the birds singing in the trees, and the
wind blowing through the leaves, and making music, and Lulu liked it very
much. She found some fine eel grass in a little brook, and she was eating
the green stems, and thinking how nice it was, when all at once she heard
a funny noise. It was just like when a great, big door swings on rusty
hinges.
Lulu stopped eating eel grass at once, and she called right out loud:
"My goodness! What's that?"
Then it was all still, and quiet; as quiet, you know, as when a little
mouse walks along, and doesn't want any one to hear him, going after the
crackers and cheese, and maybe the jam tarts, too; who knows? Well, it was
just as still and quiet as it could be, when all of a sudden the noise
came again.
"Oh, dear!" cried Lulu. "I believe I'm going to be frightened. I wish
Jimmie was here!"
But Jimmie, the brave boy duck, was a long way off, playing ball with
Bully, the frog, and his other friends, though he would have come at once
to help his sister if he had known what a dreadful thing was almost going
to happen to her.
Well, as I said, the noise sounded again, and then, when Lulu looked right
at a tree, what should she see but something big and bushy, waving in the
wind.
"Oh, maybe it's Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and perhaps Sister Sallie is
with them!" she said, aloud, and she didn't feel quite so frightened. Then
that terrible noise came again, and the bushy thing got bigger, and Lulu
saw that it was the tail of a great, big black dog. Oh, such a big black
dog as it was! And he was growling, and that's what made the sound like a
big door creaking on big, rusty hinges.
The dog came out from behind the tree, and he stared right in the face of
Lulu, as bold as bold could be.
"Who are you?" growled the dog.
"If--if you please, kind sir, I'm Lulu," she answered.
"Bur-r-r-r!" growled the dog. "I'm not a kind Sir at all. I'm a bad dog!
Bur-r-r-r! Bur-r-r-r! What's your last name? Bur-r-r-r!"
"My last name is Wibblewobble, Bad Dog," she replied.
"Bur-r-r-r! What are you calling me names for?" he asked, and he showed
his teeth something frightful, yes, indeed! Now cuddle up close to me if
you want to, and you won't be a bit afraid, because, in a few minutes Lulu
is going to be saved in a wonderful way. Just you wait and see.
"Why do you call me names?" asked the dog again.
"I--I--If you please," said Lulu, "I thought you said your name was Bad
Dog, sir."
"Bur-r-r-r!" cried the dog. "I didn't at all. No matter what my name is. I
am a bad dog, however, and I'm proud of it!" Oh, wasn't he the bold, ugly
dog, though? Then he looked at Lulu some more, and growled even louder,
and he asked her:
"What are you, a chicken or a turkey?"
"Neither," replied Lulu, "I'm a duck, if you please."
"Ha!" exclaimed the bad dog. "A duck! The very idea! Of all things I love
ducks! I just dote on 'em! I love 'em just like you love jam tarts, I
expect. But why aren't you larger, Lulu? I like big ducks."
"Oh!" cried the little duck girl, "are you going to eat me up?"
"Yes," replied the dog, "I am."
"Then," went on Lulu, very bravely, for she was trying to think of a way
to get out of the deep, dark woods, "if you will wait a year or two, I
will be larger."
"No," said the dog. "I can't wait. I'm in a hurry. I must have you now."
Then he growled some more, and rushed right at Lulu, and I suppose he
would have eaten her up, feathers and all, only for what happened.
Now, what do you suppose prevented him? Why, just as he was about to grab
the little duck girl there was a crashing and a smashing in the bushes and
who should appear but dear Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat! As soon as she
laid eyes on that dog she knew what he was going to do, and without
speaking a word, she rushed right at him and lowered her horns.
Now, it's a good thing for that dog that the sharp ends of Aunt Lettie's
horns had been sawed off. So, you see, when she stuck them in that dog's
ribs, they only tickled him and he had to laugh, instead of sticking right
through him. Oh, how hard he laughed! But he didn't want to, not a bit.
Then Aunt Lettie just lowered her head, and then she raised it up, and
over her back that bad dog went, right up in the air, and he was tossed in
some briars and brambles that scratched him well.
But he wasn't satisfied yet, and he rushed back at Lulu, but Aunt Lettie
tickled him in the ribs again, and he laughed: "Ha! Ho!" though he didn't
want to at all, and over into the briars and brambles he was tossed once
more.
Then he had had enough, and he ran off, howling instead of laughing, and
that's the way it was that Aunt Lettie saved Lulu. You see the old lady
goat happened to be walking in the woods, when she heard the dog growl and
she ran up just in time. Then she went home with Lulu, and Jimmie said if
he ever saw that dog he would throw a stone at him, and I wouldn't blame
him, would you?
Now to-morrow night I think the story is going to be about how Alice cut
her foot, and what happened after it. But I can't tell it unless I happen
to see a grasshopper standing on his head and eating jam tarts.
STORY XXII
HOW ALICE CUT HER FOOT
Did you ever go barefooted in the summer time? I suppose you have, and I
don't blame you a bit, especially on hot days, or when you are at Asbury
Park or Ocean Grove. Now, to go barefooted, you know, you have to take off
your shoes and stockings, and that's quite a bother at times.
Well, Alice Wibblewobble didn't have to do this when she wanted to go
barefooted, for, you know, she never wore shoes and stockings in summer.
You see it would be too much trouble to take them off every time she went
in swimming with Lulu and Jimmie, so that's why it was arranged that she
never had to wear any.
Now it happened one day, oh, I guess it must have been about a week and a
minute after Lulu had been frightened by that big dog, that Alice was
going to the store for her mother. The store was kept by Mr. Drake, who
had a little round door knob on the top of his head, so his hat wouldn't
blow off in windy weather.
"Bring me a pound of butter and some cornmeal, Alice," her mother had said
to her, "and be sure the cornmeal is fresh. I am going to fry some for
your father's supper."
So Alice said she would be sure about it, and she started off.
"Want me to come, Alice?" asked Lulu.
"No, dear," replied her sister. "I think it is too hot for you to-day.
I'll soon be back again."
"Better take Jimmie," went on Lulu. "You may meet the bad dog or an ugly
fox."
"No," spoke Alice again, "I think I'll go alone. Besides, Jimmie is off
with Sammie Littletail, playing leapfrog. I'll go alone."
So off she went. Now I'm going to tell you why she wanted to go alone, but
don't whisper it to any one. You see, Alice thought maybe she might meet
the fairy prince, for she still hoped that some day he would change into a
king with a golden diamond crown on his head.
But, as she walked on toward Mr. Drake's store she saw nothing of the
fairy prince, though she kept a sharp lookout. Well, she got the pound of
butter and the cornmeal, and to make sure it was fresh she ate a little,
for that's the surest way to tell. Then she started for home, with the
butter under one wing and the cornmeal under the other.
Well, all of a sudden, just as she got past the weeping willow tree, if
she didn't step on a sharp stone and cut her foot, because, you see, she
had no shoes on, and the stone was very, very sharp, almost as sharp as an
exclamation point; yes, indeed! There, I had the printer put one in (!) so
you could see how very sharp it is. Always be careful of exclamation
points, children.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Alice, as she felt the sharp stone go in her foot, and
she had to sink down to the ground, it hurt her so. Then the cornmeal fell
from under her wing and the bag burst and it spilled all over. Then the
butter fell from under the other wing, but that didn't get hurt any. It
only got some dents in it, and you know that doesn't matter, for butter.
"Oh, dear! Whatever shall I do?" cried Alice again. "I--I can't walk on my
sore foot, and I can't carry the cornmeal and the butter! Oh, dear! Oh,
dear! My foot's bleeding, too!" and, sure enough it was. Poor Alice! How
sorry I feel for her.
"Ah, if only the fairy prince would appear now," she went on. "He would
cause a golden chariot to take me home!"
You see, Alice hadn't gotten over being romantic, even if she had cut her
foot. Oh, my, no, and a diamond earring besides!
Well, as true as I'm telling you, no sooner had she made that wish about
the fairy prince than a voice called out:
"Who is crying? Does any one need help?"
"Yes," replied Alice, "I do. I've cut my foot, and I've dented the butter
in several places, but that doesn't matter much, and I've spilled the
cornmeal."
"Oh, what a lot of troubles for one poor little duck girl!" cried the
voice again. "Perhaps, I can help you," and who should come along but
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit. "Let us see what's
the trouble," he went on, and he put his strongest spectacles over his
nose and he looked at the cut in Alice's foot. Then he cried:
"Oh, I should say that was a cut! Oh, my, yes! No doubt about it whatever!
But there, don't cry," he added, for he saw some tears running down
Alice's yellow bill. "I'll fix it for you."
So he got some nice, soft leaves, and he tied them on her sore foot with
some stout grass. Then she felt better, but she couldn't walk, and she
didn't know how she was ever going to get home. So she asked Uncle
Wiggily.
"Why, the easiest thing in the world!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "All I have to
do is to say a little verse, and I'll think of a way." So he said this
little verse:
"Wiggily, waggily, woggily wome,
How shall I get Alice home?
She has hurt herself quite much
And she'll have to use my crutch."
Of course, Uncle Wiggily knew that wasn't a very good verse, but it was
the best he could do.
"You shall use my cornstalk crutch, that Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy made for
me," he went on. "It will be just the thing."
"Won't you need it?" asked Alice, very politely.
"No," said Uncle Wiggily. "My rheumatism is much better to-day. You may
have it," and he fitted it under Alice's wing, and she could walk pretty
well, not having to use her sore foot.
Then that kind old rabbit scraped up all the cornmeal, and he put some in
his big left ear and some in his big right ear, because the bag was
broken, and he carried the dented butter, which wasn't hurt the least
mite.
Then they started for the duck pen and they reached it safely, Alice
limping along as well as she could. And Uncle Wiggily told Mamma
Wibblewobble about the accident, after he had emptied his left ear and
his right ear of the cornmeal and had handed over the dented butter. Dr.
Possum was called in to put some salve on Alice's foot, and she was soon
better.
Now that's all to-night, but, if the moving man doesn't take my typewriter
away, I shall tell you to-morrow night about Jimmie in a tall tree.
STORY XXIII
JIMMIE IN A TALL TREE
It had rained in the morning, and of course the grounds were too slippery
and wet to play ball. That is, they were for Sammie Littletail and Billie
and Johnnie Bushytail, but naturally Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck,
and Bully, the boy frog, would not have minded the wet the least bit. But
there wasn't any ball game, and so Jimmie was playing all alone in the
woods back of his house, and wishing it hadn't rained.
"Oh! I wish some of the boys would come over," he said. "We could do
something, even if it is wet. I'm lonesome."
Just then he heard a voice singing in the woods, and he heard the branches
of the trees moving about, and bits of bark falling off. And this is the
song he heard: you have to sing it quite slowly to get the full effect:
"Oh! it is such fun if you see the sun
When the rain has gone away.
If you'll come with me you may climb a tree,
And in the top we'll play.
"Oh! the winds may blow and the cows may crow,
But what care we for that?
As you scamper high, near the bright, blue sky,
Look out, or you'll lose your hat."
And with that who should come scampering out of a tree but Billie and
Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers. No, Sister Sallie wasn't with
them this time, having stayed at home to wheel her corncob doll in the
carriage her brothers had made for her.
"Hello!" cried Billie and Johnnie. "Hello, Jimmie!"
"Aw, why didn't you chaps come over to play ball?" asked the little boy
duck.
"Oh! it was too wet," replied Johnnie. "But say, Jimmie, did you hear us
singing?"
"Sure," answered Jimmie. "But say; cows don't crow!"
"I know it," replied Johnnie. "Billie made up that verse, and I made the
first one. He said he had to have something like that in it or it wouldn't
be right. But no matter. Did you like it?"
"Yes, pretty well."
"Shall we sing it again?" asked Johnnie.
"No, don't!" begged his brother. "He's been singing it all the morning,
and I'm getting tired of it, even if I did make up one verse," he
explained. "But say, Jimmie, don't you wish you could climb a tall tree,
like this?" and before you could say Salimagundy or maybe
incomprehensibility or even disproportionability, why Billie had run to
the top of the tree and down again. "Don't you wish you could?" he asked
again.
"Yes," answered Jimmie, looking up, "I wish I could climb a tree, but I
guess ducks weren't made for that. I once tried to fly, and I didn't
succeed very well. I'll stay on the ground, I think. Come on, let's have a
catch. I've got a ball."
"No," spoke Johnnie, "I have an idea. Billie, why can't you and I teach
Jimmie to climb a tree? If we pick out one with branches close together
I'm sure he could get up it. We can help him, and he can take hold of some
limbs in his bill, like a parrot takes hold of the wires in his cage."
"Fine!" cried Billie. "Will you do it, Jimmie?"
"Sure," answered the little boy duck, but he didn't know what was going to
happen, or, maybe, he wouldn't have tried to climb up. Well, the
squirrels selected quite a tall tree, but rather an easy one, and Jimmie
managed to scramble up to the first low limbs, with Billie and Johnnie
boosting him.
After that it wasn't quite so hard, and he was able to get up quite a
distance, pulling himself with his yellow bill. He was not very graceful,
and I'm sure if you ever saw a duck climb a tree you would agree with me,
but finally, after a great deal of hard work, Jimmie was right on the top
branch where the two squirrels sat blinking their eyes.
"How do you like it?" asked Johnnie.
"Fine!" cried Jimmie. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Now when a duck says "quack"
three times, you may know he is very much pleased indeed. Oh, what a fine
view Jimmie had, but he didn't dare frisk around as Billie and Johnnie
did, for he was a trifle dizzy. Then, after he had been up there some
time, he thought he had better go down, for the wind was blowing the
treetop, and he wasn't used to it. So, after Billie and Johnnie had sung
their song again, Jimmie started for the ground.
Well, you know how it is yourself, if you have ever climbed a tree. It's
easy to go up, but it's hard to get down. The limb for your feet is never
where you think it is. Poor Jimmie tried, and Billie and Johnnie helped
him, but he didn't dare turn around to go down, backward, and that's the
only way you can get down a tree, unless you're a squirrel.
Then Jimmie began to get frightened. He knew it was time for him to go
home, but it began getting darker and darker and darker, and there he was
right in the top of the tree, as far away from the ground as ever. He
tried once more, but he didn't dare let go of one branch with his bill,
while he put his foot down on another limb below, and there he was. Oh,
what an unpleasant situation to be in, to say the least!
"Oh, I'll never get down!" cried Jimmie. "I wish I'd stayed on the
ground!"
Billie and Johnnie began to get frightened, too, for it was partly their
fault, and they were just going off for some kind of help, though what
kind they didn't know, when they heard a noise.
It was a swishing, swooping, swoshing noise, and who should fly down out
of the sky but that good, kind fishhawk, who once carried Billie and
Johnnie on his big back to Lincoln Park. As soon as the squirrels saw him
they cried out:
"Oh, please help Jimmie Wibblewobble down! He's in a tall tree and can't
reach the ground."
"Why, of course, to be sure," replied the kind fishhawk, and he alighted
in the tree, and Jimmie got upon his strong, broad back, and the fishhawk
flew gently to the earth, and that's how Jimmie got down. And maybe he
wasn't glad of it! I know I am, anyhow.
Now, listen: the moving man didn't get my typewriter, after all, so if we
have cocoanut-chocolate-mustard-apple-pie cake for supper, I can tell you
a story to-morrow night, and it will be about the party Alice and Lulu
had, and what happened at it. Something wonderful, too, let, me tell you.
STORY XXIV
THE WIBBLEWOBBLES' PARTY
There was great excitement in the duck pen. And the reason for it was that
Lulu and Alice were going to have a party. It was the first party they had
ever had, and it was on their birthday. You see, it was this way: Lulu and
Alice both had the same birthday; that is, they, were twins. Jimmie was a
day older than they were, and he wasn't a twin. There, now I've explained
it all to you, and I'll get on with the story.
Well, Mamma Wibblewobble arranged for the party. She did all the baking
and got the ice cream ready and made the pies and tarts, and Alice and
Lulu sent out the invitations. They were written on nice little pieces of
white birch bark that Johnnie and Billie Bushytail gnawed off the trees
for the little duck girls.
Of course, Johnnie and Billie were invited, and so was Sammie Littletail,
and Susie and Sister Sallie, and Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail, and Mr. and Mrs.
Littletail, and Uncle Wiggily Longears, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and
Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and Bully, the frog, and the goldfish, and, let
me see, who else? Oh, of course, the fairy prince. Alice would not have
had him left out for anything.
Alice and Lulu had their best hair ribbons on and their new dresses, and
were all dressed up for the party nearly an hour before it was time.
Jimmie got ready, too. That is, he put on a clean collar and a new, red
necktie, and he looked very nice. But he really didn't care much about the
party. He said he and the boys would go off by themselves and talk about
baseball.
"No," said his mother, "you must not do that. I want you and the boys to
entertain the little girls. Be nice, now, Jimmie."
So Jimmie said he would, and pretty soon the company began to come. Bully,
the frog, hopped along first, and right after him came Grandfather
Goosey-Gander, and, would you believe me, he never said a word about
Jimmie breaking his window that time.
"We are very glad to see you," said Alice and Lulu, as they stood at the
front door to receive their friends. Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat,
was also there, and as the guests came up, she called out:
"Now, girls, walk right in the bedroom and put your things on the bed.
You boys take your things in Jimmie's room." Oh, it was a real party, let
me tell you.
Uncle Wiggily was the last to arrive, and you know why that was. It was
because his rheumatism hurt him so. But he finally got there, and then the
party was complete; that is, all but the fairy prince, and even the
goldfish didn't know what had become of him.
First the boys all stayed on one side of the room and the girls on the
other, but when Alice said, "Let's play spin the platter," they all cried
out, "Oh, yes, let's do it." And they used one of Mamma Wibblewobble's
dishes for the platter, and didn't break it a bit. Jimmie was "it" part of
the time, and so was Johnnie Bushytail.
"Now let's play going to Jerusalem," proposed Lulu, and they did,
Grandfather Goosey-Gander whistling through his bill, just like a fife, to
make the music. Then they played blind-duck-bluff, and post-office and
clap-in clap-out, and forfeits and, oh, such lots of games that I can
hardly remember them. Oh, yes, there was one more, puss in the corner, and
whom do you suppose was the puss? Why the little kittie; Lulu's little
kittie, you know, that Aunt Lettie thought had come from the
pussy-willows.
"When are we going to eat?" asked Bushytail, after a while, and he spoke
out loud.
"Hush!" cried Sister Sallie. "You mustn't ask that, Billie; it isn't
polite!"
"Well, I wanted to know," said the little boy squirrel.
"Bless your heart!" exclaimed Aunt Lettie. "Of course you do. It must be
time to serve the refreshments. I'll go ask Mrs. Wibblewobble."
"I don't want refreshments," objected Billie, in a whisper to Sister
Sallie. "I'm hungry, and I want something to eat!"
"Hush!" cried his little sister again. "Refreshments are good things to
eat!"
"Oh," said Billie, and just then in came Mamma Wibblewobble and Aunt
Lettie and Mrs. Bushytail and Mrs. Littletail and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy,
all of whom helped serve the good things to eat.
Oh, what a lot of refreshments there were, including maple sugar,
hickorynut ice cream and chocolate-covered carrots, and cornmeal made into
little balls with cocoanut marshmallow on the outside, and candied cabbage
leaves, and water-cress flavored with spearmint, and the land knows what!
Well, those children at Alice's and Lulu's party ate so much it's a wonder
that they ever got home. They had a lovely time, though Alice felt
disappointed because the fairy prince didn't come, and everyone wished
Alice and Lulu many happy returns, and Bully, the frog, said:
"When _you_ have a party, Jimmie, I'm coming to that, too."
"Sure," answered Jimmie. "I'll have one next week, if mamma will let me,"
for you see he found he liked parties better than he thought he would.