“I was just in time to save you!” said the elephant to Uncle Wiggily.  “Here, eat this ice cream cone and you’ll feel better.”

So the rabbit did this, and his breath came back and he was all right again, but he made up his mind never to try to tickle a crawly thing again until he was sure it wasn’t a snake.

So that’s all for the present, if you please, but in case my fur hat doesn’t sleep out in the hammock all night, and catch cold in the head so that it sneezes and wakes up the alarm clock, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the water lilies.

STORY XVI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATER LILIES

Uncle Wiggily was hopping along through the woods one day, and pretty soon, as he went past a cute little house, made out of corncobs, he heard some one calling to him.

“Oh, Mr. Rabbit,” a voice said, “have you seen anything of my little girl?” And there stood a nice mamma cat, looking anxiously about.

“I don’t know,” answered Uncle Wiggily, as he stopped in the shade of a tree, and set down his valise.  “Was your little girl named Sarah, Mrs. Cat?”

“Oh, indeed, my little girl is not named Sarah,” said Mrs. Cat.  “She is called Snowball, and she is just as cute as she can be.  She is all white, like a ball of snow, and so we call her Snowball.  But she is lost, and I’m afraid I’ll never find her again,” and the kittie’s mamma began to cry, and she wiped her tears on her apron.

“Oh, don’t worry.  Never mind.  I’ll find her for you,” said the kind old gentleman rabbit.

“I can’t find my fortune but I believe I can find Snowball.  Now, tell me which way she went away, and I’ll go search for her.”

“I didn’t see her go out of the house,” said Mrs. Cat, “because I was making a cherry pie, and I was very busy.  Snowball was playing on the floor, with a ball of soft yarn, and it rolled out of doors.  She raced out after it, and I thought she would soon be back.  I put the cherry pie in the oven and then when I went to look for her she was gone.  Oh, dear!  I just know some horrid dog has hurt her.”

“Please don’t worry,” said Uncle Wiggily.  “I’ll find her for you.  I’ll start right off, and if I can’t find her I’ll get a policeman, and he can, for the police always find lost children.”

So Uncle Wiggily started off, leaving his valise with Mrs. Cat, but taking his crutch with him, for he thought he might need it to beat off any bad dogs if they chased after Snowball.

First the old gentleman rabbit looked carefully all along the road, but he couldn’t see anything of the lost pussy cat.

“Perhaps she may be up a tree,” he said to himself.  “If a dog chased her she would climb up one, and perhaps she is afraid to come down.”

So he looked up into all the trees, and he even shook some of them in order to see up them better, but he did not discover the pussy cat.  Then he called: