“Snowball!  Snowball!  Snowball!  Where are you?”

But there was no answer.

“Oh, if there was only some bird who could call ‘Snowball’ I would get them to call for the lost pussy,” thought Uncle Wiggily.

Then he looked up and he saw a big black bird sitting on a tree.

“Can you call ‘Snowball’ for me?” asked the rabbit, politely.  “She is lost and her mamma wants her very much.  Just call ‘Snowball’ as loudly as you can.”

“I can’t,” said the big black bird.  “All I can cry is ‘Caw!  Caw!  Caw!’ I am a crow, you see.”

“That is too bad,” said the rabbit.  “Then I will have to keep on searching by myself,” so he did, and the crow flew away to look for a cornfield that had no scarecrow in it to frighten him.

Well, Uncle Wiggily looked in all the places he could think of, but still there was no pussy to be seen, and he was just thinking he had better go for a policeman.  But he thought he would try just one more place, so he looked down a hollow stump, but Snowball was not there.

“I’ll have to get a policeman after all,” said the rabbit, so he told a policeman cat about the lost pussy, and the policeman cat searched for Snowball, but he couldn’t find her, either.

“I guess she is gone,” said the policeman.  “You had better go back and tell her mamma that she hasn’t any little pussy girl any more.”

“Oh, how sad it will be to do that!” cried Uncle Wiggily.  “I just can’t bear to.”

But he started back to the corncob house to tell Mrs. Cat that he couldn’t find her Snowball.  And all the while he kept feeling more and more sad, until he was almost ready to cry.

“But I must be brave,” said the old gentleman rabbit, and just then he came to a pond where a whole lot of beautiful, white water lilies were growing.  Oh, they are a lovely flower, with such a sweet, spicy smell.  As soon as Uncle Wiggily saw them he said: 

“I’ll pick some and take them home to Mrs. Cat.  Perhaps they will make her feel a little happy, even if her Snowball is gone forever.”

So with his long crutch Uncle Wiggily pulled toward shore some of the water lilies, until he could pick them on their slender stems.  Some of the flowers were wide open, and some were closed, like rosebuds.

He took both kinds home to Mrs. Cat, and when he told her he couldn’t find Snowball she was very sorrowful and she cried.  But she loved the flowers very much, and put them in a bowl of water.

“I’ll stay here to-night,” said the rabbit, “and in the morning I’ll look for Snowball again.  I’m sure I’ll find her.”

“Oh, you are very kind,” said Mrs. Cat, as she wiped away her tears.

Well, the next morning Uncle Wiggily got up real early, and the first thing he saw was the bowl of water lilies on the parlor table.  They had all closed up like buds in the night, but in the sunlight they all opened again into beautiful flowers.