Uncle Wiggily in the Woods | Page 5

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?"