"I must get out of here!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he grabbed up his valiseand crutch. Then the water came up to his little short, stumpy tail. Nextit rose higher, up to his knees. Then it rose still faster up to his frontfeet and then almost up to his chin.
"Oh, I'm afraid I'm going to drown!" he cried. "I must get out!" So hetried to swim to the edge of the fountain, but you can't swim very wellwith a crutch and a valise, you know, and Uncle Wiggily didn't want tolose either one. Then the water from the top of the fountain splashed inhis eyes and he couldn't see which way to swim.
"Oh, help! Help!" he cried. "Will no one help me?"
"Yes, we will help you!" answered a voice, and up flew the big cat-bird,and her little kitten-birds. "Quick, children!" she cried, "we must saveUncle Wiggily, who was so kind to us! Every one of you get a stick, andwe'll make a little boat, or raft, for him!"
Well, I wish you could have seen how quickly the mamma cat-bird and herkittie-birds gathered a lot of sticks, and twigs, and laid them togethercrossways on the water in that fountain basin, until they had a regularlittle boat. Upon this Uncle Wiggily climbed, with his crutch and valise,and then the mamma cat-bird flew on ahead, and pulled the boat by a stringto the edge of the fountain, where the rabbit could safely get out.
So that's how the bunny was saved from drowning in the water, and in thenext story, if a big, red ant doesn't crawl upon our porch and carry awaythe hammock, I'll tell you another adventure Uncle Wiggily had. It will bea story of the old gentleman rabbit and the bad dog.
STORY IX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOG
Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism was quite bad after he got wet in the fountain,as I told you in the other story, and when he thanked the mamma cat-birdand her kitten-birds for saving him, he found that he could hardly walk,much less carry his heavy valise.
"Oh, we'll help you," said Mrs. Cat-Bird. "Here, Flitter and Flutter, youcarry the satchel for Uncle Wiggily, and we'll take him to our house."
"But, mamma," said Flutter, who was getting to be quite a big bird-boy,"Uncle Wiggily can't climb up a tree to our nest."
"No, but we can make him a nice warm bed on the ground," said the mammabird. "So you and Flitter carry the satchel. Put a long blade of grassthrough the handle, and then each of you take hold of one end of the grassin your bills, and fly away with it. Skimmer, you and Dartie go on ahead,and get something ready to eat, and I'll show Uncle Wiggily the way."
So Flitter and Flutter, the two boy birds, flew away with the satchel, andSkimmer and Dartie, the girl birds, flew on ahead to set the table, andput on the teakettle on the stove to boil, and Mrs. Cat-Bird flew slowlyon over Uncle Wiggily, to show him the way.
Well, pretty soon, not so so very long, they came to where the birdslived. And those good children had already started to make a nest on theground for the old gentleman rabbit. They had it almost finished, and bythe time supper was ready it was all done. Then came the meal, and thosebirds couldn't do enough for Uncle Wiggily, because they liked him so.
When it got dark, they covered him all up, with soft leaves in the nest onthe ground, and there he slept until morning. His rheumatism wasn't quiteso bad when, after breakfast, he had sat out in the warm sun for a while,and after a bit he said:
"Well, I think I'll travel along now, and see if I can find my fortuneto-day. Perhaps I may, and if I do I'll come back and bring you morepeanuts."
"Oh, that'll be fine and dandy!" cried Flitter and Flutter, and Skimmerand Dartie. So they said good-by to the old gentleman rabbit, and oncemore he started off.
"My! I'm certainly getting to be a great traveler," he thought as hewalked along through the woods and over the fields. "But I don't everseem to get to any place. Something always happens to me. I hopeeverything goes along nicely to-day."
But you just wait and see what takes place. I'm afraid something is goingto happen very shortly, but it's not my fault, and all I can do is to tellyou exactly all about it. Wait! There, it's beginning to happen now.
All of a sudden, as Uncle Wiggily was traveling along, he came to a placein the woods where a whole lot of Gypsies had their wagons and tents. Andon one tent, in which was an old brown and wrinkled Gypsy lady, there wasa sign which read:
FORTUNES TOLD HERE.
"Ha! If they tell fortunes in that tent, perhaps the Gypsy lady can tellme where to find mine," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I'll go up and ask her."
Well, he was just going to the tent when he happened to think that perhapsthe Gypsy woman wouldn't understand rabbit talk. So he sat there in thebushes thinking what he had better do, when all at once, before he couldwiggle his ears more than four times, a great big, bad, ugly dog sprang athim, barking, oh! so loudly.
"Come on, Browser!" cried this dog to another one. "Here is a fat rabbitthat we can catch for dinner. Come on, let's chase him!"
Well, you can just imagine how frightened Uncle Wiggily was. He didn't sitthere, waiting for that dog to catch him, either. No, indeed, and a bag ofpopcorn besides! Up jumped Uncle Wiggily, with his crutch and his valise,and he hopped as hard and as fast as he could run. My! How his legs didtwist in and out.
"Come on! Come!" barked the first dog to the second one.
"I'm coming! I'm coming! Woof! Woof! Bow-w-w Bow-wow!" barked the seconddog.
Poor Uncle Wiggily's heart beat faster and faster, and he didn't knowwhich way to run. Every way he turned the dogs were after him, and soonmore of the savage animals came to join the first two, until all the dogsin that Gypsy camp were chasing the poor old gentleman rabbit.
"I guess I'll have to drop my satchel or my crutch," thought UncleWiggily. "I can't carry them much farther. Still, I don't want to losethem." So he held on to them a little longer, took a good breath and ranon some more.
He thought he saw a chance to escape by running across in front of thefortune-telling tent, and he started that way, but a Gypsy man, with agun, saw him and fired at him. I'm glad to say, however, that he didn'tshoot Uncle Wiggily, or else I couldn't tell any more stories about him.
Uncle Wiggily got safely past the tent, but the dogs were almost up to himnow. One of them was just going to catch him by his left hind leg, whenone of the Gypsy men cried out:
"Grab him, Biter! Grab him! We'll have rabbit potpie for dinner; that'swhat we'll have!"
Wasn't that a perfectly dreadful way to talk about our Uncle Wiggily? Butjust wait, if you please.
Biter, the bad dog, was just going to grab the rabbit, when all of asudden, Uncle Wiggily saw a big hole in the ground.
"That's what I'm looking for!" he exclaimed. "I'm going down there, andhide away from these dogs!"
So into the hole he popped, valise, crutch and all, and oh! how glad hewas to get into the cool, quiet darkness, leaving those savage, barkingdogs outside. But wait a moment longer, if you please.
Biter and Browser stopped short at the hole.
"He's gone--gotten clean away!" exclaimed Browser. "Isn't that too bad?"
"No, we'll get him yet!" cried Biter. "Here, you watch at this hole, whileI go get a pail of water. We'll pour the water down, under the groundwhere the rabbit is, and that will make him come out, and we'll eat him."
"Good!" cried Browser. So while he stood there and watched, Biter wentfor the water. But, mind you, Uncle Wiggily had sharp ears and he heardwhat they were saying, and what do you think he did?
Why, with his sharp claws he went right to work, and he dug, and dug, anddug in the back part of that underground place, until he had made anotherhole, far off from the first one, and he crawled out of that, with hiscrutch and valise, just as Biter was pouring the water down the firsthole.
"Ah, ha! I think this will astonish those dogs!" thought Uncle Wiggily,and he took a peep at them from behind a bush where they couldn't see him,and then he hopped on through the woods, to look for more adventures,leaving the dogs still pouring water.
And one happened to him shortly after that, as I shall tell you on thenext page, when, in case the rocking chair
doesn't tip over backwards andspill out the sofa cushion into the rubber plant, the story will be aboutUncle Wiggily and the monkey.
STORY X
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MONKEY
Let me see, we left those two bad dogs pouring water down the hole, to getUncle Wiggily out, didn't we? And the old gentleman rabbit fooled them,didn't he? He got out of another hole that he dug around by the back door,you remember.
Well, I just wish you could have seen those two dogs, after they hadpoured pail after pail of water down the hole, and no rabbit came floatingup.
"This hole must go all the way down to China!" said Browser, breathingvery fast.
"Yes, I'm tired of carrying water," said Biter. And just then another dogcried out:
"Why, foolish dogs, the water's all running out the back way!" And, surelyenough, it was. Then they knew Uncle Wiggily had escaped, and they were asangry as anything, but it served them right, I think.
"My! I wonder what will happen next?" thought the old gentleman rabbit, ashe hopped along. "That was a narrow escape."
So, having nothing else to do, Uncle Wiggily sat down on a nice, smoothstump, and he ate some lunch out of his valise. And a red ant came up, andvery politely asked if she might not pick up the crumbs which the oldrabbit dropped.
"Of course you may," said Uncle Wiggily kindly. "And I'll give you a wholeslice of bread and butter, also."
"Oh, you are too generous," spoke the red ant. "I never could carry aslice of bread and butter. But if you will leave it on the stump I'll getsome of my friends, and we'll bite off little crumbs, a few at a time, andin that way carry it to our houses."
So that's what Uncle Wiggily did, and the ants had a fine feast, and theywere very thankful. Uncle Wiggily asked them if they knew where he couldfind his fortune.
"Why don't you go to work, instead of traveling around so much?" asked thebiggest red ant. "The best fortune is the one you work for."
"Is it? I never thought of that," said Uncle Wiggily. "I will look forwork at once. I wonder if you ants have any for me."
"We'd like to help you," they said, "but you see you are so large that youcouldn't get into our houses to do any work. You had much better travelalong, and work for some one larger than we are."
"I will," decided the old gentleman rabbit. "I'll ask every one I meet ifthey want me to work for them."
So he started off once more, and the first place he came to was a housewhere a mouse lady lived.
"Have you any work I can do?" asked Uncle Wiggily politely.
"What work can you do?" asked the mouse lady.
"Well, I can peel carrots or turnips with my teeth," said Uncle Wiggily,"and I can look after children, and tell them stories, and I can do somefunny tricks----"
"Then you had better go join a circus," interrupted the mouse lady. "Ihave no children, and I can peel my own carrots, thank you. As forturnips, I never eat them."
"Then I must go on a little further," said Uncle Wiggily, as he picked uphis valise, and walked off on his crutch. So he went on, until he came toanother house in the woods, and he knocked on the door.
"Have you any work I can do?" inquired Uncle Wiggily politely.
"No! Get away and don't bother me!" growled a most unpleasant voice, andthe rabbit was just going down the steps, when the door opened a crack,and a long, sharp nose and a mouth full of sharp teeth, and some longlegs with sharp claws on them, were stuck out.
"Oh, hold on!" cried the voice. "I guess I can find some work for youafter all. You can get up a dinner for me!" and then the savage creature,who had opened the door, made a grab for the rabbit and nearly caught him.Only Uncle Wiggily jumped away, just in time, and the wolf, for he it waswho had called out, caught his own tail in the crack of the door andhowled most frightfully.
"Come back! Come back!" cried the wolf, but, of course, Uncle Wiggilywouldn't do such a foolish thing as that, and the wolf couldn't chaseafter him, for his tail was fast in the door hinge.
"My, I must be more careful after this how I knock at doors, and ask forwork," the old gentleman rabbit thought. "I was nearly caught that time.I'll try again, and I may have better luck."
So he walked along through the woods, and pretty soon he heard a voicesinging, and this is the song, as nearly as I can remember it:
Here I sit and wonder What I'm going to do. I've no one to help me, I think it's sad; don't you?
I have to play the fiddle, But still I'd give a cent To any one who'd keep the boys From crawling in the tent.
"Well, I wonder who that can be?" thought Uncle Wiggily. "He'll give acent, eh? to any one who keeps the boys from crawling in the tent. Now, ifthat isn't a bear or a fox or a wolf maybe I can work for him, and earnthat money. I'll try."
So he peeped out of the bushes, and there he saw a nice monkey, alldressed up in a clown's suit, spotted red, white and blue. And the monkeywas playing a tune on a fiddle. Then, all of a sudden, he laid aside thefiddle, and began to beat the bass drum. Then he blew on a horn, next hejumped up and down, and turned a somersault, and then, finally, he grabbedup a whip with a whistle in the tail--I mean in the end--and that monkeybegan to pretend he was chasing make-believe boys from around a real tentthat was in a little place under the trees.
"Oh, I guess that monkey won't hurt me," said Uncle Wiggily as he steppedboldly out, and as soon as the monkey saw the rabbit, he called mostpolitely:
"Well, what do you want?"
"I want to earn a cent, by chasing boys from out the tent," replied UncleWiggily.
"Good!" cried the monkey. "So you heard me sing? I'm tired of being thewhole show. I need some one to help me. Come over here and I'll explainall about it. If you like it, you can go to work for me, and if you do,your fortune is as good as made."
"That's fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "And I can do tricks in the show,too."
"Fine!" exclaimed the monkey, hanging by his tail from a green apple tree."Now, I'll explain."
But, just as he was going to do so, out jumped a big black bear from thebushes, making a grab for Uncle Wiggily. He might have caught him, too,only the monkey picked up a cocoanut pie off the ground and hit the bearso hard on the head, that the savage creature was frightened, and ranaway, sneezing, leaving the monkey and the rabbit alone by the show-tent.
"Now, we'll get ready to have some fun," said the monkey, and what he andUncle Wiggily did I'll tell you in the following story which will be aboutthe old gentleman rabbit and the boys--that is, if the molasses jugdoesn't tip over on my plate, and spoil my bread and butter peanutsandwich.
STORY XI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BOYS
"Well," said the monkey after the bear had run away. "I guess we can nowsit down and talk quietly together; eh, Uncle Wiggily?"
"Yes," said the old gentleman rabbit. "But what is it that you want me todo? I heard you sing that funny little song, about the boys coming in thetent. But I don't exactly understand."
"That's just it," replied the monkey. "You see, it's this way. I have alittle sort of a circus-show here, and the troublesome boys don't want topay any money to get in. So when my back is turned they crawl under thetent, and so they see the show for nothing--just like at the circus."
"Oh, so that's how it is?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "And you want me to keepout the boys?"
"That's it," said the monkey. "Here's a big stick, with which to ticklethe boys who crawl in under the tent without paying. Now I'll practice mytricks."
So the monkey did a lot of tricks. He stood on his head, and he hung byhis tail, and he danced around in a circle. Then he pounded the drum, notso hard as to hurt it, but hard enough to make a noise, and he played thefiddle and blew on the horn, and then he ran inside the tent and jumpedover a bench, making believe it was an elephant, and he did all sorts offunny tricks like that. He even stood on his head, and made a funny face.
"That will make a very nice show," said Uncle Wiggily after he had watchedthe monkey. "Now I'll stay outside, and keep the b
oys from coming inunless they pay their money. And you can be inside, doing the tricks."
"And I'll give you money for working for me," said the monkey. "Thenperhaps you can make your fortune, and, besides that, I'll give you acocoanut, and you can make a cocoanut pie with it."
"That will be fine!" cried Uncle Wiggily. So he and the monkey practicedto get ready for their show. It was a nice little tent in which it was tobe given, and there were seats for the people, who would come, and aplatform, and flying rings and trapeze bars and paper hoops, and allthings like that, just the same as in a real circus. Well, finally thetime came for the show. It was the day after Uncle Wiggily got to theplace where the tent was, and he had slept that night in a hammock, putup between two trees.
"Now we're almost ready for the show," said the monkey to the oldgentleman rabbit, after a bit, "so I hope you will be sure to keep out thetroublesome boys. They always creep under the tent, and see the show fornothing. I can't have that going on if I'm to make any money."
"Oh, I'll stop 'em!" declared Uncle Wiggily.
"And here's the club to do it with," said the monkey, handing UncleWiggily a stick.
"Oh, I don't know about that," answered the rabbit. "I never hurt boys ifI can help it. Perhaps I shan't need the club. I'll leave it here."
So Uncle Wiggily hid the club under an apple tree, but the monkey said itwould be needed, and he wanted Uncle Wiggily to keep it, and take a whip,too. But the old rabbit shook his head.