"Out of the eggs to be sure," answered Mrs. Wren. "And I do declare, the last of my family is hatched now. There is little Wiggily out of the sh.e.l.l at last. I think I"ll name him after you, as he never could keep still when he was being hatched. Now I must take out all the broken sh.e.l.ls so the birdies won"t cut themselves on them." And she began to throw them out with her bill, just as the mother hen does, and then one of the new little birdies called out:
"Cheep-cheep-chip-chip!"
"Yes, I know you"re hungry," answered their mamma, who understood their bird talk. "Well, I"ll fly away and get you something to eat just as soon as your papa comes home to stay in the house. You know Mr. Wren went away last night to see about getting a new position in a feather pillow factory," said Mrs. Wren to Uncle Wiggily, "and he doesn"t yet know about the birdies. I hope he"ll come back soon, as they are very hungry, and I don"t like to leave them alone to go shopping."
"Oh, I"ll stay and take care of them for you while you go to the store,"
said the old gentleman rabbit, kindly.
"That will do very well," said Mrs. Wren. So she put on her bonnet and shawl and took her market basket and off she flew to the store, while Uncle Wiggily stayed with the new birdies, and they snuggled down under his warm fur, and were as cozy as in their own mother"s feathers.
Well, Mrs. Wren was gone some time, as the store was crowded and she couldn"t get waited on right away, and Uncle Wiggily stayed with the birdies. And they got hungrier and hungrier, and they cried real hard.
Yes, indeed, as hard as some babies.
"Hum! I don"t know what to do," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I can"t feed them. I guess I"ll sing to them." So he sang this song:
"Hush, birdies, hush, Please don"t cry; Mamma"ll be back By and by.
"Nestle down close Under my fur, I"m not your mother, but I"m helping her."
But this didn"t seem to satisfy the birdies and they cried "cheep-cheep"
harder than ever.
"Oh, dear! I believe I must get them something to eat," said Uncle Wiggily. So he covered them all up warmly with the feathers that lined the nest, and then he hopped down and went limping around on his crutch to find them something to eat.
Pretty soon he came to a little brook, and as he looked down into it he saw something shining, all gold and red and green and blue and yellow.
"Why, I do declare, if here isn"t the end of the rainbow!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, as he saw all the pretty colors.
He rubbed his eyes with his paw, to make sure he wasn"t dreaming, but the colors were surely enough there, down under water.
"No wonder the giant couldn"t find the pot of gold, it was down in the water," spoke the rabbit. "But I"ll get it, and then my fortune will be made. Oh, how glad I am!"
Well, Uncle Wiggily reached his paw down and made a grab for the red and green and gold and yellow thing, but to his surprise, instead of lifting up a pot of gold, he lifted up a squirming, wiggling sunfish.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed the rabbit in surprise.
"I should say yes! Two Oh mys and another one!" gasped the fish. "Oh, please put me back in the water again. The air out on land is too strong for me. I can"t breathe. Please, Uncle Wiggily, put me back."
"I thought you were a pot of gold," said the rabbit, sadly. "I"m always getting fooled. But never mind. I"ll put you in the water."
"What are you doing here?" asked the fish, as he slid into the water again and sneezed three times.
"Just at present I am taking care of Mrs. Wren"s new little birdies," said the rabbit. "She has gone to the store for something for them to eat, but they are so hungry they can"t wait."
"Oh, that is easily fixed," said the sunfish. "Since you were so kind to me I"ll tell you what to do. Get them a few little worms, and some small flower seeds, and feed them. Then the birdies will go to sleep."
So Uncle Wiggily did this, and as soon as the birds had their hungry little mouths filled, sound to sleep they went. And in a little while Mrs.
Wren came back from the store with her basket filled, and Mr. Wren flew home to say that he had a nice position in a feather factory, and how he did admire his birdies! He hugged and kissed them like anything.
Then the two wrens both thanked Uncle Wiggily for taking care of their children, and the rabbit said good-by and hopped on again to seek his fortune. And if the trolley car conductor gives me a red, white and blue transfer, for the pin cushion to go to sleep on, I"ll tell you in the following story about Uncle Wiggily and the yellow bird.
STORY IV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE YELLOW BIRD
Once upon a time, when Johnnie Bushytail was going along the road to school, he met a fox--oh, just listen to me, would you! This story isn"t about the squirrel boy at all. It"s about Uncle Wiggily Longears to be sure, and the yellow bird, so I must begin all over again.
The day after the old gentleman rabbit had helped Mrs. Wren feed her little birdies he found himself traveling along a lonely road through a big forest of tall trees. Oh, it was a very lonesome place, and not even an automobile was to be seen, and there wasn"t the smell of gasoline, and no "honk-honks" to waken the baby from her sleep.
"Hum, I don"t believe I"ll find any fortune along here," thought Uncle Wiggily as he tramped on. "I haven"t met even so much as a red ant, or even a black one, or a gra.s.shopper. I wonder if I can be lost?"
So he looked all around to see if he might be lost in the woods. But you know how it is, sometimes you"re lost when you least expect it, and again you think you are lost, but you"re right near home all the while.
That"s the way it was with Uncle Wiggily, he didn"t know whether or not he was lost, so he thought he"d sit down on a flat stone and eat his lunch.
The reason he sat on a flat stone instead of a round one was because he had some hard boiled eggs for his lunch, and you know if you put an egg on a round stone it"s bound to roll off and crack right in the middle.
"And I don"t like cracked eggs," said the rabbit. So he laid the eggs he had on the flat stone, and put little sticks in front of them and behind them, so they couldn"t even roll off the flat stone if they wanted to.
Then he ate his lunch.
"I guess it doesn"t much matter if I am lost," said the traveling fortune-hunting rabbit a little later. "I"ll go on and perhaps I may meet with an adventure." So on he hopped, and pretty soon he came to a place where the leaves and the dirt were all torn up, just as if some boys had been playing a baseball game, or leap-frog, or something like that.
"My, I must look out that I don"t tumble down any holes here," thought Uncle Wiggily, "for maybe some bad men have been setting traps to catch us rabbits."
Well, he turned to one side, to get out of the way of some sharp thorns, and, my goodness! if there weren"t more sharp thorns on the ground on the other side of the path. "I guess I"ll have to keep straight ahead!"
thought our Uncle Wiggily. "I never saw so many thorns before in all my life. I"ll have to look out or I"ll be stuck."
So he kept straight on, and all of a sudden he felt himself going down into a big hole.
"Oh! Oh dear! Oh me! Oh my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I"ve fallen into a trap! That"s what those thorns were for--so I would have to walk toward the trap instead of going to one side."
But, very luckily for Uncle Wiggily, his crutch happened to catch across the hole, and so he didn"t go all the way down, but hung on. But his valise fell to the bottom. However, he managed to pull himself up on the ground, though his rheumatism hurt him, and soon he was safe once more.
"Oh, my valise, with all my clothes in it!" he cried, as he looked down into the hole, which had been covered over with loose leaves and dirt so he couldn"t see it before falling in. "I wonder how I can get my things back again?" he went on.
Then he looked up, and in a tree, not far from him, he saw something bright and yellow, shining like gold.
"Ah, ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "At last I have found the pot of gold, even if the rainbow isn"t here. That is yellow, and yellow is the color of gold. Now my fortune is made. I will get that gold and go back home."
So, not worrying any more about his valise down the trap-hole, Uncle Wiggily hopped over to the tree to get what he thought was a big bunch of yellow gold. But as he came closer, he saw that the gold was moving about and fluttering, though not going very far away.
"That is queer gold," thought the old gentleman rabbit. "I never saw moving gold before. I wonder if it is a good kind."
Then he went a little closer and he heard a voice crying.
"Why, that is crying gold, too," he said. "This is very strange."