rabbit! Because when
the sky-cracker gets high enough in the air the firecracker part of it
will go off with a bang, and he'll be killed. Oh, how sorry I am. The hot
sun must have set fire to the powder string."

You see those boys had come out in the woods to have their Fourth of July,
where the noise wouldn't make any one's head ache.

Well, Uncle Wiggily went on, up and up, with the sky-cracker, and he felt
very much afraid for he had heard what the boys said.

"Oh, this is the end of me!" he cried, as he held fast to the sky-cracker.
"I'll never live to find my fortune now. When this thing explodes, I'll be
dashed to the ground and killed."

The sky-cracker was whizzing and roaring, and black smoke was pouring out
of one end, and Uncle Wiggily thought of all his friends whom he feared he
would never see again, when all of a sudden along came flying the buzzing
bumble bee, high in the air. He was much surprised to see Uncle Wiggily
skimming along on the tail of a sky-cracker.

"Oh, can't you save me?" cried the rabbit.

"Indeed I will, if I can," said the bee, "because you were so kind to me.
You are too heavy, or I would fly down to earth with you myself, but I'll
do the next best thing. I'll fly off and get Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip,
the sparrow children, and they'll come with a big basket and catch you so
you won't fall."

No sooner said than done. Off flew the bee. Quickly he found Dickie and
Nellie and told them the danger Uncle Wiggily was in.

"Quick," called Dickie to Nellie. "We must save him."

Off they flew like the wind, carrying a grocery basket between them. Right
under Uncle Wiggily they flew, and just as the sky-cracker was going to
burst with a "slam-bang!" the old gentleman rabbit let go, and into the
basket he safely fell and the sparrow children flew to earth with him.
Then the sky-cracker burst all to pieces for Fourth of July, but Uncle
Wiggily wasn't on it to be hurt, I'm glad to say.

He spent the Fourth visiting the Bumble bee's family, and had ice cream
and cake and lemonade for supper, and at night he heard the band play, and
he gave Nellie and Dickie ten cents for ice cream sodas, and that's all to
this story.

But on the next page, if the baker man brings me a pound of soap bubbles
with candy in the middle for Cora Janet's doll, I'll tell you about Uncle
Wiggily and the buttercup.

STORY VI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUTTERCUP

I hope none of you were burned by a sky-cr