STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S BALL
“Will you come for another nice walk in the woods, today, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Baby Bunty, the little rabbit girl, as she danced around the hollow stump bungalow where she lived with Mr. Longears.
“Hum! Another nice walk in the woods, eh?” asked Uncle Wiggily, suspicious like and premeditated. “Are you going to wear a big hair ribbon bow, that comes untied all the while?” he asked.
“Oh, no!” laughed Baby Bunty. “I’ll only wear a tiny bow today. I won’t keep waking you up all the time to tie it for me.”
That’s what Baby Bunty did in the story before this, if you will kindly remember. But, after all, it was a good thing she did. On account of the fox, you know.
“Well, come along!” said Uncle Wiggily, after he had asked his muskrat lady housekeeper, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, what they were going to have for dinner.
“May I bring my rubber ball?” asked Baby Bunty, as she came out of the hollow stump bungalow with a very small pumpkin-colored hair ribbon around her ears.
“Oh, yes, bring your ball along,” said Uncle Wiggily kindly. “But please don’t sprinkle any water from it on me while I’m asleep.”
“I won’t,” promised Baby Bunty. And then, as Uncle Wiggily hopped along on his red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch, and as Baby Bunty ran along beside him, the little rabbit girl said: “Oh, dear! If he’s going to sleep every time we come to the woods, I’ll have no fun at all. But maybe I’ll find a way to keep him awake,” she said to herself, as she bounced her rubber ball.
On they went through the green woods, Baby Bunty running to and fro as fast as an automobile, and Uncle Wiggily coming along more like a trolley car, substantial-like, though unpoetical. The little rabbit girl picked pretty flowers now and then, while Mr. Longears chewed a bit of birch bark, or nibbled at sassafras and wintergreen, hoping it would cure his rheumatism.
“Now here is a nice place for you to play, Baby Bunty,” said Uncle Wiggily when they reached a green glade in the forest. “And I’ll just sit down on this soft, mossy log and think a bit.”
“Yes, I know what that means!” whispered Baby Bunty to herself. “It means he’ll go to sleep and won’t play tag or anything with me, and I can’t have any fun! Oh, dear!”
She bounced her ball on a bare, sandy place, while Uncle Wiggily picked out the softest, green, mossy log he could find. He laid aside his rheumatism crutch, took off his tall silk hat, and, folding his paws over his red vest, closed his eyes. His pink nose stopped twinkling.
“He’s asleep!” said Baby Bunty.
All of a sudden her bouncing rubber ball gave a big jump, and before the little rabbit girl could get her paws on it the rubber ball bounded right over on Uncle Wiggily’s bare head.
“Oh, I say! A-ker-choo! What’s that?” he cried, waking up all at once, and not partly, as he did sometimes.
“It is only my rubber ball!” said Bunty sweetly. “I’m so sorry it struck you! But, now that you are awake, don’t you want to play tag with me?”
“Not now,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I will later. I haven’t had my nap out yet. Please be careful of your ball, Baby Bunty.”
“I will,” said the little rabbit girl with a smile.
Uncle Wiggily closed his eyes again, and he was just slumbering nicely, when, just as Baby Bunty gave her rubber ball an extra hard bounce, away it flew again, and this time it landed right on the rabbit gentleman’s pink nose.
“My goodness me, sakes alive and some rice pudding without any raisins in!” he cried. “What’s that?”
“Only my rubber ball,” said Bunty, sweetly. “I’m sorry it awakened you. Don’t you want to——”
“I want to finish my nap,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Please go away far off and bounce your ball, Bunty.”
Once more he went to sleep. Baby Bunty, with a funny look on her face, hopped off in the woods. Then, all of a sudden, through the trees came flying her rubber ball. Straight as an arrow it flew, and it struck Uncle Wiggily right on his red vest.
“Oh, my goodness me, sakes alive and some peanut lollypops!” he cried. “Is that your ball again, Bunty?”
“Yes,” said the little rabbit girl, “it is. I was trying to throw it so Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, could toss it back to me. But I guess I didn’t throw straight enough. I’m sorry my ball hit you, Uncle Wiggily, but, now that you are awake, don’t you want to——”
“Oh, yes, I’ll play tag or hide-and-go seek or even turn somersaults!” laughed the bunny.
“Between you and your ball, Baby Bunty, I’ll never get any sleep!”
“I thought you wouldn’t,” said Baby Bunty, smiling in a funny way. Then she and Mr. Longears had lots of fun. And, if the sunshine doesn’t tickle the raindrops and make them fall on the umbrella plant, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s carriage.