“There,” said the fairy to Uncle Wiggily.  “Try those.”

So Uncle Wiggily Longears put on his glasses again, and he cried out: 

“Why, goodness me!  Oh, my suz-dud!  Oh, turnips and carrots and a chocolate cake!  Oh, my goodness me!”

“What’s the matter?” asked Susie.

“Why, everything looks different,” answered her uncle.  “Oh, how much better I feel!  Whoop-de-doodle-do!” and he began to dance a jiggity-jig.  “Who would have thought my glasses were so dark and gloomy?” he went on.  “I feel ever so much better, now.  Come on, Sammie and Susie, and I’ll buy you some cabbage ice cream.  And you too, little pink fairy.”  You see, he had been looking through gloomy glasses all that while, and that was what made him cross.

“Oh, thank you, I only eat rose-leaf ice cream,” the fairy said.  “But I’m not hungry now.  Good-luck to all of you, and may you be always happy!” Then she turned into a little bird and flew away singing, while Uncle Wiggily and the rabbit children went to the ice cream store.  Now, unless I’m much mistaken, to-morrow night’s story will be about Sammie and how he saved Billie Bushytail.  But of course you never can tell what will happen.

XXX

SAMMIE SAVES BILLIE BUSHYTAIL

Sammie Littletail was out in a green field digging a burrow, or underground house.  He didn’t really need another house, for the one he, and his papa, and mamma, and sister, lived in was very nice, but, as he had nothing else to do, he thought he would dig a big hole, and, maybe, go all the way through to China.  Sammie thought he would like to see how China looked, and he thought he might make the acquaintance of some Chinese rabbits.

Well, he hadn’t gotten down very far, and he was still a good many miles from China, when he heard some one singing a song in a very loud voice.  Now I don’t advise you to sing it quite so loudly, for you might awaken the baby, if you have one in your house.  Anyway, it does just as well to sing it softly.  This is the song Sammie heard: 

    “I want to be a sailor
        And sail the ocean blue. 
    I’d journey to a distant land
        And then come back to you. 
    I’d bring you lots of happiness,
        A big trunk filled with joy;
    A barrel full of hickory nuts
        For every girl or boy.”

Well, when Sammie heard that he cried out: 

“Is that a fairy?”

“No, it’s me,” was the answer.

“Oh, then you must be Billie or Johnnie Bushytail,” went on Sammie, for he remembered that once the little boy squirrels went sailing and were shipwrecked.

“Yes, I’m Billie,” said the voice, and then up popped the little squirrel.  “But what did you say about a fairy?” he asked.

“I thought at first you were a fairy,” continued Sammie, and then he stopped digging the hole in the ground.  “There have been such a lot of fairies around here lately,” Sammie added.  “Red ones, and green ones, and blue ones, and—­”