"Oh, no, I"m not an owl," said d.i.c.kie. "But I"m in a great hurry, and perhaps I made a noise like an owl. Percival, you must come back home to the Bow Wow house right away."
"Why?" asked Percival, sticking up his two ears so that he could hear better.
"Because Peetie Bow Wow is very ill with the German measles, and he wants to see you do some of your funny circus tricks," spoke d.i.c.kie. "He thinks that will make him better."
"Ha! I"ve no doubt that it will!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If I were not traveling about, seeking my fortune, I"d go back with you, Percival. I love Peetie Bow Wow, and Jackie, too."
"Oh, I"ll go," said the gra.s.shopper. "I will play Peetie a funny fiddle tune, on my left hind leg, and that may make him laugh."
"And Nellie and I will sail through the air, and go off to find some pretty flowers for him," said d.i.c.kie.
So the sparrow boy, the gra.s.shopper and old Percival, the circus dog, started off together to see poor sick Peetie Bow Wow, leaving Uncle Wiggily there on the gra.s.s.
"Give my love to Peetie!" called the old gentleman rabbit after them, "and tell him that I"ll come and see him as soon as I find my fortune."
Uncle Wiggily felt a little bit sad and lonely when his friends were gone, but he ate another piece of cherry pie, taking care to get none of the juice, on his blue necktie, and then he was a little happier.
"Now to start off once more," he said. "I wonder what will happen next?
But I know one thing, I"m never going to do any jumping for any squatty old toads any more."
So Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, and when it came night he didn"t have any place to sleep. But as it happened he met a kind old water snake, who had a nice house in an old pile of wood, and there the rabbit stayed until morning, when the water snake got him a nice breakfast of pond lilies, with crinkly eel-gra.s.s sauce on.
Pretty soon it was nearly noon that day, and Uncle Wiggily was about to sit down on a nice green mossy bank in the woods--not a toy bank with money in it, you understand, but a dirt-bank, with moss on it like a carpet. That"s where he was going to sit.
"I think I"ll eat my dinner," said the old gentleman rabbit as he opened his valise, and just then he heard a voice in the woods singing. And this was the song:
"Oh dear! I"m lost, I know I am, I don"t know what to do.
I had a big red ribbon, and I had one colored blue.
But now I haven"t got a one Because a savage bear Took both of them, and tied a string Around my curly hair.
I wish I had a penny bright, To buy a trolley car.
I"d ride home then, because, you see, To walk it is too far."
"I guess that"s some one in trouble, all right," said Uncle Wiggily, as he cautiously peeped through the bushes. "Though, perhaps, it is a little wolf boy, or a fox." But when he looked, whom should he see but little Jennie Chipmunk, and she was crying as hard as she could cry, so she couldn"t sing any more.
"Why, Jennie, what is the matter?" kindly asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, I came out in the woods to gather acorns in a little basket for supper," she said, "and I guess I must have come too far. The first thing I knew a big bear jumped out of the bushes at me, and he took off both my nice, new hair ribbons and put on this old string."
And, sure enough, there was only just an old black shoestring on Jennie"s nice hair.
"Where is that bear?" asked Uncle Wiggily, quite savage like. "Just tell me where he is, and I"ll make him give you back those ribbons, and then I"ll show you the way home."
"Oh, the bear ran off after he scared me," said the little chipmunk girl.
"Please don"t look for him, Uncle Wiggily, or he might eat you all up."
"Pooh!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit. "I"m not afraid of a bear. I have traveled around a great deal of late, and I have had many adventures.
It takes more than a bear to scare me!"
"Oh, it does; does it?" suddenly cried a growly-scowly voice, and, would you believe me? right out from the bushes jumped that savage bear! And he had Jennie"s blue ribbon tied on his left ear, and the red one tied on his right ear, and he looked too queer for anything. "I can"t scare you; eh?"
he cried to the rabbit. "Well, I"m just going to eat you, and that chipmunk girl all up, and maybe that will scare you!"
So he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily, but do you s"pose the rabbit gentleman was afraid? Not a bit of it. He knew what he was going to do.
"Quick, Jennie!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Get in front of me. I"ll fix this bear all right." So Jennie got in front, and the rabbit turned his back on the bear, and, then Uncle Wiggily began scratching in the dirt with his sharp claws. My! how he did make the dirt fly. It was just like a regular rain-shower of sand and gravel.
And the dirt flew all over that bear; in his eyes and nose and mouth and ears, it went, and he sneezed, and he couldn"t see out of his eyes, and he fairly howled. And by that time Uncle Wiggily had dug a big hole in the ground with his feet, and he and Jennie hid there until the bear ran off to get some water to wash the dirt off his face, and then the rabbit and the chipmunk girl came out safely.
Then Uncle Wiggily gave Jennie some pennies to buy two new hair ribbons, and he showed her the way home with her basket of acorns, and he himself went on with his travels. And he had another adventure the next day. Now in case a cowboy doesn"t come along, and take my little p.u.s.s.y cat off to the wild west show I"ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the paper lantern.
STORY XIX
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LANTERN
After Uncle Wiggily had taken Jennie Chipmunk home, so that the bear couldn"t get her, as I told you about in the story before this one, the old gentleman rabbit walked on over the fields and through the woods, seeking his fortune. He looked everywhere for it; down in hollow stumps, behind big stones, and even in an old well, but you may be sure he didn"t jump down any more wells. No, I guess not!
"Ha! Here is a little brook!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, after a while, as he came to a small stream of water flowing over green, mossy stones, with a nice gurgling sound like an ice cream soda, "perhaps I may find my fortune here."
But he looked and he looked in the water without seeing anything but a goldfish.
"I might sell the goldfish for money," thought the fortune-hunting rabbit, "but it wouldn"t be kind to take him out of the brook, so I won"t. I"ll look a little farther, on the other side."
Then, taking up his crutch and his valise, Uncle Wiggily gave a big jump, and leaped safely across the water. Then, once more, he traveled on.
Pretty soon he came to a place where there was a tree, and on one branch of this tree there hung a funny round ball, that looked as if it was made of gray-colored paper. And there was a funny buzzing sound coming from it.
"Ha! Do you see that?" asked a big, fat hop-toad, as he suddenly bobbed up out of the gra.s.s. It was the same toad who had made the rabbit jump down in the leaf-covered well. "Do you see that?" asked the toad.
"Well, if you want to find your fortune, take a stick and hit that ball."
"Indeed I will not!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "I know you and your tricks! That is a hornets" nest, and if I struck it they would fly out, and sting me. Oh, no! You can"t catch me again. Now you go away, or I"ll tell a policeman dog to arrest you."
So the toad knew it was of no use to try to fool Uncle Wiggily again, and he hopped away, scratching his warty back on a sharp stone.
Well, the old gentleman rabbit traveled on and on, and when it came night he wondered where he was going to stay, for he hadn"t yet found his fortune and the weather looked as if it was going to rain. Then, all of a sudden, he heard voices calling like this:
"Come on, Nannie, you"ve got to blind your eyes now, and I"ll go hide."
"All right, Billie," was the answer. "And after that we"ll get Uncle b.u.t.ter to tell us a story."
"I guess I know who those children are," thought Uncle Wiggily, though he had not yet seen them. "That"s Billie and Nannie Goat talking," and surely enough it was, and, most unexpectedly the rabbit had come right up to the house where they lived, on the edge of the woods.
Well, you can just imagine how glad Billie and Nannie were to see Uncle Wiggily.