The clock struck one, And down he come, Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock!""
"Oh, now I remember you," said Uncle Wiggily. "And so you are a clock-mouse."
"Yes, I ran up your clock, and then when the clock struck one, down I had to come. But I ran down so fast that I tripped over the pendulum. The clock reached down its hands and tried to catch me, but it had no eyes in its face to see me, so I slipped, anyhow, and I hurt my leg."
"Oh, I"m sorry to hear that," said Uncle Wiggily. "Perhaps I can fix it for you. Nurse Jane, bring me some salve for Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, the clock-mouse," he called.
The muskrat lady brought some salve, and, with a rag, Uncle Wiggily bound up the leg of the clock-mouse so it did not hurt so much.
"And I"ll lend you a piece of my old crutch, so you can hobble along on it," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Thank you," spoke Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, the clock-mouse. "You have been very kind to me, and some day, I hope, I may do you a favor. If I can I will."
"Thank you," Uncle Wiggily said. Then Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock limped away, but in a few days he was better, and he could run up more clocks, and run down when they struck one.
It was about a week after this that Uncle Wiggily went walking through the woods on his way to see Grandfather Goosey Gander. And just before he reached his friend"s house he met Mother Goose.
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily," she said, swinging her cobweb broom up and down, "I want to thank you for being so kind to Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, the clock-mouse."
"It was a pleasure to be kind to him," said Uncle Wiggily. "Is he all better now?"
"Yes, he is all well again," replied Mother Goose. "He is coming to run up and down your clock again soon."
"I"ll be glad to see him," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he went to call on Grandpa Goosey, and he told about Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, falling down from out the clock.
On his way back to his hollow-stump bungalow, Uncle Wiggily took a short cut through the woods. And, as he was pa.s.sing along, his paw slipped and he became all tangled up in a wild grape vine, which was like a lot of ropes, all twisted together into hard knots.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I"m caught!" The more he tried to untangle himself the tighter he was held fast, until it seemed he would never get out.
"Oh!" cried the rabbit gentleman. "This is terrible. Will no one come to get me out? Help! Help! Will some one please help me?"
"Yes, I will help you, Uncle Wiggily," answered a kind, little squeaking voice.
"Who are you?" asked the rabbit gentleman, moving a piece of the grape vine away from his nose, so he could speak plainly.
"I am Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, the clock-mouse," was the answer, "and with my sharp teeth I will gnaw the grape vine in many pieces so you will be free."
"That will be very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily, who was quite tired out with his struggles to get loose.
So Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, with his sharp teeth, gnawed the grape vine, and, in a little while, Uncle Wiggily was loose and all right again.
"Thank you," said the bunny uncle to the clock-mouse, as he hopped off, and Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock went with him, for his leg was all better now. "Thank you very much, nice little clock-mouse."
"You did me a favor," said Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, "and now I have done you one, so we are even." And that"s a good way to be in this world. So, if the ink bottle doesn"t turn pale when it sees the fountain pen jump in the goldfish bowl and swim I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the late scholar.
CHAPTER XXII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LATE SCHOLAR
"Heigh-ho!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, one morning, as he hopped from bed and went to the window of his hollow-stump bungalow to look out. "Heigh-ho! It will soon be Spring, I hope, for I am tired of Winter."
Then he went down-stairs, where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, had his breakfast ready on the table.
Uncle Wiggily ate some cabbage pancakes with carrot maple sugar sprinkled over them, and then as he wiped his whiskers on his red tongue, which he used for a napkin, and as he twinkled his pink nose to see if it was all right, Nurse Jane said:
"Yesterday, Uncle Wiggily, you told me you would like me to make some lettuce cakes today; did you not?"
"I did," answered Uncle Wiggily, sort of slow and solemn like. "But what is the matter, Nurse Jane? I hope you are not going to tell me that you cannot, or will not, make those lettuce cakes."
"Oh, I"ll make them, all right enough, Wiggy," the muskrat lady answered, "only I have no lettuce. You will have to go to the store for me."
"And right gladly will I go!" exclaimed the bunny uncle, speaking like some one in an old-fashioned story book. "I"ll get my automobile out and go at once."
Uncle Wiggily had not used his machine often that Winter, as there had been so much snow and ice. But now it was getting close to Spring and the weather was very nice. There was no snow in the woods and fields, though, of course, some might fall later.
"It will do my auto good to have me ride in it," said the bunny uncle. He blew some hot air in the bologna sausage tires, put some talc.u.m powder on the steering-wheel so it would not catch cold, and then, having tickled the whizzic.u.m-whazzic.u.m with a goose feather, away he started for the lettuce store.
It did not take him long to get there, and, having bought a nice head of the green stuff, the bunny uncle started back again for his hollow-stump bungalow.
"Nurse Jane will make some fine lettuce cakes, with clover ice cream cones on top," he said to himself, as he hurried along in his automobile.
He had not gone very far, and he was about halfway home, when from behind a bush he heard the sound of crying. Now, whenever Uncle Wiggily heard any one crying he knew some one was in trouble, and as he always tried to help those in trouble, he did it this time.
Stopping his automobile, he called:
"Who are you, and what is the matter? Perhaps I can help you."
Out from behind the bush came a boy, a nice sort of boy, except that he was crying.
"Oh, are you Simple Simon?" asked Uncle Wiggily, "and are you crying because you cannot catch a whale in your mother"s water pail?"
"No; I am not Simple Simon," was the answer of the boy.
"Well, you cannot be Jack Horner, because you have no pie with you, and you"re not Little Boy Blue, because I see you wear a red necktie," went on the bunny uncle. "Do you belong to Mother Goose at all?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Yes," answered the boy. "I do. You must have heard about me. I am Diller-a-Dollar, a ten o"clock scholar, why do you come so soon? I used to come at ten o"clock, but now I"ll come at noon. Don"t you know me?"
"Ha! Why, of course, I know you!" cried Uncle Wiggily, in his jolly voice, as he put some lollypop oil on the doodle-oodleum of his auto. "But, why are you crying?"
"Because I"m going to be late at school again," said the boy. "You see of late I have been late a good many mornings, but this morning I got up early, and was sure I would get there before noon."
"And so you will, if you hurry," Uncle Wiggily said, looking at his watch, that was a cousin to the clock, up which, and down which, ran Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock, the mouse. "It isn"t anywhere near noon yet,"
went on the rabbit gentleman. "You can almost get to school on time this morning."