of bed
one morning and started to go to the window, to see if the sun was
shining. But, no sooner had he stepped on the floor, than he cried out:

"Oh! Ouch! Oh, dear me and a potato pancake! Oh, I believe I stepped on a
tack! Sammie Littletail must have left it there! How careless of him!"

You see this was the same Uncle Wiggily, of whom I have told you in the
Bedtime Books--the very same Uncle Wiggily. He was an Uncle to Sammie and
Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, and also to Billie and Johnnie
Bushytail, the squirrel boys, and to Alice and Lulu and Jimmie
Wibblewobble, the duck children, and I have written for you, books about
all those characters. Now I thought I would write something just about
Uncle Wiggily himself, though of course I'll tell you what all his nephews
and nieces did, too.

Well, when Uncle Wiggily felt that sharp pain, he stood still for a
moment, and wondered what could have happened.

"Yes, I'm almost sure it was a tack," he said. "I must pick it up so no
one else will step on it."

So Uncle Wiggily looked on the floor, but there was no tack there, only
some crumbs from a sugar cookie that Susie Littletail had been eating the
night before, when her uncle had told her a go-to-sleep story.

"Oh, I know what it was; it must have been my rheumatism that gave me the
pain!" said the old gentleman rabbit as he looked for his red, white and
blue crutch, striped like a barber pole. He found it under the bed, and
then he managed to limp to the window. Surely enough, the sun was shining.

"I'll certainly have to do something about this rheumatism," said Uncle
Wiggily as he carefully shaved himself by looking in the glass. "I guess
I'll see Dr. Possum."

So after breakfast, when Sammie and Susie had gone to school, Dr. Possum
was telephoned for, and he called to see Uncle Wiggily.

"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed the doctor, looking very wise. "You have the
rheumatism very bad, Mr. Longears."

"Why, I knew that before you came," said the old gentleman rabbit,
blinking his eyes. "What I want is something to cure it."

"Ha! Hum!" said Dr. Possum, again looking very wise. "I think you need a
change of air. You must travel about. Go on a journey, get out and see
strange birds, and pick the pretty flowers. You don't get exercise
enough."

"Exercise enough!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Why, my goodness me sakes alive
and a bunch of lilacs! Don't I play checkers almost every night with
Grandfather Goosey Gander