Uncle Wiggilys Travels | Page 5

for me a long
time, and it won't hurt to wait a bit longer. I'll get you the sticks," said
the rabbit gentleman.
So while Mrs. Wren sat over the eggs to keep them warm with her
fluffy feathers, Uncle Wiggily looked for sticks with which to make a
new nest. He couldn't find any short and small enough, so what do you
think he did?
Why, he took some big sticks and he jumped a jiggily dance up and
down on them with his sharp paws, and broke them up as fine as
toothpicks for the nest. Then he arranged them as well as he could in a
sort of hollow, like a tea cup.
"Oh, if we only had some feathers now, we would be all right," said
Mrs. Wren. "It's a very good nest for a rabbit to make."
"Don't say a word!" cried some small voices on the ground. "We will
gather up the feathers for you." And there came marching up a lot of
the little ants that Uncle Wiggily had been kind to, and soon they had
gathered up all the scattered feathers. And the nest was made on a
mossy stump, and lined with the feathers, and the warm eggs were put
in it by Mrs. Wren, who then hovered over them to hatch out the birdies.
And she was very thankful to Uncle Wiggily for what he had done.
Now, in case the water in the lake doesn't get inside the milk pail and
make lemonade of it, I'll tell you in the next story how the birdies were
hatched out, and also about Uncle Wiggily and the sunfish.

STORY III

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SUNFISH
Uncle Wiggily slept that night--I mean the night after he had helped
Mrs. Wren build her nest--he slept in an old under-ground house that
another rabbit must have made some time before. It was nicely lined
with leaves, and the fortune-hunting bunny slept very nice and warm
there.
When the sun was up, shining very brightly, and most beautifully,
Uncle Wiggily arose, shook his ears to get the dust out of them, and
threw the dried-leaf blankets off him.
"Ah, ha! I must be up and doing," he cried. "Perhaps I shall find my
fortune to-day."
Well, no sooner had he crawled out of the burrow than he heard a most
beautiful song. It was one Mrs. Wren was singing, and it went "tra-la-la
tra-la-la! tum-tee-tee-tum-tum-tee-tee!" too pretty for anything. And
then, afterward, there was a sort of an echo like "cheep-cheep
cheep-cheep!"
"Why, you must be very happy this morning, Mrs. Wren!" called Uncle
Wiggily to her as she sat in her new nest which the rabbit had made for
her on the mossy stump.
"I am," she answered, "very happy. What do you think happened in the
night?"
"I can't guess," he answered. "A burglar crow didn't come and steal
your eggs, I hope!"
"Oh, nothing sad or bad like that," she answered. "But something very
nice. Just hop up here and look."
So Uncle Wiggily hopped up on the stump, and Mrs. Wren got off her
nest, and there, on the bottom, in among some egg-shells, were a lot of
tiny, weeny little birdies, about as big as a spool of silk thread or even
smaller.

"Why, where in the world did they come from?" asked the old
gentleman rabbit, rubbing his eyes.
"Out of the eggs to be sure," answered Mrs. Wren. "And I do declare,
the last of my family is hatched now. There is little Wiggily out of the
shell at last. I think I'll name him after you, as he never could keep still
when he was being hatched. Now I must take out all the broken shells
so the birdies won't cut themselves on them." And she began to throw
them out with her bill, just as the mother hen does, and then one of the
new little birdies called out:
"Cheep-cheep-chip-chip!"
"Yes, I know you're hungry," answered their mamma, who understood
their bird talk. "Well, I'll fly away and get you something to eat just as
soon as your papa comes home to stay in the house. You know Mr.
Wren went away last night to see about getting a new position in a
feather pillow factory," said Mrs. Wren to Uncle Wiggily, "and he
doesn't yet know about the birdies. I hope he'll come back soon, as they
are very hungry, and I don't like to leave them alone to go shopping."
"Oh, I'll stay and take care of them for you while you go to the store,"
said the old gentleman rabbit, kindly.
"That will do very well," said Mrs. Wren. So she put on her bonnet and
shawl and took her market basket and off