Part 1
[Illustration: [Uncle Wiggily]]
UNCLE WIGGILY [TRADE MARK REGISTERED] AND BABY BUNTY
_by_ HOWARD R. GARIS
_Author of_ “UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES”, “UNCLE WIGGILY’S PICTURE BOOK”, “UNCLE WIGGILY’S STORY BOOK”, Etc.
_Illustrated by_ LOUIS WISA
[Illustration: [Logo]]
A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
UNCLE WIGGILY BOOKS
(TRADE MARK REGISTERED)
_by_
HOWARD R. GARIS
BEDTIME STORIES
UNCLE WIGGILY and CHARLIE and ARABELLA CHICK UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RINGTAILS UNCLE WIGGILY ON SUGAR ISLAND UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY UNCLE WIGGILY’S PUZZLE BOOK UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS UNCLE WIGGILY’S ADVENTURES UNCLE WIGGILY’S AUTOMOBILE UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM UNCLE WIGGILY’S BUNGALOW UNCLE WIGGILY’S FORTUNE UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRAVELS UNCLE WIGGILY’S AIRSHIP
Larger Uncle Wiggily Volumes
UNCLE WIGGILY’S PICTURE BOOK
_33 full colored illustrations and 32 in black and white_
UNCLE WIGGILY’S STORY BOOK
_16 full colored illustrations and 29 in black and white_
_Copyright 1920 by_ R. F. FENNO & COMPANY UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY
_Printed in the United States of America_
STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY
“Ouch! Oh, dear! My! My!”
That was what Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy heard one day in the hollow stump bungalow. She was just getting breakfast for Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny gentleman.
“My goodness me sakes alive and a basket of potato chips!” cried Nurse Jane, accidentally dropping a stewed carrot into the turnip marmalade. “I hope the Skeezicks, or the Pipsisewah or the Skuddlemagoon hasn’t caught Mr. Longears!”
She looked in the dining room. The uncle bunny had just come downstairs to his breakfast.
“Ouch! Oh, me! Oh, my!” groaned Uncle Wiggily as he sat down in his chair, which was gnawed out of a grape vine root.
“Why, no one is biting him,” said Nurse Jane, as she looked all around. “Whatever in the world is the matter, Wiggy?” she asked, bringing in his breakfast turnip.
“Oh, I’m getting old, I guess,” he answered. “My joints are stiff, and it isn’t all rheumatism, either. I can’t move around as spry as I’d like to. Every time I bend over, or stoop, or try to hurry I get aches and pains and——”
“Oh, nonsense!” laughed Nurse Jane. “You only imagine it. You’re as young as ever! What you need is some one lively around the house. Some one to chase you, to tag you and make you spry. I can’t do it, because I have the housework to look after. But if you could get some bright, frisky, lively little chap—why, you’d be a different rabbit.”
“I s’pose I would,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Do you mean to get Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, one of the squirrel boys? They’re lively enough.”
“Yes, they’re lively enough,” said Nurse Jane, “but they have to frisk around their own home nest. You want some one to stay here with you a long time.”
“All right,” said Uncle Wiggily, sad like and not very hopeful. “After breakfast I’ll go to the five and six cent store and see if I can get a lively little chap to cheer me up.”
“You won’t find any at the five and six, nor even at the ten and eleven cent store,” said Nurse Jane. “True, the little mousie girl clerks are lively enough, but they have to work. You need a—well, a sort of companion. I’m getting too old for you.”
“Nonsense!” scoffed Uncle Wiggily.
But, as he hopped over the fields and through the woods after breakfast the more he thought of what Nurse Jane had said the more he knew she was right.
“I need some one lively to make me jump around,” thought the bunny. “If only I could get a——”
Just then he heard a little voice calling:
“Let me out! Let me out.”
“Ha! Where does that voice come from?” asked the bunny. “Where are you, whoever you are?”
“In this hollow stump, right behind you!” answered the voice. “Oh, I hate being cooped up here! I want to get out and jump around and chase my shadow and jump over moonbeams and all things like that.”
“Are you—are you a fairy?” asked Uncle Wiggily sort of hopeful like. “If I help you out of the hollow stump, could you make me feel younger and more lively?”
“Of course I could; but I’m not a fairy,” was the answer, given with a jolly laugh.
“You must be a fairy or else you couldn’t take away my old-age aches and pains,” said the bunny. “Well, as long as you aren’t the skillery-scalery alligator, or the Pipsisewah, I’ll let you out. But how did you get in?”
“Let me out and I’ll tell you,” said the voice.
The hollow stump was partly filled with old dried leaves, broken sticks and bits of bark. Uncle Wiggily scraped all this away with his paws, and out popped the dearest little girl rabbit you ever saw.
“Oh, who are you?” asked Uncle Wiggily in surprise.
“I am Baby Bunty,” was the answer. “I was going through the woods with my papa and mamma a while ago, but a bad fox caught them, and I was left all alone. So I hid in the hollow stump, the birds piled leaves and bits of bark over me to cover me, but when it rained it was packed down so hard that I couldn’t get out. So I had to cry for help.”
“Well, I’m glad I helped you,” said the bunny. “But how are you going to make me feel young again——”
“Tag! You’re it!” suddenly cried Baby Bunty, tapping Uncle Wiggily with her paw. “Now you have to chase me!” and away she hopped through the woods.
“My goodness! If she goes along like that, all alone, the fox will catch her!” said Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll have to run after her! But my aches—my pains—oh dear!”
Away hopped the rabbit gentleman, after Baby Bunty. She ran fast and so did Uncle Wiggily, and when they reached his hollow stump bungalow he was so warm and excited and so anxious about Baby Bunty—why, he wasn’t lame or stiff a bit! Can you imagine?
“I told you so!” laughed Nurse Jane, when she saw the baby rabbit, which Mr. Longears said he would keep in his bungalow. “Now that you have some one young around you’ll get younger yourself.”
And Mr. Longears did. And if the top of the house doesn’t go down cellar to see why the laundry tubs can’t wash the coal white, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s skates.
STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S SKATES
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit gentleman, was asleep in his hollow stump bungalow one morning, when he heard, as if in a dream, Nurse Jane Fuzzy ring the breakfast bell.
“Oh! Um! Ah! I don’t hardly believe I’ll get up this morning!” said Uncle Wiggily, sort of stretchy like. “You may keep breakfast for me, Nurse Jane.”
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! You must get up! You must get up! You must get up! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, you must get up! You must get up today! Right away!” sang a jolly little voice.
Uncle Wiggily gave a sudden start. All his aches and pains seemed to go away at once, and he felt as spry as a new grasshopper.
“Hello! Who’s down there?” he called from the top of the stairs, for the voice seemed to come from the dining room, down below. “Who wants me to get up?”
“It’s Baby Bunty!” said Nurse Jane. “Have you forgotten that you brought her home from a hollow stump yesterday, and that she’s going to live here?”
“Oh, I did forget!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Is she still here?”
“Well, you’d better come down here and look after her while I get breakfast!” said Nurse Jane. “I never saw such a lively little rabbit before! She nearly jumped over the milk bottle while I had my back turned!”
Uncle Wiggily smiled until his pink nose twinkled on both sides at once.
“So Baby Bunty is lively, is she?” said the bunny gentleman. “Well, that’s just what I need to keep me from getting old and stiff.”
“Hurry, Uncle Wiggily! Hurry!” called Baby Bunty.
“What’s the hurry?” asked Mr. Longears, as he smoothed out his fur with a pine tree cone for a brush.
“Why, this is the first of May!” went on the little rabbit girl, who was going to live with Uncle Wiggily. “It’s the first of May and we’re going out and gather flowers today, tra-la!”
“Who’s going?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he came downstairs to breakfast.
“You and I are going to gather flowers. We’ll have fun, many joyful hours!” sang Baby Bunty, as she danced about the breakfast room like a sunbeam playing tag with a pussy cat.
“Oh, oh! We’ll see about that!” said Uncle Wiggily. “Now you run out and play while I eat, and then we’ll see what happens. Did you have your breakfast?”
“Oh, yes, Baby Bunty was up as soon as I was,” said Nurse Jane.
Uncle Wiggily ate his breakfast slowly and carefully. He didn’t like to hurry except when the Pipsisewah was chasing him. And after he had eaten some carrot pancakes, Uncle Wiggily felt sort of lazy like and comfortable.
“I’ll play a little trick on Baby Bunty,” he thought. “I don’t believe it will do my old bones good to go off in the damp woods so early in the morning to gather flowers. I’ll wait until the sun is warmer. I’ll just stay here and go to sleep. She’ll forget all about me.”
So Uncle Wiggily curled up in the easy chair, thinking how good it felt to rest his tired bones and joints. But, all of a sudden, as he was sort of dozing off to sleep, he heard Nurse Jane cry:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Come here! Come quickly! There goes Baby Bunty off on her skates.”
“Baby Bunty? Going off on her skates! Why, she hasn’t any skates!” cried the rabbit gentleman, suddenly waking up! “She’s too little to have roller skates, and it isn’t the time of year for ice skates. How you talk, Nurse Jane!”
“Well, there she goes, anyhow!” said the muskrat lady. “She’s a lively little tyke, is Baby Bunty. She made herself a pair of roller skates out of some old round clothespins, and there she goes on them, skating down the woodland path. You’d better run after her, Uncle Wiggily, or a bad fox may catch her!”
“That’s so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he forgot all about his stiff joints, and how he used to have rheumatism and all that. Away he hopped and ran and leaped and jumped after Baby Bunty. And away the little Bunty went on her clothespin roller skates.
“Come on, Uncle Wiggily!” she cried to him. “See if you can catch me!”
Well, Uncle Wiggily finally did, but it was hard work, and he was so out of breath when he finally ran and caught up to Baby Bunty that he could hardly twinkle his pink nose at all.
“Isn’t this jolly!” laughed the little bunny girl tyke. “Now we can get May flowers! I wanted you to be lively and come, and you did. You came right after me!”
“Yes, but you led me quite a chase!” panted Uncle Wiggily. “However, I guess I feel better after it. I’m not stiff, now!” And he wasn’t a bit, and he and Baby Bunty gathered a fine bouquet of May blossoms. And if the molasses jug doesn’t get stuck in the alley when it’s trying to run through and tag the sugar cookie, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s ride.
STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S RIDE
Out in front of the hollow stump bungalow sat Uncle Wiggily’s automobile. He had put on it a new turnip steering wheel, and he was thinking of going for a ride, when Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy came out on the front stoop and said:
“Here’s the pepper caster, Mr. Longears.”
“Pepper caster? What do I want of that when I’m going for a ride in my auto?” asked the bunny, in surprise. “I don’t need it!”
“Why, yes, you do,” spoke Nurse Jane. “Don’t you remember? You always sprinkle pepper on the sausage tires of your auto, when you want to go fast. And you might want to go fast today.”
“So I might,” said Uncle Wiggily, reflective like, and slow. “So I might. Thank you, Nurse Jane.”
The bunny rabbit gentleman took the pepper caster from the muskrat lady, but still he did not get in his auto and take a ride. Instead he sat down on a bench in front of his bungalow, and he let the sun shine through his whiskers and on his pink, twinkling nose.
“I think I’ll sit here and take a rest,” spoke Uncle Wiggily. “I did have it in mind to go for a ride, but it is very nice here. It does my old rheumatic joints good to let the sun soak in. I’ll just be lazy and comfortable like today.”
So he took some soft cushions out of the Sunday parlor part of his auto, made himself a little bed on the bench at the sunny side of his machine, and snuggled down.
“Oh, what a funny looking rabbit you are!” cried a jolly little voice all of a sudden. “Come on and play with me, Uncle Wiggily!”
“No, Baby Bunty! Not today!” answered Mr. Longears, not even bothering to open his eyes, he was so lazy like and self-contained. But even if he did not see her, he knew it was Baby Bunty speaking. She was the lively little rabbit girl he had found in a hollow stump, and had brought home to live with him.
“Oh, come and play tag!” begged Bunty.
“No! Nope! Nopey!” said Mr. Longears slowly. “I just want to sit and rest. My joints are too stiff to play tag!”
Then everything grew quiet and peaceful, and Uncle Wiggily thought Baby Bunty had gone away so he could go to sleep. Baby Bunty had gone away, but in a very queer way.
All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily was awakened by hearing Nurse Jane call out:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Baby Bunty is having a ride.”
“Is she?” asked the bunny slowly. “That’s good! I hope she has a nice one!”
“Oh, but listen!” cried the muskrat lady. “Baby Bunty jumped in your auto while you were asleep, and she sprinkled some pepper on the bologna sausage tires, and now she’s riding away! Run after her! Hop after her and catch her in the auto, or she may be hurt!”
“Oh, my! Oh, my goodness!” cried Uncle Wiggily. He was wide awake now, and he forgot all about his stiff joints and wanting to rest.
On through the woods he hopped. Faster and faster rode Baby Bunty in the runaway auto. Faster and faster hopped Uncle Wiggily. Quicker and quicker went Baby Bunty in the skippily auto. Quicker and quicker hopped Uncle Wiggily after her.
“Stop! Stop!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “What are you trying to do?”
“Oh! I wanted to have some fun, and make you chase me,” said Baby Bunty. “But I didn’t mean to go so fast, and now I can’t stop! Save me! Save me!”
“I will if I can!” panted Uncle Wiggily. He wasn’t a bit lazy or sleepy now. Nor were his joints stiff! He was as lively as a cricket.
Suddenly, just as Baby Bunty, not knowing much about automobiles, was going to run into a tree, Uncle Wiggily gave a big skip and a hop and caught up to her. In he jumped, shut off the gasolene, put on the brakes and saved Bunty. Then the little rabbit girl smiled sweetly and said:
“Thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I thought I could make you come and have a ride with me.”
“Well—dont—do—it—again!” said the rabbit gentleman, all out of breath like. “You are getting too lively for me, Baby Bunty! Altogether too lively!”
Still he liked her, and if the can opener doesn’t take the top off the powdered sugar basin and make the goldfish sneeze, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s balloon.
STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S BALLOON
“Is she here?” whispered Uncle Wiggily to his muskrat lady housekeeper, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as he hopped into his hollow stump bungalow one day.
“Do you mean Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, who was just here calling on me?” asked Nurse Jane. “If you mean her, she has gone.”
“No, I mean Baby Bunty. Is she here?” asked Uncle Wiggily, still whispering and looking all around the bungalow, while he twinkled his pink nose expectant like.
“Baby Bunty isn’t here,” said Nurse Jane. “I gave her a penny a while ago and she said she was going down to the one-cent store and buy a toy balloon.”
“Ah! Then I can come in and have a rest,” said the rabbit gentleman. “Baby Bunty is good to keep an old rabbit man’s joints from getting stiff,” he said, as he stretched out in his easy chair, “but too much of it is quite enough. I’ll be glad of a little rest.”
Baby Bunty, you know, was a cute little rabbit girl, whose father and mother had been taken away by a fox. Uncle Wiggily found Baby Bunty in the woods in a hollow stump, and brought her home with him.
“She’s so lively she’ll keep you from getting old and stiff,” said Nurse Jane. And Baby Bunty was very lively like and always doing something.
“But now, since she has gone down the woodland path to buy a toy balloon, I’ll sit here and rest,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take a nap until it’s time to eat dinner.”
Uncle Wiggily stretched out in his easy chair. Soon his pink, twinkly nose was still and quiet. Mr. Longears was asleep.
The bunny rabbit gentleman was just dreaming he was chasing Baby Bunty through the woods in his automobile when, all of a sudden, in came running Billie Wagtail, the goat boy.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily!” bleated Billie. “You ought to see her!”
“See whom?” asked Mr. Longears, waking up so suddenly that his nose twinkled twice as fast as it ought. “See whom?”
“Baby Bunty!” answered the goat boy. “She’s away up in the air sailing over the treetops!”
“She is?” cried the bunny gentleman. “Oh, dear! Some more of her tricks to keep me from getting old and stiff, I suppose. Did she take my airship out, as she ran away in my auto yesterday?” he asked Nurse Jane.
[Illustration: [Airship]]
“I think not,” answered the muskrat lady. “Your airship is still in the stable. And are you sure you saw her up above the trees, Billie?”
“Oh, yes’m! And here comes Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel! He saw her, too!” bleated the goat boy.
“What’s the matter with Baby Bunty?” asked Uncle Wiggily of the chattery chap.
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered Johnnie. “But she’s sailing around just like an airship—over the tops of the trees. Come out and see!”
Out rushed Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane and Billie, the goat, and Johnnie, the squirrel. Surely enough, up above their heads, was Baby Bunty floating along like a cloud.
“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily; “that little rabbit girl is always doing something. But I must chase after her! I must get her down!
“Quick, Nurse Jane. Bring out my flying suit of leather! Billie, you and Johnnie run my airship out of the barn! I’ll have to sail up in my airship and bring down Baby Bunty, but I don’t see how she got up there!”
Uncle Wiggily was soon seated on the sofa cushions of his airship, which had toy circus balloons to raise it up and an electric fan that went whizzieizzie to speed it along. Soon he was sailing over the tree tops, up near where Baby Bunty was floating.
“Oh, dear! How did you ever get up here?” asked the rabbit gentleman.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to! Really I didn’t!” said Baby Bunty, half crying. “But I’m glad you came after me, for it will keep you from getting old and stiff!”
“Yes, I s’pose it will!” said Uncle Wiggily, as he sailed close to the little bunny girl and took her into the clothes basket part of his airship. “Ah! Ha! I see how you came to rise off the earth!” he said. “You blew your penny toy balloon up so big that it swelled and raised you up; didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Baby Bunty, “I did. But I didn’t mean to. I just blew and blew into my toy balloon and it got bigger and bigger, and then I couldn’t get the air out, and the balloon began to go up and I began to go up, and—well, I’m glad you came and got me!” she finished.
“Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, “I s’pose you are. But don’t do it again.” Then he let the air out of the toy balloon that Baby Bunty had blown too big for herself, and Mr. Longears took the little rabbit girl down to earth in his airship. And everybody said:
“Isn’t Baby Bunty cute!”
“Yes,” said Mr. Longears, “she is. No one would get stiff joints with her around.” And if the box of talcum powder doesn’t blow smoke in the eyes of the potatoes and make them blink, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s doll.
STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S DOLL
“Where is Bunty?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, one morning, as he came down to breakfast in his hollow stump bungalow.
“Oh, Bunty has gone out to play, long ago!” said Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.
“Well, I’m glad of that,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a sigh, sort of restful like and ample. “It’s a good thing to have Bunty go out and play.”
“Do you mean it’s good for her?” asked Nurse Jane, as she sliced some carrots for the bunny’s breakfast and poured maple sugar sauce over them.
“It’s restful for Bunty and restful for me,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Do you know, Nurse Jane,” he went on, “since I found Baby Bunty, that cute little rabbit girl, in a hollow stump and brought her home to live with us, she certainly has kept me going. Yes, sir!” exclaimed Mr. Longears, explosive like and inflammatory, at the same time documentary, “she certainly has kept me busy!”
“But it’s good for you,” said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. “You haven’t looked so well in months. Baby Bunty, by being lively, and making you chase her every once in a while, keeps you from getting stiff.”
“Well, yes, perhaps,” admitted the bunny rabbit. “But, at the same time I am glad she has gone out to play this morning. Now, after breakfast, I can sit and read my paper in peace and restfulness.”
And, when he had finished eating his turnip turnovers, with lettuce frosting on, Uncle Wiggily sat down in his easy chair in the sunshine, and began to look over the Cabbage Leaf Gazette, which is the newspaper of the animal people of Woodland, near the Orange Ice Mountains.
But just as Uncle Wiggily was reading how Grandfather Goosey Gander had a cold in his bill and couldn’t quack very well, Nurse Jane suddenly cried:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Come here as quickly as you can. Hurry!”
“What’s the matter now?” asked the rabbit gentleman, as he dropped his paper and gave three hops, a jump and part of a skip to the window, out of which Nurse Jane was looking. “What’s the matter?”