Part 8

“Humph! Yes! Bring down a trunk,” said Uncle Wiggily to himself, looking around. “There are a lot of trunks here. I wonder which one Nurse Jane meant?”

He glanced at a pile of several trunks, and finally he decided that the one painted red, white and blue, as was his barber pole rheumatism crutch, would be the best.

“I’ll take that trunk down for Nurse Jane,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he lifted it off the pile of others. “My! But it’s heavy!” he exclaimed. “I must see what’s in it.”

He opened the trunk and in it the old gentleman rabbit saw a number of play toys he had had when he was a little boy rabbit. There were baseballs and bats, and toy bows and arrows, and fish poles, and pop guns, and many other things.

“My! This makes me remember the happy days when I was young!” sighed Uncle Wiggily. “I certainly used to have fun when I was a boy. I’ll just take these things out of my trunk, and save them for Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, and for Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. Then I’ll take the empty trunk down to Nurse Jane. Yes, those were happy days, when I was a young rabbit boy.”

The old gentleman rabbit began emptying the trunk, taking out his old play toys, and, when he had the trunk emptied he felt rather tired. It was hot up in the attic, and he felt sleepy, also.

“I think I’ll just lie down on the trunk and take a nap,” Uncle Wiggily said. “There is really no hurry about taking it downstairs.”

Into the empty trunk he hopped, and for a pillow he took a soft baseball, which had been batted about so much that it was quite mushy.

Soon, up in the trunk in the warm attic, Uncle Wiggily was fast asleep.

And then something dreadful happened. A big rat, who had had nothing to eat in a long time, crawled out of his hole, looking for a piece of cheese. The rat saw the trunk, with the lid up, and he thought to himself:

“Maybe there is cheese in there. I’ll take a look.”

He jumped up on the lid of the trunk, and the rat was so heavy that he accidentally slammed the cover down, shutting Uncle Wiggily inside the trunk.

“Oh, dear!” cried the rat. “Now I have done it! I’m so sorry!”

“And so am I!” cried Uncle Wiggily from inside the trunk. For the banging down of the lid had awakened him.

“Can’t you get out?” asked the rat. “Try to lift up the lid. I’ll help you.”

Uncle Wiggily tried, and so did the hungry rat, but the trunk cover had locked itself when it fell down, and Uncle Wiggily could not get out.

“Oh, I shall smother in here!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “Help! Help!”

“I’ll run downstairs and get the key from Nurse Jane,” the rat said. “Then I can let you out.” But Nurse Jane had gone to the store, and the rat could not find the key. Up to the attic he ran again, saying: “Oh, Uncle Wiggily, what shall I do? I can’t get the trunk key to let you out!”

“Oh, dear!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “I must get out! I am smothering in here.”

“Ha! I know what I can do!” suddenly cried the rat! “I can gnaw a hole in the trunk, and you can crawl out that way!”

So the hungry rat, with his strong teeth, quickly gnawed a hole in the side of the trunk, and Uncle Wiggily hopped out just before he smothered, so it was all right. Then he took the trunk downstairs, mended the rat hole in it and gave the kind rat something to eat, for the rat had not in the least meant to close down the trunk lid, you see.

Then Nurse Jane came back and packed away Uncle Wiggily’s clothes in the moth stuff, and the old rabbit gentleman tied up in bundles the toys he intended giving to the little animal boys, and that’s the end of this story. But, if the ice water pitcher doesn’t go to sleep under the gas stove and make the oven sneeze, when the rice pudding tickles the baked potatoes, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily going to school.

STORY XXVIII

UNCLE WIGGILY GOES TO SCHOOL

It was a beautiful day in animal land. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, who was cleaning the mud off his airship (for he had fallen into a puddle the day before) looked up at the blue sky and said:

“Ah, it is such a beautiful day that traveling around in my airship will be a delight. I will sail off and perhaps something may happen to me. That will be an adventure.”

He kept on cleaning the mud off the clothes basket of his airship, and then he softly fluffed up the sofa cushions that kept him from getting hurt when he fell from the clouds.

“Now I am ready to start,” Uncle Wiggily said, as he put a piece of cherry pie in his vest pocket, to have it ready to eat in case he became hungry. I mean he was going to eat the cherry pie, not his vest pocket, you understand.

“Where are you going?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, coming to the door of the hollow stump bungalow, which she kept in order for Uncle Wiggily. “Where are you going?” asked Nurse Jane as she washed and wiped the face of a breakfast plate.

“Oh just to take a little trip, and perhaps have an adventure,” Uncle Wiggily said.

“Well, please bring home some pickled bananas for breakfast,” went on Nurse Jane, and Uncle Wiggily promised he would.

Then he started off in his airship, but he had not gone very far before he saw, down on the ground below him, something red, white and blue, fluttering in the wind.

“Ha! I wonder if that can be my red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch?” said the rabbit gentleman. “It must have fallen out of my airship.”

Then he looked among the sofa cushions and went on:

“No, my crutch is here safe and sound. But I wonder what that red, white and blue is down there? I’m going to see.”

He steered his airship downward, and when he reached the ground Uncle Wiggily found that what he had seen was a fluttering flag, with red and white stripes, and white stars on a blue square. And the flag was on a pole in front of an animal school house.

“Ha! Of course! I might have known!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Well, since I am so near school, I will go in and see the nice lady mouse teacher and the animal children.”

Then he tied his airship to a mulberry bush, so it could not run away, and where it would also have something to eat, and into the school went the rabbit gentleman.

“Good morning, children,” said Uncle Wiggily.

“Good morning, Uncle Wiggily,” replied the pupils, most politely.

“What is going on here?” asked Uncle Wiggily of the lady mouse school teacher, for all the animal children were standing up in a row before her desk. “Have the children not been good?” the rabbit gentleman wanted to know, looking at Charlie Chick and at Johnnie and Billie Bushytail.

“Oh, no, indeed! The children are as good as pie!” said the teacher with a laugh.

“Ha! Speaking of pie, reminds me that I have some,” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he took the cherry piece out of his vest pocket. “If you will kindly allow me I will pass it around,” he went on.

“Yes, you may do so,” spoke the teacher. And the piece of cherry pie Uncle Wiggily had brought with him was so large that there was enough for each animal pupil to have some as well as Uncle Wiggily himself, and also the lady mouse school teacher.

“But, tell me, pray, why are your pupils standing in a line this way?” asked the rabbit gentleman, when the pie was all eaten.

“We are having an examination,” the teacher replied. “It is nearing the time to close the school for the summer, and I am trying to find out how much my pupils know, so that if they are smart enough they can go to a higher class. We are having an examination, you see.”

“An examination in what?” asked Uncle Wiggily.

“In spelling,” answered the lady mouse. “Would you like to ask them to spell some words?”

“I should be delighted,” went on the rabbit gentleman. Then, looking straight at Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, Uncle Wiggily said:

“Spell me the word carrot!”

“C-a-r-r-o-t,” spelled Sammie. He knew that word very well, you see, because he ate carrots every day.

“Good!” cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he looked at Billie Bushytail, the squirrel, and said:

“Spell me the word peanut!”

“P-e-a-n-u-t,” spelled Billie the first time.

“Good!” cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he looked at Charlie, the chicken boy, and said:

“Spell me the word corn!”

But before Charlie had a chance to do this, all of a sudden into the school jumped a bad old Flippity-flop. A Flippity-flop is an animal, something like a mouse-trap, only it walks on its head instead of on its toes, and it has no tail.

“Wow!” cried the bad Flippity-flop. “Here’s where I have some fun!” And that unpleasant creature began to throw pieces of chalk and the blackboard erasers around the room, and he upset the ink bottle on the floor and tickled the lady mouse teacher with a lead pencil point. Oh, the Flippity-flop was very bad, and for no reason at all, except just because he wanted to be so. Flippity-flops are always like that.

“Oh, what shall we do?” cried the lady mouse, for the children were all excited. “Call a policeman dog for me, Uncle Wiggily, to take away the bad Flippity-flop!”

“Ha! I will make the Flippity-flop go away myself!” cried Uncle Wiggily very bravely.

“No you cannot!” shouted the Flippity-flop, as he made a face at the rabbit gentleman. “You cannot make me go away!”

“Yes, I can!” said Uncle Wiggily in a very loud voice. “You spell me the word cheese! quick now! Spell me cheese!”

“Oh, wow!” cried the Flippity-flop, and then, as quick as a wink, he turned a somersault and hopped out the window, and ran off to the woods to hide. For if there is one thing more than another that a Flippity-flop is afraid of it is cheese, especially rabbit cheese.

And he could no more spell the word than he could fly, and that’s why he ran away, and every one was glad. And I guess you are, too.

“Thank you, very much, Uncle Wiggily,” said the lady mouse teacher “for driving away the bad Flippity-flop!” Then the examination went on, and all the animal children passed, and Uncle Wiggily bought some pickled bananas and went on home to Nurse Jane.

And next, if the dogwood tree doesn’t bark at the pussy willow and make its tail fluff up, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane.

STORY XXIX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND NURSE JANE

“Well, are you all ready?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as he came hurrying into the hollow stump bungalow one afternoon. “Are you all ready, Nurse Jane?”

“Ready? Ready for what?” she cried, as she sat down backwards in the dishpan full of soap bubbles, she was so excited.

“Why, ready to go to the country, of course,” replied the old gentleman rabbit. “We are going to spend a few days in the woods, and amid the green fields. I thought I told you about it. But perhaps I forgot it. However, no matter. Come, pack your trunk, and we will go off to the country in my airship.”

“My goodness me sakes alive, and some molasses lollypops!” cried Nurse Jane. “This is a great surprise to me!”

“Is it?” asked Uncle Wiggily. “Well, I am sorry I forgot to tell you about it. But never mind. Pack your trunk and mine, and we will start in the morning.”

Then such goings-on as there were in the hollow stump bungalow! Nurse Jane had so much to do to get ready that all Uncle Wiggily had for his supper was some of the hollow rings from the inside of the crullers, and a few of the holes in Swiss cheese, fried in marshmallow sauce.

“But I don’t mind,” the rabbit gentleman said. “We will have plenty to eat when we get to the country, Nurse Jane.”

“I hope so,” answered the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail up in curl papers to make it nice and frizzy for morning.

As soon as the sun had gotten up out of bed next day, and washed its face, Uncle Wiggily and Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy started off for the country in the clothes basket airship, with the red, white and blue toy circus balloons lifting it high above the tree tops.

They took with them a trunk and a satchel, containing their clothes, for they were to stay, perhaps, a week or more. And they also had their toothbrushes, for Uncle Wiggily was very particular about cleaning his teeth.

“Ah, there is the bungalow where we are to stay,” said the rabbit gentleman, as he sailed above a pretty place in the woods. “See it down there, Nurse Jane.”

He pointed to a little house made of bark. It was close to the edge of a little brook, and all about it grew ferns and bluebell flowers.

“Oh, what a lovely place!” cried Nurse Jane. “I know I shall like it there!”

Down went the airship as gently as a feather, and out jumped the muskrat lady and Uncle Wiggily.

“Now,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he tied his airship fast to a willow-whistle tree, so that it would not run away and play tag with the clouds; “now, Nurse Jane, I’ll cut you some wood to make a fire, and you can get dinner. Then we’ll take a walk in the forest.”

“Very well,” said the muskrat lady, and while Uncle Wiggily was gnawing the firewood into little sticks with his strong teeth, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy opened the box of good things to eat, which they had brought with them in the airship.

“I guess I’ll just take a little hop through the woods, while you are getting dinner ready,” said Uncle Wiggily, after a bit. “I may find an adventure.”

“Very well,” spoke Nurse Jane, as she put on a pocket handkerchief apron so she would not spatter carrot juice on her shirtwaist.

Well, Uncle Wiggily had not gone very far before, all of a sudden, he heard Nurse Jane crying out:

“Help! Help! Help! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, come here quickly!”

“My goodness me, sakes alive and some cinnamon ice cream!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “Nurse Jane must be in trouble.”

He gave three hops and a skip through the woods, and soon he was at the birch-bark bungalow, near the brook.

“What is the matter, Nurse Jane?” he asked, breathless like.

“Oh, I heard the most dreadful noise!” she said. “Listen!”

Then Uncle Wiggily heard:

“Baa! Baa! Baa!”

“Ha! Ha!” laughed the rabbit gentleman. “That is only a sheep singing. You will find plenty of them in the country, Nurse Jane.”

“Oh! Only a sheep,” said the muskrat lady. “I thought maybe it was an alligator. I am not afraid of a sheep.”

Then she went on getting dinner, and Uncle Wiggily went back in the woods, looking for an adventure, and, pretty soon he heard Nurse Jane cry again:

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Help! Help! Help! Come quickly!”

With three hops, and part of another one, the old rabbit gentleman was back at the birch-bark bungalow.

“What is the matter now?” he asked.

“Listen,” spoke Nurse Jane, just like a telephone girl.

Then Uncle Wiggily heard a noise that went:

“Gobble-obble-obble! Gobble-obble-obble!”

“What terrible creature is that?” asked Nurse Jane, shivering.

“Only a Thanksgiving turkey gobbler,” laughed the old gentleman rabbit. “They are always in the country. Don’t be afraid.”

He went back in the woods again, but pretty soon Nurse Jane cried once more.

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Come here quickly.”

“I wonder what can be the matter this time?” thought the old rabbit gentleman, as he gave a hop, skip and a jump back. “What is it, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?” he asked, as he came to the birch-bark bungalow.

“Oh, we have no milk for dinner,” she said sorrowfully.

And, before Uncle Wiggily could answer, there echoed through the woods a sound like:

“Moo! Moo! Moo!”

“Oh, what dreadful creature is that?” asked Nurse Jane, wiggling her whiskers. “I am sure it must be a bear.”

“Ha!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “That is not a bear! It is our milk for dinner. That is the moo-cow. You will find lots of them in the country. You must not be so nervous, Nurse Jane.”

“I’ll try not to be,” she answered, “but it is some time since I have lived in the country. Where is the cow?”

Then along came a nice moo-cow with milk for Uncle Wiggily’s dinner, and the rabbit and Nurse Jane had a fine time in the country-woods bungalow, and they thanked the kind cow and Nurse Fuzzy Wuzzy said she would not be afraid of any more funny noises. But you just wait!

Now, in the next story, if the circus lemonade doesn’t jump over the elephant’s back, and color the clown’s white suit all over with pink stripes, like a stick of peppermint candy, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the moo-cow.

STORY XXX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MOO-COW

“Hey, Uncle Wiggily!” suddenly exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy in the middle of the night.

“Yes, what is it?” asked the rabbit gentleman in a sleepy voice.

“Listen!” went on the muskrat lady.

So Uncle Wiggily listened, just as if a nice telephone girl had told him to do so. He and Nurse Jane were spending a few days in the country woods bungalow, as I told you in the story before this one. It was their first night, and, about twelve o’clock, the muskrat lady had all at once awakened the old gentleman rabbit by calling to him.

“Did you hear that?” asked Nurse Jane, after a bit.

Uncle Wiggily heard a sound that went something like: “Chir-r-r-r-r-p! Chir-r-r-r-r-p! Chir-r-r-r-r-p!”

“Do you hear that?” asked Nurse Jane in a whisper.

“Surely I hear it,” answered Uncle Wiggily.

“That is a bad old fox, sawing the bolt off the front door with a screw driver, so he can get in,” went on the muskrat lady.

“Nonsencicalness!” laughed Uncle Wiggily. “It is only a black cricket. They always chirp that way, to make the country more cheerful. There are many crickets in the country. Go to sleep, Nurse Jane.”

So the muskrat lady went to sleep once more, rather sorry for having awakened Uncle Wiggily. But pretty soon, when it was almost morning, she called out again:

“Uncle Wiggily, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked the rabbit gentleman, in a sleepy voice.

“Some one outside the bungalow is calling about a little girl named Katy. Some one says she did do it, and some one else says she didn’t do it. I’m sure something dreadful must have happened. Listen!”

Uncle Wiggily listened. He heard: “Katy-did! Katy-did! Katy-didn’t! Katy-didn’t!”

“Hal Ha!” laughed the old rabbit gentleman. “That noise is made by a little green bug, called a ‘Katy-did.’ There are two of them; the other being called a ‘Katy-didn’t.’ And they are always disputing that way. Go to sleep, Nurse Jane. There are many Katy-dids and didn’ts in the country.”

“Then there isn’t any little girl Katy out in the woods?” asked the muskrat lady, curious like.

“No, indeed,” answered Uncle Wiggily.

So everything was all right until the sun got up out of bed again, and washed his face in the little pond near the birch bark bungalow where Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane were staying for a while.

All of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes near the pond, and a voice cried:

“Moo! Moo! Moo!”

“Ha! I know what that is,” exclaimed Nurse Jane. “That is the Moo-Cow coming with milk for our breakfast.”

“Of course,” spoke the rabbit gentleman.

“Here I am!” said the cow in a cheerful voice, and after she had given Nurse Jane the morning milk, and the rabbit gentleman had had his breakfast, the Moo-Cow asked:

“Uncle Wiggily, what is that funny thing over there? It looks like a clothes basket, filled with sofa cushions, with an electric fan in back, and toy circus balloons and a Japanese umbrella on top. What is it?”

“That is my airship, if you please,” Uncle Wiggily replied, as he tied his long ears in a hard knot so they would not be in his way. “Perhaps you would like to take a ride with me, Moo-Cow.”

“I should like it, above all things!” answered the Moo-Cow.

“Come then, and I will take you—above all things!” laughed Uncle Wiggily. “We will go even up above the church steeples.”

“But don’t fall on any of them, for they are very sharp,” said Nurse Jane. “They are even sharper than the horns of the Moo-Cow.”

“We’ll be careful,” promised Uncle Wiggily.

So he and the Moo-Cow took their places in the clothes basket of the airship. Uncle Wiggily blew up the balloons with hot air, and then, starting the electric fan, that went around whizzie-izzie, off they sailed over the tree-tops.

“Ha! This is fine!” cried the Moo-Cow.

“Were you never airshipping before?” inquired Uncle Wiggily, politely.

“Never,” answered the Moo-Cow, as she carefully braided the tufted end of her tail, so it would not tickle Uncle Wiggily. “It is very kind of you to ask me for a ride,” she went on.

“Pray do not mention such a little thing as that,” spoke the rabbit gentleman still more politely. “I am glad you like it.”

Well, Uncle Wiggily and the Moo-Cow rode on and on in the airship, and Mr. Longears was afraid he was not going to have an adventure that day, when, all of a sudden there came a strong puff of wind. It blew the red, white and blue toy balloons down upon the sharp points of the Moo-Cow’s horns, and, all at once, there was a hiss, like that of a radiator on a cold day, and all the air rushed out of the balloons, leaving them flat like cocoanut cakes. Down went the airship; down—down!

“Oh, we are falling!” cried the Moo-Cow. “I am going to jump over the moon! That is the only way I can save myself!”

“Stop! Sit still!” cried Uncle Wiggily like a policeman life-saver dog at Asbury Park. “Do not jump over the moon, or anywhere else.”

“But we are falling down!” cried the cow. “We shall be hurt when we hit the ground. I must jump before it is too late.”

“Stay right in!” said Uncle Wiggily, as he steered the falling airship out of the way of a church steeple. “The soft sofa cushions, filled with Wibblewobble duck feathers, will not let us be hurt. We will fall on them!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “Don’t be in the least afraid. We shall fall on the cushions!”

And, surely enough they did. Down they came on the hard ground, but with the sofa cushions under them it was like falling on a feather bed, so neither the rabbit gentleman nor the Moo-Cow was hurt in the least. The cow was sorry her sharp horns had burst the balloons, but Uncle Wiggily politely said that did not in the least matter.

“I can easily mend them again,” he declared. “And maybe I shall have another adventure to-morrow.”

He did, and what it was I shall have the pleasure of telling you in the next story—that is if the lawn mower doesn’t run out in the street and cut the wheels off the automobile so the rag doll has to ride in the express wagon. The story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the sheep.

STORY XXXI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SHEEP

Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, was sweeping and dusting the birch-bark bungalow, in the country woods, where she and Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, were spending a few days’ vacation.

“It is very nice here,” thought Nurse Jane, as she put some flowers in the dishpan to make the kitchen table look decorated. “I am glad we came.”

And she looked out of the window to see what Mr. Longears was doing. He was pumping some hot air into the red, white and blue circus balloons of his airship. He had mended them after the Moo-Cow’s horns had accidentally punctured holes in them, as I told you last night, if you will kindly remember.

“Well, I guess Uncle Wiggily is going for a ride,” said Nurse Jane. “I must ask him to stop at the store for a pound of sugar.”

And then the muskrat lady began singing:

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.

“Ha! Are you singing about me?” asked a voice near a Jack-in-the-pulpit flower which grew at the side porch of the bungalow. “Are you singing about me, Nurse Jane?”

“Why, I suppose I was, if you are Baa-Baa Black Sheep,” replied the muskrat lady, while she polished the potatoes for dinner.

“Well, I am a white sheep, but my name is Baa-Baa, just the same,” went on the voice, and around the corner came the same sheep that had accidentally frightened Nurse Jane the first night she and Uncle Wiggily had come to the bungalow.