, dreaming that he had found his fortune. And
the worst part of it was that the bluebell flower also was sleeping, and
she couldn't tell the rabbit what was going to happen.

"Oh, I'll have a fine meal in about a minute," said the scalery-tailery
alligator as he smacked his big jaws. Then he shuffled up closer to Uncle
Wiggily, and was about to bite him when all of a sudden the nutmeg grater
tail of the scalery alligator accidentally hit against the bluebell
flower, and she awoke quickly.

"Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" rang out the bluebell,
just like an alarm clock in the morning. "Ding-dong-dong! Tinkle! Tinkle!"

Up jumped Uncle Wiggily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked
through the woods, and by the light of the silvery moon he saw the
grinning alligator, with his open mouth, close to him.

"Run, Uncle Wiggily! Run!" cried the bluebell, and then she made such a
jingling-jangling noise that all the birds in the woods awakened, and by
the moonlight, they flew down at that alligator, and stuck him with their
sharp bills, so that he was glad to crawl away, and he didn't forget to
take his scalery tail with him, either.

"My, that was a narrow escape!" said the rabbit. "I am glad he didn't eat
me."

"So am I," said the bluebell, "and I'll not go to sleep again, either, I
promise you."

So the flower stayed wide awake the rest of the night, and the rabbit
slept on the soft moss, and in the morning he awakened and ate his
breakfast out of his valise, and then, saying good-by to the flower and
thanking her, he set off once more to seek his fortune.

Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, looking in all the places he could think
of for some gold, but he couldn't seem to find any. And then, just when he
got on top of a little hill, and started down the other side he heard some
one crying--no, I'm just a bit wrong, he heard three some ones
crying--three separate and distinct cries.

"Oh, dear, I've got a sliver in my foot!" blubbered one voice.

"And I've stepped on a stone and there's a big bruise on my foot!"
sniffled another voice.

"Oh! none of you is as badly off as I am," quivered a third voice, "for
I've cut my two feet on a piece of glass! Oh, whatever shall we do?"

"My, I wonder who they can be?" thought the rabbit, for he could see no
one as yet. "Maybe those are the little children of the burglar fox, and
if they are, then the burglar fox must be somewhere around here, and I had