Chapter II: Part 2

"If I could have my dearest wish,
I'd have some cherries in a dish.
And then a pumpkin pie, or two;
Of course, I'd save a piece for you.

"Perhaps, if we are good and kind,
A dozen pumpkins we may find,
We'll bring them home and stew them up,
And then on pumpkin pie we'll sup."

Well, after he had sung that song, Uncle Wiggily felt better. The auto felt better also, I guess, for it ran along very fast, and, all of a sudden, they came to a place where there was a field of pumpkins. Oh, such lovely, large, golden yellow pumpkins as they were.

"Hurray!" cried Johnnie.

"Whoop-de-doodle-do!" cried Billie.

"Dear me hum suz dud!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "It couldn't be better. But I wonder if these pumpkins would mind if we took one?"

"Not in the least! Not in the least!" suddenly cried a voice near the fence, and looking over, Uncle Wiggily and the boys saw Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old gentleman duck, standing there on one leg. "This is my field of pumpkins," said Grandfather Goosey, "and you may take as many as you like." Then he put down his other leg, which he had been holding up under his feathers.

"Thank you very much," spoke Uncle Wiggily politely.

"And may we each have a pumpkin to make a Jack-o'-lantern?" asked Billie.

"To be sure," answered Grandfather Goosey, so Uncle Wiggily took a very large pumpkin for a pie, and the boy squirrels took smaller ones for their lanterns. Then Uncle Wiggily took a few more to be sure he would have plenty, but none was as large as the first one.

"I will send you some pumpkin pies when Mrs. Bushytail bakes them," promised the old gentleman rabbit as he got ready to travel on with the boys in the auto.

"I wish you would," said Grandfather Goosey, "as I am very fond of pumpkin pie with watercress salad on top."

On and on went the auto, and Billie and Johnnie were talking about how they would make their Jack-o'-lanterns and have fun, when all of a sudden, out from the bushes at the side of the road, jumped the big, bad savage wolf.

"Hold on there!" he cried to Uncle Wiggily. "Stop, I want to see you!"

"You want to bite me, I guess," said the old gentleman rabbit. "No, sir! I'm not going to stop."

"Then I'll just make you!" growled the wolf, and with that what did he do but bite a hole in one of the big rubber tires, letting out all the wind with a puff, so the auto couldn't go any more.

"Now see what you've done!" cried Johnnie. "Yes, and it was a nice, new auto, too," said Billie sorrowfully.

"Fiddlesticks!" cried the wolf. "Double fiddlesticks. Don't talk to me. I'm hungry. Get out of that auto, now, so I can bite you."

"Oh! what shall we do?" whispered Johnnie.

"Hush! Don't say a word. I'm going to play a trick on that wolf," said Uncle Wiggily. Then he spoke to the savage creature, saying: "If you are going to eat us up, I s'pose you will; but first would you mind taking one of these pumpkins down to the bottom of the hill and leaving it there for Mrs. Bushtail to make a pie of?"

"Oh, anything to oblige you, since I am going to eat you, anyhow," said the wolf. "Give me the pumpkin, but mind, don't try to run away, while I'm gone for I can catch you. I'll come back and eat you up in a minute."

"All right," said Uncle Wiggily, giving the wolf a little pumpkin, and pretending to cry, to show that he was afraid. But he was only making believe, you see. Well, the wolf began to run down to the foot of the hill.

"Now, quick, boys!" suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily. "We'll roll the biggest pumpkin down after him, and it will hit him and make him as flat as a pancake, and then he can't eat us! Lively, now!"

So, surely enough, they took the big pumpkin out of the auto and rolled it down after the wolf. He heard it coming and he tried to get out of the way, but he couldn't, because he was carrying another pumpkin, and he stumbled and fell down, and the big pumpkin rolled right over him, including his tail, and he was as flat as two pancakes, and part of another one, and he couldn't even eat a toothpick.

Then, Uncle Wiggily and the boys fixed the hole in the tire, pumped it full of wind, and hurried on, and they had plenty of pumpkin left for pies, and they were soon at the squirrel's house, safe and sound, so that's the end of the story.

But on the next page, if the milk bottle doesn't roll down off the stoop and tickle the doormat, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the pumpkin pie.

STORY VIII

UNCLE WIGGILY'S JACK-O'-LANTERN

"I really think I must be traveling on to-day," said Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, one bright morning when he had gone out to the Bushtail barn to see if there were any slivers sticking in the rubber tires of his automobile. "I have been here quite a while now, boys, and I want to pay a visit to some of my other friends," he added.

"Oh, please don't think of going!" begged Johnnie Bushtail, the boy squirrel.

"Please, can't you stay a little longer?" asked Billie, his brother. "Johnnie and I are going to make Jack-o'-lanterns to-night from the pumpkin you got us, and you may help if you like."

"Oh, that will be fine," said Uncle Wiggily. "I suppose I really must stay another night. But after that I shall have to be traveling along, for I have many more friends to visit, and only to-day I had a letter from Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, asking when I was coming to see him."

"Well, never mind about that. Let's get to work at making Jack-o'-lanterns now and not wait for to-night," suggested Johnnie. "We'll make three lanterns, one for Uncle Wiggily and one for each of us."

So they sat down on benches out in the back yard, where the pumpkin seeds wouldn't do any harm, and they began to make the lanterns. And this is how you do it. First you cut a little round hole in the top of the pumpkin--the part where the stem is, you know. And then you scoop out the soft inside where all the seeds are, and you can save the seeds to make more pumpkins grow next year, if you like.

Then, after you have the inside all scraped out clean, so that the shell is quite thin, you cut out holes for the two eyes and a nose and a mouth, and if you know how to do it you can cut make-believe teeth in the Jack-o'-lantern's mouth. If you can't do it yourselves, perhaps some of the big folks will help you.

So that's how the squirrel boys and Uncle Wiggily made their Jack-o'-lanterns, and when they were all finished they put a lighted candle inside and say! My goodness! It looked just like a real person grinning at you, only, of course, it wasn't.

"Won't we have fun to-night!" exclaimed Johnnie as he finished his lantern.

"We certainly will!" said Billie, dancing a little jig.

"What are you going to do with your lantern, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Johnnie.

"Oh, I don't know," answered the old gentleman rabbit. "I may take it with me on my travels."

Well, after the three lanterns were made, there was still plenty of time before it would be dark, so Uncle Wiggily and the boys made some more lanterns. And along came Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, and as they had no Jack-o'-lanterns of their own, Johnnie gave Lulu one and Billie gave Alice one, and Uncle Wiggily gave Jimmie one, and my! you should have seen how pleased those duck children were! It was worth going across the street just to look at their smiling faces.

Well, pretty soon, after a while, not so very long, it was supper time, and there was pumpkin pie and carrot sandwiches and lettuce salad, and things like that for Uncle Wiggily, and nut cake and nut candy and nut sandwiches for the squirrels.

Uncle Wiggily was folding up his napkin, and he was just getting out of his chair to go in the parlor, and read the paper with Mr. Bushytail, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock on the front door.

"My goodness! I wonder who that can be?" exclaimed Mrs. Bushytail.

"I'll go see," spoke her husband, and when he went to the door there was kind old Mrs. Hop Toad on the mat, wiping her feet.

"Oh, is Uncle Wiggily Longears here?" asked Mrs. Toad. "If he is, tell him to come back to the rabbit house at once, for Sammie Littletail is very sick, and they can't get him to sleep, and the nurse thinks if he heard one of Uncle Wiggily's stories he would shut his eyes and rest."

"I'll come right away," said Uncle Wiggily, for he had gone to the front door, also, and had heard what Mrs. Hop Toad had said. "Wait until I get on my hat and coat and I'll crank up my automobile and go see Sammie," said the rabbit gentleman.

"I won't wait," said Mrs. Toad. "I'll hop on ahead, and tell them you're coming. Anyhow it gives me the toodle-oodles to ride in an auto."

So she hopped on ahead, and Uncle Wiggily was soon ready to start off in his car. Just as he was going, Billie Bushytail cried out:

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, take a Jack-o'-lantern with you and maybe Sammie will like that."

So the old gentleman rabbit took one of the pumpkin lanterns up on the seat with him, and away he went. And then, all at once, as he was going through a dark place in the woods in his auto, the wind suddenly blew out all his lanterns--all the oil lamps on the auto I mean, and right away after that a policeman dog cried out:

"Hey, there, Mr. Longears, you can't go on in your auto without a light, you know. It's against the law."

"I know it is," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll light the lamps at once." But when he tried to do it he found there was no more oil in them.

"Oh, what shall I do?" he cried. "I'm in a hurry to get to Sammie Littletail, who is sick, but I can't go in the dark. Ah! I have it. The Jack-o'-lantern! I'll light the candle in that, and keep on going. Will that be all right, Mr. Policeman?"

"Sure it will," said the policeman dog, swinging his club, and wishing he was home in bed.

So Uncle Wiggily lighted the Jack-o'-lantern and it was real bright, and soon the old gentleman rabbit was speeding on again. And, all of a sudden out from the bushes jumped a burglar fox.

"Hold on there!" he cried to Uncle Wiggily. "I want all your money." And just then he saw the big pumpkin Jack-o'-lantern, with its staring eyes and big mouth and sharp teeth, looking at him from the seat of the auto, and the fox was so scared, thinking it was a giant going to catch him, that he ran off in the woods howling, and he didn't bother Uncle Wiggily a bit more that night.

Then the old gentleman rabbit drove his auto on toward Sammie's house, and he was soon there and he told Sammie a funny story and gave him the Jack-o'-lantern, and the little rabbit boy was soon asleep, and in the morning he was all better.

So that's what the Jack-o'-lantern did for Uncle Wiggily and Sammie, and now if you please you must go to bed, and on the page after this, in case the basket of peaches doesn't fall down the cellar stairs and break the furnace door all to pieces, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the lazy duck.

STORY IX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LAZY DUCK

The day after Uncle Wiggily had scared the bad burglar fox with the Jack-o'-lantern, the old rabbit gentleman and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the ducks, went for a little ride in the automobile.

For it was Saturday, you see, and there was no school. So they went along quite a distance over the hills and through the woods and fields, for Uncle Wiggily's auto was a sort of fairy machine and could go almost anywhere.

Pretty soon they came to a little house beside the road, and in the front yard was a nice pump, where you could get a drink of water.

"I am very thirsty," said Uncle Wiggily to Jimmie. "I wonder if we could get a drink here?"

"Oh, yes," said Lulu, as she looked to see if her hair ribbon was on straight; "a duck family lives here, and they will give you all the water you want."

Right after that, before Uncle Wiggily could get out of the auto to pump some water, there came waddling out of the duckhouse a duck boy, about as big as Jimmie.

"How do you do?" said Uncle Wiggily, politely to this duck boy. "May we get a drink of water here?"

"Oh--um--er--oo--I--guess--so," said the duck boy slowly, and he stretched out his wings and stretched out his legs and then he sat down on a bench in the front yard and nearly went to sleep.

"Why, I wonder what is the matter with him?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Why does he act so strangely, and speak so slow?"

"I can tell you!" exclaimed Lulu, and she got down out of the auto and picked up a stone. "That duck boy is lazy, that's what's the matter with him. He never even wants to play. Why, at school he hardly ever knows his lessons."

"Oh, you surprise me!" said the old gentleman rabbit. "A lazy duck boy! I never heard of such a thing. Pray what is his name?"

"It's Fizzy-Whizzy," said Jimmie, who also knew the boy.

"Why, what a strange name!" exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. "Why do they call him that?"

"Because he is so fond of fizzy-izzy soda water," said Alice. "Oh, let's go along, Uncle Wiggily."

"No," said the rabbit gentleman, slowly, "if this is a lazy duck boy he should be cured. Laziness is worse than the measles or whooping cough, I think. And as I am very thirsty I want a drink. Then I will think of some plan to cure this boy duck of being lazy."

So Uncle Wiggily went close up to the boy duck and called out loud, right in his ear, so as to waken him:

"Will you please get me a cup so I may get a drink of water?"

"Hey? What's--that--you--said?" asked the lazy boy duck, slowly, stretching out his wings.

Uncle Wiggily told him over again, but that lazy chap just stretched his legs this time and said:

"Oh--I--am--too--tired--to--get--you--a--cup. You--had--better--go--in--the--house--and--get--it--for--yourself," and then he was going to sleep again.

But, all of a sudden, his mother, who worked very hard at washing and ironing, came to the door and said:

"Oh, dear! If Fizzy-Wizzy hasn't gone to sleep again. Wake up at once, Fizzy, and get me some wood for the fire! Quick."

"Oh--ma--I am--too--tired," said Fizzy-Wizzy. "I--will--do--it--to-morrow--um--ah--er--boo--soo!" and he was asleep once more.

"Oh, I never saw such a lazy boy in all my life!" exclaimed the duck boy's mother, and she was very much ashamed of him. "I don't know what to do."

"Do you want me to make him better?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"Indeed I do, but I am afraid you can't," she said.

"Yes I can," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll come back here this evening and I'll cure him. First let me get a drink of water and then I'll think of a way to do it." So the duck lady herself brought out a cup so Uncle Wiggily and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie could get a drink from the pump, and all the while the lazy chap slept on.

"How are you going to cure him, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jimmie when they were riding along in the auto once more.

"I will show you," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And you children must help me, for to be lazy is a dreadful thing."

Well, that night, after dark, Uncle Wiggily took a lantern, and some matches and some rubber balls and some beans and something else done up in a package, and he put all these things in his auto. Then he and the Wibblewobble children got in and they went to the house of the lazy boy duck.

"Is he in?" asked Uncle Wiggily of the boy's mamma.

"Yes," she said in a whisper.

"Well, when I throw a pebble against the kitchen window tell him to come out and see who's here," went on the rabbit gentleman. Then he opened the package and in it were four false faces, one of a fox, one of a wolf, one of a bear and one was of an alligator. And Uncle Wiggily put on the alligator false face, gave the bear one to Jimmie, the fox one to Alice and the wolf one to Lulu.

Then he gave Jimmie a handful of beans and he gave Alice a rubber ball filled with water to squirt and Lulu the same. They knew what to do with them. Then Uncle Wiggily built a fire and made some stones quite warm, not warm enough to burn one, but just warm enough.

These stones he put in front of the lazy duck boy's house and then he threw a pebble against the window.

"Go and see who is there," said the duck boy's mamma to him.

"I--don't--want--to," the lazy chap was just saying, but he suddenly became very curious and thought he would just take a peep out. And no sooner had he opened the door and stepped on the warm stones than he began to run down the yard, for he was afraid if he stood still he would be burned.

And then, as he ran, up popped Uncle Wiggily from behind the bushes, looking like an alligator with the false face on.

"Oh! Oh!" cried the lazy boy and he ran faster than ever.

Then up jumped Jimmie, looking like a bear with the false face on, and up popped Lulu looking like a wolf and Alice looking like a fox.

"Oh! Oh!" cried the lazy boy, and he ran faster than ever before in his life.

Then Alice and Lulu squirted water at him from their rubber balls.

"Oh! It's raining! It's raining!" cried the boy duck, and he ran faster than before.

Then Jimmie threw the beans at him and they rattled all over.

"Oh! It's snowing and hailing!" cried the lazy boy, and he ran faster than ever. And then Uncle Wiggily threw some hickory nuts at him, and that lazy duck ran still faster than he had ever run in his life before and ran back in the house.

"Oh, mother!" he cried, "I've had a terrible time," and he spoke very fast. "I'll never be lazy again."

"I'm glad of it," she said. "I guess Uncle Wiggily cured you."

And so the old gentleman rabbit had, for the duck boy was always ready to work after that. Then Lulu and Alice and Jimmie went home in the auto and went to bed, and that's where you must go soon.

And if the pussy cat doesn't slip in the molasses, and fall down the cellar steps, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily helping Jimmie.

STORY X

UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS JIMMIE

Old Percival, who used to be a circus dog, wasn't feeling very well. Some bad boys had tied a tin can to his tail, and had thrown stones at him and done other mean things. But Uncle Wiggily had come along and driven the boys away, and Percival had come home in the automobile of the old gentleman rabbit, and was given a nice warm place behind the kitchen stove, where he could lie down.

"But I don't feel a bit good," Percival said to Uncle Wiggily. "I don't know whether it was the tin can the boys tied to my tail, or the leaves they stuck on me, or the bone they put in my mouth or the molasses they used, but I don't feel at all well."

"Perhaps it is the epizootic," said Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girl, as she untied her green hair ribbon and put on a pink one.

"That may be it," said Percival, and he blinked his two eyes slow and careful-like, so as not to get any dust in them.

"Perhaps if I made you some dog-biscuit-soup it would make you feel better," said Mrs. Wibblewobble. "I'll cook some right away."

So she did that and Percival ate it, but still that night he didn't feel much better, and the only trick he could do for the children was to stand up on his tail, and make believe he was a soldier. But he couldn't do that very long, and then he had to crawl back to his bed behind the stove.

"Poor Percival is getting old," said Mr. Wibblewobble. "He isn't the lively dog he used to be when he showed Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow how to do tricks in a circus parade."

"No, indeed," said Uncle Wiggily, and then the old gentleman rabbit played blind man's bluff with Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble until it was time to go to bed.

Well, the next day poor old Percival wasn't any better and when the duck children started for school their mamma told them to stop on their way home and tell Dr. Possum to come and give Percival some medicine.

"We will," said Jimmie, and just then they saw Uncle Wiggily putting some gasoline in his automobile.

"Oh, dear! You're not going away, are you, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Lulu Wibblewobble as she picked up a stone and threw it even better than the lazy boy duck could have done.

"No," said the old gentleman rabbit, "I am just going for a little ride to see Grandfather Goosey Gander, but I will be back here when you come from school. Don't forget about telling Dr. Possum to come and see Percival."

So they said they wouldn't forget, and then the three duck children hurried on to school so they wouldn't be late, and Uncle Wiggily tickled the flinkum-flankum of his auto and away he went whizzing over the fields and through the woods.

Well, as it happened that day, Dr. Possum wasn't home, so all that Jimmie and his sisters could do was to leave word for him to come and see Percival as soon as the doctor got back.

"I'll send him right away, just as soon as he comes in," said Dr. Possum's wife. "Oh, I am so sorry for poor Percival."

Well, when Lulu and Alice and Jimmie got home from school Dr. Possum hadn't yet come to the duck house to see the sick dog, who was much worse. And Uncle Wiggily hadn't come back from his automobile ride, either.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Wibblewobble. "I don't know what to do! The doctor ought to come, and Uncle Wiggily ought to be here. Perhaps Uncle Wiggily has met with an accident and Dr. Possum had to attend to him first."

"Oh, I hope not, mamma," said Alice.

"I know what I can do," said Jimmie, the boy duck. "I can hurry back to Dr. Possum's house to see if he has come back yet. If he has I'll tell him to please hurry here."

"I think that would be a good idea," spoke Mrs. Wibblewobble. "Go quickly, Jimmie, and here is a molasses cookie to eat on your way. Hurry back and bring the doctor with you if you can."

So Jimmie said he would, and off he started, eating the molasses cookie that his mamma had baked. He was thinking how good it was, and wishing it was larger when, all at once, he stepped on a sharp stone and hurt his foot so that he couldn't walk.

"Oh, dear!" cried Jimmie. "What shall I do? I can't go get Dr. Possum for Percival now."

Well, he was in great pain, and he was just wondering how he could send word to the doctor when, all at once, he saw a pony-horse in the field near by.

"The very thing!" exclaimed Jimmie. "That is Munchie Trot, the pony boy, and he'll let me ride to the doctor on his back."

So Jimmie took a stick to use as a cane, and he managed to get right close up beside the pony-horse, who was eating grass.

"I'll surprise him," thought Jimmie. "I'll fly up on his back before he sees me."

So with his strong wings he flew up on the pony's back and he cried out:

"Surprise on you, Munchie! Please gallop and trot with me to Dr. Possum's so he can make Percival well."

And then a funny thing happened. All at once Jimmie noticed that he was on the back of a strange pony. It wasn't Munchie Trot at all! Jimmie had made a mistake. Think of that! And the worst of it was that when he flew so suddenly up on the pony's back Jimmie frightened him, and the next instant the pony jumped over the fence and began running down the road as fast as he could.

"Oh! Stop! Stop!" cried Jimmie. "I'll fall off!" The duck boy had to take hold of the pony's mane in his yellow bill, and he had to hold on so he wouldn't fall off. Faster and faster ran the pony, trying to get away from what was on his back, for he hadn't seen Jimmie fly up, and he didn't know what it was. Maybe he thought it was a burglar fox, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow the pony went faster and faster, and though Jimmie cried as hard as he could for him to stop the pony wouldn't do it. Jimmie was almost falling off, and he thought surely he would be hurt, when, all of a sudden, down the road, came Uncle Wiggily in his automobile. He saw what was the matter.

"Hold on, Jimmie!" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "Hold on, and I'll be up to you in a minute. Then you can fly into my auto and be safe."

Well, the pony was going fast, but the auto went faster, and it was soon up beside the little galloping horsie.

"Now jump, Jimmie!" called Uncle Wiggily, and the boy duck did so, landing safely in the auto, and he wasn't hurt a bit.

Then the pony galloped on until he looked back and saw it had only been a duck on his back and then he was ashamed for having run away, and he stopped and said he was sorry, so Jimmie forgave him.

"Quick, we must go for Dr. Possum for Old Dog Percival," said Jimmie, and he told Uncle Wiggily how the doctor hadn't yet come. Then Uncle Wiggily told how he accidentally got a hole in one of his big rubber tires or he would have been home sooner.

"But it's a good thing I happened to come along to help you," he said to Jimmie, and Jimmie thought so too. Then they went for Dr. Possum, who had just come home, and they took him to Percival in the auto, and Dr. Possum soon made Percival all well, and I'm glad of it. Then the doctor cured Jimmie's sore foot, and everybody was happy, and I hope you are.

And next, if the dried leaves don't blow in my window and scare the wallpaper so that it falls off, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily helping Alice.

STORY XI

UNCLE WIGGILY HELPS ALICE.

One day the postman bird flew down out of the sky and stopped in front of the Wibblewobble duck house. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, was out in front, cleaning some mud off his auto, for he had run it very fast into a puddle of water the day he saved Jimmie off the pony's back.

"Does anybody named Alice Wibblewobble live here?" asked the postman bird as he looked in his bag of letters.

"Yes, Alice lives here," said Uncle Wiggily.

"And does Lulu Wibblewobble?"

"Yes, of course."

"And Jimmie, too?"

"Certainly," said the old gentleman rabbit.

"Then this is the right house," said the postman bird as he blew his whistle, like a canary, "and here is a letter for each of them."

So he handed Uncle Wiggily three letters and then he flew up into the air again, as fast as he could go, to deliver the rest of the mail.

"Hum! I wonder who can be writing to Lulu and Alice and Jimmie?" said Uncle Wiggily, as he looked at the letters. "Well, I'll take them in the house. They look to me like party invitations; and I wonder why I didn't get one? But I suppose the young folks don't want an old rheumatic uncle around any more. Ah, well, I'm getting old--getting old," and he went slowly into the house, feeling a bit sad.

"Here are some letters for you, children," he called to Lulu and Alice and Jimmie. "The bird postman just brought them."

"Oh, fine!" cried the children, and they opened them all at once with their strong yellow bills.

"Goodie!" cried Lulu as she read hers. "Jennie Chipmunk is going to have a party, and I'm invited."

"So am I," cried Alice.

"And I," added Jimmie.

"I thought they were party invitations," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of sad and thoughtful-like. "When is it?"

"To-night," said Lulu.

"Then we must hurry and get ready," said Alice. "I must iron out some of my hair ribbons so they will be nice and fresh."

"Oh, that's just like you girls," cried Jimmie. "You have to primp and fuss. I can be ready in no time, just by washing my face."

"Oh!" cried Lulu and Alice together. "Make him put on a clean collar, anyhow, mamma."

"Yes, I'll do that," agreed Jimmie.

Well, pretty soon they were all getting ready to go to the party, and Uncle Wiggily went back to finish cleaning his auto and he was wishing he could go. But you just wait and see what happens.

Pretty soon it became night and then it was time for the party. Lulu and Jimmie were all ready, but it took Alice such a long time to get her hair fixed the way she wanted it, and to get just the kind of hair ribbon that suited her, that she wasn't ready. You see, she had so many kinds of hair ribbons and she kept them all in a box, and really she didn't know just which one to take. First she picked out a red one, and she didn't like that, and then she picked out a blue one, and she didn't like that, and then she picked up a pink one, and then a green, and then a brown, and finally a skilligimink colored one, but none suited her.

"Hurry, Alice," called Lulu, "or you'll be late."

"Oh, you can go on ahead and I'll catch up to you and Jimmie," said Alice, trying another hair ribbon.

"All right," they answered, and they started off. Mr. and Mrs. Wibblewobble had gone across the street to pay a little visit to Mr. and Mrs. Duckling, and so Uncle Wiggily and Alice were all alone in the house.

"You had better hurry, Alice," said the old gentleman rabbit as he was reading the evening paper.

"Oh, I don't know what to do!" she cried. "I can't decide which hair ribbon to wear."

"Wear them all," called Uncle Wiggily with a laugh, but, of course, Alice couldn't do that, and she was in despair, which means that she didn't know what to do.

She laid all the ribbons back in the box, and she was just going to shut her eyes, and pick out the first one she could reach, and wear that whether she liked it or not, for she didn't want to be late to the party. And then, all of a sudden, in through the open window of her room the old skillery-scalery alligator put his long nose and he cried:

"Hair ribbons! I must have hair ribbons! Give me hair ribbons!"

And then what do you think he did? Why, he grabbed up the whole box full of Alice's lovely hair ribbons, and before she could say "scootum-scattum," if she had wanted to, that skillery-scalery alligator ran away with them in his mouth, taking his double-jointed tail with him.

"Oh!" cried Alice. "Oh! Oh!" and she almost lost her breath, she was so surprised.

"What is it?" cried Uncle Wiggily, running up to her room.

"The alligator! He has taken my hair ribbons. Quick, run after him, dear Uncle Wiggily!"

"I will!" exclaimed the brave old gentleman rabbit and out of the house he hurried, but the 'gator with the double-jointed tail had completely gone, and the rabbit gentleman couldn't catch him.

"Oh, what ever shall I do?" cried Alice, when Uncle Wiggily came back. "I have no hair ribbon, and I can't go to the party!"

Well, Uncle Wiggily thought for a moment. He didn't tell Alice that she should have hurried more and worn a pink ribbon, and then the accident wouldn't have happened. No, he didn't say anything like that; but he said:

"I can help you, Alice. Down in the yard is some long grass, green, with white stripes in it. They call it ribbon grass. I will get some for a hair ribbon for you."

"Oh, thank you, so much!" said Alice. So Uncle Wiggily quickly went down, pulled some of the ribbon grass and helped Alice tie it in her feathers. And she looked too cute for anything, really she did.

"Now, quick, run and catch up to Jimmie and Lulu, and go to the party and have a good time," said Uncle Wiggily, and Alice did. And what do you think? A little while after that up to the duck-house drove Sammie Littletail in a pony cart.

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Sammie, "Jennie Chipmunk was so flustrated about her party that she forgot to send you an invitation. But she wants you very much, so I've come to take you to it. Come along with me!"

Then Uncle Wiggily was very glad, for he liked parties as much as you do, and he jumped into the cart with Sammie and they went to the party and had a lovely time. And the next day Uncle Wiggily went out in his auto, and he made the alligator give back all of Alice's hair ribbons, and none of them was lost or soiled the least bit, I'm glad to say.

Now, no more at present, if you please, but if the picture book doesn't read about the sandman and go to sleep on the front porch, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the doll doctor.

STORY XII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOLL DOCTOR

"Now, I wonder where I will go to-day?" said Uncle Wiggily, the old gentleman rabbit to himself, as he went along, in his automobile, turning around the corner by an old black stump-house, where lived a nice owl school teacher lady. "I wonder where I had better go? I have it! I'll call on Grandfather Goosey Gander and play a game of Scotch checkers!" and off he went.

It was generally that way with Uncle Wiggily. He would start off pretending he had no place in particular to go, but he would generally end up at Grandpa Goosey's house.

There the old rabbit gentleman and the old duck gentleman would sit and play Scotch checkers and eat molasses cookies with cabbage seeds on top, and they would talk of the days when they were young, and could play ball and go skating, and do all of those things.

But this time Uncle Wiggily never got to Grandfather Goosey's house. As he was going along in the woods, all of a sudden he came to a little house that stood under a Christmas tree, and on this house was a sign reading:

DR. MONKEY DOODLE. SICK DOLLS MADE WELL.

"Ha! That is rather strange!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "I never knew there was a doll doctor here. He must have moved in only lately. I must look into this!"

So the rabbit gentleman went up to the little house, and, as he came nearer he heard some one inside exclaiming:

"Oh, I'll never get through to-day, I know I won't! Oh, the trouble I'm in! Oh, if I only had some one to help me!"

"My! What is that!" cried Uncle Wiggily, stopping short. "Perhaps I am making a mistake. That may be a trap! No, it doesn't look like a trap," he went on, as he peered all about the little house and saw nothing dangerous.

Then the voice cried again:

"Oh, I am in such trouble! Will no one help me?"

Now Uncle Wiggily was always on the lookout to help his animal friends, but he did not know who this one could be.

"Still," said the rabbit gentleman to himself, "he is in trouble. Maybe a mosquito has bitten him. I'm going to see."

So Uncle Wiggily marched bravely up to the little house under the Christmas tree, and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" cried a voice. "But if you're a little animal girl, with a sick doll, or one that needs mending, you might as well go away and come back again. I'm head-over heels in work, and I'll never get through. In fact I can't work at all. Oh, such trouble as I am in!"

"Well, maybe I can help you," said Uncle Wiggily. "At any rate I have no doll that needs mending."

So into the little house he went, and what a queer sight he saw! There was Dr. Monkey Doodle, sitting on the floor of his shop, and scattered all about him were dolls--dolls--dolls!

All sorts of dolls--but not a good, whole, well doll in the lot. Some dolls had lost their wigs, some had swallowed their eyes, others had lost a leg, or both arms, or a foot.

One poor doll had lost all her sawdust, and she was as flat as a pancake. Another had dropped one of her shoe button eyes, and a new eye needed to be sewed in. One doll had stiff joints, which needed oiling, while another, who used to talk in a little phonograph voice, had caught such a cold that she could not speak or even whisper.

"My, what sort of a place is this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise.

"It is the doll hospital," said Dr. Monkey Doodle. "Think of it! All these dolls to fix before night, and I can't touch a one of them!"

"Why must all the dolls be fixed to-night?" the rabbit gentleman wanted to know.

"Because they are going to a party," explained Dr. Monkey Doodle. "Susie Littletail, the rabbit is giving a party for all the little animal girls, and every one is going to bring her doll. But all the dolls were ill, or else were broken, and the animal children brought them all to me at once, so that I am fairly overwhelmed with work, if you will kindly permit me to say so," remarked the monkey doctor.

"Of course, I'll let you say so," said Uncle Wiggily. "But, if you will kindly pardon me, why don't you get up and work, instead of sitting in the middle of the floor, feeling sorry for yourself?"

"True! Why do I not?" asked the monkey doctor. "Well, to be perfectly plain, I am stuck here so fast that I can't move. One of the dolls, I think it was Cora Ann Multiplicationtable, upset the pot of glue on the floor. I came in hurriedly, and, not seeing the puddle of glue, I slipped in it. I fell down, I sat right in the glue, and now I am stuck so fast that I can't get up.

"So you see that's why I can't work on the broken dolls. I can't move! And oh, what a time there'll be when all those animal girls come for their dolls and find they're not done. Oh, what a time I'll have!"

And the monkey doctor tried to pull himself up from the glue on the floor, but he could not--he was stuck fast.

"Oh, dear!" he cried.

"Now don't worry!" spoke Uncle Wiggily kindly. "I think I can help you."

"Oh, can you!" cried Dr. Monkey Doodle. "And will you?"

"I certainly will," said Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears in a bowknot so they would not get tangled in the glue.

"But how can you help me?" asked the monkey doctor.

"In the first place," went on the rabbit gentleman. "I will pour some warm water all around you on the glue. That will soften it, and by-and-by you can get up. And while we are waiting for that you shall tell me how to cure the sick dolls and how to mend the broken ones and I'll do the best I can."

"Fine!" cried Dr. Monkey Doodle, feeling happier now.

So Uncle Wiggily poured some warm water on the glue that held the poor monkey fast, taking care not to have the water too hot. Then Uncle Wiggily said:

"Now, we'll begin on the sick dolls. Who's first?"

"Take Sallie Jane Ticklefeather," said the monkey. "She needs some mucilage pills to keep her hair from sticking up so straight. She belongs to a little girl named Rosalind."

So Uncle Wiggily gave Sallie Jane Ticklefeather some mucilage pills. Then he gave another doll some sawdust tea and a third one some shoe-button pudding--this was the doll who only had one eye--and soon she was all cured and had two eyes.

And then such a busy time as Uncle Wiggily had! He hopped about that little hospital, sewing arms and legs and feet on the dolls that had lost theirs. He oiled up all the stiff joints with olive oil, and one doll, whose eyes had fallen back in her head, Uncle Wiggily fixed as nicely as you please. Only by mistake he got in one brown eye and one blue one, but that didn't matter much. In fact, it made the doll all the more stylish.

"Oh, but there are a lot more dolls to fix!" cried the monkey doctor.

"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily. "You will soon be loose from the glue, and you can help me!"

"Oh, I wish I were loose now!" cried the monkey.

He gave himself a tremendous tug and a pull, Uncle Wiggily helping him, and up he came. Then how he flew about that hospital, fixing the dolls ready for the party.

"Hark!" suddenly called Uncle Wiggily.

"It's the girl animals coming for their dolls," said the monkey. "Oh, work fast! Work fast!"

Outside the doll hospital Susie Littletail, the rabbit girl, and Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble, the duck girls, and all their friends were calling:

"Are our dolls mended? Are they ready for us?"

"Not yet, but soon," answered Uncle Wiggily, and then he and the monkey worked so fast! Dolls that had lost their heads had new ones put on. The doll that had spilled all her sawdust was filled up again, plump and fat. One boy soldier doll, who had lost his gun was given a new one, and a sword also. And the phonograph doll was fixed so that she could sing as well as talk.

"But it is almost time for the party!" cried Susie Littletail.

"Just a minute!" called Uncle Wiggily.

"There is one more doll to fix." Then he quickly painted some red cheeks on a poor little pale doll, who had had the measles, and in a moment she was as bright and rosy again as a red apple. Then all the dolls were fixed, and the girl animals took them to a party and had a fine time.

"Hurray for Uncle Wiggily!" cried Susie Littletail, and all the others said the same thing.

"He certainly was kind to me," spoke Dr. Monkey Doodle, as he cleaned the glue up off the floor. And that's all there is to this story, but in the next one, if the goldfish doesn't bite a hole in his globe and let all the molasses run over the tablecloth, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the flowers.

STORY XIII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FLOWERS

One Saturday, when there was no school, Charley Chick was playing soldier in the chicken coop, and beating the drum that Uncle Wiggily had given him, for Christmas.

And Arabella, who was Charley's sister, was playing with her talking doll. The little chicken girl was teaching the doll to recite that piece about "Once a trap was baited, with a piece of cheese." But the doll couldn't seem to get the verses right. She would say it something like this:

"Once a trap was baited,
With a twinkling star.
'Twas Christmas eve and Santa Claus
Was coming from afar.

"A little drop of water,
Was in Jack Horner's pie
When Mary lost her little lamb
Old Mother Goose did cry."

"Oh, you'll never get that right!" exclaimed Arabella. "Uncle Wiggily, can't you make my talking doll learn to speak pieces right? She gets them all mixed up."

"I'll try," said the old gentleman rabbit, and he was just telling the doll how to recite a poem about little monkey-jack upon a stick of candy, and every time he took a bite it tasted fine and dandy. Well, the doll had learned one verse, when, all at once, there came a knock on the door, and there stood a telegraph messenger boy, with a telegram for Uncle Wiggily.

"Oh, something has happened!" exclaimed Mrs. Chick. "I am so nervous whenever telegrams come."

"Wait until I read it," said the old gentleman rabbit, and when he had read it he said: "It is from Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat. She has the epizootic very badly, from having eaten some bill-board pictures of a snowstorm, which made her catch cold, and she wants to know if I can't come over to see her, and tell Dr. Possum to bring her some medicine. Of course I will. I'll start off at once."

So Uncle Wiggily started off, in his automobile, and on his way to see the old lady goat he stopped at the doctor's house, and Dr. Possum promised to come as soon as he could, and cure the old lady goat.

"Then I'll go on ahead," spoke Uncle Wiggily, "and tell her you are coming." So he hurried on, with his long ears flapping to and fro, and he hadn't gone very far before he came to a shop where a man had flowers to sell--roses and violets and pinks and all lovely blossoms like that.

"The very thing!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he saw the pretty posies. "Sick persons like flowers, and I'll take some to Aunt Lettie. They may cheer her up." So he bought a large and kept on toward the old lady goat's house.

Well, he hadn't gone very far before, all at once, as he was going around the corner by the prickly briar bush, that had berries on it in the summer time, all at once, I say, out jumped a big black bear.

At first Uncle Wiggily thought it was a good bear, and he stopped the auto to shake paws with him. But, all at once, he saw that it was a bad bear, whom he had never seen before.

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, surprised-like. "I--I guess I have made a mistake. I don't know you. I beg your pardon."

"You don't need to do that," growled the bear. "You'll soon know me well enough. You and I are going to be very well acquainted soon. You come with me," and with that he grabbed hold of the old gentleman rabbit and marched off with him, pulling him right out of the auto.

"Where are you taking me?" asked Uncle Wiggily, trying to be brave, and not shiver or shake.

"To my den," answered the bear in a grillery-growlery voice. "I haven't had my Christmas or New Year's dinner yet, and here it is the middle of January. Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r! Wow!"

"Oh, what a savage bear," exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "What makes you so cross?"

"Just look at my feet and you'll see why," answered the bear, and Uncle Wiggily looked, and as true as I'm telling you, there were a whole lot of walnut shells fast on the bear's feet. "That's enough to make any one cross," said the bear. "I stepped in these shells that some one threw out of their window after Christmas, and they stuck on so tight that I can't get them off. Talk about corns! These are worse than any corns. I have to walk on my tiptoes all the while, and I'm so cross that I could eat a hot cross bun and never know it. Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof!"

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Then I guess it's all up with me," and he felt quite sad-like.

"You may well say that!" growled the bear. "Come along!" and he almost pulled Uncle Wiggily head over paws. "What have you in that paper?" asked the bear, as he saw the bag of flowers in Uncle Wiggily's paw.

"Some blossoms for poor sick Aunt Lettie!" answered the rabbit gentleman. "Poor, sick Aunt Lettie----"

"Bur-r-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof! Bah! Don't talk to me about sick goats!" growled the bear. "I'm sicker than any goat of these walnut shells on my feet. Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! Woof!"

And then Uncle Wiggily thought of something. Gently opening the paper he took out one nice, big, sweet-smelling rose and handed it to the bear, saying nothing.

"Bur-r-r-r-r! Wow! What's this?" growled the bear, and before he knew what he was doing he had taken the rose in his big paws. And then, before he knew, the next thing, he was smelling of it.

And, as he smelled the sweet perfume, he seemed to think he was in the summer fields, all covered with flowers, and as he looked at the rose it seemed to remind him of the time when he was a little bear, and wasn't bad, and didn't say such things as "Bur-r-r-r-r!" "Wow!" And then once more he smelled of the perfume in the flower, and he seemed to forget the pain of the walnut shells on his feet.

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" exclaimed the bear, and tears came into his blinkery-inkery eyes, and rolled down his black nose. "I'm sorry I was bad to you. This flower is so lovely that it makes me want to be good. Run along, now, before I change my mind and get bad again."

"First let me help you take those walnut shells off your paws," said the rabbit gentleman, and he did so, prying them off with a stick, and then the bear felt ever so much better and he hurried to his den, still smelling the beautiful rose. So you see flowers are sometimes good, even for bears.

Then Uncle Wiggily hurried on to Aunt Lettie's house with the rest of the bouquet, and when she saw it she was quite some better, and when Dr. Possum gave her some medicine she was all better, and she thought Uncle Wiggily was very brave to do as he had done to the bear.

And on the next page, in case the eggbeater doesn't hit the rolling pin and make the potato masher fall down in the ice cream cone, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Susie's doll.

STORY XIV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND SUSIE'S DOLL

"Well, I see you are going out for another ride in your auto," remarked Mrs. Bow Wow, the puppy dog lady, to Uncle Wiggily, one morning, after Peetie and Jackie had gone to school. "Where are you bound for now?"

"Oh, no place in particular," he said. "I just thought I would take a ride for my health."

You see the rabbit gentleman had come to pay the dog family a visit.

"I should think you'd stay in when it snows," went on the doggie lady. "You seem always to be out in a snowstorm," for it was snowing quite hard just then.

"I love the snow," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I like cold weather, for then my thick fur coat keeps me much warmer than in the summer time. And I like the snow--I like to see it come down, and feel it blow in my face and make my auto go through the drifts."

"Well, be careful you don't get stuck in any drifts and freeze fast," said Mrs. Bow Wow, as she began washing the breakfast dishes.