and then it was time to go home; and now comes the queer part of it. Just
as they were all saying good-night, and Uncle Wiggily was looking for his
crutch, there sounded out in the woods three blasts from a silver trumpet.
"Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!"
You know, just like when the procession starts in a circus, and who should
come riding up to the ducks' house but a little boy, all dressed in silver
and gold, with a long white plume in his hat and he was on a white horse.
Once more the trumpet sounded, and the boy called out:
"Am I too late for the party?"
"Yes, you are," said Uncle Wiggily, leaning on his crutch, which he found
behind the door. "But who are you?"
[Illustration]
"Me? I am the fairy prince!" cried the boy, and the trumpets blew again.
"What? Not the mud turtle fairy prince?" asked Alice, fanning herself, so
she wouldn't faint.
"The very same," answered the boy. "I got tired of being a mud turtle, but
I am still a fairy prince!"
"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "You are only a little boy
on a horse, and not a fairy prince at all!"
"Wait, and you shall see!" cried the boy, waving his hand, and the silver
trumpet blew again, "Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!" and the horse reared up on his
hind legs. "I certainly am the fairy prince, and to prove it I will do
something wonderful. Come to the woods to-morrow, Uncle Wiggily Longears,
and see!"
"What will I see?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"You will see a red fairy," answered the boy who used to be mud turtle,
"and the red fairy will do something wonderful for you."
"Oh!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "I don't believe in fairies!"
But, all the same, he had to, after what happened, for he went back to the
woods, and met a red fairy, and the red fairy stopped Uncle Wiggily's
rheumatism for a time, as you can find out by reading the first book of
this series, entitled "Sammie and Susie Littletail," which tells a lot
about two little rabbit children and their friends, as well as about Uncle
Wiggily Longears.
Now I've reached the end of this story, but there's another one for
to-morrow night, in case you don't hit anybody with your bean shooter, and
it's going to be about Lulu and the Golden fairy.
STORY XXV
LULU AND THE GOLDEN FAIRY
Once upon a time it was raining very hard one morning. It was just when
Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble were looking out of the window of
the duck pen, getting ready for school.
"Jimmie, is your hair combed?" asked his mamma.
"No, ma'am," he answered; "but I'm just going to comb it."
"And did you brush your teeth?"
"No, mamma, but I'm just going--"
"Now, now, Jimmie, that's what you always say. Hurry to the bathroom and
clean your teeth at once, or else there'll be a dentist coming to the
school looking into your mouth and goodness knows what will happen then.
Hurry, now, or you'll be late."
Jimmie cleaned his teeth quickly, and ran on to school so he wouldn't be
late and get a bad mark. What's that? You didn't know ducks had teeth?
Well, the next time you get a chance, when a duck opens his mouth real
wide, you look in, and maybe you'll see them. They're very small, I know,
but that doesn't count.
Well, Lulu and Alice ran on ahead, and Jimmie came following after. He
wasn't late at school because he met Bully the frog, who hopped, and so
Jimmie had to run to keep up. The little boy duck was the first one in the
classroom, and the teacher said:
"Why, Jimmie, this is a delightful surprise. You are not late this
morning, though you were every other day this week."
"Yes, ma'am," was all Jimmie said, as he took his seat.
Well, you should have seen it rain! Honestly, I don't know when it ever
rained so hard before; maybe not since the animals came out of the ark, or
the last time I wanted to go to a picnic. Some of the kindergarten
children got quite wet, because, you see, they were so little that they
couldn't hold their umbrellas up straight. And even some of the high
school girls got wet, too; but they didn't mind.
Jimmie and his sisters didn't need an umbrella, for, you know, water
always runs off a duck's back, and doesn't do a bit of harm. It rained
when the duck children got home from school, and it was still raining when
Mrs. Wibblewobble said:
"My dears, I don't like to ask you to go out in the storm again, but I do
wish you would run over to Grandfather Goosey-Gander's house. He is ill,
and I want to send him some hot watercress tea."
Now Alice didn't want to go because her foot, that she once had cut on a
stone, pained her. And Jimmie, well, no sooner had he gotten in the house,
and taken some bread and butter, with jam on it, than he had run out in
the rain again, to play with Bully, the frog. That left only Lulu to go to
Grandfather Goosey-Gander's house, but she said she didn't mind in the
least, and afterward she was very glad she went, for she saw a most
wonderful sight. Just you wait, and I'll tell you about it.
So Mrs. Wibblewobble put the hot tea in a tin pan, and covered it over
with a burdock leaf, to keep the rain out, and then she put some cold
potatoes in a dish, for she thought the old gentleman duck might like them
as well. Then Lulu started off through the woods to go to her
grandfather's house. It was still raining, but she didn't mind, and pretty
soon, oh, maybe in about ten quacks, she came to where Mr. Gander lived.
Well, you would have felt sorry for him if you could have seen him. There
he was, sitting on a stool, with his feet in a pail of hot water, and
seven bottles of medicine on a table at his right wing, and six bottles of
pills on a table at his left wing, and there was a blanket up around his
neck, and he had a nightcap on, and he was groaning something terrible;
yes, really he was.
"Oh, grandfather!" cried Lulu. "Are you very sick?"
"Yes," he replied, "I am very sick. I think I have the pip, or maybe the
epizoodic."
"Which is worse?" asked Lulu, as she set the hot tea and the cold potatoes
on the table.
"They are both worse," answered the old gentleman duck. "That is, they
seem so, when you have them both at once. But I think I would feel better
if I had a hot cornmeal poultice on the back of my neck. Only I can't make
it and put it there, for I can't take my feet out of the hot water, and I
don't know where the cornmeal is, and I'm home all alone, for my wife has
gone shopping."
"Oh, I'll make it for you," said Lulu very kindly. "I know where the
cornmeal is." So she went to get some, and, on the way to the meal box she
began to think:
"Wouldn't it be lovely if a blue fairy, or a green one or a purple one, or
even a skilligimink colored one would appear now? I would ask her to make
grandfather better. But I don't s'pose one will come, for I never have any
luck seeing fairies," and she sighed three times as she opened the
cornmeal box.
Then, all of a sudden, as she lifted the cover, as true as I'm telling
you, if she didn't see something all glittering and shining down in one
corner of the box. At first she thought it was the yellow meal, but then
she saw that it was a little creature, all gold, with shimmering wings,
like those of a humming bird.
"Oh!" cried Lulu, "are you a fairy?"
"Yes," replied the little creature, "I am the golden cornmeal fairy. I
have been shut up here for ever and ever so long, and I thought I would
never get out. But, since you have let me out, I will do anything in the
world for you," and she waved her golden wings, and sang a jolly, golden
song about diamonds.
"Will you?" cried Lulu. "Then please make my grandfather better, for he is
very sick and has to take thirteen kinds of medicine."
"I will make him well," said the fairy, as she flew out of the box, "and
it is very kind of you to ask that, instead of something for yourself.
Now, you make a nice hot poultice of this meal, which is magical, and put
it on the back of his neck.
"Then you say this fairy word: Bibbilybab-bilyboobily-bag,' and see what
happens. But don't tell your grandfather I am a fairy; in fact, say
nothing to any one about it, for we fairies are going away for a time, but
we may come back later." Then the golden fairy waved her wings and
disappeared.
But Lulu did just as she had been told, even to saying that magical word,
and, my gracious! if Grandfather Goosey-Gander didn't get all well in a
second, and he thanked Lulu very much. She felt sorry about the fairy
disappearing so suddenly, but you can't always have fairies, you know.
Now, if you girls don't lose your pink hair ribbon I'll tell you to-morrow
night about Jimmie and the black cow.
STORY XXVI
JIMMIE AND THE BLACK COW
Lulu Wibblewobble felt quite proud of having seen the golden fairy in the
corn meal box. In fact she was the only one of her family who saw a fairy
for ever and ever so long after that, because the fairies happened to go
away from that part of the country.
Of course, Lulu wondered how the tiny creature got into the meal box, and
she wondered if she might tell Alice and Jimmie about having seen her, but
she decided she had better not.
Now it was about a week after Lulu had taken Grandfather Goosey-Gander the
hot tea and the cold potatoes, that something happened to Jimmie
Wibblewobble.
It was one afternoon when he was on his way home from school, and he was
all alone, for he had been kept in for missing his spelling lesson, and
all the other children had gone on. You see he couldn't spell "vinegar."
Of course that's an easy word, I know, but Jimmie didn't like sour things,
and I suppose that's why he missed vinegar. He put the "x" and a "k" of
the word in the wrong places. Anyway he was kept in, and he had to write
"ketchup" on his paper fifty times.
Well, after he was let out Jimmie started off through the woods and over
the fields. Pretty soon, right after he was passing along a deep, dark,
dingly dell, which is a sort of little valley, with flowers and ferns
growing in it, he heard a bell ring. "Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!"
went the bell. At first Jimmie thought he was near a church, but just then
the bell rang differently.
This time it went: "Tinkle-tankle! Tinkle-tankle! Tinkle-tank--" just like
that.
"Why!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I wonder what that can be?"
Then he went on a little farther, and he came out of the deep, dark
dingle-dell, and he heard the bell more plainly still. This time it rang
very rapidly, and right after it Jimmie heard a loud voice calling: "Moo!
Moo! Moo! Help me, will you; will you?"
"Why!" cried Jimmie. "That's a cow!"
Then, in another moment he came from behind a big tree, and what should he
see but a big, black cow, standing in a swamp. The cow was shaking her
head and shaking her horns at the same time, and ringing the bell, which
was fastened around her neck by a strap, and she was mooing as hard as she
could moo.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Jimmie, wobbling up quite close to her.
"What ever is the matter?"
"Lots and lots is the matter," answered the cow. "But aren't you afraid of
me, little boy duck; afraid of me and my sharp horns?"
"Why no," answered Jimmie, after he had thought it over for a minute or
two. "I don't believe I am afraid of you. Why should I be afraid?"
"No reason at all; none in the world," replied the cow. "But since I'm in
trouble so many creatures seem to be afraid of me. I saw a frog hopping
past, and I asked him to help me, but I guess he was afraid I'd step on
him, so he wouldn't come near, but hopped off as far as he could."
"That must have been Bully," said Jimmie. "He's afraid of lots of things.
But maybe he was in a hurry," he added, for he did not want to say that
Bully was afraid if the frog wasn't frightened, you know.
"Well," agreed the cow, "maybe he was. Then a rabbit boy hopped past, and
I asked him to help me, but he was afraid, too."
"That must have been Sammie Littletail," said Jimmie. "But I don't believe
he was afraid. Sammie is very brave. Maybe he was in a hurry."
"Well," admitted the cow, "maybe he was. But then two little squirrel boys
came along, and I asked them to help me, but they ran away, frisking their
tails. I guess they were afraid."
"No," answered Jimmie, "they weren't afraid. They were Billie and Johnnie
Bushytail, and the reason they ran was to get some one to help you, for
they are very kind. Maybe Bully and Sammie will bring some one to help
you, also. But what seems to be the matter?"
"My foot is caught under a stone," said the cow, and she blinked her big
brown eyes as fast as she could. In fact, they opened and shut so rapidly
that big tears came from them, and splashed down her nose.
"Oh! I am so sorry!" cried Jimmie. "Your foot caught under a stone!"
"Wait a minute! Hold on!" exclaimed the cow. "That is not the worst of it!
You have not heard all! My foot is under a stone, and the stone is under
water, so I can't see to get my foot out. That's why I feel so badly about
it. You can see for yourself, Johnnie--"
"My name is Jimmie," said the little boy duck quickly.
"Well, Jimmie, then," went on the cow. "You can see for yourself how it
is, or, rather, you can't see, for the water is in the way," and then
Jimmie noticed that one of the cow's hoofs was down in a puddle of water,
and no matter how hard she pulled she couldn't get loose from that stone;
no, sir, any more than you can tie a string to one of your teeth and get
the tooth loose--that is, not counting a tooth that needs pulling, of
course.
"Well," remarked Jimmie, after he had looked very carefully at the puddle
where the cow's foot was, "it's too bad."
"It certainly is," agreed the cow. "You see if the stone wasn't under
water I could see to loosen it with my horn, but as it is I can't, and
I've tried several times," and she tried once more, just to show she was
telling the truth.
"I've been here some time," the cow went on, "and no one seems able to
help me," and she mooed some more, and the bell tinkled some more, and
more of her tears fell splish-splash in the puddle of water, making it
bigger than ever.
"I will help you!" cried Jimmie, suddenly. "I am a duck, and I know all
about water!"
So he jumped right in that puddle, and he commenced to splash with his
wings and his yellow feet, and my goodness gracious sakes alive! if in
about two quacks he didn't have all the water splashed out of that hole
where the poor cow's foot was fast.
Then the cow could see to loosen the stone with her horn, and she could
walk home. And because Jimmie was so kind she gave him a pail of milk to
take to the duck pen for Alice and Lulu. Now to-morrow night the story
will be about Alice and the puppy dogs, providing the automobile does not
turn upside down and spill me out.
STORY XXVII
ALICE AND THE PUPPY DOGS
Alice Wibblewobble had been over to pay a visit to Sister Sallie, the
little squirrel-sister of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and she had ever
so much fun; and a good time, and such a nice supper! ending up with
butternut ice cream, with maple sugar for dessert. Well, before Alice knew
it, night had come, and it was all dark.
"Oh! dear!" she cried, "I didn't know it was so late."
"Are you afraid to go home in the dark?" asked Mrs. Bushytail.
"No, not exactly," answered Alice, "but you see it's so dark I might
tumble into a hole, or cut my foot again on a sharp stone. I'm not exactly
afraid of the dark, but--"
"Oh! I understand," said Mamma Bushytail. "But I hardly know what to do,"
she went on. "My husband is away this evening, or he would take you home,
and Billie and Johnnie are over at Grandpa Lightfoot's, and I'm so busy
getting through my spring housecleaning, and sewing a new dress for
Sister Sallie, that I don't believe I could spare the time to go."
"Oh! I wouldn't think of asking you," spoke Alice quickly, but she looked
out into the dark, and she didn't feel very happy, even if she had just
eaten a large plate of butternut ice cream.
"Couldn't you stay all night, my dear?" asked Sister Sallie's mother.
"No, I'm afraid my mamma would worry," replied Alice.
"Perhaps Jimmie will come for you pretty soon," suggested Sister Sallie,
and then she hummed that little verse about going hippity-hop to the
barber shop to buy a lolly-pop lally. You remember it, I dare say.
"Maybe he will," agreed Alice, so she and Sister Sallie played another
game, but it got darker and darker, and no Jimmie came, and then Alice
knew she must start for home, or her papa and mamma would be worried. But
she didn't like to go out in the black night, and she was almost ready to
cry, and didn't know what to do, when, all of a sudden, Sister Sallie
called out:
"Oh, mamma, I know the very thing! I'll run next door, to where Mrs. Bow
Wow lives, and ask her to send Jackie and Peetie home with Alice."
"Who are Peetie and Jackie?" asked the little girl duck.
"They are puppy dogs," replied Sister Sallie, "and the cutest ones you
ever saw! Oh, they are darlings! They'll go home with you through the
woods, because they are very brave. Some day they will grow to be big
dogs, and guard the house. I'll ask Mrs. Bow Wow, their mamma, to let them
take you home."
"That will be a good plan," agreed Mrs. Bushytail. "Run in and ask Mrs.
Bow Wow, Sister Sallie."
So Sister Sallie ran in next door, and pretty soon she came back with two
of the cutest puppy dogs Alice had ever seen.
"Which one is Peetie and which one is Jackie?" Alice asked, as they
tumbled about on the floor, getting up and falling down again.
"I am Peetie," answered one. "You can tell that because I am all white
with a black spot on my nose."
"And I am Jackie," said his brother. "I am all black, with a white spot on
my nose. So you see it is easy to tell us apart."
"Yes," agreed Alice with a laugh, "I see; that is, I would see if you kept
still long enough, only you don't, for you wiggle and tumble about so
much. But will you please take me home?"
"Of course we will," answered Jackie, rubbing the black spot on his
brother's nose with his paw. Just then, if those two puppy dogs didn't see
one of Papa Bushytail's boots, and, land sakes alive! if one didn't grab
one end and one the other end, and they began to pull and growl. Puppy
dogs always do such things, you know.
"Oh! Oh! You mustn't do that," cried Mamma Bushytail. "You must take Alice
home."
"We will," answered Peetie, rubbing the black spot on his own nose with
his little white paw. "We were only doing this for practice. Come on,
Alice! Bow-wow! Bow-wow!"
So pretty soon, after a while, oh, not so very long, Alice started for the
duck pen, with Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow tumbling over each other in their
eagerness to see which would walk at her right wing, and which at her
left. Well, weren't those puppy dogs brave, though, to go out in the dark
night? They never thought anything about it, really; any more than you
mind going to bed in the dark.
Then, all of a sudden, as they were walking through a very dismal place in
the woods, Jackie began to growl.
"Oh, don't do that!" cried Alice, "you frighten me! Did you see a burglar
or a wolf?"
"Why, I only growled because I smelled a bone," said Jackie, and he
laughed, and fell over and over, turning a complete somersault.
"I smelled the bone first!" cried Peetie, "and I'm going to have it!" Then
the two of them made a rush for the nice, juicy bone, and they each got
hold of it and began to pull, one on one end and one on the other, and
they fell down and slipped and stumbled all over in the darkness, getting
mixed up in the leaves, growling and snarling; but, of course, it was all
in fun, you know, for the puppy dogs loved each other.
"Oh, don't do that, Peetie!" begged Alice, touching one of the puppy dogs
with her foot. "Don't tumble about so, Peetie!"
"I'm not Peetie; I'm Jackie!" was the answer. "Can't you tell by the white
spot on my nose? Peetie has a black spot."
"I can't see very well in the dark," replied Alice.
Then something very funny happened, for when Jackie opened his mouth to
speak to Alice he had to let go of the bone, and of course Peetie ran off
with it and hid it. But that was a good thing, for they couldn't pull on
it any more, and when Peetie came back they both rubbed noses, and went on
through the dark woods, taking Alice home.
They had only one accident. That is, they fell down a hole, but they
weren't hurt at all, I'm glad to say. Then, when Alice was safe in the
duckpen, the puppy dogs ran back home and went right to sleep.
Now, if you don't spill the salt in the sugar bowl, I'm going to tell you
to-morrow night about Jimmie and Jackie.
STORY XXVIII
JIMMIE AND JACKIE BOW WOW
When Alice reached the duckpen that night, after she had gone visiting
Sister Sallie, and was brought home by the puppy dogs, she told her folks
all about it.
"Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, eh?" remarked Jimmie, her brother, when she
had told their names. "I never heard of them. They must be new around
here."
"They are," answered Alice. "But they are just as cute as they can be;
really they are."
"Cute, eh?" asked Jimmie. "Can they play ball?"
"I don't know," replied his sister. "But you ought to see them pull on
that old boot and the bone! Oh, it was too funny!"
"And they took good care of you, didn't they," asked Lulu.
"Indeed, they did," answered Alice. "They weren't afraid of anything, even
when an owl hooted."
So the next day, which was Saturday, when there wasn't any school, Jimmie
started off with his wooden bat over his shoulder, his catching glove
under one wing and his ball under the other.
"Where are you going?" asked his mother.
"I'm going over to Mrs. Bow Wow's house to see if I can find the puppy
dogs," he said. "I want to get acquainted with them."
"All right, Jimmie, but be sure to wipe your feet if you go in Mrs. Bow
Wow's house, and don't forget to take off your cap and say 'yes, ma'am,'
and 'no, ma'am,' Jimmie."
"S'posin' she doesn't ask me anything?" inquired Jimmie. "What'll I say?"
"Well, then, of course, you needn't say anything; but be polite," warned
the little boy duck's mother, for sometimes he forgot, though he didn't
mean to.
Well, he was walking along through the woods, and over the green fields
where the dandelions were just coming up, looking like buttons on a
policeman's coat, if the policeman's coat was green instead of blue, and I
think green would be a nice color. But no matter about that.
Jimmie was walking along, when, all of a sudden, he heard a little growl.
At first he thought it was the bad fox after him again, but in a moment he
saw a little black ball of fur rolling along, and then he saw a little
white spot, and he thought that might be Sammie Littletail, only he knew
the rabbit boy never growled. Then, all at once, if that ball of fur
didn't unroll, and there stood a puppy dog!
"Hello!" called Jimmie Wibblewobble, real friendly-like.
"Hello!" answered the puppy dog.
"Are you Peetie or Jackie Bow Wow?" asked the little boy duck, for he knew
the puppy dog must be one or the other.
"I'm Jackie," was the answer. "Can't you tell? I'm all black with a white
spot on my nose, and my brother, Peetie, is all white with a black spot on
his nose. See? I'm black with a black spot--no, I mean I'm black with a
white spot, and Jackie he's black--no, hold on--he's white--no, I'm
Jackie, and he's Peetie--he's white with a white--no, a black spot--"
"Oh, for mercy sakes, stop!" cried Jimmie. "I'm all tangled up with white
spots and black spots!"
"So am I," admitted Jackie. "It's hard to tell who I am, sometimes."
"Is it, really?" asked Jimmie.
"Yes, it is. In fact I'm mixed up now. Would you kindly look and tell me
if I have a white or a black spot on my nose. I could look myself, only
it makes me cross-eyed, and I don't like that."
So Jimmie looked, very carefully, and he saw a white spot on the puppy
dog's nose, and told him so.
"It's all right. I'm Jackie then," answered the little fellow. "I thought
I was, but it's best to make sure."
"Can you play ball?" asked Jimmie. "My sister told me about you. It was
very kind of you to bring her home. You haven't lived here very long, have
you?"
"Not very. But I'm glad I could help your sister. She is a nice girl."
"Where's your brother, Peetie?" asked Jimmie.
"Oh, he's gone to the store for mamma."
"Then let's you and I have a catch until he comes back. You can play ball,
can't you?"
"Of course."
So Jimmie tossed the ball to Jackie, and the puppy dog stood up on his
hind legs and caught it in his front paws, and then he fell right over,
ker-thump, and rolled along the ground.
"Here!" cried the boy duck. "That's no way to play ball! You must stand up
and catch."
"Oh, I know that," declared Jackie. "You see I was only practising at
biting the ball with my teeth. I always bite things to sharpen my teeth
so I can gnaw big bones when I get to be a big dog."
"Well, you needn't sharpen your teeth on my new ball!" cried Jimmie, and
he felt a little angry; not much, you know, but a little and he took the
ball and was going home, for he didn't like Jackie, he thought.