wn going over
the backs of fourteen elephants, and part of another one, and the
monkey grabbed Uncle Wiggily by his ears.
"Oh, let go of me, if you please!" begged the bunny. "I thought you
said you pulled tails and not ears."
"I do pull tails when I can get hold of them," said the malicious
monkey. "But as I can't easily get hold of your tail, and as your ears
are so large that I can easily grab them, I'll pull them instead. All
ready now, a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether!"
"Stop!" cried the bunny uncle, just as the monkey was going to give the
three kinds of pull at once. "Stop!"
"No!" answered the monkey. "No! No!"
"Yes! Yes!" cried the bunny uncle. "If you don't stop pulling my ears
you'll freeze!" and with that the bunny uncle pulled out from behind
him, where he had kept them hidden, the bunch of white snowdrops.
"Ah, ha!" cried Mr. Longears to the monkey. "You come from a warm
country, where there is no snow or snowdrops. Now when you see these
snow drops, shiver and shake--see how cold it is! Shiver and shake!
Shake and shiver! Burr-r-r-r-r!"
Uncle Wiggily made believe the flowers were real snow, sort of
shivering himself (pretend like) and the tail-pulling chap, who was
very much afraid of cold and snow and ice, chattered and said:
"Oh, dear! Oh, how cold I am! Oh, I'm freezing. I am going back to
my warm nest in the tree and not pull any tails until next summer!"
And then the monkey ran away, thinking the snowdrops Uncle Wiggily had
picked were bits of real snow.
"I'm sorry I said the snowdrops weren't nice," spoke Susie, as she and
Uncle Wiggily went safely home. "They are very nice. Only for them
the monkey would have pulled our tails."
But he didn't, you see, and if the hookworm doesn't go to the moving
pictures with the gold fish and forget to come back to play tag with
the toy piano, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the horse
chestnut tree.
STORY XIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE HORSE CHESTNUT
"Bang! Bango! Bunko! Bunk! Slam!"
Something made a big noise on the front
porch of the hollow stump bungalow, where, in
the woods, lived Uncle Wiggily Longears, the
rabbit gentleman.
"My goodness!" cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper. "I hope
nothing has happened!"
"Well, from what I heard I should say it is
quite certain that SOMETHING has happened,"
spoke the bunny uncle, sort of twisting
his ears very
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