“I do pull tails when I can get hold of them,” said the malicious monkey.  “But as I can’t easily get hold of your tail, and as your ears are so large that I can easily grab them, I’ll pull them instead.  All ready now, a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether!”

“Stop!” cried the bunny uncle, just as the monkey was going to give the three kinds of pull at once.  “Stop!”

“No!” answered the monkey.  “No!  No!”

“Yes!  Yes!” cried the bunny uncle.  “If you don’t stop pulling my ears you’ll freeze!” and with that the bunny uncle pulled out from behind him, where he had kept them hidden, the bunch of white snowdrops.

“Ah, ha!” cried Mr. Longears to the monkey.  “You come from a warm country, where there is no snow or snowdrops.  Now when you see these snow drops, shiver and shake—­see how cold it is!  Shiver and shake!  Shake and shiver!  Burr-r-r-r-r!”

Uncle Wiggily made believe the flowers were real snow, sort of shivering himself (pretend like) and the tail-pulling chap, who was very much afraid of cold and snow and ice, chattered and said: 

“Oh, dear!  Oh, how cold I am!  Oh, I’m freezing.  I am going back to my warm nest in the tree and not pull any tails until next summer!”

And then the monkey ran away, thinking the snowdrops Uncle Wiggily had picked were bits of real snow.

“I’m sorry I said the snowdrops weren’t nice,” spoke Susie, as she and Uncle Wiggily went safely home.  “They are very nice.  Only for them the monkey would have pulled our tails.”

But he didn’t, you see, and if the hookworm doesn’t go to the moving pictures with the gold fish and forget to come back to play tag with the toy piano, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the horse chestnut tree.

STORY XIII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HORSE CHESTNUT

“Bang!  Bango!  Bunko!  Bunk!  Slam!”

Something made a big noise on the front porch of the hollow stump bungalow, where, in the woods, lived Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman.

“My goodness!” cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper.  “I hope
nothing has happened!”

“Well, from what I heard I should say it is quite certain that something has happened,” spoke the bunny uncle, sort of twisting his ears very anxious like.

“I only hope the chimney hasn’t turned a somersault, and that the roof is not trying to play tag with the back steps,” went on Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, a bit scared like.

“I’ll go see what it is,” offered Uncle Wiggily, and as he went to the front door there, on the piazza, he saw Billie Wagtail, the little goat boy.

“Oh, good morning, Uncle Wiggily,” spoke
Billie, politely.  “Here’s a note for you.  I just
brought it.”

“And did you bring all that noise with you?”
Mr. Longears wanted to know.