Uncle Wiggilys Travels | Page 7

I wonder if I can be lost?"
So he looked all around to see if he might be lost in the woods. But you
know how it is, sometimes you're lost when you least expect it, and
again you think you are lost, but you're right near home all the while.
That's the way it was with Uncle Wiggily, he didn't know whether or
not he was lost, so he thought he'd sit down on a flat stone and eat his
lunch. The reason he sat on a flat stone instead of a round one was
because he had some hard boiled eggs for his lunch, and you know if
you put an egg on a round stone it's bound to roll off and crack right in
the middle.
"And I don't like cracked eggs," said the rabbit. So he laid the eggs he
had on the flat stone, and put little sticks in front of them and behind
them, so they couldn't even roll off the flat stone if they wanted to.
Then he ate his lunch.
"I guess it doesn't much matter if I am lost," said the traveling
fortune-hunting rabbit a little later. "I'll go on and perhaps I may meet
with an adventure." So on he hopped, and pretty soon he came to a
place where the leaves and the dirt were all torn up, just as if some boys
had been playing a baseball game, or leap-frog, or something like that.
"My, I must look out that I don't tumble down any holes here," thought
Uncle Wiggily, "for maybe some bad men have been setting traps to
catch us rabbits."
Well, he turned to one side, to get out of the way of some sharp thorns,
and, my goodness! if there weren't more sharp thorns on the ground on
the other side of the path. "I guess I'll have to keep straight ahead!"
thought our Uncle Wiggily. "I never saw so many thorns before in all
my life. I'll have to look out or I'll be stuck."
So he kept straight on, and all of a sudden he felt himself going down
into a big hole.

"Oh! Oh dear! Oh me! Oh my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I've fallen into a
trap! That's what those thorns were for--so I would have to walk toward
the trap instead of going to one side."
But, very luckily for Uncle Wiggily, his crutch happened to catch
across the hole, and so he didn't go all the way down, but hung on. But
his valise fell to the bottom. However, he managed to pull himself up
on the ground, though his rheumatism hurt him, and soon he was safe
once more.
"Oh, my valise, with all my clothes in it!" he cried, as he looked down
into the hole, which had been covered over with loose leaves and dirt
so he couldn't see it before falling in. "I wonder how I can get my
things back again?" he went on.
Then he looked up, and in a tree, not far from him, he saw something
bright and yellow, shining like gold.
"Ah, ha!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "At last I have found the pot of gold,
even if the rainbow isn't here. That is yellow, and yellow is the color of
gold. Now my fortune is made. I will get that gold and go back home."
So, not worrying any more about his valise down the trap-hole, Uncle
Wiggily hopped over to the tree to get what he thought was a big bunch
of yellow gold. But as he came closer, he saw that the gold was moving
about and fluttering, though not going very far away.
"That is queer gold," thought the old gentleman rabbit. "I never saw
moving gold before. I wonder if it is a good kind."
Then he went a little closer and he heard a voice crying.
"Why, that is crying gold, too," he said. "This is very strange."
Then he heard some one calling:
"Oh, help! Will some one please help me?"
"Why, this is most strange of all!" the rabbit cried. "It is talking gold.

Perhaps there is a fairy about."
"Oh, I only wish there was one!" cried the yellow object in the tree. "If
I saw a fairy I'd ask her to set me free."
"What's that? Who are you?" asked the rabbit.
"Oh, I'm a poor little yellow bird," was the answer, "and I'm caught in a
string-trap that some boys set in this tree. There is a string around my
legs and I can't fly home to see my little ones. I got into the trap by
mistake. Oh! can't you help me? Climb up into the tree, Uncle Wiggily,
and help me!"
"How did you know my name was Uncle Wiggily?"