Howard Roger Garis

“ Some of the wind came out of the toy circus balloons that Uncle Wiggily had fastened on his clothes basket airship, and the rabbit gentleman came down to blow more air in them.
The Flump saw him, and coming out of herhis house, with a sad, gloomy face, the Flump said, most dolefully and sorrowfully:
“Oh, why do you waste your time riding around in your airship, Mr. Longears? Why do you waste your time?”
“I do not waste my time,” said the rabbit gentleman cheerfully. “I ride about, it is true, but whenever I see any one in trouble I help them if I can.” ”

“ Pray pardon and excuse me, Nurse Jane,” said Uncle Wiggily, “but may I ask when tea will be ready?” You see he said tea to be more polite like.
“Tea!” exclaimed Nurse Jane. “Why, I can not give you your supper, Wiggy, until I have beaten all the dust out of this dusty carpet. And it will take me some time, Wiggy.” You see she called him Wiggy for short, because she was very busy at house cleaning.
“No supper until that carpet is beaten?” cried Uncle Wiggily, sad and disappointed like.
“No, indeed,” answered Nurse Jane. ”

“ A bad lot of mosquitoes had come along while Uncle Wiggily slept, had punctured holes in the rubber balloons, let out the air, and they were all spoiled.
“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “What shall I do? I never can sail home in my airship!” Then he happened to think of something. “I have it!” he cried. “I will scatter some bird seed on the ground. A lot of birds will see it and come to eat it. And I will ask them all to take hold of my airship in their bills at once, and raise me up by fluttering their wings. Then they can fly home with me and my airship.” ”

“ Why, Arabella, the little chicken girl, was sitting on the doorstep of the hencoop, crying as hard as she could cry.
“Oh, what is the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily kindly.
“I have no one to play with!” sobbed Arabella. “You see I am just getting over the mumps, and none of the other animal children, who have not had the mumps, want to play with me. And nobody but I has had the mumps!” she sobbed.
“That is too bad!” said Uncle Wiggily, kindly. “But perhaps I can make up a little fun for you. Do you like to blow soap bubbles?”
“Oh, indeed I do!” cried Arabella, making her wing feathers wiggle. ”

“ UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WATERING HOSE
Oh, but it was hot in animal land! It was hot and dry and dusty, for there had been no rain in a long time, and the sun shone brightly, making the leaves on the trees curl up in the heat, and wilting the pretty flowers.
“Well, if we don’t get some rain pretty soon,” spoke Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, “the garden will be spoiled, and we can have no strawberry shortcake.”
“No strawberry shortcake!” cried Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman for whom Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy kept house. “That will be too bad! ”

“ UNCLE WIGGILY AND CHARLIE CHICK
“Well, what are you doing, Charlie, my boy?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, of the little chicken chap, one day, as he saw Charlie on the shores of the duck pond with some boards, a hammer, a saw, some nails, a fishpole and part of a bed sheet. “What are you making, Charlie?”
“I am going to make a sailboat and go sailing across the duck pond,” replied Charlie, as he ruffled up his tail feathers and made a polite bow. Chicken boys always ruffle up their tail feathers when they bow. ”

“ But Uncle Wiggily was not frightened.
“What is the trouble?” the fish asked again.
“Why, I want some sawdust for Susie’s doll, Cora Ann Multiplicationtable,” answered the rabbit gentleman, “but I can find none.”
“Ha! Say no more!” cried the queer fish very politely. “Sawdust! I will give you all the sawdust you want. Just wait a minute.”
“Ha! How can you give me sawdust, if I may be so bold as to ask?” cried Uncle Wiggily.
“Why, I am a sawfish,” was the reply. “I can saw sawdust.” Then the fish gave a flop of his tail and out on the beach he jumped. ”

“ Alas, now I cannot go up like a loaf of bread.”
“Oh, yes you can, Uncle Wiggily!” exclaimed a voice near him, and there stood Arabella, the chicken girl, with her pipe, and bowl of soap suds for blowing bubbles.
“How can I go up when the balloons are burst?” asked the rabbit gentleman.
“With my soap bubbles!” cackled Arabella. “Soap bubbles are very light, and will rise in the air just like balloons. I will blow you a lot of bubbles, you can fasten them to your airship, and up you will go.” Then she blew forty-’leven bubbles, or maybe more, for all I know. ”

“ And Lulu and Alice were lying in a dark room, with pillows over their heads so as not to see the lightning, and hear the thunder. As for Jimmie, the boy duck, of course he was not afraid. Boys, whether they are ducks or not, are never afraid of thunder storms.
“You mustn’t mind the thunder storm,” said Uncle Wiggily, to Lulu and Alice. “It will not hurt you. Just pretend that the thunder is only the noise of a big circus wagon going over a bridge, and the lightning is only electric flashes from a trolley car. ”

“ And it’s much nicer to be a Scrump than a Flump.
“Where are you going?” asked Nurse Jane, as Uncle Wiggily got up from the table.
“Out for a ride in my airship,” replied the rabbit gentleman. “It is a lovely day, and I might find some in trouble whom I could help. Yes, I shall go for a little ride.”
“Well, don’t fall,” begged Nurse Jane, and Uncle Wiggily promised that he would not. Soon he was soaring and flying up near the clouds in his airship, that was made from a clothes basket, some circus balloons, a Japanese umbrella and an electric fan. ”

“ We can go up in the air over the fire and spill a pail of water on it. He won’t be burned as he will be so high up, but the water will put out the fire.”
“Go and get him quickly then!” shouted Mr. Littletail hopping up and down on his big ears.
Uncle Wiggily came sailing along in his airship right away when Sammie called him. The rabbit gentleman took up with him many pails of water, and when he had steered his airship high up over the fire, where he was out of danger, Uncle Wiggily spilled down the water, just like rain from the clouds, and the fire hissed like a snake, and went out. ”

“ Uncle Wiggily really was fastening a Japanese umbrella over his funny clothes basket airship.
“The umbrella will keep off the sun as well as the rain and hail,” he said happy-like.
Well, the old gentleman rabbit was just getting ready to go up in his airship again, when, from among the leaves of a tree that grew in his garden, he heard a voice saying:
“Now, birdies, it is time you learned to fly. ”

“ I am going off looking for an adventure.”
“And I am going to the woods to gather acorns for my kitchen fire,” said the goose gentleman. “But I am going to walk. It is safer, by far. Airships are not good for animals like us.”
“Well, I think they are,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, as he rose in the air again.
The rabbit gentleman circled around, flying along in his clothes basket airship, and he was having a fine ride. But no adventure happened to him. By and by, after a while, not so very long, Uncle Wiggily found himself flying over a big woods. ”

“ So Uncle Wiggily started off after the yeast cake and anything else he might find. At first he went along slowly, and then he hurried along a little faster, and pretty soon, as he came to a beautiful white lily, he heard a voice sadly saying:
“Oh, dear! What shall I do? I cannot fly after honey, and I shall surely die! Oh, woe is me!”
“Ha! Some one in trouble, I imagine!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he looked all about. But he could see no one. ”

“ I am glad I helped change the Flump into a Scrump.”
I told you that story on the page before this, you remember. The Flump was a curious, sad sort of a mixed-up animal, but when Uncle Wiggily fixed her smoky chimney, the Flump turned into a Scrump, which is short for Scrumptious, and scrumptious means lovely.
“My! that is good chocolate cake,” said the gentleman rabbit, passing Nurse Jane a large slice. “Just give it away to the animal children when they come home from school.”
“That’s just like you!” cried the muskrat lady. “Giving away everything you get! Why don’t you eat it yourself?” ”

“ I think I can help the mamma bird give them their flying lesson,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I will go up in my airship and float slowly along. I will keep right under the little birds, and I’ll tell them that if their wings give out, and if they fall, they will land on my umbrella and not get hurt at all.”
So away he went in his airship, and when he got near the top of the tree, with the electric fan buzzing and the toy balloons lifting him up, the rabbit gentleman called:
“See me, birdies! I am flying, and you know a rabbit has no wings. Look!” ”

“ Wibblewobble put more feathers in the cushions. That will make them lovely and soft. Queer, isn’t it, that I should have thought punching the pillows was the proper thing to do—very queer, wasn’t it, Nurse Jane?”
“Oh, well, you are often queer, Wiggy,” she said, calling him that for short. “Once more doesn’t make much difference.”
So Nurse Jane went in the house to give the breakfast dishes their bath, and put talcum powder on them, and Uncle Wiggily started off in his airship for the Wibblewobble duck house to have the old sofa cushions made over, with new feathers inside. ”

“ Uncle Wiggily exclaimed. “I see nothing!”
He looked at Nurse Jane, who was making [Pg 48] funny motions in the air, waving her paws about and clapping them together.
“You don’t see anything?” the muskrat lady cried. “Why, the place is full of moths. They will eat everything up!”
“Will they eat up my turnip sandwich?” Uncle Wiggily wanted to know.
“Oh, not that,” replied Nurse Jane. “They are not like foxes, or bears. Moths are little things that first flit about like butterflies. Then they find a nice, cosy, soft bed in your fur coat, or your flannel shirts, and they lay eggs. ”

“ To-morrow you must go up in your airship and buy me some moth balls.”
“I didn’t know moths played ball,” said the rabbit gentleman. “They certainly are strange creatures, to eat pianos and play ball!”
“Oh, of course, moths don’t play ball!” Nurse Jane said. “How silly you are, Wiggily. Moth balls are white balls that smell very strongly of camphor and other things that moths do not like. If you put moth balls in your fur and flannels the moths will go away.”
“Where will they go?” asked Uncle Wiggily. ”

“ Sheep’s fleeces are wool, you know. Men cut the wool, or the long, fluffy [Pg 122] hair, off the backs of sheep, and it is woven into cloth and made into clothes. It does not hurt the sheep to cut off the wool, any more than it hurts to cut your hair.
So Uncle Wiggily fell out of his airship on top of this load of wool, which was not yet woven into cloth, and he was not hurt a bit, for he bounced up and down (like the circus man in the net) on the fluffy wool. ”

“ Oh, isn’t it too bad!”
“Yes, but it might be worse,” said Uncle Wiggily, cheerfully. “Nothing is so bad but what it could be worse.”
“I don’t see how,” spoke Tom, the grocery cat. “I can’t deliver these things, and Mrs. Wibblewobble will be so disappointed, and so will Lulu and Alice and Jimmie.”
“Oh, it might easily be worse,” laughed Uncle Wiggily, as he twinkled his nose twice and once more. “I might not have come along in my airship to help you. But here I am, and I have just put a new cushioned seat in the clothes basket, on purpose to give some one a ride. ”

“ A Flump can never see anything good in anything or anybody. Gracious, if there were many Flumps in this world it would be a dreadful place in which to live.
For instance, a Flump doesn’t like to see children playing tag and running about, and a Flump doesn’t like to hear children laugh and shout. ”

“ There never would be any Christmas or Fourth of July, and school would always be in, with no recess, and there wouldn’t be any ice cream cones, or merry-go-rounds, or peanuts, or toy balloons, or circus-lemonade, or anything like that.
However, thank goodness, there aren’t many Flumps in the world. But, I am sorry to say, one lived near Uncle Wiggily. And one day when the old gentleman rabbit was sailing around in his airship he happened to land on the ground close by the house of this Flump. ”

“ He will have more brush when he rakes up the ground for his garden. Animal or real children should not play with fire,” said the mamma rabbit.
So Sammie and Susie Littletail went on making their garden, and in it they planted cabbage, radishes, lettuce and carrots—all things that rabbits love to eat. A few days later their papa, Mr. Littletail, the rabbit gentleman, made his garden, and he raked up a big pile of brush. ”