| "Wiggily, waggily, woggily wome, |
| How shall I get Alice home? |
| She has hurt herself quite much |
| And she'll have to use my crutch." |
Of course, Uncle Wiggily knew that wasn't a very good verse, but it was the best he could do.
"You shall use my cornstalk crutch, that Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy made for me," he went on. "It will be just the thing."
"Won't you need it?" asked Alice, very politely.
"No," said Uncle Wiggily. "My rheumatism is much better to-day. You may have it," and he fitted it under Alice's wing, and she could walk pretty well, not having to use her sore foot.
Then that kind old rabbit scraped up all the cornmeal, and he put some in his big left ear and some in his big right ear, because the bag was broken, and he carried the dented butter, which wasn't hurt the least mite.
Then they started for the duck pen and they reached it safely, Alice limping along as well as she could. And Uncle Wiggily told Mamma Wibblewobble about the accident, after he had emptied his left ear and his right ear of the cornmeal and had handed over the dented butter. Dr. Possum was called in to put some salve on Alice's foot, and she was soon better.
Now that's all to-night, but, if the moving man doesn't take my typewriter away, I shall tell you to-morrow night about Jimmie in a tall tree.
It had rained in the morning, and of course the grounds were too slippery and wet to play ball. That is, they were for Sammie Littletail and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, but naturally Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, and Bully, the boy frog, would not have minded the wet the least bit. But there wasn't any ball game, and so Jimmie was playing all alone in the woods back of his house, and wishing it hadn't rained.
"Oh! I wish some of the boys would come over," he said. "We could do something, even if it is wet. I'm lonesome."
Just then he heard a voice singing in the woods, and he heard the branches of the trees moving about, and bits of bark falling off. And this is the song he heard: you have to sing it quite slowly to get the full effect:
| "Oh! it is such fun if you see the sun |
| When the rain has gone away. |
| If you'll come with me you may climb a tree, |
| And in the top we'll play. |
| "Oh! the winds may blow and the cows may crow, |
| But what care we for that? |
| As you scamper high, near the bright, blue sky, |
| Look out, or you'll lose your hat." |
And with that who should come scampering out of a tree but Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers. No, Sister Sallie wasn't with them this time, having stayed at home to wheel her corncob doll in the carriage her brothers had made for her.
"Hello!" cried Billie and Johnnie. "Hello, Jimmie!"
"Aw, why didn't you chaps come over to play ball?" asked the little boy duck.
"Oh! it was too wet," replied Johnnie. "But say, Jimmie, did you hear us singing?"
"Sure," answered Jimmie. "But say; cows don't crow!"
"I know it," replied Johnnie. "Billie made up that verse, and I made the first one. He said he had to have something like that in it or it wouldn't be right. But no matter. Did you like it?"
"Yes, pretty well."
"Shall we sing it again?" asked Johnnie.
"No, don't!" begged his brother. "He's been singing it all the morning, and I'm getting tired of it, even if I did make up one verse," he explained. "But say, Jimmie, don't you wish you could climb a tall tree, like this?" and before you could say Salimagundy or maybe incomprehensibility or even disproportionability, why Billie had run to the top of the tree and down again. "Don't you wish you could?" he asked again.
"Yes," answered Jimmie, looking up, "I wish I could climb a tree, but I guess ducks weren't made for that. I once tried to fly, and I didn't succeed very well. I'll stay on the ground, I think. Come on, let's have a catch. I've got a ball."
"No," spoke Johnnie, "I have an idea. Billie, why can't you and I teach Jimmie to climb a tree? If we pick out one with branches close together I'm sure he could get up it. We can help him, and he can take hold of some limbs in his bill, like a parrot takes hold of the wires in his cage."
"Fine!" cried Billie. "Will you do it, Jimmie?"
"Sure," answered the little boy duck, but he didn't know what was going to happen, or, maybe, he wouldn't have tried to climb up. Well, the squirrels selected quite a tall tree, but rather an easy one, and Jimmie managed to scramble up to the first low limbs, with Billie and Johnnie boosting him.
After that it wasn't quite so hard, and he was able to get up quite a distance, pulling himself with his yellow bill. He was not very graceful, and I'm sure if you ever saw a duck climb a tree you would agree with me, but finally, after a great deal of hard work, Jimmie was right on the top branch where the two squirrels sat blinking their eyes.
"How do you like it?" asked Johnnie.
"Fine!" cried Jimmie. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Now when a duck says "quack" three times, you may know he is very much pleased indeed. Oh, what a fine view Jimmie had, but he didn't dare frisk around as Billie and Johnnie did, for he was a trifle dizzy. Then, after he had been up there some time, he thought he had better go down, for the wind was blowing the treetop, and he wasn't used to it. So, after Billie and Johnnie had sung their song again, Jimmie started for the ground.
Well, you know how it is yourself, if you have ever climbed a tree. It's easy to go up, but it's hard to get down. The limb for your feet is never where you think it is. Poor Jimmie tried, and Billie and Johnnie helped him, but he didn't dare turn around to go down, backward, and that's the only way you can get down a tree, unless you're a squirrel.
Then Jimmie began to get frightened. He knew it was time for him to go home, but it began getting darker and darker and darker, and there he was right in the top of the tree, as far away from the ground as ever. He tried once more, but he didn't dare let go of one branch with his bill, while he put his foot down on another limb below, and there he was. Oh, what an unpleasant situation to be in, to say the least!
"Oh, I'll never get down!" cried Jimmie. "I wish I'd stayed on the ground!"
Billie and Johnnie began to get frightened, too, for it was partly their fault, and they were just going off for some kind of help, though what kind they didn't know, when they heard a noise.
It was a swishing, swooping, swoshing noise, and who should fly down out of the sky but that good, kind fishhawk, who once carried Billie and Johnnie on his big back to Lincoln Park. As soon as the squirrels saw him they cried out:
"Oh, please help Jimmie Wibblewobble down! He's in a tall tree and can't reach the ground."
"Why, of course, to be sure," replied the kind fishhawk, and he alighted in the tree, and Jimmie got upon his strong, broad back, and the fishhawk flew gently to the earth, and that's how Jimmie got down. And maybe he wasn't glad of it! I know I am, anyhow.
Now, listen: the moving man didn't get my typewriter, after all, so if we have cocoanut-chocolate-mustard-apple-pie cake for supper, I can tell you a story to-morrow night, and it will be about the party Alice and Lulu had, and what happened at it. Something wonderful, too, let, me tell you.
There was great excitement in the duck pen. And the reason for it was that Lulu and Alice were going to have a party. It was the first party they had ever had, and it was on their birthday. You see, it was this way: Lulu and Alice both had the same birthday; that is, they, were twins. Jimmie was a day older than they were, and he wasn't a twin. There, now I've explained it all to you, and I'll get on with the story.
Well, Mamma Wibblewobble arranged for the party. She did all the baking and got the ice cream ready and made the pies and tarts, and Alice and Lulu sent out the invitations. They were written on nice little pieces of white birch bark that Johnnie and Billie Bushytail gnawed off the trees for the little duck girls.
Of course, Johnnie and Billie were invited, and so was Sammie Littletail, and Susie and Sister Sallie, and Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail, and Mr. and Mrs. Littletail, and Uncle Wiggily Longears, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and Bully, the frog, and the goldfish, and, let me see, who else? Oh, of course, the fairy prince. Alice would not have had him left out for anything.
Alice and Lulu had their best hair ribbons on and their new dresses, and were all dressed up for the party nearly an hour before it was time. Jimmie got ready, too. That is, he put on a clean collar and a new, red necktie, and he looked very nice. But he really didn't care much about the party. He said he and the boys would go off by themselves and talk about baseball.
"No," said his mother, "you must not do that. I want you and the boys to entertain the little girls. Be nice, now, Jimmie."
So Jimmie said he would, and pretty soon the company began to come. Bully, the frog, hopped along first, and right after him came Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and, would you believe me, he never said a word about Jimmie breaking his window that time.
"We are very glad to see you," said Alice and Lulu, as they stood at the front door to receive their friends. Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, was also there, and as the guests came up, she called out:
"Now, girls, walk right in the bedroom and put your things on the bed. You boys take your things in Jimmie's room." Oh, it was a real party, let me tell you.
Uncle Wiggily was the last to arrive, and you know why that was. It was because his rheumatism hurt him so. But he finally got there, and then the party was complete; that is, all but the fairy prince, and even the goldfish didn't know what had become of him.
First the boys all stayed on one side of the room and the girls on the other, but when Alice said, "Let's play spin the platter," they all cried out, "Oh, yes, let's do it." And they used one of Mamma Wibblewobble's dishes for the platter, and didn't break it a bit. Jimmie was "it" part of the time, and so was Johnnie Bushytail.
"Now let's play going to Jerusalem," proposed Lulu, and they did, Grandfather Goosey-Gander whistling through his bill, just like a fife, to make the music. Then they played blind-duck-bluff, and post-office and clap-in clap-out, and forfeits and, oh, such lots of games that I can hardly remember them. Oh, yes, there was one more, puss in the corner, and whom do you suppose was the puss? Why the little kittie; Lulu's little kittie, you know, that Aunt Lettie thought had come from the pussy-willows.
"When are we going to eat?" asked Bushytail, after a while, and he spoke out loud.
"Hush!" cried Sister Sallie. "You mustn't ask that, Billie; it isn't polite!"
"Well, I wanted to know," said the little boy squirrel.
"Bless your heart!" exclaimed Aunt Lettie. "Of course you do. It must be time to serve the refreshments. I'll go ask Mrs. Wibblewobble."
"I don't want refreshments," objected Billie, in a whisper to Sister Sallie. "I'm hungry, and I want something to eat!"
"Hush!" cried his little sister again. "Refreshments are good things to eat!"
"Oh," said Billie, and just then in came Mamma Wibblewobble and Aunt Lettie and Mrs. Bushytail and Mrs. Littletail and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, all of whom helped serve the good things to eat.
Oh, what a lot of refreshments there were, including maple sugar, hickorynut ice cream and chocolate-covered carrots, and cornmeal made into little balls with cocoanut marshmallow on the outside, and candied cabbage leaves, and water-cress flavored with spearmint, and the land knows what!
Well, those children at Alice's and Lulu's party ate so much it's a wonder that they ever got home. They had a lovely time, though Alice felt disappointed because the fairy prince didn't come, and everyone wished Alice and Lulu many happy returns, and Bully, the frog, said:
"When you have a party, Jimmie, I'm coming to that, too."
"Sure," answered Jimmie. "I'll have one next week, if mamma will let me," for you see he found he liked parties better than he thought he would.
Well, they played some more games, including one called hide the peanut, and then it was time to go home; and now comes the queer part of it. Just as they were all saying good-night, and Uncle Wiggily was looking for his crutch, there sounded out in the woods three blasts from a silver trumpet. "Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!"
You know, just like when the procession starts in a circus, and who should come riding up to the ducks' house but a little boy, all dressed in silver and gold, with a long white plume in his hat and he was on a white horse. Once more the trumpet sounded, and the boy called out:
"Am I too late for the party?"
"Yes, you are," said Uncle Wiggily, leaning on his crutch, which he found behind the door. "But who are you?"
"Me? I am the fairy prince!" cried the boy, and the trumpets blew again.
"What? Not the mud turtle fairy prince?" asked Alice, fanning herself, so she wouldn't faint.
"The very same," answered the boy. "I got tired of being a mud turtle, but I am still a fairy prince!"
"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "You are only a little boy on a horse, and not a fairy prince at all!"
"Wait, and you shall see!" cried the boy, waving his hand, and the silver trumpet blew again, "Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!" and the horse reared up on his hind legs. "I certainly am the fairy prince, and to prove it I will do something wonderful. Come to the woods to-morrow, Uncle Wiggily Longears, and see!"
"What will I see?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"You will see a red fairy," answered the boy who used to be mud turtle, "and the red fairy will do something wonderful for you."
"Oh!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "I don't believe in fairies!"
But, all the same, he had to, after what happened, for he went back to the woods, and met a red fairy, and the red fairy stopped Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism for a time, as you can find out by reading the first book of this series, entitled "Sammie and Susie Littletail," which tells a lot about two little rabbit children and their friends, as well as about Uncle Wiggily Longears.
Now I've reached the end of this story, but there's another one for to-morrow night, in case you don't hit anybody with your bean shooter, and it's going to be about Lulu and the Golden fairy.
Once upon a time it was raining very hard one morning. It was just when Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble were looking out of the window of the duck pen, getting ready for school.
"Jimmie, is your hair combed?" asked his mamma.
"No, ma'am," he answered; "but I'm just going to comb it."
"And did you brush your teeth?"
"No, mamma, but I'm just going—"
"Now, now, Jimmie, that's what you always say. Hurry to the bathroom and clean your teeth at once, or else there'll be a dentist coming to the school looking into your mouth and goodness knows what will happen then. Hurry, now, or you'll be late."
Jimmie cleaned his teeth quickly, and ran on to school so he wouldn't be late and get a bad mark. What's that? You didn't know ducks had teeth? Well, the next time you get a chance, when a duck opens his mouth real wide, you look in, and maybe you'll see them. They're very small, I know, but that doesn't count.
Well, Lulu and Alice ran on ahead, and Jimmie came following after. He wasn't late at school because he met Bully the frog, who hopped, and so Jimmie had to run to keep up. The little boy duck was the first one in the classroom, and the teacher said:
"Why, Jimmie, this is a delightful surprise. You are not late this morning, though you were every other day this week."
"Yes, ma'am," was all Jimmie said, as he took his seat.
Well, you should have seen it rain! Honestly, I don't know when it ever rained so hard before; maybe not since the animals came out of the ark, or the last time I wanted to go to a picnic. Some of the kindergarten children got quite wet, because, you see, they were so little that they couldn't hold their umbrellas up straight. And even some of the high school girls got wet, too; but they didn't mind.
Jimmie and his sisters didn't need an umbrella, for, you know, water always runs off a duck's back, and doesn't do a bit of harm. It rained when the duck children got home from school, and it was still raining when Mrs. Wibblewobble said:
"My dears, I don't like to ask you to go out in the storm again, but I do wish you would run over to Grandfather Goosey-Gander's house. He is ill, and I want to send him some hot watercress tea."
Now Alice didn't want to go because her foot, that she once had cut on a stone, pained her. And Jimmie, well, no sooner had he gotten in the house, and taken some bread and butter, with jam on it, than he had run out in the rain again, to play with Bully, the frog. That left only Lulu to go to Grandfather Goosey-Gander's house, but she said she didn't mind in the least, and afterward she was very glad she went, for she saw a most wonderful sight. Just you wait, and I'll tell you about it.
So Mrs. Wibblewobble put the hot tea in a tin pan, and covered it over with a burdock leaf, to keep the rain out, and then she put some cold potatoes in a dish, for she thought the old gentleman duck might like them as well. Then Lulu started off through the woods to go to her grandfather's house. It was still raining, but she didn't mind, and pretty soon, oh, maybe in about ten quacks, she came to where Mr. Gander lived.
Well, you would have felt sorry for him if you could have seen him. There he was, sitting on a stool, with his feet in a pail of hot water, and seven bottles of medicine on a table at his right wing, and six bottles of pills on a table at his left wing, and there was a blanket up around his neck, and he had a nightcap on, and he was groaning something terrible; yes, really he was.
"Oh, grandfather!" cried Lulu. "Are you very sick?"
"Yes," he replied, "I am very sick. I think I have the pip, or maybe the epizoodic."
"Which is worse?" asked Lulu, as she set the hot tea and the cold potatoes on the table.
"They are both worse," answered the old gentleman duck. "That is, they seem so, when you have them both at once. But I think I would feel better if I had a hot cornmeal poultice on the back of my neck. Only I can't make it and put it there, for I can't take my feet out of the hot water, and I don't know where the cornmeal is, and I'm home all alone, for my wife has gone shopping."
"Oh, I'll make it for you," said Lulu very kindly. "I know where the cornmeal is." So she went to get some, and, on the way to the meal box she began to think:
"Wouldn't it be lovely if a blue fairy, or a green one or a purple one, or even a skilligimink colored one would appear now? I would ask her to make grandfather better. But I don't s'pose one will come, for I never have any luck seeing fairies," and she sighed three times as she opened the cornmeal box.
Then, all of a sudden, as she lifted the cover, as true as I'm telling you, if she didn't see something all glittering and shining down in one corner of the box. At first she thought it was the yellow meal, but then she saw that it was a little creature, all gold, with shimmering wings, like those of a humming bird.
"Oh!" cried Lulu, "are you a fairy?"
"Yes," replied the little creature, "I am the golden cornmeal fairy. I have been shut up here for ever and ever so long, and I thought I would never get out. But, since you have let me out, I will do anything in the world for you," and she waved her golden wings, and sang a jolly, golden song about diamonds.
"Will you?" cried Lulu. "Then please make my grandfather better, for he is very sick and has to take thirteen kinds of medicine."
"I will make him well," said the fairy, as she flew out of the box, "and it is very kind of you to ask that, instead of something for yourself. Now, you make a nice hot poultice of this meal, which is magical, and put it on the back of his neck.
"Then you say this fairy word: Bibbilybab-bilyboobily-bag,' and see what happens. But don't tell your grandfather I am a fairy; in fact, say nothing to any one about it, for we fairies are going away for a time, but we may come back later." Then the golden fairy waved her wings and disappeared.
But Lulu did just as she had been told, even to saying that magical word, and, my gracious! if Grandfather Goosey-Gander didn't get all well in a second, and he thanked Lulu very much. She felt sorry about the fairy disappearing so suddenly, but you can't always have fairies, you know. Now, if you girls don't lose your pink hair ribbon I'll tell you to-morrow night about Jimmie and the black cow.
Lulu Wibblewobble felt quite proud of having seen the golden fairy in the corn meal box. In fact she was the only one of her family who saw a fairy for ever and ever so long after that, because the fairies happened to go away from that part of the country.
Of course, Lulu wondered how the tiny creature got into the meal box, and she wondered if she might tell Alice and Jimmie about having seen her, but she decided she had better not.
Now it was about a week after Lulu had taken Grandfather Goosey-Gander the hot tea and the cold potatoes, that something happened to Jimmie Wibblewobble.
It was one afternoon when he was on his way home from school, and he was all alone, for he had been kept in for missing his spelling lesson, and all the other children had gone on. You see he couldn't spell "vinegar." Of course that's an easy word, I know, but Jimmie didn't like sour things, and I suppose that's why he missed vinegar. He put the "x" and a "k" of the word in the wrong places. Anyway he was kept in, and he had to write "ketchup" on his paper fifty times.
Well, after he was let out Jimmie started off through the woods and over the fields. Pretty soon, right after he was passing along a deep, dark, dingly dell, which is a sort of little valley, with flowers and ferns growing in it, he heard a bell ring. "Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" went the bell. At first Jimmie thought he was near a church, but just then the bell rang differently.
This time it went: "Tinkle-tankle! Tinkle-tankle! Tinkle-tank—" just like that.
"Why!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I wonder what that can be?"
Then he went on a little farther, and he came out of the deep, dark dingle-dell, and he heard the bell more plainly still. This time it rang very rapidly, and right after it Jimmie heard a loud voice calling: "Moo! Moo! Moo! Help me, will you; will you?"
"Why!" cried Jimmie. "That's a cow!"
Then, in another moment he came from behind a big tree, and what should he see but a big, black cow, standing in a swamp. The cow was shaking her head and shaking her horns at the same time, and ringing the bell, which was fastened around her neck by a strap, and she was mooing as hard as she could moo.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Jimmie, wobbling up quite close to her. "What ever is the matter?"
"Lots and lots is the matter," answered the cow. "But aren't you afraid of me, little boy duck; afraid of me and my sharp horns?"
"Why no," answered Jimmie, after he had thought it over for a minute or two. "I don't believe I am afraid of you. Why should I be afraid?"
"No reason at all; none in the world," replied the cow. "But since I'm in trouble so many creatures seem to be afraid of me. I saw a frog hopping past, and I asked him to help me, but I guess he was afraid I'd step on him, so he wouldn't come near, but hopped off as far as he could."
"That must have been Bully," said Jimmie. "He's afraid of lots of things. But maybe he was in a hurry," he added, for he did not want to say that Bully was afraid if the frog wasn't frightened, you know.
"Well," agreed the cow, "maybe he was. Then a rabbit boy hopped past, and I asked him to help me, but he was afraid, too."
"That must have been Sammie Littletail," said Jimmie. "But I don't believe he was afraid. Sammie is very brave. Maybe he was in a hurry."
"Well," admitted the cow, "maybe he was. But then two little squirrel boys came along, and I asked them to help me, but they ran away, frisking their tails. I guess they were afraid."
"No," answered Jimmie, "they weren't afraid. They were Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, and the reason they ran was to get some one to help you, for they are very kind. Maybe Bully and Sammie will bring some one to help you, also. But what seems to be the matter?"
"My foot is caught under a stone," said the cow, and she blinked her big brown eyes as fast as she could. In fact, they opened and shut so rapidly that big tears came from them, and splashed down her nose.
"Oh! I am so sorry!" cried Jimmie. "Your foot caught under a stone!"
"Wait a minute! Hold on!" exclaimed the cow. "That is not the worst of it! You have not heard all! My foot is under a stone, and the stone is under water, so I can't see to get my foot out. That's why I feel so badly about it. You can see for yourself, Johnnie—"
"My name is Jimmie," said the little boy duck quickly.
"Well, Jimmie, then," went on the cow. "You can see for yourself how it is, or, rather, you can't see, for the water is in the way," and then Jimmie noticed that one of the cow's hoofs was down in a puddle of water, and no matter how hard she pulled she couldn't get loose from that stone; no, sir, any more than you can tie a string to one of your teeth and get the tooth loose—that is, not counting a tooth that needs pulling, of course.
"Well," remarked Jimmie, after he had looked very carefully at the puddle where the cow's foot was, "it's too bad."
"It certainly is," agreed the cow. "You see if the stone wasn't under water I could see to loosen it with my horn, but as it is I can't, and I've tried several times," and she tried once more, just to show she was telling the truth.
"I've been here some time," the cow went on, "and no one seems able to help me," and she mooed some more, and the bell tinkled some more, and more of her tears fell splish-splash in the puddle of water, making it bigger than ever.
"I will help you!" cried Jimmie, suddenly. "I am a duck, and I know all about water!"
So he jumped right in that puddle, and he commenced to splash with his wings and his yellow feet, and my goodness gracious sakes alive! if in about two quacks he didn't have all the water splashed out of that hole where the poor cow's foot was fast.
Then the cow could see to loosen the stone with her horn, and she could walk home. And because Jimmie was so kind she gave him a pail of milk to take to the duck pen for Alice and Lulu. Now to-morrow night the story will be about Alice and the puppy dogs, providing the automobile does not turn upside down and spill me out.
Alice Wibblewobble had been over to pay a visit to Sister Sallie, the little squirrel-sister of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and she had ever so much fun; and a good time, and such a nice supper! ending up with butternut ice cream, with maple sugar for dessert. Well, before Alice knew it, night had come, and it was all dark.
"Oh! dear!" she cried, "I didn't know it was so late."
"Are you afraid to go home in the dark?" asked Mrs. Bushytail.
"No, not exactly," answered Alice, "but you see it's so dark I might tumble into a hole, or cut my foot again on a sharp stone. I'm not exactly afraid of the dark, but—"
"Oh! I understand," said Mamma Bushytail. "But I hardly know what to do," she went on. "My husband is away this evening, or he would take you home, and Billie and Johnnie are over at Grandpa Lightfoot's, and I'm so busy getting through my spring housecleaning, and sewing a new dress for Sister Sallie, that I don't believe I could spare the time to go."
"Oh! I wouldn't think of asking you," spoke Alice quickly, but she looked out into the dark, and she didn't feel very happy, even if she had just eaten a large plate of butternut ice cream.
"Couldn't you stay all night, my dear?" asked Sister Sallie's mother.
"No, I'm afraid my mamma would worry," replied Alice.
"Perhaps Jimmie will come for you pretty soon," suggested Sister Sallie, and then she hummed that little verse about going hippity-hop to the barber shop to buy a lolly-pop lally. You remember it, I dare say.
"Maybe he will," agreed Alice, so she and Sister Sallie played another game, but it got darker and darker, and no Jimmie came, and then Alice knew she must start for home, or her papa and mamma would be worried. But she didn't like to go out in the black night, and she was almost ready to cry, and didn't know what to do, when, all of a sudden, Sister Sallie called out:
"Oh, mamma, I know the very thing! I'll run next door, to where Mrs. Bow Wow lives, and ask her to send Jackie and Peetie home with Alice."
"Who are Peetie and Jackie?" asked the little girl duck.
"They are puppy dogs," replied Sister Sallie, "and the cutest ones you ever saw! Oh, they are darlings! They'll go home with you through the woods, because they are very brave. Some day they will grow to be big dogs, and guard the house. I'll ask Mrs. Bow Wow, their mamma, to let them take you home."
"That will be a good plan," agreed Mrs. Bushytail. "Run in and ask Mrs. Bow Wow, Sister Sallie."
So Sister Sallie ran in next door, and pretty soon she came back with two of the cutest puppy dogs Alice had ever seen.
"Which one is Peetie and which one is Jackie?" Alice asked, as they tumbled about on the floor, getting up and falling down again.
"I am Peetie," answered one. "You can tell that because I am all white with a black spot on my nose."
"And I am Jackie," said his brother. "I am all black, with a white spot on my nose. So you see it is easy to tell us apart."
"Yes," agreed Alice with a laugh, "I see; that is, I would see if you kept still long enough, only you don't, for you wiggle and tumble about so much. But will you please take me home?"
"Of course we will," answered Jackie, rubbing the black spot on his brother's nose with his paw. Just then, if those two puppy dogs didn't see one of Papa Bushytail's boots, and, land sakes alive! if one didn't grab one end and one the other end, and they began to pull and growl. Puppy dogs always do such things, you know.
"Oh! Oh! You mustn't do that," cried Mamma Bushytail. "You must take Alice home."
"We will," answered Peetie, rubbing the black spot on his own nose with his little white paw. "We were only doing this for practice. Come on, Alice! Bow-wow! Bow-wow!"
So pretty soon, after a while, oh, not so very long, Alice started for the duck pen, with Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow tumbling over each other in their eagerness to see which would walk at her right wing, and which at her left. Well, weren't those puppy dogs brave, though, to go out in the dark night? They never thought anything about it, really; any more than you mind going to bed in the dark.
Then, all of a sudden, as they were walking through a very dismal place in the woods, Jackie began to growl.
"Oh, don't do that!" cried Alice, "you frighten me! Did you see a burglar or a wolf?"
"Why, I only growled because I smelled a bone," said Jackie, and he laughed, and fell over and over, turning a complete somersault.
"I smelled the bone first!" cried Peetie, "and I'm going to have it!" Then the two of them made a rush for the nice, juicy bone, and they each got hold of it and began to pull, one on one end and one on the other, and they fell down and slipped and stumbled all over in the darkness, getting mixed up in the leaves, growling and snarling; but, of course, it was all in fun, you know, for the puppy dogs loved each other.
"Oh, don't do that, Peetie!" begged Alice, touching one of the puppy dogs with her foot. "Don't tumble about so, Peetie!"
"I'm not Peetie; I'm Jackie!" was the answer. "Can't you tell by the white spot on my nose? Peetie has a black spot."
"I can't see very well in the dark," replied Alice.
Then something very funny happened, for when Jackie opened his mouth to speak to Alice he had to let go of the bone, and of course Peetie ran off with it and hid it. But that was a good thing, for they couldn't pull on it any more, and when Peetie came back they both rubbed noses, and went on through the dark woods, taking Alice home.
They had only one accident. That is, they fell down a hole, but they weren't hurt at all, I'm glad to say. Then, when Alice was safe in the duckpen, the puppy dogs ran back home and went right to sleep.
Now, if you don't spill the salt in the sugar bowl, I'm going to tell you to-morrow night about Jimmie and Jackie.
When Alice reached the duckpen that night, after she had gone visiting Sister Sallie, and was brought home by the puppy dogs, she told her folks all about it.
"Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, eh?" remarked Jimmie, her brother, when she had told their names. "I never heard of them. They must be new around here."
"They are," answered Alice. "But they are just as cute as they can be; really they are."
"Cute, eh?" asked Jimmie. "Can they play ball?"
"I don't know," replied his sister. "But you ought to see them pull on that old boot and the bone! Oh, it was too funny!"
"And they took good care of you, didn't they," asked Lulu.
"Indeed, they did," answered Alice. "They weren't afraid of anything, even when an owl hooted."
So the next day, which was Saturday, when there wasn't any school, Jimmie started off with his wooden bat over his shoulder, his catching glove under one wing and his ball under the other.
"Where are you going?" asked his mother.
"I'm going over to Mrs. Bow Wow's house to see if I can find the puppy dogs," he said. "I want to get acquainted with them."
"All right, Jimmie, but be sure to wipe your feet if you go in Mrs. Bow Wow's house, and don't forget to take off your cap and say 'yes, ma'am,' and 'no, ma'am,' Jimmie."
"S'posin' she doesn't ask me anything?" inquired Jimmie. "What'll I say?"
"Well, then, of course, you needn't say anything; but be polite," warned the little boy duck's mother, for sometimes he forgot, though he didn't mean to.
Well, he was walking along through the woods, and over the green fields where the dandelions were just coming up, looking like buttons on a policeman's coat, if the policeman's coat was green instead of blue, and I think green would be a nice color. But no matter about that.
Jimmie was walking along, when, all of a sudden, he heard a little growl. At first he thought it was the bad fox after him again, but in a moment he saw a little black ball of fur rolling along, and then he saw a little white spot, and he thought that might be Sammie Littletail, only he knew the rabbit boy never growled. Then, all at once, if that ball of fur didn't unroll, and there stood a puppy dog!
"Hello!" called Jimmie Wibblewobble, real friendly-like.
"Hello!" answered the puppy dog.
"Are you Peetie or Jackie Bow Wow?" asked the little boy duck, for he knew the puppy dog must be one or the other.
"I'm Jackie," was the answer. "Can't you tell? I'm all black with a white spot on my nose, and my brother, Peetie, is all white with a black spot on his nose. See? I'm black with a black spot—no, I mean I'm black with a white spot, and Jackie he's black—no, hold on—he's white—no, I'm Jackie, and he's Peetie—he's white with a white—no, a black spot—"
"Oh, for mercy sakes, stop!" cried Jimmie. "I'm all tangled up with white spots and black spots!"
"So am I," admitted Jackie. "It's hard to tell who I am, sometimes."
"Is it, really?" asked Jimmie.
"Yes, it is. In fact I'm mixed up now. Would you kindly look and tell me if I have a white or a black spot on my nose. I could look myself, only it makes me cross-eyed, and I don't like that."
So Jimmie looked, very carefully, and he saw a white spot on the puppy dog's nose, and told him so.
"It's all right. I'm Jackie then," answered the little fellow. "I thought I was, but it's best to make sure."
"Can you play ball?" asked Jimmie. "My sister told me about you. It was very kind of you to bring her home. You haven't lived here very long, have you?"
"Not very. But I'm glad I could help your sister. She is a nice girl."
"Where's your brother, Peetie?" asked Jimmie.
"Oh, he's gone to the store for mamma."
"Then let's you and I have a catch until he comes back. You can play ball, can't you?"
"Of course."
So Jimmie tossed the ball to Jackie, and the puppy dog stood up on his hind legs and caught it in his front paws, and then he fell right over, ker-thump, and rolled along the ground.
"Here!" cried the boy duck. "That's no way to play ball! You must stand up and catch."
"Oh, I know that," declared Jackie. "You see I was only practising at biting the ball with my teeth. I always bite things to sharpen my teeth so I can gnaw big bones when I get to be a big dog."
"Well, you needn't sharpen your teeth on my new ball!" cried Jimmie, and he felt a little angry; not much, you know, but a little and he took the ball and was going home, for he didn't like Jackie, he thought.
It was too bad the little creatures had had a falling-out so soon, but please wait just a moment and see what happens. No sooner had Jimmie started to go home—Jackie didn't know why, you see, for he didn't know it was wrong to bite the ball—no sooner, I say, did Jimmie start home, than out from the bushes jumped a great big water rat, with ugly, cruel, sharp teeth and wicked eyes.
Oh, how frightened Jimmie was, for he knew big water rats ate ducks. But what do you suppose Jackie, that puppy dog, did? Why he just growled away down in his throat, and he stuck up one ear as far as it would go, and he let the other ear fall down as far as it would fall, and he opened his mouth, and he showed his teeth, that he had sharpened on Jimmie's ball, and he jumped right at that bad rat! Yes, sir, right at him, growling all the while!
At first the rat was going to fight, but when it saw how brave Jackie was, it turned and ran away. And then that puppy dog just put his little tail between his legs, and howled, and ran away, too; Jimmie waddling after him. You see Jackie was frightened after it was all over, but he had frightened the rat worse yet.
"How brave you were!" cried Jimmie, when they were at Mrs. Bow Wow's house. "You were very brave, indeed."
"Do you really think so?" asked Jackie. "Then I must be."
"You can bite my ball all you want to," went on Jimmie, and then Peetie came home from the store, and they all had a fine time playing catch. Now to-morrow night I'm going to tell you about Grandfather Goosey-Gander's tall hat, if I don't lose a penny off the front stoop.
Jimmie Wibblewobble was in the back lots, playing ball with Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, Sammie Littletail, and Bully, the frog, besides some other friends of his. They were having a fine time, knocking the ball this way and that, just as if the ball didn't care what happened to it. When it came Jimmie's turn to bat, he called out:
"Watch me knock it away over the tree," and land sakes, goodness me and a pop-corn cake! if that ball didn't fly away over the tree, just like a little bird. Well,—Jimmie was pretty proud, I can tell you, and he was such a good hitter that Bully said:
"Let Jimmie knock some more balls for us to catch."
So he did, after Billie Bushytail had run to get the one that went over the tree, and brought it back.
Well, so the game went on, and pretty soon, oh, I guess it must have been about as long as it takes to eat two pieces of bread and butter, but not with jam on, mind you; I guess in about that time, it was Billie Bushytail's turn to bat. And just as he stepped up to hit the ball, if all the boy animals didn't see something black moving along by the hedge fence. It was black and round and shiny, this moving object was, and as soon as Sammie Littletail saw it he cried out:
"Oh, there's a bad fox. Let's see who can hit him."
So they all caught up stones to throw at the bad fox, to drive him away.
Jimmie had the largest stone, and he could throw the straightest, so it is no wonder he hit the tall, round, shining black thing by the hedge. But this is the funny part of it, that black thing wasn't a fox at all. No, siree!
It was Grandfather Goosey-Gander's new tall hat, and that wasn't at all funny, I do assure you. And the worst part of it was that Grandfather Goosey-Gander was under that hat! For, you know, a tall hat couldn't walk along by a hedge, all alone its own self, now, could it? Of course, I know it could if this were a fairy story, but it isn't.
Well, something dreadful happened. The stone which Jimmie threw hit grandfather's tall hat, went inside, just grazing the top of the old gentleman duck's head, and then, what do you think? Well, I don't believe you could guess if you tried a week, so I'll tell you.
The stone hit Grandfather's big hat
That stone came out on the other side. It went right through the hat, making a hole where it went in, and another hole where it came out. Two holes; you could easily have counted them if you had been there.
Of course, as soon as Jimmie heard the noise, made by the stone which he threw, hitting the hat, he could tell by the plinkity-plunkity sound that there was going to be trouble. And there was.
Grandfather Goosey-Gander jumped up in the air. He uttered a loud quack, and then he took off his tall hat. He looked at the two ragged holes in it, and then he looked over at the boys in the field. He knew right away they had done it, but he didn't know which one. Jimmie, however, was a good boy, and he wasn't going to have any one else blamed for what he had done. So he ran to where his grandfather stood, sorrowfully looking at his hat, and Jimmie said:
"I did it, grandpa. I cannot tell a story. I did it with my little stone."
"Ha! Hum! Did you; eh?" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Well, that's a pretty bad thing to do, Jimmie. This is my best hat. I put it on to go down to the bank, to put money in. I mean to put money in the bank, not in the hat, of course. I always wear it when I go to the bank, so folks will know I am rich. Now I can't wear it any more. It's too bad!" And the old gentleman duck looked very sorrowful.
"Yes," agreed Jimmie, "it is too bad," for he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"You will have to pay for a new hat for me," went on his grandfather.
"I haven't any money," said Jimmie, and tears began to run down his broad, yellow bill, for the little boy duck felt pretty bad, I can tell you.
"You will have to save up all the pennies you get," decided Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Boys should not be so careless."
"We thought you were a fox," said Billie Bushytail.
"And we all threw stones at you," added Sammie Littletail.
"But I'm the only one who hit your hat, though," admitted Jimmie.
"Do I look like a fox?" demanded the old duck. "That's what I want to know. Do I look like a fox?" Well, of course, you know he didn't, and the ball players had to admit it. "You will have to pay for my hat, Jimmie," grandpa continued, looking again at two ragged holes. "Have you any money now?"
"No," said Jimmie, and he was crying real hard by this time. Then all the other boys felt badly, too, and they were just looking in their pockets to see if they had any money, but they hadn't. All they had was some marbles, and tops, and broken knives, and chewing gum, all sticky, and some strings.
Then it began to look as if Grandfather Goosey-Gander would never have a new hat, but, all at once, there was a buzzing sound in the air, and what should come flying along but a darning needle. You know what I mean: one of those funny, long bugs sometimes called a dragon fly, with beautiful wings, and long legs and body.
"What is the trouble?" asked the darning needle, and then the boys told him about the broken hat. "Ah," said the darning needle, careless-like, "do not distress yourself, Jimmie. I know you are a good boy. To fix that hat is a mere trifle for me, and I'll do it."
And what did that dragon-fly-darning-needle do but buzz back and forth, all around the holes in Grandfather Goosey-Gander's tall hat, right through the hat itself, until he had the holes all sewed up, and you could hardly tell where they were.
Then Mrs. Spider came along, and she spun some glossy silk web over the places where the seams were, and presto-chango! if that hat wasn't as good as ever!
Well, you can just imagine how glad Jimmie was that he didn't have to pay for it. And his grandpa was pleased, too, and so were the boys. Then the darning needle flew away, Mrs. Spider crawled off, Grandfather Goosey-Gander went to the bank, the boys played ball some more and everything was lovely.
Now, if the window curtain doesn't fly up lickety-split and come off the roller, I'll tell you to-morrow night about Jimmie flying a kite.
Jimmie Wibblewobble was out flying his kite. He had made it all himself, out of sticks, and paste, and paper and strings, and it was a very fine kite indeed. It was nearly as large as the little boy duck, and it was the kind of a kite that doesn't need a tail. That was good, because a tail gets all tangled up in the weeds.
Well, Jimmie was flying his kite, and the wind was pretty strong, and the kite was pulling real hard, just like a little dog pulls, when you tie a rope to his collar, and he wants to get away. Pretty soon along came Bully, the frog.
"Does your kite pull much?" he asked.
"Does it?" replied Jimmie. "Well, I should say it did!"
"Let me hold it a minute, will you?" asked Bully, and Jimmie very kindly let him. Then along came Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, and Sammie Littletail, and they all took turns holding the kite.
Well now, in a few minutes, something dreadful is going to happen to Jimmie. I tell you in advance so you won't be frightened, and, really, there is no need to be, for I'll see to it that, after the thing happens, Jimmie will be all right again. Now if you watch, and listen closely, you can tell the moment the thing happens. It's almost time.
The wind kept growing stronger and stronger, and it blew the dust up in a cloud, and it blew bits of paper and sticks along with the dust, and raised a dreadful commotion.
Then long came Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble. They had been to the store for their mamma, and had just come back. They felt the strong wind blowing on their feathers, and Alice said to her brother:
"You had better take down your kite, Jimmie. The wind may blow it away, and you with it."
"Oh, I guess I can hold it," answered the little boy duck, as he let out some more cord. The kite was now almost out of sight, and it was pulling harder than ever.
Then, all at once, if Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the two puppy dogs, didn't come along. Jackie had his white spot on his nose, and Peetie had his black spot on his nose, so that you could tell them apart. And those two doggies felt so full of fun that they ran right up and made believe bite Jimmie's yellow heels.
Now you know it feels queer to have two puppy dogs biting your heels, even if it is only in fun, and as soon as Jimmie felt Jackie and Peetie nipping him, he turned around quickly and cried out:
"Oh, don't do that!"
But the minute he looked around, if the kite string didn't get tangled in his legs, and then if the wind didn't blow a regular strong blast, the kind that howls down the chimney on a cold night; and oh, dear me, suz-dud! if Jimmie wasn't carried right up in the air by his kite! There, I told you something would happen, and it did! Maybe you'll believe me next time.
Well, up and up and up went Jimmie, pulled by the kite, until he was quite high in the air, hanging dingling, dangling down—O! by his yellow heels. Oh, it was a perfectly dreadful position to be in! really it was, and I'm not fooling a bit, honestly.
"Oh, oh! Save him!" cried Lulu.
"Yes, somebody get him down; please do!" added Alice, flapping her wings.
Billie Bushytail tried to jump up in the air, and grab hold of poor Jimmie, but he couldn't reach him, and then Sammie Littletail, he tried, but he couldn't reach him, and all the while poor Jimmie was being carried higher and higher by the kite.
"Save me! Oh, save me!" he cried, but there didn't seem to be any way of getting him down, and it began to look as if he would go right up to the sky.
On the ground Lulu and Alice were running here and there, flapping their wings and quacking, and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail were chattering, and as for Sammie Littletail, he made a noise just like a rabbit. Oh, there was great excitement, I can tell you!
Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster, he came running out, and he crowed as loud as ever he could crow, as if that could do any good. Then he flapped his wings as hard as he could, and that didn't do any good, either. Jimmie kept going farther and farther away.
"Oh, will no one save him?" asked Lulu, crying big tears.
"Wait a minute, I'll try it!" said Bully, the frog. "I am a good jumper, and I'll jump up. Maybe I can pull the kite down." So he jumped up as high as ever he could, but it wasn't nearly high enough, and Bully came back on the ground, ker-thump, ker-bump! and Jimmie Wibblewobble kept on going up. Poor Bully hurt his ankle, too, and he was lame for some days.
"Run and tell Grandfather Goosey-Gander," cried Lulu. "Maybe he can think up a way of getting Jimmie down."
So they all ran and told the old gentleman duck, for Mr. and Mrs. Wibblewobble were away that afternoon. Grandfather Goosey-Gander hurried out, and he squinted up at Jimmie, who looked only about as big as a baby chicken now, he was so far away, and then the Grandfather flapped his wings.
"Nothing can save him!" said Grandfather Goosey-Gander, very solemnly, "Jimmie has gone to the sky!"
Then, oh, how badly Lulu and Alice felt for their little brother! and all the others felt badly, too, for they liked Jimmie. But don't get excited now. All will be well in a very few minutes. Do not fear.
Bully, the frog, made one more jump, hoping to reach the kite, and pull it down, but he might as well have tried to jump over the moon, which only a hey-diddle-diddle-cat-and-the-fiddle-cow can do. Well, it looked as if Jimmie was gone for ever, when, all at once, there was a rushing of wings, and who should appear, but a kind fish hawk, that once gave Johnnie and Billie Bushytail a ride on his back.
"I will save Jimmie!" cried the fish hawk.
So he flew up in the air, right to the kite, and, with his strong beak, he tore a hole in the paper to let the air through. Then the kite came gently down, just like a red balloon, or maybe a blue one, that you get at the circus, and some one sticks a pin in it. Yes, the kite came gently down, and Jimmie came with it, and that's how he was saved!
And, maybe he wasn't glad! Well, I just guess, and some cornstarch pudding besides! Of course Peetie and Jackie were very sorry for biting Jimmie's heels and never did it again. Now, if I don't get stung by a bee, I'll tell you to-morrow night about Alice in a bag.
You remember I told you last night about Jimmie Wibblewobble being carried up by a kite. Well, when his papa and mamma came home that evening, they heard all about it, and how much excitement there was, and they told Jimmie he must be more particular after this. He promised that he would be very careful.
"I'll fly smaller kites," he said, and he went out the next time with one about the size of a postage stamp, and that couldn't take any one up in the air, you know, except, maybe, a mosquito, and they don't count.
Well, it was about two days after this that something happened to Alice. You see she had been sent to the store for a yeast cake and some prunes, for her mamma was going to make prune bread—that is, bread with prunes in it, and it's very nice, I assure you, for I've eaten it.
As Alice was coming home, through a lonely part of the woods, where the trees were so thick that it was almost dark, she began to feel a little bit frightened. So, to stop herself from feeling scared she began to sing. If she had been a boy, she would have shouted, or if she had been Lulu she would have whistled, for Lulu could whistle as good as could Jimmie.
But instead Alice sang, and this is the song she made up so she wouldn't be frightened. You are allowed to sing it if you are not more than seven-and-three-quarters years old. If you are any older than that you will have to have a special excuse; or some one else will have to sing it for you. Well, this is the song: