,
Nannie looking down at her new shoes every now and then.

"I'm going to dance at the party, Uncle Wiggily!" she said.

"I should think you would, Nannie, with those nice new shoes," spoke
Mr. Longears. "What dance are you going to do?"

"Oh, the four-step and the fish hornpipe, I guess," answered Nannie,
and then she suddenly cried:

"Oh, dear!"

"What's the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you lose one of
your new shoes?"

"No, but I splashed some mud on it," the little goat girl said. "I
stepped in a mud puddle."

"Never mind, I'll wipe it off with a bit of soft green moss," answered
Uncle Wiggily; and he did. So Nannie's shoes were all clean again.

On and on went the rabbit gentleman and the little goat girl, and they
talked of what games the animal children would play at the Longtail
mouse party, and what good things they would eat, and all like that.

All of a sudden, as Nannie was jumping over another little puddle of
water, she cried out again:

"Oh, dear!"

"What's the matter now?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did some more mud
splash on your new shoes, Nannie?"

"No, Uncle Wiggily, but a lot of the buttons came off. I guess they
don't fasten buttons on new shoes very tight."

"I guess they don't," Uncle Wiggily said. "But still you have enough
buttons left to keep the shoes on your feet. I guess you will be all
right."

So Nannie walked on a little farther, with Uncle Wiggily resting his
rheumatism, now and then, on the red, white and blue striped barber
pole crutch that Nurse Jane had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk.

All of a sudden Nannie cried out again:

"Oh, dear! Oh, this is too bad!"

"What is?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"Now all the buttons have come off my shoes!" said the little goat
girl, sadly. "I don't see how I can go on to the party and dance, with
no buttons on my shoes. They'll be slipping off all the while."

"So they will," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Shoes without buttons are like
lollypops without sticks, you can't do anything with them."

"But what am I going to do?" asked Nannie, while tears came into her
eyes and splashed up on her horns. "I do want so much to go to that
party."

"And I want you to," said Uncle Wiggily. "Let me think a minute."

So he thought and thought, and then he looked off through the woods and
he saw a queer tree not far away. It was a sycamore tree, with broad
white patches on the smooth bark, and hanging down from the branch