Part 3

"Oh, don't feel so badly over it," begged the grasshopper. "We will look around and see what we can find."

"Where are you going to stay, Mr. Grasshopper?" asked the rabbit.

"Who, me? Oh, I am going to crawl under a leaf and sing myself to sleep as I always do; but for you, a leaf is hardly large enough."

"Not unless it was a palm-leaf fan," spoke the old gentleman rabbit. "But come on, we will look around."

So they hopped up and down the beach where the ocean waves were rolling along with a booming noise. All the children had gone in by this time, as it was getting dark and rather lonesome. Uncle Wiggily and the grasshopper looked, and they looked, and they looked still more, but they could find no place for the rabbit to stay. At last the old gentleman rabbit said:

"Well, Mr. Grasshopper, you had better get along and look for the leaf under which you are going to sleep, or else it will get so dark that you can't find your way."

"But what will you do, Uncle Wiggily? I don't like to leave you all alone."

"Oh, if it comes to the worst I can sleep out here on the sands, but I don't like to do it, as the dampness will make my rheumatism worse. But it can't be helped."

Well, the grasshopper didn't want to go away and leave his friend, the rabbit, all alone, but Uncle Wiggily finally persuaded him that it would be best, so the little creature hopped off and found a nice leaf. Then he curled up on the underside of it, where, in case it rained, he would not get wet, and he sang himself to sleep.

Well, now, I must tell you what happened to Uncle Wiggily.

At first he was quite lonesome, as he walked along the beach looking for a place to sleep, but then he looked up at the stars shining in the sky above him, and he saw the moon just coming up from behind the clouds, and it was shining on the ocean waves, making them look like silver, and it wasn't quite so dark then.

"I guess I will be all right," said Uncle Wiggily, bravely. "I'm not going to be afraid, for I don't believe the alligator, or fox, or bear, will come here. But I do wish I had some place where I could go in out of the dampness."

Then he suddenly thought of something.

"I know what I'll do!" he exclaimed, as he came to a pile of driftwood on the beach. "I'll make me a house of this wood, and put some seaweed on top for the roof, and in that I'll sleep as nicely as if I were at home."

Well, it didn't take Uncle Wiggily long to do this, and soon he had built as fine a little wood-and-seaweed house as heart could wish. Then he crawled inside with his crutch and his valise, and ate a small piece of cherry pie, and stretched out on some soft seaweed for his bed. In a little while he was fast, fast asleep.

Ha! But what is this funny animal crawling up along the sand with his big claws like a pair of shears which the tinsmith or the plumber uses? Eh? What's that? Why, as true as I live it's a big lobster that crawled up out of the ocean to see what he could find to eat.

Oh, Uncle Wiggily had better look out now, I tell you; hadn't he? But the poor old gentleman rabbit is still fast asleep.

The big lobster stuck out his bulgy eyes, and he moved them this way and that way, and he even looked over his shoulder with them, and then he saw the little house which the rabbit had made.

"Ha! I must see what is in that!" the lobster exclaimed and he crawled toward it. "Perhaps it is something good to eat, and I am very hungry," he said.

So the lobster looked in through the little window which Uncle Wiggily had made, and he saw the rabbit fast asleep.

"Oh, ho! Now for a good meal!" cried the lobster. Then he took one big claw and he softly pulled away some of the boards which Uncle Wiggily had used to make his house. That left a hole, and through this hole the lobster stuck his other claw, and he caught hold of the rabbit by his two ears.

"Oh! who has me? Who is it? What are you doing? Oh, my poor ears! Let go! Please let go!"

That is how Uncle Wiggily cried as he suddenly awakened.

"No, I will not!" exclaimed the lobster in a sort of a boiled-egg voice. "I'm going to crawl off with you to the bottom of the ocean!"

"Then this is the last of me and my fortune," thought the rabbit. "I might as well say good-by."

So the lobster pulled the rabbit right out of the wood-and-seaweed house, holding him by the two long ears, and he started down the sandy beach with him toward the rolling, tumbling ocean. Uncle Wiggily tried to get away, but he couldn't.

Well, if you'll believe me, the big lobster nearly had the rabbit in the rolling, tumbling waves of the surf, when suddenly a flashing lantern showed glimmeringly over the sand, and a voice exclaimed:

"Shiver my timbers! If the big lobster hasn't caught a rabbit. Oh, ho! And he's trying to drown him. That will never do. I will save him. Yo ho! Heave ho!"

Uncle Wiggily looked up and he saw a big, brown, life-saving man, who was out taking a walk along the beach with a lantern to see if anybody needed to be saved. And before that lobster could drag the rabbit into the water that life guard just reached over and took the lobster up by his back, where the crawly creature couldn't pinch, and the lobster was so frightened that he let go of Uncle Wiggily's ears at once.

"Now, hop away, Mr. Rabbit," said the life guard, kindly, and you may be sure that Uncle Wiggily didn't waste any time hopping. "I'll attend to this lobster," went on the big, brown man, and then the rabbit hopped back to his wood-and-seaweed house, where he slept in peace and quietness the rest of the night. And, as for the lobster, the man put him in a pot and boiled him until he was as red as your coral necklace, or your pink necktie, and that was the end of the lobster.

So that's all to this story, if you please, but in case the clothes-wringer doesn't squeeze all the rice out of the ice-cream pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the little clam.

STORY VIII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLAM

Uncle Wiggily awakened in his wood-and-seaweed house in the morning, and he rubbed his sleepy eyes with his paws. Then he got up off his seaweed bed and as he heard a noise he exclaimed:

"Ha! That sounds like thunder. I wonder if we are going to have a storm?" And, truly, there was quite a booming and rumbling racket outside. Then the rabbit laughed at himself.

"Why, how silly of me!" he exclaimed. "That is the waves pounding on the beach. I forgot that I was at the seashore. Now I must look out and see if there are any more lobsters waiting to catch me."

Well, he was just peering out of the window, when there came a knock on the door, and Uncle Wiggily jumped back.

"My sakes alive and some baked beans!" he cried. "What's that?"

"It is only I," said a small voice. "I'm your friend, the grasshopper. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm very well, thank you," replied the rabbit. "I'm coming right out. I must tell you about the terrible time I had with the big lobster last night."

So Uncle Wiggily hopped out of the little house and told the grasshopper all about it, and the grasshopper was so frightened that he kept looking behind him all the while, for fear the lobster might be coming after him. But we all know what happened to that lobster; don't we?

"What are you going to do now?" asked the grasshopper after a while, when Uncle Wiggily was washing his face and paws, and combing out his whiskers, which had some seaweed in them.

"Oh, I am going to look for my fortune to-day," answered the rabbit. "I may find it, for I have heard that often very valuable things are cast up on the seashore by the waves. Yes, I think I shall find my fortune to-day. But won't you have some breakfast, Mr. Grasshopper? I have some cherry pie left, and a few lettuce and carrot sandwiches with parsley trimmings."

"Oh, I might have a bit of parsley," spoke the jumping insect, and he ate quite a bit of it, while the rabbit ate the other things. Then they both hopped along the beach, looking for a fortune of gold or diamonds for the old gentleman rabbit.

And, just as on the other day, there were children playing in the sand, making little wells of water, and tunnels, and sandhouses, and gardens, and castles and all things like that. But there was no chest of gold, nor bag of diamonds, to be seen, though the two friends looked in every place they could think of, and in some other places, too.

"I don't believe the seashore is a very good place to find your fortune," said the rabbit, sadly, as he hopped along. And then he had to stop to take some sand out of his left ear.

"Perhaps if we ask some of the children they may be able to help us," suggested the grasshopper. Well, they did this, but, though the children were very kind, they hadn't seen any gold or diamonds, either.

"Then we'll ask some of the clams or starfish on the beach," said the grasshopper, but the clams or starfish hadn't seen anything of the rabbit's fortune, though they were very polite about it.

"Oh, I know what let's do," exclaimed the grasshopper.

"What?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"We'll go in bathing," went on the jumping insect, "and that will cool us off, and perhaps down under the water we may find your fortune."

"The very thing," cried Uncle Wiggily; "in bathing we shall go."

Well, the old gentleman rabbit could swim a little bit, you know, and the grasshopper could float on his back as nicely as a fat man can, and together they had a very good time. It was so warm that the water didn't make Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism any worse, I'm glad to say.

Then, after a bit, the grasshopper said he thought he'd take a little hop on the sand to dry off, and that left Uncle Wiggily alone in the water. And now comes the second part of the story.

The old gentleman rabbit was swimming slowly along, looking down under the waves every once in a while to see if there was any gold on the sand beneath, when, all of a sudden, he felt something grab hold of his left hind leg.

"Oh, my! I wonder if that's the bad lobster again?" cried the rabbit, and then he saw a most curious fish, called the toggle-taggle, and this fish had hold of him.

"Oh, please let go of me!" cried the rabbit.

"No, indeed, I will not," said the toggle-taggle, speaking under water, and making a lot of bubbles come up from his breath. "I am going to drag you off to my den beneath the rocks."

"Oh, don't be so cruel!" begged the rabbit. "If you do that I can never find my fortune, and I never can go back and see Sammie and Susie Littletail again."

"That makes no difference to me at all," said the toggle-taggle, speaking in a thin, watery sort of voice, "no matter of difference at all. Here we go!" and he started to drag poor Uncle Wiggily to the bottom of the ocean, under the rocks.

"Ha! I guess I'm not going as easily as that!" cried the rabbit, and at once he began to swim as hard as he could toward land, and Uncle Wiggily could swim pretty well when he tried, let me tell you. This time he swam so hard that he pulled the toggle-taggle fish along with him, and in a second or two Uncle Wiggily was out on the sand, but the toggle-taggle still had hold of him.

"Dry land or water is all the same to me!" cried the odd fish, and then the rabbit saw that the toggle-taggle had legs, as well as fins and a tail, and so he could walk on dry land. "Now you come with me!" cried the bad fish, and he braced with his legs in the sand and was pulling the rabbit back into the water again.

"Oh, will no one help me?" cried Uncle Wiggily, for he was getting weak. And just then a little voice whispered:

"Turn him around, Uncle Wiggily, so I can get hold of his tail. Then I'll pinch him and make him let go of you."

"Uncle Wiggily looked, and there was a nice little clam on the sand behind the toggle-taggle, and the clam had his two shells wide open, ready to pinch the bad fish. Well, the rabbit at once began to push the toggle-taggle toward the clam, and the fish didn't know what this meant. But before he could say anything, his tail came right close to the clam's open shells, and in an instant that brave clam shut his sharp shells down very hard on the tail of the bad toggle-taggle and held on tight.

"Oh, who has me?" cried the fish, and he turned around to see what it was, and with that of course he let go of the rabbit. And then Uncle Wiggily gave a big hop and got safely away. And when the toggle-taggle saw the clam he was so frightened (for he knew that he couldn't bite through the hard shells) that the bad fish at once jumped back into the ocean, taking the brave little clam with him. But the clam didn't mind that--in fact, it was just where he wanted to go--so everything was all right.

"My! That clam saved my life, and I didn't get a chance to thank him!" said Uncle Wiggily, somewhat sadly, as he sat away up on the beach. "But I will the next time I see him." Then the grasshopper came back, and had to hear all about what had happened.

Then he and Uncle Wiggily went on looking for the fortune, and they had some more adventures before they found it.

So in the next story, if the doorknob doesn't drop off and fall into the boiled eggs, making a big white and yellow splash, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the starfish.

STORY IX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE STARFISH

Let me see, where did we leave off? Oh, I remember, it was where the red monkey jumped up on the elephant's back and tickled him with an ice-cream cone, wasn't it? No, I beg your pardon, I'm wrong. I promised to tell you about the old gentleman rabbit and the starfish. So if you're all ready, and are sitting comfortably, I'll begin.

It was the day after Uncle Wiggily had gotten away from the toggle-taggle fish that walked, and the little clam had pinched the bad creature on his tail. Uncle Wiggily was hopping along the sand at the seashore beach, and he was looking all around for his fortune of gold or diamonds, he didn't care much which it was, so long as he got rich and could go back home.

"I wonder what has happened to the grasshopper?" said the rabbit, for he hadn't seen the jumping insect that morning.

"Here I am," exclaimed the little chap, and with a hop he landed down beside Uncle Wiggily on the sand.

"Where have you been?" asked the rabbit. "I was beginning to think that you had left me."

"Not yet, but I am going to soon," replied the grasshopper. "You see, there is going to be a big jumping race back where I live and the hopper who jumps the farthest will get a bag of popcorn. And, as I think I will go back home to jump, I came to say good-by. Afterward, I will come here again and help you to look for your fortune."

Well, Uncle Wiggily felt a little sad to have his friend, the hoppergrass, go away, but there was no help for it. So they shook legs with each other, the grasshopper gave a big spring and a jump and away over the sea he sailed to take part in the hopping races at his home.

"Well, now, I wonder what will happen to me to-day?" thought Uncle Wiggily as he walked along the beach, looked down at the sand and listened to the waves washing up on the shore. "Perhaps I may find a bag of diamonds," he said.

And just then, if you'll believe me, he looked ahead and there, on the sand, was something that looked like a black bag, with a long, thin handle on it with which to carry it.

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the rabbit, "I believe that is my fortune." He hopped forward, intending to pick it up, when, all of a sudden, the thing like a bag moved slowly along.

"Hum! That's queer," said the rabbit, "I never heard of a bag that could move. I must see what this is." So he went up a little closer and he saw that it wasn't a bag at all. It was a queer creature with a long sharp tail like an ice pick, or a black lead pencil, and it was crawling along, but the funny part of it was that Uncle Wiggily couldn't see any legs on which the animal walked.

"Stranger and still more strange!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily; "what can that be?"

"If you please, I am a horseshoe crab," said a voice from under the black shell, "and if you lift me up you can see my legs."

"How shall I lift you up, Mr. Horseshoe Crab?"

"By my long tail, like an ice pick," was the answer, and when the rabbit did this, underneath a shell that was shaped somewhat like the hoof of a horse, he saw the legs of the crab. They were all covered up when the crab walked, so no one could step on his toes.

"That is very fine," said the rabbit. "Perhaps you can tell me where to find my fortune."

"I'm sorry, but I can't," said the horseshoe crab, and then he crawled on again, very slowly, and Uncle Wiggily hopped forward looking for the bag of diamonds, or gold.

Well, in a little while it got quite warm on the sandy beach, and the old gentleman rabbit felt sleepy. He yawned and he twinkled his nose like two stars on a frosty night, and then he said:

"Oh, me! Oh, my! I think I'll lie down and take a little nap on the sands." So he took some sticks and stuck them up in the beach, and over them he put some seaweed to make a shady shelter, and down under this he stretched himself out, very nice and comfortable.

Well, the first thing you know Uncle Wiggily was fast asleep. And now listen and see what happened to him. All of a sudden, up from the ocean, on her thin, kinky legs came a big sea spider, a creature something like a crab. She shot forward her big, bulgy eyes, and she saw the rabbit under the seaweed shelter.

"Ah, ha!" cried the sea spider to herself, "here is where I have a good rabbit dinner."

Slowly and softly she went on until she was quite close to the old gentleman rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily never awakened. Then the sea spider began to weave a web around the rabbit, just as a land spider weaves a web around a fly that gets into her trap. Strand after strand of the cobwebs did the sea spider throw around the sleeping rabbit, until Uncle Wiggily was as tightly fast as if he had been tied with ropes.

"Now, I'll bite him and that will be the end of him," said the sea spider, and she was just going to do this when, all of a sudden, some of the cobweb blew down and tickled Uncle Wiggily on the end of his twinkling nose, and he woke up.

"Ha! What's this?" he exclaimed, and then he found that he could not move, for he was fast in the web. "What does this mean?" he asked.

"It means that I have you!" cried the sea spider, wiggling her legs like a trolley car.

"Oh, please let me go," begged the rabbit.

"Never! Never! Never!" exclaimed the spider. Then Uncle Wiggily tried, and he tried, and he tried again, but he couldn't get loose from the web.

"Oh, will no one help me?" cried the rabbit. And just then, if you'll believe me, the waves washed something up on the sand, close to where the sea spider had Uncle Wiggily fast. And that something was a curious little fish, shaped like a star. In fact, it was a starfish with five sharp points to it. And that starfish heard Uncle Wiggily calling.

"I'll help you, Mr. Rabbit!" kindly exclaimed the fish.

"Now, you get right away from here," cried the sea spider, for well she knew that the sharp-pointed starfish could cut her cobweb in a second. "Keep away or I'll bite you!" the spider said.

"Oh, you can't scare me!" shouted the starfish. "I'm not afraid of you, and I'm going to help Uncle Wiggily." So the starfish began to roll over and over on the sand like a pinwheel, a hoop, or a wheel that has no rim, and only spokes to it. Bumpity-bump on its five points went the starfish, until it was close to Uncle Wiggily.

Then right into the sea spider's cobweb rolled the sharp-pointed starfish until, with his points, he had cut the web all to pieces and set Uncle Wiggily free, as easily as you can eat bread and jam on Saturday afternoon.

"Now you get away from here!" cried the starfish to the spider, and he threw sand at her until the crawly creature was glad enough to go back into the ocean where she belonged. And the old gentleman rabbit thanked the fish very much, and gave him a piece of lemon pie, because he was all out of the cherry kind.

"Now, I must hurry on to seek my fortune," said Uncle Wiggily, for the day was cooler now. So on he hopped, and he had another adventure.

In case the dishpan doesn't fall down off the nail, and smash the watermelon all to pieces, so there's no supper for the little mouse who lives under the ice-box, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the slippery eel.

STORY X

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE EEL

My, how it did rain! The water just dripped down from the clouds as if it came from a fountain turned wrong side up, and as Uncle Wiggily walked along the seashore beach, with a toadstool held over him for an umbrella he thought he had never seen such a storm.

"But, I can't stay indoors, because it rains," he said to himself as he started out that morning to look for his fortune. "That would never do. A little water can't hurt me, and besides, with this toadstool umbrella, it isn't as bad as it might be."

So he hopped along, leaning on his red-white-and-blue-striped-barber-pole crutch, and with his valise strapped to his back, and holding the toadstool umbrella over his head. And he felt so happy in spite of the rain that he sang a little song.

Illustration: Uncle Wiggily and the Eel

It went something like this, to the tune of "Hum tum-tum ti tiddle-i-um:"

"I feel so very happy, No matter if it rains, For I don't ride on trolley cars, Nor yet on railroad trains.

"Whenever I feel thirsty, I take a drink of tea, Or, if I can't find any, Why, milk will do for me.

"I haven't found my fortune, Perhaps I never can, But I can hop upon the beach, And beat an old tin pan."

And just then the gentleman rabbit saw an old tin pan lying on the sand, and he went up to it and pounded on it with his crutch. Not hard you understand--not so hard as to hurt it, but enough to make a noise like a drum.

"There, perhaps that will wake the people up," thought the rabbit for the beach was very lonesome in the rainstorm, with no children building sand houses, and no one in bathing. So Uncle Wiggily beat the tin pan again, and made a great racket, and, all of a sudden something glided out from under the pan. It was something long and thin, and it had a long, thin tail.

"Oh, my! It's the bad snake!" cried the rabbit, and he jumped back so quickly that he dropped his toadstool umbrella and the rain came down on the end of his twinkling nose. He was just about to hop away as fast as he could when the long, thin creature, who had been under the tin pan, exclaimed:

"I'm not a snake."

"No? Then pray tell what you are?" asked Uncle Wiggily quickly.

"I am a slippery eel," was the answer. "Just see if you can hold me, and that will show you how slippery I am."

So Uncle Wiggily very politely took hold of the eel by the tail. But, my goodness me, sakes alive and a piece of ice! In an instant that slippery eel had slipped away.

"What did I tell you?" the eel called to the rabbit, as he crawled back toward the tin.

"Well, you are certainly very slippery," said Uncle Wiggily. "I hope I didn't squeeze you too hard."

"Oh, pray do not mention it," said the eel, politely. "I am used to being squeezed, and that's why I'm so slippery; in order that I may get away easily."

"I hope I didn't wake you up from your sleep under the tin pan," went on the rabbit, who was very kind-hearted.

"Pray do not mention that, either," said the slippery eel, who was very polite. "It was time I awakened, anyhow. But, since you have been so nice about it, if ever I can do you a favor please let me know." Then he stood up on the end of his thin tail and made a low bow, and slipped into the ocean.