Uncle Wiggily in the Woods

by Howard Roger Garis

  "Are you going anywhere in particular?" asked the muskrat lady, as shetied her tail in a soft knot.

  "No, not special," Uncle Wiggily answered. "May I have the pleasure ofdoing something for you?" he asked with a polite bow, like a littlegirl speaking a piece in school on Friday afternoon.

  "Well," said Nurse Jane, "I have baked some apple dumplings withoranges inside, and I thought perhaps you might like to take one toGrandfather Goosey Gander to cheer him up."

  "The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I'll do it, NurseJane."

  So with an apple dumpling carefully wrapped up in a napkin and put in abasket, Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods and over the fieldsto Grandpa Goosey's house.

  "I wonder if I shall have an adventure today?" thought the rabbitgentleman as he waved his ears to and fro like the pendulum of a clock."I think I would like one to give me an appetite for supper. I mustwatch for something to happen."

  He looked all around the woods, but all he could see were some trees.

  "I can't have any adventures with them," said the bunny uncle, "thoughthe horse chestnut tree did help me the other day by tossing the badbear over into the briar bush. But these trees are not like that."

  Still Uncle Wiggily was to have an adventure with one of the trees verysoon. Just you wait, now, and you shall hear about it.

  Uncle Wiggily walked on a little farther and he heard a funny tappingnoise in the woods.

  "Tap! Tap! Tap! Tappity-tap-tap!" it sounded.

  "My! Some one is knocking on a door trying to get in," thought thebunny. "I wonder who it can be?"

  Just then he saw a big bird perched on the side of a pine tree, tappingwith his bill.

  "Tap! Tap! Tap!" went the bird.

  "Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but you are making a mistake. Noone lives in that tree."

  "Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I know that no one lives here," saidthe bird. "But you see I am a woodpecker, and I am pecking holes inthe tree to get some of the sweet juice, or sap. The sap is running inthe trees now, for it is Spring. Later on I will tap holes in the barkto get at bugs and worms, when there is no more sap for me to eat."

  And the woodpecker went on tapping, tapping, tapping.

  "My! That is a funny way to get something to eat," said the bunnygentleman to himself. He watched the bird until it flew away, and thenUncle Wiggily was about to hop on to Grandpa Goosey's house when, allof a sudden, before he could run away, out popped the bad old bear oncemore.

  "Ah, ha! We meet again, I see," growled the bear. "I was not lookingfor you, Mr. Longears, but all the same I am glad to meet you, for Iwant to eat you."

  "Well," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nosewith his ear, surprised like. "I can't exactly say I'm glad to seeyou, good Mr. Bear."

  "No, I s'pose not," agreed the fuzzy creature. "But you are mistaken.I am the Bad Mr. Bear, not the Good."

  "Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily. All the while he knew the bearwas bad, but he hoped by calling him good, to make him so.

  "I'm very bad!" growled the bear, "and I'm going to take you off to myden with me. Come along!"

  "Oh, I don't want to," said the bunny uncle, shivering his tail.

  "But you must!" growled the bear. "Come on, now!"

  "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Will you let me go if I give youwhat's in my basket?" he asked, and he held up the basket with the niceorange apple turnover in it. "Let me go if I give you this," beggedthe bunny uncle.

  "Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," said the bear, cunning like. "Letme see what it is."

  He took the basket from Uncle Wiggily, and looking in, said:

  "Ah, ha! An apple turnover-dumpling with oranges in it! I just lovethem! Ah, ha!"

  "Oh," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I hope he eats it, for then maybe I canget away when he doesn't notice me. I hope he eats it!"

  And the bear, leaning his back against the pine tree in which thewoodpecker had been boring holes, began to take bites out of the appledumpling which Nurse Jane had baked for Grandpa Goosey.

  "Now's my chance to get away!" thought the bunny gentleman. But whenhe tried to hop softly off, as the bear was eating the sweet stuff, thebad creature saw him and cried:

  "Ah, ha! No you don't! Come hack here!" and with his claws he pulledUncle Wiggily close to him again.

  Then the bunny uncle noticed that some sweet, sticky juice or gum, likethat on fly paper, was running down the trunk of the tree from theholes the woodpecker had drilled in it.

  "Oh, if the bear only leans back hard enough and long enough againstthat sticky pine tree," thought Mr. Longears, "he'll be stuck fast byhis furry hair and he can't get me. I hope he sticks!"

  And that is just what happened. The bear enjoyed eating the appledumpling so much that he leaned back harder and harder against thesticky tree. His fur stuck fast in the gum that ran out. Finally thebear ate the last crumb of the dumpling.

  "And now I'll get you!" he cried to the bunny uncle; "I'll get you!"

  But did the bear get Uncle Wiggily? He did not. The bear tried tojump toward the rabbit, but could not. He was stuck fast to the stickypine tree and Uncle Wiggily could now run safely back to his hollowstump bungalow to get another dumpling for Grandpa Goosey.

  So the bear had no rabbit, after all, and all he did was to stay stuckfast to the pine tree until a big fox came along and helped him to getloose, and the bear cried "Wouch!" because his fur was pulled.

  So Uncle Wiggily was all right, you see, after all, and very thankfulhe was to the pine tree for holding fast to the bear.

  And in the next story, if our cat doesn't go hunting for the pollparrot's cracker in the gold fish bowl and get his whiskers all wet,I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the green rushes.

  STORY XV

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GREEN RUSHES

  Once upon a time Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, wastaking a walk in the woods, looking for an adventure, as he often did,when, as he happened to go past the hollow tree, where Billie andJohnnie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys lived, he saw them just pokingtheir noses out of the front door, which was a knot-hole.

  "Hello, boys!" called Uncle Wiggily. "Why haven't you gone to schooltoday? It is time, I'm sure."

  "Oh, we don't have to go today," answered Billie, as he looked at histail to see if any chestnut burrs were sticking in it. But none was, Iam glad to say.

  "Don't have to go to school? Why not?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know."This isn't Saturday, is it?"

  "No," spoke Johnnie. "But you see, Sister Sallie, our little squirrelsister, has the measles, and we can't go to school until she gets overthem."

  "And we don't know what to do to have some fun," went on Billie, "forlots of the animal children are home from school with the measles, andthey can't be out to play with us. We've had the measles, so we can'tget them the second time, but the animal boys and girls, who haven'tbroken out, don't want us to come and see them for fear we'll bring thered spots to them."

  "I see," said Uncle Wiggily, laughing until his pink nose twinkled likea jelly roll. "So you can't have any fun? Well, suppose you come withme for a walk in the woods."

  "Fine!" cried Billie and Johnnie and soon they were walking in thewoods with the rabbit gentleman. They had not gone very far before,all of a sudden, they came to a place where a mud turtle gentleman hadfallen on his back, and he could not turn over, right-side up again.He tried and tried, but he could not right himself.

  "Oh, that is too bad!" cried Uncle Wiggily, when he saw what hadhappened. "I must help him to get right-side up again," which he did.

  "Oh, thank you for putting me on my legs once more, Uncle Wiggily,"said the mud turtle. "I would like to do you a favor for helping me,but all I have to give you are these," and in one claw he picked somegreen stalks growing near him, and handed them to the bunny uncle,afterward crawling away.

  "Pooh! Those are no good!" cried B
illie, the boy squirrel.

  "I should say not!" laughed Johnnie, "They are only green rushes thatgrow all about in the woods, and we could give Uncle Wiggily all hewanted."

  "Hush, boys! Don't talk that way," said the bunny uncle. "The mudturtle tried to do the best he could for me, and I am sure the greenrushes are very nice. I'll take them with me. I may find use forthem."

  Billie and Johnnie wanted to laugh, for they thought green rushes wereof no use at all. But Uncle Wiggily said to the squirrel boys:

  "Billie and Johnnie, though green rushes, which grow in the woods andswamps are very common, still they are a wonderful plant. See howsmooth they are when you rub them up and down. But if you rub themsideways they are as rough as a stiff brush or a nutmeg grater."

  Well, Billie and Johnnie thought more of the rushes after that, but, asthey walked on with Uncle Wiggily, when he had put them in his pocket,they could think of no way in which he could use them.

  In a little while they came to where Mother Goose lived, and the dearold lady herself was out in front of her house, looking up and down thewoodland path, anxious like.

  "What is the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Are you looking for someof your lost ones--Little Bopeep or Tommy Tucker, who sings for hissupper?"

  "Well, no, not exactly," answered Mother Goose. "I sent Simple Simonto the store to get me a scrubbing brush, so I could clean the kitchenfloor. But he hasn't come back, and I am afraid he has gone fishing inhis mother's pail, to try to catch a whale. Oh, dear! My kitchen isso dirty that it needs scrubbing right away. But I cannot do itwithout a scrubbing brush."

  "Ha! Say no more!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his jolly voice. "I have noscrubbing brush, but I have a lot of green rushes the mud turtle gaveme for turning him right-side up. The rushes are as rough as ascrubbing brush, and will do just as nicely to clean your kitchen."

  "Oh, thank you! I'm sure they will," said Mother Goose. So she tookthe green rushes from Uncle Wiggily and by using them with soap andwater soon her kitchen floor was scrubbed as clean as an eggshell, forthe green, rough stems scraped off all the dirt.

  Then Mother Goose thanked Uncle Wiggily very much, and Billie andJohnnie sort of looked at one another with blinking eyes, for they sawthat green rushes are of some use in this world after all.

  And if the strawberry jam doesn't go to the moving pictures with thebread and butter and forget to come home for supper, I'll tell you nextabout Uncle Wiggily and the bee tree.

  STORY XVI

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEE TREE

  "Well, you're off again, I see!" spoke Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, themuskrat lady housekeeper, one morning, as she saw Uncle Wiggily Longears,the rabbit gentleman, starting away from his hollow stump bungalow. Hewas limping on his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatismcrutch, that Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk."Off again!" she cried.

  "Yes, off again," said Uncle Wiggily. "I must have my adventure, youknow."

  "I hope it will be a pleasant one today," went on Nurse Jane.

  "So do I," said Uncle Wiggily, and away he went hopping over the fieldsand through the woods. He had not gone very far before he heard a queerbuzzing sound, and a sort of splashing in the water and a tiny voicecried:

  "Help! Help! Save me! I am drowning!"

  "My goodness me sakes alive and some horse radish lollypops!" cried thebunny uncle. "Some one drowning? I don't see any water around here,though I do hear some splashing. Who are you?" he cried. "And where areyou, so that I may save you?"

  "Here I am, right down by your foot!" was the answer. "I am a honey bee,and I have fallen into this Jack-in-the pulpit flower, which is full ofwater. Please get me out!"

  "To be sure I will!" cried Mr. Longears, and then, stooping down hecarefully lifted the poor bee out of the water in the Jack-in-the-pulpit.

  The Jack is a plant that looks like a little pitcher and it holds water.In the middle is a green stem, that is called Jack, because he looks likea minister preaching in the pulpit. The Jack happened to be out when thebee fell in the water that had rained in the plant-pitcher, or Jackhimself would have saved the honey chap. But Uncle Wiggily did it justas well.

  "Oh, thank you so much for not letting me drown," said the bee, as shedried her wings in the sun on a big green leaf. "I was on my way to thehive tree with a load of honey when I stopped for a drink. But I leanedover too far and fell in. I can not thank you enough!"

  "Oh, once is enough!" cried Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly voice. "Butdid I understand you to say you lived in a hive-tree?"

  "Yes, a lot of us bees have our hive in a hollow tree in the woods, notfar away. It is there we store the honey we gather from Summer flowers,so we will have something to eat in the Winter when there are noblossoms. Would you like to see the bee tree?"

  "Indeed, I would," Uncle Wiggily said.

  "Follow me, then," buzzed the bee. "I will fly on ahead, very slowly,and you can follow me through the woods."

  Uncle Wiggily did so, and soon he heard a great buzzing sound, and he sawhundreds of bees flying in and out of a hollow tree. At first some ofthe bees were going to sting the bunny uncle, but his little friend cried:

  "Hold on, sisters! Don't sting this rabbit gentleman. He is UncleWiggily and he saved me from being drowned."

  So the bees did not sting the bunny uncle, but, instead, gave him a lotof honey, in a little box made of birch bark, which he took home to NurseJane.

  "Oh, I had the sweetest adventure!" he said to her, and he told her aboutthe bee tree and the honey, which he and the muskrat lady ate on theircarrot cake for dinner.

  It was about a week after this, and Uncle Wiggily was once more in thewoods, looking for an adventure, when, all at once a big bear jumped outfrom behind a tree and grabbed him.

  "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why did you do that? Why have youcaught me, Mr. Bear?"

  "Because I am going to carry you off to my den," answered the bear. "Iam hungry, and I have been looking for something to eat. You came alongjust in time. Come on!"

  The hear was leading Uncle Wiggily away when the bunny uncle happened tothink of something, and it was this--that bears are very fond of sweetthings.

  "Would you not rather eat some honey than me?" Uncle Wiggily asked of thebear.

  "Much rather," answered the shaggy creature, "but where is the honey?" heasked, cautious like and foxy.

  "Come with me and I will show you where it is," went on the bunny uncle,for he felt sure that his friends the bees, would give the bear honey sothe bad animal would let the rabbit gentleman go.

  Uncle Wiggily led the way through the wood to the bee tree, the bearkeeping hold of him all the while. Pretty soon a loud buzzing was heard,and when they came to where the honey was stored in the hollow tree, allof a sudden out flew hundreds of bees, and they stung the bear so hardall over, especially on his soft and tender nose, that the bear cried:

  "Wow! Wouch! Oh, dear!" and, letting go of the rabbit, ran away to jumpin the ice water to cool off.

  But the bees did not sting Uncle Wiggily, for they liked him, and hethanked them for driving away the bear. So everything came out allright, you see, and if the foot-stool gets up to the head of the classand writes its name on the blackboard, with pink chalk, I'll tell younext about Uncle Wiggily and the dogwood tree.

  STORY XVII

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOGWOOD

  "Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, themuskrat lady housekeeper, as the nice old rabbit gentleman started outfrom his hollow stump bungalow one afternoon.

  "Oh, just for a walk in the woods," he answered. "Neddie Stubtail, thelittle bear boy, told me last night that there were many adventures inthe forest, and I want to see if I can find one."

  "My goodness! You seem very fond of adventures!" said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.

  "I am," went on Uncle Wiggily, with a smile that made his pink nosetwinkle and his whiskers sort of chase themselves
around the back ofhis neck, as though they were playing tag with his collar button. "Ijust love to have adventures."

  "Well, while you are out walking among the trees would you mind doingme a favor?" asked Nurse Jane.

  "I wouldn't mind in the least," spoke the bunny uncle. "What would youlike me to do?"

  "Just leave this thimble at Mrs. Bow Wow's house. I borrowed the doglady's thimble to use when I couldn't find mine, but now that I have myown back again I'll return hers."

  "Where was yours?" Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.

  "Jimmie Caw-Caw, the crow boy, had picked it up to hide under thepump," answered Nurse Jane. "Crows, you know, like to pick up brightand shining things."

  "Yes, I remember," said Uncle Wiggily. "Very well, I'll give Mrs. BowWow her thimble," and off the old gentleman rabbit started, limpingalong on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, that NurseJane Fuzzy Wuzzy had gnawed for him out of a bean-pole. Excuse me, Imean corn stalk.

  When Uncle Wiggily came to the place where Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow,the little puppy dog boys lived, he saw Mrs. Bow Wow, the dog lady, outin front of the kennel house looking up and down the path that ledthrough the woods.

  "Were you looking for me?" asked Uncle Wiggily, making a low and politebow with his tall silk hat.

  "Looking for you? Why, no, not specially," said Mrs. Bow Wow, "thoughI am always glad to see you."

  "I thought perhaps you might be looking for your thimble," went on thebunny uncle. "Nurse Jane has sent it back to you."