o buy," said the man, "red
peanuts and lemonade in shells--oh, I've got that wrong, it is red
lemonade, isn't it? And peanuts in shells. But no matter. What I need,"
said the man, "is to get the people to listen to me--I need to make them
look at me, and when they see what fine balloons I have they'll buy some.
But there are so many other things to look at that they never look toward
me at all."

"Ha! I know the very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You ought to have some
one go up in a balloon. That would surprise the people like anything.
They'd be sure to look at that, and they'd all run over here and buy all
your balloons."

"Yes, but who can I get to go up in a balloon?" asked the man.

"I will!" cried Uncle Wiggily bravely. "Perhaps I may find my fortune up
in the sky, so I'll go in a balloon."

Well, the man thought that was fine. So he made a little basket for the
rabbit to sit in, and he fastened the basket to a big red balloon, and
then he took care of the rabbit's valise for him, while Uncle Wiggily got
ready to go toward the clouds, taking only his crutch with him.

When the man had everything fixed and when the rabbit was sitting in the
basket as easily as in a soft chair at home, the man cried:

"Over here! Over here, everybody! Over here, people! A rabbit is going up
in a balloon! A most wonderful sight! Over here!"

And then the man let go of the balloon, and Uncle Wiggily shot right up
toward the sky, only, of course, the man had a string fast to the balloon
to pull it down again. Up and up went the balloon carrying Uncle Wiggily.
Up and up!

And my! how surprised the people were. They rushed over and bought so many
balloons that the man couldn't take in the money fast enough. And Uncle
Wiggily stayed up there, high in the air, looking for his fortune.

And then, all of a sudden, a bad boy, with a bean shooter, shot at the
balloon, and "bang!" it burst, with a big hole in it. Down came Uncle
Wiggily, head over heels, bursted balloon, basket, crutch and all.

"Oh, he'll be killed! He'll be killed!" cried all the people.

"No, he'll not! We'll save him!" cried Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the
boy and girl sparrow, who happened to be at the circus. "We'll save Uncle
Wiggily!"

So up into the air they flew, and before Uncle Wiggily could fall to the
ground Dickie and Nellie grabbed the basket in their bills, and, by
fluttering their wings, they let it come very gently to earth just like a
feather