“Perhaps this is your penny,” said the old gentleman rabbit a bit sadly, taking from his pocket the one he had found.

“It is the very one!” cried the lost chipmunk, joyfully.  “Oh, how good of you to find it for me.”

“Well,” thought Uncle Wiggily with a sorrowful sigh as he handed over the penny, “I thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, but I’ve lost it again.  Never mind.  I’ll try to-morrow.”

So he gave the penny to the chipmunk, and she stopped crying right away, and took hold of Uncle Wiggily’s paw, and he led her around to all the hollow stumps until she found the right one where she lived.

And he bought her an ice cream cone because he felt sorry for her.  And, just as she was eating it, along came a big, black bear and he wanted half of it, but very luckily the July bug flew past just then, and he bit the bear in the eyes, so that the bad bear was glad enough to run home, taking his little stumpy tail with him.  Then the chipmunk took Uncle Wiggily back to her home, and he stayed with her papa and mamma all night.

Now, in case the rocking chair on our porch doesn’t tip over in the middle of the night, and scare the pussy cat off the railing, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the black cricket.

STORY X

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CRICKET

Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, was feeling quite sad one morning as he hopped along the dusty road.  It was a few days after he had helped the lost chipmunk find her way back home, and he had given her the lost penny which he had also picked up.

“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he thought of the penny.  “That’s generally the way it is in this world.  Nothing seems to go right.  I naturally thought I had found the beginning of my fortune, even if it was only a penny, and it turned out that the money belonged to somebody else.  Oh dear!”

Well, the old rabbit traveler actually felt so badly that he didn’t much care whether he found his fortune or not, and that is a very poor way to feel in this world, for one must never give up trying, no matter what happens.

Then Uncle Wiggily looked in his satchel to see if he had anything to eat, but my goodness sakes alive and a ham sandwich!  There wasn’t a thing in the valise!  You see he was thinking so much about the penny that he forgot to put up his lunch.

“Humph!  This is a pretty state of affairs!” exclaimed the old rabbit gentleman.  “Worse and worse, and some more besides!  I do declare!  Hum!  Suz!  Dud!”

Well, he didn’t know what to do, so he sat down on a log beside a shady bush and thought it all over.  And the more he thought the sadder he became, until he began to believe he was the most miserable rabbit in all the world.

“Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily.  “I might as well go back home and done with it.”