chased after them, and he could go very quickly, too, let me tell
you. Right after Uncle Wiggily and the porcupine the alligator raced, and
he almost caught both of them. Then the porcupine saw a hole just big
enough for him to squeeze down, but not big enough for the alligator to
come after.

Down into this hole jumped the prickly porcupine, and he was safe, but
there was no hole for Uncle Wiggily to hide in, and the alligator was
close after him.

"Jump up on a toadstool, and maybe he can't get you!" called the
porcupine, sticking the end of his nose out of the hole.

"I will!" cried the rabbit, and up on top of the biggest toadstool he
landed with a jump.

"Oh, I can easily get you off there!" yelled the alligator, savage-like.
"I'll have you down in a minute."

He reached up with his claws to get the rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily got
right in the middle of the toadstool, as far away as he could, but it
wasn't very far. The alligator's claws almost had him, when all of a
sudden that toadstool quickly began to grow up tall. Taller and taller it
grew, for toadstools grow very fast you know. Higher and higher it went,
like an elevator, taking Uncle Wiggily up with it.

"Oh, now I'm safe!" cried the rabbit, for he was quite high in the air by
this time.

"No, you're not. I'll get you yet!" cried the alligator, as he reared up
on the end of his skillery-scalery tail. He made a grab for the rabbit,
but the kind toadstool at once grew itself up as tall as the church
steeple, with Uncle Wiggily still on top, and then, of course, the
alligator couldn't reach him.

"Oh, now I'm safe, but how ever am I going to get down?" thought the
rabbit, for the alligator was still there. But, in another minute, along
came a policeman dog, and with his club he made that alligator run away
back to the swamp where he belonged. Then the toadstool began to get
smaller and smaller, and it sank down close to the ground again and
lowered the rabbit just like on an elevator in a store, and Uncle Wiggily
was safe on earth once more. And he was very thankful to the toadstool,
which grew up so quickly just in time.

"Well, we'd better get along once more," said Uncle Wiggily to the prickly
porcupine, after he had thanked the dog-policeman. So the two friends set
off together through the woods, and the next day something else happened
to them.

I'll tell you what it was on the next page, when, in case the iceman
brings me some hot chocolate t