Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble | Page 3

a circle, and the old rooster
stood on the bank and crowed, just as if he had done it all! Oh, how
glad Papa and Mamma Wibblewobble were that Lulu was saved!
Now, if you do not get your feet wet, I shall tell you, to-morrow night,
how Jimmie rode in an automobile.

STORY II
JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE IN AN AUTO
One day, well, it must have been about a week after Lulu
Wibblewobble got caught in the mud, she and Jimmie were out
swimming around the pond.
"Come on," said Lulu, "let's go over and see Mrs. Greenie, the frog.
She always has some candied sweet-flag root hidden away, and perhaps
she will give us some."
"I don't believe there's any left," spoke Jimmie, "for Bully, the boy frog,
is so fond of it that he eats all he can get."
"Well, we'll go, anyhow," went on Lulu. Just then she heard her mother
calling:
"Jimmie! Lulu! Where are you going?"
"We are going over to see Mrs. Greenie," replied Jimmie.
"Wait for Alice," called Mamma Wibblewobble. "She will go with you.
She is just putting a clean apron on."
"Oh, dear!" cried Lulu. "Why does Alice always make us wait while
she puts on something clean?"
"I suppose," answered Jimmie, and he scratched his bill with his left leg,

"I suppose it is because she wants to look nice."
"Yes," agreed Lulu, with a sort of quacking-sigh, "I suppose I ought to
want to look nice, too; but, somehow I don't--ever. I always seem to be
in such a hurry."
"Maybe you'll change, some day," suggested her brother.
"Maybe," spoke Lulu, and just then Alice came swimming along,
looking just as nice and pretty as do some ducks which are in a picture.
They all went over to see Mrs. Greenie, the old lady frog, who lived
down on the bottom of the pond, at the far edge, by a big willow tree.
And, honestly, though I don't like to mention it, for fear you'll think
Bully a greedy little boy, there wasn't a single bit of candied sweet-flag
root in the house. No, sir, not a tiny, weeny bit. So Mrs. Greenie gave
the Wibblewobble children some nice snails, which they liked very
much, and then they went on swimming around. Jimmie was looking
for Bully, but the little boy frog had hopped off to see his cousin. Now,
in a few minutes Jimmie is going to have an adventure, and, if you
please, I want you to listen very carefully, so as not to miss it.
Well, the three ducklings swam on, thinking how nice it was on the
water, with the warm sun on their backs, when they suddenly came to
the end of the pond. And who should be standing there but the man
who owned the little puddle. And, more than that, there was another
man also standing there in the road and beside him was a queer thing,
with big fat wheels, fatter than the fattest duck or goose you ever saw.
It was puffing away, and some smoke and a funny smell came from it.
Of course, you've guessed it! An automobile! Now, what do you think
about that? The ducks listened to what the men were saying, for,
though the Wibblewobbles couldn't talk as the men did, they could
understand our language.
"It's too bad," said the man who owned the pond. "Can't you go any
farther?"
"No," said the man who had the automobile, "I can't. You see my horn,

that I blow to tell people to get out of the way, is broken. I can't sound
any warning, and if I ran my machine I might hurt some one; and I
wouldn't do that for the world; no, not for two worlds, if you were to
offer them to me."
"That is very kind of you; very kind, indeed, I'm sure," went on the man
who owned the pond. "I am glad to have met you; and I wish I could
help you."
"I'm afraid you can't," answered the other. "I have to walk way down to
Newark, to get a new horn for my auto, so I can blow it, to warn people
out of the way."
So he started to walk off, and then what do you think happened? Why,
Jimmie Wibblewobble got so excited that he gave a loud
"Quack-Quack!" Oh, so loud and clear! As soon as the man who owned
the auto heard it he cried out, "My gracious goodness! What's that?"
"That," replied the man who owned the pond, "is one of my ducks.
Doesn't he speak very loudly?"
Then Jimmie, just to show what he could do, quacked again, harder
than before.
"Oh, extemporaneousness!" cried the auto man. "That is very fine
quacking,