joke before. But perhaps it is. I'll ask him."

So Uncle Wiggily called out:

"Is this a joke, Mr. Bear?"

"Not a bit of it!" was the growling answer. "You'll soon see what's going
to happen to you! I'm getting the fire ready now."

"Getting the fire ready for what; the adventure, or for my fortune?" asked
the rabbit, for he still hoped the bear was only joking with him.

"Ready to cook you!" was the reply. "That's what the fire is for!" and
the bear gnashed his teeth together something terrible, and, with his
sharp claws, he clawed big splinters off the stump, and with them he
started the fire in the stove, with the splinters, I mean, not his claws.

The blazing fire made it a little brighter in the hollow stump, which was
the black bear's den, and Uncle Wiggily could look out of a crack in the
door, and see what a savage fellow the shaggy bear was. You see, that bear
just hid in the stump, waiting for helpless animals to come along, and
then he'd trick them into jumping down inside of it, and there wasn't a
word of truth about him having sore eyes, or about him having to wear dark
spectacles, either.

"Oh, my! I guess this is the end of my adventures," thought the rabbit. "I
should have been more careful. Well, I wish I could see Sammie and Susie
before he eats me, but I'm afraid I can't. I shouldn't have jumped down
here."

But as Uncle Wiggily happened to think of Sammie Littletail, the boy
rabbit, he also thought of something else. And this was that Sammie had
put something in the old gentleman rabbit's valise that morning, before
his uncle had started off.

"If you ever get into trouble, Uncle Wiggily," Sammie had said, "this may
come in useful for you." Uncle Wiggily didn't look at the time to see
what it was that his nephew put in the valise, but he made up his mind he
would do so now. So he opened his satchel, and there, among other things,
was a long piece of thin, but strong rope. And pinned to it was a note
which read:

"Dear Uncle Wiggily. This is good to help you get out of a window, in case
of fire."

"My goodness!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "that's fine. There the bear is
making a fire to cook me, and with this rope I can get away from it. Now
if there's only a window in this closet I'm all right."

So he looked, and sure enough there was a window. And with his crutch
Uncle Wiggily raised it. Then he threw out his satchel, and he tied the
rope to a hook on the window sill, and, being a stron