He just had to laugh, you see, when he thought of the jolly cricket. So hetraveled on and on, over hill and dale, until one evening, just as the sunwas going down behind the clouds, all red and golden and violet colored,he saw a little house built of green leaves.
"Ha!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "That is a very fine house. I wish I hadone like it in which to stay to-night. But it's too small for me. I guessI'll have to keep on and look for a haystack under which to crawl."
Well, just as he said that, all of a sudden there was a little rustling,scratching noise, and a bug came to the door of the queer little greenleaf house. The bug had a broom and she began sweeping off the front porchand then she knocked the dirt out of the doormat, and then she swept somecobwebs off the shutters and then she hurried out and swept off thesidewalk, all so quickly that you could scarcely see her move.
"My, but she is a fast worker," said Uncle Wiggily. "She is almost asquick as Jennie Chipmunk."
"I have to be!" exclaimed the bug, for the old gentleman rabbit had spokenout loud without thinking, and the bug had heard him. "I have to hustlearound," she said, "for I am the busy bug, and I have to keep busy. I workfrom morning to night to keep my house in order. Now excuse me; I have togo in and dust the piano," and she was just going to run in the house,when Uncle Wiggily said:
"Do you happen to know of a place where I can stay to-night?"
"Why, yes," said the busy bug. "Next door is a house where Mr. Groundhogused to live. But now he is away on his vacation, and I have the keys. I'msure he wouldn't mind you staying in there over night. I'll get it inorder for you. Come along, hurry up, no time to lose!"
And before Uncle Wiggily knew what was happening the busy bug had run in,got the keys, opened the front door of the groundhog's house. Then sheflew in, and she began dusting it. My! what a dust she raised. UncleWiggily had to sneeze, there was so much of it.
And the funny part of it was that the house was already just as neat andclean as a piece of cocoanut or custard, or maybe even apple pie.
"Don't fuss any more with it," said Uncle Wiggily. "It will do very wellas it is."
"Oh, it must be made cleaner," said the busy bug, and she swept and dusteduntil Uncle Wiggily sneezed again. Then the bug dusted a little more, andat last she said the house was in pretty fair shape and Uncle Wiggilycould sleep there.
Then the busy bug flew back home and she kept busy up to nine o'clock,making beds and dusting the crumbs off the mantelpiece and picking upgrains of sand off the floor. Then she went to sleep.
Well, along in the middle of the night Uncle Wiggily was awakened byhearing some one talking under his window. He looked out, and there weretwo savage old owls.
"Now, we'll fly right in through her window," said one owl, "and we'll eather all up, and then we'll tear her house down."
And, would you believe it, they started right toward the house of the poorbusy lady bug, who was fast asleep.
"Ha! This must never be!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I must save her. How can Ido it?" So he looked around, and he saw a broom, which the busy bug hadleft behind when she finished sweeping. "That will do!" cried the rabbit.He took it in his paws and, leaning out of the window, he held it just asif it was a gun, and cried:
"Now, you bad owls, fly away or I'll shoot all your feathers off! Fly awayand don't you harm my friend, the busy lady bug!"
Well, sir, those owls were so frightened, thinking that Uncle Wiggily wasgoing to shoot them with the broom-gun (only, of course, they didn't knowit was only a broom), and, would you believe it, they were terribly afraidand they flew off into the dark woods, and so didn't eat up the busy bugafter all, and she slept in peace and quietness, never even waking up, shewas so tired after being busy all day.
Then Uncle Wiggily went back to bed, and the owls didn't disturb him againthat night. And in the morning the busy bug got his breakfast and thankedhim when he told her about scaring the owls away with the make-believebroom-gun.
Uncle Wiggily traveled on, and soon he had another adventure. What it wasI'll tell you almost right away, when, in case the cake of ice doesn'tmelt, and make a mud puddle for the baby to fall into, I'll tell you aboutUncle Wiggily and the funny monkey.
STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FUNNY MONKEY
It was a bright and beautiful sunshiny day, and Uncle Wiggily was hoppingalong the road, thinking many thoughts and about the busy bug and theblack cricket and all things like that and how hard it was to look andlook for your fortune and never find it, when all of a sudden, just as hehappened to put his crutch down on a round stone, it slipped, and down hefell kerthump.
"Oh, wow! Ouch!" cried the old gentleman rabbit as he bumped his nose on asharp stick. "That hurt! My, I hope I haven't broken one of my ears orpaw-nails. If I did I'll have to get in the ambulance and go to thehospital."
So he sat up very slowly and carefully and looked himself all over and hewas glad to see that he hadn't broken anything except a lettuce sandwichthat he carried in his satchel and, as it was just as good broken as itwas whole, it didn't matter much.
"Oh, are you hurt?" suddenly cried a voice, as Uncle Wiggily took somedirt out of his left ear. "If you are I can give you something to put onyour cuts," and out from under a big leaf came a beautiful butterfly.
"What can you put on my cuts?" asked the rabbit.
"Oh, I can get some sticky gum from a tree or a flower and spread it on aleaf and make some court plaster," spoke the butterfly. "It will cure acut very quickly."
"Thank you very much," said Uncle Wiggily, "but very luckily I haven't anycuts. I'm all right, I guess, but because you are so kind to me here isjust a drop of honey that I found in the bottom of my satchel. The beegave it to me." So he handed to the kind butterfly a little honey he hadleft. The butterfly was very glad to get it, and fluttered away, jumpingfrom one flower to another as easily as a boy can spin his top.
Then the old gentleman rabbit traveled on, and pretty soon, when it wasjust about time for dinner, he came to a beautiful place in the woods. Thetrees were nice and green and shady, and there was a little brook that wasbubbling and babbling over the mossy stones and then all at once UncleWiggily heard the queerest music he had ever heard. It was likeforty-'leven bands all playing in the park at once.
"My, I must be near a big picnic!" cried the rabbit. "I shall have to lookout for myself, or some boys may chase me."
The music kept getting louder but still the old gentleman rabbit didn'tsee any people, and he went on very slowly until he came to a little housebuilt of shingles, and there in front of it sat a monkey. And he was thefunniest monkey you ever saw.
For that monkey was playing five hand organs all at once. Yes, just astrue as I'm telling you, he was. He played one organ with his left paw andhe played another organ with his right paw, and he played still anotherwith his left foot and he twisted the crank of another with his rightfoot. And then, to finish off with, he whirled around the crank of thefifth organ with his long tail. Oh, he was a smart monkey, I tell you!
"My! This is almost as good as a circus!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I'mglad I came this way."
Well, that funny monkey played faster than ever, and on one organ heplayed the tune "Please Bring Your Umbrella Inside When it Rains," and onanother he played "May I Have Some of Your Ice Cream Cone if I Give You aKiss?" And on the third hand organ the monkey was playing the tune "ComeOut Into the Hammock and See Who'll Fall Out First," and another tune was"Please Don't Let that Big Black Bug Tickle Me," and on the organ that hetwisted with his tail the monkey ground out the song "Come On Inside theMotorboat and Have a Nice, Cool Swim."
"My, how do you do it?" asked the rabbit of the monkey. "You must be verymusical."
"Oh, it comes natural to me," said the monkey, not a bit proud like.
"But where did you get so many organs?"
"Oh, I saved up my pennies for them," said the monkey. "You see, it wasthis way. I used to work for a man who had a hand organ, and he used totake me around
with him to climb up on the porches, and in thesecond-story windows to get the pennies from the children. Well, I alwaysloved music, and I wanted the man to let me play his organ, but he neverwould. So I made up my mind I would save up all my pennies and some daybuy an organ for myself.
"Well, I did that, for you know often when I used to go around to collectpennies for the man, some children would give me a few for myself. FinallyI got rich and I didn't work for the man any longer, and I had enough tobuy five hand organs, for I can play five at once. Then I came here, andbuilt this shingle house and every day I amuse myself by playing tunes,and I never have to climb up the rainwater pipe to get money. Oh, it is ahappy life," and the monkey felt so funny that he hung by his tail from atree branch, and made faces at Uncle Wiggily--just in fun, you understand.
Uncle Wiggily was very glad he had met the monkey, and he listened to themusic, and the monkey even let the rabbit play one tune for himself, andit was called, "When You Wiggle Your Wiggily Ears Wiggle Them Good andHard."
And then, all of a sudden, just as that tune was finished, there was aterrible noise in the bushes.
"My goodness! What's that?" cried the monkey as he hopped up on top of oneof his hand organs and curled his tail around the handle.
"It sounds like a bear!" said the rabbit. "But don't worry. I'll do justas the cricket did to the alligator and make him laugh so that he won'thurt us."
"Good!" cried the monkey. And then the noise became louder and out fromthe bushes popped a big animal. But it was an elephant instead of a bear,and as soon as he saw the monkey and Uncle Wiggily he ran up to them andshook his trunk at them and cried:
"Oh, I'm so glad to see you! I just got away from the circus, and I wantto have some fun!" and he was as kind and gentle as he could be and he andUncle Wiggily had quite an adventure the next day.
I'll tell you about it on the next page, when, in case the little boyacross the street doesn't tickle my pussy cat and make him sneeze therubbers off the umbrella plant, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily andthe big dog.
STORY XIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIG DOG
Let's see, I left off in the last story just where the elephant came outof the woods and shook his tail--I mean his trunk--at Uncle Wiggily andthe funny monkey, didn't I? Well, now, I'm going to tell you what happenedafter that.
"Why did you run away from the circus?" asked the old gentleman rabbit ofthe elephant. "I should think you would like it there. I know Sammie andSusie Littletail would love a circus."
"Yes, some folks like it," spoke the elephant slow and thoughtful-like, ashe sat down on his trunk, "but I do not care for it. You see of late thechildren ate all the peanuts, instead of giving me my share, and I justcouldn't stand it any longer. Why, it got so, finally, that when a manwould give his little boy five cents to buy a bag of peanuts for me thelittle boy would eat all but two or three of the nuts, and those were allhe gave to me. It wasn't enough, so I ran away."
"I don't in the least blame you," said the monkey, "and I'm going to letyou play some of my hand organs."
Well, the elephant was delighted at that, and he played one organ with histrunk and another one with his tail, making some very nice music.
Uncle Wiggily stayed in the monkey's house that night, and the elephantwanted to come in also, but of course he was far too big, so he had tosleep outside under a tree. It was an apple tree, and in the middle of thenight the elephant snored so hard and heavily through his trunk that heshook the tree and all the apples fell off, and in the morning the monkeymade an apple pie from some of them.
"I think I had better start off on my travels again," said the oldgentleman rabbit after breakfast. "There must be a fortune for mesomewhere if I can only find it. So I'll trot along."
"I'll go with you," said the kind elephant. "Perhaps you might see yourfortune in the top of a tall tree, and then you couldn't get it. But Iwould pull the tree down for you."
"That would be fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I'll be glad to have youtravel with me."
So they said good-by to the monkey, and off they started together, therabbit and the elephant. They talked of many things, about how hot itwas, and whether there would be rain soon, and about how much ice creamcones cost, and sometimes what a little bit of ice cream the man puts inthe cones when he is in a hurry.
"Speaking of ice cream cones," said the elephant, "makes me hungry forsome. I wish I had one."
"I wish I had one also," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "You would have to have avery large one, though, Mr. Elephant, but a small one would do for me."
"Don't say another word," cried the elephant as he waved his trunk in theair. "I'm going right off and get us some ice cream cones. I know wherethere's a store. You hop along slowly and I'll catch up to you."
So the elephant went off to the ice cream cone store, and Uncle Wiggily,with his valise and the barber pole crutch, hopped on through the woods,looking about to see if his fortune was up in any of the trees, but itwasn't there yet.
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, all of a suddenthe old gentleman rabbit heard a sniffing-sniffing noise in the woods. Andthen there was a rustling in the bushes.
"Ha, hum!" exclaimed the rabbit. "Perhaps that may be a bear. I had betterlook out for myself."
He started to hop softly away, so the bear, or whatever it was, wouldn'thear him, but he was too late. In an instant out of the bushes poppedsomething big and black and shaggy, and the rabbit, taking one look at it,saw that it was a big dog.
"New is the time for me to run!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "That dog will eatme up, sure pop!"
Away hopped the old gentleman rabbit, his heart going "pitter-patter-pat,"he was so frightened. On and on he ran down a path in the woods.
"Here, come back here! Come back!" cried the dog.
"Indeed, I will not," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I know what you want to do.You want to eat me."
"No, I don't, honestly!" cried the dog. "But come back, for if you run anyfarther on that road you'll fall into a lake and be drowned."
"Humph! I don't believe that!" cried the rabbit. "You are saying that toscare me," and on he hopped faster than ever.
"Come back! Come back!" cried the dog again, but Uncle Wiggily wouldn't.My! how fast he did hop, until, all of a sudden, as he returned around thecorner of a stump, he saw a lake of water right in front of him. Andbefore he could stop himself he had fallen plump into it; crutch, satcheland all, and of course he couldn't swim. And he could hear the dog comingbarking down the path after him.
"Oh, this is the end of me, sure pop!" thought poor Uncle Wiggily. "I'llnever get any fortune now."
"Oh, dear!" cried the dog. "I told you how it would be. I tried to saveyou from getting in the water," and then the rabbit knew the big dog hadbeen telling the truth. But it was too late now. Uncle Wiggily was goingdown under the deep, dark, cold water when, all of a sudden, along camethe elephant with a great big ice cream cone for himself, and a little onefor Uncle Wiggily. He saw the rabbit in the water and he also saw the bigshaggy dog.
"Did you push Uncle Wiggily in the water?" asked the elephant, "because ifyou did I'm going to throw you in."
"No, indeed, I didn't," answered the dog. "It was an accident," and hetold the elephant how it happened. "But I'll jump in, grab him and swimout with him," said the dog.
"No, don't do that, you might accidentally bite him," spoke the elephant."I have a better plan." So he laid down the ice cream cones and then heput the end of his hollow trunk in the lake, and he began to suck up anddrink the water, just as you suck lemonade up through a straw.
And presto chango! in a few seconds all the water was sucked out of thelake by the elephant, and it was dry land and the rabbit could walk safelyto shore, and so he wasn't drowned after all. And how he did thank theelephant! Uncle Wiggily ate his ice cream cone, and the elephant gave someof his to the dog, and they were all happy.
Now, if the elephant doesn't get a sliver in his foot so he can't dance
atthe hoptoads' picnic, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggilyand the peanut man.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PEANUT MAN
After Uncle Wiggily and the elephant and the big dog had eaten up the icecream cones, they sat in the woods a while and looked at the place wherethe watery lake had been before the elephant drank it up to save therabbit from drowning.
"My, but you must be strong to take up all that water," said the dog.
"Yes, I guess I am pretty strong," said the elephant, though he was not atall proud-like. "I will show you how I can pull up a tree," he said. So hewound his trunk around a big tree and he gave one great, heaving pull andup that tree came by the roots. Then, all of a sudden a voice cried:
"Oh, you're upsetting all my eggs!" and a robin, who had her nest in thetree, fluttered around feeling very sad.
"Oh, excuse me, Mrs. Robin," said the elephant. "I would not havedisturbed you for the world had I known that your nest was in that tree.I'll plant it right back again in the same place I pulled it up. Anyhow, Iintended to do it, as it is not a good thing to kill a tree. I'll plant itagain."
So he put the tree back in the hole, and with his big feet he stamped downthe earth around it. Then the robin's nest and eggs were safe, and shesang a pretty song because she was thankful to the elephant.
Well, the elephant had to sleep out-of-doors again that night, because hecouldn't find a house large enough for him, but Uncle Wiggily slept in thebig dog's kennel. In the morning the rabbit said: