"Tell Nurse Jane to take only a little of it in sweet water," said thecow lady. "It is very strong. So be careful of it."
"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "And thank you for getting thepeppermint for me. I don't know what I would have done without you, asthe drug store was closed."
Then he hopped on through the woods to the hollow stump bungalow. Hehad not quite reached it when, all of a sudden, there was a rustling inthe hushes, and out from behind a bramble bush jumped a big black bear.Not a nice good bear, like Neddie or Beckie Stubtail, but a bear whocried:
"Ah, ha! Oh, ho! Here is some one whom I can bite and scratch! Anice tender rabbit chap! Ah, ha! Oh, ho!"
"Are--are you going to scratch and bite me?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"I am," said the bear, snappish like. "Get ready. Here I come!" andhe started toward Uncle Wiggily, who was so frightened that he couldnot hop away.
"I'm going to hug you, too," said the bear. Bears always hug, you know.
"Well, this is, indeed, a sorry day for me," said Uncle Wiggily, sadly."Still, if you are going to hug, bite and scratch me, I suppose itcan't be helped."
"Not the least in the world can it be helped," said the bear,cross-like and unpleasant. "So don't try!"
"Well, if you are going to hug me I had better take this bottle out ofmy pocket, so when you squeeze me the glass won't break," Uncle Wiggilysaid. "Here, when you are through being so mean to me perhaps you willbe good enough to take this to Nurse Jane for her indigestion, butdon't hug her."
"I won't," promised the bear, taking the bottle which Uncle Wiggilyhanded him. "What's in it?"
Before Uncle Wiggily could answer, the bear opened the bottle, and,seeing something in it, cried:
"I guess I'll taste this. Maybe it's good to eat." Down his big, redthroat he poured the strong peppermint juice, and then--well, I guessyou know what happened.
"Oh, wow! Oh, me! Oh, my! Wow! Ouch! Ouchie! Itchie!" roared thebear. "My throat is on fire! I must have some water!" And, droppingthe bottle, away he ran to the spring, leaving Uncle Wiggily safe, andnot hurt a bit.
Then the rabbit gentleman hurried back and squeezed out more peppermintjuice for Nurse Jane, whose indigestion was soon cured. And as for thebear, he had a sore throat for a week and a day.
So this teaches us that peppermint is good for scaring bears, as wellas for putting in candy. And if the snow man doesn't come in our houseand sit by the gas stove until he melts into a puddle of molasses, I'lltell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the birch tree.
STORY IX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRCH TREE
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, was walkingalong through the woods one afternoon, when he came to the hollow stumpschool, where the lady mouse teacher taught the animal boys and girlshow to jump, crack nuts, dig homes under ground, and do all manner ofthings that animal folk have to do.
And just as the rabbit gentleman was wondering whether or not schoolwas out, he heard a voice inside the hollow stump, saying:
"Oh, dear! I wish I had some one to help me. I'll never get themclean all by myself. Oh, dear!"
"Ha! That sounds like trouble!" thought Mr. Longears to himself. "Iwonder who it is, and if I can help? I guess I'd better see."
He looked in through a window, and there he saw the lady mouse teachercleaning off the school black-boards. The boards were all covered withwhite chalk marks, you see.
"What's the matter, lady mouse teacher?" asked Uncle Wiggily, making apolite, low bow.
"Oh, I told Johnnie and Billy Bushytail, the two squirrel boys, to stayin and clean off the black-boards, so they would be all ready fortomorrow's lesson," said the lady mouse. "But they forgot, and ran offto play ball with Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys. So Ihave to clean the boards myself. And I really ought to be home now,for I am very tired."
"Then you trot right along," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "Tie a knotin your tail, so you won't step on it, and hurry along."
"But what about the black-boards?" asked the lady mouse. "They must becleaned off."
"I'll attend to that," promised the bunny uncle. "I will clean themmyself. Run along, Miss Mouse."
So Miss Mouse thanked the bunny uncle, and ran along, and the rabbitgentleman began brushing the chalk marks off the black-boards, at thesame time humming a little tune that went this way:
"I'd love to be a teacher, Within a hollow stump. I'd teach the children how to fall, And never get a bump.
I'd let them out at recess, A game of tag to play; I'd give them all fresh lollypops 'Most every other day!"
"Oh, my! Wouldn't we just love to come to school to you!" cried avoice at the window, and, looking up. Uncle Wiggily saw BillieBushytail, the boy squirrel, and brother Johnnie with him.
"Ha! What happened you two chaps?" asked the bunny uncle. "Why didyou run off without cleaning the black-boards for the lady mouseteacher?"
"We forgot," said Johnnie, sort of ashamed-like and sorry. "That'swhat we came back to do--clean the boards."
"Well, that was good of you," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "But I have theboards nearly cleaned now."
"Then we will give them a dusting with our tails, and that will finishthem," said Billie, and the squirrel boys did, so the black-boards werevery clean.
"Now it's time to go home," said Uncle Wiggily. So he locked theschool, putting the key under the doormat, where the lady mouse couldfind it in the morning, and, with the Bushytail squirrel boys, hestarted off through the woods.
"You and Billie can go back to your play, now, Johnnie," said the bunnyuncle. "It was good of you to leave it to come back to do what youwere told."
The three animal friends hopped and scrambled on together, until, allof a sudden, the bad old fox, who so often had made trouble for UncleWiggily, jumped out from behind a bush, crying:
"Ah, ha! Now I have you, Mr. Longears--and two squirrels besides.Good luck!"
"Bad luck!" whispered Billie.
The fox made a grab for the rabbit gentleman, but, all of a sudden, thepaw of the bad creature slipped in some mud and down he went, headfirst, into a puddle of water, coughing and sneezing.
"Come on, Uncle Wiggily!" quickly cried Billie and Johnnie. "This isour chance. We'll run away before the fox gets the water out of hiseyes. He can't see us now."
So away ran the rabbit gentleman and the squirrel boys, but soon thefox had dried his eyes on his big brush of a tail, and on he came afterthem.
"Oh, I'll get you! I'll get you!" he cried, running very fast. ButUncle Wiggily and Billie and Johnnie ran fast, too. The fox was comingcloser, however, and Billie, looking back, said:
"Oh, I know what let's do, Uncle Wiggily. Let's take the path thatleads over the duck pond ocean. That's shorter, and we can get to yourbungalow before the fox can catch us. He won't dare come across thebridge over the duck pond, for Old Dog Percival will come out and bitehim if he does."
"Very well," said Uncle Wiggily, "over the bridge we will go."
But alas! Also sorrowfulness and sadness! When the three friends gotto the bridge it wasn't there. The wind had blown the bridge down, andthere was no way of getting across the duck pond ocean, for neitherUncle Wiggily nor the squirrel boys could swim very well.
"Oh, what are we going to do?" cried Billie, sadly.
"We must get across somehow!" chattered Johnnie, "for here comes thefox!"
And, surely enough the fox was coming, having by this time gotten allthe water out of his eyes, so he could see very well.
"Oh, if we only had a boat!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, looking along theshore of the pond, but there was no boat to be seen.
Nearer and nearer came the fox! Uncle Wiggily and the squirrel boyswere just going to jump in the water, whether or not they could swim,when, all at once, a big white birch tree on the edge of the woods nearthe pond, said:
"Listen, Uncle Wiggily and I will save you. Strip off some of
my bark.It will not hurt me, and you can make a little canoe boat of it, as theIndians used to do. Then, in the birch bark boat you can sail acrossthe water and the fox can't get you."
"Good! Thank you!" cried the bunny uncle. With their sharp teeth he,Billie and Johnnie peeled off long strips of birch bark. They quicklybent them in the shape of a boat and sewed up the ends with long thornsfor needles and ribbon grass for thread.
"Quick! Into the birch bark boat!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and they alljumped in, just as the fox came along. Billie and Johnnie held uptheir bushy tails, and Uncle Wiggily held up his tall silk hat forsails, and soon they were safe on the other shore and the fox, notbeing able to swim, could not get them.
So that's how the birch tree of the woods saved the bunny uncle and thesquirrels, for which, I am very glad, as I want to write more storiesabout them. And if the gold fish doesn't tickle the wax doll's nosewith his tail when she looks in the tank to see what he has forbreakfast, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the butternuttree.
STORY X
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERNUT TREE
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat ladyhousekeeper of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit, as she looked in thepantry of the hollow stump bungalow one day. "Well, I do declare!"
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Longears, peeping over the top of hisspectacles. "I hope that the chimney hasn't fallen down, or the eggbeater run away with the potato masher."
"No, nothing like that," Nurse Jane said. "But we haven't any butter!"
"No butter?" spoke Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzled like, and abstracted.
"Not a bit of butter for supper," went on Nurse Jane, sadly.
"Ha! That sounds like something from Mother Goose. Not a bit ofbutter for supper," laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Not a bit of batter-butterfor the pitter-patter supper. If Peter Piper picked a pit of peckledpippers--"
"Oh, don't start that!" begged Nurse Jane. "All I need is some supperfor butter--no some bupper for batter--oh, dear! I'll never get itstraight!" she cried.
"I'll say it for you," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "I know what youwant--some butter for supper. I'll go get it for you."
"Thank you," Nurse Jane exclaimed, and so the old rabbit gentlemanstarted off over the fields and through the woods for the butter store.
The monkey-doodle gentleman waited on him, and soon Uncle Wiggily wason his way back to the hollow stump bungalow with the butter forsupper, and he was thinking how nice the carrot muffins would taste,for Nurse Jane had promised to make some, and Uncle Wiggily was sort ofsmacking his whiskers and twinkling his nose, when, all at once, heheard some one in the woods calling:
"Uncle Wiggily! Oh, I say, Uncle Wiggily! Can't you stop for a momentand say how-d'-do?"
"Why, of course, I can," answered the bunny, and, looking around thecorner of an old log, he saw Grandpa Whackum, the old beaver gentleman,who lived with Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the beaver boys.
"Come in and sit down for a minute and rest yourself," invited GrandpaWhackum.
"I will," said Uncle Wiggily. "And I'll leave my butter outside whereit will be cool," for Grandpa Whackum lived down in an undergroundhouse, where it was so warm, in summer, that butter would melt.
Grandpa Whackum was a beaver, and he was called Whackum because he usedto whack his broad, flat tail on the ground, like beating a drum, towarn the other beavers of danger. Beavers, you know, are somethinglike big muskrats, and they like water. Their tails are flat, like apancake or egg turner.
"Well, how are things with you, and how is Nurse Jane?" asked GrandpaWhackum.
"Oh, everything is fine," said Uncle Wiggily. "Nurse Jane is well.I've just been to the store to get her some butter."
"That's just like you; always doing something for some one," saidGrandpa Whackum, pleased like.
Then the two friends talked for some little while longer, until it wasalmost 6 o'clock, and time for Uncle Wiggily to go.
"I'll take my butter and travel along," he said. But when he wentoutside, where he had left the pound of butter on a flat stump, itwasn't there.
"Why, this is queer," said the bunny uncle. "I wonder if Nurse Janecould have come along and taken it to the hollow stump bungalowherself?"
"More likely a bad fox took the butter," spoke the old gentlemanbeaver. "But we can soon tell. I'll look in the dirt around the stumpand see whose footprints are there. A fox makes different tracks froma muskrat."
So Grandpa Whackum looked and he said:
"Why, this is queer. I can only see beaver tracks and rabbit tracksnear the stump. Only you and I were here and we didn't take anything."
"But where is my butter?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
Just then, off in the woods, near the beaver house, came the sound oflaughter and voices cailed:
"Oh, it's my turn now, Toodle."
"Yes, Noodle, and then it's mine. Oh, what fun we are having, aren'twe?"
"It's Toodle and Noodle--my two beaver grandsons," said GrandpaWhackum. "I wonder if they could have taken your butter? Come; we'llfind out."
They went softly over behind a clump of bushes and there they sawToodle and Noodle sliding down the slanting log of a tree, that waslike a little hill, only there was no snow on it.
"Why, they're coasting!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "And how they can doit without snow I don't see."
"But I see!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Those two little beaver boys havetaken my butter that I left outside of your house and with the butterthey have greased the slanting log until it is slippery as ice. That'show they slide down--on Nurse Jane's butter."
"Oh, the little rascals!" cried Grandpa Whackum.
"Well, they didn't mean anything wrong," Uncle Wiggily kindly said.Then he called; "Toodle! Noodle! Is any of my butter left?"
"Your butter?" cried Noodle, surprised like.
"Was that your butter?" asked Toodle. "Oh, please forgive us! Wethought no one wanted it, and we took it to grease the log so we couldslide down. It was as good as sliding down a muddy, slippery bank ofmud into the lake."
"We used all your butter," spoke Noodle. "Every bit."
"Oh, dear! That's too bad!" Uncle Wiggily said. "It is now after 6o'clock and all the stores will be closed. How can I get more?" Andhe looked at the butter the beaver boys had spread on the tree. Itcould not be used for bread, as it was all full of bark.
"Oh, how can I get some good butter for Nurse Jane?" asked the bunnyuncle sadly.
"Ha! I will give you some," spoke a voice high in the air.
"Who are you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, startled.
"I am the butternut tree," was the answer. "I'll drop some nuts downand all you will have to do will be to crack them, pick out the meatsand squeeze out the butter. It is almost as good as that which you buyin the store."
"Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "and thank you."
Then the butter tree rattled down some butternuts, which Uncle Wiggilytook home, and Nurse Jane said the butter squeezed from them was verygood. And Toodle and Noodle were sorry for having taken UncleWiggily's other butter to make a slippery tree slide, but they meant noharm.
So if the pussy cat doesn't take the lollypop stick to make a mud pie,and not give any ice cream cones to the rag doll, I'll tell you nextabout Uncle Wiggily and Lulu's hat.
STORY XI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND LULU'S HAT
"Uncle Wiggily, do you want to do something for me?" asked Nurse JaneFuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman oneday as he started out from his hollow stump bungalow to take a walk inthe woods.
"Do something for you, Nurse Jane? Why, of course, I want to," spokeMr. Longears. "What is it?"
"Just take this piece of pie over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady,"went on Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I promised to let her taste how I madeapple pie out of cabbage leaves."
"And very cleverly you do it, too," said Uncle Wiggily, with a politebow. "I know, for I have eaten s
ome myself. I will gladly take thispie to Mrs. Wibblewobble," and off through the woods Uncle Wiggilystarted with it.
He soon reached the duck lady's house, and Mrs. Wibblewobble was veryglad indeed to get the piece of Nurse Jane's pie.
"I'll save a bit for Lulu and Alice, my two little duck girls," saidMrs. Wibblewobble.
"Why, aren't they home?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"No, Lulu has gone over to a little afternoon party which NannieWagtail, the goat girl, is having, and Alice has gone to seeGrandfather Goosey Gander. Jiminie is off playing ball with Jackie andPeetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, so I am home alone."
"I hope you are not lonesome," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, no, thank you," answered the duck lady. "I have too much to do.Thank Nurse Jane for her pie."
"I shall," Uncle Wiggily promised, as he started off through the woodsagain. He had not gone far before, all of a sudden, he did not stooplow enough as he was hopping under a tree and, the first thing he knew,his tall silk hat was knocked off his head and into a puddle of water.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he picked up his hat. "I shallnever be able to wear it again until it is cleaned and ironed. And howI can have that done out here in the woods is more than I know."
"Ah, but I know," said a voice in a tree overhead.
"Who are you, and what do you know?" asked the bunny uncle, surprisedlike and hopeful.