UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST KITTEN
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was asleep in
his easy chair by the fire which burned brightly on the hearth in
his hollow-stump bungalow. Mr. Longears was dreaming that he had
just eaten a piece of cherry pie for lunch, and that the cherry pits
were dropping on the floor with a "rat-a-tat-tat!" when he suddenly
awakened and heard some one knocking on the front door.
"Ha! Who is there? Come in!" cried the rabbit gentleman, hardly
awake yet. Then he happened to think:
"I hope it isn't the bad fox, or the skillery-scalery alligator,
whom I have invited in. I ought not to have been so quick."
But it was none of these unpleasant creatures who had knocked on
Uncle Wiggily's door. It was Mrs. Purr, the nice cat lady, and when
the rabbit gentleman had let her in she looked so sad and sorrowful
that he said:
"What is the matter, Mrs. Purr? Has anything happened?"
"Indeed there has, Mr. Longears," the cat lady answered. "You know
my three little kittens, don't you?"
"Why, yes, I know them," replied the bunny uncle. "They are Fuzzo,
Muzzo and Wuzzo. I hope they are not ill?"
"No, they are not ill," said the cat lady, mewing sadly, "but they
have run away, and I came to see if you would help me get them
back."
"Run away! Your dear little kittens!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You
don't mean it! How did it happen?"
"Well, you know my little kittens had each a new pair of mittens,"
said Mrs. Purr.
"Yes, I read about that in the Mother Goose book," said the rabbit
gentleman. "It must be nice to have new mittens."
"My little kittens thought so," went on Mrs. Purr. "Their
grandmother, Pussy Cat Mole, knitted them."
"I have met Pussy Cat Mole," said Uncle Wiggily. "After she jumped
over a coal, and in her best petticoat burned a great hole, I helped
her mend it so she could go to the party."
"I heard about that; it was very good of you," mewed Mrs. Purr. "But
about my little kittens, when they got their mittens, what do you
think they did?"
"Why, I suppose they went out and played in the snow," Uncle Wiggily
said. "I know that is what I would have done, when I was a little
rabbit, if I had had a new pair of mittens."
"I only wish they had done that," Mrs. Purr said. "But, instead,
they went and ate some cherry pie. The red pie-juice got all over
their new mittens, and when they saw it they became afraid I would
scold them, and they ran away. I was not home when they ate the pie
and soiled their mittens, but the cat lady who lives next door told
me.
"Now I want to know if you will try to find my three little kittens
for me; Fuzzo, Wuzzo and Muzzo? I want them to come home so badly!"
"I'll go look for them," promised the old rabbit gentleman. So
taking his red, white and blue rheumatism crutch, off he started
over the fields and through the woods. Mrs. Purr went back home to
get supper, in case her kittens, with their pie-soiled mittens,
should come back by themselves before Uncle Wiggily found them.
On and on went the old rabbit gentleman. He looked on all sides and
through the middle for any signs of the lost kittens, but he saw
none for quite a while. Then, all at once, he heard a mewing sound
over in the bushes, and he said:
"Ha! There is the first little kitten!" And there, surely enough she
was--Fuzzo!
"Oh, dear!" Fuzzo was saying, "I don't believe I'll ever get them
clean!"
"What's the matter now?" asked the rabbit gentleman, though he knew
quite well what it was, and only pretended he did not. "Who are you
and what is the matter?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm in such trouble," said the first little kitten. "My sisters
and I ate some pie in our new mittens. We soiled them badly with the
red pie-juice. Weren't we naughty kittens?"
"Well, perhaps just a little bit naughty," Uncle Wiggily said. "But
you should not have run away from your mamma. She feels very badly.
Where are Muzzo and Wuzzo?"
"I don't know!" answered Fuzzo. "They ran one way and I ran another.
I'm trying to get the pie-juice out of my mittens, but I can't seem
to do it."
"How did you try?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.
[Illustration: "Weren't we naughty kittens?"]
"I am rubbing my mittens up and down on the rough bark of trees and
on stones," answered Fuzzo. "I thought that would take the pie
stains out, but it doesn't."
"Of course not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Now you come with me. I am
going to take you home. Your mother sent me to look for you."
"Oh, but I'm afraid to go home," mewed Fuzzo. "My mother will scold
me for soiling my nice, new mittens. It says so in the book."
"No, she won't!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "You just leave it to me.
But first you come to my hollow-stump bungalow."
So Fuzzo, the first little kitten, put one paw in Uncle Wiggily's,
and carrying her mittens in the other, along they went together.
"Where are you, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy?" called the rabbit
gentleman, when they reached his hollow-stump bungalow. "I want you
to make some nice, hot, soapy suds and water, and wash this first
little kitten's mittens. Then they will be clean, and she can take
them home with her."
So the muskrat lady made some nice, hot, soap-bubbily suds and in
them she washed the kitten's mittens. Then, when they were dry,
Uncle Wiggily took the mittens, and also Fuzzo to Mrs. Purr's house.
"Oh, how glad I am to have you back!" cried the cat mother. "I
wouldn't have scolded you, Fuzzo, for soiling your mittens. You must
not be afraid any more."
"I won't," promised the first little kitten, showing her nice, clean
mittens.
And then Uncle Wiggily said he would go find the other two lost baby
cats. And so, if the milkman doesn't put goldfish in the ink bottle,
to make the puppy dog laugh when he goes to bed, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the second kittie.