It was a day or so after this that the bunny uncle went to the store for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, who kept his hollow stump bungalow so nice and tidy.
"I want a loaf of bread, a yeast cake and three pounds of sugar," said Nurse Jane.
"It will give me great pleasure to get them for you," answered the rabbit gentleman politely. On his way home from the store with the sugar, bread and yeast cake, Uncle Wiggily thought he would hop past the place where he had lifted the stone off the head of the plant, to see how it was growing. And, as he stood there, looking at the flower, which was much taller than when the bunny uncle had last seen it, all of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes, and out jumped a bad old fox.
"Ah, ha!" barked the fox, like a dog. "You are just the one I want to see!"
"You want to see me?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I think you must be mistaken," he went on politely.
"Oh, no, not at all!" barked the fox. "You have there some sugar, some bread and a yeast cake; have you not?"
"I have," answered Uncle Wiggily.
"Well, then, you may give me the bread and sugar and after I eat them I will start in on you. I will take you off to my den, to my dear little foxes. Eight, Nine and Ten. They have numbers instead of names, you see."
"But I don"t want to give you Nurse Jane"s sugar and bread, and go with you to your den," said the rabbit gentleman. "I don"t want to! I don"t like it!"
"You can"t always do as you like," barked the fox. "Quick now--the sugar and bread!"
"What about the yeast cake?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as he held it out, all wrapped in shiny tinfoil, like a looking-gla.s.s. "What about the yeast cake?"
"Oh, throw it away!" growled the fox.
"No, don"t you do it!" whispered a voice in Uncle Wiggily"s ear, and there was the sunbeam he had met the other day. "Hold out the yeast cake and I will shine on it very brightly, and then I"ll slant, or bounce off from it, into the eyes of the fox," said the sunbeam. "And when I shine in his eyes I"ll tickle him, and he"ll sneeze, and you can run away."
So Uncle Wiggily held out the bright yeast cake. Quick as a flash the sunbeam glittered on it, and then reflected itself into the eyes of the fox.
"Ker-chool!" he sneezed. "Ker-chooaker-choo!" and tears came into the fox"s eyes, so he could not see Uncle Wiggily, who, after thanking the sunbeam, hurried safely back to his bungalow with the things for Nurse Jane.
So the fox got nothing at all but a sneeze, you see, and when he had cleared the tears out of his eyes Uncle Wiggily was gone. So the sunbeam did the bunny gentleman a favor after all, and if the coal man doesn"t put oranges in our cellar, in mistake for apples when he brings a barrel of wood, I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the puff ball.
STORY XXIV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PUFF BALL
"Are you going for a walk to-day, as you nearly always do, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman, as he got up from the breakfast table in the hollow stump bungalow one morning.
"Why, yes, Janie, I am going for a walk in the woods very soon,"
answered Uncle Wiggily. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"There is," said the muskrat lady. "Something for yourself, also."
"What is it?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know, sort of making his pink nose turn orange color by looking up at the sun and sneezing. "What is it that I can do for myself as well as for you, Janie?"
"Cream puffs," answered Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.
"Cream puffs?" cried the bunny uncle, hardly knowing whether his housekeeper was fooling or in earnest.
"Yes, I want some cream puffs for supper, and if you stop at the baker"s and get them you will be doing yourself a favor as well as me, for we will both eat them."
"Right gladly will I do it," Uncle Wiggily made answer. "Cream puffs I shall bring from the baker"s," and then, whistling a funny little tune, away he hopped to the woods.
It did not take him long to get to the place where the baker had his shop. And in a few minutes Uncle Wiggily was on his way back with some delicious cream puffs in a basket.
"I"ll take them home to Nurse Jane for supper," thought the bunny uncle, "and then I can keep on with my walk, looking for an adventure."
You know what cream puffs are, I dare say. They are little, round, puffy b.a.l.l.s made of something like piecrust, and they are hollow. The inside is filled with something like corn-starch pudding, only nicer.
Uncle Wiggily was going along with the cream puffs in his basket when, coming to a nice place in the woods, where the sun shone on a green, mossy log, the bunny uncle said:
"I will sit down here a minute and rest."
So he did, but he rested longer than he meant to, for, before he knew it, he fell asleep. And while he slept, along came a bad old weasel, who is as sly as a fox. And the weasel, smelling the cream puffs in the basket, slyly lifted the cover and took every one out, eating them one after the other.
"Now to play a trick on Uncle Wiggily," said the weasel in a whisper, for the bunny uncle was still sleeping. So the bad creature found a lot of puff b.a.l.l.s in the woods, and put them in the basket in place of the cream puffs.
Puff b.a.l.l.s grow on little plants. They are brown and round and hollow, and, so far, they are like cream puffs, except that inside they have a brown, fluffy powder that flies all over when you break the puff ball.
And, if you are not careful, it gets in your eyes and nose and makes you sneeze.
"I should like to see what Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane do when they open the basket, and find puff b.a.l.l.s instead of cream puffs," snickered the weasel as he went off, licking his chops, where the cornstarch pudding stuff was stuck on his whiskers. "It will be a great joke on them!"
But let us see what happens.
Uncle Wiggily awakened from his sleep in the woods, and started off toward his hollow stump bungalow.
"I declare!" he cried. "That sleep made me hungry. I shall be glad to eat some of the cream puffs I have in my basket."
"What"s that?" asked a sharp voice in the bushes. "What did you say you had in the basket?"
"Cream puffs," answered Uncle Wiggily, without thinking, and then, all of a sudden, out jumped the bad old skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail.
"Ha! Cream puffs!" cried the "gator, as I call him for short, though he was rather long. "Cream puffs! If there is one thing I like more than another it is cream puffs! It is lucky you brought them with you, or I would have nothing for dessert when I have you for supper."
"Are you--are you going to have me for supper?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of anxious like.
"I am!" cried the alligator, positively. "But I will eat the dessert first. Give me those cream puffs!" he cried and he made a grab for the bunny"s basket, and, reaching in, scooped out the puff b.a.l.l.s, thinking they were cream puffs. The "gator, without looking, took one bite and a chew and then----
"Oh, my! Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from the puff b.a.l.l.s went up his nose and into his eyes. "Oh, what funny cream puffs! Wow!" And, not stopping to so much as nibble at Uncle Wiggily, away ran the alligator to get a drink of lemonade.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from the puff b.a.l.l.s went up his nose and into his eyes.]
So you see, after all, the weasel"s trick saved Uncle Wiggily, who soon went back to the store for more cream puffs--real ones this time, and he got safely home with them.
And nothing else happened that day. But if the trolley car stops running down the street to play with the jitney bus, so the p.u.s.s.y cat can have a ride when it wants to go shopping in the three and four-cent store, I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the May flowers.