front porch. He was all scratched up, and one of his ears was bent
over backward, and his white fur was all dirt, and he looked very sad.
“Oh, papa!” cried Susie. “What has happened?”
“Oh, alas! Likewise sorrowfulness! Oh, woe is me!” said Mr.
Littletail, sadly like.
“Oh, tell me, please!” begged Susie, clasping her paws.
“I have lost your birthday doll house, Susie,” said her papa. “I was
bringing it home through the greenwood forest, and when I crossed the
bridge over the deep, dark valley, the bridge broke, and I nearly
fell with it. I lost hold of the doll house, and down it went into
the deep, dark valley.”
“Oh, how sad!” cried Susie.
“I tried to save the doll house from falling,” went on Mr.
Littletail, “but I could not. I slipped and stumbled myself, when the
bridge gave way; and I am scratched up. But I would not mind that if
I could have saved your doll house for you.”
“Oh, papa dear! I am so sorry you are hurt!” sobbed Susie. “I don’t
mind about the doll house—that is, not much,” she said, and she put
her paws around her papa’s neck and kissed him.
But, all the same, Susie did mind dreadfully about her lost play-toy.
And Mr. Littletail told over and over again how the bridge across the
deep, dark valley, (which bridge had been partly washed away by the
rain) had snapped and cracked as he was hurrying over it with the
doll house.
“But I have a birthday cake for you, with ten carrot candles on,”
said Mrs. Littletail, and Susie felt a little happy over that. But,
most of all, she wanted her doll house.
“Maybe I can get it for you,” said Susie’s brother Sammie, kindly,
when he heard about the trouble. “Come, we will go to the deep, dark
valley and see.”
So the rabbit children went to the greenwood forest, but they could
not even see the bottom of the valley, or big hole in the ground,
between the high rocky walls. And much less could they spy the doll
house.
“It is gone forever,” said Susie, sadly.
“Yes, I am afraid I could not get down there and bring the doll house
up for you,” spoke Sammie. For the rocky sides of the deep, dark
valley were very steep, like the roof of a house, and if Sammie went
into the deep place he could hardly ever get out again.
“Oh, my lovely birthday doll house, that I’ll never see, or have!”
sobbed Susie, as she looked down into the dark hole where her
play-toy was, but where it could not be reached.
“Well, maybe papa will get you another,” said Sammie, kindly.
“Oh, I’m afraid not! Oh, dear! How sad!” cried Susie, as she and her
rabbit brother started for home.
“Ha! What is all this about? What seems to be the trouble?” suddenly
asked a voice, up in the air, and, looking over their heads, Sammie
and Susie saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, in his
airship. The airship, as I have told you, was made from a clothes
basket, with circus balloons to raise it up in the air. Uncle Wiggily
sat on sofa cushions in the basket. “What is the trouble?” he asked.
“Oh, papa accidentally dropped my toy doll house down in the deep,
dark valley!” said Susie. “We can never get it out.”
“Oh, yes we can!” cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. “I can
lower my airship down into the valley, and I will, and I’ll get your
doll house, Susie! You just watch me!”
“But it’s so dark you can’t see it,” spoke Sammie.
“I’ll light a Christmas tree candle,” said Uncle Wiggily, and so he
did. Down into the deep, dark valley he steered his airship, and by
the light of the candle he saw the doll house. It had fallen on a
big pile of leaves, and wasn’t hurt a mite. Uncle Wiggily carefully
lifted the play-toy into his airship.
“Here you are, Susie!” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he floated up out of
the valley, and gave the little rabbit girl her birthday doll house.
“I told you I’d get it back for you!”
“Oh, you dear Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, as she hugged and kissed
him. Then she and Sammie took the doll house home, and Susie and Lulu
Wibblewobble, the duck girl, had much fun playing with it, and were
very happy.
And Uncle Wiggily went on sailing in his airship, and he had another
adventure. I’ll tell you about it on the page after this, when, in
case the ink bottle doesn’t go to sleep on the white bed spread, and
make a mark like an ice cream cone, the story will be about Uncle
Wiggily and the bird seed.
STORY XIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRD SEED
“Uncle Wiggily, are you going any place special this morning?” asked
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the housekeeper muskrat lady, as she came out
in the yard where the rabbit gentleman was giving his airship a drink
of molasses, so it would not sail too fast.
“Anywhere special?” repeated Uncle Wiggily, sort of thoughtful like;
“why, no, Nurse Jane, to tell you the truth, I am merely going for
a little sort of vacation sail around the clouds, and perhaps I may
find an adventure. Did you want me to do anything for you, Miss Fuzzy
Wuzzy?”
“Why, yes, if you will be so kind,” replied the muskrat lady, as she
tied her tail in a double bow knot, so that it would not drag on
the floor when she was sweeping. “I wish you would stop at the drug
store, Uncle Wiggily, and get me some bird seed. My pet cat is hungry
and I want to feed it.”
[Illustration: Uncle Wiggily in airship with birds]
“Very well, I will get the bird seed for you,” spoke the rabbit
gentleman politely, “though I never before heard of feeding it to a
cat; never!” he said, slowly wagging his ears to and fro.
“Well, I have a reason for it,” said Nurse Jane. “You see, my cat
used to catch and eat the dear little birds, and that made me feel
sad. So I thought perhaps if I could teach my cat to eat the bird
seed, instead of the birds, it would be better. And so I did. And
now, Muffins, my black cat, would rather have bird seed to eat any
day than the dear birds that sing so sweetly.”
“A fine idea!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I wish more cats ate bird seed.
I will get you a large package at the drug store.”
So off Uncle Wiggily started in his airship, the electric fan at the
back, by which it was pushed along through the clouds, going around
whizzie-izzie, as fast as an egg beater.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, where are you going?” asked Billie Bushytail,
the boy squirrel, in the top of a tall tree as the rabbit gentleman
sailed over it in his airship. “Please give me a ride!” begged Billie.
“I will give you a ride as far as your school; you and your brother
Johnnie,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “Then I must sail on to the
drug store to get the bird seed for Nurse Jane.”
“Oh! Is she going to plant the bird seed in the garden and raise
canary birds?” asked Johnnie, as he scrambled up to the top of the
tree to hop in the airship, and get a ride.
“No, Nurse Jane is going to feed it to her cat, which eats bird seed
instead of birds,” replied the rabbit gentleman, as he called “Whoa!”
to his airship, and made it stand still long enough for Billie and
Johnnie to hop in from a tree branch.
“I wish she would teach cats to eat squirrel seed instead of
squirrels,” spoke Johnnie. “Once a cat ate up a little red squirrel,
who was our cousin.”
“Ah! That was too bad!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I will see if the drug
store man has any squirrel seed.”
Off he started in the airship again, taking Billie and Johnnie to the
hollow stump school. Near there Uncle Wiggily stopped his ship close
to the top of another tall tree, and into that the squirrel boys
leaped, scrambling down to the ground, just in time for their lessons.
Well, the rabbit gentleman reached the drug store all right, and
bought the bird seed for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.
“And now, have you any squirrel seed?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he
told why he wanted it.
“I have only nuts for squirrels to eat,” said the elephant gentleman
who kept the drug store. “You might call that squirrel seed.”
“Well, I’ll take some,” said Uncle Wiggily, “and if we can not teach
cats to eat the nuts, instead of the dear little squirrels, I can
give the nuts to Billie and Johnnie. They’ll eat them, anyhow.”
So, with the bird seed and the nuts, the rabbit gentleman set off
once more in his airship. He had not sailed very far before he felt
himself growing sleepy.
“Ha! Ho! Hum!” cried Uncle Wiggily, with a yawn. “I think I will
sail down to the ground, and take a nap. It would not be safe to go
sailing about up in the air while asleep. I might run into a thunder
storm and break something.”
So he guided his airship down to earth, and in a nice shady place in
the woods, the rabbit gentleman tied his clothes basket to a tree, so
it would not sail up and away when he was asleep, and then he began
to dream.
After a while he awakened, feeling much better, and when he had
stretched his ears and twinkled his nose, he said:
“Well, now, I guess I’ll sail home again.”
But, when he loosed the ropes that held his airship fast, it would
not rise up, as it always had done before.
“Why, what in the world can be the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily,
and then he looked at the bunch of toy circus balloons that used to
raise his airship off the earth. And every balloon was as flat as a
pancake! All the hot air had gone out of them.
“Ha! No wonder I could not rise!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I must blow
up my balloons!”
But, when he tried, he found the balloons so full of holes that no
air would stay in them. A bad lot of mosquitoes had come along while
Uncle Wiggily slept, had punctured holes in the rubber balloons, let
out the air, and they were all spoiled.
“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “What shall I do? I never can sail
home in my airship!” Then he happened to think of something. “I have
it!” he cried. “I will scatter some bird seed on the ground. A lot
of birds will see it and come to eat it. And I will ask them all
to take hold of my airship in their bills at once, and raise me up
by fluttering their wings. Then they can fly home with me and my
airship.”
So Uncle Wiggily did this. He scattered some of the bird seed on the
ground, and Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, and some robins and
blue birds—more than a thousand of them—came to eat the seeds. And
when the birds had eaten them Uncle Wiggily asked:
“Will you please fly home with me and my airship, for my lifting
balloons are all full of holes?”
“Indeed we will, and that right gladly!” answered the birds,
politely. So they lifted Uncle Wiggily and his airship up in their
bills and with their fluttering wings bore him safely home, and there
was bird seed enough left for Nurse Jane’s cat.
But the cat would not eat the nuts, so Johnnie and Billie Bushytail
had them to crack. And that’s all to this story.
However, if the rooster in our back yard doesn’t crow so loudly that
he makes the alarm clock jump off the mantel, I’ll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and the baby rabbit.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BABY RABBIT
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, the little rabbit girl, one
afternoon, as she came over to Mr. Longears’ hollow stump bungalow.
“I wonder if you can guess what came to our burrow in the night?”
“Let me see,” said Uncle Wiggily, slow and thoughtful like; “was it a
mouse?”
“Nope!” cried Susie, laughing and clapping her paws.
“Was it a thunder storm?” asked the rabbit gentleman, sort of puzzled
like.
“Nope! I’ll give you one more guess, and then I’ll tell you,” spoke
Susie, laughing more than ever.
“Was it—er—let me see—you didn’t have a party come to your house last
night, did you, Susie?”
“No! Oh, I knew you couldn’t guess! It was a baby rabbit. Sammie and
I have a little baby brother. He came last night.
“Oh, how fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears up in a hard knot
and then untying them again. “I must go right over and see it. Come
on, Susie, we’ll go in my airship.”
“Don’t let Susie fall out!” cried Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady
housekeeper, as the old gentleman rabbit, followed by Susie, went out
to the henhouse, where he kept his clothes basket airship.
“I won’t!” promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he and Susie sailed off,
up near the clouds, over the fields and woods, to the burrow where
Mrs. Littletail, Susie’s mamma, lived.
“Where is that baby rabbit?” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he lowered his
airship to the ground. “I must see him.”
“Here he is,” said Mrs. Littletail, proudly, bringing out the new
little baby rabbit. “But be careful not to squeeze him too hard, as
he is very soft and tender.”
“Oh, I’ll be careful!” said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh.
Then he took the baby rabbit and toddled him up and down on his knee,
and said “Ootsie-Cootsie!” and “Tummy-tummy!” and “petsie-etsie!” You
know the way old gentleman always talk to babies, whether they are
animals or not.
“Isn’t he just too sweet!” cried Susie, as she stood peeping lovingly
at her new baby brother. “And doesn’t he look just like Sammie?”
“Hu! Do I look like that?” asked Sammie, standing off to one side,
with his paws in his pockets.
“You did when you were little,” said his mamma, smiling.
“Ha! Well, I don’t now,” spoke Sammie sort of thankful like. “Come
on, Susie, I’m going to school—the last bell has almost rung.”
“Wait until I give baby a kiss,” said Susie, and, when she had done
so, she hurried to school with Sammie.
Uncle Wiggily stayed with Mrs. Littletail for some time, and he
jiggled and joggled the baby rabbit up and down on his knee, and
talked baby talk to it, and had just a lovely time as all old
gentleman rabbits do at such times.
After a while Mrs. Littletail said:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I have to go to the store to get a rattle box for
baby rabbit, to amuse him when he cries! I wonder if you would stay
here and take care of him until I come back!”
“Of course I would, and I’d be glad to—real proud and happy to do
so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Won’t I, baby rabbit? Ootsie-cootsie
’unnin’-cunnin’!”
“Goo!” said the baby rabbit. I guess that meant “yes” in baby rabbit
talk.
So Mrs. Littletail went to the store for a rattle box for her new
bunny baby, and then Uncle Wiggily jiggled and joggled the little
chap up and down on his knee some more.
“Goo-goo!” said baby rabbit, as cute as anything.
“Oh, you’re just too lovely!” cried Uncle Wiggily, exactly as Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy might have done.
But, all of a sudden, baby rabbit began to cry.
“Oh, my!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily sort of disappointed like. “Hold on
if you please! Don’t do that! Stop it!”
But the more he talked the more the baby rabbit sobbed.
“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried the small chap. “Wah-h-h-h-h-h-h!”
“Oh, my!” shouted Uncle Wiggily. “I guess I must walk up and down
with you!” and he did, as fast as anything, but the baby rabbit only
cried the harder.
“Ha! Maybe you want me to stand on my head for you!” said Uncle
Wiggily. So he put the baby in its crib and stood on his head, in
a corner, wiggling his feet in the air. But the baby rabbit still
cried:
“Wah! Wah! Wah!”
“Oh, come now, be nice!” begged Uncle Wiggily, looking around for
something with which to amuse the rabbit baby. “I guess you want your
rattle box. I wish Mrs. Littletail would hurry back.”
“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried baby rabbit.
“I know what I’ll do!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take you in my
airship to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. She’ll know what to do.”
So, bundling the baby rabbit up in its warm blankets, the old
gentleman rabbit hurried out to his airship, which he had left
standing in the yard. It had been all fixed since the mosquitoes had
bitten holes in the balloons, and was better than ever.
“Now we’re all right!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he started off through
the air. “Nurse Jane will soon fix you, little fellow!”
“Why, you shouldn’t have brought a new, little baby rabbit out in
your airship,” said the muskrat lady, when she saw what Uncle Wiggily
had done. “It might take cold.”
“Wah! Wah! Wah!” howled the baby rabbit.
“Listen to that! I couldn’t make it stop crying,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“I did everything, even to making funny faces at it. What do you do
in a case like this?”
“Silly old Uncle Wiggily!” laughed Nurse Jane. “I guess this little
fellow is hungry!” And, surely enough, when she gave baby rabbit some
warm milk and sugar from a bottle, the little chap stopped crying at
once and went to sleep.
“Well, I do declare!” cried Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. “It is so
easy when you know how!” And then, while the baby rabbit slept, Uncle
Wiggily took it home in his airship, and just in time, too, for Mrs.
Littletail had come back with the rattle box, and she was wondering
where in the world her baby was. Then she thanked Uncle Wiggily, and
put the baby rabbit in its crib, and that is the end of this story.
But in the next story, if the door knob doesn’t turn a somersault
over the pepper caster and slide off the table, I’ll tell you about
Uncle Wiggily and the popgun.
STORY XV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE POPGUN
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was out in the yard
back of his house, blowing hot air in the toy circus balloons of his
airship. The balloons would then lift the airship up in the air, and
Uncle Wiggily could sail around near the clouds, like a bird.
“Aren’t you afraid the airship will some day go up without you in
it?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept house
for the rabbit gentleman.
“Oh, no, for I always tie my airship fast to the fence, or a tree, or
something like that, until I am ready to get in it!” he answered.
This time Uncle Wiggily tied his airship, with a clothesline, to the
grape arbor, and he went on getting the red, green, blue and yellow
balloons more and more full of hot air. The rabbit gentleman blew the
hot air in with a putty blower.
Soon the airship was tugging and tugging away at the clothesline,
wanting to sail up in the air, and take the old gentleman rabbit
with it for a sail in the clothes basket, which was filled with soft
cushions. These were taken along so, in case Uncle Wiggily fell, he
would not be bounced too hard.
But the airship could not go up until the rabbit gentleman loosed the
rope that held it fast.
“And that I’ll do as soon as I go in and wash my paws and get a
carrot sandwich,” the rabbit gentleman said, when he had finished
fixing the balloons. “Then I’ll go off and see if I can find an
adventure.”
An adventure, you know, is something that happens to you, like being
late for school, and getting kept in. But I hope you have no such
unpleasant adventure as that. I’d rather you had a nice one, like
finding an ice cream cone rolling up hill.
Well, Uncle Wiggily went into the house to wash his paws. He soaped
them nicely and also his face, but, when he went to dry them, he
could not find the towel.
“Oh, Nurse Jane!” he cried. “Come quickly and get me a towel! There’s
some soap in my eyes!”
“Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some apple pudding!” cried Nurse
Jane. Then she ran in to get a towel for Uncle Wiggily, leaving the
airship in the yard all alone.
And now something is going to happen.
Along came Jocko Kinkytail, the little monkey boy, on his way to
school. Jocko was going to be late, too. He almost always was late,
and the reason was that he stopped too often along the road to play
and to look at the things he saw.
“Oh, my goodness!” cried Jocko, when he saw Uncle Wiggily’s airship
in the yard, all ready to sail. “I must look at that!”
Over the fence he scrambled, and he began looking at the airship,
made of a clothes basket, some toy balloons, a Japanese umbrella and
an electric fan.
“Say! This is fine!” cried Jocko. “I wonder what keeps it from going
up when no one is in it?” Then he noticed the clothesline rope
holding it down, and he said, “Ah, I see!”
Now Jocko was very curious, and when the monkey chap saw a knot tied
in the holdingdown rope he at once tried to loosen it. And with his
cunning little fingers Jocko did loosen the knot.
And then——
Up shot the airship into the air, nearly knocking the monkey boy
down, so suddenly did it leave the earth.
“Oh, my!” cried Jocko.
“Oh, now you have done it!” exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she
came running out of the house, after having gotten Uncle Wiggily a
towel to wipe the soap out of his eyes.
“What has happened?” asked the rabbit gentleman himself, as he came
hopping out, with his red white and blue striped barber pole crutch
that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
“I am very sorry,” spoke Jocko politely, “but your airship has run
away.”
“Run away?” cried Uncle Wiggily.
“Yes, run away. I loosened the knot in the rope, and up it went—the
airship went up, I mean—not the rope,” said Jocko politely.
“Yes, so I see,” remarked Uncle Wiggily, looking upward. And there
his airship was floating high above the trees, and no one was in it,
except the sofa cushions, to bring it down again, and they could not
do it.
“I am very sorry,” said Jocko. “I will see if I can’t get it down for
you.” So he climbed the tallest tree there was, but still the airship
was far above his reach.
“You can never get it!” cried Nurse Jane sadly.
“Perhaps I can help you,” spoke an elephant gentleman coming along
just then. “I used to be a cowboy in a Wild West show, and perhaps I
can throw my rope lasso up high enough to get it around the airship
and pull it down.”
So he threw his rope lasso with his trunk, but the airship was still
too high for him to reach.
“You will have to get an eagle bird to fly up and bring it down,”
said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.
“Ha! No! I have a better plan than that!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Run
over to Sammie Littletail’s house and get his popgun,” said the
rabbit gentleman to the monkey boy. “I will put some beans in the
popgun, shoot them at the balloons, burst holes in them to let out
the hot air, and down my airship will come of itself.”
And that’s exactly what Uncle Wiggily did. With Sammie’s popgun he
shot the balloons full of holes, knowing he could easily mend them
again, and when there was no hot air in them to hold them up, down
came the airship, fluttering slowly to the earth.
“Thank goodness!” cried Nurse Jane. “You have your airship again,
Uncle Wiggily. Don’t you ever do that again, Jocko Kinkytail.”
“I guess he won’t,” spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly, as he began to mend
the burst balloons. And Jocko never did.
And if the rubber plant in our yard doesn’t stretch over the fence
and pick a rose off the gooseberry bush, I’ll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and the butterfly.
STORY XVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERFLY
“Are you going out in your airship this morning?” asked Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he
left the breakfast table one day.
“Well, I did not intend to,” he said. “The electric fan that goes
around whizzie-izze, and makes me sail through the clouds, is broken,
and I shall have to have it mended. So I am not going in the airship
to-day. Was there anything you wanted me to do for you?”
“Why, yes, there was,” replied the muskrat lady, as she looked at the
end of her tail, to see if it needed dusting. But it did not, I am
glad to say. “I wish you would bring me a yeast cake from the store
if you are near there. I am going to bake bread,” said Nurse Jane.
“Most gladly will I bring you a yeast cake,” spoke Uncle Wiggily,
with a low and polite bow. “Only I will walk after it, instead
of going in my airship. And, while I am out walking, instead of
airshipping, I will look for an adventure also.”
“Very good,” answered Nurse Jane, as she carried the butter out in
the hammock where it could swing and keep cool.
So Uncle Wiggily started off after the yeast cake and anything else
he might find. At first he went along slowly, and then he hurried
along a little faster, and pretty soon, as he came to a beautiful
white lily, he heard a voice sadly saying:
“Oh, dear! What shall I do? I cannot fly after honey, and I shall
surely die! Oh, woe is me!”
“Ha! Some one in trouble, I imagine!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he
looked all about. But he could see no one. Still he again heard the
voice saying:
“Oh, how I suffer! If only some one would help me!”
“I will help you,” said Uncle Wiggily, “only I cannot see you. Where
are you, if you please?”
“Look in the lily!” went on the sad voice, and, looking, Uncle
Wiggily saw within the flower, which was like a little house, a poor
butterfly, with a broken wing.
“Ah, that is too bad! How did it happen?” asked the rabbit gentleman
kindly.
“I was caught in a hail storm yesterday,” said the butterfly, “and
the hail stones broke one of my wings. I managed to flutter to my
home in the lily, but I cannot go out now, as my wing is too sore.
And, if I do not fly around among the flowers and suck out the honey,
on which I live, I shall surely die.”