“What was that you gave me, Uncle Wiggily?” Billie asked.

“Wintergreen,” answered Uncle Wiggily.  “It grows in the woods, and is good for flavoring candy, as well as for stopping toothache.”

“I am glad to know that,” said Billie.  “The woods are a nicer place than I thought, and there is ever so much more in them than I dreamed.  Thank you, Uncle Wiggily.”

So, as his toothache was all better, Billie had good fun in the woods with the bunny uncle, until it was time to go home.  And in the next story, if the top doesn’t fly off the coffee pot and let the baked potato hide away from the egg-beater, when they play tag, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the slippery elm.

STORY III

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SLIPPERY ELM

“Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she saw the rabbit gentleman standing on the front steps of his hollow stump bungalow in the woods one morning.  “Where are you going?”

“Oh, just for a walk through the forest,” spoke the bunny uncle.  “It is so nice in the woods, with the flowers coming up, and the leaves getting larger and greener every day, that I just love to walk there.”

“Well,” said Nurse Jane with a laugh, “if you happen to see a bread-tree in the woods, bring home a loaf for supper.”

“I will,” promised Uncle Wiggily.  “You know, Nurse Jane, there really are trees on which bread fruit grows, though not in this country.  But I can get you a loaf of bread at the five and ten cent store, I dare say.”

“Do, please,” asked the muskrat lady.  “And if you see a cocoanut tree you might bring home a cocoanut cake for supper.”

“Oh, my!” laughed the rabbit gentleman.  “I’m afraid there are no cocoanut trees in my woods.  I could bring you home a hickory nut cake, perhaps.”

“Well, whatever you like,” spoke Nurse Jane.  “But don’t get lost, whatever you do, and if you meet with an adventure I hope it will be a nice one.”

“So do I,” Uncle Wiggily said, as he hopped off, leaning on his red, white and blue stripped [Transcriber’s note:  striped?] rheumatism crutch which Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.

The old rabbit gentleman had not gone very far before he met Dr. Possum walking along in the woods, with his satchel of medicine on his tail, for Dr. Possum cured all the ill animals, you know.

“What in the world are you doing, Dr. Possum?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he saw the animal doctor pulling some bark off a tree.  “Are you going to make a canoe, as the Indians used to do?”

“Oh, no,” answered Dr. Possum.  “This is a slippery elm tree.  The underside of the bark, next to the tree, and the tree itself, is very slippery when it is wet.  Very slippery indeed.”

“Well, I hope you don’t slip,” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly.