Uncle Wiggily in the Woods | Page 3

"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,