Part 4

“I am afraid not,” said the sexton man. “You see, the bell has been rung every Sunday for years and years and years. The people have become used to it. They don’t even look at their clocks, but when they hear the bell go ‘ding-dong!’ they say: ‘Ah! it is time to go to church.’ But now, alas, the rope is broken and I will not be able to ring the Sunday bell to-morrow.”

“Don’t worry,” said Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. “And don’t be gloomy like a Flump, whatever happens. Perhaps I may be able to help you.”

But the sexton man did not think so, and he was quite sad. He tried to fix the bell rope, but he could not, and it looked as though the bell would not ring for Sunday church.

But what did Uncle Wiggily do? Listen, as the telephone girl says, and I will tell you. Sunday morning, bright and early, the rabbit gentleman took a lot of stones in the clothes basket and he went sailing up in his airship.

Right up over the church spire he sailed, and he hovered over the steeple and the bell, and, when it was time for church, the rabbit gentleman threw stones at the bell. And, as he was a good shot, he hit it every time.

“Crack!” went a stone on the bell, and the bell went “Ding-dong! Ding-dong!” slowly and solemn-like. More stones did Uncle Wiggily throw from his airship, and every time the rabbit gentleman hit it the bell rang just as well as though the sexton had pulled the rope.

“Ha!” cried all the people. “There goes the bell! It is time for church!”

So they went, and were not late, but they were much surprised when they saw Uncle Wiggily in his airship, throwing stones at the bell to ring it.

And when all the people were in their seats, Uncle Wiggily didn’t have to ring the bell any more. He came down out of his airship and went to church himself, and everybody was happy, and the sexton was most especially thankful to the rabbit gentleman.

So that’s all now, if you please, but next, if my typewriter doesn’t go in swimming and get its hair ribbon all wet, so it’s as crinkly as a corkscrew, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the doll’s house.

STORY XII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOLL HOUSE

“Oh, I’m so happy! So happy,” sang Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, as she hopped on her way home from school one afternoon.

“Why are you so happy?” asked Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, as she picked up a stone in her webbed foot and tossed it into the pond. I mean she tossed the stone—not her foot. Lulu could throw a stone almost as good as a boy.

“Why, I am happy because my papa is going to give me a doll house for my birthday, which is to-morrow,” went on Susie. “Oh, it is the loveliest doll house! I saw it in a toy-store window, and papa is going to get it for me.”

“I wish I had a doll house,” spoke Lulu, sadly like.

“I’ll let you play with mine,” Susie answered. “It is a large one, with room for two dolls, anyhow.”

“Oh, thank you, so much!” exclaimed Lulu, and then she and Susie hurried on, stopping only to pick a few wild flowers that grew by the path which turned and twisted through the woods.

“When am I going to get my doll house, papa?” asked Susie at the supper table that evening.

“I will have it for you when I come home to-morrow night,” promised the rabbit gentleman. “I am having some of the rooms papered for you.”

“Oh, how lovely!” cried Susie, clapping her paws.

The lady mouse teacher at the hollow stump school, where the little rabbit girl and all the other animal children attended, allowed Susie to come home early on her birthday, and Susie ran all the way.

“I’m so anxious to see my doll house!” cried Susie.

But, here comes the sad part of the story. I’ll make it as short as I can, though.

When Susie reached her house she saw her papa sitting out on the front porch. He was all scratched up, and one of his ears was bent over backward, and his white fur was all dirt, and he looked very sad.

“Oh, papa!” cried Susie. “What has happened?”

“Oh, alas! Likewise sorrowfulness! Oh, woe is me!” said Mr. Littletail, sadly like.

“Oh, tell me, please!” begged Susie, clasping her paws.

“I have lost your birthday doll house, Susie,” said her papa. “I was bringing it home through the greenwood forest, and when I crossed the bridge over the deep, dark valley, the bridge broke, and I nearly fell with it. I lost hold of the doll house, and down it went into the deep, dark valley.”

“Oh, how sad!” cried Susie.

“I tried to save the doll house from falling,” went on Mr. Littletail, “but I could not. I slipped and stumbled myself, when the bridge gave way; and I am scratched up. But I would not mind that if I could have saved your doll house for you.”

“Oh, papa dear! I am so sorry you are hurt!” sobbed Susie. “I don’t mind about the doll house—that is, not much,” she said, and she put her paws around her papa’s neck and kissed him.

But, all the same, Susie did mind dreadfully about her lost play-toy. And Mr. Littletail told over and over again how the bridge across the deep, dark valley, (which bridge had been partly washed away by the rain) had snapped and cracked as he was hurrying over it with the doll house.

“But I have a birthday cake for you, with ten carrot candles on,” said Mrs. Littletail, and Susie felt a little happy over that. But, most of all, she wanted her doll house.

“Maybe I can get it for you,” said Susie’s brother Sammie, kindly, when he heard about the trouble. “Come, we will go to the deep, dark valley and see.”

So the rabbit children went to the greenwood forest, but they could not even see the bottom of the valley, or big hole in the ground, between the high rocky walls. And much less could they spy the doll house.

“It is gone forever,” said Susie, sadly.

“Yes, I am afraid I could not get down there and bring the doll house up for you,” spoke Sammie. For the rocky sides of the deep, dark valley were very steep, like the roof of a house, and if Sammie went into the deep place he could hardly ever get out again.

“Oh, my lovely birthday doll house, that I’ll never see, or have!” sobbed Susie, as she looked down into the dark hole where her play-toy was, but where it could not be reached.

“Well, maybe papa will get you another,” said Sammie, kindly.

“Oh, I’m afraid not! Oh, dear! How sad!” cried Susie, as she and her rabbit brother started for home.

“Ha! What is all this about? What seems to be the trouble?” suddenly asked a voice, up in the air, and, looking over their heads, Sammie and Susie saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, in his airship. The airship, as I have told you, was made from a clothes basket, with circus balloons to raise it up in the air. Uncle Wiggily sat on sofa cushions in the basket. “What is the trouble?” he asked.

“Oh, papa accidentally dropped my toy doll house down in the deep, dark valley!” said Susie. “We can never get it out.”

“Oh, yes we can!” cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. “I can lower my airship down into the valley, and I will, and I’ll get your doll house, Susie! You just watch me!”

“But it’s so dark you can’t see it,” spoke Sammie.

“I’ll light a Christmas tree candle,” said Uncle Wiggily, and so he did. Down into the deep, dark valley he steered his airship, and by the light of the candle he saw the doll house. It had fallen on a big pile of leaves, and wasn’t hurt a mite. Uncle Wiggily carefully lifted the play-toy into his airship.

“Here you are, Susie!” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he floated up out of the valley, and gave the little rabbit girl her birthday doll house. “I told you I’d get it back for you!”

“Oh, you dear Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, as she hugged and kissed him. Then she and Sammie took the doll house home, and Susie and Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, had much fun playing with it, and were very happy.

And Uncle Wiggily went on sailing in his airship, and he had another adventure. I’ll tell you about it on the page after this, when, in case the ink bottle doesn’t go to sleep on the white bed spread, and make a mark like an ice cream cone, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the bird seed.

STORY XIII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRD SEED

“Uncle Wiggily, are you going any place special this morning?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the housekeeper muskrat lady, as she came out in the yard where the rabbit gentleman was giving his airship a drink of molasses, so it would not sail too fast.

“Anywhere special?” repeated Uncle Wiggily, sort of thoughtful like; “why, no, Nurse Jane, to tell you the truth, I am merely going for a little sort of vacation sail around the clouds, and perhaps I may find an adventure. Did you want me to do anything for you, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?”

“Why, yes, if you will be so kind,” replied the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail in a double bow knot, so that it would not drag on the floor when she was sweeping. “I wish you would stop at the drug store, Uncle Wiggily, and get me some bird seed. My pet cat is hungry and I want to feed it.”

“Very well, I will get the bird seed for you,” spoke the rabbit gentleman politely, “though I never before heard of feeding it to a cat; never!” he said, slowly wagging his ears to and fro.

“Well, I have a reason for it,” said Nurse Jane. “You see, my cat used to catch and eat the dear little birds, and that made me feel sad. So I thought perhaps if I could teach my cat to eat the bird seed, instead of the birds, it would be better. And so I did. And now, Muffins, my black cat, would rather have bird seed to eat any day than the dear birds that sing so sweetly.”

“A fine idea!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I wish more cats ate bird seed. I will get you a large package at the drug store.”

So off Uncle Wiggily started in his airship, the electric fan at the back, by which it was pushed along through the clouds, going around whizzie-izzie, as fast as an egg beater.

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, where are you going?” asked Billie Bushytail, the boy squirrel, in the top of a tall tree as the rabbit gentleman sailed over it in his airship. “Please give me a ride!” begged Billie.

“I will give you a ride as far as your school; you and your brother Johnnie,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “Then I must sail on to the drug store to get the bird seed for Nurse Jane.”

“Oh! Is she going to plant the bird seed in the garden and raise canary birds?” asked Johnnie, as he scrambled up to the top of the tree to hop in the airship, and get a ride.

“No, Nurse Jane is going to feed it to her cat, which eats bird seed instead of birds,” replied the rabbit gentleman, as he called “Whoa!” to his airship, and made it stand still long enough for Billie and Johnnie to hop in from a tree branch.

“I wish she would teach cats to eat squirrel seed instead of squirrels,” spoke Johnnie. “Once a cat ate up a little red squirrel, who was our cousin.”

“Ah! That was too bad!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I will see if the drug store man has any squirrel seed.”

Off he started in the airship again, taking Billie and Johnnie to the hollow stump school. Near there Uncle Wiggily stopped his ship close to the top of another tall tree, and into that the squirrel boys leaped, scrambling down to the ground, just in time for their lessons.

Well, the rabbit gentleman reached the drug store all right, and bought the bird seed for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.

“And now, have you any squirrel seed?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he told why he wanted it.

“I have only nuts for squirrels to eat,” said the elephant gentleman who kept the drug store. “You might call that squirrel seed.”

“Well, I’ll take some,” said Uncle Wiggily, “and if we can not teach cats to eat the nuts, instead of the dear little squirrels, I can give the nuts to Billie and Johnnie. They’ll eat them, anyhow.”

So, with the bird seed and the nuts, the rabbit gentleman set off once more in his airship. He had not sailed very far before he felt himself growing sleepy.

“Ha! Ho! Hum!” cried Uncle Wiggily, with a yawn. “I think I will sail down to the ground, and take a nap. It would not be safe to go sailing about up in the air while asleep. I might run into a thunder storm and break something.”

So he guided his airship down to earth, and in a nice shady place in the woods, the rabbit gentleman tied his clothes basket to a tree, so it would not sail up and away when he was asleep, and then he began to dream.

After a while he awakened, feeling much better, and when he had stretched his ears and twinkled his nose, he said:

“Well, now, I guess I’ll sail home again.”

But, when he loosed the ropes that held his airship fast, it would not rise up, as it always had done before.

“Why, what in the world can be the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily, and then he looked at the bunch of toy circus balloons that used to raise his airship off the earth. And every balloon was as flat as a pancake! All the hot air had gone out of them.

“Ha! No wonder I could not rise!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I must blow up my balloons!”

But, when he tried, he found the balloons so full of holes that no air would stay in them. A bad lot of mosquitoes had come along while Uncle Wiggily slept, had punctured holes in the rubber balloons, let out the air, and they were all spoiled.

“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “What shall I do? I never can sail home in my airship!” Then he happened to think of something. “I have it!” he cried. “I will scatter some bird seed on the ground. A lot of birds will see it and come to eat it. And I will ask them all to take hold of my airship in their bills at once, and raise me up by fluttering their wings. Then they can fly home with me and my airship.”

So Uncle Wiggily did this. He scattered some of the bird seed on the ground, and Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, and some robins and blue birds—more than a thousand of them—came to eat the seeds. And when the birds had eaten them Uncle Wiggily asked:

“Will you please fly home with me and my airship, for my lifting balloons are all full of holes?”

“Indeed we will, and that right gladly!” answered the birds, politely. So they lifted Uncle Wiggily and his airship up in their bills and with their fluttering wings bore him safely home, and there was bird seed enough left for Nurse Jane’s cat.

But the cat would not eat the nuts, so Johnnie and Billie Bushytail had them to crack. And that’s all to this story.

However, if the rooster in our back yard doesn’t crow so loudly that he makes the alarm clock jump off the mantel, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the baby rabbit.

STORY XIV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BABY RABBIT

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, the little rabbit girl, one afternoon, as she came over to Mr. Longears’ hollow stump bungalow. “I wonder if you can guess what came to our burrow in the night?”

“Let me see,” said Uncle Wiggily, slow and thoughtful like; “was it a mouse?”

“Nope!” cried Susie, laughing and clapping her paws.

“Was it a thunder storm?” asked the rabbit gentleman, sort of puzzled like.

“Nope! I’ll give you one more guess, and then I’ll tell you,” spoke Susie, laughing more than ever.

“Was it—er—let me see—you didn’t have a party come to your house last night, did you, Susie?”

“No! Oh, I knew you couldn’t guess! It was a baby rabbit. Sammie and I have a little baby brother. He came last night.

“Oh, how fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears up in a hard knot and then untying them again. “I must go right over and see it. Come on, Susie, we’ll go in my airship.”

“Don’t let Susie fall out!” cried Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as the old gentleman rabbit, followed by Susie, went out to the henhouse, where he kept his clothes basket airship.

“I won’t!” promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he and Susie sailed off, up near the clouds, over the fields and woods, to the burrow where Mrs. Littletail, Susie’s mamma, lived.

“Where is that baby rabbit?” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he lowered his airship to the ground. “I must see him.”

“Here he is,” said Mrs. Littletail, proudly, bringing out the new little baby rabbit. “But be careful not to squeeze him too hard, as he is very soft and tender.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful!” said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh.

Then he took the baby rabbit and toddled him up and down on his knee, and said “Ootsie-Cootsie!” and “Tummy-tummy!” and “petsie-etsie!” You know the way old gentleman always talk to babies, whether they are animals or not.

“Isn’t he just too sweet!” cried Susie, as she stood peeping lovingly at her new baby brother. “And doesn’t he look just like Sammie?”

“Hu! Do I look like that?” asked Sammie, standing off to one side, with his paws in his pockets.

“You did when you were little,” said his mamma, smiling.

“Ha! Well, I don’t now,” spoke Sammie sort of thankful like. “Come on, Susie, I’m going to school—the last bell has almost rung.”

“Wait until I give baby a kiss,” said Susie, and, when she had done so, she hurried to school with Sammie.

Uncle Wiggily stayed with Mrs. Littletail for some time, and he jiggled and joggled the baby rabbit up and down on his knee, and talked baby talk to it, and had just a lovely time as all old gentleman rabbits do at such times.

After a while Mrs. Littletail said:

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I have to go to the store to get a rattle box for baby rabbit, to amuse him when he cries! I wonder if you would stay here and take care of him until I come back!”

“Of course I would, and I’d be glad to—real proud and happy to do so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Won’t I, baby rabbit? Ootsie-cootsie ’unnin’-cunnin’!”

“Goo!” said the baby rabbit. I guess that meant “yes” in baby rabbit talk.

So Mrs. Littletail went to the store for a rattle box for her new bunny baby, and then Uncle Wiggily jiggled and joggled the little chap up and down on his knee some more.

“Goo-goo!” said baby rabbit, as cute as anything.

“Oh, you’re just too lovely!” cried Uncle Wiggily, exactly as Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy might have done.

But, all of a sudden, baby rabbit began to cry.

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily sort of disappointed like. “Hold on if you please! Don’t do that! Stop it!”

But the more he talked the more the baby rabbit sobbed.

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried the small chap. “Wah-h-h-h-h-h-h!”

“Oh, my!” shouted Uncle Wiggily. “I guess I must walk up and down with you!” and he did, as fast as anything, but the baby rabbit only cried the harder.

“Ha! Maybe you want me to stand on my head for you!” said Uncle Wiggily. So he put the baby in its crib and stood on his head, in a corner, wiggling his feet in the air. But the baby rabbit still cried:

“Wah! Wah! Wah!”

“Oh, come now, be nice!” begged Uncle Wiggily, looking around for something with which to amuse the rabbit baby. “I guess you want your rattle box. I wish Mrs. Littletail would hurry back.”

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried baby rabbit.

“I know what I’ll do!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take you in my airship to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. She’ll know what to do.”

So, bundling the baby rabbit up in its warm blankets, the old gentleman rabbit hurried out to his airship, which he had left standing in the yard. It had been all fixed since the mosquitoes had bitten holes in the balloons, and was better than ever.

“Now we’re all right!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he started off through the air. “Nurse Jane will soon fix you, little fellow!”

“Why, you shouldn’t have brought a new, little baby rabbit out in your airship,” said the muskrat lady, when she saw what Uncle Wiggily had done. “It might take cold.”

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” howled the baby rabbit.

“Listen to that! I couldn’t make it stop crying,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I did everything, even to making funny faces at it. What do you do in a case like this?”

“Silly old Uncle Wiggily!” laughed Nurse Jane. “I guess this little fellow is hungry!” And, surely enough, when she gave baby rabbit some warm milk and sugar from a bottle, the little chap stopped crying at once and went to sleep.

“Well, I do declare!” cried Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. “It is so easy when you know how!” And then, while the baby rabbit slept, Uncle Wiggily took it home in his airship, and just in time, too, for Mrs. Littletail had come back with the rattle box, and she was wondering where in the world her baby was. Then she thanked Uncle Wiggily, and put the baby rabbit in its crib, and that is the end of this story.

But in the next story, if the door knob doesn’t turn a somersault over the pepper caster and slide off the table, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the popgun.

STORY XV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE POPGUN

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was out in the yard back of his house, blowing hot air in the toy circus balloons of his airship. The balloons would then lift the airship up in the air, and Uncle Wiggily could sail around near the clouds, like a bird.

“Aren’t you afraid the airship will some day go up without you in it?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept house for the rabbit gentleman.

“Oh, no, for I always tie my airship fast to the fence, or a tree, or something like that, until I am ready to get in it!” he answered.

This time Uncle Wiggily tied his airship, with a clothesline, to the grape arbor, and he went on getting the red, green, blue and yellow balloons more and more full of hot air. The rabbit gentleman blew the hot air in with a putty blower.

Soon the airship was tugging and tugging away at the clothesline, wanting to sail up in the air, and take the old gentleman rabbit with it for a sail in the clothes basket, which was filled with soft cushions. These were taken along so, in case Uncle Wiggily fell, he would not be bounced too hard.

But the airship could not go up until the rabbit gentleman loosed the rope that held it fast.

“And that I’ll do as soon as I go in and wash my paws and get a carrot sandwich,” the rabbit gentleman said, when he had finished fixing the balloons. “Then I’ll go off and see if I can find an adventure.”

An adventure, you know, is something that happens to you, like being late for school, and getting kept in. But I hope you have no such unpleasant adventure as that. I’d rather you had a nice one, like finding an ice cream cone rolling up hill.

Well, Uncle Wiggily went into the house to wash his paws. He soaped them nicely and also his face, but, when he went to dry them, he could not find the towel.

“Oh, Nurse Jane!” he cried. “Come quickly and get me a towel! There’s some soap in my eyes!”

“Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some apple pudding!” cried Nurse Jane. Then she ran in to get a towel for Uncle Wiggily, leaving the airship in the yard all alone.

And now something is going to happen.

Along came Jocko Kinkytail, the little monkey boy, on his way to school. Jocko was going to be late, too. He almost always was late, and the reason was that he stopped too often along the road to play and to look at the things he saw.

“Oh, my goodness!” cried Jocko, when he saw Uncle Wiggily’s airship in the yard, all ready to sail. “I must look at that!”

Over the fence he scrambled, and he began looking at the airship, made of a clothes basket, some toy balloons, a Japanese umbrella and an electric fan.

“Say! This is fine!” cried Jocko. “I wonder what keeps it from going up when no one is in it?” Then he noticed the clothesline rope holding it down, and he said, “Ah, I see!”

Now Jocko was very curious, and when the monkey chap saw a knot tied in the holdingdown rope he at once tried to loosen it. And with his cunning little fingers Jocko did loosen the knot.

And then——

Up shot the airship into the air, nearly knocking the monkey boy down, so suddenly did it leave the earth.

“Oh, my!” cried Jocko.

“Oh, now you have done it!” exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she came running out of the house, after having gotten Uncle Wiggily a towel to wipe the soap out of his eyes.