Uncle Wiggily in the Woods | Page 8

all about his Spring fever. He
was all over it.
"I thought the sassafras would cure you," said Dr. Possum, when Uncle
Wiggily was safely home once more.
"The fox helped some," said the bunny uncle, with a laugh.
And if the black cat doesn't cover himself with talcum powder and
make believe he's a white kid glove going to a dance, I'll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

STORY V
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PULPIT-JACK
"Well, how are you feeling today, Uncle Wiggily?" asked Nurse Jane
Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit
gentleman taking his tall silk hat down off the china closet, getting
ready to go for a walk in the woods one morning.
"Why, I'm feeling pretty fine, Nurse Jane," answered the bunny uncle.
"Since I ran home to get away from the fox, after he turned a
peppersault from pulling too strong to get up the sassafras root, I feel
much better, thank you."
"Good!" cried Nurse Jane. "Then perhaps you would not mind going to
the store for me."
"Certainly not," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "What do you wish?"

"A loaf of bread," replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, "also a box of matches
and some sugar and crackers. But don't forget the matches whatever
you do."
"I won't," promised the bunny uncle, and soon he was hopping along
through the woods wondering what sort of an adventure he would have
this day.
As he was going along keeping a sharp look-out for the bad fox, or the
skillery-scalery alligator with the double jointed tail. Uncle Wiggily
heard a voice saying:
"Oh, dear! I'll never be able to get out from under the stone and grow
tall as I ought. I've pushed and pushed on it, but I can't raise it. Oh, dear;
what a heavy stone!"
"Ha! Some one under a stone!" said Uncle Wiggily to himself. "That
certainly is bad trouble. I wonder if I cannot help?"
The bunny uncle looked all around and down on the ground he saw a
flat stone. Underneath it something green and brown was peeping out.
"Was that you who called?" asked Mr. Longears.
"It was," came the answer. "I am a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant, you see,
and I started to grow up, as all plants and flowers do when summer
comes. But when I had raised my head out of the earth I found a big
stone over me, and now I can grow no more. I've pushed and pushed
until my back aches, and I can't lift the stone."
"I'll do it for you," said Uncle Wiggily kindly, and he did, taking it off
the Pulpit-Jack.
Then the Jack began growing up, and he had been held down so long
that he grew quite quickly, so that even while Uncle Wiggily was
watching, the Jack and his pulpit were almost regular size.
A Jack-in-the-Pulpit, you know, is a queer flower that grows in our

woods. Sometimes it is called an Indian turnip, but don't eat it, for it is
very biting. The Jack is a tall green chap, who stands in the middle of
his pulpit, which is like a little pitcher, with a curved top to it. A pulpit,
you know, is where some one preaches on Sunday.
"Thank you very much for lifting the stone off me so I could grow,"
said the Jack to Uncle Wiggily. "If ever I can do you a favor I will."
"Oh, pray don't mention it," replied the rabbit gentleman, with a low
bow. "It was a mere pleasure, I assure you."
Then the rabbit gentleman hopped on to the store, to get the matches,
the crackers, the bread and other things for Nurse Jane.
"And I must be sure not to forget the matches," Uncle Wiggily said to
himself. "If I did Nurse Jane could not make a fire to cook supper."
There was an April shower while Uncle Wiggily was in the store, and
he waited for the rain to stop falling before he started back to his
hollow stump bungalow. Then the sun came out very hot and strong
and shone down through the wet leaves of the trees in the woods.
Along hopped the bunny uncle, and he was wondering what he would
have for supper that night.
"I hope it's something good," he said, "to make up for not having an
adventure."
"Don't you call that an adventure--lifting the stone off the
Jack-in-the-Pulpit so he could grow?" asked a bird, sitting up in a tree.
"Well, that was a little adventure." said Uncle Wiggily. "But I want one
more exciting; a big one."
And he is going to have one in about a minute. Just you wait and you'll
hear all about it.
The sun was shining hotter and hotter,