“We have seen enough of the world,” they said, and thereafter they were glad enough to live down in the moss with the mother violet.  And if the umbrella doesn’t turn inside out so the handle tickles its ribs and makes it laugh in school, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the high tree.

STORY VII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HIGH TREE

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, stood in front of the looking glass trying on a new tall silk hat he had just bought ready for Easter Sunday, which would happen in about a week or two.

“Do you think it looks well on me, Nurse Jane?” asked the bunny uncle, of the muskrat lady housekeeper, who came in from the kitchen of the hollow stump bungalow, having just finished washing the dishes.

“Why, yes, I think your new hat is very nice,” she said.

“Do you think I ought to have the holes for my ears cut a little larger?” asked the bunny uncle.  “I mean the holes cut, not my ears.”

“Well, just a little larger wouldn’t hurt any,” replied Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.  “I’ll cut them for you,” and she did, with her scissors.  For Uncle Wiggily had to wear his tall silk hat with his ears sticking up through holes cut in it.  His ears were too large to go under the hat, and he could not very well fold them down.

“There, now I guess I’m all right to go for a walk in the woods,” said the rabbit gentleman, taking another look at himself in the glass.  It was not a proud look, you understand.  Uncle Wiggily just wanted to look right and proper, and he wasn’t at all stuck up, even if his ears were, but he couldn’t help that.

So off he started, wondering what sort of an adventure he would have that day.  He passed the place where the blue violets were growing in the green moss—­the same violets he had used to make Nurse Jane’s blueing water for her clothes the other day, as I told you.  And the violets were glad to see the bunny uncle.

Then Uncle Wiggily met Grandfather Goosey Gander, the nice old goose gentleman, and the two friends walked on together, talking about how much cornmeal you could buy with a lollypop, and all about the best way to eat fried ice cream carrots.

“That’s a very nice hat you have on, Uncle Wiggily,” said Grandpa Goosey, after a bit.

“Glad you like it,” answered the bunny uncle.  “It’s for Easter.”

“I think I’ll get one for myself,” went on Mr. Gander.  “Do you think I would look well in it?”

“Try on mine and see,” offered Uncle Wiggily most kindly.  So he took his new, tall silk hat off his head, pulling his ears out of the holes Nurse Jane had cut for them, and handed it to Grandfather Goosey Gander—­handed the hat, I mean, not his ears, though of course the holes went with the hat.

“There, how do I look?” asked the goose gentleman.

“Quite stylish and proper,” replied Mr. Longears.