Howard R. Garis - Uncle Wiggily in the Woods
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Howard R. Garis >> Uncle Wiggily in the Woods
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Bedtime Stories
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
by
HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of "Sammie and Susie Littletail," "Uncle Wiggily and Mother
Goose," "The Bedtime Series of Animal Stories," "The Daddy Series," Etc.
Illustrated by Louis Wisa
[Frontispiece: She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and
Jillie gave her a little push.]
A. L. Burt Company
Publishers ------------ New York
Copyright 1917, by
R. F. Fenno & Company
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
CONTENTS
STORY
I Uncle Wiggily and the Willow Tree
II Uncle Wiggily and the Wintergreen
III Uncle Wiggily and the Slippery Elm
IV Uncle Wiggily and the Sassafras
V Uncle Wiggily and the Pulpit-Jack
VI Uncle Wiggily and the Violets
VII Uncle Wiggily and the High Tree
VIII Uncle Wiggily and the Peppermint
IX Uncle Wiggily and the Birch Tree
X Uncle Wiggily and the Butternut Tree
XI Uncle Wiggily and Lulu's Hat
XII Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Drops
XIII Uncle Wiggily and the Horse Chestnut
XIV Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Tree
XV Uncle Wiggily and the Green Rushes
XVI Uncle Wiggily and the Bee Tree
XVII Uncle Wiggily and the Dogwood
XVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Hazel Nuts
XIX Uncle Wiggily and Susie's Dress
XX Uncle Wiggily and Tommie's Kite
XXI Uncle Wiggily and Johnnie's Marbles
XXII Uncle Wiggily and Billie's Top
XXIII Uncle Wiggily and the Sunbeam
XXIV Uncle Wiggily and the Puff Ball
XXV Uncle Wiggily and the May Flowers
XXVI Uncle Wiggily and the Beech Tree
XXVII Uncle Wiggily and the Bitter Medicine
XXVIII Uncle Wiggily and the Pine Cones
XXIX Uncle Wiggily and His Torn Coat
XXX Uncle Wiggily and the Sycamore Tree
XXXI Uncle Wiggily and the Red Spots
ILLUSTRATIONS
She put her sled on the slanting tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a
little push . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Down toppled Uncle Wiggily's hat, not in the least hurt.
As they passed a high rock, out from behind it jumped the bad old
tail-pulling monkey.
The tree barked and roared so like a lion that the foxes were
frightened and were glad enough to run away.
Up, up and up into the air blew the kite and, as the string was tangled
around the babboon's paws, it took him up with it.
"Ker-sneezio! Ker-snitzio! Ker-choo!" he sneezed as the powder from
the puff balls went up his nose and into his eyes.
Jackie was so surprised that he opened his mouth.
Before Uncle Wiggily could stop himself he had run into the bush.
STORY I
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WILLOW TREE
"Well, it's all settled!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit
gentleman, one day, as he hopped up the steps of his hollow stump
bungalow where Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, his muskrat lady housekeeper,
was fanning herself with a cabbage leaf tied to her tail. "It's all
settled."
"What is?" asked Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "You don't mean to tell me anything
has happened to you?" and she looked quite anxious.
"No, I'm all right," laughed Uncle Wiggily, "and I hope you are the
same. What I meant was that it's all settled where we are going to
spend our vacation this Summer."
"Oh, tell me where!" exclaimed the muskrat lady clapping her paws,
anxious like.
"In a hollow stump bungalow, just like this, but in the woods instead
of in the country," answered Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, that _will_ be fine!" cried Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy. "I love the woods.
When are we to go?"
"Very soon now," answered the bunny gentleman uncle. "You may begin to
pack up as quickly as you please."
And Nurse Jane and Uncle Wiggily moved to the woods very next day and
his adventures began.
I guess most of you know about the rabbit gentleman and his muskrat
lady housekeeper who nursed him when he was ill with the rheumatism.
Uncle Wiggily had lots and lots of adventures, about which I have told
you in the books before this one.
He had traveled about seeking his fortune, he had even gone sailing in
his airship, and once he met Mother Goose and all her friends from Old
King Cole down to Little Jack Horner.
Uncle Wiggily had many friends among the animal boys and girls. There
was Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, who have a book all to
themselves; just as have Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys,
and Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the mice children.
"And I s'pose we'll meet all your friends in the woods, won't we, Uncle
Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane, as they moved from the old hollow stump
bungalow to the new one.
"Oh, yes, I s'pose so, of course," he laughed in answer, as he pulled
his tall silk hat more tightly down on his head, fastened on his
glasses and took his red, white and blue striped barber pole rheumatism
crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
So, once upon a time, not very many years ago, as all good stories
should begin, Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane found themselves in the
woods. It was lovely among the trees, and as soon as the rabbit
gentleman had helped Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy put the hollow stump bungalow to
rights he started out for a walk.
"I want to see what sort of adventures I shall have in the woods," said
Mr. Longears as he hopped along.
Now in these woods lived, among many other creatures good and bad, two
skillery-scalery alligators who were not exactly friends of the bunny
uncle. But don't let that worry you, for though the alligators, and
other unpleasant animals, may, once in a while, make trouble for Uncle
Wiggily, I'll never really let them hurt him. I'll fix that part all
right!
So, one day, the skillery-scalery alligator with the humps on his tail,
and his brother, another skillery-scalery chap, whose tail was double
jointed, were taking a walk through the woods together just as Uncle
Wiggily was doing.
"Brother," began the hump-tailed 'gator (which I call him for short),
"brother, wouldn't you like a nice rabbit?"
"Indeed I would," answered the double-jointed tail 'gator, who could
wobble his flippers both ways. "And I know of no nicer rabbit than
Uncle Wiggily Longears."
"The very same one about whom I was thinking!" exclaimed the other
alligator. "Let's catch him!"
"That's what we'll do!" said the double-jointed chap. "We'll hide in
the woods until he comes along, as he does every day, and the we'll
jump out and grab him. Oh, you yum-yum!"
"Fine!" grunted his brother. "Come on!"
Off they crawled through the woods, and pretty soon they came to a
willow tree, where the branches grew so low down that they looked like
a curtain that had unwound itself off the roller, when the cat hangs on
it.
"This is the place for us to hide--by the weeping willow tree," said
the skillery-scalery alligator with bumps on his tail.
"The very place," agreed his brother.
So they hid behind the thick branches of the tree, which had leafed out
for early spring, and there the two bad creatures waited.
Just before this Uncle Wiggily himself had started out from his hollow
stump bungalow to walk in the woods and across the fields, as he did
every day.
"I wonder what sort of an adventure I shall have this time?" he said to
himself. "I hope it will be a real nice one."
Oh! If Uncle Wiggily had known what was in store for him, I think he
would have stayed in his hollow stump bungalow. But never mind, I'll
make it all come out right in the end, you see if I don't. I don't
know just how I'm going to do it, yet, but I'll find a way, never fear.
Uncle Wiggily hopped on and on, now and then swinging his
red-white-and-blue-striped rheumatism crutch like a cane, because he
felt so young and spry and spring-like. Pretty soon he came to the
willow tree. He was sort of looking up at it, wondering if a nibble of
some of the green leaves would not do him good, when, all of a sudden,
out jumped the two bad alligators and grabbed the bunny gentleman.
"Now we have you!" cried the humped-tail 'gator.
"And you can't get away from us," said the other chap--the
double-jointed tail one.
"Oh, please let me go!" begged Uncle Wiggily, but they hooked their
claws in his fur, and pulled him back under the tree, which held its
branches so low. I told you it was a weeping willow tree, and just now
it was weeping, I think, because Uncle Wiggily was in such trouble.
"Let's see now," said the double-jointed tail alligator. "I'll carry
this rabbit home, and then--"
"You'll do nothing of the sort!" interrupted the other, and not very
politely, either. "I'll carry him myself. Why, I caught him as much
as you did!"
"Well, maybe you did, but I saw him first."
"I don't care! It was my idea. I first thought of this way of
catching him!"
And then those two alligators disputed, and talked very unpleasantly,
indeed, to one another.
But, all the while, they kept tight hold of the bunny uncle, so he
could not get away.
"Well," said the double-jointed tail alligator after a while, "we must
settle this one way or the other. Am I to carry him to our den, or
you?"
"Me! I'll do it. If you took him you'd keep him all for yourself. I
know you!"
"No, I wouldn't! But that's just what you'd do. I know you only too
well. No, if I can't carry this rabbit home myself, you shan't!"
"I say the same thing. I'm going to have my rights."
Now, while the two bad alligators were talking this way they did not
pay much attention to Uncle Wiggily. They held him so tightly in their
claws that he could not get away, but he could use his own paws, and,
when the two bad creatures were talking right in each other's face, and
using big words, Uncle Wiggily reached up and cut off a piece of willow
wood with the bark on.
And then, still when the 'gators were disputing, and not looking, the
bunny uncle made himself a whistle out of the willow tree stick. He
loosened the bark, which came off like a kid glove, and then he cut a
place to blow his breath in, and another place to let the air out and
so on, until he had a very fine whistle indeed, almost as loud-blowing
as those the policemen have to stop the automobiles from splashing mud
on you so a trolley car can bump into you.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," said the hump-tail alligator at last.
"Since you won't let me carry him home, and I won't let you, let's both
carry him together. You take hold of him on one side, and I'll take
the other."
"Good!" cried the second alligator.
"Oh, ho! I guess not!" cried the bunny uncle suddenly. "I guess you
won't either, or both of you take me off to your den. No, indeed!"
"Why not?" asked the hump-tailed 'gator, sort of impolite like and
sarcastic.
"Because I'm going to blow my whistle and call the police!" went on the
bunny uncle. "Toot! Toot! Tootity-ti-toot-toot!"
And then and there he blew such a loud, shrill blast on his willow tree
whistle that the alligators had to put their paws over their ears. And
when they did that they had to let go of bunny uncle. He had his tall
silk hat down over his ears, so it didn't matter how loudly he blew the
whistle. He couldn't hear it.
"Toot! Toot! Tootity-toot-toot!" he blew on the willow whistle.
"Oh, stop! Stop!" cried the hump-tailed 'gator.
"Come on, run away before the police come!" said his brother. And out
from under the willow tree they both ran, leaving Uncle Wiggily safely
behind.
"Well," said the bunny gentleman as he hopped along home to his
bungalow, "it is a good thing I learned, when a boy rabbit, how to make
whistles." And I think so myself.
So if the vinegar jug doesn't jump into the molasses barrel and turn
its face sour like a lemon pudding, I'll tell you next about Uncle
Wiggily and the winter green.
STORY II
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WINTERGREEN
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, knocked on the
door of the hollow tree in the woods where Johnnie and Billie
Bushytail, the two little squirrel boys, lived.
"Come in!" invited Mrs. Bushytail. So Uncle Wiggily went in.
"I thought I'd come around and see you," he said to the squirrel lady.
"I'm living in the woods this Summer and just now I am out taking a
walk, as I do every day, and I hoped I might meet with an adventure.
But, so far, I haven't. Do you know where I could find an adventure,
Mrs. Bushytail?"
"No, I'm sorry to say I don't, Uncle Wiggily," answered the squirrel
lady. "But I wish you could find something to make my little boy
Billie feel better."
"Why, is he ill?" asked the bunny uncle, surprised like, and he looked
across the room where Billy Bushytail was curled up in a big rocking
chair, with his tail held over his head like an umbrella, though it was
not raining.
"No, Billie isn't ill," said Mrs. Bushytail. "But he says he doesn't
know what to do to have any fun, and I am afraid he is a little
peevish."
"Oh, that isn't right," said Mr. Longears. "Little boys, whether they
are squirrels, rabbits or real children, should try to be jolly and
happy, and not peevish."
"How can a fellow be happy when there's no fun?" asked Billie, sort of
cross-like. "My brother Johnnie got out of school early, and he and
the other animal boys have gone off to play where I can't find them. I
had to stay in, because I didn't know my nut-cracking lesson, and now I
can't have any fun. Oh, dear! I don't care!"
Billie meant, I suppose, that he didn't care what he said or did, and
that isn't right. But Uncle Wiggily only pinkled his twink nose. No,
wait just a moment if you please. He just twinkled his pink nose
behind the squirrel boy's back, and then the bunny uncle said:
"How would you like to come for a walk in the woods with me, Billie?"
"Oh, that will be nice!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "Do go, Billie."
"No, I don't want to!" chattered the boy squirrel, most impolitely.
"Oh, that isn't at all nice," said Mrs. Bushy-tail. "At least thank
Uncle Wiggily for asking you."
"Oh, excuse me, Uncle Wiggily," said Billie, sorrylike. "I do thank
you. But I want very much to have some fun, and there's no fun in the
woods. I know all about them. I know every tree and bush and stump.
I want to go to a new place."
"Well, new places are nice," said the bunny uncle, "but old ones are
nice, too, if you know where to look for the niceness. Now come along
with me, and we'll see if we can't have some fun. It is lovely in the
woods now."
"I won't have any fun there," said Billie, crossly. "The woods are no
good. Nothing good to eat grows there."
"Oh, yes there does--lots!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Why the nuts you
squirrels eat grow in the woods."
"Yes, but there are no nuts now," spoke the squirrel boy. "They only
come in the Fall."
"Well, come, scamper along, anyhow," invited Uncle Wiggily. "Who knows
what may happen? It may even be an adventure. Come along, Billie."
So, though he did not care much about it, Billie went. Uncle Wiggily
showed the squirrel boy where the early spring flowers were coming up,
and how the Jacks, in their pulpits, were getting ready to preach
sermons to the trees and bushes.
"Hark! What's that?" asked Billie, suddenly, hearing a noise.
"What does it sound like?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Like bells ringing."
"Oh, it's the bluebells--the bluebell flowers," answered the bunny
uncle.
"Why do they ring?" asked the little boy squirrel.
"To call the little ants and lightning bugs to school," spoke Uncle
Wiggily, and Billy smiled. He was beginning to see that there were
more things in the woods than he had dreamed of, even if he had
scampered here and there among the trees ever since he was a little
squirrel chap.
On and on through the woods went the bunny uncle and Billie. They
picked big, leafy ferns to fan themselves with, and then they drank
with green leaf-cups from a spring of cool water.
But no sooner had Billie taken the cold water than he suddenly cried:
"Ouch! Oh, dear! Oh, my, how it hurts!"
"What is it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you bite your tongue or step
on a thorn?"
"It's my tooth," chattered Billie. "The cold water made it ache again.
I need to go to Mr. Stubtail, the bear dentist, who will pull it out
with his long claws. But I've been putting it off, and putting it off,
and now--Oh, dear, how it aches! Wow!"
"I'll cure it for you!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Just walk along through
the woods with me and I'll soon stop your aching tooth."
"How can you?" asked Billie, holding his paw to his jaw to warm the
aching tooth, for heat will often stop pain. "There isn't anything
here in the woods to cure toothache; is there?"
"I think we shall find something," spoke the bunny uncle.
"Well, I wish we could find it soon!" cried Billie, "for my tooth hurts
very much. Ouch!" and he hopped up and down, for the toothache was of
the jumping kind.
"Ah, ha! Here we have it!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he stooped over
some shiny green leaves, growing close to the ground, and he pulled
some of them up. "Just chew these leaves a little and let them rest
inside your mouth near the aching tooth," said Mr. Longears. "I think
they will help you, Billie."
So Billie chewed the green leaves. They smarted and burned a little,
but when he put them near his tooth they made it nice and warm and soon
the ache all stopped.
"What was that you gave me, Uncle Wiggily?" Billie asked.
"Wintergreen," answered Uncle Wiggily. "It grows in the woods, and is
good for flavoring candy, as well as for stopping toothache."
"I am glad to know that," said Billie. "The woods are a nicer place
than I thought, and there is ever so much more in them than I dreamed.
Thank you, Uncle Wiggily."
So, as his toothache was all better, Billie had good fun in the woods
with the bunny uncle, until it was time to go home. And in the next
story, if the top doesn't fly off the coffee pot and let the baked
potato hide away from the egg-beater, when they play tag, I'll tell you
about Uncle Wiggily and the slippery elm.
STORY III
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SLIPPERY ELM
"Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the
muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman standing on
the front steps of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods one morning.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, just for a walk through the forest," spoke the bunny uncle. "It
is so nice in the woods, with the flowers coming up, and the leaves
getting larger and greener every day, that I just love to walk there."
"Well," said Nurse Jane with a laugh, "if you happen to see a
bread-tree in the woods, bring home a loaf for supper."
"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily. "You know, Nurse Jane, there really
are trees on which bread fruit grows, though not in this country. But
I can get you a loaf of bread at the five and ten cent store, I dare
say."
"Do, please," asked the muskrat lady. "And if you see a cocoanut tree
you might bring home a cocoanut cake for supper."
"Oh, my!" laughed the rabbit gentleman. "I'm afraid there are no
cocoanut trees in my woods. I could bring you home a hickory nut cake,
perhaps."
"Well, whatever you like," spoke Nurse Jane. "But don't get lost,
whatever you do, and if you meet with an adventure I hope it will be a
nice one."
"So do I," Uncle Wiggily said, as he hopped off, leaning on his red,
white and blue stripped [Transcriber's note: striped?] rheumatism
crutch which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.
The old rabbit gentleman had not gone very far before he met Dr. Possum
walking along in the woods, with his satchel of medicine on his tail,
for Dr. Possum cured all the ill animals, you know.
"What in the world are you doing, Dr. Possum?" asked Uncle Wiggily, as
he saw the animal doctor pulling some bark off a tree. "Are you going
to make a canoe, as the Indians used to do?"
"Oh, no," answered Dr. Possum. "This is a slippery elm tree. The
underside of the bark, next to the tree, and the tree itself, is very
slippery when it is wet. Very slippery indeed."
"Well, I hope you don't slip," said Uncle Wiggily, kindly.
"I hope so, too," Dr. Possum said. "But I am taking this slippery elm
bark to mix with some of the bitter medicine I have to give Billie
Wagtail, the goat boy. When I put some bark from the slippery elm tree
in Billie's medicine it will slip down his throat so quickly that he
will never know he took it."
"Good!" cried Uncle Wiggily, laughing. Then the bunny uncle went close
to the tree, off which Dr. Possum was taking some bark, and felt of it
with his paw. The tree was indeed as slippery as an icy sidewalk slide
on Christmas eve.
"My!" exclaimed Mr. Longears. "If I tried to climb up that tree I'd do
nothing but slip down."
"That's right," said Dr. Possum. "But I must hurry on now to give
Billie Wagtail his medicine."
So Dr. Possum went on his way and Uncle Wiggily hopped along until,
pretty soon, he heard a rustling in the bushes, and a voice said:
"But, Squeaky-Eeky dear, I can't find any snow hill for you to ride
down on your sled. The snow is all gone, you see. It is Spring now."
"Oh, dear!" cried another voice. "Such a lot of trouble. Oh, dear!
Oh, dear!"
"Ha! Trouble!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "This is where I come
in. I must see if I cannot help them."
He looked through the bushes, and there he saw Jillie Longtail, the
little girl mouse, and with her was Squeaky-Eeky, the cousin mouse.
And Squeaky-Eeky had a small sled with her.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, for he saw that
Squeaky-Eeky had been crying. "What is the matter, little mice?"
"Oh, hello. Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "I don't know what to do
with my little cousin mouse. You see she wants to slide down hill on
her Christmas sled, but there isn't any snow on any of the hills now."
"No, that's true, there isn't," said the bunny uncle. "But, Squeaky,
why didn't you slide down hill in the Winter, when there was snow?"
"Because, I had the mouse-trap fever, then," answered Squeaky-Eeky,
"and I couldn't go out. But now I am all better and I can be out, and
oh, dear! I do so much want a ride down hill on my sled. Boo, hoo!"
"Don't cry, Squeaky, dear," said Jillie. "If there is no snow you
can't slide down hill, you know."
"But I want to," said the little cousin mouse, unreasonable like.
"But you can't; so please be nice," begged Jillie.
"Oh, dear!" cried Squeaky. "I do so much want to slide down hill on my
sled."
"And you shall!" suddenly exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "Come with me,
Squeaky."
"Why, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Jillie. "How can you give Squeaky a slide
down hill when there is no snow? You need a slippery snow hill for
sleigh-riding."
"I am not so sure of that," spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a smile. "Let us
see."
Off through the woods he hopped, with Jillie and Squeaky following.
Pretty soon Uncle Wiggily came to a big tree that had fallen down, one
end being raised up higher than the other, like a hill, slanting.
With his strong paws and his sharp teeth, the rabbit gentleman began
peeling the bark off the tree, showing the white wood underneath.
"What are you doing, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Jillie.
"This is a slippery elm tree, and I am making a hill so Squeaky-Eeky
can slide down," answered the bunny uncle. "Underneath the bark the
trunk of the elm tree is very slippery. Dr. Possum told me so. See
how my paw slips!" And indeed it did, sliding down the sloping tree
almost as fast as you can eat a lollypop.
Uncle Wiggily took off a lot of bark from the elm tree, making a long,
sliding, slippery place.
"Now, try that with your sled, Squeaky-Eeky," said the bunny uncle.
And the little cousin mouse did. She put her sled on the slanting
tree, sat down and Jillie gave her a little push. Down the slippery
elm tree went Squeaky as fast as anything, coming to a stop in a pile
of soft leaves.
"Oh, what a lovely slide!" cried Squeaky. "You try it, Jillie." And
the little mouse girl did.
"Who would think," she said, "that you could slide down a slippery elm
tree? But you can."
Then she and Squeaky took turns sliding down hill, even though there
was no snow, and the slippery elm tree didn't mind it a bit, but rather
liked it.
And if the coal man doesn't take away our gas shovel to shoot some
tooth powder into the wax doll's pop gun, I'll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and the sassafras.
STORY IV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SASSAFRAS
"Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily! Get up!" called Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she stood at the foot of the
stairs of the hollow stump bungalow and called up to the rabbit
gentleman one morning.
"Hurry down, Mr. Longears," she went on. "This is the last day I am
going to bake buckwheat cakes, and if you want some nice hot ones, with
maple sugar sauce on, you'd better hurry."
No answer came from the bunny uncle.
"Why, this is strange," said Nurse Jane to herself. "I wonder if
anything can have happened to him? Did he have an adventure in the
night? Did the bad skillery-scalery alligator, with humps on its tail,
carry him off?"
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