“Yes, there is one over there,” said the duck-drake, and he waved one foot toward it, while he quacked real faint and sorrowful-like.

“Sure enough, that is a cherry tree,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he hopped over and looked at it.  “And the cherries are ripe, too.  Now, if I could only get some of them down I could make a cherry pie, and cure Grandfather Goosey Gander.”

But it wasn’t easy to get the cherries off the tree, and Uncle Wiggily couldn’t climb up after them.  So he sat down and looked up at them, hoping some would fall off the stems.  But none did.

“Oh, dear, I wonder how I’m going to get them?” sighed the rabbit.  “Perhaps I can knock off some with a stone.”

So he threw a stone, but no cherries came down.  The stone did, though, and hit Uncle Wiggily on the nose, making him sneeze.

“Stones are no good!” exclaimed the rabbit.  “I’ll throw up my crutch.”  So he threw that into the tree, but it brought no cherries down, and the crutch, in falling, nearly hit Grandfather Goosey Gander, and almost gave him the measles and mumps.

“Well, I’ll try and see what throwing up my valise will do,” said the rabbit, and he tossed up the satchel, but bless you, that stayed up in the tree, and didn’t come down at all, neither did any cherries.

“Oh, I’ll have to give up,” said Uncle Wiggily.  “I’m afraid you can’t have any cherry pie, Grandfather Goosey.”

“Oh, then I’ll never get well,” said the old duck-drake gentleman sorrowfully.

“Yes, you will, too!” suddenly cried out a voice, and out from the bushes ran the elephant.  “I’ll pick the cherries off the tree with my long, nosey trunk,” he said, “and you can make all the pie you want to, Uncle Wiggily.”

“Why, I thought you went back to the circus,” said the rabbit.

“No, I ran away from the man,” spoke the elephant.  Then he reached up with his long nose, and he picked a bushel of red, ripe, sweet delicious cherries in less than a minute.  Then he pulled down Uncle Wiggily’s valise out of the tree and then the old gentleman rabbit made three cherry pies.  One for Grandfather Goosey Gander, and another, a tremendous big one, as large as a washtub, for the elephant, and a little one for himself.  Then they ate their pies, and the old gentleman duck-drake got well almost at once.  So all three of them traveled on together, to help the rabbit seek his fortune.

Now in case the ice cream man brings some nice, hot roast chestnuts for our canary bird, I’ll tell you in another story about Uncle Wiggily, and Grandfather Goosey Gander.

STORY XXV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND GRANDPA GOOSEY

One day, not very long after the elephant had picked the cherries off the tree, so that Uncle Wiggily could make the cherry pies for Grandpa Goosey, the three friends were traveling along together through a deep, dark, dismal woods.