Then Jimmie put the dog-tooth violet (which did not bark any more) in his bouquet and the lady mouse teacher liked the May flowers very much.  Uncle Wiggily took his flowers to Nurse Jane.

And if the umbrella doesn’t turn inside out, so its ribs get all wet and sneeze the handle off, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the beech tree.

STORY XXVI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BEECH TREE

“Will you go to the store for me, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, of the rabbit gentleman one day, as he sat out on the porch of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods.

“Indeed I will, Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy,” said Mr. Longears, most politely.  “What is it you want?”

“A loaf of bread and a pound of sugar,” she answered, and Uncle Wiggily started off.

“Better take your umbrella,” Nurse Jane called after him.  “All the April showers are not yet over, even if it is May.”

So the rabbit gentleman took his umbrella.

On his way to the store through the woods, the bunny uncle came to a big beech tree, which had nice, shiny white bark on it, and, to his surprise the rabbit gentleman saw a big black bear, standing up on his hind legs and scratching at the tree bark as hard as he could.

“Ha!  That is not the right thing to do,” said Uncle Wiggily to himself.  “If that bear scratches too much of the bark from the tree the tree will die, for the bark of a tree is just like my skin is to me.  I must drive the bear away.”

The bear, scratching the bark with his sharp claws, stood with his back to Uncle Wiggily, and the rabbit gentleman thought he could scare the big creature away.

So Uncle Wiggily picked up a stone, and throwing it at the bear, hit him on the back, where the skin was so thick it hurt hardly at all.

And as soon as he had thrown the stone Uncle Wiggily in his loudest voice shouted: 

“Bang!  Bang!  Bungity-bang-bung!”

“Oh, my goodness!” cried the bear, not turning around.  “The hunter man with his gun must be after me.  He has shot me once, but the bullet did not hurt.  I had better run away before he shoots me again!”

And the bear ran away, never once looking around, for he thought the stone Mr. Longears threw was a bullet from a gun, you see, and he thought when Uncle Wiggily said “Bang!” that it was a gun going off.  So the bunny gentleman scared the bear away.

“Thank you, Uncle Wiggily,” said the beech tree.  “You saved my life by not letting the bear scratch off all my bark.”

“I am glad I did,” spoke the rabbit, making a polite bow with his tall silk hat, for Mr. Longears was polite, even to a tree.

“The bear would not stop scratching my bark when I asked him to,” went on the beech tree, “so I am glad you came along, and scared him.  You did me a great favor and I will do you one if I ever can.”