UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DORMOUSE
"Tap! Tap! Tap!" came a knock on the door of the hollow stump bungalow
one morning. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman who lived in
the woods, called out:
"Please come in!"
In hopped Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy postchap, with a letter for
the bunny gentleman.
"Ha! That's nice!" explained Uncle Wiggily as he took the envelope. "I
hope it's a valentine!"
"A valentine this time of year!" laughed Dickie. "This is June, Uncle
Wiggily!"
"Oh, so it is. However, I'll read it." And when Dickie flew on to
deliver the rest of his letters Uncle Wiggily read his own. It was very
short, and said:
"If you want a new hat, come to the green meadow as soon as you
read this."
"Ha! If I want a new hat!" thought the bunny uncle. "Well, I do need
one. But who knew that I did? This is very strange and mysterious. Ha! I
have it! This must be from Alice in Wonderland. She is giving me a
little surprise."
So, telling Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, that
he was going out to get a new hat, away hopped Uncle Wiggily, over the
fields and through the woods until he came to the green meadow.
In the middle of the meadow was a little grove of trees, and half way
there Uncle Wiggily heard a sad little voice saying:
"Oh, dear! What trouble I'm in!"
"Trouble!" cried the bunny gentleman twinkling his pink nose. "Ha! That
sounds like old times! Let me help some one. But who is it?"
"It is I. The little Dormouse," was the answer, and, looking down, Uncle
Wiggily saw the tiny creature who had been at the queer tea party when
the Mad March Hare smashed the Hatter's 5 o'clock watch.
The tail of the poor little Dormouse was caught fast in between two
stones and she could not move, but Uncle Wiggily quickly loosened it for
her and she was very thankful to get out.
"I was afraid I'd be late," said the Dormouse. "I have to hurry on to
help the Queen of Hearts put sugared cheese on the blackberry tarts for
the King's birthday. I'll see you again, Uncle Wiggily."
"I hope so," spoke the bunny uncle, as he hurried away to get his new
hat, all the while wondering whether or not he would see Alice from
Wonderland.
Uncle Wiggily reached the green meadow trees, but no one else was there.
He looked up and down, and all around, but there was not even an old hat
in sight, to say nothing of a new one.
"I wonder if this letter is an April fool joke?" thought the bunny
uncle, taking from his pocket the envelope Dickie had given him. "No, if
it's the month of June it can't be April Fool's Day, any more than it
can be time for valentines," said the bunny. "But I wonder where my hat
is?"
Hardly had Uncle Wiggily said this, out loud, than, all of a sudden, a
voice cried:
"Here's your hat!"
With that something seemed to drop down from the clouds, or maybe it was
from one of the trees. But whatever it was it completely covered Uncle
Wiggily out of sight. It was just as if you took a large bowl and turned
it upside down over a grasshopper, only, of course, Uncle Wiggily was
not a grasshopper, though he did jump around a lot.
And, at first, in the sudden darkness, the rabbit gentleman thought it
was a bowl that, perhaps, the circus elephant's little boy had turned
over on him just for fun.
Then, making his pink nose twinkle very fast, so that it shone in the
dark like a firefly lantern, Uncle Wiggily was able to see that he was
inside a large, tall, silk hat. When it had dropped over him it had shut
out all the sunlight, making it quite dark inside where the bunny was.
"Yes, this is a hat!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "But what a funny
way to give it to me! And it's so large! Instead of my new hat going
outside my head, my head is inside the hat. This will never do! I must
get out and see what the trouble is. This must be the elephant's hat,
it's so large."
But when Uncle Wiggily tried to lift up one edge of the hat, to crawl
out, he found he could not. Some one seemed to be sitting on top of the
hat, which was shaped like the silk stovepipe one Uncle Wiggily always
wore. And a voice cried:
"Hold it tight and he can't get out!"
"Oh, I'm holding it tight!" was the answer.
Then Uncle Wiggily knew what had happened. Some one had played a sad
trick on him. And it was two bad old skillery-scalery alligators. They
had borrowed the Wonderland Hatter's hat--which was very large. Nor had
they told the Hatter what they wanted of it, for if they had he never
would have let them borrow it to make trouble for Uncle Wiggily.
The alligators had climbed up the tree with the big hat, and, after
sending Uncle Wiggily the note, they had waited until he came to the
field. Then from the branches above they dropped the hat down over him
and sat on it.
"And I can't get out!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That's the worst of it! I
can't get out, and those bad alligators will reach under and grab me
and--"
"No they won't!" cried a little squeaky voice down low on the ground,
just outside the hat.
"Why not?" asked Uncle Wiggily, hopeful like.
"Because I am the Dormouse whom you helped," was the answer. "Now,
listen! With my sharp teeth I am going to cut a door in the side of the
hat where the alligators, sitting up on top, can't see it. Then you can
get out."
So the Dormouse, being made for just such work, as you can tell by its
name, gnawed a door in the side of the Hatter's hat, and out crawled the
bunny rabbit gentleman before the alligators could grab him. And the
bunny and the Dormouse got safely away, Mr. Longears being very
thankful, indeed, for having been helped by the little creature.
So the alligators had nothing for dinner but stewed pears, and if our
dog doesn't leave his tail on the wrong side of the fence, so the cat
can use it for a dusting brush, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily
and the Gryphon.