Uncle Wiggily's Travels Read online

  "Who's there? Who dares to come into my den?"

  "It is only I," said the rabbit. "I'm Uncle Wiggily Longears, and I camein here by mistake. I was looking for my fortune."

  "Ah, ha!" cried the bear, for the shaggy creature with thegrillery-growlery voice was a bear. "Ah, ha! That is a different story. Iam very glad you dropped in to see me, Mr. Longears. I was just wonderingwhat I'd have for my dinner, and now I know--it is going to be rabbitstew, and you are going to be stewed," and the bear opened the dining-roomshutters so he could see to eat the rabbit.

  "Oh, how can you be so cruel to me?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "I only came inhere by mistake. I found twenty-five cents, and I was looking for more."

  "Found twenty-five cents, did you, eh?" cried the bear, savage-like. "Giveit to me at once! I lost that, it's my money!"

  And he took the twenty-five-cent piece right away from Uncle Wiggily. Thenthe bear was just going to eat up the nice old gentleman rabbit, and UncleWiggily didn't know how to get away, and he was feeling most dreadful,when, all of a sudden, a voice sharply cried:

  "Here, you let my friend Uncle Wiggily alone," and then some one scrambleddown through the top hole of the bear's den.

  "Who are you?" asked the shaggy creature with the grillery-growlery voice,and the bear gnashed his teeth.

  "I'm the second cousin to Grandfather Prickly Porcupine," was the answer,"and I'm going to save my rabbit friend."

  And with that the porcupine took out a whole handful of hisstickery-ickery quills, like toothpicks, and he stuck them right into thesoft and tender nose of that bad bear. And the stickery-ickery quills sotickled the bear and hurt him that he nearly sneezed his head off, andtears came into his eyes.

  "Now's our time! Come on, let's get away from here!" cried the porcupineto the rabbit, and up out of the bear's den they scrambled, and got safelyaway before the bear had finished his sneezing.

  "Oh, you saved my life," said Uncle Wiggily to the prickly porcupine, "andI thank you very much." Then they traveled on together, and they had anadventure the next day.

  What it was I'll tell you soon, when, in case the boys who go in swimmingdon't duck my typewriter under water and make it catch the measles, I'lltell you about Uncle Wiggily and the toadstool.

  STORY XXIII

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TOADSTOOL

  "Were you much frightened when you were in the bear's den?" asked theprickly porcupine as he and Uncle Wiggily went along the road next day.They had slept that night in a hole where an old fox used to live, butjust then he was away on his summer vacation at Asbury Park, and so hewasn't home.

  "Was I frightened?" repeated the old gentleman rabbit, as he looked to seeif there was any mud on his crutch, "why I was so scared that my heartalmost stopped beating. But I'm glad you happened to come along, and thatyou stuck your stickery-ickery quills into the bear's nose. It was verylucky that you chanced to come past the den."

  "Oh, I did it on purpose," said the porcupine. "After you got me out ofthe trap, and I scurried away, I happened to think that you might go pastthe bear's house, so I hurried after you, and--well, I'm glad that Idid."

  "So am I," said the rabbit. "Will you have a bit of my carrot sandwich?"

  "I don't mind if I do," said the porcupine, polite-like, so he and therabbit traveler ate the carrot sandwiches as they walked along.

  "Well, I don't believe I'm ever going to find my fortune," said UncleWiggily sadly. "I began to have hopes, when I picked up thetwenty-five-cent piece, but now the bear has that and I have nothing. Oh,I certainly am very unlucky."

  "Never mind," said the porcupine, "I'll help you look." But even with thesharp eyes, and the sharp, stickery-ickery quills of the hedgehog, UncleWiggily couldn't find his fortune.

  But it is a good thing the old gentleman rabbit had company, for as theywere walking along under some trees, all of a sudden a big snake hissed atthem, like a coffee-pot boiling over. And then the snake uncoiled himselfand tried to grab the rabbit by the ears.

  "Here! That will never do!" cried the porcupine, and then and there,without even stopping to take off his necktie, that brave creature stucktwenty-seven and a half stickery-stockery-stackery quills into the snake,and then that snake was glad enough to crawl away. Oh, my, yes, and abasketful of soap bubbles besides!

  Well, it wasn't long after that before it was dinner time, and the twofriends sat down in a place where there were a lot of toadstools to eattheir lunch. They sat on the low toadstools, and the higher ones they usedfor tables, each one having a toadstool table for himself, just like in arestaurant.

  "Now, this is what I call real jolly," said the porcupine, as he ate histhird piece of hickory-nut pie with carrot sauce on it.

  "Yes, it is real nice," said the rabbit. "After all, it isn't so bad to gohunting for your fortune when you have company, but it's not so much funall alone."

  Well, the two friends were just finishing their meal, and they weregetting ready to travel on, when, all at once, there was a terriblecrashing sound in the bushes, just as if some one was breaking them all topieces.

  "My! What's that?" asked the porcupine, preparing to pull out some more ofhis stickery-ickery quills.

  "It sounds like the elephant," said the rabbit, as he looked around for asafe place in which to hide in case it should happen to be the bear comingafter him.

  "Oh, if it's the elephant, we don't have to worry. He is a friend ofours," said the porcupine.

  Well, the crashing in the bushes still kept up, and then before you couldtickle your pussy cat under the chin-chopper, there burst out of themiddle of a prickly briar bush a great big alligator--the same one whoonce before had tried to catch Uncle Wiggily.

  "Oh, look!" cried the porcupine. "He's after us."

  "Indeed, I am!" exclaimed the 'gator. "I'll have a fine meal in about aminute. I'll pull all your quills out, and eat you with strawberry sauceon; prickly porcupine."

  "Oh, don't you let him do it!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Stick some of yourquills in him, and make him go away, Mr. Porcupine."

  "It wouldn't do any good," said the porcupine. "You see, the alligator hassuch a thick skin on him that even a bullet will hardly go through, so myquills won't hurt him. I guess we had better run away."

  Well, they started to run away, but the 'gator, with his skillery-scalerytail, chased after them, and he could go very quickly, too, let me tellyou. Right after Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine the alligator raced, andhe almost caught both of them. Then the porcupine saw a hole just bigenough for him to squeeze down, but not big enough for the alligator tocome after.

  Down into this hole jumped the prickly porcupine, and he was safe, butthere was no hole for Uncle Wiggily to hide in, and the alligator wasclose after him.

  "Jump up on a toadstool, and maybe he can't get you!" called theporcupine, sticking the end of his nose out of the hole.

  "I will!" cried the rabbit, and up on top of the biggest toadstool helanded with a jump.

  "Oh, I can easily get you off there!" yelled the alligator, savage-like."I'll have you down in a minute."

  He reached up with his claws to get the rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily gotright in the middle of the toadstool, as far away as he could, but itwasn't very far. The alligator's claws almost had him, when all of asudden that toadstool quickly began to grow up tall. Taller and taller itgrew, for toadstools grow very fast you know. Higher and higher it went,like an elevator, taking Uncle Wiggily up with it.

  "Oh, now I'm safe!" cried the rabbit, for he was quite high in the air bythis time.

  "No, you're not. I'll get you yet!" cried the alligator, as he reared upon the end of his skillery-scalery tail. He made a grab for the rabbit,but the kind toadstool at once grew itself up as tall as the churchsteeple, with Uncle Wiggily still on top, and then, of course, thealligator couldn't reach him.

  "Oh, now I'm safe, but how ever am I going to get down?" thought therabbit, for the alligator was still there. But, in another minute, alongcame a policeman dog, and with his club h
e made that alligator run awayback to the swamp where he belonged. Then the toadstool began to getsmaller and smaller, and it sank down close to the ground again andlowered the rabbit just like on an elevator in a store, and Uncle Wiggilywas safe on earth once more. And he was very thankful to the toadstool,which grew up so quickly just in time.

  "Well, we'd better get along once more," said Uncle Wiggily to the pricklyporcupine, after he had thanked the dog-policeman. So the two friends setoff together through the woods, and the next day something else happenedto them.

  I'll tell you what it was on the next page, when, in case the icemanbrings me some hot chocolate to put on my bread and butter, the bedtimestory will be about Uncle Wiggily and the chickie.

  STORY XXIV

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHICKIE

  "Well, what shall we do to-day?" asked the second cousin to GrandfatherPrickly Porcupine, as he crawled out of his bed of dried leaves, andlooked over to where Uncle Wiggily was washing his whiskers. "Are we goingto travel some more?"

  "Oh, yes," answered the old gentleman rabbit, "we must still keep on, forI have yet to find my fortune."

  "What are you going to do with your fortune when you find it?" asked theporcupine. "Will you buy a million ice cream cones with the money?"

  "Oh, my goodness sakes alive, and a pot of mustard, no!" replied UncleWiggily. "If I ate as many cones as that I would have indigestion, as wellas rheumatism. When I find my fortune I am going back home, and I'll buysomething for Sammie and Susie Littletail, and for Johnnie and BillieBushytail, and for all my other animal friends, including GrandfatherGoosey Gander. That's what I'll do when I find my fortune."

  "Very good," said the porcupine, and then he got up and washed his faceand paws. And he wiped them on the towel after the old gentleman rabbit,instead of before him, for you see when the porcupine soaked up the wateroff his face he left some of his stickery-stockery quills sticking in thetowel, and if Uncle Wiggily had used it then he might have been scratched.But, as it was, the rabbit didn't even get tickled, and very glad of it hewas, too. Oh, my, yes, and some pepper hash in addition.

  Well, Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine had their breakfast and then theystarted off. They hadn't gone very far before they met a locust sitting onthe low limb of a tree. And this locust was buzzing his wings like anelectric fan, and making more noise than you could shake your handkerchiefat on a Tuesday morning.

  "Why do you do that?" asked the rabbit.

  "To keep myself cool," said the locust. "I am fanning myself with my buzzywings for it is going to be a very hot day."

  "Then we must keep in the shade as we travel along," said the porcupine,and that is what he and the old gentleman rabbit did. And it is a goodthing they did so, for, as they walked along where it was cool and dark,beneath clumps of ferns, and under big, tall trees, they passed by a placewhere a bad snake lived.

  "Look out! There's the snake's hole!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and he jumpedto one side.

  "Ha! I'm ready for him!" called the porcupine, and he got some of hisstickery quills ready to jab into the snake. But the snake was out on abig rock, sunning himself in the hot sun, though when he heard the rabbitand porcupine talking he made a jump for them and tried to catch them.

  But you see they were in the cool shadows, and the snake's eyes wereblinded by the sun, so he could not see very well, and thus the rabbit andhis friend escaped.

  "I tell you it is a good thing we heard the locust sing, and that we keptin the shade, or else we might have stepped right on that snake and he'dhave bitten and killed us," said the porcupine, and Uncle Wiggily saidthat this was true.

  Well, they kept on and on, and pretty soon they sat down in the shade of amulberry tree and ate their lunch. Then they rested a bit, and in theafternoon they traveled on farther.

  And, just as they were passing by a large, gray rock, that had nice, greenmoss on it, all of a sudden they heard something calling like this:

  "Cheep! Cheep! Chip-cheep-cheep! Oh, cheep! Peep! Peep!"

  "What's that?" asked Uncle Wiggily in a whisper.

  "I don't know. Maybe a burglar fox," answered the porcupine also, in awhisper. "But I'm all ready for him."

  So he got out some of his sharpest stickery quills to jab into the burglarfox, and the noise still kept up:

  "Cheep! Cheep! Yip! Yip! Yap! Yap! Cheep-chap!"

  "That doesn't sound like a fox," said the rabbit, listening with his twoears.

  "No, it doesn't," admitted the porcupine, and he stuck his quills backagain like pins in a cushion. "Perhaps it is the skillery-scaleryalligator, and my quills would be of no use against him," he went on.

  Then, all at once, before Uncle Wiggily could make his nose twinkle like astar of a frosty night more than two times, there was a rustling in thebushes, and out popped a poor, little white chickie--only she wasn't sovery white now, for her feathers were all wet and muddy.

  "Cheep-chap! Yip-yap!" cried the little chickie.

  "Why, what in the world are you doing away off here?" asked UncleWiggily. "You poor little dear! Where is your mother?"

  "Oh, me! Oh, my!" cried the little chickie. "I only wish I knew. I'm lost!I wandered away from my mamma, and my brothers, and sisters, and I'm lostin these woods. Oh chip! Oh chap! Oh yip! Oh yap!" Then she cried realhard and the tears washed some of the dirt off her white feathers.

  "Don't cry," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. "We'll help you find your mamma,won't we, Mr. Porcupine?"

  "Of course we will," said the stickery-stockery creature. "You go one way,Uncle Wiggily, and I'll go the other, and the chickie can stay on this bigrock until one of us comes back with her mamma."

  "Yes, and here is a piece of cherry pie for you to eat while we are gone,"said the rabbit, giving the lost chickie a nice piece of the pie.

  So off the rabbit and the porcupine started to find the chickie's mamma.They looked everywhere for her, but the porcupine couldn't find the oldlady hen, so he went back to the rock to wait there with the lost chickieso she wouldn't be lonesome. But Uncle Wiggily wouldn't stop looking.Pretty soon he heard something going "cluck-cluck" in the bushes, and heknew that it was the mamma hen. Then he went up to her and said:

  "Oh, I know where your little lost chickie is."

  Well, at first, that mamma hen didn't know who the rabbit was, and sheruffled up her feathers, and puffed them out, and let down her wings, andshe was going to fly right at Uncle Wiggily, but she happened to see whohe was just in time and she said:

  "Oh, thank you ever so much, Uncle Wiggily. I was so worried that I wasjust going down to the police station to see if a policeman had found her.Now I won't have to go. Come along, children, little lost Clarabella isfound. Uncle Wiggily found her."

  So she clucked to all the other children, and the rabbit led them towardwhere Clarabella was sitting on the rock with the porcupine.

  And on the way a big, ugly fox leaped out of the bushes and tried to eatup all the chickens, and Uncle Wiggily also. But the old mother hen justruffled up her feathers and puffed herself all out big again, and she flewat that fox and picked him in the eyes, and he was glad enough to slinkaway through the bushes, taking his fuzzy tail with him.

  Then the rabbit hopped on and took the mamma hen to her little lostchickie on the rock, and the rabbit and the porcupine had supper thatnight with the chicken family and slept in a big basket full of straw nextdoor to the chicken coop.

  Then they traveled on the next day and something else happened. What itwas I'll tell you right soon, when, in case a little boy named Williedoesn't crawl up in my lap when I'm writing and pull my ears, as theconductor does the trolley car bell-rope, the story will be about UncleWiggily and the wasp.

  STORY XXV

  UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WASP

  "What would you like for breakfast this morning?" asked Mrs. Hen, as UncleWiggily and the porcupine got up out of their bed in the clean straw bythe chickens' coop. This was the day after the rabbit found the littlewhite chickie.

  "Ha, hum! Le
t me see," exclaimed the rabbit, as he waved his whiskersaround in the air to get all the straw seeds out of them: "what would Ilike? Why, I think some fried oranges with carrot gravy on them would benice, don't you, Mr. Porcupine?"

  "No," said the stickery-stockery creature. "I think I would like to havesome bread with banana butter on and a glass of milk with vanillaflavoring."

  "You may both have what you like, because you were so kind to my littlelost Clarabella," said Mrs. Hen. Then she spoke to her children.

  "Scurry around now, little ones, and get Uncle Wiggily and his friend thenice things for breakfast. Hurry now, for they will be wanting to travelon before the sun gets too hot," the mamma hen said.

  So one little chickie got the oranges, and another chickie got thebananas, and still another chickery-chicken, with a spotted tail, got thecarrots, and then Clarabella went to where Mrs. Cow lived, and got themilk for the prickly porcupine. Then Mrs. Hen cooked the breakfast, andvery good it was, too, if I may be allowed to say so.

  "Well, I guess we'll be getting along now," said Uncle Wiggily. "Are youstill going to travel with me, Mr. Porcupine?"

  "Oh, yes, I'll come with you for a couple days more, and then if you don'tfind your fortune I'll start out by myself, and perhaps I can find it foryou."

  So the two friends went on together. They traveled over hills and downdales, and once they met a lame rabbit, who had the epizootic very bad.Uncle Wiggily showed him how to make a crutch out of a cornstalk, just asNurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat, had done, and the lame rabbit madehimself one and was much obliged.