Chapter II: Part 2

“Do you mean take the toothache away or the tooth, mamma?” asked Sammie, curious like.

“Both,” answered Mrs. Littletail, with a smile.

“Oh, I’m not going!” yelled Sammie.

“Ha! There is trouble down there,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he listened to this talk. “I guess perhaps I had better go down and see what I can do.”

So down he went in his airship to the home of the Littletail rabbit family, and there, indeed, he found trouble. Sammie had the toothache, from eating too many carrot ice cream cones, and as the tooth was an old one, with a big hole in it, that tooth needed to be pulled.

“But I won’t go to the dentist’s!” howled Sammie. Sometimes boy animals, and real boys, too, are that way. It takes girls to go to the dentist. They don’t mind a bit. All they’re afraid of is that their hair ribbons may get bent, or twisted, but they are easily fixed.

“I’ll not go,” said Sammie, and he cried real hard.

“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Mrs. Littletail. “Whatever shall I do with you?”

“Ha! Perhaps I can help you!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he came sailing gently down in his airship. “Sammie, you come for a ride with me, and perhaps everything will be all right. Come in my airship.”

“Are we going to the dentist’s?” asked the rabbit boy.

“Well, we’ll just stop in and see how he is,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Perhaps he may have a new way of pulling teeth that won’t hurt you the least mite.”

Well, at first Sammie did not want to go, but finally he said he would, and into the airship he got with Uncle Wiggily.

Up near the clouds they went, sailing along until they came to the hollow stump office of the dentist, who was a bear gentleman, with long claws, just made on purpose for pulling out the aching teeth of the animal people.

“Here is my nephew, Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy,” said Uncle Wiggily to the dentist bear. “He has an aching tooth!”

“And I want it pulled, but I am afraid it will hurt too much,” cried Sammie.

“Oh, nonsensicalness!” exclaimed the dentist bear. “I can pull teeth without anyone knowing it. Now did you ever tie a string around your tooth, and then fasten a flatiron to the other end of the string, and let the iron drop out of the window?”

“Yes,” said Sammie, “I have done that, and every time the flatiron dropped the tooth came out, also. But it hurt!”

“Well, maybe a little bit,” said the dentist bear. “But did you ever tie a string to the tooth you wanted pulled, and then tie the other end of the string to the door-knob, and have some one open the door suddenly, when you didn’t know it; ever do that?”

“Yes,” said Sammie, “I did. And the tooth came out that time, too.”

“Then we shall have to try a new way,” said the dentist bear. “Just let me tie a string to your tooth, and we shall see what happens.”

“You won’t pull it; will you?” asked the rabbit boy.

“No, I won’t pull it,” answered the dentist bear, as he blinked both his eyes at Uncle Wiggily sort of funny like.

So Sammie tied the string to his aching tooth; a good long strong string it was. The dentist took the other end of the cord and dropped it out of the window.

“What are you doing?” asked Sammie.

“You’ll see, in a minute,” answered the dentist. “Here, you just look at this picture book for awhile,” and he gave Sammie one with many prettily colored pictures in.

Well, when Sammie was looking at the picture book, the dentist took the loose end of the string, that was on the rabbit boy’s tooth, and tied it to Uncle Wiggily’s airship; tied the string I mean, not the tooth.

“Now,” whispered the nice bear to the rabbit gentleman, “if you start your airship all of a sudden you will pull on Sammie’s aching tooth, and you’ll have it out in a jiffy, which is very quick indeed.”

“I’ll do it!” said Uncle Wiggily. So, while Sammie was sitting there, with the string around his tooth, looking at the pictures and wondering what was going to happen, all of a sudden Uncle Wiggily started the airship. Up it went toward the clouds, pulling on the string, and the next minute Sammie felt a tug, and a pull and a yank and a jerk and, all of a sudden—out came his aching tooth.

“Oh!” he cried, jumping up. “What happened?”

“Your toothache is gone,” said the dentist bear gentleman. “Uncle Wiggily pulled it away with his airship.”

“Oh, I am so glad!” cried Sammie, when it was all over. “I didn’t know Uncle Wiggily was a dentist, too.”

Then his toothache stopped and he rode back home with the rabbit gentleman in the airship, and everybody was happy. Mrs. Littletail, especially, for Sammie had been very troublesome, though he did not mean to be. So this teaches us that an airship is good for pulling teeth, as well as for sailing up in the clouds.

And on the next page, if the pussy cat doesn’t fall out of the cherry tree and scratch the covers off the pansy bed, where the puppy dog sleeps, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the grocery cat.

STORY IX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GROCERY CAT

Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was working away out in the yard fixing his airship. He had been riding around in it a great deal of late, sailing up among the clouds, taking it out in rain storms, and once he even sailed in it across the duck pond, coming right down into the water with it.

And in doing all these things one of the handles of the clothes basket, which was part of the airship, had become bent and twisted. And some of the toy circus balloons needed to be blown up with fresh air, and there was a hole in the Japanese umbrella, which formed the top part of the airship, to keep the sun off Uncle Wiggily.

“Yes, I must fix up my airship,” said the rabbit gentleman as he worked away, whistling and twinkling his nose at the same time, like a star on a frosty night.

And that is very hard to do—to whistle and twinkle your nose at the same time. If you do not believe me just try it yourself and see.

“Have you any more sofa cushions I could take for my airship, Nurse Jane?” asked Uncle Wiggily, going into the house where the muskrat lady housekeeper was boiling some carrots to make a lemon pie.

“Sofa cushions?” Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy cried. “What in the world do you want of more sofa cushions?”

“To make another seat in the clothes basket of my airship,” answered the rabbit gentleman. “You see, I have room for two persons in it, and perhaps even three more of my animal friends, if we squeezed up a bit, but I need more sofa cushions to make a soft place for my company to land on in case we fall.”

“Well, I guess we have a few cushions left,” said the muskrat lady. “But, please, don’t lose them.”

Uncle Wiggily said he wouldn’t and soon he had his airship all fixed up with two nicely cushioned seats in it. Then he went back in the house to get a turnip cookie, with cocoanut sprinkled on the bottom, and he asked of Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, most politely:

“Won’t you come and take a ride in my airship, Nurse Jane?”

“Oh, my goodness me, sakes alive and some fried soap bubbles!” cried the muskrat lady, surprised like. “No, indeed, thank you! I should be dreadfully afraid.”

“There is no danger at all,” Uncle Wiggily said, but Nurse Jane would not come out in the airship with him, and the rabbit gentleman had to go sailing all alone by himself.

Up into the air he soared, looking down on the tree tops, and he wished he had some one with him, for he was lonesome, Uncle Wiggily was. But Charlie and Arabella Chick, the hen lady’s children, were at school, and so were Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. In fact Bully and Bawly No-Tail, the frog boys, and all the animal children were at school.

“I guess I can find no one to ride with me to-day,” sadly said Uncle Wiggily, after he had called on Grandfather Goosey Gander and found that the old goose gentleman had gone fishing after snails. Dr. Possum, on whom the old rabbit gentleman also called, was busy looking after the ill animals, so of course Dr. Possum could not go.

Well, Uncle Wiggily was getting more and more lonesome, and he was thinking of going back home, when, all of a sudden, down on the ground below him he heard some one saying:

“Oh, dear! Isn’t it too bad! Oh, such bad luck! and they want these things for the party, too! Oh, sorrow! Oh, unhappiness! Oh, woe is me!”

“My, some one must be having a whole bushel of trouble, and then some more,” said Uncle Wiggily, sort of surprised like. “I must see what this is.”

He made his airship go slowly down toward the ground, and then the rabbit gentleman saw the delivery boy grocery cat standing near an old stump, and looking down at a broken basket, that had been filled with things from the store. But the things were all spilled now.

“Ha! What is the matter, Tom?” asked Uncle Wiggily of the grocery cat. You see the cat’s name was Tom, and he worked at delivering groceries from the grocery store.

“Oh, I have such a lot of trouble,” said Tom. “As I was going along with the groceries just now, my basket handle broke, one of the sides slipped out, and the groceries spilled all over.”

“That is too bad,” said Uncle Wiggily kindly, as he made his airship go all the way down to the ground.

“And the worst of it is,” went on Tom, the grocery cat, “that the basket is so broken that I can’t use it again. I have no other and Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, is in a hurry for these things. She wants them for a party she is getting up for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie. Oh, isn’t it too bad!”

“Yes, but it might be worse,” said Uncle Wiggily, cheerfully. “Nothing is so bad but what it could be worse.”

“I don’t see how,” spoke Tom, the grocery cat. “I can’t deliver these things, and Mrs. Wibblewobble will be so disappointed, and so will Lulu and Alice and Jimmie.”

“Oh, it might easily be worse,” laughed Uncle Wiggily, as he twinkled his nose twice and once more. “I might not have come along in my airship to help you. But here I am, and I have just put a new cushioned seat in the clothes basket, on purpose to give some one a ride.

“Now you get right in with me, and pile in the groceries. Never mind the broken basket. I’ll take you to Mrs. Wibblewobble’s house as fast as anything, and then you can deliver the groceries.”

“Oh, how kind you are!” cried Tom. In a second he had his groceries packed in Uncle Wiggily’s clothes basket airship. Then he and the old rabbit gentleman took their seats, up went the airship, around went the electric fan and pretty soon they were over the home of Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady.

“Groceries!” cried Tom the cat, just as if he were at the back door, and when Uncle Wiggily lowered his airship, the things for the party were put on the back stoop. And wasn’t the duck lady surprised to see the groceries from the store come in an airship? Well, I guess she was! But she was delighted, too!

Then Tom, the grocery cat, thanked Uncle Wiggily again for helping him, and the rabbit gentleman took Tom back to the store, where he got a new basket, and everybody was happy.

And on the next page, if our piano doesn’t go out to a phonograph party and forget to come home to breakfast, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the smoky chimney.

STORY X

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SMOKY CHIMNEY

Once upon a time there was a Flump, who lived in animal land, not far from where Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, had his hollow stump bungalow with nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady. This Flump lived in a house all by herhimself, and heshe was not a very pleasant sort of an animal.

You see, a Flump is sometimes a he and sometimes a she, so I have to mix up the words. And another thing—a Flump is always sad and cross and unhappy, and tries to make others unhappy, too. So, whatever you are, please, please, please never be a Flump.

A Flump can never see anything good in anything or anybody. Gracious, if there were many Flumps in this world it would be a dreadful place in which to live.

For instance, a Flump doesn’t like to see children playing tag and running about, and a Flump doesn’t like to hear children laugh and shout. If the Flumps had their way it would always be dark and bedtime, and everybody would go in their houses and shut themselves up and be gloomy and sad. There never would be any Christmas or Fourth of July, and school would always be in, with no recess, and there wouldn’t be any ice cream cones, or merry-go-rounds, or peanuts, or toy balloons, or circus-lemonade, or anything like that.

However, thank goodness, there aren’t many Flumps in the world. But, I am sorry to say, one lived near Uncle Wiggily. And one day when the old gentleman rabbit was sailing around in his airship he happened to land on the ground close by the house of this Flump.

Some of the wind came out of the toy circus balloons that Uncle Wiggily had fastened on his clothes basket airship, and the rabbit gentleman came down to blow more air in them.

The Flump saw him, and coming out of herhis house, with a sad, gloomy face, the Flump said, most dolefully and sorrowfully:

“Oh, why do you waste your time riding around in your airship, Mr. Longears? Why do you waste your time?”

“I do not waste my time,” said the rabbit gentleman cheerfully. “I ride about, it is true, but whenever I see any one in trouble I help them if I can.”

“Ah, yes, but how much better,” said the Flump, “how much better it would be if you would sell your airship and put the money away where you would always have it. Then you could stay in the house all day and be sad, as I am. Oh, I love to be sad.”

“Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, “I guess you do! You look it! But I do not like to be sad. I like to be happy and make others happy if I can.”

“Happy!” cried the Flump. “There is no such thing as happiness! All is sad and gloom! See, it is getting dark. It will soon be night, and I’ll be glad, for then every one will have to go to bed.”

“No, it is not getting night,” said Uncle Wiggily; “that is only the sun going under a cloud. It will soon come out shining again.” And, surely enough it did, but the Flump was not happy.

“I am going in the house and take some bitter medicine,” said the Flump, sadly like.

“Well, I hope it will do you good,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, cheerfully and politely.

So the Flump went in herhis gloomy house, to take hisher bitter sour medicine, and Uncle Wiggily fixed his airship. Pretty soon, just as he was about to sail up toward the blue sky, where the sun was shining, and the birds were singing, the Flump came running out, crying:

“Oh, woe is me! Oh, unhappiness! I knew something would happen! My house is on fire!”

Uncle Wiggily looked, and, surely enough, a lot of smoke was pouring out of the doors and windows of the Flump animal’s house. Thicker and thicker grew the smoke.

“Yes, there must be a fire!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “But don’t worry! I’ll call out the water bug fire department, and we’ll soon make everything right. Don’t worry!”

“Oh, but I just love to worry!” cried the Flump. “I am glad I have something about which to worry! Oh, unhappiness!”

But Uncle Wiggily had no time to worry. Into his airship he jumped, and off he flew to get the fire department.

He brought back the brave water bugs with their buckets of water, but when they had rushed in the Flump’s house they came out, saying, as they wiped the smoke out of their eyes:

“There is no fire there!”

“No fire?” cried Uncle Wiggily. “But look at the smoke.”

“The chimney is stopped up,” said the head water bug. “There is something in the chimney, and when the Flump built a fire all the smoke came out into the room, instead of going up the flue.”

“Oh, I knew something was the matter,” sobbed the Flump. “And I am glad of it. Now I can be more unhappy than ever.”

“Oh, fie!” cried Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his nose. “It is wrong to be sad and unhappy! Besides, I can soon make you happy.”

“How can I be glad when my chimney smokes?” asked the Flump. “It is all stopped up.”

“Well, perhaps we can unstop it,” said the rabbit gentleman. “We will try.”

The water bugs tried to get whatever it was out of the chimney, but they could not. Neither could a policeman dog, who came in, and barked up the fireplace as hard as he could bark. Then Uncle Wiggily said:

“I will now use my airship. I’ll go up above the chimney and poke a long pole down the chimney hole.” He did this, and a loose brick that had fallen down the flue, stopping it up, was poked out by the rabbit gentleman, and then the chimney did not smoke any more. A fire could now be built in the stove.

“Be happy now, Flump!” cried Uncle Wiggily, cheerfully. And all the water bugs cried:

“Yes, be happy!”

And then, all of a sudden, when the Flump saw how kind every one was to himher, and how anxious every one was for herhim to be glad, the Flump just turned up the corners of hisher mouth—instead of turning them down—and heshe took off the dark spectacles shehe wore, and put on a pair with beautiful rose-colored glasses, so that all the world looked cheerful, and the Flump said:

“Yes, I will be glad! I’m sorry I was ever sad!”

“Oh, don’t even be sorry that you were once sad,” cried Uncle Wiggily, joyfully; “just be glad you are glad, and don’t ever remember you were sad!”

“I’ll always be glad now,” went on the Flump, who turned out to be a nice old lady Grandmother, after all her troubles were over. Then she made up a fire in the stove, the chimney didn’t smoke any more and the Flump made a big chocolate cake and gave every one some. And ever after that the Flump was named Scrump, instead of Flump. For Scrump is short for scrumptious, which means just lovely, you know. And Uncle Wiggily took Scrump for a ride in the airship, and they picked flowers up in cloudland.

And in the next story, if robin redbreast doesn’t take our milk bottle for his bath tub and go picking strawberries off the rose bush, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the church bell.

STORY XI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHURCH BELL

“Here is a package for you, Mr. Longears,” said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she entered the dining-room, of the hollow stump bungalow, where the rabbit gentleman was eating his breakfast right after supper—the next day, of course.

“A package for me—how nice!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “Let me see—what day is it?”

“I don’t see that it makes any difference,” spoke Nurse Jane. “A package is a package any day.”

“Ah, yes, very true,” admitted Uncle Wiggily. “But a package on April Fools’ day is quite different from one on Christmas.”

“So it is,” said the muskrat lady with a laugh. “But as it happens, this is not April Fools’ day.”

“No, it is not,” admitted Uncle Wiggily, “and in that case I will open the package. Who brought it?”

“Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, on his way to school left it for you,” answered Nurse Jane.

“And from whom did it come?” Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.

“You had better open it and see,” suggested Nurse Jane.

Uncle Wiggily did so, and what do you s’pose he found? Why in the package was a lovely chocolate cake, with cocoanut on top, and a yellow carrot in the middle. And there was a little card on which was written:

“From the Scrump, who used to be a Flump, to Dear Uncle Wiggily.”

“Ha!” exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. “This is very nice. I am glad I helped change the Flump into a Scrump.”

I told you that story on the page before this, you remember. The Flump was a curious, sad sort of a mixed-up animal, but when Uncle Wiggily fixed her smoky chimney, the Flump turned into a Scrump, which is short for Scrumptious, and scrumptious means lovely.

“My! that is good chocolate cake,” said the gentleman rabbit, passing Nurse Jane a large slice. “Just give it away to the animal children when they come home from school.”

“That’s just like you!” cried the muskrat lady. “Giving away everything you get! Why don’t you eat it yourself?”

“I had rather see others eat it,” replied Uncle Wiggily. And I might say that if ever you feel yourself turning into a Flump, just start giving things away, or making others happy, and you’ll become a Scrump right away. And it’s much nicer to be a Scrump than a Flump.

“Where are you going?” asked Nurse Jane, as Uncle Wiggily got up from the table.

“Out for a ride in my airship,” replied the rabbit gentleman. “It is a lovely day, and I might find some in trouble whom I could help. Yes, I shall go for a little ride.”

“Well, don’t fall,” begged Nurse Jane, and Uncle Wiggily promised that he would not. Soon he was soaring and flying up near the clouds in his airship, that was made from a clothes basket, some circus balloons, a Japanese umbrella and an electric fan.

Pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily heard, down on the earth, some one saying most sadly:

“Oh, dear! Now I am in trouble!”

“My! I wonder if that’s Tom, the grocery cat, who has another broken basket?” said Uncle Wiggily to himself. “If it is I must help him.”

He looked down and found that, right under him, was a big church with a steeple and in front of the church was the sexton, or janitor, a very nice man, indeed, if you will kindly allow me to say so.

“Oh, dear! Such trouble!” cried the sexton man, sadly.

“What is the trouble?” asked Uncle Wiggily kindly, as he lowered his airship. “Perhaps I can help you.”

“I’m afraid not,” answered the janitor. “You see, the rope by which I pull the church bell is broken. To-morrow is Sunday and I have not time to mend the rope. I can’t ring the bell, and unless I do make it jingle ding-dong, the people will not hear it and will not come to church.”

“Ha! That is too bad!” agreed Uncle Wiggily. “For going to church does every one good. But won’t they come even if the bell doesn’t ring?”

“I am afraid not,” said the sexton man. “You see, the bell has been rung every Sunday for years and years and years. The people have become used to it. They don’t even look at their clocks, but when they hear the bell go ‘ding-dong!’ they say: ‘Ah! it is time to go to church.’ But now, alas, the rope is broken and I will not be able to ring the Sunday bell to-morrow.”

“Don’t worry,” said Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. “And don’t be gloomy like a Flump, whatever happens. Perhaps I may be able to help you.”

But the sexton man did not think so, and he was quite sad. He tried to fix the bell rope, but he could not, and it looked as though the bell would not ring for Sunday church.

But what did Uncle Wiggily do? Listen, as the telephone girl says, and I will tell you. Sunday morning, bright and early, the rabbit gentleman took a lot of stones in the clothes basket and he went sailing up in his airship.

Right up over the church spire he sailed, and he hovered over the steeple and the bell, and, when it was time for church, the rabbit gentleman threw stones at the bell. And, as he was a good shot, he hit it every time.

“Crack!” went a stone on the bell, and the bell went “Ding-dong! Ding-dong!” slowly and solemn-like. More stones did Uncle Wiggily throw from his airship, and every time the rabbit gentleman hit it the bell rang just as well as though the sexton had pulled the rope.

“Ha!” cried all the people. “There goes the bell! It is time for church!”

So they went, and were not late, but they were much surprised when they saw Uncle Wiggily in his airship, throwing stones at the bell to ring it.

And when all the people were in their seats, Uncle Wiggily didn’t have to ring the bell any more. He came down out of his airship and went to church himself, and everybody was happy, and the sexton was most especially thankful to the rabbit gentleman.

So that’s all now, if you please, but next, if my typewriter doesn’t go in swimming and get its hair ribbon all wet, so it’s as crinkly as a corkscrew, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the doll’s house.

STORY XII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOLL HOUSE

“Oh, I’m so happy! So happy,” sang Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, as she hopped on her way home from school one afternoon.

“Why are you so happy?” asked Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, as she picked up a stone in her webbed foot and tossed it into the pond. I mean she tossed the stone—not her foot. Lulu could throw a stone almost as good as a boy.

“Why, I am happy because my papa is going to give me a doll house for my birthday, which is to-morrow,” went on Susie. “Oh, it is the loveliest doll house! I saw it in a toy-store window, and papa is going to get it for me.”

“I wish I had a doll house,” spoke Lulu, sadly like.

“I’ll let you play with mine,” Susie answered. “It is a large one, with room for two dolls, anyhow.”

“Oh, thank you, so much!” exclaimed Lulu, and then she and Susie hurried on, stopping only to pick a few wild flowers that grew by the path which turned and twisted through the woods.

“When am I going to get my doll house, papa?” asked Susie at the supper table that evening.

“I will have it for you when I come home to-morrow night,” promised the rabbit gentleman. “I am having some of the rooms papered for you.”

“Oh, how lovely!” cried Susie, clapping her paws.

The lady mouse teacher at the hollow stump school, where the little rabbit girl and all the other animal children attended, allowed Susie to come home early on her birthday, and Susie ran all the way.

“I’m so anxious to see my doll house!” cried Susie.

But, here comes the sad part of the story. I’ll make it as short as I can, though.

When Susie reached her house she saw her papa sitting out on the front porch. He was all scratched up, and one of his ears was bent over backward, and his white fur was all dirt, and he looked very sad.

“Oh, papa!” cried Susie. “What has happened?”

“Oh, alas! Likewise sorrowfulness! Oh, woe is me!” said Mr. Littletail, sadly like.

“Oh, tell me, please!” begged Susie, clasping her paws.

“I have lost your birthday doll house, Susie,” said her papa. “I was bringing it home through the greenwood forest, and when I crossed the bridge over the deep, dark valley, the bridge broke, and I nearly fell with it. I lost hold of the doll house, and down it went into the deep, dark valley.”

“Oh, how sad!” cried Susie.

“I tried to save the doll house from falling,” went on Mr. Littletail, “but I could not. I slipped and stumbled myself, when the bridge gave way; and I am scratched up. But I would not mind that if I could have saved your doll house for you.”

“Oh, papa dear! I am so sorry you are hurt!” sobbed Susie. “I don’t mind about the doll house—that is, not much,” she said, and she put her paws around her papa’s neck and kissed him.

But, all the same, Susie did mind dreadfully about her lost play-toy. And Mr. Littletail told over and over again how the bridge across the deep, dark valley, (which bridge had been partly washed away by the rain) had snapped and cracked as he was hurrying over it with the doll house.

“But I have a birthday cake for you, with ten carrot candles on,” said Mrs. Littletail, and Susie felt a little happy over that. But, most of all, she wanted her doll house.

“Maybe I can get it for you,” said Susie’s brother Sammie, kindly, when he heard about the trouble. “Come, we will go to the deep, dark valley and see.”

So the rabbit children went to the greenwood forest, but they could not even see the bottom of the valley, or big hole in the ground, between the high rocky walls. And much less could they spy the doll house.

“It is gone forever,” said Susie, sadly.

“Yes, I am afraid I could not get down there and bring the doll house up for you,” spoke Sammie. For the rocky sides of the deep, dark valley were very steep, like the roof of a house, and if Sammie went into the deep place he could hardly ever get out again.

“Oh, my lovely birthday doll house, that I’ll never see, or have!” sobbed Susie, as she looked down into the dark hole where her play-toy was, but where it could not be reached.

“Well, maybe papa will get you another,” said Sammie, kindly.

“Oh, I’m afraid not! Oh, dear! How sad!” cried Susie, as she and her rabbit brother started for home.

“Ha! What is all this about? What seems to be the trouble?” suddenly asked a voice, up in the air, and, looking over their heads, Sammie and Susie saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, in his airship. The airship, as I have told you, was made from a clothes basket, with circus balloons to raise it up in the air. Uncle Wiggily sat on sofa cushions in the basket. “What is the trouble?” he asked.

“Oh, papa accidentally dropped my toy doll house down in the deep, dark valley!” said Susie. “We can never get it out.”

“Oh, yes we can!” cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. “I can lower my airship down into the valley, and I will, and I’ll get your doll house, Susie! You just watch me!”

“But it’s so dark you can’t see it,” spoke Sammie.

“I’ll light a Christmas tree candle,” said Uncle Wiggily, and so he did. Down into the deep, dark valley he steered his airship, and by the light of the candle he saw the doll house. It had fallen on a big pile of leaves, and wasn’t hurt a mite. Uncle Wiggily carefully lifted the play-toy into his airship.

“Here you are, Susie!” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he floated up out of the valley, and gave the little rabbit girl her birthday doll house. “I told you I’d get it back for you!”

“Oh, you dear Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, as she hugged and kissed him. Then she and Sammie took the doll house home, and Susie and Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girl, had much fun playing with it, and were very happy.

And Uncle Wiggily went on sailing in his airship, and he had another adventure. I’ll tell you about it on the page after this, when, in case the ink bottle doesn’t go to sleep on the white bed spread, and make a mark like an ice cream cone, the story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the bird seed.

STORY XIII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BIRD SEED

“Uncle Wiggily, are you going any place special this morning?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the housekeeper muskrat lady, as she came out in the yard where the rabbit gentleman was giving his airship a drink of molasses, so it would not sail too fast.

“Anywhere special?” repeated Uncle Wiggily, sort of thoughtful like; “why, no, Nurse Jane, to tell you the truth, I am merely going for a little sort of vacation sail around the clouds, and perhaps I may find an adventure. Did you want me to do anything for you, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy?”

“Why, yes, if you will be so kind,” replied the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail in a double bow knot, so that it would not drag on the floor when she was sweeping. “I wish you would stop at the drug store, Uncle Wiggily, and get me some bird seed. My pet cat is hungry and I want to feed it.”

“Very well, I will get the bird seed for you,” spoke the rabbit gentleman politely, “though I never before heard of feeding it to a cat; never!” he said, slowly wagging his ears to and fro.

“Well, I have a reason for it,” said Nurse Jane. “You see, my cat used to catch and eat the dear little birds, and that made me feel sad. So I thought perhaps if I could teach my cat to eat the bird seed, instead of the birds, it would be better. And so I did. And now, Muffins, my black cat, would rather have bird seed to eat any day than the dear birds that sing so sweetly.”

“A fine idea!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I wish more cats ate bird seed. I will get you a large package at the drug store.”

So off Uncle Wiggily started in his airship, the electric fan at the back, by which it was pushed along through the clouds, going around whizzie-izzie, as fast as an egg beater.

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, where are you going?” asked Billie Bushytail, the boy squirrel, in the top of a tall tree as the rabbit gentleman sailed over it in his airship. “Please give me a ride!” begged Billie.

“I will give you a ride as far as your school; you and your brother Johnnie,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “Then I must sail on to the drug store to get the bird seed for Nurse Jane.”

“Oh! Is she going to plant the bird seed in the garden and raise canary birds?” asked Johnnie, as he scrambled up to the top of the tree to hop in the airship, and get a ride.

“No, Nurse Jane is going to feed it to her cat, which eats bird seed instead of birds,” replied the rabbit gentleman, as he called “Whoa!” to his airship, and made it stand still long enough for Billie and Johnnie to hop in from a tree branch.

“I wish she would teach cats to eat squirrel seed instead of squirrels,” spoke Johnnie. “Once a cat ate up a little red squirrel, who was our cousin.”

“Ah! That was too bad!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I will see if the drug store man has any squirrel seed.”

Off he started in the airship again, taking Billie and Johnnie to the hollow stump school. Near there Uncle Wiggily stopped his ship close to the top of another tall tree, and into that the squirrel boys leaped, scrambling down to the ground, just in time for their lessons.

Well, the rabbit gentleman reached the drug store all right, and bought the bird seed for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.

“And now, have you any squirrel seed?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he told why he wanted it.

“I have only nuts for squirrels to eat,” said the elephant gentleman who kept the drug store. “You might call that squirrel seed.”

“Well, I’ll take some,” said Uncle Wiggily, “and if we can not teach cats to eat the nuts, instead of the dear little squirrels, I can give the nuts to Billie and Johnnie. They’ll eat them, anyhow.”

So, with the bird seed and the nuts, the rabbit gentleman set off once more in his airship. He had not sailed very far before he felt himself growing sleepy.

“Ha! Ho! Hum!” cried Uncle Wiggily, with a yawn. “I think I will sail down to the ground, and take a nap. It would not be safe to go sailing about up in the air while asleep. I might run into a thunder storm and break something.”

So he guided his airship down to earth, and in a nice shady place in the woods, the rabbit gentleman tied his clothes basket to a tree, so it would not sail up and away when he was asleep, and then he began to dream.

After a while he awakened, feeling much better, and when he had stretched his ears and twinkled his nose, he said:

“Well, now, I guess I’ll sail home again.”

But, when he loosed the ropes that held his airship fast, it would not rise up, as it always had done before.

“Why, what in the world can be the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily, and then he looked at the bunch of toy circus balloons that used to raise his airship off the earth. And every balloon was as flat as a pancake! All the hot air had gone out of them.

“Ha! No wonder I could not rise!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I must blow up my balloons!”

But, when he tried, he found the balloons so full of holes that no air would stay in them. A bad lot of mosquitoes had come along while Uncle Wiggily slept, had punctured holes in the rubber balloons, let out the air, and they were all spoiled.

“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “What shall I do? I never can sail home in my airship!” Then he happened to think of something. “I have it!” he cried. “I will scatter some bird seed on the ground. A lot of birds will see it and come to eat it. And I will ask them all to take hold of my airship in their bills at once, and raise me up by fluttering their wings. Then they can fly home with me and my airship.”

So Uncle Wiggily did this. He scattered some of the bird seed on the ground, and Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, and some robins and blue birds—more than a thousand of them—came to eat the seeds. And when the birds had eaten them Uncle Wiggily asked:

“Will you please fly home with me and my airship, for my lifting balloons are all full of holes?”

“Indeed we will, and that right gladly!” answered the birds, politely. So they lifted Uncle Wiggily and his airship up in their bills and with their fluttering wings bore him safely home, and there was bird seed enough left for Nurse Jane’s cat.

But the cat would not eat the nuts, so Johnnie and Billie Bushytail had them to crack. And that’s all to this story.

However, if the rooster in our back yard doesn’t crow so loudly that he makes the alarm clock jump off the mantel, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the baby rabbit.

STORY XIV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BABY RABBIT

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, the little rabbit girl, one afternoon, as she came over to Mr. Longears’ hollow stump bungalow. “I wonder if you can guess what came to our burrow in the night?”

“Let me see,” said Uncle Wiggily, slow and thoughtful like; “was it a mouse?”

“Nope!” cried Susie, laughing and clapping her paws.

“Was it a thunder storm?” asked the rabbit gentleman, sort of puzzled like.

“Nope! I’ll give you one more guess, and then I’ll tell you,” spoke Susie, laughing more than ever.

“Was it—er—let me see—you didn’t have a party come to your house last night, did you, Susie?”

“No! Oh, I knew you couldn’t guess! It was a baby rabbit. Sammie and I have a little baby brother. He came last night.

“Oh, how fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears up in a hard knot and then untying them again. “I must go right over and see it. Come on, Susie, we’ll go in my airship.”

“Don’t let Susie fall out!” cried Nurse Jane, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as the old gentleman rabbit, followed by Susie, went out to the henhouse, where he kept his clothes basket airship.

“I won’t!” promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he and Susie sailed off, up near the clouds, over the fields and woods, to the burrow where Mrs. Littletail, Susie’s mamma, lived.

“Where is that baby rabbit?” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he lowered his airship to the ground. “I must see him.”

“Here he is,” said Mrs. Littletail, proudly, bringing out the new little baby rabbit. “But be careful not to squeeze him too hard, as he is very soft and tender.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful!” said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh.

Then he took the baby rabbit and toddled him up and down on his knee, and said “Ootsie-Cootsie!” and “Tummy-tummy!” and “petsie-etsie!” You know the way old gentleman always talk to babies, whether they are animals or not.

“Isn’t he just too sweet!” cried Susie, as she stood peeping lovingly at her new baby brother. “And doesn’t he look just like Sammie?”

“Hu! Do I look like that?” asked Sammie, standing off to one side, with his paws in his pockets.

“You did when you were little,” said his mamma, smiling.

“Ha! Well, I don’t now,” spoke Sammie sort of thankful like. “Come on, Susie, I’m going to school—the last bell has almost rung.”

“Wait until I give baby a kiss,” said Susie, and, when she had done so, she hurried to school with Sammie.

Uncle Wiggily stayed with Mrs. Littletail for some time, and he jiggled and joggled the baby rabbit up and down on his knee, and talked baby talk to it, and had just a lovely time as all old gentleman rabbits do at such times.

After a while Mrs. Littletail said:

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I have to go to the store to get a rattle box for baby rabbit, to amuse him when he cries! I wonder if you would stay here and take care of him until I come back!”

“Of course I would, and I’d be glad to—real proud and happy to do so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Won’t I, baby rabbit? Ootsie-cootsie ’unnin’-cunnin’!”

“Goo!” said the baby rabbit. I guess that meant “yes” in baby rabbit talk.

So Mrs. Littletail went to the store for a rattle box for her new bunny baby, and then Uncle Wiggily jiggled and joggled the little chap up and down on his knee some more.

“Goo-goo!” said baby rabbit, as cute as anything.

“Oh, you’re just too lovely!” cried Uncle Wiggily, exactly as Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy might have done.

But, all of a sudden, baby rabbit began to cry.

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily sort of disappointed like. “Hold on if you please! Don’t do that! Stop it!”

But the more he talked the more the baby rabbit sobbed.

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried the small chap. “Wah-h-h-h-h-h-h!”

“Oh, my!” shouted Uncle Wiggily. “I guess I must walk up and down with you!” and he did, as fast as anything, but the baby rabbit only cried the harder.

“Ha! Maybe you want me to stand on my head for you!” said Uncle Wiggily. So he put the baby in its crib and stood on his head, in a corner, wiggling his feet in the air. But the baby rabbit still cried:

“Wah! Wah! Wah!”

“Oh, come now, be nice!” begged Uncle Wiggily, looking around for something with which to amuse the rabbit baby. “I guess you want your rattle box. I wish Mrs. Littletail would hurry back.”

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried baby rabbit.

“I know what I’ll do!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take you in my airship to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. She’ll know what to do.”

So, bundling the baby rabbit up in its warm blankets, the old gentleman rabbit hurried out to his airship, which he had left standing in the yard. It had been all fixed since the mosquitoes had bitten holes in the balloons, and was better than ever.

“Now we’re all right!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he started off through the air. “Nurse Jane will soon fix you, little fellow!”

“Why, you shouldn’t have brought a new, little baby rabbit out in your airship,” said the muskrat lady, when she saw what Uncle Wiggily had done. “It might take cold.”

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” howled the baby rabbit.

“Listen to that! I couldn’t make it stop crying,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I did everything, even to making funny faces at it. What do you do in a case like this?”

“Silly old Uncle Wiggily!” laughed Nurse Jane. “I guess this little fellow is hungry!” And, surely enough, when she gave baby rabbit some warm milk and sugar from a bottle, the little chap stopped crying at once and went to sleep.

“Well, I do declare!” cried Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. “It is so easy when you know how!” And then, while the baby rabbit slept, Uncle Wiggily took it home in his airship, and just in time, too, for Mrs. Littletail had come back with the rattle box, and she was wondering where in the world her baby was. Then she thanked Uncle Wiggily, and put the baby rabbit in its crib, and that is the end of this story.

But in the next story, if the door knob doesn’t turn a somersault over the pepper caster and slide off the table, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the popgun.

STORY XV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE POPGUN

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was out in the yard back of his house, blowing hot air in the toy circus balloons of his airship. The balloons would then lift the airship up in the air, and Uncle Wiggily could sail around near the clouds, like a bird.

“Aren’t you afraid the airship will some day go up without you in it?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept house for the rabbit gentleman.

“Oh, no, for I always tie my airship fast to the fence, or a tree, or something like that, until I am ready to get in it!” he answered.

This time Uncle Wiggily tied his airship, with a clothesline, to the grape arbor, and he went on getting the red, green, blue and yellow balloons more and more full of hot air. The rabbit gentleman blew the hot air in with a putty blower.

Soon the airship was tugging and tugging away at the clothesline, wanting to sail up in the air, and take the old gentleman rabbit with it for a sail in the clothes basket, which was filled with soft cushions. These were taken along so, in case Uncle Wiggily fell, he would not be bounced too hard.

But the airship could not go up until the rabbit gentleman loosed the rope that held it fast.

“And that I’ll do as soon as I go in and wash my paws and get a carrot sandwich,” the rabbit gentleman said, when he had finished fixing the balloons. “Then I’ll go off and see if I can find an adventure.”

An adventure, you know, is something that happens to you, like being late for school, and getting kept in. But I hope you have no such unpleasant adventure as that. I’d rather you had a nice one, like finding an ice cream cone rolling up hill.

Well, Uncle Wiggily went into the house to wash his paws. He soaped them nicely and also his face, but, when he went to dry them, he could not find the towel.

“Oh, Nurse Jane!” he cried. “Come quickly and get me a towel! There’s some soap in my eyes!”

“Oh, my goodness me sakes alive and some apple pudding!” cried Nurse Jane. Then she ran in to get a towel for Uncle Wiggily, leaving the airship in the yard all alone.

And now something is going to happen.

Along came Jocko Kinkytail, the little monkey boy, on his way to school. Jocko was going to be late, too. He almost always was late, and the reason was that he stopped too often along the road to play and to look at the things he saw.

“Oh, my goodness!” cried Jocko, when he saw Uncle Wiggily’s airship in the yard, all ready to sail. “I must look at that!”

Over the fence he scrambled, and he began looking at the airship, made of a clothes basket, some toy balloons, a Japanese umbrella and an electric fan.

“Say! This is fine!” cried Jocko. “I wonder what keeps it from going up when no one is in it?” Then he noticed the clothesline rope holding it down, and he said, “Ah, I see!”

Now Jocko was very curious, and when the monkey chap saw a knot tied in the holdingdown rope he at once tried to loosen it. And with his cunning little fingers Jocko did loosen the knot.

And then——

Up shot the airship into the air, nearly knocking the monkey boy down, so suddenly did it leave the earth.

“Oh, my!” cried Jocko.

“Oh, now you have done it!” exclaimed Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as she came running out of the house, after having gotten Uncle Wiggily a towel to wipe the soap out of his eyes.

“What has happened?” asked the rabbit gentleman himself, as he came hopping out, with his red white and blue striped barber pole crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.

“I am very sorry,” spoke Jocko politely, “but your airship has run away.”

“Run away?” cried Uncle Wiggily.

“Yes, run away. I loosened the knot in the rope, and up it went—the airship went up, I mean—not the rope,” said Jocko politely.

“Yes, so I see,” remarked Uncle Wiggily, looking upward. And there his airship was floating high above the trees, and no one was in it, except the sofa cushions, to bring it down again, and they could not do it.

“I am very sorry,” said Jocko. “I will see if I can’t get it down for you.” So he climbed the tallest tree there was, but still the airship was far above his reach.

“You can never get it!” cried Nurse Jane sadly.

“Perhaps I can help you,” spoke an elephant gentleman coming along just then. “I used to be a cowboy in a Wild West show, and perhaps I can throw my rope lasso up high enough to get it around the airship and pull it down.”

So he threw his rope lasso with his trunk, but the airship was still too high for him to reach.

“You will have to get an eagle bird to fly up and bring it down,” said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.

“Ha! No! I have a better plan than that!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Run over to Sammie Littletail’s house and get his popgun,” said the rabbit gentleman to the monkey boy. “I will put some beans in the popgun, shoot them at the balloons, burst holes in them to let out the hot air, and down my airship will come of itself.”

And that’s exactly what Uncle Wiggily did. With Sammie’s popgun he shot the balloons full of holes, knowing he could easily mend them again, and when there was no hot air in them to hold them up, down came the airship, fluttering slowly to the earth.

“Thank goodness!” cried Nurse Jane. “You have your airship again, Uncle Wiggily. Don’t you ever do that again, Jocko Kinkytail.”

“I guess he won’t,” spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly, as he began to mend the burst balloons. And Jocko never did.

And if the rubber plant in our yard doesn’t stretch over the fence and pick a rose off the gooseberry bush, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the butterfly.

STORY XVI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERFLY

“Are you going out in your airship this morning?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he left the breakfast table one day.