Well, the first place he came to that day was an old hollow stump, and on the door was a card which read:
COME IN.
"Ha! Come in; eh?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess not much! You can"t fool me again. There is a bad bear, or a savage owl inside that stump, and they want to eat me. I"ll just stay outside."
He was just hurrying past, when the door of the stump-house opened, and an old grandfather fox stuck out his head. This fox was almost blind, and he had no teeth, and he had no claws, and his tail was just like a last year"s dusting brush, that the moths have eaten most up, and altogether that fox was so old and feeble that he couldn"t have hurt a mosquito. So Uncle Wiggily wasn"t a bit afraid of him.
"I say, is there anything good to eat out there?" asked the fox, looking over the tops of his spectacles at the rabbit. "Anything nice and juicy to eat?"
"Yes, I am good to eat," said Uncle Wiggily, "but you are not going to eat me. Good-by!"
"Hold on!" cried the old fox, "don"t be afraid. I can only eat soup, for I have no teeth to chew with, so unless you are soup you are of no use to me."
"Well, I"m not soup, but I know how to make some," replied the rabbit, for he felt sorry for the grandfather fox.
So what do you think our Uncle Wiggily did? Why, he went into the fox"s stump-house and made a big pot full of the finest kind of soup, and the rabbit and the fox ate it all up, and, because the fox had no teeth or claws, he couldn"t hurt his visitor.
"I wish you would stay with me forever," said the old fox, as he blinked his eyes at Uncle Wiggily. "I have a young and strong grandson coming home soon, and you might show him how to make soup."
"No, thank you," replied the rabbit. "I"m afraid that young and strong grandson of yours would want to eat me instead of the soup, I guess I"ll travel on." So the old gentleman rabbit took his crutch and valise and traveled on.
Well, pretty soon, it began to get dark, and Uncle Wiggily knew night was coming on. And he wondered where he could stay, for he didn"t see any haystacks to sleep under. He was thinking that he"d have to dig a burrow in the ground for himself, and he was looking for a soft place to begin, when, all at once, he heard a loud "Honk-Honk!" back of him in the road.
"Ha, an automobile is coming!" said Uncle Wiggily. "I must get out of the way!" So he hopped on ahead, going down the road quite fast, until he got to a place where there were p.r.i.c.kly briar bushes on both sides of the highway.
"My! I"ll have to keep in the middle of the road if I don"t want to get scratched," said the rabbit. And then the automobile horn behind him honked louder than ever.
"They are certainly coming along fast," thought Uncle Wiggily. "If I don"t look out I"ll be run over." So he hopped along quicker than before, until, all of a sudden, as he looked down the road, he saw a savage dog standing there.
"Well, now! Isn"t that just my bad luck!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "If I go on the dog will catch me, and if I stand here the auto will run on top of me.
I just guess I"ll run back and see if there is a hole where I can crawl through the bushes."
So he started to run back, but, no sooner had he done so, than the dog saw him, and came rushing at him with a loud, "Bow-wow-wow! Bow-wow-wow!"
"My, but he"s savage!" thought the rabbit. "I wonder if I can get away in time?"
And then the auto honked louder than before, and all of a sudden it came whizzing down the road, right toward the rabbit.
"Oh, dear; I"m going to be caught, sure!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and indeed it did look so, for there was the dog running from one direction, and the auto coming in the other, and p.r.i.c.kly briar bushes were on both sides of the road, and Uncle Wiggily couldn"t crawl through them without pulling all the fur off his back, and his ears, too.
"Honk-Honk!" went the auto.
"Bow-wow!" went the dog.
"Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he thought of a plan. "I"ll give a big run and a long jump and maybe I can jump over the auto, and then the auto will b.u.mp into the dog, and I will be safe!" he cried.
So he took a long run, and just as the auto was going to hit him, Uncle Wiggily gave a big jump, right up into the air. He didn"t jump quite quickly enough, however, for one of the big rubber tires ran over his toe, but he wasn"t much hurt. And what do you think he did? Why, he landed right in the auto, on the seat beside a little boy.
And that dog was so frightened of the automobile that he howled and yowled, and his teeth chattered, and he tucked his tail between his legs, and ran home.
"Oh, the bunny! The bunny!" cried the little boy, as he saw Uncle Wiggly.
"May we keep him, papa?"
"I guess so," said the boy"s papa. "Anyhow his foot is hurt, and we"ll take care of him until it gets well. My, but he is a good jumper, though!"
So the man stopped the auto, and picked up Uncle Wiggily"s crutch and valise, which the old gentleman rabbit had dropped when he jumped upon the seat beside the boy, and then the car went on. And Uncle Wiggily wasn"t a bit frightened at being in an auto, for he knew the boy and man would be kind to him.
"Perhaps I shall find my fortune now," the rabbit gentleman said. And the little boy patted him on the back, and stroked his long ears.
Now, in the story after this I"ll tell you what happened to Uncle Wiggily at the little boy"s house, and in case our door key doesn"t get locked out, and have to sleep in the park, you are going to hear about Uncle Wiggily in a boat.
STORY XIV
UNCLE WIGGILY IN A BOAT
"Poor rabbit!" exclaimed the little boy in the automobile, as he rubbed Uncle Wiggily"s ears. "I wonder if his foot is much hurt, papa?"
"I don"t know," answered the man, as he steered the machine down the road.
"I"ll have the doctor look at it."
"Oh, indeed, it isn"t hurt much," spoke up Uncle Wiggily. "The rubber tire was soft, you see. But my rheumatism is much worse on account of running so fast."
"What"s this? Well, of all things! This rabbit can talk!" cried the man in surprise.
"Of course he can, papa," said the boy. "Lots of rabbits can talk. Why, there"s Sammie and Susie Littletail; they can talk, and maybe this rabbit knows them."
"I"m their uncle," said the old gentleman rabbit, making a bow.
"Oh, then, you must be Uncle Wiggily Longears!" cried the little boy.
"Oh, I"ve always wanted to see you, and now I can!"
"Well, it is very strange to meet you this way," said the man. "Still, I am glad you are not hurt, Uncle Wiggily. And so you are out seeking your fortune," for the rabbit had told them about his travels. "Perhaps you would like to rest at our house for a few days. We can give you a nice room, with a bra.s.s bed, and a bath-tub to yourself, and you can have your meals in bed, if you can"t come down stairs."
"Oh, I am not used to that kind of a life," said the old gentleman rabbit.
"I would rather live out of doors. If you can get me some clean straw to lie on, and once in a while a carrot or a turnip, and a bit of lettuce and some cabbage leaves now and then, I"ll be all right. And as soon as my foot is well I"ll travel on."
"Oh, what good times we"ll have!" cried the little boy. "Our house is near a lake, and I have a motor boat. And I"ll give you a ride in it."
Well, Uncle Wiggily thought that would be nice, and he was rather glad, after all, that he had jumped into the auto. So pretty soon they came to the place where the boy lived. Oh, it was a fine, large house, with lots of grounds, lawns and gardens all around it. And there were several dogs on the place, but the little boy spoke to them all, telling them that the rabbit was his friend Uncle Wiggily, who must not be bitten or barked at on any account.
"Oh, we heard about him from Fido Flip-Flop," said big dog Rover. "We wouldn"t hurt Uncle Wiggily for two worlds, and part of another one, and a bag of peanuts."
So Uncle Wiggily was given a nice bed of straw in one of the empty dog-houses, and the boy got him some cabbage and lettuce, and the rabbit made himself a sandwich of them, with some bread and b.u.t.ter which he had in his satchel.
Then the rabbit and the dogs talked together, and the rabbit told of his travels, and what had happened to him so far.