Part 5

"I should think you'd stay in when it snows," went on the doggie lady. "You seem always to be out in a snowstorm," for it was snowing quite hard just then.

"I love the snow," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I like cold weather, for then my thick fur coat keeps me much warmer than in the summer time. And I like the snow--I like to see it come down, and feel it blow in my face and make my auto go through the drifts."

"Well, be careful you don't get stuck in any drifts and freeze fast," said Mrs. Bow Wow, as she began washing the breakfast dishes.

"I'll try not to," promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he put some oil on his auto, and gave it a drink of warm water (for autos get thirsty sometimes), and away the old gentleman rabbit rode through the snowstorm.

"I guess I'll go call on Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat, to-day," he thought as he went through a big snowdrift, scattering the snow on both sides like an electric-car snow plow. "I haven't seen Aunt Lettie in some time, and she may be ill again." For this was some time after Uncle Wiggily had brought her the flowers.

Well, pretty soon he was at the old lady goat's house, and, surely enough she had been ill again. She had eaten some red paper, off the outside of a tomato can, one day right after Christmas, and the paper didn't have the right kind of stickumpaste on it, so Aunt Lettie was taken ill on that account.

"But I'm much better now," she said to Uncle Wiggily, "and I'm real glad you called. Come in and I'll give you a hot cup of old newspaper tea."

"Um, I don't know as I care for that," said the old gentleman rabbit, making his nose twinkle like a star on a frosty night.

"Oh, I'm surprised to hear you say that," spoke Aunt Lettie, sorrowful-like. "Newspaper tea is very good, especially with cream-stickum-mucilage in it. But never mind, I'll give you some carrot tea," and she did, and she and Uncle Wiggily sat and talked about old times, and the fun Nannie and Billie Goat used to have, until it was time for the old gentleman rabbit to go back home.

School was out as he went along in his auto. He could tell that because he met so many of the animal children. And he gave Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow and Johnnie and Billie Bushtail a ride toward home. But before they got there, all of a sudden, as the four animal children were in the auto, and Uncle Wiggily was making it go through a snowdrift, all of a sudden, I say the old gentleman rabbit turned around a corner, and there was Susie Littletail, the little rabbit girl, standing in front of a big heap of snow.

And she was crying very hard, her tears falling down, and making little holes in the snow, and she was poking into the drift with a long stick.

"Why, Susie!" asked Uncle Wiggily, "whatever is the matter?"

"Oh, my doll! My lovely, big, new Christmas doll!" cried Susie. "I had her to school with me, for we are learning to sew in our class, and I was making my dollie a new dress, and--and--" and then poor Susie cried so hard that she couldn't talk.

"Don't tell me some one took your doll away from you!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily.

"If they did I'll go after them and get it back for you!" cried Jackie Bow Wow.

"So will I!" said Peetie and Billie and Johnnie.

"No, it isn't that," spoke the little rabbit girl. "But as I was walking along, with my dollie in my arms, all of a sudden she slipped out, fell into this big snowbank, and I can't find her! She's all covered up. Boo hoo! Hoo boo!"

"Oh, don't take on so," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "We will all help you hunt for your dollie; won't we, boys?"

"Sure!" cried Peetie and Jackie and Billie and Johnnie.

So they all got sticks and poked in the snow bank, Uncle Wiggily poking harder than anybody, but it was of no use. They couldn't seem to find that lost doll.

"She must be very deep under the snow!" said Uncle Wiggily.

"Oh, I'll never see her again!" cried Susie. "My big, beautiful Christmas doll. Boo-hoo! Hoo-boo!"

"You can get her when the snow melts," spoke Peetie Bow Wow, as he scratched away at the drift with his paws.

"Yes, but then the wax will be all melted off her face, and she won't look like anything," murmured Susie, sad-like.

"Wait; I have a plan," said Uncle Wiggily. "There is a fan, like an electric one, in the front part of my auto to keep the water cool. I'll make that fan blow the snow away and we'll get your doll."

So he tried that, making the fan whizz around like a boy's top, but, though it blew some snow away, the doll couldn't be found.

"Oh, I'll never see my big, beautiful doll again!" cried Susie.

"Oh, whatever is the matter?" asked a voice, and, turning around, they all saw the big, black, woolly bear standing there. At first the animal children were frightened until Uncle Wiggily said:

"Oh, that bear won't hurt us. I once helped him get some walnut shells off his paws, so he is a friend of mine."

"Of course I am," said the bear. "What is the trouble?" Then they told him about Susie's doll being under the drift, and the bear went on: "Don't worry about that. My paws are just made for digging in the snow. I'll have that doll for you in a jiffy, which is very quick." So with his paws he began digging in the snow.

My! how he did make the snow fly, and he blew it away with his strong breath. Faster and faster flew the snow, and in about a minute it was all scraped away, and there was Susie's doll safe and sound. And she was sleeping with her eyes shut.

"Oh, you darling!" Susie cried, clasping the doll in her arms.

"Did you mean me?" asked the bear, laughing.

"Yes, I guess I did!" said Susie, also laughing, and she gave the bear a nice little kiss on the end of his black nose.

Then everybody was happy and the bear went back to his den and Uncle Wiggily took the children and the doll home, and that's all I can tell you now, if you please.

But, if the rocking horse doesn't run away and upset the milk pitcher down in the salt cellar and scare the furnace so that it goes out, I'll tell you in the story after this one, about Uncle Wiggily on roller skates.

STORY XV

UNCLE WIGGILY ON ROLLER SKATES

"Well, where are you going this morning?" asked Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, as he looked out of the front door of his house, and saw Uncle Wiggily, the old gentleman rabbit, putting some gasoline in his automobile.

"Oh, I am going to take a little ride out in the country," said Uncle Wiggily. "I am going to see if I can find an adventure. Nothing has happened since we found Susie's doll. I must have excitement. It keeps me from thinking about my rheumatism. So I am going to look for an adventure, Jimmie."

"I wish I could come," said the little duck boy.

"I wish you could too," said his uncle. "But you must go to school. Some Saturday I'll take you with me, and we may find an adventure for each of us."

"And for us girls, too?" asked Lulu and Alice as they came out, all ready to go to school. Alice had just finished tying her sky-yellow-green hair ribbon into two lovely bow knots.

"Yes, for you duck girls, too," said Uncle Wiggily. "But I will be back here when you come from school, and if anything happens to me I'll tell you all about it."

So he kept on putting gasoline in his automobile until he had the tinkerum-tankerum full, and then he tickled the hickory-dickory-dock with a mucilage brush, and he was all ready to start off and look for an adventure.

So Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went on to school, and Uncle Wiggily rode along over the fields and through the woods and up hill and down hill.

Pretty soon, as he was riding along, he heard a funny little noise in the bushes. It was a sad, little, squeaking sort of noise and at first the old gentleman rabbit thought it was made by something on his automobile that needed oiling. Then he looked over the side and there, sitting under an old cabbage leaf, was a little mousie girl, and it was she who was crying.

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "is that you, Squeaky-eaky?" for he thought it might be the little cousin-mouse who lived with Jollie and Jillie Longtail, as I have told you in other stories.

"No, I am not Squeaky-eaky," said the little mouse girl, "but I am cold and hungry and I don't know what to do or where to go. Oh, dear! Boo-hoo!"

"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "I will take you in my auto, and I'll bring you to the house where the Longtail children live, and they'll take care of you."

"Oh, goody!" cried the little girl mouse. "Thank you so much. Now I am happy." So Uncle Wiggily took her in the nice, warm automobile.

Then he twisted the noodleum-noddleum until it sneezed, and away the auto went through the woods again. And, all of a sudden, just as Uncle Wiggily came to a big black stump, out jumped the burglar bear with roller skates on his paws.

"Hold on there!" the bear cried to the old gentleman rabbit, and he poked a stick in the auto wheels, so they couldn't go around any more. "Hold on, if you please, Mr. Rabbit. I want you."

"What for?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"I want you to come to supper," said the burglar bear.

"Your supper or my supper?" asked Uncle Wiggily, politely.

"My supper, of course," said the burglar bear. "I am going to have rabbit pot-pie to-night, and you are going to be both the rabbit and the pie. Come, now, get out of that auto. I want to ride in it before I bite you."

Well, of course, Uncle Wiggily felt pretty badly, but there was no help for it. He had to get out, and then the burglar bear, taking off his roller skates, got up into the automobile.

"Oh, what nice soft cushions!" exclaimed the bear as he sank down on them. Then he took hold of the turnip steering wheel in his claws and twisted it. "I shall have lots of fun riding in this auto, after I gobble you up," said the bear, looking at the rabbit with his blinky eyes. "I must learn to run it. I think I'll take a little ride before I have my supper. But don't you dare run away, for I can catch you."

Then, to make sure Uncle Wiggily couldn't get away, the bear took the old rabbit gentleman's crutch away from him and Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism was so severe, which means painful, that he couldn't walk a step without his crutch. So there was no use for him to try to run away.

Well, the bear knew how to run the auto, it seems, and he started to take a little ride in it. Uncle Wiggily felt pretty sad because he was going to be gobbled up and lose his auto at the same time.

All at once, when the bear in the auto was some distance off in the woods, Uncle Wiggily heard a little voice speaking to him.

"Hey, Uncle Wiggily," the voice said, "I know how you can get the best of that bear!"

"How?" asked Uncle Wiggily, eagerly.

"Here are his roller skates," said the voice, and it was the little mousie girl who was speaking. She had quietly jumped out of the auto. "Put on his roller skates," said the mousie, "and skate down the hill until you see a policeman dog. Then tell the policeman dog to come and arrest the bear. He'll do it, and then you'll get your auto back. You can go on roller skates even if you have rheumatism, can't you?"

"I guess so," said the rabbit. "I'll try." So he put on the skates while the burglar bear was making the auto go around in a circle in the woods, and that bear was having a good time. All at once Uncle Wiggily skated away. First he went slowly, and then he went faster and faster until he was just whizzing along. And then, at the foot of the hill, he found the policeman dog.

"Oh, please come and arrest the burglar bear for me?" begged Uncle Wiggily.

"To be sure I will," said the policeman dog. So he put on his roller skates, and skated back with Uncle Wiggily to where the bear was still in the auto. The policeman dog hid behind a stump. The bear stopped the auto in front of Uncle Wiggily and got out.

"Well," said the burglar bear, smacking his lips, "I guess it's supper time now. I'm going to eat you. Come on and be my pot-pie!" And he made a grab for the old gentleman rabbit.

"Oh, you will; will you?" suddenly cried the policeman dog, drawing his club, and jumping from behind the stump. "Well, I guess you won't eat my good friend, Uncle Wiggily. I guess not!" and with that the policeman dog tickled the bear so on his nose that he sneezed, and ran off through the woods taking his stubby little tail with him, but leaving behind his roller skates.

"Oh, I'm ever so much obliged to you, Policeman Dog," said the old gentleman rabbit, as he took off the bear's skates. "You saved my life. I'll take these skates home to Jimmie. They will fit him when he grows bigger."

"That is a good idea," said the dog, "and if I ever catch that bear again I will put him in the beehive jail and make him crack hickory nuts with his teeth."

Then Uncle Wiggily went home, and took the little mousie girl with him, and he told the duck children about his adventure with the bear, just as I have told you. So now it's bedtime, if you please, and I can't tell you any more.

But if the man who cleans our yard doesn't take my overcoat for an ash can and put the dried leaves in it, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the clothes wringer.

STORY XVI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLOTHES WRINGER

One day Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys, came running over to Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump-house. It was after school, from which they had just come, and they rushed up the front steps, barking like anything, and calling out:

"Where's Uncle Wiggily? Where is he?"

"We want to see him in a hurry!" barked Peetie.

"Yes, immediately," went on Jackie. He had heard the teacher that day in school use the word, immediately, to tell a bad bumble bee to take his seat and stop trying to sting Lulu Wibblewobble. Immediately means right off quick, without waiting, you know.

"Hoity-toity!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat housekeeper. "What is the trouble?"

"We must see Uncle Wiggily immediately!" barked Peetie again, trying to stand on one ear. But he could not make it stiff enough, so he fell down, and bumped into Jackie, and they both tumbled down the steps, making a great racket.

"There, there! You must be more quiet," cautioned Nurse Jane. "Uncle Wiggily just came back from his auto ride for his health, and is taking a nap. You must not wake him up. What do you want to see him about that is so important?"

"Oh, we'll wait until he wakes up," said Jackie, as he sat down on the porch.

"Ha! Who wants me?" suddenly exclaimed a voice a little later, and out came Uncle Wiggily himself.

"We do!" cried Jackie. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!"

"We're going to work!" added Peetie, unable to keep still any longer.

"What! You don't mean to say you're going to leave school and go to work?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"No, we're not going to leave school," exclaimed Peetie. "We are going to work after school. Jackie is going to deliver newspapers."

"And I'm going to get ten cents a week for it," said Jackie proudly, but not too proud.

"And I'm going to help at the clothes wringer for the circus elephant," exclaimed Peetie.

"Help at the wringer for the elephant!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What does that mean? You startle and puzzle me."

"Why, you know the circus elephant has to dress up like a clown," went on Peetie. "And he plays a drum and a handorgan, and he fires off a cannon in the sawdust ring. And he does a lot of things like that. After a while his white clown suit gets all dirty and he has to wash out his clothes. Then he has to squeeze them in a wringer to get as much of the water out as he can. Then he hangs them up to dry.

"Well, he can turn the wringer himself with his trunk, but his paws are so big that he can't put the clothes through between the rubber rollers. So he advertised for some little animal boy to help him after school. I answered, and I'm going to help him wash and dry his clothes."

"How much are you to get?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"I get three puppy biscuits every day and a glass of pink lemonade, and on Saturday afternoons I can go to the circus for nothing."

"Fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'm real glad you came to tell me. You are good and smart little animal boys."

Then Peetie and Jackie ran off to do the new work they had arranged for, and Uncle Wiggily cleaned his auto ready for his ride next day. And when he had finished he thought he would take a walk down to the circus tent and see how Peetie was helping the elephant wash the clothes. As for Jackie, he had to run so fast, here and there and everywhere, to deliver his papers that Uncle Wiggily did not know where to find him, any more than Bo-peep did her sheep.

Well, in a little while, the rabbit gentleman came to where the elephant was washing his clothes. Of course he had to have a very large tub and washboard and an extra large wringer for his clothes were very large.

And there, up on a box in front of the tub, that was filled with suds and water, stood Peetie Bow Wow, splashing around, and reaching down in for the wet clothes. And as he fished them up, and put the ends between the rubber rollers of the wringer, the elephant would turn the handle of the squee-gee machine with his trunk.

"How is that?" asked Peetie.

"Fine!" cried the elephant, making his trunk go faster and faster, and squirting the water out of the wet clothes, all over the ground.

"Yes, Peetie is a good little chap," said Uncle Wiggily. Just then the elephant's brother came along, and the two big animals began talking together. And, as they were both a little deaf, each one shouted to the other as loudly as he could. Oh! such a racket as they made--thunder was nothing to it!

And then a funny thing happened. Peetie turned around to put some more clothes in the tub, when, all of a sudden, his tail got caught in between the wringer's rubber rollers.

"Ouch!" cried the little puppy dog. "Ouch! Oh, dear me! Stop, please, Mr. Elephant. Don't turn the wringer any more!"

But the two elephants were talking together, each one as loudly as he could, about how much hay they could eat, and how some little boys at a circus would give them only one peanut instead of a whole bag full, and all things like that. So the clothes-washing elephant never noticed that Peetie's tail was caught in the rollers. And he didn't hear him cry.

Around and around the elephant turned the handle of the wringer with his trunk, winding Peetie's tail right between the rollers, and drawing the little puppy dog boy himself closer and closer into the tub, over the water and nearer to the rubber rollers themselves.

"Oh, stop! Oh, stop!" cried poor Peetie trying to get away, but he could not. "If I get rolled between the rollers I'll be as flat as a pancake!" he screamed. "Oh, stop! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, save me!"

"Yes, I will!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "You must stop turning that wringer!" he said to the circus elephant. "You are wringing Peetie instead of the clothes. His tail is caught!"

But the elephant was so deaf, and his brother was calling to him so loudly about pink lemonade, that he could not hear either Peetie or Uncle Wiggily. Then, to make him listen, Uncle Wiggily with his crutch tickled the elephant's foot, which was as high up as he could reach, but the big creature thought it was only a mosquito, and paid no attention.

"Oh, what shall I do?" cried Peetie.

"I'll save you!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, and then, happening to have a bag of peanuts in his pocket he held them close to the elephant's trunk. The elephant could smell, if he could not hear well, and all at once he took the peanuts, and as he did so, of course, he removed his trunk from the wringer handle.

And as he ate the peanuts he saw what a terrible thing he was doing, wringing Peetie instead of the clothes, so he very kindly made the wringer go backwards, and out came Peetie's tail again, a little flat, but not much hurt otherwise.

"I am so sorry," said the elephant. "I wouldn't have had it happen for the world."

"Yes, it was an accident," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "but I guess Peetie had better find some other kind of work to do after school."

"All right," said the elephant. "I'll pay him off, and then I'll get a rubbery snake to help me with my clothes. A snake won't mind being squeezed."

So he did that, and Peetie and Uncle Wiggily went home, and nothing more happened that day. But next, in case the automobile horn doesn't blow the little girl's rubber balloon up in the top of the tree, where the kittie cat has its nest, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the trained nurse.

STORY XVII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TRAINED NURSE

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the gentleman rabbit, was out riding in his automobile. He was taking exercise, so he would not be so fat, for a fat rabbit is about the fattest thing there is, except a balloon, and that doesn't count, as it has no ears.

"I wonder what will happen to me to-day?" said Uncle Wiggily, as he rode along, turning the turnip steering wheel from one side to the other to keep from bumping into stones and stumps, and things like that. And, every now and then, Uncle Wiggily would take a bite out of his turnip steering wheel. That was what it was for, you see. And as for the German bologna sausages which were the tires, Uncle Wiggily used to let anybody who wanted to--such as a hungry doggie or a starving kittie--take a bite out of them whenever they wanted to.

Well, pretty soon, after a while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily came to the top of a hill. He stopped his auto there to look around at the green fields and the apple trees in blossom, and at the little brook running along over the green, mossy stones. And the brook never stubbed its toe once on the stones! What do you think of that?

"Well, I guess I'll go down hill," thought the old gentleman rabbit, and down he started.

But Oh unhappiness! Sadness, and, also, isn't it too bad!

No sooner had Uncle Wiggily started down the hill in his auto than the snicker-snooker-um got twisted around the boodle-oodle-um, and that made the wibble-wobble-ton stand on its head, instead of standing on its ear as it really ought to have done.

Then the auto ran away, and the next thing Uncle Wiggily knew his car had hit a stump, turned a somersault and part of a peppersault, and he was thrown out.

"Bang!" he fell, right on the hard ground, and for a moment he stayed there, being too much out of breath to get up and see what was the matter.

And when he tried to get up he couldn't. Something had happened to him. He had hit his head on a stone. Poor Uncle Wiggily!

But, very luckily, Dr. Possum happened to be passing, having just come from paying a visit to Grandfather Goosey Gander, who had, by mistake, eaten a shoe button with his corn meal pudding. And Dr. Possum, having cured Grandpa Goosey, went at once to help Uncle Wiggily.

"We must get you home right away, Uncle Wiggily," said the doctor gentleman. "You must be put to bed and have a trained nurse."

"Well, as long as I have to have a nurse, I should much prefer," said Uncle Wiggily, faintly, "I should much prefer a trained one to a wild one. For a trained nurse who can do tricks will be quite funny."

"Hum!" exclaimed Dr. Possum. "A trained nurse has no time to do tricks. Now rest yourself."

So Uncle Wiggily sat back quietly in Dr. Possum's auto until he got to his hollow stump home. Then Old Dog Percival and the doctor carried the rabbit gentleman in, and they sent for a trained nurse. For Uncle Wiggily was quite badly hurt, and needed some one to feed him for a while.

Pretty soon the trained nurse came, and who did she turn out to be but Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy herself, the kind old muskrat. She had been living with Uncle Wiggily, but, for a time, had gone off to study to be a trained nurse. She put on a white cap and a blue and white striped dress, and she was just as good a nurse as one could get from the hospital. Uncle Wiggily was too ill to notice, though.