"Oh, yes, indeed!" exclaimed Nurse Jane. "I didn"t know Grandpa Goosey was to give a party, but, if he is, you certainly look well enough to go with your new coat. Of course, it might be better if it had some lace insertion around the b.u.t.ton holes, or a bit of ruching, with oyster sh.e.l.l tr.i.m.m.i.n.g sewed down the back, but--"
"Oh, no, indeed!" laughed the bunny uncle. "If it had those things on it would be a coat for a lady. I like mine plainer."
"Well, take care of yourself," called Nurse Jane after him as he hopped off over the fields and through the woods to the house where Grandfather Goosey Gander lived.
"Now, I must be very careful not to get my new coat dirty, or I won"t look nice at the party," the old rabbit gentleman was saying to himself as he hopped along. "I must be very careful indeed."
He went along as carefully as he could, but, just as he was going down a little hill, under the trees, he came to a place which was so slippery that, before he knew it, all of a sudden Uncle Wiggily fell down and slid to the bottom of the hill.
"My goodness!" he cried, as he stood up after his slide. "I did not know there was snow or ice on that hill."
And when he looked there was not, but it was covered with long, thin pine needles, which are almost as slippery as gla.s.s. It was on these that the rabbit gentleman had slipped down hill.
"Well, there is no great harm done," said Uncle Wiggily to himself, as he found no bones broken. "I had a little slide, that"s all. I must bring Sammie and Susie Littletail here some day, and let them slide on pine needle hill. Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrels, would also like it, and so would Nannie and Billie Wagtail, my two goat friends."
Uncle Wiggily was about to go on to the party when, as he looked at his new coat he saw that it was all torn. In sliding down the slippery pine needle hill the coat had caught on sticks and stones and it had many holes torn in it, and it was also ripped here and there.
"Oh, dear me!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, sorrow! Oh, unhappiness!
Now I"ll have to go back to my hollow stump bungalow and put on my old coat that isn"t torn. For I never can wear my new one to the party.
That would never do! But the trouble is, if I go back home I"ll be late! Oh, dear, what trouble I am in!"
Now was the time for some of Uncle Wiggily"s friends to help him in his trouble, as he had often helped them. But, as he looked through the woods, he could not see even a little mouse, or so much as a gra.s.shopper.
"The tailor bird would be just the one I"d like to see now," said the rabbit uncle. "She could mend my torn coat nicely." For tailor birds, yon know, can take a piece of gra.s.s, with their bill for a needle, and sew leaves together to make a nest, almost as well as your mother can mend a hole in your stocking.
But there was no tailor bird in the woods, and Uncle Wiggily did not know what to do.
"I certainly do not want to be late to Grandpa Goosey"s party," said the bunny uncle, "nor do I want to go to it in a torn coat. Oh, dear!"
Just then he heard down on the ground near him, a little voice saying:
"Perhaps we could mend your coat for you, Uncle Wiggily."
"You. Who are you, and how can you mend my torn coat?" the bunny gentleman wanted to know.
"We are some little black ants," was the answer, "and with the pine needles lying on the ground--some of the same needles on which you slipped--we can sew up your coat, with long gra.s.s for thread."
"Oh, that will be fine, if you can do it," spoke the bunny uncle. "Can you?"
"We"ll try," the ants said. Then, about fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty-two black ants took each a long, sharp pine needle, and threading it with gra.s.s, they began to sew up the rips and tears in Uncle Wiggily"s coat. And in places where they could not easily sew they stuck the cloth together with sticky gum from the pine tree. So, though the pine tree was to blame, in a way, for Uncle Wiggily"s fall, it also helped in the mending of his coat.
Soon the coat was almost as good as new and you could hardly tell where it was torn. And Uncle Wiggily, kindly thanking the ants, went on to Grandpa Goosey"s party and had a fine time and also some ice cream.
And if the egg beater doesn"t take all the raisins out of the rice pudding, so it looks like a cup of custard going to the moving pictures, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the sycamore tree.
STORY x.x.x
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SYCAMORE TREE
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I"m going to a party! I"m going to a party!" cried Nannie Wagtail, the little goat girl, as she pranced up in front of the hollow stump bungalow where Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived with Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper.
"Going to a party? Say, that"s just fine!" said the bunny gentleman.
"I wish I were going to one."
"Why, you can come, too!" cried Nannie. "Jillie Longtail, the little mouse girl, is giving the party, and I know she will be glad to have you."
"Well, perhaps, I may stop in for a little while," said Mr. Longears, with a smile that made his pink nose twinkle like the frosting on a sponge cake. "But when is the party going to take place, Nannie?"
"Right away--I"m going there now; but I just stopped at your bungalow to show you my new shoes that Uncle b.u.t.ter, the circus poster goat, bought for me. Aren"t they nice?" And she stuck out her feet.
"Indeed, they are!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the shiny black shoes which went on over Nannie"s hoofs. "So the party is to-day, is it?",
"Right now," said Nannie. "Come on, Uncle Wiggily. Walk along with me and go in! They"ll all be glad to see you!"
"Oh, but my dear child!" cried the bunny gentleman. "I haven"t shaved my whiskers, my ears need brushing, and I would have to do lots of things to make myself look nice and ready for a party!"
"Oh, dear!" bleated Nannie Wagtail. "I did so want you to come with me!"
"Well, I"ll walk as far as the Longtail mouse home,"" said the bunny uncle, "but I won"t go in.
"Oh, maybe you will when you get there!" And Nannie laughed, for she knew Uncle Wiggily always did whatever the animal children wanted him to do.
So the bunny uncle and Nannie started off through the woods together, Nannie looking down at her new shoes every now and then.
"I"m going to dance at the party, Uncle Wiggily!" she said.
"I should think you would, Nannie, with those nice new shoes," spoke Mr. Longears. "What dance are you going to do?"
"Oh, the four-step and the fish hornpipe, I guess," answered Nannie, and then she suddenly cried:
"Oh, dear!"
"What"s the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you lose one of your new shoes?"
"No, but I splashed some mud on it," the little goat girl said. "I stepped in a mud puddle."
"Never mind, I"ll wipe it off with a bit of soft green moss," answered Uncle Wiggily; and he did. So Nannie"s shoes were all clean again.
On and on went the rabbit gentleman and the little goat girl, and they talked of what games the animal children would play at the Longtail mouse party, and what good things they would eat, and all like that.
All of a sudden, as Nannie was jumping over another little puddle of water, she cried out again:
"Oh, dear!"
"What"s the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did some more mud splash on your new shoes, Nannie?"