“Ha!  I smell him somewhere around here!  I’ll find him!” But he couldn’t see Uncle Wiggily because he was safely hidden in the Jack-in-the-pulpit.  So the wolf raged around some more and chased after his tail, and just as he smelled the rabbit hidden in the flower, the July bug flew down out of the tree, bang! right into the eyes of the wolf, and then the savage creature felt so badly that he ran home and ate cold bread and water for supper, and he didn’t bother Uncle Wiggily any more that day.

So that’s how the Jack-in-the-pulpit saved the rabbit and very thankful Uncle Wiggily was.  And he stayed that night in a hollow stump, and the next day he went on to seek his fortune.

And quite a curious thing happened to him, as I shall have the pleasure of telling you about soon, when in case our canoe boat doesn’t turn upside down and spill out the breakfast oatmeal, the next bedtime story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the lost chipmunk.

STORY IX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LOST CHIPMUNK

Uncle Wiggily was walking along the road one morning, after he had slept all night in the hollow stump.  He didn’t have any breakfast either, for there was nothing left in his valise, and of course he couldn’t eat his barber-pole crutch.  If the crutch had had a hole in it, like in the elephant’s trunk, then the old gentleman rabbit could have carried along some sandwiches.  But, as it was, he had nothing for breakfast, and he hadn’t had much supper either, the night before.

“Oh, how hungry I am!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily.  “If only I had a piece of cherry pie now, or an ice cream cone, or a bit of bread and butter and jam I would be all right.”

Well, he just happened to open his valise, and there on the very bottom, among some papers he found a few crumbs of the honey sandwiches the bumble bee had given him.  Well, you never can imagine how good those few crumbs tasted to the old gentleman rabbit, which shows you that it is a good thing to be hungry once in a while, because even common things taste good.

But the crumbs weren’t enough for Uncle Wiggily.  As he walked along he kept getting hungrier and hungrier and he didn’t know how he was going to stand it.

Then, all of a sudden, as he was passing by a hollow stump, he saw a whole lot of little black creatures crawling around it.  They were going up and down, and they were very busy.

“Why, these are ants,” said the rabbit.  “Well, I s’pose they have plenty to eat.  I almost wish I was an ant.”

“Well!  Well!” exclaimed a voice all at once.  “If here isn’t Uncle Wiggily.  Where did you come from?” and there stood a second cousin to the ant for whom Uncle Wiggily had once carried home a pound of beefsteak with mushrooms on it.

“Oh, I am traveling about seeking my fortune,” said the rabbit.  “But I haven’t been very successful.  I couldn’t even find my breakfast this morning.”