If the little chattery squirrel chap was disappointed at not getting a top for himself, he said nothing about it, which was very brave and good, I think.  He just walked along until they came to a nice, smooth-dirt place in the woods, and then Uncle Wiggily said: 

“Let me see you spin my top, Billie.  I want to watch you and see how it’s done—­how you wind the string on, how you throw it down to the ground and all that.  You just give me some lessons in top-spinning, please.”

“I will,” said Billie.  So he wound the string on the top again and soon it was spinning as fast as anything on the hard ground in the woods.

“Do you want me to show you how to pick up a top, and let it spin on your paw?” asked Billie, of Uncle Wiggily.

“Yes, show me all the tricks there are,” said the bunny gentleman.

So, while the top was spinning very fast, Billie picked it up, and, holding it on his paw, quickly put it over on Uncle Wiggily’s paw.

“Ouch!  It tickles!” cried the bunny uncle, sort of giggling like.

“Yes, a little,” laughed Billie, “but I don’t mind that.  Now I’ll show you how to pick it up.”

Once more he spun the top, and he was just going to pick it up when, all of a sudden, a growling voice cried: 

“Ah, ha!  Again I am in luck!  A rabbit and a squirrel!  Let me see; which shall I take first?” And out from behind a stump popped a big bear.  It was the same one that Uncle Wiggily had hit on the nose with Johnnie’s marble, about a week before.

“Oh, my!” said the bunny man.

“Oh, dear!” chattered Billie.

“Surprised to see me, aren’t you?” asked the bear sticking out his tongue.

“A little,” answered Uncle Wiggily, “but I guess we’d better be getting along Billie.  Pick up my top and come along.”

“Oh, oh!  Not so fast!” growled the bear.  “I shall want you to stay with me.  You’ll be going off with me to my den, pretty soon.  Don’t be in a hurry,” and, putting out his claws, he grabbed hold of Uncle Wiggily and Billie.  They tried to get away, but could not, and the bear was just going to carry them off, when he saw the spinning top whizzing on the ground.

“What’s that red thing?” he asked.

“A top Billie just picked out for me,” said Uncle Wiggily.

“Would you like to have it spin on your paw?” asked Billie, blinking his eyes at Uncle Wiggily, funny-like.

“Oh, I might as well, before I carry you off to my den,” said the bear, sort of careless-like and indifferent.  “Spin the top on my paw.”

So Billie picked up the spinning top and put it on the bear’s broad, flat paw.  And, no sooner was it there, whizzing around, than the bear cried: 

“Ouch!  Oh, dear!  How it tickles.  Ha!  Ha!  Ha!  Ho!  Ho!  Ho!  It makes me laugh.  It makes me laugh.  It makes me giggle!  Ouch!  Oh, dear!”

And then he laughed so hard that he dropped the top and turned a somersault, and away he ran through the woods, leaving Billie and Uncle Wiggily safe there alone.