STORY XVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S SCOOTER
One day, when Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit gentleman, came home to his hollow stump bungalow, having been over to call on Grandpa Goosey Gander, Mr. Longears saw Baby Bunty sitting on the front steps looking very sad and sorrowful.
“What’s the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily. “Did you lose your grape vine skipping rope, Baby Bunty?”
“Oh, no,” answered the little rabbit girl. “My rope is all right, and I can jump salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard and even rice pudding. But I want a scooter, Uncle Wiggily! I want a scooter very much!”
“A scooter!” cried the bunny rabbit gentleman, in surprise. “What is that? Something new to jump rope with?”
“Oh, no,” answered Baby Bunty with a smile. “A scooter is a little two-wheeler roller skate wagon. It has wheels on it, and a place for you to stand with your feet and a place to hold on by your paws. You get on the scooter, give yourself a little push, and away you scoot as fast as anything! I want a scooter, Uncle Wiggily. All the other animal boys and girls have ’em!”
“Then you shall have one, too!” cried Mr. Longears. “Come on, Baby Bunty, we’ll go down to the fifteen and sixteen cent store and get you a scooter!”
“Oh, joy!” said Baby Bunty, clapping her paws, and trying to make her pink nose twinkle like Uncle Wiggily’s. But she didn’t do it very well, being so small.
A little later the rabbit gentleman and the little girl, who had been found in a hollow stump, were on their way through the woods to the fifteen and sixteen cent barn where they sold scooters.
“Give me the best one you have for Baby Bunty,” ordered Uncle Wiggily, and it was given him.
“Oh, may I ride home on it?” asked Baby Bunty, when they were on the smooth woodland path once more.
“Why, yes, if you know how,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“Oh, all you have to do with a scooter,” spoke Baby Bunty, “is to get on with your hind paws, hold fast to the handle with your front paws, give yourself a push and away you scoot!”
“Let me see you try it,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“Maybe you’d better go first,” said Baby Bunty.
“Oh, no, indeed!” laughed her uncle. “I’m too old and stiff, and my rheumatism makes me feel too funny to ride on a scooter. Go ahead, Baby Bunty.”
Baby Bunty got on the foot-part of the scooter. She held tightly with her front paws, and gave herself a push with one hind paw. Along went the scooter, but alas! Likewise a-lack-a-day! Baby Bunty must have steered the wrong way, for bunk! into a tree she ran.
“Oh, did you hurt yourself?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he ran to help her.
“Oh, no!” laughed the little rabbit girl. “It’s fun when I get so I know how to do it!”
Off she started once more, but this time she ran into a stump and bunked her nose.
“Are you hurt?” asked Uncle Wiggily.
“No—no,” said Bunty bravely. “But I must be more careful.”
The next time she steered very straight, but she sent the scooter right into a mud puddle and the mud splashed on Uncle Wiggily’s tall silk hat. But, as the hat was black, the mud spots do not show very plainly.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Baby Bunty. “I don’t believe I’ll ever learn how to ride my scooter. I should have bought roller skates. Don’t you want to ride and show me how, Uncle Wiggily?”
“Dear me!” said the rabbit gentleman, unpretentious like. “Do you think, at my age, I could?”
“Of course!” said Baby Bunty.
“I am lame and stiff and have the rheumatism,” said Uncle Wiggily, “but I’ll try anything once. Let me see that scooter, Bunty!”
Uncle Wiggily got on with his hind paws. He took hold with his front paws and he gave himself a push. And, just as it would happen, the scooter was then at the top of a hill. Down this hill went the funny little two-wheeled wagon, with Uncle Wiggily on it.
“Stop! Oh, stop!” begged Mr. Longears, as he saw what was before him. “I didn’t know this was down hill! Stop!”
But it was too late to stop! Down he went, faster and faster. And the scooter traveled so quickly that it rolled straight along and didn’t go from side to side, or bunk into anything.
“Oh, how wonderfully well Uncle Wiggily rides!” said Baby Bunty at the top of the hill, as she began to hop down.
And just then, at the bottom of the hill, the scooter, with Uncle Wiggily on it, struck a stump. Up in the air went the rabbit gentleman, and down he came with a thump. But he landed on a bed of soft moss and wasn’t hurt a bit. The scooter came down with a bump beside him. Uncle Wiggily looked around, dazed like. Baby Bunty came hopping down the hill.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” she cried. “That was wonderful! But I didn’t know that was the way to get off a scooter.”
“It isn’t,” said Mr. Longears. “And don’t you try that way, either. But I enjoyed my ride. I’m not as stiff as I was, but I may be more so tomorrow. Now I’ll give you some lessons, Baby Bunty.”
The little rabbit girl soon learned to ride her scooter, but not down hill, and she had lots of fun. And if the clock doesn’t strike the dinner bell and make the gas stove think it’s time for supper before breakfast, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the flowers.