Uncle Wiggilys Adventures | Page 6

hollow stump, and you can stay in that
very nicely."
"Are there any bears in it?" asked Uncle Wiggily, careful-like.
"Oh, no; not a one. It is very safe."
So the crow showed Uncle Wiggily where the hollow stump was, and
he slept there all night, on a soft bed of leaves. And when he awakened
in the morning he had breakfast with the crow and once more started
off to seek his fortune.
Well, pretty soon, in a short while, not so very long, he came to a little
house made of bark, standing in the middle of a deep, dark, dismal
woods. And on the door of the house was a sign which read:
"If you want to be surprised, open this door and come in."
"Perhaps I can find my fortune in there, and get rid of the rheumatism,"
thought Uncle Wiggily, so he hopped forward. And just as he did so he
heard a voice calling to him:
"Don't go in! Don't go in there, Uncle Wiggily!"
The rabbit looked up, and saw Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy,
waving his paws at him. Well, Uncle Wiggily started to jump back
away from the door of the little house, but it was too late. Out came a
scraggily-raggily claw, which grabbed him, while a voice cried out:

"Ah, ha! Now I have you! Come right in!"
And then, before you could shake a stick at a bad dog, the door was
slammed shut and locked, and there Uncle Wiggily was inside the
house, and Johnnie Bushytail was crying outside.
"That's the end of poor Uncle Wiggily!" said Johnnie. But it wasn't. For
I'll not leave the old gentleman rabbit alone in the house with that
clawy creature. And in the next story, providing our wash lady doesn't
put my new straw hat in the soap suds, and take all the color out of the
ribbon, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Fido Flip-Flop.

STORY IV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND FIDO FLIP-FLOP
Well, as soon as Uncle Wiggily found himself inside the bear's den--oh,
just listen to me! That was in the other story, wasn't it? Yes, we left him
in the funny little house in the woods, with the clawy creature grabbing
him.
Now, what do you suppose that clawy creature was? Why, a great, big
owl, to be sure, with round, staring, yellow eyes, and he had grabbed
Uncle Wiggily in his claws, and pulled him inside the house.
"Now, I've got you!" cried the owl. "I was just wishing some one would
come along, and you did. Some of my friends are coming to tea this
afternoon, and you'll do very nicely made up into sandwiches."
Wasn't that a perfectly dreadful way to talk about our Uncle Wiggily?
Well, I guess yes!
"Now you're here, make yourself at home," went on the owl,
sarcastic-like, as he locked the front door and put the key in his pocket.
"Did you see the sign?"
"Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, "I did. But I don't call it fair. I thought I
would find my fortune in here."
"The sign says you'll be surprised, and I guess you are surprised, aren't
you?" asked the owl.
"Yes," answered the rabbit, "very much so. But I'd rather have a nice
surprise party, with peanuts and lemonade, than this."
"No matter," said the owl, snapping his beak like a pair of shears, "here
you are and here you'll stay! My friends will soon arrive. I'll now put
the kettle on, to boil for tea."
Well, poor Uncle Wiggily didn't know what to do. He couldn't look in

his valise to see if there was anything in it by which he might escape,
for he had dropped the satchel outside when the owl grabbed him, and
he only had his barber-pole crutch.
"Oh, this is worse and worse!" thought the poor old rabbit.
But listen, Johnnie Bushytail is outside the owl's house, and he's going
to do a wonderful trick.
As soon as he saw the door shut on Uncle Wiggily, that brave squirrel
boy began to plan how he could save him, and the first thing he did was
to gather up a lot of acorns.
Then he perched himself in a tree, right in front of the owl's door, and
Johnnie began throwing acorns at it. "Rat-a-tat-tat!" went the acorns on
the wooden panels.
"Ha! Those must be my friends!" exclaimed the bad owl, opening the
door a little crack so he could peek out, but taking care to stand in front
of it, so that Uncle Wiggily couldn't slip out. But, of course, the owl
saw no one. "It must have been the wind," he said as he shut the door.
Then Johnnie Bushytail threw some more acorns at the door.
"Pitter-patter-patter-pit!"