ery tail of the
alligator accidentally sticking out. Yes, it was the alligator trying to
fool dear old Uncle Wiggily.

"Oh, ho!" cried the wise old rabbit. "I guess I won't go in there after
all," so he hopped to one side and the alligator kept waiting for him to
come in so he could eat him, but when the rabbit didn't come in the savage
creature with the skillery-scallery tail cried:

"Well, aren't you coming in?"

"No, thank you," said the rabbit. "I have to go on to seek my fortune,"
and away he hopped. Well, that alligator was so angry that he gnashed his
teeth and nearly broke them, and he crawled after Uncle Wiggily, but of
course, he couldn't catch him.

Uncle Wiggily was pretty careful after that, and whenever he came near a
prickly briar bush he listened with both his long ears stuck up straight
to see if he could hear any sounds like an alligator. But he didn't, and
so he kept on.

Well, it was coming on toward evening, one afternoon, and the old
gentleman rabbit was tramping along the road, wondering where he would
sleep, when all of a sudden something came bursting out of the bushes
toward the rabbit, and a voice cried out:

"Hide! Hide! Uncle Wiggily. Hide as quickly as you can!"

"Why should I hide?" asked the old gentleman rabbit. "Is there a giant
coming after me?"

"Worse than a giant," said the voice. "It is a bad wolf that jumped out of
his cage from the circus, and he is just ready to eat up anything he
sees," and the July bug, for it was he who had fluttered out of the
bushes, to tell Uncle Wiggily, made his wings go slowly to and fro like an
electric palm-leaf fan.

"A wolf, eh?" cried the old gentleman rabbit. "And do you think he will
eat me?"

"He surely will," said the July bug. "I happened to fly past his house,
and I heard him say to his wife that he was going out to see if he could
find a rabbit supper. So I know he's coming for you. You'd better hide."

"Oh! where can I hide?" asked the rabbit, as he looked around for a hollow
stump. But there wasn't any, and there were no holes in the ground, and he
didn't know what to do.

Then, all at once there was a crashing in the bushes and it sounded like
an elephant coming through, breaking all the sticks in his path.

"There's the wolf! There's the wolf!" cried the July bug. "Hide, Uncle
Wiggily," and then the bug perched on the high limb of a tree where the
wolf couldn't catch him.

Well, the poor old gentleman rabbit looked for