"Only I can't go to sleep under the hay stack, Uncle Wiggily,because I can't find it. And, oh, dear! I don't know what to do!"and Little Boy Blue cried harder than ever, so that some of histears froze into little round marbles of ice, like hail stones.
"There, there, now!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Of course youcan't find a hay stack in the winter. They are all covered withsnow."
"Are they?" asked Boy Blue, real surprised like.
"Of course, they are!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his most jolly voice."Besides, you wouldn't want to sleep under a hay stack, even ifthere was one here, in the winter. You would catch cold and have thesniffle-snuffles."
"That's so, I might," Boy Blue said, and he did not cry so hard now."But that isn't all, Uncle Wiggily," he went on, nodding at therabbit gentleman. "It isn't all my trouble."
"What else is the matter?" asked the bunny uncle.
"It's my horn," spoke the little boy who looked after the cows andsheep. "I can't make any music tunes on my horn. And I really haveto blow my horn, you know, for it says in the Mother Goose book thatI must. See, I can't blow it a bit." And Boy Blue put his horn tohis lips, puffed out his cheeks and blew as hard as he could, but nosound came out.
"Let me try," said Uncle Wiggily. The rabbit gentleman took the hornand he, also, tried to blow. He blew so hard he almost blew off histall silk hat, but no sound came from the horn.
"Ah, I see what the trouble is!" cried the bunny uncle with a jollylaugh, looking down inside the "toot-tooter." "It is so cold thatthe tunes are all frozen solid in your horn. But I have a hot applepie here in my basket that I was taking to Grandpa Goosey Gander.I'll hold the cold horn on the hot pie and the tunes will thaw out."
"Oh, have you a pie in there?" asked Little Boy Blue. "Is it theChristmas pie into which Little Jack Horner put in his thumb andpulled out a plum?"
"Not quite, but nearly the same," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Now tothaw out the frozen horn."
The bunny uncle put Little Boy Blue's horn in the basket with thehot apple pie. Soon the ice was melted out of the horn, and UncleWiggily could blow on it, and play tunes, and so could Boy Blue.Tootity-toot-toot tunes they both played.
"Now you are all right!" cried the bunny uncle. "Come along with meand you may have a piece of this pie for yourself. And you may staywith Grandpa Goosey Gander until summer comes, and then blow yourhorn for the sheep in the meadow and the cows in the corn. There isno need, now, for you to stay out in the cold and look for ahaystack under which to sleep."
"No, I guess not," said Boy Blue. "I'll come with you, UncleWiggily. And thank you, so much, for helping me. I don't know whatwould have happened only for you."
"Pray do not mention it," politely said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh.Then he and little Boy Blue hurried on through the snow, and soonthey were at Grandpa Goosey's house with the warm apple pie, and oh!how good it tasted! Oh, yum-yum!
And if the church steeple doesn't drop the ding-dong bell down inthe pulpit and scare the organ, I'll tell you next about UncleWiggily and Higgledee Piggledee.
CHAPTER VI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND HIGGLEDEE PIGGLEDEE
One day Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, wassitting in an easy chair in the hollow-stump house of the Bushytailsquirrel family, where he was paying a visit to Johnnie and BillieBushytail, the two squirrel boys.
There came a knock on the door, but the bunny uncle did not pay muchattention to it, as he was sort of taking a little sleep after hisdinner of cabbage soup with carrot ice cream on top.
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, went out inthe hall, and when she came back, with her tail all tied up in apink ribbon, (for she was sweeping) she said:
"Uncle Wiggily, a friend of yours has come to see you."
"A friend of mine!" cried Uncle Wiggily, awakening so suddenly thathis nose stopped twinkling. "I hope it isn't the bad old fox fromthe Orange Mountains."
"No," answered Nurse Jane with a smile, "it is a lady."
"A lady?" exclaimed the old rabbit gentleman, getting up quickly, andlooking in the glass to see that his ears were not criss-crossed."Who can it be?"
"It is Mother Goose," went on Nurse Jane. "She says you were so kindas to help Little Boy Blue the other day, when his horn was frozen,and you thawed it on the warm pie, that perhaps you will now helpher. She is in trouble."
"In trouble, eh?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, sort of smoothing downhis vest, fastidious like and stylish. "I didn't know she blew ahorn."
"She doesn't," said Nurse Jane. "But I'll bring her in and she cantell you, herself, what she wants."
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Mother Goose, as she set her broom downin one corner, for she never went out unless she carried it withher. She said she never could tell when she might have to sweep thecobwebs out of the sky. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am in such a lot oftrouble!"
"Well, I will be very glad to help you if I can," said the bunnyuncle. "What is it?"
"It's about Higgledee Piggledee," answered Mother Goose.
"Higgledee Piggledee!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "why that soundslike----"
"She's my black hen," went on Mother Goose. "You know how the versegoes in the book about me and my friends."
And, taking off her tall peaked hat, which she wore when she rode onthe back of the old gander, Mother Goose sang:
"Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen. Sometimes nine and sometimes ten. Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen. Gentlemen come every day, To see what my black hen doth lay."
"Well," asked Uncle Wiggily, "what is the trouble? Has HiggledeePiggledee stopped laying? If she has I am afraid I can't help you,for hens don't lay many eggs in winter, you know."
"Oh, it isn't that!" said Mother Goose, quickly. "HiggledeePiggledee lays as many eggs as ever for gentlemen--sometimes nineand sometimes ten. But the trouble is the gentlemen don't get them."
"Don't they come for them?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzledlike and wondering.
"Oh, yes, they come every day," said Mother Goose, "but there are noeggs for them. Some one else is getting the eggs Higgledee Piggledeelays."
"Do you s'pose she eats them herself?" asked the old rabbitgentleman, in a whisper. "Hens sometimes do, you know."
"Not Higgledee Piggledee," quickly spoke Mother Goose. "She is toogood to do that. She and I are both worried about the missing eggs,and as you have been so kind I thought perhaps you could help us."
"I'll try," Uncle Wiggily said.
"Then come right along to Higgledee Piggledee's coop," invitedMother Goose. "Maybe you can find out where her eggs go to. She laysthem in her nest, comes off, once in a while, to get something toeat, but when she goes back to lay more eggs the first ones aregone."
Uncle Wiggily twinkled his nose, tied his ears in a hard knot, as healways did when he was thinking, and then, putting on his fur coatand taking his rheumatism crutch with him, he went out with MotherGoose.
Uncle Wiggily rode in his airship, made of a clothes-basket, withtoy circus balloons on top, and Mother Goose rode on the back of abig gander, who was a brother to Grandfather Goosey Gander. Soonthey were at the hen coop where Higgledee Piggledee lived.
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am so glad you came!" cackled the black hen."Did Mother Goose tell you about the egg trouble?"
"She did, Higgledee Piggledee, and I will see if I can stop it. Now,you go on the nest and lay some eggs and then we will see whathappens," spoke Uncle Wiggily.
So Higgledee Piggledee, the black hen, laid some eggs for gentlemen,and then she went out in the yard to get some corn to eat, just asshe always did. And, while she was gone, Uncle Wiggily hid himselfin some straw in the hen coop. Pretty soon the old gentleman heard agnawing, rustling sound and up out of a hole in the ground poppedtwo big rats, with red eyes.
"Did Higgledee Piggledee lay any eggs today?" asked one rat, in awhisper.
"Yes," spoke the other, "she did."
"Then we will take them," said the
first rat. "Hurray! More eggs forus! No gentlemen will get these eggs because we'll take themourselves. Hurray!"
He got down on his back, with his paws sticking up in the air. Thenthe other rat rolled one of the black hen's eggs over so the firstrat could hold it in among his four legs. Next, the second rat tookhold of the first rat's tail and began pulling him along, egg andall, just as if he were a sled on a slippery hill, the rat slidingon his back over the smooth straw. And the eggs rode on the rat-sledas nicely as you please.
"Ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jumping suddenly out of his hiding-place."So this is where Higgledee Piggledee's eggs have been going, eh?You rats have been taking them. Scatt! Shoo! Boo! Skedaddle! Scoot!"
And the rats were so scared that they skedaddled away and shooedthemselves and did everything else Mr. Longears told them to do, andthey took no eggs that day. Then Uncle Wiggily showed Mother Goosethe rat hole, and it was stopped up with stones so the rats couldnot come in the coop again. And ever after that Higgledee Piggledee,the black hen, could lay eggs for gentlemen, sometimes nine andsometimes ten, and there was no more trouble as there had beenbefore Uncle Wiggily caught the rats and made them skedaddle.
So Mother Goose and the black hen thanked Uncle Wiggily very much.And if the stylish lady who lives next door doesn't take our featherbed to wear on her hat when she goes to the moving pictures, I'lltell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Little Bo Peep.
CHAPTER VII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BO PEEP
"What are you going to do, Nurse Jane?" asked Uncle WiggilyLongears, the rabbit gentleman, as he saw the muskrat ladyhousekeeper going out in the kitchen one morning, with an apron on,and a dab of white flour on the end of her nose.
"I am going to make a chocolate cake with carrot icing on top,"replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.
"Oh, good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and almost before he knew it hestarted to clap his paws, just as Sammie and Susie Littletail, therabbit children, might have done, and as they often did do when theywere pleased about anything. "I just love chocolate cake!" cried thebunny uncle, who was almost like a boy-bunny himself.
"Do you?" asked Nurse Jane. "Then I am glad I am going to make one,"and, going into the kitchen of the hollow-stump bungalow, she beganrattling away among the pots, pans and kettles.
For now Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily were living together once morein their own hollow-stump bungalow. It had burned down, youremember, but Uncle Wiggily had had it built up again, and now hedid not have to visit around among his animal friends, though hestill called on them every now and then.
"Oh, dear!" suddenly cried Nurse Jane from the kitchen. "Oh, dear!"
"What is the matter, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?" asked the bunny uncle. "Didyou drop a pan on your paw?"
"No, Uncle Wiggily," answered the muskrat lady. "It is worse thanthat. I can't make the chocolate cake after all, I am sorry to say."
"Oh, dear! That is too bad! Why not?" asked the bunny uncle, in asad and sorrowful voice.
"Because there is no chocolate," went on Nurse Jane. "Since we cameto our new hollow-stump bungalow I have not made any cakes, andto-day I forgot to order the chocolate from the store for this one."
"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I'll go to the store andget the chocolate for you. In fact, I would go to two stores andpart of another one for the sake of having a chocolate cake."
"All right," spoke Nurse Jane. "If you get me the chocolate I'llmake one."
Putting on his overcoat, with his tall silk hat tied down over hisears so they would not blow away--I mean so his hat would not blowoff--and with his rheumatism crutch under his paw, off started theold gentleman rabbit, across the fields and through the woods to thechocolate store.
After buying what he wanted for Nurse Jane's cake, the old gentlemanrabbit started back for the hollow-stump bungalow. On the way, hepassed a toy store, and he stopped to look in the window at thepop-guns, the spinning-tops, the dolls, the Noah's Arks, with theanimals marching out of them, and all things like that.
"It makes me young again to look at toys," said the bunny uncle.Then he went on a little farther until, all at once, as he waspassing a bush, he heard from behind it the sound of crying.
"Ha! Some one in trouble again," said Uncle Wiggily. "I wonder if itcan be Little Boy Blue?" He looked, but, instead of seeing thesheep-boy, whom he had once helped, Uncle Wiggily saw a little girl.
"Ha! Who are you?" the bunny uncle asked, "and what is the matter?"
"I am Little Bo Peep," was the answer, "and I have lost my sheep,and don't know where to find them."
"Why, let them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tailsbehind them," said Uncle Wiggily quickly, and he laughed jolly likeand happy, because he had made a rhyme to go with what Bo Peep said.
"Yes, I know that's the way it is in the Mother Goose book," saidLittle Bo Peep, "but I've waited and waited, and let them alone everso long, but they haven't come home. And now I'm afraid they'llfreeze."
"Ha! That's so. It _is_ pretty cold for sheep to be out," said UncleWiggily, as he looked across the snow-covered field, and toward thewoods where there were icicles hanging down from the trees.
"Look here, Little Bo Peep," went on the bunny uncle. "I think yoursheep must have gone home long ago, wagging their tails behind them.And you, too, had better run home to Mother Goose. Tell her you metme and that I sent you home. And, if I find your sheep, I'll sendthem along, too. So don't worry."
"Oh, but I don't like to go home without my sheep," said Bo Peep,and tears came into her eyes. "I ought to bring them with me. Buttoday I went skating on Crystal Lake, up in the Lemon-OrangeMountains, and I forgot all about my sheep. Now I am afraid to gohome without them. Oh, dear!"
Uncle Wiggily thought for a minute, then he said:
"Ha! I have it! I know where I can get you some sheep to take homewith you. Then Mother Goose will say it is all right. Come with me."
"Where are you going?" asked Bo Peep.
"To get you some sheep." And Uncle Wiggily led the little shepardessgirl back to the toy store, in the window of which he had stopped tolook a while ago.
"Give Bo Peep some of your toy woolly sheep, if you please," saidUncle Wiggily to the toy store man. "She can take them home withher, while her own sheep are safe in some warm place, I'm sure. Butnow she must have some sort of sheep to take home with her in placeof the lost ones, so it will come out all right, as it is in thebook. And these toy woolly sheep will do as well as any; won't they,Little Bo Peep?"
"Oh, yes, they will; thank you very much, Uncle Wiggily," answeredBo Peep, making a pretty little bow. Then the rabbit gentlemanbought her ten little toy, woolly sheep, each one with a tail whichBo Peep could wag for them, and one toy lamb went: "Baa! Baa! Baa!"as real as anything, having a little phonograph talking machineinside him.
"Now I can go home to Mother Goose and make believe these are mylost sheep," said Bo Peep, "and it will be all right."
"And here is a piece of chocolate for you to eat," said UncleWiggily. Then Bo Peep hurried home with her fleecy toy sheep, and,later on, she found her real ones, all nice and warm, in the barnwhere the Cow with the Crumpled Horn lived. Mother Goose laughed inher jolliest way when she saw the toy sheep Uncle Wiggily had boughtBo Peep.
"It's just like him!" said Mother Goose.
And if the goldfish doesn't climb out of his tank and hide in thesardine tin, where the stuffed olives can't find him, I'll tell younext about Uncle Wiggily and Tommie Tucker.
CHAPTER VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE TUCKER
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" called Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, oneday, as she went over to see her bunny uncle in his hollow-stumpbungalow. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Isn't it too bad?"
"Isn't what too bad?" asked the old gentleman rabbit, as hescratched his nose with his left ear, and put his glasses in hispocket, for he was tired of reading the paper, and felt like goingout for a walk.
"Too bad about my talking and singing doll, that I got forChristm
as," said Susie. "She won't sing any more. Something insideher is broken."
"Broken? That's too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Let me see.What's her name?"
"Sallieann Peachbasket Shortcake," answered Susie.
"What a funny name," laughed the bunny uncle.
Uncle Wiggily took Susie's doll, which had been given her atChristmas, and looked at it. Inside the doll was a sort ofphonograph, or talking machine--a very small one, you know--and whenyou pushed on a little button in back of the doll's dress she wouldlaugh and talk. But, best of all, when she was in working order, shewould sing a verse, which went something like this:
"I hope you'll like my little song, I will not sing it very long. I have two shoes upon my feet, And when I'm hungry, then I eat."
Uncle Wiggily wound up the spring in the doll's side, and then hepressed the button--like a shoe button--in her back. But this timeSusie's doll did not talk, she did not laugh, and, instead ofsinging, she only made a scratchy noise like a phonograph when itdoesn't want to play, or like Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, when hehas a cold in his head.
"Oh, dear! This is quite too bad!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Quiteindeed."
"Isn't it!" exclaimed Susie. "Do you think you can fix her, Uncle?"
Mr. Longears turned the doll upside down and shook her. Thingsrattled inside her, but even then she did not sing.
"Oh, dear!" cried Susie, her little pink nose going twinkle-inkle,just as did Uncle Wiggily's. "What can we do?"