bunny uncle, sort of giggling like.

"Yes, a little," laughed Billie, "but I don't mind that. Now I'll show
you how to pick it up."

Once more he spun the top, and he was just going to pick it up when,
all of a sudden, a growling voice cried:

"Ah, ha! Again I am in luck! A rabbit and a squirrel! Let me see;
which shall I take first?" And out from behind a stump popped a big
bear. It was the same one that Uncle Wiggily had hit on the nose with
Johnnie's marble, about a week before.

"Oh, my!" said the bunny man.

"Oh, dear!" chattered Billie.

"Surprised to see me, aren't you?" asked the bear sticking out his
tongue.

"A little," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but I guess we'd better be getting
along Billie. Pick up my top and come along."

"Oh, oh! Not so fast!" growled the bear. "I shall want you to stay
with me. You'll be going off with me to my den, pretty soon. Don't be
in a hurry," and, putting out his claws, he grabbed hold of Uncle
Wiggily and Billie. They tried to get away, but could not, and the
bear was just going to carry them off, when he saw the spinning top
whizzing on the ground.

"What's that red thing?" he asked.

"A top Billie just picked out for me," said Uncle Wiggily.

"Would you like to have it spin on your paw?" asked Billie, blinking
his eyes at Uncle Wiggily, funny-like.

"Oh, I might as well, before I carry you off to my den," said the bear,
sort of careless-like and indifferent. "Spin the top on my paw."

So Billie picked up the spinning top and put it on the bear's broad,
flat paw. And, no sooner was it there, whizzing around, than the bear
cried:

"Ouch! Oh, dear! How it tickles. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! It
makes me laugh. It makes me laugh. It makes me giggle! Ouch! Oh,
dear!"

And then he laughed so hard that he dropped the top and turned a
somersault, and away he ran through the woods, leaving Billie and Uncle
Wiggily safe there alone.

"We came out of that very well," said the bunny uncle as the bear ran
far away.

"Yes, indeed, and here is your top," spoke Billie, picking it up off
the ground where the bear had dropped it.

"My top? No that's yours," said the bunny gentleman. "I meant it for
you all the while."

"Oh, did you? Thank you so much!" cried happy Billie, and then he ran
off to spin his red top, while Mr. Longears went back to his bungalow.

And if the sofa pillow doesn't leak its feathers all over, and make the
room look lik