"Indeed they are," said the mother tree. "You see we are not like you animals. We cannot walk to a spring or well to get a drink when we are thirsty. We have to stay, rooted in one place, and wait for the rain, or until some one waters us."
"Well, some one is going to water you right away!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice.
"I"ll bring you some water from the duck pond, which is near by."
Then, borrowing a pail from Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, Uncle Wiggily poured water all around the dry earth, in which grew the horse chestnut tree and the little pony trees.
"Oh! How fine that is!" cried the thirsty trees. "It is almost as nice as rain. You are very good, Uncle Wiggily," said the mother tree, "and if ever we can do you a favor we will."
"Thank you," spoke Uncle Wiggily, making a low bow with his tall silk hat. Then he went on to Grandpa Goosey"s where he visited with his epizootic friend and played checkers.
On his way home through the woods, Uncle Wiggily was unpleasantly surprised when, all of a sudden out from behind a stone jumped a bad bear. He wasn"t at all a good, nice bear like Beckie or Neddie Stubtail.
"Bur-r-r-r-r!" growled the bear at Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I"ll scratch you."
"Oh, please don"t," begged the bunny uncle.
"Yes, I shall!" grumbled the bear. "And I"ll hug you, too!"
"Oh, no! I"d rather you wouldn"t!" said the bunny uncle. For well he knew that a bear doesn"t hug for love. It"s more of a hard, rib-cracking squeeze than a hug. If ever a bear wants to hug you, just don"t you let him. Of course if daddy or mother wants to hug, why, that"s all right.
"Yes, I"m going to scratch you and hug you,"
went on the bad bear, "and after that--well, after that I guess I"ll take you off to my den."
"Oh, please don"t!" begged Uncle Wiggily, twinkling his nose and thinking that he might make the bear laugh. For if ever you can get a bear to laugh he won"t hurt you a bit. Just remember that. Tickle him, or do anything to get him to laugh. But this bear wouldn"t even smile. He just growled again and said:
"Well, here I come, Uncle Wiggily, to hug you!"
"Oh, no you don"t!" all of a sudden cried a voice in the air.
"Ha! Who says I don"t?" grumbled the bear, impolite like.
"I do," went on the voice. And the bear saw some trees waving their branches at him.
"Pooh! I"m not afraid of you!" growled the bear, and he made a rush for the bunny.
"I"m not afraid of trees."
"Not afraid of us, eh? Well, you"d better be!" said the mother tree. "I"m a strong horse chestnut and these are my strong little ponies.
Come on, children, we won"t let the bear get Uncle Wiggily." Then the strong horse chestnut tree and the pony trees reached down with their powerful branches and, catching hold of the bear, they tossed him up in the air, far away over in the woods, at the same time pelting him with green, p.r.i.c.kly horse chestnuts, and the bear came down ker-bunko in a bramble brier bush.
"Oh, wow!" cried the bear, as he felt his soft and tender nose being scratched. "I"ll be good!
I"ll be good!"
And he was, for a little while, anyhow. So this shows you how a horse chestnut tree saved the bunny gentleman, and if the postman doesn"t stick a stamp on our cat"s nose so it can"t eat mola.s.ses cake when it goes to the puppy dog"s party, I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the pine tree.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PINE TREE
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, put on his tall silk hat, polished his gla.s.ses with the tip of his tail, to make them shiny so he could see better through them, and then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch down off the mantel, he started out of his hollow stump bungalow one day.
"Better take an umbrella, hadn"t you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "It looks as though we might have an April shower."
"An umbrella? Yes, I think I will take one," spoke the bunny uncle, as he saw some dark clouds in the sky. "They look as though they might have rain in them."
"Are you going anywhere in particular?" asked the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail in a soft knot.
"No, not special," Uncle Wiggily answered. "May I have the pleasure of doing something for you?" he asked with a polite bow, like a little girl speaking a piece in school on Friday afternoon.
"Well," said Nurse Jane, "I have baked some apple dumplings with oranges inside, and I thought perhaps you might like to take one to Grandfather Goosey Gander to cheer him up."
"The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I"ll do it, Nurse Jane."
So with an apple dumpling carefully wrapped up in a napkin and put in a basket, Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods and over the fields to Grandpa Goosey"s house.
"I wonder if I shall have an adventure today?" thought the rabbit gentleman as he waved his ears to and fro like the pendulum of a clock.
"I think I would like one to give me an appet.i.te for supper. I must watch for something to happen."
He looked all around the woods, but all he could see were some trees.
"I can"t have any adventures with them," said the bunny uncle, "though the horse chestnut tree did help me the other day by tossing the bad bear over into the briar bush. But these trees are not like that."
Still Uncle Wiggily was to have an adventure with one of the trees very soon. Just you wait, now, and you shall hear about it.
Uncle Wiggily walked on a little farther and he heard a funny tapping noise in the woods.
"Tap! Tap! Tap! Tappity-tap-tap!" it sounded.
"My! Some one is knocking on a door trying to get in," thought the bunny. "I wonder who it can be?"
Just then he saw a big bird perched on the side of a pine tree, tapping with his bill.
"Tap! Tap! Tap!" went the bird.
"Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but you are making a mistake. No one lives in that tree."
"Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I know that no one lives here," said the bird. "But you see I am a woodp.e.c.k.e.r, and I am pecking holes in the tree to get some of the sweet juice, or sap. The sap is running in the trees now, for it is Spring. Later on I will tap holes in the bark to get at bugs and worms, when there is no more sap for me to eat."
And the woodp.e.c.k.e.r went on tapping, tapping, tapping.
"My! That is a funny way to get something to eat," said the bunny gentleman to himself. He watched the bird until it flew away, and then Uncle Wiggily was about to hop on to Grandpa Goosey"s house when, all of a sudden, before he could run away, out popped the bad old bear once more.
"Ah, ha! We meet again, I see," growled the bear. "I was not looking for you, Mr. Longears, but all the same I am glad to meet you, for I want to eat you."
"Well," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nose with his ear, surprised like. "I can"t exactly say I"m glad to see you, good Mr. Bear."