And then it rained, and thundered and lightninged, and the alligator got scared, and ran off, but the rabbit gentleman was safe down in his cellar, and he didn’t get a bit wet, and went to sleep there for the rest of the night.  Now, please go to bed, and in case my toothbrush, doesn’t go out roller skating, and fall down and get bald-headed, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the paper boat.

STORY XXI

UNCLE WIGGILY IN A PAPER BOAT

When the morning dawned, after he had slept all night in the cellar under his paper house, that the alligator, with his swooping scalery-ailery tail, had knocked down, Uncle Wiggily awakened, brushed the dirt from his ears, and crawled out.

“My!” he exclaimed as he saw the paper house all flat on the ground, like a pancake, “Nannie Goat would certainly be sorry to see this.  But I suppose it can’t be helped.  Anyhow, it’s a good thing that I am not squashed as flat as that house is.  Now I’ll see about my breakfast, and then I’ll travel on again.”

So the old gentleman rabbit got his breakfast, eating almost the last piece of the cherry pie, which he had left from the time when he made some for the hedgehog, and then, taking his crutch, striped red, white and blue, like a barber pole, off he started.

Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily came to a pond of water, and, looking down into it, he saw the most beautiful goldfish that you can imagine.  It was a big fish, too, and the scales on it were as round as gold dollars.

“My!” exclaimed the rabbit.  “If I had that fish, and I could take him to a jewelry shop, and sell him, I would get so much money that my fortune would be made, and I wouldn’t have to travel any farther.  But I guess the fish would rather stay in the pond than in a jewelry shop.”

“Indeed, I would,” answered the fish, looking up.  “And I am glad you are so kind as to be thoughtful of my feelings.  Perhaps I may be able to help you, some day.”

And with that the fish dived away down under the water, after calling good-bye to the rabbit, and then Uncle Wiggily hopped on, and he didn’t think any more about the goldfish, until some time after that.

Well, as soon as the elephant had his trunk packed—­Oh, hold on, if you please.  I wonder what’s the matter with me?  There’s no elephant in this story.  He comes in it about five pages farther on.

Well, after traveling for several hours, Uncle Wiggily ate his dinner, then he hopped on some more, and he looked all around for his fortune, but he couldn’t find it.  Then it began to get dark, and he wondered where he could stay that night.

“I might build a paper house,” he said, “but if I do the alligator might come along and smash it, and this time he would probably catch me.  I wonder what I’d better do?”

So he looked ahead, and there he saw a stream of water.  It was quite a wide brook, but on the other side of it he saw a nice little wooden house, that no one lived in.