“Ha, an automobile is coming!” said Uncle Wiggily.  “I must get out of the way!” So he hopped on ahead, going down the road quite fast, until he got to a place where there were prickly briar bushes on both sides of the highway.

“My!  I’ll have to keep in the middle of the road if I don’t want to get scratched,” said the rabbit.  And then the automobile horn behind him honked louder than ever.

“They are certainly coming along fast,” thought Uncle Wiggily.  “If I don’t look out I’ll be run over.”  So he hopped along quicker than before, until, all of a sudden, as he looked down the road, he saw a savage dog standing there.

“Well, now!  Isn’t that just my bad luck!” cried Uncle Wiggily.  “If I go on the dog will catch me, and if I stand here the auto will run on top of me.  I just guess I’ll run back and see if there is a hole where I can crawl through the bushes.”

So he started to run back, but, no sooner had he done so, than the dog saw him, and came rushing at him with a loud, “Bow-wow-wow!  Bow-wow-wow!”

“My, but he’s savage!” thought the rabbit.  “I wonder if I can get away in time?”

And then the auto honked louder than before, and all of a sudden it came whizzing down the road, right toward the rabbit.

“Oh, dear; I’m going to be caught, sure!” cried Uncle Wiggily, and indeed it did look so, for there was the dog running from one direction, and the auto coming in the other, and prickly briar bushes were on both sides of the road, and Uncle Wiggily couldn’t crawl through them without pulling all the fur off his back, and his ears, too.

“Honk-Honk!” went the auto.

“Bow-wow!” went the dog.

“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily.  Then he thought of a plan.  “I’ll give a big run and a long jump and maybe I can jump over the auto, and then the auto will bump into the dog, and I will be safe!” he cried.

So he took a long run, and just as the auto was going to hit him, Uncle Wiggily gave a big jump, right up into the air.  He didn’t jump quite quickly enough, however, for one of the big rubber tires ran over his toe, but he wasn’t much hurt.  And what do you think he did?  Why, he landed right in the auto, on the seat beside a little boy.

And that dog was so frightened of the automobile that he howled and yowled, and his teeth chattered, and he tucked his tail between his legs, and ran home.

“Oh, the bunny!  The bunny!” cried the little boy, as he saw Uncle Wiggly.  “May we keep him, papa?”

“I guess so,” said the boy’s papa.  “Anyhow his foot is hurt, and we’ll take care of him until it gets well.  My, but he is a good jumper, though!”

So the man stopped the auto, and picked up Uncle Wiggily’s crutch and valise, which the old gentleman rabbit had dropped when he jumped upon the seat beside the boy, and then the car went on.  And Uncle Wiggily wasn’t a bit frightened at being in an auto, for he knew the boy and man would be kind to him.