Uncle Wiggily and the Pirates; Or, How the Enemy Craft of Pirate Fox was Sunk

How the Enemy Craft of Pirate Fox was Sunk

1. Once upon a time Curly and Floppy Twistytail, the two piggie boys, thought they would play the game of Pirate. They whittled out some wooden swords and made a wooden raft. On the raft they set sail across the duck pond ocean. “We’ll sail over to Uncle Wiggily’s bungalow and capture him,” grunted Curly. “What do we do after we capture him?” asked Floppy. “Hold him for a ransom,” said Curly.

2. Uncle Wiggily, standing on shore, was surprised when the two piggie boys leaped off their raft and captured him. “What’s all this, boys?” he asked, twinkling his pink nose. “We are Pirates and we have captured you,” grunted Floppy. “And you can’t get away until you pay us a ransom of ten lollypops!” squealed Curly. So they tied Uncle Wiggily to the mast. The bunny gentleman laughed at the fun.

3. The Fox and Wolf, hidden on shore, watched Curly and Floppy playing at being Pirates and capturing Uncle Wiggily. “We could do that,” growled the Wolf. “Do what?” asked the Fox. “Dress up and pretend to be Pirates,” answered the Wolf. “Those pigs will soon tire of the game. We can take their raft, sneak up and get Uncle Wiggily. He’ll think it is all in fun and, before he knows it, we’ll have him!”

4. The Wolf was right. In a little while Curly and Floppy let Uncle Wiggily go, for the piggie boys became tired of playing the Pirate game. Uncle Wiggily gave them lollypops for a ransom. Then, while the piggie boys went to play ball, and while Uncle Wiggily was asleep on the shore, the Fox and Wolf, dressed like Pirates, and pretending to be friendly animal boys, sneaked up to capture the bunny.

5. Before Uncle Wiggily was quite awake, the Fox and Wolf had caught him and dragged him on the piggie boys’ raft which the bad animals took. “Ha! Ha!” laughed Uncle Wiggily, when he saw what had happened. “This is a good joke! You look just like real pirates, Curly and Floppy. But why have you put on false faces? You didn’t do that at first. “Come, we’ve had enough fun! Let’s go ashore!”

6. After a while Curly and Floppy grew tired of playing ball. They went down to the shore of the duck pond ocean to get their raft once more, but it was gone. “Oh, look!” squealed Floppy. “The Fox and Wolf have taken our raft. They dressed up as Pirates, like us, and have captured Uncle Wiggily! What shall we do?” Curly looked at the boat on shore. “To the rescue! We must sink the enemy craft!”

7. No sooner said than done! Into the boat jumped Curly and Floppy. “We’ll make believe this piece of stove pipe is a cannon,” said Floppy. “And we’ll use cabbages, turnips and carrots for cannon balls!” His brother said that was a good idea, and off they started after the raft, which the Fox and Wolf were sailing away, taking Uncle Wiggily with them. By this time the bunny knew he was in danger.

8. Straight toward the pirate raft went the boat. “Surrender!” cried Floppy. “Give us back Uncle Wiggily or we’ll sink you!” The Fox and Wolf rushed wildly about. “We ought to have guns!” howled the Fox. “Well, we haven’t any!” snarled the Wolf. Floppy blew talcum powder through the stove pipe cannon and threw cabbages, turnips and carrots until the Fox and Wolf were ready to jump overboard.

9. One big cabbage hit the mast of the raft and broke it. A lot of turnips knocked apart the craft of the Pirate Fox and Wolf. Into the water leaped the bad chaps, hit all over with sharp carrots. “We’ll save you, Uncle Wiggily! We’ll save you!” called Floppy and Curly. They took the rabbit gentleman into the boat with them and rowed him safely to shore, while the Fox and Wolf clung to the broken raft.