The bear, scratching the bark with his sharp claws, stood with his back to Uncle Wiggily, and the rabbit gentleman thought he could scare the big creature away.
So Uncle Wiggily picked up a stone, and throwing it at the bear, hit him on the back, where the skin was so thick it hurt hardly at all.
And as soon as he had thrown the stone Uncle Wiggily in his loudest voice shouted:
"Bang! Bang! Bungity-bang-bung!"
"Oh, my goodness!" cried the bear, not turning around. "The hunter man with his gun must be after me. He has shot me once, but the bullet did not hurt. I had better run away before he shoots me again!"
And the bear ran away, never once looking around, for he thought the stone Mr. Longears threw was a bullet from a gun, you see, and he thought when Uncle Wiggily said "Bang!" that it was a gun going off.
So the bunny gentleman scared the bear away.
"Thank you, Uncle Wiggily," said the beech tree. "You saved my life by not letting the bear scratch off all my bark."
"I am glad I did," spoke the rabbit, making a polite bow with his tall silk hat, for Mr. Longears was polite, even to a tree.
"The bear would not stop scratching my bark when I asked him to," went on the beech tree, "so I am glad you came along, and scared him. You did me a great favor and I will do you one if I ever can."
"Thank you," spoke Uncle Wiggily, and then he hopped on to the store to get the loaf of bread and the pound of sugar for Nurse Jane.
It was on the way back from the store that an adventure happened to Uncle Wiggily. He came to the place where his friend the beech tree was standing up in the woods, and a balsam tree, next door to it, was putting some salve, or balsam, on the places where the bear had scratched off the bark, to make the cuts heal.
Then, all of a sudden, out from behind a bush jumped the same bad bear that had done the scratching.
"Ah, ha!" growled the bear, as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily, "you can"t fool me again, making believe a stone is a bullet, and that your "Bang!" is a gun! You can"t fool me! I know all about the trick you played on me. A little bird, sitting up in a tree, saw it and told me!"
"Well," said Uncle Wiggily slowly, "I"m sorry I had to fool you, but it was all for the best. I wanted to save the beech tree."
"Oh, I don"t care!" cried the bear, saucy like and impolitely. "I"m going to scratch as much as I like!"
"My goodness! You"re almost as bad as the ear-scratching cat!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I"d better run home to my hollow stump bungalow."
"No, you don"t!" cried the bear, and, reaching out his claws, he caught hold of Uncle Wiggily, who, with his umbrella, and the bread and sugar, was standing under the beech tree. "You can"t get away from me like that," and the bear held tightly to the bunny uncle.
"Oh, dear! What are you going to do to me?" asked the rabbit gentleman.
"First, I"ll bite you," said the bear. "No, I guess I"ll first scratch you. No, I won"t either. I"ll scrite you; that"s what I"ll do. I"ll scrite you!"
"What"s scrite?" asked Uncle Wiggily, curious like.
"It"s a scratch and a bite made into one," said the bear, "and now I"m going to do it."
"Oh, ho! No, you aren"t!" suddenly cried the beech tree, who had been thinking of a way to save Uncle Wiggily. "No, you don"t scrite my friend!" And with that the brave tree gave itself a shiver and shake, and shook down on the bear a lot of sharp, three-cornered beech nuts.
They fell on the bear"s soft and tender nose and the sharp edges hurt him so that he cried:
"Wow! Ouch! I guess I made a mistake! I must run away!"
And away he ran from the shower of sharp beech nuts which didn"t hurt Uncle Wiggily at all because he raised his umbrella and kept them off.
Then he thanked the tree for having saved him from the bear and went safely home. And if the cow bell doesn"t moo in its sleep, and wake up the milkman before it"s time to bring the mola.s.ses for breakfast, I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the bitter medicine.
STORY XXVII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BITTER MEDICINE
"How is Jackie this morning, Mrs. Bow Wow?" asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one day, as he stopped at the kennel where the dog lady lived with her two little boys, Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppies. "How is Jackie?"
"Jackie is not so well, I"m sorry to say," answered Mrs. Bow Wow, as she looked carefully along the back fence to see if there were any bad cats there who might meaouw, and try to scratch the puppies.
"Not so well? I am sorry to hear that," spoke the bunny uncle.
"What"s seems to be the matter?"
"Oh, you know Jackie and Peetie both had the measles," went on Mrs. Bow Wow. "They seemed to get over them nicely, at least Peetie did, but then Jackie caught the epizootic, and he has to stay in bed a week longer, and take bitter medicine."
"Bitter medicine, eh?" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I am sorry to hear that, for I don"t like bitter medicine myself."
"Neither does Jackie," continued Mrs. Bow Wow. "In fact, he really doesn"t know whether he likes this bitter medicine or not."
"Why, not?" asked the rabbit gentleman.
"Because we can"t get him to take a drop," said the puppy dog boy"s mother. "Not a drop will he take, though I have fixed it up for him with orange juice and sugar and even put it in a lollypop. But he won"t take it, and Dr. Possum says he won"t get well unless he takes the bitter medicine."
"Well, Dr. Possum ought to know," said Uncle Wiggily. "But why don"t you ask him a good way to give the medicine to Jackie?"
"That"s what I"m waiting out here for now," said Mrs. Bow Wow. "I want to catch Dr. Possum when he comes past, and ask him to come in and give Jackie the medicine. The poor boy really needs it to make him well."
"Of course he does," agreed Uncle Wiggily. "And while you are waiting for Dr. Possum I"ll see what I can do."
"What are you going to do?" asked Mrs. Bow Wow, as the bunny uncle started for the dog kennel.
"I"m going to try to make Jackie take his bitter medicine. You just stay out here a little while."
"Well, I hope you do it, but I"m afraid you won"t," spoke Mrs. Bow Wow with a sigh. "I"ve tried all the ways I know. I was just going, as you came along, to get a toy balloon, blow it up, and put the medicine inside. Then I was going to let Jackie burst it by sticking a pin in it. And I thought when the balloon exploded the medicine might be blown down his throat."
"Oh, well, I think I have a better way than that," said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh. He went in where Jackie, who had the measles-epizootic, was in bed. "Good morning, Jackie," said the bunny uncle. "How are you?"
"Not very well," answered Jackie, the puppy dog boy. "But I"m glad to see you. I"m not going to take the bitter medicine even for you, though, Uncle Wiggily."
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Just you wait until you"re asked!" cried Mr. Longears in his most jolly voice. "Now let me have a look at that bitter medicine which is making so much trouble. Where is it?"
"In that cup on the chair," and Jackie pointed to it near his bed.
"I see," said Uncle Wiggily, looking at it. "Now, Jackie, I"m a good friend of yours, and you wouldn"t mind just holding this cup of bitter medicine in your paw, would you, to please me?"
"Oh, I"ll do that for you, Uncle Wiggily, but I"ll not take it," Jackie said.