I Love Animal Stories. Aesop
"Of course, I can," exclaimed the rabbit, a bit pettish-like, for he didn't care to have even a toad think he couldn't jump as well as ever he could.
"I'd like to see you," went on the toad. "See if you jump from here over on that pile of leaves," and he pointed to them with his warty toes.
"I'll do it," exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. So he laid aside his crutch and his valise, gave a little run and a big jump, and then he came down kerthump on the pile of leaves.
But wait. Oh! I have something sad to tell you. That toad was only playing a trick on the rabbit, and those leaves were right over a big, deep, dark well. And as soon as Uncle Wiggily landed on the leaves he fell through, for there were no boards under them to cover up the well, and down, down, down he went, and if there had been water in the well he would have been drowned. But the well was dry, I'm glad to say. Still Uncle Wiggily had a great fall—almost like the tumble of Humpty-Dumpty.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the mean, squatty-squirmy toad. "Now you are in the well, and I'm going off, and tell the wolves, so they can come and get you out, and eat you. Ah, ha!" Oh! but wasn't that toad a most unpleasant one? You see, he used to work for the wolves, doing all sorts of mean things for them, and trapping all the animals he could for them.
So off the toad hopped, to call the wolves to come and get Uncle Wiggily, and the poor rabbit was left alone at the bottom of the well. He tried his best to get up, but he couldn't.
"I guess I'll have to stay here until the wolves come," he thought, sadly. "But I'll call for help, and see what happens." So he called: "Help! Help! Help!" as loudly as he could.
And all of a sudden a voice answered and asked:
"Where are you?"
"In the well," shouted Uncle Wiggily, and he was afraid it was the wolves coming to eat him. But it wasn't, it was the limpy grasshopper, and he tried to pull Uncle Wiggily out of the well, but, of course, he wasn't strong enough.
"But I'll get Percival, the circus dog, and he'll pull you out before the wolves come," said the grasshopper. "Now I have a chance to do you a kindness for the one you did me." So he hopped off, as his leg was nearly all better, and he found Percival on the left road and told him what had happened.
And, my! how that circus dog did rush back to help Uncle Wiggily. And he got him out of the well in no time, by lowering a long rope to him, and pulling the rabbit gentleman up, and then the rabbit and dog ran away, before the toad could come back with the savage wolves, who didn't get any supper out of the well, after all, and it served them right.
So that's all of this story, but I have some more, about the adventures of Uncle Wiggily, and next, in case the load of hay doesn't fall on my puppy-dog, and break off his curly tail, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Jennie Chipmunk.
STORY XVIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK
After Uncle Wiggily had been pulled up out of the well by Percival, the old circus dog, and they had run far enough off so that the wolves couldn't get them, the rabbit and the grasshopper and Percival sat down on the ground to rest. For you see Uncle Wiggily was tired from having fallen down the well, and the grasshopper was tired from having run so fast to call back Percival, and of course Percival was tired from having pulled up the old gentleman rabbit. So they were all pretty well tired out.
"I'm sure I can't thank you enough for what you did for me," said Uncle Wiggily to Percival, and the grasshopper. "And as a little treat I'm going to give you some cherry pie that I made for the hedgehog."
So they ate some cherry pie, and then they felt better. And they were just going to travel on together again, when, all at once, there was a rustling in the bushes, and out flew Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy.
"Oh, my" cried Uncle Wiggily, wrinkling up his nose. "At first I thought you were a savage owl."
"Oh, no, I'm not an owl," said Dickie. "But I'm in a great hurry, and perhaps I made a noise like an owl. Percival, you must come back home to the Bow Wow house right away."
"Why?" asked Percival, sticking up his two ears so that he could hear better.
"Because Peetie Bow Wow is very ill with the German measles, and he wants to see you do some of your funny circus tricks," spoke Dickie. "He thinks that will make him better."
"Ha! I've no doubt that it will!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "If I were not traveling about, seeking my fortune, I'd go back with you, Percival. I love Peetie Bow Wow, and Jackie, too."
"Oh, I'll go," said the grasshopper. "I will play Peetie a funny fiddle tune, on my left hind leg, and that may make him laugh."
"And Nellie and I will sail through the air, and go off to find some pretty flowers for him," said Dickie.
So the sparrow boy, the grasshopper and old Percival, the circus dog, started off together to see poor sick Peetie Bow Wow, leaving Uncle Wiggily there on the grass.
"Give my love to Peetie!" called the old gentleman rabbit after them, "and tell him that I'll come and see him as soon as I find my fortune."
Uncle Wiggily felt a little bit sad and lonely when his friends were gone, but he ate another piece of cherry pie, taking care to get none of the juice, on his blue necktie, and then he was a little happier.
"Now to start off once more," he said. "I wonder what will happen next? But I know one thing, I'm never going to do any jumping for any squatty old toads any more."
So Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, and when it came night he didn't have any place to sleep. But as it happened he met a kind old water snake, who had a nice house in an old pile of wood, and there the rabbit stayed until morning, when the water snake got him a nice breakfast of pond lilies, with crinkly eel-grass sauce on.
Pretty soon it was nearly noon that day, and Uncle Wiggily was about to sit down on a nice green mossy bank in the woods—not a toy bank with money in it, you understand, but a dirt-bank, with moss on it like a carpet. That's where he was going to sit.
"I think I'll eat my dinner," said the old gentleman rabbit as he opened his valise, and just then he heard a voice in the woods singing. And this was the song:
"Oh dear! I'm lost, I know I am,
I don't know what to do.
I had a big red ribbon, and
I had one colored blue.
But now I haven't got a one
Because a savage bear
Took both of them, and tied a string
Around my curly hair.
I wish I had a penny bright,
To buy a trolley car.
I'd ride home then, because, you see,
To walk it is too far."
"I guess that's some one in trouble, all right," said Uncle Wiggily, as he cautiously peeped through the bushes. "Though, perhaps, it is a little wolf boy, or a fox." But when he looked, whom should he see but little Jennie Chipmunk, and she was crying as hard as she could cry, so she couldn't sing any more.
"Why, Jennie, what is the matter?" kindly asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, I came out in the woods to gather acorns in a little basket for supper," she said, "and I guess I must have come too far. The first thing I knew a big bear jumped out of the bushes at me, and he took off both my nice, new hair ribbons and put on this old string."
And, sure enough, there was only just an old black shoestring on Jennie's nice hair.
"Where is that bear?" asked Uncle Wiggily, quite savage like. "Just tell me where he is, and I'll make him give you back those ribbons, and then I'll show you the