“I thank you very much for telling me about that snake, little pussy cat,” said Uncle Wiggily.  “Well, I am disappointed about my fortune again.  I shall never be rich I fear.  But I almost forgot that I have some fine honey sandwiches and I will give you some, for you must be hungry.  I know I am.”

“I am, too,” said the pussy.  So Uncle Wiggily opened his valise and took out the honey sandwiches which the bee had given him, but when he went to eat them he found that the bee had forgotten to butter the bread.

“Oh, that is too bad!” cried the pussy, when Uncle Wiggily spoke of it.  “Still they will do very well without butter.”

“No, we must have some,” said the rabbit.  “I wonder how I can get butter in the woods?” So he looked all around and the first thing he saw was a yellow buttercup flower.  You know the kind I mean.  You hold them under your chin to see if you like butter, and the shine of the flower makes your chin yellow.

“Ha!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily.  “Now we will have butter.”

“But you are not going to eat the flower, are you?” asked the pussy.

“No, indeed!” cried the rabbit, “I’ll show you.”

Now there was a cow in the field a short distance away, and Uncle Wiggily went over and got some milk from the cow in a little tin cup.  “Butter is made from milk,” said the rabbit to the pussy.  “So I will just pour some milk in the buttercup flower, and shake it just as if it was a churn, and then we’ll have butter for our honey sandwiches.”

So he did this.  Into the buttercup he poured the milk, and it became yellow like butter at once.  But Uncle Wiggily did not have to shake the flower, for a little wind came along just then and shook it for him.

And pretty soon, in a little while, the milk in the buttercup was churned into lovely sweet butter, and the rabbit and pussy spread it on their honey sandwiches, and what a fine feast they had.  Just as they were eating it the bad alligator came along, and wanted to take the honey away from them, but the pussy scratched the end of the savage beast’s tail with his claws, and the bad alligator ran away as fast as he could.

Then Uncle Wiggily and the pussy traveled on together and the next day they had quite an adventure.  What it was I’ll tell you in the next story when, in case the steamboat stops at our house for a little girl wearing a green sunbonnet, with horse chestnuts on it, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the July bug.

STORY VII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JULY BUG

“Well, what shall we do to-day?” asked the white pussy of Uncle Wiggily, as they traveled on together, the next day after the adventure at the snake hole.  They had slept that night in a nice hollow stump.

“Hum!  I hardly know what to do,” replied the old gentleman rabbit.  “Of course I must be on the watch for my fortune, but, as I don’t seem to be finding it very fast, what do you say to having a picnic to-day?”