Part 2

"Please do," begged Uncle Wiggily, and the little girl did. And when the elephant saw the pieces of candy, being very fond of sweet things, he stopped to pick them up in his trunk and eat them.

And it took him quite a while, for the candy was well scattered about. And when the elephant had eaten the last piece Uncle Wiggily and the crow, and little girl, were far off in the auto and the elephant could not catch them to break the machine; though even if he had smashed it he would not have meant to do so.

So Uncle Wiggily rode on, looking for more adventures, and he soon found one. I'll tell you about it in the next story, which will be called, "Uncle Wiggily at the Squirrel House;"--that is if the clothes wringer doesn't squeeze the rubber ball so it cries and makes water come in the eyes of the potatoes.

STORY IV

UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SQUIRREL HOUSE

Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was standing one day in front of his new automobile which had run away with him upsetting, and breaking one of the wheels. But it had been fixed all right again.

"I think this automobile will go fine now," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he got up on the front seat. "Now, I am ready to start off on some more travels, and in search of more adventures, and this time I won't have to walk. Now let me see, do I turn on the fizzle-fazzle first or the twinkum-twankum? I forget."

So he looked carefully all over the automobile to see if he could remember what first to turn to make it go, but he couldn't think what it was. Because, you see, he was all excited over his accident. I didn't tell you that story because I thought it might make you cry. It was very sad. The crow gentleman flew away after it.

"I guess I'll have to look in the cookbook," said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps that will tell me what to do."

So he took out a cookbook from under the seat and leafed it over until he came to the page where it tells how to cook automobiles, and there he found what he wanted to know.

"Ha! I see!" cried Uncle Wiggily; "first I must twist the dinkum-dankum, and then I must tickle the tittlecum-tattlecum, and then I'll go."

Well, he did this, and just as he was about to start off on his journey out came running Sammie and Susie Littletail, the two rabbit children, with whom Uncle Wiggily sometimes lived.

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Susie, "where are you going?"

"And may we come along?" asked Sammie, making his nose twinkle like two stars on a night in June.

"I am going off on a long journey, for my health, and to look for more adventures," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I am tired of staying around the house taking medicine for my rheumatism. So Dr. Possum told me to travel around. I don't just know where I am going, but I am going somewhere, and if you like you may come part of the way. Hop in."

Sammie and Susie hopped in the back part of the auto, where there were two little seats for them, and then Uncle Wiggily turned the whizzicum-whazzicum around backward and away they went as nicely as the baby creeps over the floor to catch the kittie by the tail; only you mustn't do that, you know; indeed not!

"Oh, isn't this great?" cried Susie, in delight.

"It certainly is," agreed Sammie, blinking his pink eyes because the wind blew in them. "I hope Uncle Wiggily has an adventure while we're with him."

And then, all of a sudden, a doggie ran across the road in front of the auto, and the doggie's tail was hanging down behind him and sticking out quite a bit, and, as it was quite a long tail, Uncle Wiggily nearly ran over it, but, of course, he didn't mean to, even if he had done it.

"Look out of the way, little doggie!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, kindly.

"I am looking as fast as I can!" cried the doggie, and he ran to the sidewalk as quickly as he could, and then he turned around to see if his tail was still fastened to him.

"That came near being an adventure," said Susie, waving her pocket handkerchief.

"Yes, almost too near," said Uncle Wiggily. "I think I will go through the woods instead of along the streets, and then I won't be in any danger of running over any one."

So he steered the auto toward the woodland road, and Sammie cried:

"Oh, I know what let's do! Let's go call on Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boys. Then we'll have some fun."

"All right, we'll do it," agreed Uncle Wiggily, for he liked fun as much as the children did, if not more.

Well, as they were going along the road, all of a sudden they heard a little voice calling to them.

"Oh, please don't run over me!" the voice cried. "Please be careful!" And, looking down, Sammie saw a little black cricket on the path just ahead of the auto, which Uncle Wiggily was now making go very slowly.

"Why don't you get out of the way if you don't want to be run over?" asked Susie, politely, for the cricket just stood still there, looking at them, and not making a move.

"Oh, I'm so stiff from the cold that I can't hop about any more," said the cricket, "or else I would hop out of the way. You know I can't stand cold weather."

"That's too bad," said Uncle Wiggily as he stopped the auto. "I'll give you a ride, and perhaps I can find some warm place for you to spend the winter."

So the old gentleman rabbit kindly picked up the cold and stiff cricket and gave it to Susie, and Susie gently put it in the warm pocket of her jacket, and there it was so nice and cozy-ozy that the cricket went fast to sleep.

And then, in about forty-'leven squeak-squawk toots of the big mooley-cow automobile horn, there they were at the home of Johnnie and Billy Bushytail, the squirrel brothers.

"Toot! Toot!" tooted Uncle Wiggily on his tooter-tooter mooley-cow horn.

"There! I guess that will bring out the boys if they are in the house," said the old gentleman rabbit.

And then, all of a sudden, something happened. Susie and Sammie were looking at the front door, expecting Johnnie and Billie to come out, when Susie saw a great big bear's face up at one window of the squirrel house.

"Oh! Look! Look!" she cried. "The bear has gotten in and maybe he has bitten Johnnie."

And just then Sammie looked at the other window and he saw a wolf's face peering out.

"Oh, dear!" cried Sammie, "the wolf has gotten Billie."

"My gracious!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'm going for the police right away. Hold on tightly, children, for I am going to twist the tinkerum-tankerum and make this automobile go very fast. Oh! how sorry I am for poor Johnnie and Billie."

But just before Uncle Wiggily could start the auto, there was a shout of laughter. The front door of the Bushytail home swung open, and out rushed Billie and Johnnie, jumping and skipping. And Johnnie had a wolf's false face in his paws and Billie had a bear's false face in his paws.

"Ho! Ho!" they shouted together. "Did we scare you, Uncle Wiggily? We didn't mean to, but we were just practising."

"Was that you boys looking out of the windows with your false faces on?" asked Uncle Wiggily very much surprised-like.

"That was us," said Johnnie.

"And wasn't there a real bear?" asked Susie, flapping her ears.

"And wasn't it a real wolf?" asked Sammie, wiggling his paws.

"Not a bit," said Billie. "We're just getting ready for Hallowe'en to-morrow night, and those were our false faces, you know, and I wish you'd all stay with us and have some fun."

"We will," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll put my auto in the barn, and we'll stay."

So they did, and in case the little wooden dog with the pink-blue nose doesn't bite the tail of the woolly cat, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily having Hallowe'en fun.

STORY V

UNCLE WIGGILY'S HALLOWE'EN FUN

"Oh, dear, I wish it were night," said Susie Littletail.

"So do I!" exclaimed Sammie, her brother. "Then it would be Hallowe'en."

"And both of us wish the same thing," said Johnnie Bushytail, as he and his brother Billie went skipping about the room of their house.

"Oh, don't wish so hard or night might come before I'm ready for it," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit. "I've got to decorate my auto yet and get my false face, you know."

"What kind are you going to have?" asked Susie.

"Oh, I think I'll dress up like an elephant," said Uncle Wiggily.

"But what will you do for a trunk?" asked Mrs. Bushytail, for, you see, Uncle Wiggily and Sammie and Susie had stayed at the squirrel's house to have some fun. This was the first place the old gentleman rabbit came to after starting out in his auto for his health, and after some fresh adventures. "What will you do for an elephant's trunk?" asked Mrs. Bushytail.

"I will take a long stocking and stuff it full of soft cotton so it will look just like an elephant's face," said Uncle Wiggily. "Then I'll go out with the children in my auto and we'll have a lot of fun."

So all that day they got ready for the Hallowe'en fun they were to have that night. Johnnie and Billie had their false faces, you remember; Johnnie had a wolf's face and Billie a bear's, and they were too cute for anything. But, of course, Sammie and Susie Littletail and Uncle Wiggily had to have some false faces also, and it took quite a while for the rabbit children to decide what they wanted.

"I think I'll dress up like a wild Indian," said Sammie at last.

"And I'm going to be a pussy cat," said Susie.

"And if any dogs chase you, I'll growl at them, and scare them away," said Billie, who was going to be a make-believe bear.

"Yes, and I'll tickle them with my stuffed-stocking elephant's trunk," said Uncle Wiggily. "Now, I must go out and put some oil and gasoline in my auto, and see that the frizzle-frazzle works all right, so we can go Hallowe'en riding to-night."

Finally the animal children were all ready, and they were waiting for it to get dark so they could go out. And, pretty soon, after supper, when the sun had gone to bed, it did get dark. Then the four animal children and Uncle Wiggily went out in the auto.

Say, I just wish you could have seen them; really I do! and I'd show you a picture of them, only I'm not allowed to do that. And besides it was too dark to see pictures well, so perhaps it doesn't much matter.

Oh, but they were the funny looking sights, though! Billy Bushytail acted like a real bear, growling as hard as ever he could, though, of course, he was polite about it, as it was only fun. And what a savage make-believe wolf Johnnie was!

And there was Susie, as cute a little pussy cat as one would meet with in going from here to the moon and back. And as for Sammie, well, say, he was so much like a real Indian that when he looked in the glass he was frightened at himself; yes, really he was, and he had truly feathers on, too; not make-believe ones, either.

Uncle Wiggily was dressed up like an elephant, and he sat in the front of the auto to steer it. Only his stuffed-stocking trunk got in the way of the steering wheel, so Uncle Wiggily had to put it behind him, over his left shoulder and have Susie hold it. I mean she held his stuffed-stocking trunk, not the steering wheel, you know.

"Here we go!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily, and his voice sounded far away because it had to go down inside the stuffed-stocking elephant trunk and come out again around in back of him. Then he twisted the tinkerum-tankerum, and away they went in the automobile.

All at once, from around a corner, came a big clown with red, white and blue all over his face. He had a rattlety-bang-banger thing and he was making a terrible racket on it.

"Oh, I know who that is!" cried Susie. "You're Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck."

"That's right," said the clown, making more noise than ever. "Whoop-de-doodle-do! Isn't this fun!"

Along went the auto and by this time there were a whole lot of animal children prancing and dancing around it. Uncle Wiggily had to make the auto go real slowly so as not to hurt any of them, for they were all over the streets.

There was Buddy Pigg, dressed up like a camel, and there was Dickie Chip-Chip and his sister, and they were dressed up like sailors. Brighteyes Pigg had on a cow's false face and Billie Goat was dressed up like a Chinaman, while Nannie, his sister, was supposed to be a lady with a sealskin coat on. Oh, I couldn't tell you how all the different animal children were dressed, but I'll just say that Bully, the frog, with his tall hat, was dressed like a football player and Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, made believe she was a fireman, and Munchie Trot was a pretend-policeman.

And such fun as they had! Uncle Wiggily steered the auto here and there, and squeaked and squawked his tooter-teeter so no one would get hurt. There were about forty-'leven tin horns being blown, and the wooden rattlety-bang-bangs were rattling all over and some one threw a whole lot of prettily colored paper in the air until it looked as if it were raining red, pink, green, purple, blue, yellow and skilligimink colored snow.

And then, all at once, out from the crowd, came a figure that looked like a bear. Oh, it was very real looking with long teeth, and shaggy fur, and that bear came right up to the auto that Uncle Wiggily was steering.

"I've come to get you!" growled the bear, away down in his throat.

"Oh, he's almost real!" exclaimed Susie, and she forgot that she was holding Uncle Wiggily's stuffed-stocking trunk, and let go of it, so that it hung down in front of him.

"I am a real bear!" growled the shaggy creature.

"Oh, you can't fool us," said Johnnie Bushytail, with a laugh. "You're Jacko or Jumpo Kinkytail dressed up like a bear, just as my brother Billie is. You can't fool us."

"But I am a real bear!" growled the shaggy creature again, "and I'm hungry so I'm going to bite Uncle Wiggily."

And, would you ever believe it? he was a real bear who had come in from the woods. He made a grab for Uncle Wiggily, but the old gentleman rabbit leaned far back in his auto seat, and the bear only got hold of the stuffed-stocking trunk. And then the bear pulled on that so hard that it came all apart and the cotton stuffing came out, and got up the bear's nose and made him sneeze.

And then up came running Munchie Trot, the pony boy, who was dressed like a policeman, and with his club Munchie tickled the bear on his ear, and that shaggy creature was glad enough to run back to the woods, taking his little stubby tail with him, so he didn't eat anybody.

"My, it's a good thing, I didn't have on a real elephant's trunk," said Uncle Wiggily, "or that bear would have bitten it off, for real trunks are fastened on tight."

"Yes, indeed," said Susie. So after everybody got over being scared at the real bear they had a lot of fun and Uncle Wiggily took all the children to a store and treated them to hot chocolate, and then he and Sammie and Susie and Billie and Johnnie went home in the auto, and went to bed. And Uncle Wiggily had another adventure next day.

I'll tell you about it on the page after this, when, in case it doesn't rain lightning bugs down the chimney, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily going chestnutting.

STORY VI

UNCLE WIGGILY GOES CHESTNUTTING

"Where are you going this morning, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Johnnie Bushytail of the old gentleman rabbit the day after the Hallowe'en fun.

"Oh, I am going to take a ride and see if I can find any more adventures," said Uncle Wiggily, as he went out in the barn to look and see if his auto had any holes in the rubber tires, or if the what-you-may-call-it had gotten twisted around the whose-this-cantankerum.

"May I go with you?" asked Billie Bushytail, as he followed Uncle Wiggily. "We don't want you to go away from our house so soon. We'd like to have you pay us a nice, long visit."

"Hum, well, I'll think about it," said Uncle Wiggily, slowly, and careful-like. "I'll stay as long as I can. But as for you squirrel boys going for a ride in my auto, why I guess you may come if your mamma will let you. Yes, it's all ready for a spin," he went on, as he saw that the tiddle-taddleum was on straight, and that the wheels had no holes in them.

"Oh, goody! Come on!" cried Billie to Johnnie; so into the house they hurried to ask their mamma, and she said they might go.

A little later, with the squirrel boys sitting in the back part of the auto, away they went, Uncle Wiggily steering here and there and taking care not to run over any puppy-dogs' tails or over any alligators' noses.

"Are you going off in the woods?" asked Johnnie, as he saw the old gentleman rabbit steering toward the tree-forest.

"I think I will," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I want to see Grandfather Goosey Gander, and if we go through the woods that is the shortest way to his house."

"Then, perhaps, we can stop and gather some chestnuts," said Johnnie. "There may be a few left that the other squirrels haven't yet picked up, and I heard papa saying to mamma the other night that we need a whole lot more than we have, so we wouldn't be hungry this winter."

"Oh, yes; let's get chestnuts!" cried Billie.

"All right," answered Uncle Wiggily, smiling, and then he had to turn the auto to one side very quickly, for a fuzzy worm was hurrying along the path, on her way to the grocery store, and Uncle Wiggily didn't want to run over her, you know.

"Thank you very much for not squashing me flat like a pancake," said the worm, as she wiggled along.

"Oh, pray do not mention such a little thing," said Uncle Wiggily, politely. "I am always glad to do you a favor like that."

Then he turned the handle so some more gasoline would squirt into the fizzle-fozzleum, and away the automobile went faster than ever.

Pretty soon they came to the woods, and Johnnie and Billie began looking about for chestnut trees. Squirrels, you know, can tell a chestnut tree a great way off, and soon Johnnie saw one.

"Stop the auto here, Uncle Wiggily," said Johnnie, "and we'll see if there are any chestnuts left."

So the old gentleman rabbit did this, and, surely enough, there were quite a few of the brown nuts lying on the ground, partly covered with leaves.

"Take a stick and poke around and you'll find more," said Billie to his brother, and pretty soon all three of them, including Uncle Wiggily, were picking up the nuts. Of course, the automobile couldn't pick up any; it just had to stand still there, looking on. I guess you know that, anyhow, but I just thought I'd mention it to make sure.

"Oh, here is another tree over there!" cried Johnnie after a while, as he ran to a large one. "It's got heaps and heaps of chestnuts under it, too. I guess no squirrels or any chipmunks have been here. Oh, we can get lots of nuts to put away for winter!"

So the two squirrel boys filled their pockets with nuts, and so did Uncle Wiggily, and they even put some in the automobile, though, of course, the auto couldn't eat them, but it could carry them away. And then, all of a sudden, Billie cried:

"Oh, I know what let's do! Let's build a little fire and roast some of the chestnuts. They're fine roasted."

"I guess they are," said Uncle Wiggily, "and so we'll cook some, though, as for me, I'd rather have a roast carrot or a bit of baked apple."

"Maybe we can find some apples to bake while we're roasting the chestnuts," said Billie. "We'll look."

They looked all around, and in a field not far from the woods they found an apple tree and there were some apples on the ground under it. They picked up quite a few and then they got some flat stones and made a place to build a fire.

Uncle Wiggily lighted it, for it isn't good for children to have anything to do with matches, and soon the fire was blazing up very nicely and was quite hot.

"Now put the chestnuts down to roast on the hot stones," said the rabbit gentleman, after a bit, to the two squirrel boys, "and I'll put some apples on a sharp stick and hold them near the blaze to roast. Why, boys! This is as much fun for me as a picnic!" he exclaimed joyfully.

But listen! Something is going to happen. All of a sudden, as they were sitting quietly around the fire and wishing the apples and chestnuts would hurry up and roast, all of a sudden a man came along with a gun. He stood by the fence that went around the field where they had picked up the apples, and that man said, in a grillery-growlery voice:

"Ah, ha! So those squirrels and that rabbit have been taking my apples, eh? I can smell 'em! Sniff! Snoof! Snuff! Well, I'll soon put a stop to that! I'm glad I brought my gun along!"

He was just aiming his gun at poor Uncle Wiggily and also at Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and the rabbit and the squirrels didn't know what in the world to do, for they were too frightened to run, when, all of a sudden there was a tremendously loud bang-bang in the fire and something flew out of it and hit that man right on the end of his nose.

"Ouch-ouchy!" the man cried.

"Bang!" went something again, and this time it flew over and hit the man on his left ear. Now what do you think of that?

"Ouch! Ouchy!" the man yelled again.

"Bang!" went the noise for the third shot, and this time the man was hit on his other ear.

"Ouch! Ouchy!" he cried again. "They're shooting at me. I'd better run." And run away he did, taking his gun with him, and so Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie and Billie weren't hurt.

"My, that was a narrow escape," said Johnnie. "What was it that made the bang noise, and hit the man?"

"It was the roast chestnuts," said Uncle Wiggily, "I forgot to tell you to make little holes in them before you roasted them or else they would burst. And burst they did, and I'm glad of it, for they scared that man. But I guess we had better be going now, for he may come back."

So they took the apples, which were nicely roasted now, and they took the chestnuts that were left and which hadn't burst, and away they went in the auto and had a fine ride, before going home to bed.

And now I'll say good-night, but in case the cow who jumped over the moon doesn't kick our milk bottles off the back stoop, I'll tell you, in the story after this one, about Uncle Wiggily and the pumpkin.

STORY VII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PUMPKIN

"Well," said Uncle Wiggily Longears one fine fresh morning, just after the milkman had been around to leave some cream for the coffee, "I think I will be traveling on again, Mrs. Bushytail."

"Oh, don't go yet!" begged Billie, the boy squirrel.

"No, you haven't made us a long visit at all," spoke his brother Johnnie. "Can't you stay a long, long time?"

"Well, I promised Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, that I would come in my new automobile and pay him and his sisters a visit," said the old gentleman, as he wiggled first his left ear and then the right one to see if there were any pennies stuck in them. And he found two pennies, one for Johnnie and one for Billie.

"Oh, please stay with us a few more days. You can go visit the Wibblewobble family next week," said Johnnie; "can't he, mother?"

"Yes, I really think you might stay with us a little longer," said Mrs. Bushytail, as she was mending some holes in Johnnie's stocking. "Besides, I thought you might do me a favor to-day, Uncle Wiggily."

"A favor!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, making a low bow. "I am always anxious to do you a favor if I can. What is it, Mrs. Bushytail?"

"Why, I thought you and the boys might like to go off in the automobile and see if you could find me a nice, large yellow pumpkin," said the squirrel lady.

"Oh, goody!" cried Billie. "I know what for--to make a Jack-o'-lantern for us, eh, mamma?"

"Sure!" cried Johnnie, jumping up and down because he was so happy, "and we'll take it out after dark, Billie, and have some fun with Bully the frog."

"Oh, no, not a pumpkin for a Jack-o'-lantern," said Mrs. Bushytail. "What I need a pumpkin for is to make some pies, and I thought you might like to get one, Uncle Wiggily."