" went on Nurse Jane. "Don't you remember, I said I was going to
make some for you to take over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady?"

"Oh, of course!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "The jam tarts are for Lulu,
Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children. I remember now.
I'll take them right over."

"They are all nicely wrapped up in a clean napkin," went on the
muskrat lady, "so be careful not to squash them and squeeze out the
jam, as they are very fresh."

"I'll be careful," promised the old rabbit gentleman, as he put on
his fur coat and took down off the parlor mantle his red, white and
blue striped barber-pole rheumatism crutch, made of a corn-stalk.

"Oh, wait a minute, Uncle Wiggily! Wait a minute!" cried Mrs.
Littletail, the bunny mother of Sammie and Susie, the rabbit
children, as Mr. Longears started out. "Where are you going?"

"Over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady's house, with some jam
tarts for Lulu, Alice and Jimmie," answered Uncle Wiggily.

"Then would you mind carrying, also, this little rubber plant over
to her?" asked Mrs. Littletail. "I told Mrs. Wibblewobble I would
send one to her the first chance I had."

"Right gladly will I take it," said Uncle Wiggily. So Mrs.
Littletail, the rabbit lady, wrapped the pot of the little rubber
plant, with its thick, shiny green leaves, in a piece of paper, and
Uncle Wiggily, tucking it under one paw, while with the other he
leaned on his crutch, started off over the fields and through the
woods, with the jam tarts in his pocket. Over toward the home of the
Wibblewobble duck family he hopped.

Mr. Longears, the nice old rabbit gentleman, had not gone very far
before, all at once, from behind a snow-covered stump, he heard a
voice saying:

"Oh, dear! I know I'll never find him! I've looked all over and I
can't see him anywhere. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do?"

"My! That sounds like some one in trouble," Uncle Wiggily said to
himself. "I wonder if that is any of my little animal friends? I
must look."

So the rabbit gentleman peeked over the top of the stump, and there
he saw a queer-looking boy, with a funny smile on his face, which
was as round and shiny as the bottom of a new dish pan. And the boy
looked so kind that Uncle Wiggily knew he would not hurt even a
lollypop, much less a rabbit gentleman.

"Oh, hello!" cried the boy, as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily. "Who
are you?"

"I am Mr. Longears," replied the bunny uncle. "And who are you?