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diff --git a/23213.txt b/23213.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..391f85a --- /dev/null +++ b/23213.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4709 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard, by +Howard R. Garis, Illustrated by Edward Bloomfield and Lansing Campbell + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard + Adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman with the Mother Goose Characters + + +Author: Howard R. Garis + + + +Release Date: October 27, 2007 [eBook #23213] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER +HUBBARD*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original lovely illustrations. + See 23213-h.htm or 23213-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23213/23213-h/23213-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23213/23213-h.zip) + + + + + +[Cover Illustration] + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + +[Illustration] + + + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + +Adventures of the Rabbit Gentleman with the +Mother Goose Characters + +by + +HOWARD R. GARIS + +Author of "Uncle Wiggily Bedtime Stories," "Uncle +Wiggily Animal Stories," "Uncle Wiggily's Story +Book," "The Daddy Series," Etc. + +Illustrated by Edward Bloomfield & Lansing Campbell + + + + + + + +A. L. Burt Company +Publishers +New York + + + +CHILDREN'S BOOKS by Howard R. Garis + + +UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES + +UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES +UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS +UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE +UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE +UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE +UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP +UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY +UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS +UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM +UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY +UNCLE WIGGILY'S RHEUMATISM +UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY +UNCLE WIGGILY IN WONDERLAND +UNCLE WIGGILY IN FAIRYLAND +UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER HUBBARD +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRDS + + +UNCLE WIGGILY ANIMAL STORIES + +SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL +JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL +LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE +JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW-WOW +BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG +JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT +CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK +NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL +BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL +NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL +JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL +JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL +CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL +TOODLE AND NOODLE FLATTAIL +DOTTIE AND WILLIE FLUFFTAIL +DICKIE ANP NELLIE FLIPTAIL +WOODIE AND WADDIE CHUCK +BOBBY AND BETTY RINGTAIL + + +SOMETHING NEW! + +UNCLE WIGGILY'S STORY BOOK + +and + +UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICTURE BOOK + + + + +Copyright, 1922, by R. F. FENNO & COMPANY + + + + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. Uncle Wiggily and Mother Goose + II. Uncle Wiggily and the First Pig + III. Uncle Wiggily and the Second Pig + IV. Uncle Wiggily and the Third Pig + V. Uncle Wiggily and Little Boy Blue + VI. Uncle Wiggily and Higgledee Piggledee + VII. Uncle Wiggily and Little Bo-Peep + VIII. Uncle Wiggily and Tommie Tucker + IX. Uncle Wiggily and Pussy Cat Mole + X. Uncle Wiggily and Jack and Jill + XI. Uncle Wiggily and Jack Horner + XII. Uncle Wiggily and Mr. Pop-Goes + XIII. Uncle Wiggily and Simple Simon + XIV. Uncle Wiggily and the Crumpled-Horn Cow + XV. Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard + XVI. Uncle Wiggily and Miss Muffet + XVII. Uncle Wiggily and the First Kitten + XVIII. Uncle Wiggily and the Second Kitten + XIX. Uncle Wiggily and the Third Kitten + XX. Uncle Wiggily and the Jack Horse + XXI. Uncle Wiggily and the Clock-Mouse + XXII. Uncle Wiggily and the Late Scholar + XXIII. Uncle Wiggily and Baa-Baa Black Sheep + XXIV. Uncle Wiggily and Polly Flinders + XXV. Uncle Wiggily and the Garden Maid + XXVI. Uncle Wiggily and the King + + + + +Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard + + + + +CHAPTER I + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER GOOSE + + +There once lived in the woods an old rabbit gentleman named Uncle +Wiggily Longears, and in the hollow-stump bungalow where he had his +home there also lived Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, a muskrat lady +housekeeper. Near Uncle Wiggily there were, in hollow trees, or in +nests or in burrows under the ground, many animal friends of +his--rabbits, squirrels, puppy dogs, pussy cats, frogs, ducks, +chickens and others, so that Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane were never +lonesome. + +Often Sammie or Susie Littletail, a small boy and girl rabbit, would +hop over to the hollow-stump bungalow, and call: + +"Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Can't you come out and play with us?" + +Then the old rabbit gentleman, who was as fond of fun as a kitten, +would put on his tall silk hat, take his red, white and blue striped +barber-pole rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him +out of a corn-stalk, and he would go out to play with the rabbit +children, about whom I have told you in other books. + +Or perhaps Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boys, might +ask Uncle Wiggily to go after hickory nuts with them, or maybe Lulu, +Alice or Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, would want their +bunny uncle to see them go swimming. + +So, altogether, Uncle Wiggily had a good time in his hollow-stump +bungalow which was built in the woods. When he had nothing else to +do Mr. Longears would go for a ride in his airship. This was made of +a clothes-basket, with toy circus balloons on it to make it rise up +above the trees. Or Uncle Wiggily might take a trip in his +automobile, which had big bologna sausages on the wheels for tires. +And whenever the rabbit gentleman wanted the automobile wheels to go +around faster he sprinkled pepper on the sausages. + +One day Uncle Wiggily said to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy: + +"I think I will go for a ride in my airship. Is there anything I can +bring from the store for you?" + +"Why, you might bring a loaf of bread and a pound of sugar," +answered the muskrat lady. + +"Very good," answered Uncle Wiggily, and then he took some soft +cushions out to put in the clothes-basket part of his airship, so, +in case the air popped out of the balloons, and he fell, he would +land easy like, and soft. + +Soon the rabbit gentleman was sailing off through the air, over the +tree tops, his paws in nice, warm red mittens that Nurse Jane had +knitted for him. For it was winter, you see, and Uncle Wiggily's +paws would have been cold steering his airship, by the baby carriage +wheel which guided it, had it not been for the mittens. + +It did not take the bunny uncle long to go to the store in his +airship, and soon, with the loaf of bread and pound of sugar under +the seat, away he started for his hollow-stump bungalow again. + +And, as he sailed on and over the tree tops, Uncle Wiggily looked +far off, and he saw some black smoke rising in the air. + +"Ha! That smoke seems to be near my hollow-stump bungalow," he said +to himself. "I guess Nurse Jane is starting a fire in the kitchen +stove to get dinner. I must hurry home." + +Uncle Wiggily made his airship go faster, and then he saw, coming +toward him, a big bird, with large wings. + +"Why, that looks just like my old friend, Grandfather Goosey +Gander," Uncle Wiggily thought to himself. "I wonder why he is +flying so high? He hardly ever goes up so near the clouds. + +"And he seems to have some one on his back," spoke Uncle Wiggily out +loud this time, sort of talking to the loaf of bread and the pound +of sugar. "A lady, too," went on the bunny uncle. "A lady with a +tall hat on, something like mine, only hers comes to a point on top. +And she has a broom with her. I wonder who it can be?" + +And when the big white bird came nearer to the airship Uncle Wiggily +saw that it was not Grandfather Goosey Gander at all, but another +big gander, almost like his friend, whom he often went to see. And +then the bunny uncle saw who it was on the bird's back. + +"Why, it's Mother Goose!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears. "It's Mother +Goose! She looks just like her pictures in the book, too." + +"Yes, I am Mother Goose," said the lady who was riding on the back +of the big, white gander. + +"I am glad to meet you, Mother Goose," spoke Mr. Longears. "I have +often heard about you. I can see, over the tree tops, that Nurse +Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat lady housekeeper, is getting dinner +ready. I can tell by the smoke. Will you not ride home with me? I +will make my airship go slowly, so as not to get ahead of you and +your fine gander-goose." + +"Alas, Uncle Wiggily," said Mother Goose, scratching her chin with +the end of the broom handle, "I cannot come home to dinner with you +much as I would like it. Alas! Alas!" + +"Why not?" asked the bunny uncle. + +"Because I have bad news for you," said Mother Goose. "That smoke, +which you saw over the tree tops, was not smoke from your chimney as +Nurse Jane was getting dinner." + +"What was it then?" asked Uncle Wiggily, and a cold shiver sort of +ran up and down between his ears, even if he did have warm, red +mittens on his paws. "What was that smoke?" + +"The smoke from your burning bungalow," went on Mother Goose. "It +caught fire, when Nurse Jane was getting dinner, and now----" + +"Oh! Don't tell me Nurse Jane is burned!" cried Uncle Wiggily. +"Don't say that!" + +"I was not going to," spoke Mother Goose, kindly. "But I must tell +you that your hollow-stump bungalow is burned to the ground. There +is nothing left but some ashes," and she made the gander, on whose +back she was riding, fly close alongside of Uncle Wiggily's airship. + +"My nice bungalow burned!" exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. "Well, I +am very, very sorry for that. But still it might be worse. Nurse +Jane might have been hurt, and that would have been quite too bad. I +dare say I can get another bungalow." + +"That is what I came to tell you about," said Mother Goose. "I was +riding past when I saw your Woodland hollow-stump house on fire, and +I went down to see if I could help. It was too late to save the +bungalow, but I said I would find a place for you and Nurse Jane to +stay to-night, or as long as you like, until you can build a new +home." + +"That is very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily. "I hardly know what +to do." + +"I have many friends," went on Mother Goose. "You may have read +about them in the book which tells of me. Any of my friends would be +glad to have you come and live with them. There is the Old Woman Who +Lives in a Shoe, for instance." + +"But hasn't she so many children she doesn't know what to do?" asked +Uncle Wiggily, as he remembered the story in the book. + +"Yes," answered Mother Goose, "she has. I suppose you would not like +it there." + +"Oh, I like children," said Uncle Wiggily. "But if there are so many +that the dear Old Lady doesn't know what to do, she wouldn't know +what to do with Nurse Jane and me." + +"Well, you might go stay with my friend Old Mother Hubbard," said +Mother Goose. + +"But if I went there, would not the cupboard be bare?" asked Uncle +Wiggily, "and what would Nurse Jane and I do for something to eat?" + +"That's so," spoke Mother Goose, as she reached up quite high and +brushed a cobweb off the sky with her broom. "That will not do, +either. I must see about getting Mother Hubbard and her dog +something to eat. You can stay with her later. Oh, I have it!" +suddenly cried the lady who was riding on the back of the white +gander, "you can go stay with Old King Cole! He's a jolly old soul!" + +Uncle Wiggily shook his head. + +"Thank you very much, Mother Goose," he said, slowly. "But Old King +Cole might send for his fiddlers three, and I do not believe I would +like to listen to jolly music to-day when my nice bungalow has just +burned down." + +"No, perhaps not," agreed Mother Goose. "Well, if you can find no +other place to stay to-night come with me. I have a big house, and +with me live Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, who is getting to be +quite a big chap now, Little Tommie Tucker and Jack Sprat and his +wife. Oh, I have many other friends living with me, and surely we +can find room for you." + +"Thank you," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I will think about it." + +Then he flew down in his airship to the place where the hollow-stump +bungalow had been, but it was not there now. Mother Goose flew down +with her gander after Uncle Wiggily. They saw a pile of blackened +and smoking wood, and near it stood Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the +muskrat lady, and many other animals who lived in Woodland with +Uncle Wiggily. + +"Oh, I am so sorry!" cried Nurse Jane. "It is my fault. I was baking +a pudding in the oven, Uncle Wiggily. I left it a minute while I ran +over to the pen of Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, to ask her +about making a new kind of carrot sauce for the pudding, and when I +came home the pudding had burned, and the bungalow was on fire." + +"Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly, "as long as you were not +burned yourself, Nurse Jane." + +"But where will you sleep to-night?" asked the muskrat lady, +sorrowfully. + +"Oh," began Uncle Wiggily, "I guess I can----" + +"Come stay with us!" cried Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit +children. + +"Or with us!" invited Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. + +"And why not with us?" asked Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goat +children. + +"We'd ask you to come with us," said Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the +mouse children, "only our house is so small." + +Many of Uncle Wiggily's friends, who had hurried up to see the +hollow-stump bungalow burn, while he was at the store, now, in turn, +invited him to stay with them. + +"I, myself, have asked him to come with me," said Mother Goose, "or +with any of my friends. We all would be glad to have him." + +"It is very kind of you," said the rabbit gentleman. "And this is +what I will do, until I can build me a new bungalow. I will take +turns staying at your different hollow-tree homes, your nests or +your burrows underground. And I will come and visit you also, Mother +Goose, and all of your friends; at least such of them as have room +for me. + +"Yes, that is what I'll do. I'll visit around now that my +hollow-stump home is burned. I thank you all. Come, Nurse Jane, we +will pay our first visit to Sammie and Susie Littletail, the +rabbits." + +And while the other animals hopped, skipped or flew away through the +woods, and as Mother Goose sailed off on the back of her gander, to +sweep more cobwebs out of the sky, Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane went +to the Littletail burrow, or underground house. + +"Good-bye, Uncle Wiggily!" called Mother Goose. "I'll see you again, +soon, sometime. And if ever you meet with any of my friends, Little +Jack Horner, Bo Peep, or the three little pigs, about whom you may +have read in my book, be kind to them." + +"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. + +And he did, as you may read in the next chapter, when, if the sugar +spoon doesn't tickle the carving knife and make it dance on the +bread board, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the first +little pig. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST PIG + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, came out of +the underground burrow house of the Littletail family, where he was +visiting a while with the bunny children, Sammie and Susie, because +his own hollow-stump bungalow had burned down. + +"Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Sammie Littletail, the +rabbit boy, as he strapped his cabbage leaf books together, ready to +go to school. + +"Oh, I am just going for a little walk," answered Uncle Wiggily. +"Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, asked me to +get her some court plaster from the five and six cent store, and on +my way there I may have an adventure. Who knows?" + +"We are going to school," said Susie. "Will you walk part of the way +with us, Uncle Wiggily?" + +"To be sure I will!" crowed the old gentleman rabbit, making believe +he was Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster. + +So Uncle Wiggily, with Sammie and Susie, started off across the +snow-covered fields and through the woods. Pretty soon they came to +the path the rabbit children must take to go to the hollow-stump +school, where the lady mouse teacher would hear their carrot and +turnip gnawing lessons. + +"Good-by, Uncle Wiggily!" called Sammie and Susie. "We hope you have +a nice adventure," + +"Good-by. Thank you, I hope I do," he answered. + +Then the rabbit gentleman walked on, while Sammie and Susie hurried +to school, and pretty soon Mr. Longears heard a queer grunting noise +behind some bushes near him. + +"Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" came the sound. + +"Hello! Who is there?" asked Uncle Wiggily. + +"Why, if you please, I am here, and I am the first little pig," came +the answer, and out from behind the bush stepped a cute little +piggie boy, with a bundle of straw under his paw. + +"So you are the first little pig, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "How +many of you are there altogether?" + +"Three, if you please," grunted the first little pig. "I have two +brothers, and they are the second and third little pigs. Don't you +remember reading about us in the Mother Goose book?" + +"Oh, of course I do!" cried Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his nose. "And +so you are the first little pig. But what are you going to do with +that bundle of straw?" + +"I'm going to build me a house, Uncle Wiggily, of course," grunted +the piggie boy. "Don't you remember what it says in the book? 'Once +upon a time there were three little pigs, named Grunter, Squeaker +and Twisty-Tail.' Well, I'm Grunter, and I met a man with a load of +straw, and I asked him for a bundle to make me a house. He very +kindly gave it to me, and now, I'm off to build it." + +"May I come?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I'll help you put up your +house." + +"Of course you may come--glad to have you," answered the first +little pig. "Only you know what happens to me; don't you?" + +"No! What?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "I guess I have forgotten +the story." + +"Well, after I build my house of straw, just as it says in the +Mother Goose story book, along comes a bad old wolf, and he blows it +down," said the first little pig. + +"Oh, how dreadful!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "but maybe he won't come +to-day." + +"Oh, yes, he will," said the first little pig. "It's that way in the +book, and the wolf has to come." + +"Well, if he does," said Uncle Wiggily, "maybe I can save you from +him." + +"Oh, I hope you can!" grunted Grunter. "It is no fun to be chased by +a wolf." + +So the rabbit gentleman and the piggie boy went on and on, until +they came to the place where Grunter was to build his house of +straw. Uncle Wiggily helped, and soon it was finished. + +"Why, it is real nice and cozy in here," said Uncle Wiggily, when he +had made a big pile of snow back of the straw house to keep off the +north wind, and had gone in with the little piggie boy. + +"Yes, it is cozy enough," spoke Grunter, "but wait until the bad +wolf comes. Oh, dear!" + +"Maybe he won't come," said the rabbit, hopeful like. + +"Yes, he will!" cried Grunter. "Here he comes now." + +And, surely enough, looking out of the window, the piggie boy and +Uncle Wiggily saw a bad wolf running over the snow toward them. The +wolf knocked on the door of the straw house and cried: + +"Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in." + +"No! No! By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. I will not let you in!" +answered Grunter, just like in the book. + +"Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll blow your house in!" howled +the wolf. Then he puffed and he blew, and, all of a sudden, over +went the straw house. But, just as it was falling down, Uncle +Wiggily cried: + +"Quick, Grunter, come with me! I'll dig a hole for us in the pile +of snow that I made back of your house and in there we'll hide where +the wolf can't find us!" Then the rabbit gentleman, with his strong +paws, just made for digging, burrowed a hole in the snow-bank, and +as the straw house toppled down, into this hole he crawled with +Grunter. + +"Now I've got you!" cried the wolf, as he blew down the first +little pig's straw house. But when the wolf looked he couldn't see +Grunter or Uncle Wiggily at all, because they were hiding in the +snow-bank. + +"Well, well!" howled the wolf. "This isn't like the book at all! +Where is that little pig?" + +But the wolf could not find Grunter, and soon the bad creature went +away, fearing to catch cold in his eyes. Then Uncle Wiggily and +Grunter came out of the snow-bank and were safe, and Uncle Wiggily +took Grunter home to the rabbit house to stay until Mother Goose +came, some time afterward, to get the first little pig boy. + +"Thank you very much, Uncle Wiggily," said Mother Goose, "for being +kind to one of my friends." + +"Pray don't mention it. I had a fine adventure, besides saving a +little pig," said the rabbit gentleman. "I wonder what will happen +to me to-morrow?" + +And we shall soon see for, if the snowball doesn't wrap itself up in +the parlor rug to hide away from the jam tart, when it comes home +from the moving pictures, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and +the second little pig. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND PIG + + +"There! It's all done!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the nice +muskrat lady housekeeper, who, with Uncle Wiggily Longears, the +rabbit gentleman, was staying in the Littletail rabbit house, since +the hollow-stump bungalow had burned down. + +"What's all done?" asked Uncle Wiggily, looking over the tops of his +spectacles. + +"These jam tarts I baked for Billie and Nannie Wagtail, the goat +children," said Nurse Jane. "Will you take them with you when you go +out for a walk, Uncle Wiggily, and leave them at the goat house?" + +"I most certainly will," said the rabbit gentleman, very politely. +"Is there anything else I can do for you, Nurse Jane?" + +But the muskrat lady wanted nothing more, and, wrapping up the jam +tarts in a napkin so they would not catch cold, she gave them to Mr. +Longears to take to the two goat children. + +Uncle Wiggily was walking along, wondering what sort of an adventure +he would have that day, or whether he would meet Mother Goose again, +when all at once he heard a voice speaking from behind some bushes. + +"Yes, I think I will build my house here," the voice said. "The wolf +is sure to find me anyhow, and I might as well have it over with. +I'll make my house here." + +Uncle Wiggily looked over the bushes, and there he saw a funny +little animal boy, with some pieces of wood on his shoulder. + +"Hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his nose twinkle in a most +jilly-jolly way. "Who are you, and what are you going to do?" + +"Why, I am Squeaker, the second little pig, and I am going to make a +house of wood," was the answer. "Don't you remember how it reads in +the Mother Goose book? 'Once upon a time there were three little +pigs, named Grunter, Squeaker and----'" + +"Oh, yes, I remember!" Uncle Wiggily said. "I met your brother +Grunter yesterday, and helped him build his straw house." + +"That was kind of you," spoke Squeaker. "I suppose the bad old wolf +got him, though. Too bad! Well, it can't be helped, as it is that +way in the book." + +[Illustration: "Little pig! Little pig! + Let me come in!"] + +Uncle Wiggily didn't say anything about having saved Grunter, for he +wanted to surprise Squeaker, so the rabbit gentleman just twinkled +his nose again and asked: + +"May I have the pleasure of helping you build your house of wood?" + +"Indeed you may, thank you," said Squeaker. "I suppose the old wolf +will be along soon, so we had better hurry to get the house +finished." + +Then the second little pig and Uncle Wiggily built the wooden house. +When it was almost finished Uncle Wiggily went out near the back +door, and began piling up some cakes of ice to make a sort of box. + +"What are you doing?" asked Squeaker. + +"Oh, I'm just making a place where I can put these jam tarts I have +for Nannie and Billie Wagtail," the rabbit gentleman answered. "I +don't want the wolf to get them when he blows down your house." + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Squeaker. "I rather wish, now, he didn't have to +blow over my nice wooden house, and get me. But he has to, I s'pose, +'cause it's in the book." + +Still, Uncle Wiggily didn't say anything, but he just sort of +blinked his eyes and twinkled his pink nose, until, all of a sudden, +Squeaker looked across the snowy fields, and he cried: + +"Here comes the bad old wolf now!" + +And, surely enough, along came the growling, howling creature. He +ran up to the second little pig's wooden house, and, rapping on the +door with his paw, cried: + +"Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!" + +"No, no! By the hair on my chinny-chin-chin I will not let you in," +said the second little pig, bravely. + +"Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll puff and I'll blow, and blow +your house in!" howled the wolf. + +Then he puffed out his cheeks, and he took a long breath and he blew +with all his might and main and suddenly: + +"Cracko!" + +Down went the wooden house of the second little piggie, and only +that Uncle Wiggily and Squeaker jumped to one side they would have +been squashed as flat as a pancake, or even two pancakes. + +"Quick!" cried the rabbit gentleman in the piggie boy's ear. "This +way! Come with me!" + +"Where are we going?" asked Squeaker, as he followed the rabbit +gentleman over the cracked and broken boards, which were all that +was left of the house. + +"We are going to the little cabin that I made out of cakes of ice, +behind your wooden house," said Uncle Wiggily. "I put the jam tarts +in it, but there is also room for us, and we can hide there until +the bad wolf goes off." + +"Well, that isn't the way it is in the book," said the second little +pig. "But----" + +"No matter!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Hurry!" So he and Squeaker hid in +the ice cabin back of the blown-down house, and when the bad wolf +came poking along among the broken boards, to get the little pig, he +couldn't find him. For Uncle Wiggily had closed the door of the ice +place, and as it was partly covered with snow the wolf could not see +through. + +"Oh, dear!" howled the wolf. "That's twice I've been fooled by those +pigs! It isn't like the book at all. I wonder where he can have +gone?" + +But he could not find Squeaker or Uncle Wiggily either, and finally +the wolf's nose became so cold from sniffing the ice that he had to +go home to warm it, and so Uncle Wiggily and Squeaker were safe. + +"Oh, I don't know how to thank you," said the second little piggie +boy as the rabbit gentleman took him home to Mother Goose, after +having left the jam tarts at the home of the Wagtail goats. + +"Pray do not mention it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, modest like, and shy. +"It was just an adventure for me." + +He had another adventure the following day, Uncle Wiggily did. And +if the dusting brush doesn't go swimming in the soap dish, and get +all lather so that it looks like a marshmallow cocoanut cake, I'll +tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the third little pig. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD PIG + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears sat in the burrow, or house under the ground, +where he and Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, lived with +the Littletail family of rabbits since the hollow-stump bungalow had +burned. + +"Oh, dear!" sounded a grunting, woofing sort of voice over near one +window. + +"Oh, dear!" squealed another voice from under the table. + +"Well, well! What is the matter with you two piggie boys?" asked +Uncle Wiggily, as he took down from the sideboard his red, white and +blue barber-pole striped rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane had +gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. + +"What's the trouble, Grunter and Squeaker?" asked the rabbit +gentleman. + +"We are lonesome for our brother," said the two little piggie boys +No. 1 and No. 2. "We want to see Twisty-Tail." + +For the first and second little pigs, after having been saved by +Uncle Wiggily, and taken home to Mother Goose, had come back to pay +a visit to the bunny gentleman. + +"Well, perhaps I may meet Twisty-Tail when I go walking to-day," +spoke Uncle Wiggily. "If I do I'll bring him home with me." + +"Oh, goodie!" cried Grunter and Squeaker. For they were the first +and second little pigs, you see. Uncle Wiggily had saved Grunter +from the bad wolf when the growling creature blew down Grunter's +straw house. And, in almost the same way, the bunny uncle had saved +Squeaker, when his wooden house was blown over by the wolf. But +Twisty-Tail, the third little pig, Uncle Wiggily had not yet helped. + +"I'll look for Twisty-Tail to-day," said the rabbit gentleman as he +started off for his adventure walk, which he took every afternoon +and morning. + +On and on went Uncle Wiggily Longears over the snow-covered fields and +through the wood, until just as he was turning around the corner near +an old red stump, the rabbit gentleman heard a clinkity-clankity +sort of a noise, and the sound of whistling. + +"Ha! Some one is happy!" thought the bunny uncle. "That's a good +sign--whistling. I wonder who it is?" + +He looked around the stump corner and he saw a little animal chap, +with blue rompers on, and a fur cap stuck back of his left ear, and +this little animal chap was whistling away as merrily as a butterfly +eating butterscotch candy. + +"Why, that must be the third little pig!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. +"Hello!" called the rabbit gentleman. "Are you Twisty-Tail?" + +"That's my name," answered the little pig, "and, as you see, I am +building my house of bricks, just as it tells about in the Mother +Goose book." + +And, surely enough, Twisty-Tail was building a little house of red +bricks, and it was the tap-tap-tapping of his trowel, or +mortar-shovel, that made the clinkity-clankity noise. + +"Do you know me, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the piggie boy. "You see I am +in a book. 'Once upon a time there were three little pigs, and----'" + +"I know all about you," interrupted Uncle Wiggily. "I have met +Mother Goose, and also your two brothers." + +"They didn't know how to build the right kind of houses, and so the +wolf got them," said Twisty-Tail. "I am sorry, but it had to happen +that way, just as it is in the book." + +Uncle Wiggily smiled, but said nothing. + +"I met a man with a load of bricks, and I begged some of them to +build my house," said Twisty-Tail. "No wolf can get me. No, sir-ee! +I'll build my house very strong, not weak like my brothers'. No, +indeed!" + +"I'll help you build your house," offered Uncle Wiggily, kindly, and +just as he and Twisty-Tail finished the brick house and put on the +roof it began to rain and freeze. + +"We are through just in time," said Twisty-Tail, as he and the +rabbit gentleman hurried inside. "I don't believe the wolf will come +out in such weather." + +But just as he said that and looked from the window, the little +piggie boy gave a cry, and said: + +"Oh, here comes the bad animal now! But he can't get in my house, or +blow it over, 'cause the book says he didn't." + +The wolf came up through the freezing rain and knocking on the third +piggie boy's brick house, said: + +"Little pig! Little pig! Let me come in!" + +"No! No! By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I will not let you in!" +grunted Twisty-Tail. + +"Then I'll puff and I'll blow, and I'll blow your house in!" howled +the wolf. + +"You can't! The book says so!" laughed the little pig. "My house is +a strong, brick one. You can't get me!" + +"Just you wait!" growled the wolf. So he puffed out his cheeks, and +he blew and he blew, but he could not blow down the brick house, +because it was so strong. + +"Well, I'm in no hurry," the wolf said. "I'll sit down and wait for +you to come out." + +So the wolf sat down on his tail to wait outside the brick house. +After a while Twisty-Tail began to get hungry. + +"Did you bring anything to eat, Uncle Wiggily?" he asked. + +"No, I didn't," answered the rabbit gentleman. "But if the old wolf +would go away I'd take you where your two brothers are visiting with +me in the Littletail family rabbit house and you could have all you +want to eat." + +Rut the wolf would not go away, even when Uncle Wiggily asked him +to, most politely, making a bow and twinkling his nose. + +"I'm going to stay here all night," the wolf growled. "I am not +going away. I am going to get that third little pig!" + +"Are you? Well, we'll see about that!" cried the rabbit gentleman. +Then he took a rib out of his umbrella, and with a piece of his shoe +lace (that he didn't need) for a string he made a bow like the +Indians used to have. + +"If I only had an arrow now I could shoot it from my umbrella-bow, +hit the wolf on the nose and make him go away," said Uncle Wiggily. +Then he looked out of the window and saw where the rain, dripping +from the roof, had frozen into long, sharp icicles. + +"Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "An icicle will make the best kind of an +arrow! Now I'll shoot the wolf, not hard enough to hurt him, but +just hard enough to make him run away." + +Reaching out the window Uncle Wiggily broke off a sharp icicle. He +put this ice arrow in his bow and, pulling back the shoe string, +"twang!" he shot the wolf on the nose. + +"Oh, wow! Oh, double-wow! Oh, custard cake!" howled the wolf. "This +isn't in the Mother Goose book at all. Not a single pig did I get! +Oh, my nose! Ouch!" + +Then he ran away, and Uncle Wiggily and Twisty-Tail could come +safely out of the brick house, which they did, hurrying home to the +bunny house where Grunter and Squeaker were, to get something to +eat. So everything came out right, you see, and Uncle Wiggily saved +the three little pigs, one after the other. + +And if the canary bird doesn't go swimming in the rice pudding, and +eat out all the raisin seeds, so none is left for the parrot, I'll +tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and Little Boy Blue. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BOY BLUE + + +"Uncle Wiggily, are you very busy to-day?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy +Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, who, with the old rabbit +gentleman, was on a visit to the Bushytail family of squirrels in +their hollow-tree home. + +After staying a while with the Littletail rabbits, when his +hollow-stump bungalow had burned down, the bunny uncle went to visit +Johnnie and Billie Bushytail. + +"Are you very busy, Uncle Wiggily?" asked the muskrat lady. + +"Why, no, Nurse Jane, not so very," answered the bunny uncle. "Is +there something you would like me to do for you?" he asked, with a +polite bow. + +"Well, Mrs. Bushytail and I have just baked some pies," said the +muskrat lady, "and we thought perhaps you might like to take one to +your friend, Grandfather Goosey Gander." + +[Illustration] + +"Fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily, making his nose twinkle like a star on +a Christmas tree in the dark. "Grandpa Goosey will be glad to get a +pie. I'll take him one." + +"We have it all ready for you," said Mrs. Bushytail, the squirrel +mother of Johnnie and Billie, as she came in the sitting-room. "It's +a nice hot pie, and it will keep your paws warm, Uncle Wiggily, as +you go over the ice and snow through the woods and across the +fields." + +"Fine!" cried the bunny uncle again. "I'll get ready and go at +once." + +Uncle Wiggily put on his warm fur coat, fastened his tall silk hat +on his head, with his ears sticking up through holes cut in the +brim, so it would not blow off, and then, taking his red, white and +blue striped rheumatism crutch, that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him +out of a cornstalk, away he started. He carried the hot apple pie in +a basket over his paw. + +"Grandpa Goosey will surely like this pie," said Uncle Wiggily to +himself, as he lifted the napkin that was over it to take a little +sniff. "It makes me hungry myself. And how nice and warm it is," he +went on, as he put one cold paw in the basket to warm it; warm his +paw I mean, not the basket. + +Over the fields and through the woods hopped the bunny uncle. It +began to snow a little, but Uncle Wiggily did not mind that, for he +was well wrapped up. + +When he was about halfway to Grandpa Goosey's house Uncle Wiggily +heard, from behind a pile of snow, a sad sort of crying voice. + +"Hello!" exclaimed the bunny uncle, "that sounds like some one in +trouble. I must see if I can help them." + +Uncle Wiggily looked over the top of the pile of snow, and, sitting +on the ground, in front of a big icicle, was a boy all dressed in +blue. Even his eyes were blue, but you could not very well see them, +as they were filled with tears. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "This is quite too +bad! What is the matter, little fellow; and who are you?" + +"I am Little Boy Blue, from the home of Mother Goose," was the +answer, "and the matter is that it's lost!" + +"What is lost?" asked Uncle. "If it's a penny I will help you find +it." + +"It isn't a penny," answered Boy Blue. "It's the hay stack which I +have to sleep under. I can't find it, and I must see where it is or +else things won't be as they are in the Mother Goose book. Don't you +know what it says?" And he sang: + + "Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn, + There are sheep in the meadow and cows in the corn. + Where's Little Boy Blue, who looks after the sheep? + Why he's under the hay stack, fast asleep. + +"Only I can't go to sleep under the hay stack, Uncle Wiggily, +because I can't find it. And, oh, dear! I don't know what to do!" +and Little Boy Blue cried harder than ever, so that some of his +tears froze into little round marbles of ice, like hail stones. + +"There, there, now!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Of course you +can't find a hay stack in the winter. They are all covered with +snow." + +"Are they?" asked Boy Blue, real surprised like. + +"Of course, they are!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his most jolly voice. +"Besides, you wouldn't want to sleep under a hay stack, even if +there was one here, in the winter. You would catch cold and have the +sniffle-snuffles." + +"That's so, I might," Boy Blue said, and he did not cry so hard now. +"But that isn't all, Uncle Wiggily," he went on, nodding at the +rabbit gentleman. "It isn't all my trouble." + +"What else is the matter?" asked the bunny uncle. + +"It's my horn," spoke the little boy who looked after the cows and +sheep. "I can't make any music tunes on my horn. And I really have +to blow my horn, you know, for it says in the Mother Goose book that +I must. See, I can't blow it a bit." And Boy Blue put his horn to +his lips, puffed out his cheeks and blew as hard as he could, but no +sound came out. + +"Let me try," said Uncle Wiggily. The rabbit gentleman took the horn +and he, also, tried to blow. He blew so hard he almost blew off his +tall silk hat, but no sound came from the horn. + +"Ah, I see what the trouble is!" cried the bunny uncle with a jolly +laugh, looking down inside the "toot-tooter." "It is so cold that +the tunes are all frozen solid in your horn. But I have a hot apple +pie here in my basket that I was taking to Grandpa Goosey Gander. +I'll hold the cold horn on the hot pie and the tunes will thaw out." + +"Oh, have you a pie in there?" asked Little Boy Blue. "Is it the +Christmas pie into which Little Jack Horner put in his thumb and +pulled out a plum?" + +"Not quite, but nearly the same," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Now to +thaw out the frozen horn." + +The bunny uncle put Little Boy Blue's horn in the basket with the +hot apple pie. Soon the ice was melted out of the horn, and Uncle +Wiggily could blow on it, and play tunes, and so could Boy Blue. +Tootity-toot-toot tunes they both played. + +"Now you are all right!" cried the bunny uncle. "Come along with me +and you may have a piece of this pie for yourself. And you may stay +with Grandpa Goosey Gander until summer comes, and then blow your +horn for the sheep in the meadow and the cows in the corn. There is +no need, now, for you to stay out in the cold and look for a +haystack under which to sleep." + +"No, I guess not," said Boy Blue. "I'll come with you, Uncle +Wiggily. And thank you, so much, for helping me. I don't know what +would have happened only for you." + +"Pray do not mention it," politely said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh. +Then he and little Boy Blue hurried on through the snow, and soon +they were at Grandpa Goosey's house with the warm apple pie, and oh! +how good it tasted! Oh, yum-yum! + +And if the church steeple doesn't drop the ding-dong bell down in +the pulpit and scare the organ, I'll tell you next about Uncle +Wiggily and Higgledee Piggledee. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND HIGGLEDEE PIGGLEDEE + + +One day Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was +sitting in an easy chair in the hollow-stump house of the Bushytail +squirrel family, where he was paying a visit to Johnnie and Billie +Bushytail, the two squirrel boys. + +There came a knock on the door, but the bunny uncle did not pay much +attention to it, as he was sort of taking a little sleep after his +dinner of cabbage soup with carrot ice cream on top. + +Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, went out in +the hall, and when she came back, with her tail all tied up in a +pink ribbon, (for she was sweeping) she said: + +"Uncle Wiggily, a friend of yours has come to see you." + +"A friend of mine!" cried Uncle Wiggily, awakening so suddenly that +his nose stopped twinkling. "I hope it isn't the bad old fox from +the Orange Mountains." + +"No," answered Nurse Jane with a smile, "it is a lady." + +"A lady?" exclaimed the old rabbit gentleman, getting up quickly, and +looking in the glass to see that his ears were not criss-crossed. +"Who can it be?" + +"It is Mother Goose," went on Nurse Jane. "She says you were so kind +as to help Little Boy Blue the other day, when his horn was frozen, +and you thawed it on the warm pie, that perhaps you will now help +her. She is in trouble." + +"In trouble, eh?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, sort of smoothing down +his vest, fastidious like and stylish. "I didn't know she blew a +horn." + +"She doesn't," said Nurse Jane. "But I'll bring her in and she can +tell you, herself, what she wants." + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Mother Goose, as she set her broom down +in one corner, for she never went out unless she carried it with +her. She said she never could tell when she might have to sweep the +cobwebs out of the sky. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am in such a lot of +trouble!" + +"Well, I will be very glad to help you if I can," said the bunny +uncle. "What is it?" + +"It's about Higgledee Piggledee," answered Mother Goose. + +"Higgledee Piggledee!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "why that sounds +like----" + +"She's my black hen," went on Mother Goose. "You know how the verse +goes in the book about me and my friends." + +And, taking off her tall peaked hat, which she wore when she rode on +the back of the old gander, Mother Goose sang: + + "Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen, + She lays eggs for gentlemen. + Sometimes nine and sometimes ten. + Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen. + Gentlemen come every day, + To see what my black hen doth lay." + +"Well," asked Uncle Wiggily, "what is the trouble? Has Higgledee +Piggledee stopped laying? If she has I am afraid I can't help you, +for hens don't lay many eggs in winter, you know." + +"Oh, it isn't that!" said Mother Goose, quickly. "Higgledee +Piggledee lays as many eggs as ever for gentlemen--sometimes nine +and sometimes ten. But the trouble is the gentlemen don't get them." + +"Don't they come for them?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzled +like and wondering. + +"Oh, yes, they come every day," said Mother Goose, "but there are no +eggs for them. Some one else is getting the eggs Higgledee Piggledee +lays." + +"Do you s'pose she eats them herself?" asked the old rabbit +gentleman, in a whisper. "Hens sometimes do, you know." + +"Not Higgledee Piggledee," quickly spoke Mother Goose. "She is too +good to do that. She and I are both worried about the missing eggs, +and as you have been so kind I thought perhaps you could help us." + +"I'll try," Uncle Wiggily said. + +"Then come right along to Higgledee Piggledee's coop," invited +Mother Goose. "Maybe you can find out where her eggs go to. She lays +them in her nest, comes off, once in a while, to get something to +eat, but when she goes back to lay more eggs the first ones are +gone." + +Uncle Wiggily twinkled his nose, tied his ears in a hard knot, as he +always did when he was thinking, and then, putting on his fur coat +and taking his rheumatism crutch with him, he went out with Mother +Goose. + +Uncle Wiggily rode in his airship, made of a clothes-basket, with +toy circus balloons on top, and Mother Goose rode on the back of a +big gander, who was a brother to Grandfather Goosey Gander. Soon +they were at the hen coop where Higgledee Piggledee lived. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am so glad you came!" cackled the black hen. +"Did Mother Goose tell you about the egg trouble?" + +"She did, Higgledee Piggledee, and I will see if I can stop it. Now, +you go on the nest and lay some eggs and then we will see what +happens," spoke Uncle Wiggily. + +So Higgledee Piggledee, the black hen, laid some eggs for gentlemen, +and then she went out in the yard to get some corn to eat, just as +she always did. And, while she was gone, Uncle Wiggily hid himself +in some straw in the hen coop. Pretty soon the old gentleman heard a +gnawing, rustling sound and up out of a hole in the ground popped +two big rats, with red eyes. + +"Did Higgledee Piggledee lay any eggs today?" asked one rat, in a +whisper. + +"Yes," spoke the other, "she did." + +"Then we will take them," said the first rat. "Hurray! More eggs for +us! No gentlemen will get these eggs because we'll take them +ourselves. Hurray!" + +He got down on his back, with his paws sticking up in the air. Then +the other rat rolled one of the black hen's eggs over so the first +rat could hold it in among his four legs. Next, the second rat took +hold of the first rat's tail and began pulling him along, egg and +all, just as if he were a sled on a slippery hill, the rat sliding +on his back over the smooth straw. And the eggs rode on the rat-sled +as nicely as you please. + +"Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jumping suddenly out of his hiding-place. +"So this is where Higgledee Piggledee's eggs have been going, eh? +You rats have been taking them. Scatt! Shoo! Boo! Skedaddle! Scoot!" + +And the rats were so scared that they skedaddled away and shooed +themselves and did everything else Mr. Longears told them to do, and +they took no eggs that day. Then Uncle Wiggily showed Mother Goose +the rat hole, and it was stopped up with stones so the rats could +not come in the coop again. And ever after that Higgledee Piggledee, +the black hen, could lay eggs for gentlemen, sometimes nine and +sometimes ten, and there was no more trouble as there had been +before Uncle Wiggily caught the rats and made them skedaddle. + +So Mother Goose and the black hen thanked Uncle Wiggily very much. +And if the stylish lady who lives next door doesn't take our feather +bed to wear on her hat when she goes to the moving pictures, I'll +tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Little Bo Peep. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BO PEEP + + +"What are you going to do, Nurse Jane?" asked Uncle Wiggily +Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he saw the muskrat lady +housekeeper going out in the kitchen one morning, with an apron on, +and a dab of white flour on the end of her nose. + +"I am going to make a chocolate cake with carrot icing on top," +replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. + +"Oh, good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and almost before he knew it he +started to clap his paws, just as Sammie and Susie Littletail, the +rabbit children, might have done, and as they often did do when they +were pleased about anything. "I just love chocolate cake!" cried the +bunny uncle, who was almost like a boy-bunny himself. + +"Do you?" asked Nurse Jane. "Then I am glad I am going to make one," +and, going into the kitchen of the hollow-stump bungalow, she began +rattling away among the pots, pans and kettles. + +For now Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily were living together once more +in their own hollow-stump bungalow. It had burned down, you +remember, but Uncle Wiggily had had it built up again, and now he +did not have to visit around among his animal friends, though he +still called on them every now and then. + +"Oh, dear!" suddenly cried Nurse Jane from the kitchen. "Oh, dear!" + +"What is the matter, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?" asked the bunny uncle. "Did +you drop a pan on your paw?" + +"No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the muskrat lady. "It is worse than +that. I can't make the chocolate cake after all, I am sorry to say." + +"Oh, dear! That is too bad! Why not?" asked the bunny uncle, in a +sad and sorrowful voice. + +"Because there is no chocolate," went on Nurse Jane. "Since we came +to our new hollow-stump bungalow I have not made any cakes, and +to-day I forgot to order the chocolate from the store for this one." + +"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll go to the store and +get the chocolate for you. In fact, I would go to two stores and +part of another one for the sake of having a chocolate cake." + +"All right," spoke Nurse Jane. "If you get me the chocolate I'll +make one." + +Putting on his overcoat, with his tall silk hat tied down over his +ears so they would not blow away--I mean so his hat would not blow +off--and with his rheumatism crutch under his paw, off started the +old gentleman rabbit, across the fields and through the woods to the +chocolate store. + +After buying what he wanted for Nurse Jane's cake, the old gentleman +rabbit started back for the hollow-stump bungalow. On the way, he +passed a toy store, and he stopped to look in the window at the +pop-guns, the spinning-tops, the dolls, the Noah's Arks, with the +animals marching out of them, and all things like that. + +"It makes me young again to look at toys," said the bunny uncle. +Then he went on a little farther until, all at once, as he was +passing a bush, he heard from behind it the sound of crying. + +"Ha! Some one in trouble again," said Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if it +can be Little Boy Blue?" He looked, but, instead of seeing the +sheep-boy, whom he had once helped, Uncle Wiggily saw a little girl. + +"Ha! Who are you?" the bunny uncle asked, "and what is the matter?" + +"I am Little Bo Peep," was the answer, "and I have lost my sheep, +and don't know where to find them." + +"Why, let them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tails +behind them," said Uncle Wiggily quickly, and he laughed jolly like +and happy, because he had made a rhyme to go with what Bo Peep said. + +"Yes, I know that's the way it is in the Mother Goose book," said +Little Bo Peep, "but I've waited and waited, and let them alone ever +so long, but they haven't come home. And now I'm afraid they'll +freeze." + +"Ha! That's so. It _is_ pretty cold for sheep to be out," said Uncle +Wiggily, as he looked across the snow-covered field, and toward the +woods where there were icicles hanging down from the trees. + +"Look here, Little Bo Peep," went on the bunny uncle. "I think your +sheep must have gone home long ago, wagging their tails behind them. +And you, too, had better run home to Mother Goose. Tell her you met +me and that I sent you home. And, if I find your sheep, I'll send +them along, too. So don't worry." + +"Oh, but I don't like to go home without my sheep," said Bo Peep, +and tears came into her eyes. "I ought to bring them with me. But +today I went skating on Crystal Lake, up in the Lemon-Orange +Mountains, and I forgot all about my sheep. Now I am afraid to go +home without them. Oh, dear!" + +Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute, then he said: + +"Ha! I have it! I know where I can get you some sheep to take home +with you. Then Mother Goose will say it is all right. Come with me." + +"Where are you going?" asked Bo Peep. + +"To get you some sheep." And Uncle Wiggily led the little shepardess +girl back to the toy store, in the window of which he had stopped to +look a while ago. + +"Give Bo Peep some of your toy woolly sheep, if you please," said +Uncle Wiggily to the toy store man. "She can take them home with +her, while her own sheep are safe in some warm place, I'm sure. But +now she must have some sort of sheep to take home with her in place +of the lost ones, so it will come out all right, as it is in the +book. And these toy woolly sheep will do as well as any; won't they, +Little Bo Peep?" + +"Oh, yes, they will; thank you very much, Uncle Wiggily," answered +Bo Peep, making a pretty little bow. Then the rabbit gentleman +bought her ten little toy, woolly sheep, each one with a tail which +Bo Peep could wag for them, and one toy lamb went: "Baa! Baa! Baa!" +as real as anything, having a little phonograph talking machine +inside him. + +"Now I can go home to Mother Goose and make believe these are my +lost sheep," said Bo Peep, "and it will be all right." + +"And here is a piece of chocolate for you to eat," said Uncle +Wiggily. Then Bo Peep hurried home with her fleecy toy sheep, and, +later on, she found her real ones, all nice and warm, in the barn +where the Cow with the Crumpled Horn lived. Mother Goose laughed in +her jolliest way when she saw the toy sheep Uncle Wiggily had bought +Bo Peep. + +"It's just like him!" said Mother Goose. + +And if the goldfish doesn't climb out of his tank and hide in the +sardine tin, where the stuffed olives can't find him, I'll tell you +next about Uncle Wiggily and Tommie Tucker. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE TUCKER + + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, one +day, as she went over to see her bunny uncle in his hollow-stump +bungalow. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Isn't it too bad?" + +"Isn't what too bad?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as he +scratched his nose with his left ear, and put his glasses in his +pocket, for he was tired of reading the paper, and felt like going +out for a walk. + +"Too bad about my talking and singing doll, that I got for +Christmas," said Susie. "She won't sing any more. Something inside +her is broken." + +"Broken? That's too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Let me see. +What's her name?" + +"Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake," answered Susie. + +"What a funny name," laughed the bunny uncle. + +Uncle Wiggily took Susie's doll, which had been given her at +Christmas, and looked at it. Inside the doll was a sort of +phonograph, or talking machine--a very small one, you know--and when +you pushed on a little button in back of the doll's dress she would +laugh and talk. But, best of all, when she was in working order, she +would sing a verse, which went something like this: + + "I hope you'll like my little song, + I will not sing it very long. + I have two shoes upon my feet, + And when I'm hungry, then I eat." + +Uncle Wiggily wound up the spring in the doll's side, and then he +pressed the button--like a shoe button--in her back. But this time +Susie's doll did not talk, she did not laugh, and, instead of +singing, she only made a scratchy noise like a phonograph when it +doesn't want to play, or like Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, when he +has a cold in his head. + +"Oh, dear! This is quite too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Quite +indeed." + +"Isn't it!" exclaimed Susie. "Do you think you can fix her, Uncle?" + +Mr. Longears turned the doll upside down and shook her. Things +rattled inside her, but even then she did not sing. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Susie, her little pink nose going twinkle-inkle, +just as did Uncle Wiggily's. "What can we do?" + +"You leave it to me, Susie," spoke the old rabbit gentleman. "I'll +take the doll to the toy shop, where I bought Little Bo Peep's +sheep, and have her mended." + +"Oh, goodie!" cried Susie, clasping her paws. "Now I know it will be +all right," and she kissed Uncle Wiggily right between his ears. + +"Well, I'm sure I _hope_ it will be all right after _that_," said +the bunny uncle, laughing, and feeling sort of tickled inside. + +Off hopped Uncle Wiggily to the toy shop, and there he found the +same monkey-doodle gentleman who had sold him the toy woolly sheep +for Little Bo Peep. + +"Here is more trouble," said Uncle Wiggily. "Can you fix Susie's +doll so she will sing, for the doll is a little girl one, just like +Susie, and her name is Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake." + +The monkey-doodle man in the toy store looked at the doll. + +"I can fix her," he said. Going in his back-room workshop, where +there were rocking-horses that needed new legs, wooden soldiers who +had lost their guns, and steamboats that had forgotten their +whistles, the toy man soon had Susie's doll mended again as well as +ever. So that she said: "Papa! Mama! I love you! I am hungry!" And +she laughed: "Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" and she sang: + + "I am a little dollie, + 'Bout one year old. + Please take me where it's warm, for I + Am feeling rather cold. + If you're not in a hurry, + It won't take me very long, + To whistle or to sing for you + My pretty little song." + +"Hurray!" cried Uncle Wiggily when he heard this. "Susie's dolly is +all right again. Thank you, Mr. Monkey-Doodle, I'll take her to +Susie." Then Uncle Wiggily paid the toy-store keeper and hurried off +with Susie's doll. + +Uncle Wiggily had not gone very far before, all at once from around +the corner of a snowbank he heard a sad, little voice crying: + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" + +"My goodness!" said the bunny uncle. "Some one else is in trouble. I +wonder who it can be this time?" + +He looked, and saw a little boy standing in the snow. + +"Hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice. "Who are you, and +what's the matter?" + +"I am Little Tommie Tucker," was the answer. "And the matter is I'm +hungry." + +"Hungry, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Well, why don't you eat?" + +"I guess you forgot about me and the Mother Goose book," spoke the +boy. "I'm in that book, and it says about me: + + "'Little Tommie Tucker, + Must sing for his supper. + What shall he eat? + Jam and bread and butter.'" + +"Well?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why don't you sing?" + +"I--I can't!" answered Tommie. "That's the trouble. I have caught +such a cold that I can't sing. And if I don't sing Mother Goose +won't know it is I, and she won't give me any supper. Oh, dear! Oh, +dear! And I am so hungry!" + +"There now, there! Don't cry," kindly said the bunny uncle, patting +Tommie Tucker on the head. "I'll soon have you singing for your +supper." + +"But how can you when I have such a cold?" asked the little boy. +"Listen. I am as hoarse as a crow." + +And, truly, he could no more sing than a rusty gate, or a last +year's door-knob. + +"Ah, I can soon fix that!" said Uncle Wiggily. "See, here I have +Susie Littletail's talking and singing doll, which I have just had +mended. Now you take the doll in your pocket, go to Mother Goose, +and when she asks you to sing for your supper, just push the button +in the doll's back. Then the doll will sing and Mother Goose will +think it is you, and give you bread and jam." + +"Oh, how fine!" cried Tommie Tucker. "I'll do it!" + +"But afterward," said Uncle Wiggily, slowly shaking his paw at +Tommie, "afterward you must tell Mother Goose all about the little +joke you played, or it would not be fair. Tell her the doll sang and +not you." + +"I will," said Tommie. He and Uncle Wiggily went to Mother Goose's +house, and when Tommie had to sing for his supper the doll did it +for him. And when Mother Goose heard about it she said it was a fine +trick, and that Uncle Wiggily was very good to think of it. + +Then the bunny uncle took Susie's mended doll to her, and the next +day Tommie's cold was all better and he could sing for his supper +himself, just as the book tells about. + +And if the little mouse doesn't go to sleep in the cat's cradle and +scare the milk bottle so it rolls off the back stoop, I'll tell you +next about Uncle Wiggily and Pussy Cat Mole. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND PUSSY CAT MOLE + + +"Oh, dear! I don't believe he's ever coming!" said Nurse Jane Fuzzy +Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she stood at the window of +the hollow-stump bungalow one day, and looked down through the +woods. + +"For whom are you looking, Nurse Jane?" asked Uncle Wiggily +Longears, the rabbit gentleman. "If it's for the letter-man, I think +he went past some time ago." + +"No, I wasn't looking for the letter-man," said the muskrat lady. "I +am expecting a messenger-boy cat to bring home my new dress from the +dressmaker's, but I don't see him." + +"A new dress, eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Pray, what is going on?" + +"My dress is going on me, as soon as it comes home, Uncle Wiggily," +the muskrat lady answered, laughingly. "And then I am going on over +to the house of Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady. She and I are +going to have a little tea party together, if you don't mind." + +"Mind? Certainly not! I'm glad to have you go out and enjoy +yourself," said Uncle Wiggily, jolly like and also laughing. + +"But I can't go if my new dress doesn't come," went on Nurse Jane. +"That is, I don't want to." + +"Look here!" said the bunny uncle, "I'll tell you what I'll do, +Nurse Jane, I'll go for your dress myself and bring it home. I have +nothing to do. I'll go get your dress at the dressmaker's." + +"Will you, really?" cried the muskrat lady. "That will be fine! Then +I can curl my whiskers and tie a new pink bow for my tail. You are +very good, Uncle Wiggily." + +"Oh, not at all! Not at all!" the rabbit gentleman said, modest like +and shy. Then he hopped out of the hollow-stump bungalow and across +the fields and through the woods to where Nurse Jane's dressmaker +made dresses. + +"Oh, yes, Nurse Jane's dress!" exclaimed Mrs. Spin-Spider, who wove +silk for all the dresses worn by the lady animals of Woodland. "Yes, +I have just finished it. I was about to call a messenger-boy cat and +send it home, but now you are here you may take it. And here is some +cloth I had left over. Nurse Jane might want it if ever she tears a +hole in her dress." + +Uncle Wiggily put the extra pieces of cloth in his pocket, and then +Mrs. Spin-Spider wrapped Nurse Jane's dress up nicely for him in +tissue paper, as fine as the web which she had spun for the silk, +and the rabbit gentleman started back to the hollow-stump bungalow. + +Mrs. Spin-Spider lived on Second Mountain, and, as Uncle Wiggily's +bungalow was on First Mountain, he had quite a way to go to get +home. And when he was about half way there he passed a little house +near a gray rock that looked like an eagle, and in the house he +heard a voice saying: + +"Oh, dear! Oh, isn't it too bad? Now I can't go!" + +"Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought the rabbit gentleman. "It +sounds like some one in trouble. I will ask if I can do anything to +help." + +The rabbit gentleman knocked on the door of the little house, and a +voice said: + +"Come in!" + +Uncle Wiggily entered, and there in the middle of the room he saw a +pussy cat lady holding up a dress with a big hole burned in it. + +"I beg your pardon, but who are you and what is the matter?" +politely asked the bunny uncle, making a low bow. + +"My name is Pussy Cat Mole," was the answer, "and you can see the +trouble for yourself. I am Pussy Cat Mole; I jumped over a coal, +and----" + +"In your best petticoat burned a great hole," finished Uncle +Wiggily. "I know you, now. You are from Mother Goose's book and I +met you at a party in Belleville, where they have a bluebell flower +on the school to call the animal children to their lessons." + +"That's it!" meowed Pussy Cat Mole. "I am glad you remember me, +Uncle Wiggily. It was at a party I met you, and now I am going to +another. Or, rather, I was going until I jumped over a coal, and in +my best petticoat burned a great hole. Now I can't go," and she held +up the burned dress, sorrowful like and sad. + +"How did you happen to jump over the coal?" asked Uncle Wiggily. + +"Oh, it fell out of my stove," said Pussy Cat Mole, "and I jumped +over it in a hurry to get the fire shovel to take it up. That's how +I burned my dress. And now I can't go to the party, for it was my +best petticoat, and Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, asked me to be +there early, too; and now--Oh, dear!" and Pussy Cat Mole felt very +badly, indeed. + +"Mrs. Wibblewobble's!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why, Nurse Jane is +going there to a little tea party, too! This is her new dress I am +taking home." + +"Has she burned a hole in it?" asked the pussy cat lady. + +"No, she has not, I am glad to say," the bunny uncle replied. "She +hasn't had it on, yet." + +"Then she can go to the party, but I can't," said Pussy Cat Mole, +sorrowfully. "Oh, dear!" + +"Yes, you can go!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily. "See here! I have +some extra pieces of cloth, left over when Mrs. Spin-Spider made +Nurse Jane's dress. Now you can take these pieces of cloth and mend +the hole burned by the coal in your best petticoat. Then you can go +to the party." + +"Oh, so I can," meowed the pussy cat. So, with a needle and thread, +and the cloth she mended her best petticoat. + +All around the edges and over the top of the burned hole the pussy +cat lady sewed the left-over pieces of Nurse Jane's dress which was +almost the same color. Then, when the mended place was pressed with +a warm flat-iron, Uncle Wiggily cried: + +"You would never know there had been a burned hole!" + +"That's fine!" meowed Pussy Cat Mole. "Thank you so much, Uncle +Wiggily, for helping me!" + +"Pray do not mention it," said the rabbit gentleman, bashful like +and casual. Then he hurried to the hollow-stump bungalow with Nurse +Jane's dress, and the muskrat lady said he had done just right to +help mend Pussy Cat Mole's dress with the left-over pieces. So she +and Nurse Jane both went to Mrs. Wibblewobble's little tea party, +and had a good time. + +And so, you see, it came out just as it did in the book: Pussy Cat +Mole jumped over a coal, and in her best petticoat burned a great +hole. But the hole it was mended, and my story is ended. Only never +before was it known how the hole was mended. Uncle Wiggily did it. + +And, if the apple doesn't jump out of the peach dumpling and hide in +the lemon pie when the knife and fork try to play tag with it, I'll +tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Jack and Jill, and it will be +a Valentine story. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK AND JILL + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was asleep in +an easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow one morning when he heard +some one calling: + +"Hi, Jack! Ho, Jill! Where are you? Come at once, if you please!" + +"Ha! What's that? Some one calling me?" asked the bunny uncle, +sitting up so suddenly that he knocked over his red, white and blue +striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, +the muskrat lady housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a +corn-stalk. "Is any one calling me?" asked Mr. Longears. + +"No," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "That's Mother Goose calling Jack +and Jill to get a pail of water." + +"Oh! is that all?" asked the rabbit gentleman, rubbing his pink eyes +and making his nose twinkle like the sharp end of an ice cream cone. +"Just Mother Goose calling Jack and Jill; eh? Well, I'll go out and +see if I can find them for her." + +Uncle Wiggily was always that way, you know, wanting to help some +one. This time it was Mother Goose. His new hollow-stump bungalow +was built right near where Mother Goose lived, with all her big +family; Peter-Peter Pumpkin-Eater, Little Jack Horner, Bo Peep and +many others. + +"Ho, Jack! Hi, Jill! Where are you?" called Mother Goose, as Uncle +Wiggily came out of his hollow stump. + +"Can't you find those two children?" asked the rabbit gentleman, +making a polite good morning bow. + +"I am sorry to say I cannot," answered Mother Goose. "They were over +to see the Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe, a while ago, but where +they are now I can't guess, and I need a pail of water for Simple +Simon to go fishing in, for to catch a whale." + +"Oh, I'll get the water for you," said Uncle Wiggily, taking the +pail. "Perhaps Jack and Jill are off playing somewhere, and they +have forgotten all about getting the water." + +"And I suppose they'll forget about tumbling down hill, too," went +on Mother Goose, sort of nervous like. "But they must not. If they +don't fall down, so Jack can break his crown, it won't be like the +story in my book, and everything will be upside down." + +"So Jack has to break his crown; eh?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "That's +too bad. I hope he won't hurt himself too much." + +"Oh, he's used to it by this time," Mother Goose said. "He doesn't +mind falling, nor does Jill mind tumbling down after." + +"Very well, then, I'll get the pail of water for you," spoke the +bunny uncle, "and Jack and Jill can do the tumbling-down-hill part." + +Uncle Wiggily took the water pail and started for the hill, on top +of which was the well owned by Mother Goose. As the bunny uncle was +walking along he suddenly heard a voice calling to him from behind a +bush. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, will you do me a favor?" + +"I certainly will," said Mr. Longears, "but who are you, and where +are you?" + +"Here I am, over here," the voice went on. "I'm Jack, and will you +please give this to Jill when you see her?" + +Out from behind the bush stepped Jack, the little Mother Goose boy. +In his hand he held a piece of white birch bark, prettily colored +red, green and pink, and on it was a little verse which read: + + "Can you tell me, pretty maid, + Tell me and not be afraid, + Who's the sweetest girl, and true?-- + I can; for she's surely you!" + +"What's this? What's this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. +"What's this?" + +"It's a valentine for Jill," said Jack. "To-day is Valentine's Day, +you see, but I don't want Jill to know I sent it, so I went off here +and hid until I could see you to ask you to take it to her." + +"All right, I'll do it," Uncle Wiggily said, laughing. "I'll take +your valentine to Jill for you. So that's why you weren't 'round to +get the pail of water; is it?" + +"Yes," answered Jack. "I wanted to finish making my valentine. As +soon as you give it to Jill I'll get the water." + +"Oh, never mind that," said the bunny uncle. "I'll get the water, +just you do the falling-down-hill part. I'm too old for that." + +"I will," promised Jack. Then Uncle Wiggily went on up the hill, and +pretty soon he heard some one else calling him, and, all of a +sudden, out from behind a stump stepped Jill, the little Mother +Goose girl. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" said Jill, bashfully holding out a pretty red +leaf, shaped like a heart, "will you please give this to Jack. I +don't want him to know I sent it." + +"Of course, I'll give it to him," promised the rabbit gentleman. +"It's a valentine, I suppose, and here is something for you," and +while Jill was reading the valentine Jack had sent her, Uncle +Wiggily looked at the red heart-shaped leaf. On it Jill had written +in blue ink: + + "One day when I went to school, + Teacher taught to me this rule: + Eight and one add up to nine; + So I'll be your valentine." + +"My, that's nice!" said Uncle Wiggily, laughing. "So that's why +you're hiding off here for, Jill, to make a valentine for Jack?" + +"That's it," Jill answered, blushing sort of pink, like the frosting +on a strawberry cake. "But I don't want Jack to know it." + +"I'll never tell him," said Uncle Wiggily. + +So he went on up the hill to get a pail of water for Mother Goose. +And on his way back he gave Jill's valentine to Jack, who liked it +very much. + +"And now, since you got the water, Jill and I will go tumble down +hill," said Jack, as he found the little girl, where she was reading +his valentine again. Up the hill they went, near the well of water, +and Jack fell down, and broke his crown, while Jill came tumbling +after, while Uncle Wiggily looked on and laughed. So it all happened +just as it did in the book, you see. + +Mother Goose was very glad Uncle Wiggily had brought the water for +Simple Simon to go fishing in, and that afternoon she gave a +valentine party for Sammie and Susie Littletail, the Bushytail +squirrel brothers, Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goats, and all the +other animal friends of Uncle Wiggily. And every one had a fine +time. + +And if the cup doesn't jump out of the saucer and hide in the +spoonholder, where the coffee cake can't find it, I'll tell you next +about Uncle Wiggily and little Jack Horner. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK HORNER + + +"Well, I think I'll go for a walk," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the +rabbit gentleman, one afternoon, when he was sitting out on the +front porch of his hollow-stump bungalow. He had just eaten a nice +dinner that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, +had gotten ready for him. + +"Go for a walk!" exclaimed Nurse Jane. "Why, Mr. Longears, excuse me +for saying so, but you went walking this morning." + +"I know I did," answered the bunny uncle, "but no adventure happened +to me then. I don't really count it a good day unless I have had an +adventure. So I'll go walking again, and perhaps I may find one. If +I do, I'll come home and tell you all about it." + +"All right," said Nurse Jane. "You are a funny rabbit, to be sure! +Going off in the woods, looking for adventures when you might sit +quietly here on the bungalow front porch." + +"That's just it!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "I don't like to be too +quiet. Off I go!" + +"I hope you have a nice adventure!" Nurse Jane called after him. + +"Thank you," answered Uncle Wiggily, politely. + +Away over the fields and through the woods went the bunny uncle, +looking on all sides for an adventure, when, all of a sudden he +heard behind him a sound that went: + +"Honk! Honk! Honkity-honk-honk!" + +"Ha! That must be a wild goose!" thought the rabbit gentleman. + +So he looked up in the air, over his head, where the wild geese +always fly, but, instead of seeing any of the big birds, Uncle +Wiggily felt something whizz past him, and again he heard the loud +"Honk-honk!" noise, and then he sneezed, for a lot of dust from the +road flew up his nose. + +"My!" he heard some one cry. "We nearly ran over a rabbit! Did you +see?" + +And a big automobile, with real people in it, shot past. It was the +horn of the auto that Uncle Wiggily had heard, and not a wild goose. + +"Ha! That came pretty close to me," thought Uncle Wiggily, as the +auto went on down the road. "I never ride my automobile as fast as +that, even when I sprinkle pepper on the bologna sausage tires. I +don't like to scare any one." + +Perhaps the people in the auto did not mean to so nearly run over +Uncle Wiggily. Let us hope so. + +The old gentleman rabbit hopped on down the road, that was between +the woods and the fields, and, pretty soon, he saw something bright +and shining in the dust, near where the auto had passed. + +"Oh, maybe that's a diamond," he said, as he stooped over to pick it +up. But it was only a shiny button-hook, and not a diamond at all. +Some one in the automobile had dropped it. + +"Well, I'll put it in my pocket," said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "It +may come in useful to button Nurse Jane's shoes, or mine." + +The bunny gentleman went on a little farther, and, pretty soon, he +came to a tiny house, with a red chimney sticking up out of the +roof. + +"Ha! I wonder who lives there?" said Uncle Wiggily. + +He stood still for a moment, looking through his glasses at the +house and then, all of a sudden, he saw a little lady, with a tall, +peaked hat on, run out and look up and down the road. Her hat was +just like an ice cream cone turned upside down. Only don't turn your +ice cream cone upside down if it has any cream in it, for you might +spill your treat. + +"Help! Help! Help!" cried the lady, who had come out of the house +with the red chimney. + +"Ha! That sounds like trouble!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I think I had +better hurry over there and see what it is all about." + +He hopped over toward the little house, and, when he reached it he +saw that the little lady who was calling for help was Mother Goose +herself. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" exclaimed Mother Goose. "I am so glad to see +you! Will you please go for help for me?" + +"Why, certainly I will," answered the bunny gentleman. "But what +kind of help do you want; help for the kitchen, or a wash-lady help +or----" + +"Neither of those," said Mother Goose. "I want help so Little Jack +Horner can get his thumb out of the pie." + +"Get his thumb out of the pie!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What in the +world do you mean?" + +"Why, you see it's this way," went on Mother Goose. "Jack Horner +lives here. You must have heard about him. He is in my book. His +verse goes like this: + + "Little Jack Horner + Sat in a corner, + Eating a Christmas pie. + He put in his thumb, + And pulled out a plum, + And said what a great boy am I. + +"That's the boy I mean," cried Mother Goose. "But the trouble is +that Jack can't get his thumb out. He put it in the pie, to pull out +the plum, but it won't come out--neither the plum nor the thumb. +They are stuck fast for some reason or other. I wish you'd go for +Dr. Possum, so he can help us." + +"I will," said Uncle Wiggily. "But is Jack Horner sitting in a +corner, as it says in the book?" + +"Oh, he's doing that all right," answered Mother Goose. "But, corner +or no corner, he can't pull out his thumb." + +"I'll get the doctor at once," promised the bunny uncle. He hurried +over to Dr. Possum's house, but could not find him, as Dr. Possum +was, just then, called to see Jillie Longtail, who had the +mouse-trap fever. + +"Dr. Possum not in!" cried Mother Goose, when Uncle Wiggily had +hopped back and told her. "That's too bad! Oh, we must do something +for Jack. He's crying and going on terribly because he can't get his +thumb out." + +Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then, putting his paw in his +pocket, he felt the button-hook which had dropped from the +automobile that nearly ran over him. + +"Ha! I know what to do!" cried the bunny uncle, suddenly. + +"What?" asked Mother Goose. + +"I'll pull out Jack's thumb myself, with this button-hook," said Mr. +Longears. "I'll make him all right without waiting for Dr. Possum." + +Into the room, where, in the corner, Jack was sitting, went the +bunny gentleman. There he saw the Christmas-pie boy, with his thumb +away down deep under the top crust. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jack. "I'm in such trouble. Oh, dear! I +can't get my thumb out. It must be caught on the edge of the pan, or +something!" + +"Don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll get it out for you." + +[Illustration: "I wish you'd go for Dr. Possum."] + +So he put the button-hook through the hole in the top pie crust, +close to Jack's thumb. Then, getting the hook on the plum, Uncle +Wiggily, with his strong paws, pulled and pulled and pulled, and---- + +All of a sudden out came the plum and Jack Homer's thumb, and they +weren't stuck fast any more. + +"Oh, thank you, so much!" said Jack, as he got up out of his corner. + +"Pray don't mention it," spoke Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I am glad I +could help you, and it also makes an adventure for me." + +Then Jack Horner, went back to his corner and ate the plum that +stuck to his thumb. And Uncle Wiggily, putting the button-hook back +in his pocket, went on to his hollow-stump bungalow. He had had his +adventure. + +So everything came out all right, you see, and if the snow-shovel +doesn't go off by itself, sliding down hill with the ash can, when +it ought to be boiling the cups and saucers for supper, I'll tell +you next about Uncle Wiggily and Mr. Pop-Goes. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND MR. POP-GOES + + +"Uncle Wiggily," said Mrs. Littletail, the rabbit lady, one morning, +as she came in the dining-room where Mr. Longears was reading the +cabbage leaf paper after breakfast, "Uncle Wiggily, I don't like you +to go out in such a storm as this, but I do need some things from +the store, and I have no one to send." + +"Why, I'll be only too glad to go," cried the bunny uncle, who was +spending a few days visiting the Littletail family in their +underground burrow-house. "It isn't snowing very hard," and he +looked out through the window, which was up a little way above +ground to make the burrow light. "What do you want, Mrs. +Littletail?" he asked. + +"Oh, I want a loaf of bread and some sugar," said the bunny mother +of Sammie and Susie Littletail. + +"And you shall certainly have what you want!" cried Uncle Wiggily, +as he got ready to go to the store. Soon he was on his way, wearing +his fur coat, and hopping along on his corn-stalk rheumatism crutch, +while his pink nose was twinkling in the frosty air like a red +lantern on the back of an automobile. + +"A loaf of home-made bread and three and a half pounds of granulated +sugar," said Uncle Wiggily to the monkey-doodle gentleman who kept +the grocery store. "And the best that you have, if you please, as +it's for Mrs. Littletail." + +"You shall certainly have the best!" cried the monkey-doodle +gentleman, with a jolly laugh. And while he was wrapping up the +things for Uncle Wiggily to carry home, all at once there sounded in +the store a loud: + +"Pop!" + +"My! What's that?" asked Uncle Wiggily, surprised like and excited. +"I heard a bang like a gun. Are there any hunter-men, with their +dogs about? If there are I must be careful." + +"No, that wasn't a gun," said the monkey-doodle gentleman. "That was +only one of the toy balloons in my window. I had some left over from +last year, so I blew them up and put them in my window to make it +look pretty. Now and then one of them bursts." And just then, surely +enough, "Pop! Bang!" went another toy balloon, bursting and +shriveling all up. + +Uncle Wiggily looked in the front window of the store and saw some +blown-up balloons that had not burst. + +"I'll take two of those," he said to the monkey-doodle gentleman. +"Sammie and Susie Littletail will like to play with them." + +"Better take two or three," said the monkey-doodle gentleman. "I'll +let you have them cheap, as they are old balloons, and they will +burst easily." + +So he let the air out of four balloons and gave them to Uncle +Wiggily to take home to the bunny children. + +The rabbit gentleman started off through the snow-storm toward the +underground house, but he had not gone very far before, just as he +was coming out from behind a big stump, he heard voices talking. + +"Now, I'll tell you how we can get those rabbits," Uncle Wiggily +heard one voice say. "I'll crawl down in the burrow, and as soon as +they see me they'll be scared and run out--Uncle Wiggily, Mrs. +Littletail, the two children, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy and all. Then +you can grab them, Mr. Bigtail! I am glad I happened to meet you!" + +"Ah, ha!" thought Uncle Wiggily. "Mr. Bigtail! I ought to know that +name. It's the fox, and he and some one else seem to be after us +rabbits. But I thought the fox promised to be good and let me alone. +He must have changed his mind." + +Uncle Wiggily peeked cautiously around the stump, taking care to +make no noise, and there he saw a fox and another animal talking. +And the rabbit gentleman saw that it was not the fox who had +promised to be good, but another one, of the same name, who was bad. + +"Yes, I'll go down the hole and drive out the rabbits and you can +grab them," said the queer animal. + +"That's good," growled the fox, "but to whom have I the honor of +speaking?" That was his way of asking the name of the other animal, +you see. + +"Oh, I'm called Mr. Pop-Goes," said the other. + +"Mr. Pop-Goes! What a queer name," said the fox, and all the while +Uncle Wiggily was listening with his big ears, and wondering what it +all meant. + +"Oh, Pop-Goes isn't all my name," said the queer animal. "Don't you +know the story in the book? The monkey chased the cobbler's wife all +around the steeple. That's the way the money goes, Pop! goes the +weasel. I'm Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, you see. I'm 'specially good +at chasing rabbits." + +"Oh, I see!" barked Mr. Bigtail, the fox. "Well, I'll be glad if you +can help me get those rabbits. I've been over to that Uncle +Wiggily's hollow-stump bungalow, but he isn't around." + +"No, he's visiting the Littletail rabbits," said Mr. Pop-Goes, the +weasel. "But we'll drive him out." + +Then Uncle Wiggily felt very badly, indeed, for he knew that a +weasel is the worst animal a rabbit can have after him. Weasels are +very fond of rabbits. They love them so much they want to eat them, +and Uncle Wiggily did not want to be eaten, even by Mr. Pop-Goes. + +"Oh, dear!" he thought. "What can I do to scare away the bad fox and +Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel? Oh, dear!" Then he thought of the toy +balloons, that made a noise like a gun when they were blown up and +burst. "The very thing!" thought the rabbit gentleman. + +Carefully, as he hid behind the stump, Uncle Wiggily took out one of +the toy balloons. Carefully he blew it up, bigger and bigger and +bigger, until, all at once: + +"Bang!" exploded the toy balloon, even making Uncle Wiggily jump. +And as for the fox and Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, why they were so +kerslostrated (if you will kindly excuse me for using such a word) +that they turned a somersault, jumped up in the air, came down, +turned a peppersault, and started to run. + +"Did you hear that noise?" asked the weasel. "That was a pop, and +whenever I hear a pop I have to go! And I'm going fast!" + +"So am I!" barked the fox. "That was a hunter with a gun after us, I +guess. We'll get those rabbits some other time." + +"Maybe you will, and maybe not!" laughed Uncle Wiggily, as he +hurried on to the burrow with the bread, sugar and the rest of the +toy balloons, with which Sammie and Susie had lots of fun. + +So you see Mr. Pop-Goes, the weasel, didn't get Uncle Wiggily after +all, and if the pepper caster doesn't throw dust in the potato's +eyes, and make it sneeze at the rag doll, I'll tell you next about +Uncle Wiggily and Simple Simon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND SIMPLE SIMON + + +"There!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady +housekeeper, who, with Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, +was visiting at the Littletail rabbit burrow one day. "There they +are, Uncle Wiggily, all nicely wrapped up for you to carry." + +"What's nicely wrapped up?" asked the bunny uncle. "And what do you +want me to carry?" And he looked over the tops of his spectacles at +the muskrat lady, sort of surprised and wondering. + +"I want you to carry the jam tarts, and they are all nicely wrapped +up," went on Nurse Jane. "Don't you remember, I said I was going to +make some for you to take over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady?" + +"Oh, of course!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "The jam tarts are for Lulu, +Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children. I remember now. +I'll take them right over." + +"They are all nicely wrapped up in a clean napkin," went on the +muskrat lady, "so be careful not to squash them and squeeze out the +jam, as they are very fresh." + +"I'll be careful," promised the old rabbit gentleman, as he put on +his fur coat and took down off the parlor mantle his red, white and +blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, made of a corn-stalk. + +"Oh, wait a minute, Uncle Wiggily! Wait a minute!" cried Mrs. +Littletail, the bunny mother of Sammie and Susie, the rabbit +children, as Mr. Longears started out. "Where are you going?" + +"Over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady's house, with some jam +tarts for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie," answered Uncle Wiggily. + +"Then would you mind carrying, also, this little rubber plant over +to her?" asked Mrs. Littletail. "I told Mrs. Wibblewobble I would +send one to her the first chance I had." + +"Right gladly will I take it," said Uncle Wiggily. So Mrs. +Littletail, the rabbit lady, wrapped the pot of the little rubber +plant, with its thick, shiny green leaves, in a piece of paper, and +Uncle Wiggily, tucking it under one paw, while with the other he +leaned on his crutch, started off over the fields and through the +woods, with the jam tarts in his pocket. Over toward the home of the +Wibblewobble duck family he hopped. + +Mr. Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, had not gone very far +before, all at once, from behind a snow-covered stump, he heard a +voice saying: + +"Oh, dear! I know I'll never find him! I've looked all over and I +can't see him anywhere. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?" + +"My! That sounds like some one in trouble," Uncle Wiggily said to +himself. "I wonder if that is any of my little animal friends? I +must look." + +So the rabbit gentleman peeked over the top of the stump, and there +he saw a queer-looking boy, with a funny smile on his face, which +was as round and shiny as the bottom of a new dish pan. And the boy +looked so kind that Uncle Wiggily knew he would not hurt even a +lollypop, much less a rabbit gentleman. + +"Oh, hello!" cried the boy, as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily. "Who +are you?" + +"I am Mr. Longears," replied the bunny uncle. "And who are you?" + +"Why, I'm Simple Simon," was the answer. "I'm in the Mother Goose +book, you know." + +"Oh, yes, I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "But you seem to be _out_ +of the book, just now." + +"I am," said Simple Simon. "The page with my picture on it fell out +of the book, and so I ran away. But I can't find him anywhere and I +don't know what to do." + +"Who is it you can't find?" asked the rabbit. + +"The pie-man," answered the funny, round-faced boy. "Don't you +remember, it says in the book, 'Simple Simon met a pie-man going to +the fair?'" + +"Oh, yes, I remember," Uncle Wiggily answered. "What's next?" + +"Well, I can't find him anywhere," said Simple Simon. "I guess the +pie-man didn't fall out of the book when I did." + +"That's too bad," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly. + +"It is," said Simple Simon. "For you know he ought to ask me for my +penny, when I want to taste of his pies, and indeed, I haven't any +penny--not any, and I'm _so_ hungry for a piece of pie!" And Simple +Simon began to cry. + +"Oh, don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily. "See, in my pocket I have some +jam tarts. They are for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the +ducks, but there are enough to let you have one." + +"Why, you are a regular pie-man yourself; aren't you?" laughed +Simple Simon, as he ate one of Nurse Jane's nice jam tarts. + +"Well, you might call me that," said the bunny uncle. "Though I +s'pose a tart-man would be nearer right." + +"But there's something else," went on Simple Simon. "You know in the +Mother Goose book I have to go for water, in my mother's sieve. But +soon it all ran through." And then, cried Simple Simon, "Oh, dear, +what shall I do?" And he held out a sieve, just like a coffee +strainer, full of little holes. "How can I ever get water in that?" +he asked. "I've tried and tried, but I can't. No one can! It all +runs through!" + +Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then he cried: + +"I have it! I'll pull some leaves off the rubber plant I am taking +to Mrs. Wibblewobble. We'll put the leaves in the bottom of the +sieve, and, being of rubber, water can't get through them. Then the +sieve will hold water, or milk either, and you can bring it to your +mother." + +"Oh, fine!" cried Simple Simon, licking the sticky squeegee jam off +his fingers. So Uncle Wiggily put some rubber plant leaves in the +bottom of the sieve, and Simple Simon, filling it full of water, +carried it home to his mother, and not a drop ran through, which, of +course, wasn't at all like the story in the book. + +"But that isn't my fault," said Uncle Wiggily, as he took the rest +of the jam tarts to the Wibblewobble children. "I just had to help +Simple Simon." Which was very kind of Uncle Wiggily, I think; don't +you? It didn't matter if, just once, something happened that wasn't +in the book. + +And Mrs. Wibblewobble didn't at all mind some of the leaves being +off her rubber plant. So you see we should always be kind when we +can; and if the canary bird doesn't go to sleep in the bowl with the +goldfish, and forget to whistle like an alarm clock in the morning, +I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the crumple-horn cow. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRUMPLE-HORN COW + + +"Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, +the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman +starting out from his hollow-stump bungalow one day. He was back +again from his visit to Sammie and Susie Littletail. + +"Oh, I'm just going for a walk," answered Mr. Longears. "I have not +had an exciting adventure since I carried the valentines for Jack +and Jill, before they tumbled down hill, and perhaps to-day I may +find something else to make me lively, and happy and skippy like." + +"Too much hopping and skipping is not good for you," the muskrat +lady said. + +"Yes, I think it is, if you will excuse me for saying so," spoke +Uncle Wiggily politely. "It keeps my rheumatism from getting too +painful." + +Then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch from +inside the talking machine horn, Uncle Wiggily started off. + +Over the fields and through the woods went the rabbit gentleman, +until, pretty soon, as he was walking along, wondering what would +happen to him that day, he heard a voice saying: + +"Moo! Moo! Moo-o-o-o-o!" + +"Ah! That sounds rather sad and unhappy like," spoke the rabbit +gentleman to himself. "I wonder if it can be any one in trouble?" + +So he peeked through the bushes and there he saw a nice cow, who was +standing with one foot in the hollow of a big stump. + +"Moo! Moo!" cried the cow. "Oh, dear, will no one help me?" + +"Why, of course, I'll help you," kindly said Uncle Wiggily. "What is +the matter, and who are you?" + +"Why, I am the Mother Goose cow with the crumpled horn," was the +answer, "and my foot is caught so tightly in the hole of this stump +that I cannot get it out." + +"Why, I'll help you, Mrs. Crumpled-horn Cow," said Uncle Wiggily, +kindly. Then, with his rheumatism crutch, the rabbit gentleman +pushed loose the cow's hoof from where it was caught in the stump, +and she was all right again. + +"Oh, thank you so much, Uncle Wiggily," spoke the crumpled-horn cow. +"If ever I can do you a favor I will." + +"Thank you," said the rabbit gentleman, politely. "I'm sure you +will. But how did you happen to get your hoof caught in that stump?" + +"Oh, I was standing on it, trying to see if I could jump over the +moon," was the answer. + +"Jump over the moon!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "You surprise me! +Why in the world----" + +"It's this way, you see," spoke the crumpled-horn lady cow. "In the +Mother Goose book it says: 'Hi-diddle-diddle, the cat's in the +fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.' Well, if one cow did that, I +don't see why another one can't. I got up on the stump, to try and +jump over the moon, but my foot slipped and I was caught fast. + +"I suppose I should not have tried it, for I am the cow with the +crumpled horn. You have heard of me, I dare say. I'm the cow with +the crumpled horn, that little Boy Blue drove out of the corn. I +tossed the dog that worried that cat that caught the rat that ate +the malt that lay in the house that Jack built." + +"Oh, I remember you now," said Uncle Wiggily. + +"And this is my crumpled horn," went on the cow, and she showed the +rabbit gentleman how one of her horns was all crumpled and crooked +and twisted, just like a corkscrew that is used to pull hard corks +out of bottles. + +"Well, thank you again for pulling out my foot," said the cow, as +she turned away. "Now I must go toss that dog once more, for he's +always worrying the cat." + +So the cow went away, and Uncle Wiggily hopped on through the woods +and over the fields. He had had an adventure, you see, helping the +cow, and later on he had another one, for he met Jimmie +Wibblewobble, the boy duck, who had lost his penny going to the +store for a cornmeal-flavored lollypop. Uncle Wiggily found the +penny in the snow, and Jimmie was happy once more. + +The next day when Uncle Wiggily awakened in his hollow-stump +bungalow, and tried to get out of bed, he was so lame and stiff that +he could hardly move. + +"Oh, dear!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "Ouch! Oh, what a pain!" + +"What is it?" asked Nurse Jane. "What's the matter?" + +"My rheumatism," answered Uncle Wiggily. "Please send to Dr. Possum +and get some medicine. Ouch! Oh, my!" + +"I'll go for the medicine myself," Nurse Jane said, and, tying her +tail up in a double bow-knot, so she would not step on it, and trip, +as she hurried along, over to Dr. Possum's she went. + +The doctor was just starting out to go to see Nannie Wagtail, the +little goat girl, who had the hornache, but before going there Dr. +Possum ran back into his office, got a big bottle of medicine, which +he gave to Nurse Jane, saying: + +"When you get back to the hollow-stump bungalow pull out the cork +and rub some on Uncle Wiggily's pain." + +"Rub the cork on?" asked Nurse Jane, sort of surprised like. + +"No, rub on some of the medicine from the bottle," answered Dr. +Possum, laughing as he hurried off. + +Uncle Wiggily had a bad pain when Nurse Jane got back. + +"I'll soon fix you," said the muskrat lady. "Wait until I get the +cork out of this bottle." But that was more easily said than done. +Nurse Jane tried with all her might to pull out the cork with her +paws and even with her teeth. Then she used a hair pin, but it only +bent and twisted itself all up in a knot. + +"Oh, hurry with the medicine!" begged Uncle Wiggily. "Hurry, +please!" + +"I can't get the cork out," said Nurse Jane. "The cork is stuck in +the bottle." + +"Let me try," spoke the bunny uncle. But he could not get the cork +out, either, and his pain was getting worse all the while. + +Just then came a knock on the bungalow door, and a voice said: + +"I am the cow with the crumpled horn. I just met Dr. Possum, and he +told me Uncle Wiggily had the rheumatism. Is there anything I can do +for him? I'd like to do him a favor as he did me one." + +"Yes, you can help me," said the rabbit gentleman. "Can you pull a +tight cork out of a bottle?" + +"Indeed I can!" mooed the cow. "Just watch me!" She put her crooked, +crumpled horn, which was just like a corkscrew, in the cork, and, +with one twist, out it came from the bottle as easily as anything. +Then Nurse Jane could rub some medicine on Uncle Wiggily's +rheumatism, which soon felt much better. + +So you see Mother Goose's crumpled-horn cow can do other things +besides tossing cat-worrying dogs. And if the fried egg doesn't go +to sleep in the dish pan, so the knives and forks can't play tag +there, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + +"Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do this morning?" asked +Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper for the rabbit +gentleman, as she saw him get up from the breakfast table in his +hollow-stump bungalow. + +"Anything special? Why, no, I guess not," answered the bunny uncle. +"I was going out for a walk, and perhaps I may meet with an +adventure on the way, or I may help some friends of Mother Goose, as +I sometimes do." + +"You are always being kind to some one," said Nurse Jane, "and that +is what I want you to do now. I have just made an orange cake, +and----" + +"An orange cake?" cried Uncle Wiggily, his pink nose twinkling. "How +nice! Where did you get the oranges?" + +"Up on the Orange Mountains, to be sure," answered the muskrat lady, +with a laugh. "I have made two orange cakes, to tell the exact +truth, which I always do. There is one for us and I wanted to send +one to Dr. Possum, who was so good to cure you of the rheumatism, +when the cow with the crumpled horn pulled the hard cork out of the +medicine bottle for us." + +"Send an orange cake to Dr. Possum? The very thing! Oh, fine!" cried +the bunny uncle. "I'll take it right over to him. Put it in a +basket, so it will not take cold, Nurse Jane." + +The muskrat lady wrapped the orange cake in a clean napkin, and then +put it in the basket for Uncle Wiggily to carry to Dr. Possum. + +Off started the old rabbit gentleman, over the woods and through the +fields--oh, excuse me just a minute. He did not go over the woods +this time. He only did that when he had his airship, which he was +not using to-day, for fear of spilling the oranges out of the cake. +So he went over the fields and through the woods to Dr. Possum's +office. + +"Well, I wonder if I will have any adventure to-day?" thought the +old rabbit gentleman, as he hopped along. "I hope I do, for----" + +And then he suddenly stopped thinking and listened, for he heard a +dog barking, and a voice was sadly saying: + +"Oh, dear! It's too bad, I know it is, but I can't help it. It's +that way in the book, so you'll have to go hungry." + +Then the dog barked again and Uncle Wiggily said: + +"More trouble for some one. I hope it isn't the bad dog who used to +bother me. I wonder if I can help any one?" + +He looked around, and, nearby, he saw a little wooden house on the +top of a hill. The barking and talking was coming from that house. + +"I'll go up and see what is the matter?" said the rabbit gentleman. +"Perhaps I can help." + +He looked through a window of the house before going in, and he saw +a lady, somewhat like Mother Goose, wearing a tall, peaked hat, like +an ice cream cone turned upside down. And with her was a big dog, +who was looking in an open cupboard and barking. And the lady was +singing: + + "Old Mother Hubbard + Went to the cupboard + To get her poor dog a bone. + But, when she got there, + The cupboard was bare, + And so the poor dog had none." + +"And isn't there anything else in the house to eat, except a bone, +Mother Hubbard?" the dog asked. "I'm so hungry?" + +"There isn't, I'm sorry to say," she answered. "But I'll go to the +baker's to get you some bread----" + +"And when you come back you will think I am dead," said the dog, +quickly. "I'll look so, anyhow," he went on, "for I am so hungry. +Isn't there any way of getting me anything to eat without going to +the baker's? I don't care much for bread, anyhow." + +"How would you like a piece of orange cake?" asked Uncle Wiggily, +all of a sudden, as he walked in Mother Hubbard's house. "Excuse +me," said the bunny uncle, "but I could not help hearing what your +dog said. I know how hard it is to be hungry, and I have an orange +cake in my basket. It is for Dr. Possum, but I am sure he would be +glad to let your dog have some." + +"That is very kind of you," said Mother Hubbard. + +"And I certainly would like orange cake," spoke the dog, making a +bow and wagging his nose--I mean his tail. + +"Then you shall have it," said Uncle Wiggily, opening the basket. He +set the orange cake on the table, and the dog began to eat it, and +Mother Hubbard also ate some, for she was hungry, too, and, what do +you think? Before Uncle Wiggily, or any one else knew it, the orange +cake was all gone--eaten up--and there was none for Dr. Possum. + +"Oh, see what we have done!" cried Mother Hubbard, sadly. "We have +eaten all your cake, Uncle Wiggily. I'm sure we did not mean to, but +with a hungry dog----" + +"Pray do not mention it," said the rabbit gentleman, politely. "I +know just how it is. I have another orange cake of my own at home. +I'll go get that for Dr. Possum. He won't mind which one he has." + +"No. I can't let you do that," spoke Mother Hubbard. "You were too +kind to be put to all that trouble. Next door to me lives Paddy +Kake, the baker-man. I'll have him bake you a cake as fast as he +can, and you can take that to Dr. Possum. How will that do?" + +"Why, that will be just fine!" said Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his +pink nose at the dog, who was licking up the last of the cake crumbs +with his red tongue. + +So Mother Hubbard went next door, where lived Paddy Kake, the baker. +And she said to him: + + "Paddy Kake, Paddy Kake, baker-man, + Bake me a cake as fast as you can. + Into it please put a raisin and plum, + And mark it with D. P. for Dr. Possum." + +"I will," said Paddy Kake. "I'll do it right away." + +And he did, and as soon as the cake was baked Uncle Wiggily put it +in the basket where the orange one had been, and took it to Dr. +Possum, who was very glad to get it. For the raisin and plum cake +was as good as the orange one Mother Hubbard and her dog had eaten. + +So you see everything came out all right after all, and if the cork +doesn't pop out of the ink bottle and go to sleep in the middle of +the white bedspread, like our black cat, I'll tell you next about +Uncle Wiggily and Little Miss Muffet. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND MISS MUFFET + + +"Rat-a-tat-tat!" came a knock on the door of the hollow-stump +bungalow, where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived +with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. +"Rat-a-tat-tat!" + +"Come in," called Nurse Jane, who was sitting by a window, mending a +pair of Uncle Wiggily's socks, which had holes in them. + +The door opened, and into the bungalow stepped a little girl. Oh, +she was such a tiny thing that she was not much larger than a doll. + +"How do you do, Nurse Jane," said the little girl, making a low bow, +and shaking her curly hair. + +"Why, I am very well, thank you," the muskrat lady said. "How are +you?" + +"Oh, I'm very well, too, Nurse Jane." + +"Ha! You seem to know me, but I am not so sure I know you," said +Uncle Wiggily's housekeeper. "Are you Little Bo Peep?" + +"No, Nurse Jane," answered the little girl, with a smile. + +"Are you Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" +Nurse Jane wanted to know. + +"I am not Mistress Mary," answered the little girl. + +"Then who are you?" Nurse Jane asked. + +"I am little Miss Muffet, if you please, and I have come to sit on a +tuffet, and eat some curds and whey. I want to see Uncle Wiggily, +too, before I go away." + +"All right," spoke Nurse Jane. "I'll get you the tuffet and the +curds and whey," and she went out to the kitchen. The muskrat lady +noticed that Miss Muffet said nothing about the spider frightening +her away. + +"Perhaps she doesn't like to talk about it," thought Miss Fuzzy +Wuzzy, "though it's in the Mother Goose book. Well, I'll not say +anything, either." + +So she got the tuffet for little Miss Muffet; a tuffet being a sort +of baby footstool. And, indeed, the little girl had to sit on +something quite small, for her legs were very short. + +"And here are your curds and whey," went on Nurse Jane, bringing in +a bowl. Curds and whey are very good to eat. They are made from +milk, sweetened, and are something like a custard in a cup. + +So little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey, +just as she ought to have done. + +"And," said Nurse Jane to herself, "I do hope no spider will come +sit beside her to frighten Miss Muffet away, before Uncle Wiggily +sees her, for she is a dear little child." + +Pretty soon some one was heard hopping up the front steps of the +bungalow, and Nurse Jane said: + +"There is Uncle Wiggily now, I think." + +"Oh, I'm glad!" exclaimed little Miss Muffet, as she handed the +muskrat lady the empty bowl of curds and whey. "I want to see him +very specially." + +In came hopping the nice old rabbit gentleman, and he knew Little +Miss Muffet right away, and was very glad to see her. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried the little girl. "I have been waiting to +see you. I want you to do me a very special extra favor; will you?" + +"Why, of course, if I can," answered the bunny uncle, with a polite +bow. "I am always glad to do favors." + +"You can easily do this one," said Little Miss Muffet. "I want you +to come----" + +And just then Uncle Wiggily saw a big spider crawling over the floor +toward the little girl, who was still on her tuffet, having finished +her curds and whey. + +"And if she sees that spider, sit down beside her, it surely will +frighten her away," thought Uncle Wiggily, "and I will not be able +to find out what she wants me to do for her. Let me see, she hasn't +yet noticed the spider. I wonder if I could get her out of the room +while I asked the spider to kindly not to do any frightening, at +least for a while?" + +So Uncle Wiggily, who was quite worried, sort of waved his paw +sideways at the spider, and twinkled his pink nose and said "Ahem!" +which meant that the spider was to keep on crawling, and not go near +Miss Muffet. Uncle Wiggily himself was not afraid of spiders. + +"Yes, Uncle Wiggily," went on little Miss Muffet, who had not yet +seen the spider. "I want you to come to----" and then she saw the +rabbit gentleman making funny noses behind her back, and waving his +paw at something, and Miss Muffet cried: + +"Why, what in the world is the matter, Uncle Wiggily? Have you hurt +yourself?" + +"No, no," the rabbit gentleman quickly exclaimed. "It's the spider. +She's crawling toward you, and I don't want her to sit down beside +you, and frighten you away." + +Little Miss Muffet laughed a jolly laugh. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" she cried. "I'm not at all afraid of spiders! +I'd let a dozen of them sit beside me if they wanted to, for I know +they will not harm me, if I do not harm them. And besides, I knew +this spider was coming all the while." + +"You did?" cried Nurse Jane, surprised like. + +"To be sure I did. She is Mrs. Spin-Spider, and she has come to +measure me for a new cobweb silk dress; haven't you, Mrs. +Spin-Spider?" + +"Yes, child, I have," answered the lady spider. "No one need be +afraid of me." + +"I'm not," Uncle Wiggily said, "only I did not want you to frighten +Miss Muffet away before she had her curds and whey." + +"Oh, I had them," the little girl said. "Nurse Jane gave them to me +before you came in, Uncle Wiggily. But now let me tell you what I +came for, and then Mrs. Spin-Spider can measure me for a new dress. +I came to ask if you would do me the favor to come to my birthday +party next week. Will you?" + +"Of course I will!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be delighted." + +"Good!" laughed Little Miss Muffet. Then along came Mrs. +Spin-Spider, and sat down beside her and did not frighten the little +girl away, but, instead, measured her for a new dress. + +So from this we may learn that cobwebs are good for something else +than catching flies, and in the next chapter, if the piano doesn't +come upstairs to lie down on the brass bed so the pillow has to go +down in the coal bin to sleep, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and +the first little kitten. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND KITTEN + + +"Well, where are you going now, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane +Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman, +one day as she saw him starting out of his hollow-stump bungalow, +after he had found the first of the little kittens who had soiled +their mittens. + +"I am going to look for the second little lost kitten," replied the +bunny uncle, "though where she may be I don't know. Her name is +Muzzo." + +"Why, her name is almost like mine, isn't it?" asked Nurse Jane +Fuzzy Wuzzy. + +"A little like it," said Uncle Wiggily. "Poor little Muzzo! She and +the other two kittens ran off after they had soiled their mittens, +eating cherry pie when their mother, Mrs. Purr, was not at home." + +"It is very good of you to go looking for them," said Nurse Jane. + +"Oh, I just love to do things like that," spoke the rabbit +gentleman. "Well, good-by. I'll see if I can't find the second +kitten now." + +Away started the rabbit gentleman, over the fields and through the +woods, looking on all sides for the second lost kitten, whose name +was Muzzo. + +"Where are you, kittie?" called Uncle Wiggily. "Where are you, +Muzzo? Come to me! Never mind if your mittens are soiled by +cherry-pie-juice. I'll find a way to clean them." + +But no Muzzo answered. Uncle Wiggily looked everywhere, under bushes +and in the tree tops; for sometimes kitty cats climb trees, you +know; but no Muzzo could he find. Then Uncle Wiggily walked a little +farther, and he saw Billie Wagtail, the goat boy, butting his head +in a snow-bank. + +"What are you doing, Billie?" asked the rabbit gentleman. + +"Oh, just having some fun," answered Billie, standing up on his hind +legs. + +"You haven't seen a little lost kitten, with cherry-pie-juice on her +new mittens, have you?" asked the rabbit gentleman. + +"No, I am sorry to say I have not," said Billie, politely. "Did you +lose one?" + +"No, she lost herself," said Uncle Wiggily, and he told about Muzzo. + +"I'll help you look for her," offered the goat boy, so he and Uncle +Wiggily started off together to try to find poor little lost Muzzo, +and bring her home to her mother, Mrs. Purr. + +Pretty soon, as the rabbit gentleman and the goat boy were walking +along they heard a little mewing cry behind a pile of snow, and +Uncle Wiggily said: + +"That sounds like Muzzo now." + +"Perhaps it is. Let's look," said Billie Wagtail. + +He and the bunny uncle looked over the pile of snow, and there, +surely enough, they saw a little white pussy cat sitting on a stone, +looking at her mittens, which were all covered with red pie-juice. + +"Oh, dear!" the little pussy was saying. "I don't know how to get +them clean! What shall I do? I can't go home with my mittens all +soiled, or my mamma will whip me." + +Of course, Mrs. Purr, the cat lady, would not do anything like that, +but Muzzo thought she would. + +"What are you trying to do to clean your mittens, Muzzo?" asked +Uncle Wiggily. + +"Oh, how you surprised me!" exclaimed the second little lost kitten. +"I did not know you were here." + +"Billie Wagtail and I came to look for you," said Uncle Wiggily. +"But what about your mittens?" + +"Oh, I have been dipping them in snow, trying to clean them," said +Muzzo. "Only the pie-juice will not come out." + +"Of course not," spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. "It needs hot +soap-suds and water to clean them. You come home to my bungalow and +we will get some." + +"Oh, I am so cold and tired I can't go another step," said the +second little kitten, who had run away from home after she soiled +her mittens. "I just can't." + +"Well, then, I don't know how you are going to get your mittens +washed, out here in the cold and snow," said the rabbit gentleman. + +"Ha! I know a way!" said Billie Wagtail, the goat boy. + +"How?" asked Uncle Wiggily. + +"I'll get an empty tomato can," spoke Billie. "I know where there is +one, for I was eating the paper off it, to get the paste, just +before you came along." + +Goats like to eat paper off tomato cans, you know, because the paper +is stuck on with sweet paste, and that is as good to goat children +as candy is to you. + +"I'll go get the tomato can," said Billie, "and you can make a fire, +Uncle Wiggily." + +"And then what?" asked the rabbit gentleman. + +"Then we will melt some snow, and make some hot water," went on +Billie. "I have a cake of soap in my pocket, that I just bought at +the store for my mother. + +"With the hot water in the can, and the soap, we can make a suds, +and wash Muzzo's mittens out here as well as at your bungalow." + +"So we can, Billie!" cried the bunny uncle. "You go get the empty +tomato tin and I'll make the fire. You needn't try to wash your +soiled mittens in the snow any more, Muzzo," he said to the second +lost kittie. "We will do it for you, in soapy water, which is +better." + +Soon Uncle Wiggily made a fire. Back came Billie Wagtail with the +tomato can. Some snow was put in it, and it was set over the blaze. +Soon the snow melted into water, and then when the water was hot +Uncle Wiggily made a soapy suds as Nurse Jane had done. + +"Now I can wash my mittens!" cried Muzzo, and she did. And when they +were nice and clean she went home with them, and oh! how glad her +mother was to see her! + +"Never run away again, Muzzo," said the cat lady. + +"I won't," promised the kitten. "But where is Wuzzo?" + +"She is still lost," said Mrs. Purr. + +"But I will go find her, too," said Uncle Wiggily. + +And if the apple pie doesn't go out snowballing with the piece of +cheese, and forget to come back to dinner, I'll tell you next about +Uncle Wiggily and the third little kitten. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD KITTEN + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, came walking +slowly up the front path that led to his hollow-stump bungalow. He +was limping a little on his red, white and blue striped barber-pole +rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady +housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a corn-stalk. + +"Well, I'm glad to be home again," said the rabbit uncle, sitting +down on the front porch to rest a minute. And just then the door in +the hollow stump opened, and Nurse Jane, looking out, said: + +"Oh, here he is now, Mrs. Purr." + +With that a cat lady came to the door and she said: + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily! I thought you never would come back. Did you +find her?" + +"Find who?" asked the rabbit gentleman. "I was not looking for any +one. I have just been down to Lincoln Park to see some squirrels who +live in a hollow tree. They are second cousins to Johnnie and Billie +Bushytail, the squirrels who live in our woods. I had a nice visit +with them." + +"Then you didn't find Wuzzo, my third little lost kitten, did you?" +asked Mrs. Purr, the cat mother. + +"What! Is Wuzzo still lost?" asked the bunny uncle, in great +surprise. "I thought she had come home." + +"No, she hasn't," said Mrs. Purr. "You know you found my other +kittens, Fuzzo and Muzzo, for me, but Wuzzo, the third little +kitten, is still lost. She has been away all night, and I came over +here the first thing this morning to see if you would not kindly go +look for her. But you had already left and I have been waiting here +ever since for you to come back." + +"Yes, I stayed longer with the park squirrels than I meant to," said +Uncle Wiggily. "But now I am back I will start off and try to find +Wuzzo. It's too bad your three little kittens ran away." + +They had, you know, as I told you in the two stories before this +one. The three little kittens ate cherry pie with their new mittens +on. And they soiled their mittens. Then they were so afraid their +mother, Mrs. Purr, would scold them that they all ran away. + +But Mrs. Purr was a kind cat, and would not have scolded at all. And +when she found her little kittens were gone she asked Uncle Wiggily +to find them. + +"And you did find the first two, Fuzzo and Muzzo," said the cat +lady. "So I am sure you can find the third one, Wuzzo." + +"I hope I can," Uncle Wiggily said. "I remember now I started off to +find her, but my rheumatism hurt me so I had to come back to my +bungalow. Then I forgot all about Wuzzo. But I'm all right now, and +I'll start off." + +So away over the fields and through the woods went Uncle Wiggily, +looking for the third little lost kitten. When he had found the two +others he had helped them wash the pie-juice off their mittens, so +they were nice and clean. And then the kittens were not afraid to go +home. + +Uncle Wiggily looked all over for the third little kitten, under +bushes, up in trees (for cats climb trees, you know), and even +behind big rocks Uncle Wiggily looked. But no Wuzzo could he find. + +At last, when the rabbit gentleman came to a big hollow log that was +lying on the ground, he sat down on it to rest, and, all of a +sudden, he heard a voice inside the log speaking. And the voice +asked: + +"Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" + +"I've been to London to see the Queen," answered another voice. + +"Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you do there?" + +"I frightened a little mouse, under her chair," came the answer, and +this time it was a little pussy cat kitten speaking, Uncle Wiggily +was certain. + +The old rabbit gentleman looked in one end of the hollow log, and +there surely enough, he saw Wuzzo, the third lost kitten. + +And besides Wuzzo, Uncle Wiggily saw Neddie Stubtail, the little +bear boy, who always slept in a hollow log all Winter. But this time +Neddie was awake, for it was near Spring. + +"Wuzzo, Wuzzo! Is that you? What are you doing there?" asked Uncle +Wiggily. "Don't you know your poor mother is looking all over for +you, and that she has sent me to find you? Why don't you come home?" + +"I--I'm afraid to," said Wuzzo, crawling out of the hollow log, and +Neddie, the boy bear also crawled out, saying: + +"Hello, Uncle Wiggily!" + +"How do you do, Neddie," spoke the bunny uncle. "How long has Wuzzo +been staying with you?" + +"She just ran in my hollow log," said the little bear chap, "and her +tail, brushing against my nose, tickled me so that I sneezed and +awakened from my Winter sleep." + +"Where have you been all night, since you ran away, Wuzzo?" asked +Uncle Wiggily. + +"Well," answered the third little kitten. "After Fuzzo, Muzzo and I +soiled our mittens with cherry pie we all ran away." + +"Yes, I know that part," spoke the bunny uncle. "It was not right to +do, but I have found the two other lost kitties. I couldn't find +you, though. Why was that?" + +"Because I met Mother Goose," said Wuzzo, "and she asked me to go to +London to see the Queen. She took me through the air on the back of +her big gander, and we flew as quickly as you could have gone in +your airship." + +"You went to London to see the Queen!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, in +surprise. "Well, well! What did you do there?" + +"I frightened a little mouse under her chair, just as Mother Goose +wanted me to do," said Wuzzo. "Then the big gander flew with me to +these woods and went back to get Mother Goose, who stayed to talk +with the Queen. So here I am, but I don't know the way home." + +"Oh, I'll take you home all right," said Uncle Wiggily. "But first +we must wash your mittens." + +"Oh, I did that for her, in the log," said Neddie Stubtail, +laughing. "With my red tongue I licked off all the sweet +cherry-pie-juice, which I liked very much. So, now the mittens are +clean." + +"Good!" cried the bunny uncle. "Now we will go to your mother, +Wuzzo. She will be glad to know that you frightened a little mouse +under the Queen's chair." + +So Uncle Wiggily took the third little kitten home, and thus they +were all found. And if the cat on our roof doesn't jump down the +chimney, and scare the lemon pie so it turns into an apple dumpling, +I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Jack horse. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JACK HORSE + + +"Well, where are you going to-day, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane +Fuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman +putting on his tall silk hat, and taking his red, white and blue +striped rheumatism crutch down off the mantel. + +"I am going over to see Nannie and Billy Wagtail, the goat +children," answered the bunny uncle. "I have not seen them in a long +while." + +"But they'll be at school," said Nurse Jane. + +"I'll wait until they come home, then," said Uncle Wiggily. "And +while I'm waiting I'll talk to Uncle Butter, the nice old gentleman +goat." + +So off started Uncle Wiggily over the fields and through the woods. + +Pretty soon he came to the house where the family of Wagtail goats +lived. They were given that name because they wagged their little +short tails so very fast, sometimes up and down, and again sideways. + +"Why, how do you do, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Mrs. Wagtail, as she +opened the door for the rabbit gentleman. "Come and sit down." + +"Thank you," he answered. "I called to see Nannie and Billie. But I +suppose they are at school." + +"Yes, they are studying their lessons." + +"Well, I'll come in then, and talk to Uncle Butter, for I suppose +you are busy." + +"Yes, I am, but not too busy to talk to you, Mr. Longears," said the +goat lady. "Uncle Butter is away, pasting up some circus posters on +the billboard, and I wish he'd come back, for I want him to go to +the store for me." + +"Couldn't I go?" asked Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I have nothing +special to do, and I often go to the store for Nurse Jane. I'd like +to go for you." + +"Very well, you may," said Mrs. Wagtail. "I want for supper some +papers off a tomato can, and a few more off a can of corn, and here +is a basket to put them in. And you might bring a bit of brown +paper, so I can make soup of it." + +"I will," said Uncle Wiggily, starting off with the basket on his +paw. Goats, you know, like the papers that come off cans, as the +papers have sweet paste on them. And they also like brown grocery +paper itself, for it has straw in it, and goats like straw. Of +course, goats eat other things besides paper, though. + +Uncle Wiggily was going carefully along, for there was ice and snow +on the ground, and it was slippery, and he did not want to fall. +Soon he was at the paper store, where he bought what Mrs. Wagtail +wanted. + +And on the way back to the goat lady's house something happened to +the old rabbit gentleman. As he stepped over a big icicle he put his +foot down on a slippery snowball some little animal chap had left on +the path, and, all of a sudden, bango! down went Uncle Wiggily, +basket of paper, rheumatism crutch and all. + +"Ouch!" cried the rabbit gentleman, "I fear something is broken," +for he heard a cracking sound as he fell. + +He looked at his paws and legs and felt of his big ears. They seemed +all right. Then he looked at the basket of paper. That was crumpled +up, but not broken, and the bunny uncle's tall silk hat, while it +had a few dents in, was not smashed. + +"Oh, dear! It's my rheumatism crutch," cried Uncle Wiggily. "It's +broken in two, and how am I ever going to walk without it this +slippery day I don't see. Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some +bang-bang tooth powder!" + +Carefully the rabbit gentleman arose, but as he had no red, white +and blue striped crutch to lean on, he nearly fell again. + +"I guess I'd better stay sitting down," thought Uncle Wiggily. +"Perhaps some one may come along, and I can ask them go get Nurse +Jane to gnaw for me another rheumatism crutch out of a corn-stalk. +I'll wait here until help comes." + +Uncle Wiggily waited quite a while, but no one passed by. + +"It will soon be time for Billie and Nannie Wagtail to pass by on +their way from school," thought the bunny uncle. "I could send them +for another crutch, I suppose." + +So he waited a little longer, and then, as no one came, he tried to +walk with his broken crutch. But he could not. Then Uncle Wiggily +cried: + +"Help! Help! Help!" but still no one came. "Oh, dear!" said the +rabbit gentleman, "if only Mother Goose would fly past, riding on +the back of her gander, she might take me home." He looked up, but +Mother Goose was not sweeping cobwebs out of the sky that day, so he +did not see her. + +Then, all of a sudden, as the rabbit gentleman sat there, wondering +how he was going to walk on the slippery ice and snow without his +crutch to help him, he heard a jolly voice singing: + + "Ride a Jack horse to Banbury Cross, + To see an old lady jump on a white horse. + With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, + She shall have music wherever she goes." + +And with that along through the woods came riding a nice, old lady +on a rocking-horse. And on the side of the rocking-horse was painted +in red ink the name: + + JACK + +"Why, hello, Uncle Wiggily!" called the nice old lady, shaking her +toes and making the bells jingle a pretty tune. "What is the matter +with you?" she asked. + +"Oh, I am in such trouble," replied the bunny uncle. "I fell down on +a slippery snowball, and broke my crutch. Without it I cannot walk, +and I want to take these papers to Mrs. Wagtail, the goat lady, to +eat." + +"Ha! If that is all your trouble I can soon fix matters!" cried the +jolly old lady. "Here, get up beside me on my Jack horse, and I'll +ride you to Mrs. Wagtail's, and then take you home to your +hollow-stump bungalow." + +"Oh, will you? How kind!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Thank you! But have +you the time?" + +"Lots of time," laughed the old lady. "It doesn't really matter when +I get to Banbury Cross. Come on!" + +Uncle Wiggily got up on the back of the Jack horse, behind the old +lady. She tinkled the rings on her fingers and jingled the bells on +her toes, and so, of course, she'll have music wherever she goes. + +"Just as the Mother Goose books says," spoke the bunny uncle. "Oh, +I'm glad you came along." + +"So am I," said the nice old lady. Then she took Uncle Wiggily to +the Wagtail house, where he left the basket of papers, and next he +rode on the Jack horse to his bungalow, and, after the bunny uncle +had thanked the old lady, she, herself, rode on to Banbury Cross, to +see another old lady jump on a white horse. And very nicely she did +it too, let me tell you. + +So everything came out all right, and in the next chapter, if the +apple pie doesn't turn a somersault and crack its crust so the juice +runs out, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the clock-mouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLOCK-MOUSE + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, sat in an +easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow. He had just eaten a nice +lunch, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, +had put on the table for him, and he was feeling a bit sleepy. + +"Are you going out this afternoon?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she +cleared away the dishes. + +"Hum! Ho! Well, I hardly know," Uncle Wiggily answered, in a sleepy +voice. "I may, after I have a little nap." + +"Your new red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch is ready for +you," went on Nurse Jane. "I gnawed it for you out of a fine large +corn-stalk." + +Uncle Wiggily had broken his other crutch, if you will kindly +remember, when he slipped as he was coming back from the store, +where he went for Mrs. Wagtail, the goat lady. And it was so +slippery that the rabbit gentleman never would have gotten home, +only he rode on a Jack horse with the lady, who had rings on her +fingers and bells on her toes, as I told you in the story before +this one. + +"Thank you for making me a new crutch, Nurse Jane," spoke the bunny +uncle. "If I go out I'll take it." + +Then he went to sleep in his easy chair, but he was suddenly +awakened by hearing the bungalow clock strike one. Then, as he sat +up and rubbed his eyes with his paws, Uncle Wiggily heard a thumping +noise on the hall floor and a little voice squeaked out: + +"Ouch! I've hurt my leg! Oh, dear!" + +"My! I wonder what that can be? It seemed to come out of my clock," +spoke Mr. Longears. + +"I did come out of your clock," said some one. + +"You did? Who are you, if you please?" asked the bunny uncle, +looking all around. "I can't see you." + +"That's because I'm so small," was the answer. "But here I am, right +by the table. I can't walk as my leg is hurt." + +Uncle Wiggily looked, and saw a little mouse, who was holding his +left hind leg in his right front paw. + +"Who are you?" asked the bunny uncle. + +"I am Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse," was the answer. "And I am a +clock-mouse." + +"A clock-mouse!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. "I never +heard of such a thing." + +"Oh, don't you remember me? I'm in Mother Goose's book. This is how +it goes: + + "'Hickory Dickory Dock, + The mouse ran up the clock. + The clock struck one, + And down he come, + Hickory Dickory Dock!'" + +"Oh, now I remember you," said Uncle Wiggily. "And so you are a +clock-mouse." + +"Yes, I ran up your clock, and then when the clock struck one, down +I had to come. But I ran down so fast that I tripped over the +pendulum. The clock reached down its hands and tried to catch me, +but it had no eyes in its face to see me, so I slipped, anyhow, and +I hurt my leg." + +"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps I can fix +it for you. Nurse Jane, bring me some salve for Hickory Dickory +Dock, the clock-mouse," he called. + +The muskrat lady brought some salve, and, with a rag, Uncle Wiggily +bound up the leg of the clock-mouse so it did not hurt so much. + +"And I'll lend you a piece of my old crutch, so you can hobble along +on it," said Uncle Wiggily. + +"Thank you," spoke Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse. "You have +been very kind to me, and some day, I hope, I may do you a favor. If +I can I will." + +"Thank you," Uncle Wiggily said. Then Hickory Dickory Dock limped +away, but in a few days he was better, and he could run up more +clocks, and run down when they struck one. + +It was about a week after this that Uncle Wiggily went walking +through the woods on his way to see Grandfather Goosey Gander. And +just before he reached his friend's house he met Mother Goose. + +"Oh, Uncle Wiggily," she said, swinging her cobweb broom up and +down, "I want to thank you for being so kind to Hickory Dickory +Dock, the clock-mouse." + +"It was a pleasure to be kind to him," said Uncle Wiggily. "Is he +all better now?" + +"Yes, he is all well again," replied Mother Goose. "He is coming to +run up and down your clock again soon." + +"I'll be glad to see him," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he went to call +on Grandpa Goosey, and he told about Hickory Dickory Dock, falling +down from out the clock. + +On his way back to his hollow-stump bungalow, Uncle Wiggily took a +short cut through the woods. And, as he was passing along, his paw +slipped and he became all tangled up in a wild grape vine, which was +like a lot of ropes, all twisted together into hard knots. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm caught!" The more he tried to +untangle himself the tighter he was held fast, until it seemed he +would never get out. + +"Oh!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "This is terrible. Will no one +come to get me out? Help! Help! Will some one please help me?" + +"Yes, I will help you, Uncle Wiggily," answered a kind, little +squeaking voice. + +"Who are you?" asked the rabbit gentleman, moving a piece of the +grape vine away from his nose, so he could speak plainly. + +"I am Hickory Dickory Dock, the clock-mouse," was the answer, "and +with my sharp teeth I will gnaw the grape vine in many pieces so you +will be free." + +"That will be very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily, who was quite +tired out with his struggles to get loose. + +So Hickory Dickory Dock, with his sharp teeth, gnawed the grape +vine, and, in a little while, Uncle Wiggily was loose and all right +again. + +"Thank you," said the bunny uncle to the clock-mouse, as he hopped +off, and Hickory Dickory Dock went with him, for his leg was all +better now. "Thank you very much, nice little clock-mouse." + +"You did me a favor," said Hickory Dickory Dock, "and now I have +done you one, so we are even." And that's a good way to be in this +world. So, if the ink bottle doesn't turn pale when it sees the +fountain pen jump in the goldfish bowl and swim I'll tell you next +about Uncle Wiggily and the late scholar. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LATE SCHOLAR + + +"Heigh-ho!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, +one morning, as he hopped from bed and went to the window of his +hollow-stump bungalow to look out. "Heigh-ho! It will soon be +Spring, I hope, for I am tired of Winter." + +Then he went down-stairs, where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat +lady housekeeper, had his breakfast ready on the table. + +Uncle Wiggily ate some cabbage pancakes with carrot maple sugar +sprinkled over them, and then as he wiped his whiskers on his red +tongue, which he used for a napkin, and as he twinkled his pink nose +to see if it was all right, Nurse Jane said: + +"Yesterday, Uncle Wiggily, you told me you would like me to make +some lettuce cakes today; did you not?" + +"I did," answered Uncle Wiggily, sort of slow and solemn like. "But +what is the matter, Nurse Jane? I hope you are not going to tell me +that you cannot, or will not, make those lettuce cakes." + +"Oh, I'll make them, all right enough, Wiggy," the muskrat lady +answered, "only I have no lettuce. You will have to go to the store +for me." + +"And right gladly will I go!" exclaimed the bunny uncle, speaking +like some one in an old-fashioned story book. "I'll get my +automobile out and go at once." + +Uncle Wiggily had not used his machine often that Winter, as there +had been so much snow and ice. But now it was getting close to +Spring and the weather was very nice. There was no snow in the woods +and fields, though, of course, some might fall later. + +"It will do my auto good to have me ride in it," said the bunny +uncle. He blew some hot air in the bologna sausage tires, put some +talcum powder on the steering-wheel so it would not catch cold, and +then, having tickled the whizzicum-whazzicum with a goose feather, +away he started for the lettuce store. + +It did not take him long to get there, and, having bought a nice +head of the green stuff, the bunny uncle started back again for his +hollow-stump bungalow. + +"Nurse Jane will make some fine lettuce cakes, with clover ice cream +cones on top," he said to himself, as he hurried along in his +automobile. + +He had not gone very far, and he was about halfway home, when from +behind a bush he heard the sound of crying. Now, whenever Uncle +Wiggily heard any one crying he knew some one was in trouble, and as +he always tried to help those in trouble, he did it this time. +Stopping his automobile, he called: + +"Who are you, and what is the matter? Perhaps I can help you." + +Out from behind the bush came a boy, a nice sort of boy, except that +he was crying. + +"Oh, are you Simple Simon?" asked Uncle Wiggily, "and are you crying +because you cannot catch a whale in your mother's water pail?" + +"No; I am not Simple Simon," was the answer of the boy. + +"Well, you cannot be Jack Horner, because you have no pie with you, +and you're not Little Boy Blue, because I see you wear a red +necktie," went on the bunny uncle. "Do you belong to Mother Goose at +all?" + +[Illustration] + +"Yes," answered the boy. "I do. You must have heard about me. I am +Diller-a-Dollar, a ten o'clock scholar, why do you come so soon? I +used to come at ten o'clock, but now I'll come at noon. Don't you +know me?" + +"Ha! Why, of course, I know you!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly +voice, as he put some lollypop oil on the doodle-oodleum of his +auto. "But, why are you crying?" + +"Because I'm going to be late at school again," said the boy. "You +see of late I have been late a good many mornings, but this morning +I got up early, and was sure I would get there before noon." + +"And so you will, if you hurry," Uncle Wiggily said, looking at his +watch, that was a cousin to the clock, up which, and down which, ran +Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse. "It isn't anywhere near noon yet," +went on the rabbit gentleman. "You can almost get to school on time +this morning." + +"I suppose I could," said the boy, "and I got up early on purpose to +do that. But now I have lost my way, and I don't know where the +school is. Oh, dear! Boo hoo! I'll never get to school this week, I +fear." + +"Oh, yes, you will!" said Uncle Wiggily, still more kindly. "I'll +tell you what to do. Hop up in the automobile here with me, and I'll +take you to the school. I know just where it is. Sammie and Susie +Littletail, my rabbit friends, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the +squirrels, as well as Nannie and Billie Wagtail, the goats, go +there. Hop in!" + +So Diller-a-Dollar, the late scholar, hopped in the auto, and he and +Uncle Wiggily started off together. + +"You'll not be late this morning," said the bunny uncle. "I'll get +you there just about nine o'clock." + +Well, Uncle Wiggily meant to do it, and he might have, only for what +happened. First a hungry dog bit a piece out of one of the bologna +sausage tires on the auto wheels, and they had to go slower. Then a +hungry cat took another piece and they had to go still more slowly. + +A little farther on the tinkerum-tankerum of the automobile, which +drinks gasolene, grew thirsty and Uncle Wiggily had to give it a +glass of lemonade. This took more time. + +And finally when the machine went over a bump the cork came out of +the box of talcum powder and it flew in the face of Uncle Wiggily +and the late scholar and they both sneezed so hard that the auto +stopped. + +"See! I told you we'd never get to school," sadly said the boy. "Oh, +dear! And I thought this time teacher would not laugh, and ask me +why I came so soon, when I was really late." + +"It's too bad!" Uncle Wiggily said. "I did hope I could get you +there on time. But wait a minute. Let me think. Ha! I have it! We +are close to my bungalow. We'll run there and get in my airship. +That goes ever so much faster than my auto, and I'll have you to +school in no time." + +No sooner said than done! In the airship the late scholar and Uncle +Wiggily reached school just as the nine o'clock bell was ringing, +and so Diller-a-Dollar was on time this time after all. And the +teacher said: + +"Oh, Diller-a-Dollar, my ten o'clock scholar, you may stand up in +line. You used to come in very late, but now you come at nine." + +So the late scholar was not late after all, thanks to Uncle Wiggily, +and if the egg beater doesn't go to sleep in the rice pudding, where +it can't get out to go sleigh-riding with the potato masher, I'll +tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Baa-Baa, the black sheep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND BAA-BAA BLACK SHEEP + + +"My goodness! But it's cold to-day!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily +Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, as he came down to breakfast in +his hollow-stump bungalow one morning. "It is very cold." + +"Indeed it is," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady +housekeeper, as she put the hot buttered cabbage cakes on the table. +"If you go out you had better wear your fur coat." + +"I shall," spoke the bunny uncle. "And I probably shall call on +Mother Goose. She asked me to stop in the next time I went past." + +"What for?" Nurse Jane wanted to know. + +"Oh, Little Jack Horner hurt his thumb the last time he pulled a +plum out of his Christmas pie, and Mother Goose wanted me to look at +it, and see if she had better call in Dr. Possum. So I'll stop and +have a look." + +"Well, give her my love," said Nurse Jane, and Uncle Wiggily +promised that he would. + +A little later he started off across the fields and through the +woods to the place where Mother Goose lived, not far from his own +hollow-stump bungalow. Uncle Wiggily had on his fur overcoat, for it +was cold. It had been warm the day before, when he had taken +Diller-a-Dollar, the ten o'clock scholar, to school, but now the +weather had turned cold again. + +"Come in!" called Mother Goose, when Uncle Wiggily had tapped with +his paw on her door. "Come in!" + +The bunny uncle went in, and looked at the thumb of Little Jack +Horner, who was playing marbles with Little Boy Blue. + +"Does your thumb hurt you much, Jack?" asked Uncle Wiggily. + +"Yes, I am sorry to say it does. I'm not going to pull any more +plums out of Christmas pies. I'm going to eat cake instead," said +Jack Horner. + +"Well, I'll go get Dr. Possum for you," offered Uncle Wiggily. "I +think that will be best," he remarked to Mother Goose. + +Wrapped in his warm fur overcoat, Uncle Wiggily once more started +off over the fields and through the woods. He had not gone very far +before he heard a queer sort of crying noise, like: + +"Baa! Baa! Baa!" + +"Ha! That sounds like a little lost lamb," said the bunny uncle, +"only there are no little lambs out this time of year. I'll take a +look. It may be some one in trouble, whom I can help." + +Uncle Wiggily looked around the corner of a stone fence, and there +he saw a sheep shivering in the cold, for most of his warm, fleecy +wool had been sheared off. Oh! how the sheep shivered in the cold. + +"Why, what is the matter with you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, kindly. + +"I am c-c-c-c-cold," said the sheep, shiveringly. + +"What makes you cold?" the bunny uncle wanted to know. + +"Because they cut off so much of my wool. You know how it is with +me, for I am in the Mother Goose book. Listen! + + "'Baa-baa, black sheep, have you any wool? + Yes, sir; yes, sir; three bags full. + One for the master, one for the man, + And one for the little boy who lives in the lane.' + +"That's the way I answered when they asked me if I had any wool," +said Baa-baa. + +"And what did they do?" asked the bunny uncle. + +"Why they sheared off my fleece, three bags of it. I didn't mind +them taking the first bag full, for I had plenty and it was so warm +I thought Spring was coming. And it doesn't hurt to cut off my +fleecy wool, any more than it hurts to cut a boy's hair. And after +they took the first bag full of wool for the master they took a +second bag for the man. I didn't mind that, either. But when they +took the third----" + +"Then they really did take three?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. + +"Oh, yes, to be sure. Why it's that way in the book of Mother Goose, +you know, and they had to do just as the book says." + +"I suppose so," agreed Uncle Wiggily, sadly like. + +"Well, after they took the third bag of wool off my back the weather +grew colder, and I began to shiver. Oh! how cold I was; and how I +shivered and shook. Of course if the master and the man, and the +little boy who lives in the lane, had known I was going to shiver +so, they would not have taken the last bag of wool. Especially the +little boy, as he is very kind to me. + +"But now it is done, and it will be a long while before my wool +grows out again. And as long as it is cold weather I will shiver, I +suppose," said Baa-baa, the black sheep. + +"No, you shall not shiver!" cried Uncle Wiggily. + +"How can you stop me?" asked the black sheep. + +"By wrapping my old fur coat around you," said the rabbit gentleman. +"I have two fur overcoats, a new one and an old one. I am wearing +the new one. The old one is at my hollow-stump bungalow. You go +there and tell Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy to give it to you. Tell her I +said so. Or you can go there and wait for me, as I am going to get +Dr. Possum to fix the thumb of Little Jack Horner, who sat in a +corner, eating a Christmas pie." + +"You are very kind," said Baa-baa. "I'll go to your bungalow and +wait there for you." + +So he did, shaking and shivering all the way, but he soon became +warm when he sat by Nurse Jane's fire. And when Uncle Wiggily came +back from having sent Dr. Possum to Little Jack Horner, the rabbit +gentleman wrapped his old fur coat around Baa-baa, the black sheep, +who was soon as warm as toast. + +And Baa-baa wore Uncle Wiggily's old fur coat until warm weather +came, when the sheep's wool grew out long again. So everything was +all right, you see. + +And now, having learned the lesson that if you cut your hair too +short you may have to wear a fur cap to stop yourself from getting +cold, we will wait for the next story, which, if the pencil box +doesn't jump into the ink well and get a pail of glue to make the +lollypop stick fast to the roller-skates, will be about Uncle +Wiggily and Polly Flinders. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND POLLY FLINDERS + + +"There!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, +who took care of the hollow-stump bungalow for Uncle Wiggily +Longears, the rabbit gentleman. "There, it is all finished at last!" + +"What's all finished?" asked the bunny uncle, who was reading the +paper in his easy chair near the fire, for the weather was still +cold. "I hope you don't mean you have finished living with me, Nurse +Jane? For I would be very lonesome if you were to go away." + +"Oh, don't worry, I'll not leave you, Wiggy," she said. "What I +meant was that I had finished making the new dress for Susie +Littletail, the rabbit girl." + +"Good!" cried the bunny uncle. "A new dress for my little niece +Susie. That's fine! If you like, Nurse Jane, I'll take it to her." + +"I wish you would," spoke the muskrat lady. "I have not time myself. +Just be careful of it. Don't let the bad fox or the skillery-scalery +alligator with humps on his ears bite holes in it." + +"I won't," promised Uncle Wiggily. So taking the dress, which Nurse +Jane had sewed for Susie, over his paw, and with his tall silk hat +over his ears, and carrying his red, white and blue striped +barber-pole rheumatism crutch, off Uncle Wiggily started for the +Littletail home. + +"Susie will surely like her dress," thought the rabbit gentleman. +"It has such pretty colors." For it had, being pink and blue and red +and yellow and purple and lavender and strawberry and lemon and +Orange Mountain colors. There may have been other colors in it, but +I can think of no more right away. + +Uncle Wiggily was going along past Old Mother Hubbard's house, and +past the place where Mother Goose lived, when, coming to a place +near a big tree, Uncle Wiggily saw another house. And from inside +the house came a crying sound. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?" sobbed a voice. + +"Ah, ha! More trouble!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I seem to be finding +lots of people in trouble lately. Well, now to see who this is!" + +Going up to the house, and peering in a window, Uncle Wiggily saw a +little girl sitting before a fireplace. And this little girl was +crying. + +"Hello!" called Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice, as he opened the +window. "What is the matter? Are you Little Bo Peep, and are you +crying because you have lost your sheep?" + +"No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the little girl. "I am crying because +I have spoiled my nice new dress, and when my mother comes home and +finds it out she will whip me." + +"Oh, no!" cried the bunny uncle. "Your mother will never do that. +But who are you?" + +"Why, don't you know? I am little Polly Flinders, I sat among the +cinders, warming my pretty little toes. 'And her mother came and +caught her, and she whipped her little daughter, for spoiling her +nice new clothes.' + +"That's what it says in the Mother Goose book," said Polly Flinders, +"and, of course, that's what will happen to me. Oh, dear! I don't +want to be whipped. And I didn't really spoil quite all my nice new +clothes. It's only my dress, and some hot ashes got on that." + +"Well, that isn't so bad," said Uncle Wiggily. "It may be that I can +clean it for you." But when he looked at Polly's dress he saw that +it could not be fixed, for, like Pussy Cat Mole's best petticoat, +Polly's dress had been burned through with hot coals, so that it was +full of holes. + +"No, that can't be fixed, I'm sorry to say," said Uncle Wiggily. + +"Oh, dear!" sobbed Polly Flinders, as she sat among the cinders. +"What shall I do? I don't want to be whipped by my mother." + +"And you shall not be," said the bunny uncle. "Not that I think she +would whip you, but we will not give her a chance. See here, I have +a new dress that I was taking to Susie Littletail. Nurse Jane can +easily make my little rabbit niece another. + +"So you take this one, and give me your old one. And when your +mother comes she will not see the holes in your dress. Only you must +tell her what happened, or it would not be fair. Always tell mothers +and fathers everything that happens to you." + +"I will," promised Polly Flinders. + +She soon took off her old dress and put on the new one intended for +Susie, and it just fitted her. + +"Oh, how lovely!" cried Polly Flinders, looking at her toes. + +"And now," said Uncle Wiggily, "you must sit no more among the +cinders." + +"I'll not," Polly promised, and she went and sat down in front of +the looking-glass, where she could look proudly at the new +dress--not too proudly, you understand, but just proud enough. + +Polly thanked Uncle Wiggily, who took the old soiled and burned +dress to Susie's house. When the rabbit girl saw the bunny uncle +coming she ran to meet him, crying: + +"Oh! did Nurse Jane send you with my new dress?" + +"She did," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but see what happened to it on +the way," and he showed Susie the burned holes and all. + +"Oh, dear!" cried the little rabbit girl, sadly. "Oh, dear!" + +"Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly, and he told all that had +happened. It was a sort of adventure, you see. + +"Oh, I'm glad you gave Polly my dress!" said Susie, clapping her +paws. + +"Nurse Jane shall make you another dress," promised Uncle Wiggily, +and the muskrat lady did. And when the mother of Polly Flinders came +home she thought the new dress was just fine, and she did not whip +her little daughter. In fact, she said she would not have done so +anyhow. So that part of the Mother Goose book is wrong. + +And thus everything came out all right, and if the shaving brush +doesn't whitewash the blackboard, so the chalk can't dance on it +with the pencil sharpener, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily +and the garden maid. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GARDEN MAID + + +"Hey, ho, hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit +gentleman, as he stretched up his twinkling, pink nose, and reached +his paws around his back to scratch an itchy place. "Ho, hum! I +wonder what will happen to me to-day?" + +"Are you going out again?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat +lady housekeeper. "It seems to me that you go out a great deal, Mr. +Longears." + +"Well, yes; perhaps I do," admitted the bunny uncle. "But more +things happen to me when I go out than when I stay in the house." + +"And do you like to have things happen to you?" asked Miss Fuzzy +Wuzzy. + +"When they are adventures I do," answered the rabbit gentleman. "So +here I go off for an adventure." + +Off started the nice, old, bunny uncle, carrying his red, white and +blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch--over his shoulder this +time. For his pain did not hurt him much, as the sun was shining, so +he did not have to limp on the crutch, which Nurse Jane had gnawed +for him out of a corn-stalk. + +Uncle Wiggily had not gone very far toward the fields and woods +before he heard Nurse Jane calling to him. + +"Oh, Wiggy! Wiggy, I say! Wait a moment!" + +"Yes, what is it?" asked the rabbit gentleman, turning around and +looking over his shoulder. "Have I forgotten anything?" + +"No, it was I who forgot," said the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I +forgot to tell you to bring me a bottle of perfume. Mine is all +gone." + +"All right, I'll bring you some," promised Mr. Longears. "It will +give me something to do--to go to the perfume store. Perhaps an +adventure may happen to me there." + +Once more he was on his way, and soon he reached the perfume store, +kept by a nice buzzing bee lady, who gathered sweet smelling +perfume, as well as honey, from the flowers in Summer and put it +carefully away for the Winter. + +"Some perfume for Nurse Jane, eh?" said the bee lady, as the rabbit +gentleman knocked on her hollow-tree house. "There you are, Uncle +Wiggily," and she gave him a bottle of the nice scent made from a +number of flowers. + +"My! That smells lovely!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he pulled out +the cork, and took a long sniff. "Nurse Jane will surely like that +perfume!" + +With the sweet scented bottle in his paw, the rabbit gentleman +started back toward his hollow-stump bungalow. He had not gone very +far before he saw a nurse maid, out in the garden, back of a big +house. There was a basket in front of the maid, with some clothes in +it, and stretched across the garden was a line, with more clothes on +it, flapping in the wind. + +"Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if that garden maid, +hanging up the clothes, wouldn't like to smell Nurse Jane's perfume? +Nurse Jane will not mind, and perhaps it will be doing that maid a +kindness to let her smell something sweet, after she has been +smelling washing-soap-suds all morning." + +So the bunny uncle, who was always doing kind things, hopped over to +the garden maid, and politely asked: + +"Wouldn't you like to smell this perfume?" and he held out the +bottle he had bought of the bee lady. + +The garden maid turned around, and said in a sad voice: + +"Thank you, Uncle Wiggily. It is very kind of you, I'm sure, and I +would like to smell your perfume. But I can't." + +"Why not?" asked the bunny uncle. "The cork is out of the bottle. +See!" + +"That may very well be," went on the garden maid, "but the truth of +the matter is that I cannot smell, because a blackbird has nipped +off my nose." + +Uncle Wiggily, in great surprise, looked, and, surely enough, a +blackbird had nipped off the nose of the garden maid. + +"Bless my whiskers!" cried the bunny uncle. "What a thing for a +blackbird to do--nip off your nose! Why did he do such an impolite +thing as that?" + +"Why, he had to do it, because it's that way in the Mother Goose +book," said the maid. "Don't you remember? It goes this way: + + "'The King was in the parlor, + Counting out his money, + The Queen was in the kitchen, + Eating bread and honey. + The maid was in the garden, + Hanging out the clothes, + Along came a blackbird + And nipped off her nose.' + +"That's the way it was," said the garden maid. + +"Oh, yes, I remember now," spoke Uncle Wiggily. + +"Well, I'm the maid who was in the garden, hanging out the clothes," +said she, "and, as you can see, along came a blackbird and nipped +off my nose. That is, you can't see the blackbird, but you can see +the place where my nose ought to be." + +"Yes," answered Uncle Wiggily, "I can. It's too bad. That blackbird +ought to have his feathers ruffled." + +"Oh, he didn't mean to be bad," said the garden maid. "He had to do +as it says in the book, and he had to nip off my nose. So that's why +I can't smell Nurse Jane's nice perfume." + +Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute. Then he said: + +"Just you wait here. I think I can fix it so you can smell as well +as ever." + +Then the bunny uncle hurried off through the woods until he found +Jimmie Caw-Caw, the big black crow boy. + +"Jimmie," said the bunny uncle, "will you fly off, find the +blackbird, and ask him to give back the garden maid's nose so she +can smell perfume?" + +"I will," said Jimmie Caw-Caw, very politely. "I certainly will!" + +Away he flew, and, after a while, in the deep, dark part of the +woods he found the blackbird, sitting on a tree. + +"Please give me back the garden maid's nose," said Jimmie, politely. + +"Certainly," answered the blackbird, also politely. "I only took it +off in fun. Here it is back. I'm sorry I bothered the garden maid, +but I had to, as it's that way in the Mother Goose book." + +Off to Uncle Wiggily flew Jimmie, the crow boy, with the young +lady's nose, and soon Dr. Possum had fastened it back on the garden +maid's face as good as ever. + +"Now you can smell the perfume," said Uncle Wiggily, and when he +held up the bottle the maid said: + +"Oh, what a lovely smell!" + +So the bunny uncle left a little perfume in a bottle for the garden +maid, and then she went on hanging up the clothes, and she felt very +happy because she had a nose. So you see how kind Uncle Wiggily and +Jimmie were, and Nurse Jane, too, liked the perfume very much. + +So if the little girl's roller-skates don't run over the pussy's +tail and ruffle it all up so she can't go to the moving picture +party, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and the King. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE KING + + +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was sitting +in an easy chair in his hollow-stump bungalow, one day, looking out +of the window at the blue sky, and he was feeling quite happy. And +why should he not be happy? + +Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper, had just given +him a nice breakfast of cabbage pancakes, with carrot maple sugar +tied in a bow-knot in the middle, and Uncle Wiggily had eaten nine. +Nine cakes, I mean, not nine bows. + +"And now," said the bunny uncle to himself, "I think I shall go out +and take a walk. Perhaps I may have an adventure. Do you want any +perfume, or anything like that from the store?" asked Mr. Longears +of Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. + +"No, thank you, I think not," answered the muskrat lady. "Just bring +yourself home, and that will be all." + +"Oh, I'll do that all right," promised the bunny gentleman. So away +he hopped, over the fields and through the woods, humming to himself +a little song which went something like this: + + "I'm feeling happy now and gay, + Why shouldn't I, this lovely day? + 'Tis time enough to be quite sad, + When wind and rain make weather bad. + But, even then, one ought to try + To think that soon it will be dry. + So then, no matter what the weather, + Smile, as though tickled by a feather." + +Uncle Wiggily felt happier than ever when he had sung this song, +but, as he went along a little further, he came, all at once, to a +very nice house indeed, out of which floated the sound of a sad +voice. + +Uncle Wiggily was surprised to hear this, for the house was such a +nice one that it seemed no one ought to be unhappy who lived there. + +The house was made of gold and silver, with diamond windows, and the +chimney was made of a red ruby stone, which, as every one knows, is +very expensive. But with all that the sad voice came sailing out of +one of the opened diamond windows, and the voice said: + +"Oh, dear! It's gone! I can't find it! I dropped it and it rolled +down a crack in the floor. Now I'll never get it again. Oh, dear!" + +"Well, that sounds like some one in trouble," said the bunny uncle. +"I must see if I cannot help them," for Uncle Wiggily helped real +folk, who lived in fine houses, as well as woodland animals, who +lived in hollow trees. + +Uncle Wiggily hopped up to the open diamond window of the gold and +silver house, with the red ruby chimney, and, poking his nose +inside, the rabbit gentleman asked: + +"Is there some one here in trouble whom I may have the pleasure of +helping?" + +"Yes," answered a voice. "I'm here, and I'm surely in trouble." + +"Who are you, and what is the trouble, if I may ask?" politely went +on Uncle Wiggily. + +"I am the king," was the answer. "This is my palace, but, with all +that, I am in trouble. Come in." + +In hopped Uncle Wiggily, and there, surely enough, was the king, but +he was in the kitchen, down on his hands and knees, looking with one +eye through a crack in the floor, which is something kings hardly +ever do. + +"It's down there," he said. "And I can't get it. I'm too fat to go +through the crack." + +"What's down there?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know. + +"My money," answered the king. "You may have heard about me," and he +recited this little verse: + + "The king was in the kitchen, + Counting out his money; + The queen was in the parlor, + Eating bread and honey; + The maid was in the garden, + Hanging out the clothes, + Along came a blackbird, + Who nipped off her nose." + +The fat man got up off the kitchen floor. + +"I'm the king," he said, taking up his gold and diamond crown from a +kitchen chair, where he had put it as he kneeled down, so it would +not fall off and be dented. "From Mother Goose, you know; don't +you?" + +"Yes, I know," answered Uncle Wiggily. + +"I dare say you'll find the queen in the parlor eating bread and +honey," went on the king. "At least I saw her start for there with a +plate, knife and fork as I was coming here. And, no doubt, the maid +is in the garden, where she'll pretty soon have her nose nipped off +by a blackbird." + +"That part happened yesterday," said Uncle Wiggily. "I was there +just after it happened, and I got Jimmie Caw-Caw, the crow boy, to +fly after the blackbird and bring back the maid's nose. She is as +well as ever now and can smell all kinds of perfume." + +"Good!" cried the fat king. "You were very kind to help her. I only +wish you could help me. But I don't see how you can. My money, which +I was counting, fell out of my hands and dropped down a crack in the +floor. I can see it lying down there in the dirt, but I can't get at +it unless I move to one side my gold and silver palace, and I don't +want to do that. I don't suppose you can move a palace, can you?" +And he looked askingly at Uncle Wiggily. + +"No, I can't do that," said the bunny uncle. "But still I think I +can get your money without moving the palace." + +"How?" asked the king. + +"Why, I can go outside," said Mr. Longears, "and with my strong +paws, which are just made for digging, I can burrow, or dig, a place +through the dirt under your palace-house, crawl in and get what you +dropped." + +"Oh, please do!" cried the king. + +So Uncle Wiggily did. + +Down under the cellar wall of the palace, through the dirt, dug the +bunny gentleman, with his strong paws. Pretty soon he was right +under the kitchen, and there, just where they had dropped through +the crack, were the king's gold and silver pennies and other pieces +of money. Uncle Wiggily picked them up, put them in his pocket and +crawled out again. + +"There you are, king," he said. "You have your money back." + +"Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried the king. "I'll have the cook +give you some carrots." And he did, before he went on counting his +money in the kitchen. And this time he stuffed a dish-rag in the +crack so no more pennies would fall through. + +"Well, Uncle Wiggily, where are you going now?" asked the King, as +he saw the bunny gentleman hopping away with the bunch of carrots. + +"I hardly know that myself," answered the rabbit. "I want to have +more adventures, either with the friends of Old Mother Hubbard and +Mother Goose, or with some of the animal or birds that live in the +woods." + +"I think some adventures with birds would be exciting," spoke the +King. "This blackbird who nipped off the maid's nose was a lively +sort of chap." + +"He was, indeed," agreed the bunny gentleman. "I think I should like +some adventures with my feathered friends who fly in the air. When I +come back I'll tell you about them, Mr. King." + +"Please do," begged the gentleman with the gold and diamond crown. +And so, as long as the rabbit wishes it, and if the condensed milk +doesn't jump out of the molasses jug and scare the coffee pot so +that it drinks tea, I shall make the next book "Uncle Wiggily and +the Birds," and I hope you will like it. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER +HUBBARD*** + + +******* This file should be named 23213.txt or 23213.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/2/1/23213 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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