Part 5

But they didn't drop any gold or diamonds, and, when the party was over, the rabbit was as poor as when it started. But still he didn't mind. Then he went to sleep under a pile of seaweed, while the sea robin and the fiddler crab went home in the ocean.

And on the next page, in case the egg beater doesn't get stuck on the rolling-pin and make the pie crust fall through the nutmeg grater, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the watermelon.

STORY XIV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATERMELON

"Well," asked the slow snail of Uncle Wiggily, as he met the old gentleman rabbit on the beach next day, "did you get any of your fortune at the fleas' party?"

"None at all," answered the old gentleman rabbit. "There was plenty of gold and diamonds to be seen, but the fleas didn't give me any."

"Perhaps they forgot it?" suggested the snail. "Some of the fleas are very forgetful. I once knew one whose mother sent him to the store for a pound of sugar and a quart of milk, and what do you s'pose he bought?"

"I don't know," answered the rabbit, curious-like.

"He got a pound of milk and a quart of sugar, and the milk all ran out of the paper bag in which the groceryman put it, and the sugar stuck fast to the milk pail, and they had a dreadful time getting it out. That shows you what a flea will do sometimes. Perhaps if you ask them for your fortune they will give it to you."

"I'll do it the next time I meet one," decided Uncle Wiggily. "But now I must go on and look for myself."

Illustration: Uncle Wiggily and the Watermelon

"Wait until I sing a little song for you," said the slow snail, and he hummed this song very, very slowly:

"When I am in a hurry I slowly crawl along, And when I finish crawling I sing a little song.

"For if I hurried too much I'd get there all too soon, Though some day I am going To climb up to the moon.

"And then when I get up there I'll sleep the whole long day, Or crawl upon the moonbeams, Or jump into the hay."

"Ha! hum!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That's a very good song, and I'm sure it will help me find my fortune. Now I must say good-by and travel along."

"If you will wait I'll come with you," spoke the snail. "But then I s'pose you are in a hurry, Uncle Wiggily, and I go too slow for you."

"That's it," said the rabbit kindly, and he gave one big hop that carried him twice as far as the snail could travel in a week of Sundays without counting Christmas.

Well, it wasn't very long after this before Uncle Wiggily got to the top of a hill. When he started to climb up from the bottom he thought perhaps there might be gold at the top, but when he did get to the summit all he found there was a big green thing, with stripes on.

"I wonder what this can be?" thought the rabbit. "It looks like a baseball, and yet it's too large for that, and besides it isn't quite round. And, once more, it's green instead of white, for all baseballs are white. Ha! I know what it is. That must be a football which the boys kick about. I guess I'll kick it. Perhaps there may be gold inside."

So he got ready to kick it, but you know how it is with old gentlemen rabbits who have the rheumatism and have to go about on a crutch. As soon as Uncle Wiggily lifted up one foot--the one that had no rheumatism in it--and when he leaned on his crutch, the crutch suddenly slipped, and down he went ker-flumux ker-flimix all in a heap.

"Well, here's a pretty kettle of fish!" he cried. "I ought never to have tried to kick that green football. I should have waited until it was ripe."

So he sat down on top of the hill, and looked at the ocean tumbling and foaming on the beach below him, and he waited for the green football to get ripe. And, every once in a while he would poke it with his crutch to see if it was getting soft, but it wasn't.

And once, right after he did this, the old gentleman rabbit heard some one cry out:

"My goodness, Uncle Wiggily! What are you doing?"

"Waiting for this green football to get ripe so that I can kick it," was the rabbit's reply.

"Oh, ho! Oh, ha!" laughed the grasshopper for it was that leaping insect who had spoken, "that is not a football, it is a watermelon, and inside it is all red and sweet and juicy. Come, if you can, cut it open, we will have a fine feast. I haven't had any watermelon in some time. Can you cut it?"

"Oh, I can cut it fast enough," declared the rabbit. "Here goes, and I hope it is better looking on the inside than it is on the outside."

So the rabbit took out his knife, with which he usually spread his bread and butter, and he cut a hole in the watermelon. Then Uncle Wiggily and the grasshopper scooped out all the nice, red, juicy part and ate it.

And, would you ever believe it? Something happened right after that. They had no sooner wiped the red watermelon juice off their faces than there was a terrible roaring sound in the bushes, and out jumped a big black bear. Oh, he was going on something frightful, yes, really he was, but don't be frightened, for I won't let him hurt anybody. I'll let him chew on my typewriter first and that will dull his teeth. On the bear came, straight for the watermelon.

"Oh, what can I do?" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That bear will get me, but he won't hurt you, Mr. Grasshopper, as you are so small."

"Don't worry," said the hoppergrass, kindly. "I'll find a way to save you. Quick! Before the bear sees you, hop inside the watermelon," for you see they had eaten up all the inside, and left the melon rind hollow, just like a yellow pumpkin Jack-o'-lantern, at Hallowe'en.

Uncle Wiggily saw that this was the best thing to do, so inside the melon he hopped, and then the grasshopper put back in place the piece they had cut out, and you never would have known but that the melon was a whole, new one, never having been cut and the inside eaten out.

On came the bear, sniffing with his black nose. Then he saw the grasshopper and asked, suspicious-like:

"Is there a rabbit around here?"

"I don't see any," spoke the grasshopper, and he really couldn't see any one but the bear because Uncle Wiggily was inside the melon, you know.

"Well, if there is no rabbit I'll have to eat this watermelon, then," said the bear, "for I am very hungry."

Now the grasshopper knew that if the bear once bit into the melon and opened it, he'd see the rabbit hiding inside. So what did the hoppergrass do but give the melon a shove with his strong hind legs, and down the hill the melon rolled, with the rabbit in it, just as Buddy Pigg, the guinea pig boy, once rolled down hill inside a cabbage.

Faster and faster down the hill rolled the melon, with Uncle Wiggily in it, and then the bear saw one of the rabbit's paws sticking out of a crack.

"Oh, ho! You have fooled me!" cried the bear to the grasshopper. "Now, I'll chase after that melon and get the rabbit, too!"

So the bear started down the hill after the melon, but his foot slipped and he slid down, oh, so fast, that he got to the bottom of the hill first. There he stood waiting for Uncle Wiggily. But a queer thing happened. The melon hit a stone, burst open and out flew the rabbit on a pile of soft sand. But the pieces of the melon hit the bear on his soft and tender nose, and he thought he was surely killed, and off he ran to the woods howling and growling. So that's how Uncle Wiggily escaped from the bear, for the old gentleman rabbit wasn't hurt a bit for all his tumble.

Then he washed the pieces of melon off his clothes, and traveled on again, with the grasshopper, to seek his fortune. And he had another advantage soon. I'll tell you about it very shortly, when, in case the ice man doesn't go skating and forget to leave us a loaf of bread, the next Bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the Katy-Did.

STORY XV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND KATE-DID

"Well, what are we going to do to-day?" asked the grasshopper of Uncle Wiggily, as they sat down to breakfast one sunny morning, after a rain the night before.

"Oh, I suppose I must keep on searching for some gold or diamonds for my fortune," answered the old gentleman rabbit. "But I am getting quite tired of going around so much and finding nothing. I'll keep it up a week or so longer, and then, if I don't find any money, I'm going back home, anyhow. I'm quite lonesome for Sammie and Susie Littletail and all of my friends."

"When you go home I hope that I can go with you," said the grasshopper sort of sad-like. "I'll be sorry when you leave me."

"Of course you can come along," answered Uncle Wiggily, kindly, as he flopped his long ears back and forth.

Then he and the grasshopper finished their breakfast, washed the acorn cups and saucers, and shook the crumbs off the green leaf which they had used for a table cloth. And pretty soon a whole lot of little black ants crawled along and ate up all the crumbs, so that nothing was wasted.

"Well, here we go!" cried the old gentleman rabbit cheerfully as he picked up his barber-pole crutch and slung his valise over his shoulder. Then he hopped off and so did the grasshopper, singing a funny little song on the way, and also playing the fiddle with his left hind leg. The song went something like this:

"Here we go, Fast and slow, Hopping on our way. In heat and cold We look for gold, Which we may find some day.

"Sing a song Not too long, Cheerful, gay and bright. When wide awake We eat sweet cake, And then we sleep all night.

"Hipping, hopping, Without stopping We sing and do not cry. Skip and jump Around the pump; Now we'll say good-by."

"Why, what in the world did you say that for?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the grasshopper as the insect finished his song. "There is no one here to whom we can say good-by, and not a sign of a pump."

"I know it, but you see I'm just making believe," replied the cheerful little fellow, turning one somersault and part of another one.

"Oh, then that's different," agreed the old gentleman rabbit, as he stooped over to take a stone out of his shoe. And, just as he did so there came bouncing down out of a tall tree a big green hickory nut, and it almost hit Uncle Wiggily on the end of his twinkling nose.

"Hum!" exclaimed the grasshopper, as he crawled under a big leaf in order to be out of danger, "some one is throwing things at us. I wonder who it can be?"

"I don't know," answered the rabbit, and then he and the grasshopper looked up in a tree, but they could see no one. So they went on a little farther, and pretty soon Uncle Wiggily got another stone in his shoe. He stooped over to take it out when slam-bang! down came a green butternut this time, and it struck him on the end of his left ear.

"This must stop!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "If it doesn't, the first thing we know there will be cocoanuts falling down on us and then we will be hurt."

"Oh, I think there are no monkeys around here to throw cocoanuts at us," said the grasshopper, "but this is certainly very strange. Perhaps it is the alligator or the fuzzy fox up in a tree trying to hurt us by throwing the little nuts."

"Perhaps," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "Well, we will hurry on, and get out of these woods." So they hurried all they could, but as it happened the grasshopper got a big wooden splinter in his left front leg and it took him and Uncle Wiggily quite a while to get it out, and when at last they did so, it was almost night.

They were hopping along, looking for a place to sleep in the woods, when all of a sudden down came a big black walnut, and it hit Uncle Wiggily's crutch, bouncing off with a bang.

"Who did that?" cried the rabbit looking up as well as he could in the darkness. "Who threw that nut?"

"Katy did!" cried a shrill voice up in a tree. "Katy did!"

"Oh, she did; eh?" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "Well I always thought Katy was a nice little girl. I can't believe she'd throw anything at me. It's not possible!"

"Katy did--she did!" cried the voice in the tree again.

"Oh, would you ever think such a thing of her?" asked the grasshopper, who was quite excited.

"No, I wouldn't," declared Uncle Wiggily sad-like. "Where does Katy live?" he went on. "Perhaps if I speak to her, and tell her how unpleasant it is to have nuts thrown at one she won't do it again. Where does she live?"

"Katy did! Katy did! Katy did!" was all the voice said.

"Of course! I know that by this time," said Uncle Wiggily. "But where does she live? Whereabouts in these woods?"

"Katy did! Katy did!" cried the voice again.

"Ah, I see!" exclaimed the grasshopper, "That means she once did live here, but that she has moved away. That must be it."

"Then I'm glad of it," spoke the rabbit. "I hope she doesn't come back to throw any more things at us. Do you think she will?" and he looked up in the tree to see who had been talking so about Katy.

"Katy did! Katy did!" was all the answer there was.

But all of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes, and out into the moonlight, which was then shining in the forest, there came a little white pussy cat, with four legs and a long tail.

"Oh, dear!" she cried. "I'm Katy, and I heard what you all said about me. But I didn't do it at all. I didn't throw a thing at you, Uncle Wiggily, or at the grasshopper either. I wouldn't do such a thing. Oh, how can you believe it? I didn't do it at all."

"Katy did! Katy did!" cried the shrill voice up in the tree-top. "Katy did--she did!"

"Ha, hum!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "This must be looked into. If Katy didn't do it, we mustn't have her talked about that way. Come, Mr. Grasshopper, we'll see who's calling out about Katy so much."

But just as the rabbit was helping the grasshopper to climb up the tree, to see who it was that had been calling, all of a sudden out from behind a stump there sprang a savage fox, who wanted to eat up Uncle Wiggily and the pussy and the grasshopper also. But the rabbit happened to see a hole in the ground.

"Quick! Jump down here all of you!" he cried and he helped the pussy and the grasshopper to get into the hole where they would be safe from the fox. And, as they disappeared under ground the voice up in the tree-top cried once more:

"Katy did! Katy did!"

"Oh, ho! I'll put a stop to that to-morrow!" declared Uncle Wiggily. "Don't cry, Katy, dear. I'll see that whoever is bothering you will stop." Then the little white pussy dried her tears, and the three friends slept safely in the hole all night, and the fox did not bother them a bit.

And the next day Uncle Wiggily found out who was calling to Katy, and who threw the nuts at him, and I'll tell you about it on the next page, when the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and Katy-Didn't--that is, if the trolley car doesn't run up on the front stoop and break the rocking chair's arms so I can't sing the rag doll to sleep.

STORY XVI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND KATY-DIDN'T

Katy, the nice little white pussy, was the first one to awaken the next morning in the hole where she and Uncle Wiggily and the grasshopper had crawled to get away from the bad fox. Katy arose, washed her face and her paws with her red tongue, and then she softly tickled the grasshopper on his nose with the end of her fuzzy-wuzzy tail.

"Ha, ho! What's the matter?" cried the grasshopper, as he hopped out of the bed made of dried leaves. "Is the house on fire?"

"No, we're not in a house, but in a hole under ground so I don't very well see how it could catch on fire," spoke Katy. "I wanted you to get up and help me with the breakfast. I thought we would let Uncle Wiggily sleep late this morning, as he is tired."

"That's a good idea," declared the little jumping chap. "I'll just take a hop outside and see what I can find to eat."

Well, the grasshopper started to go out of the hole, leaving Uncle Wiggily fast asleep, but, all of a sudden the tiny jumping fellow came back, and, instead of being green, as he usually was, he had turned quite pale.

"What's the matter?" asked Katy.

"The hole is stopped up!" cried the grasshopper. "Some one has filled up the front door with dirt and we can't get out."

"Oh, that's too bad!" said the pussy, and she and the grasshopper looked at the lightning bug, who was shining brightly like a Christmas tree-candle down in the dark hole so they could see. He had shone all night for them. "How will we ever get out?" went on the pussy. "It is terrible to be shut up here."

"What's that? Is there more trouble?" suddenly asked Uncle Wiggily, as he got out of bed feet first.

"Yes," said the grasshopper, "the front door of the hole is stopped up, and we can't get out. I think the bad fox did it."

"Very likely," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "But don't worry, for I can easily dig out the dirt, and then we can go up and find out who it was that said Katy threw nuts at us when she didn't."

So Uncle Wiggily went to the front door of the hole-house and began to dig with his strong feet. And then he happened to think of something.

"If I dig a new front door near the place where the fox stopped up the old one," said the old gentleman rabbit thoughtful-like, "that bad creature may be there waiting to grab us when we go out. So I'll play a trick on him. I'll dig a new door for this hole-house and we'll go out that way. I'll dig it at the back."

So Uncle Wiggily did this and soon there was a nice opening from the hole underground, and it was some distance away from the one by which the three friends had gone in. And, surely enough, they looked through the trees when they went out, and there was that bad fox near the stopped-up hole, waiting for them to come out so that he might grab them.

"I guess he'll wait there a long while for us," said Uncle Wiggily, blinking his nose, and laughing. "Come on now, very quietly and we'll go off in the woods where he can't find us." So away through the forest they went, and the fox never saw them. He stayed by the hole, which he had stopped up with dirt and stones, and he was there a week, waiting for the rabbit and his friends to come up. And the fox got so thin from having nothing to eat in all that time that when he finally did go away his tail nearly dropped off and blew away.

But Uncle Wiggily, and the grasshopper, and the pussy whose name was Katy traveled on and on. Over the hills they went, and through the fields, but they couldn't find out who it was that had said Katy had thrown the nuts when she didn't do it at all.

At last they came to another forest, and just as night was coming on, and Uncle Wiggily was passing under a tree, slam-bang! down came another butternut, and nearly hit him on the eye.

"There! You see, I didn't throw that," cried Katy, who was walking beside Uncle Wiggily.

"Yes, it couldn't have been you," agreed the old gentleman rabbit. "I wonder who did it?"

"Katy did! Katy did!" suddenly cried a voice.

"No, she didn't," said Uncle Wiggily, firmly. "Who are you to say such things?"

"Here he is--I see him!" exclaimed the grasshopper. "It isn't any one at all--it's a little green bug with wings, and he is something like me. He's been saying that 'Katy did' when she didn't do it at all."

And, sure enough, there on a tree was a little light-green bug, and, as Uncle Wiggily watched, he heard this insect call out as bold as bold could be:

"Katy did! Katy did!"

"Now look here!" said the old gentleman rabbit, and he pointed his long ears and his crutch at the green bug, "why do you say such things when you know they aren't so? Katy never threw any nuts at me--they just dropped down off the tree themselves. I'm sure of it. Katy never did it, and she feels badly to have you say so."

"Katy did! Katy did!" cried the insect again, as if he hadn't heard the rabbit speak. "I have to say it, you know," he went on, as he scraped his two long hind legs together. "I have to call out that Katy did, Uncle Wiggily."

"You do? Even when she didn't do it?" asked the rabbit, surprised-like.

"Yes," said the insect. "Katy did! Katy did! I have to call--Katy did."

"Oh, I think it's just too horrid for anything!" said poor Katy, almost ready to cry.

"I wish you wouldn't say such things about a nice pussy," spoke the grasshopper. "For Katy didn't do it. I know she didn't."

And just then, off in another tree, there came a second voice calling:

"Katy didn't! Katy didn't!"

"There, I knew some one would be kind to me!" exclaimed the pussy. "Some one knows I didn't do it. I didn't throw the nuts."

"Katy did! Katy did!" cried the first green insect.

"Katy didn't! Katy didn't!" answered the second little green chap.

"She did!" went on the first one.

"She didn't! Katy didn't!" answered his brother, positive-like.

"Katy did!" "Katy didn't!"

"Oh, my, this dispute is very unpleasant!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Please stop it." But the green insects wouldn't stop, and they kept on calling. First one would say that Katy did do it and then the other would say she didn't, and so they went on:

"Katy did!" "Katy didn't!"

"Well," said Uncle Wiggily at last, when he had tried to make them stop disputing, but couldn't do it, "at any rate, Katy, you have some friends who will stand up for you, and who will always say you didn't do it, and I know you didn't, no matter if the others say you did. Now let's find a place to sleep, and to-morrow I will once more look for my fortune."

So they found a nice hollow stump in which to sleep, and nothing happened to them all night, except that a big-eyed, feathery owl tried to bite the grasshopper. But Uncle Wiggily tickled the bad bird with his crutch and made him fly away, and then they all slept in peace and quietness until morning.

The next day the old gentleman rabbit had quite an adventure. I'll tell you what it was in the following Bedtime Story which will be about Uncle Wiggily and Peetie Bow Wow--that is, if my piece of huckleberry pie doesn't fall into the milk pitcher and turn it sky-blue-pink like the elephant's lemonade at the circus.

STORY XVII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND PEETIE

Katy, the little white pussy, felt quite happy the next day, after she and Uncle Wiggily and the grasshopper had slept in the hollow stump, as I told you last.

"No matter if some of the green insects do say I did throw those nuts," she said, "others of them will say I didn't do it, so it will be all right." And from then on, even up to the present time, you can hear the did and the didn't insects calling to each other in the cool night:

"Katy did!" "Katy didn't!" That's how they dispute, and they never seem to settle it.

"Where are you going?" asked the old gentleman rabbit as he saw the pussy starting off by herself in the woods, when breakfast was over.

"Oh, I am going back home," she said. "I have been away too long already, and my mamma will be worried about me. But I am very glad to have met you and the grasshopper, and I hope you will soon find your fortune, Uncle Wiggily."

"I hope so too," spoke the rabbit, and then he and the grasshopper started off together through the woods, looking on all sides for any signs of gold or diamonds.

They traveled on for many miles, but I'm sorry to say they didn't find any fortune at all--not even so much as a five-cent piece with a hole in it. When noon came they sat down by a little spring of water and built a fire. Then the rabbit roasted some carrots and the grasshopper ate a small piece of cherry pie, and some bread and jam, for he was very fond of sweet things.

"Well, we'll travel on again," said the rabbit, as he scattered the crumbs for the ants to eat.

"Why don't you stay here and look for your fortune?" asked the grasshopper, wiggling his ears.