catch that rabbit and
put him in a cage and sell him!"

Well, you can just believe that Uncle Wiggily was frightened when he
awakened suddenly and saw two bad boys softly creeping up and making ready
to catch him.

"Oh, this is no place for me!" the rabbit cried, and he grabbed up his
crutch and his valise and hopped away so fast that the boys couldn't catch
him, no matter how fast they could run, even bare-footed.

"Let's throw stones at him!" they cried. And they did, but I'm glad to say
that none of them hit Uncle Wiggily. Isn't it queer how mean some boys can
be? But perhaps they were never told any better, so we'll forgive them
this time.

"Well, it is now night," said the rabbit gentleman as he hopped on through
the woods, "so I think I will sit under this tree and wait for the moon to
come up. And while I'm waiting I'll eat my supper."

So Uncle Wiggily ate his supper, which the kind farmer lady had put up for
him, and then he sat and waited for the moon to rise, and pretty soon he
heard a funny noise, calling like this:

"Who? Who? Who-tu-tu-tu."

"Oh, you know who I am all right, Mr. Owl," said the rabbit. "You can see
very well at night. You can see me."

"My goodness, if it isn't Uncle Wiggily!" cried the owl in surprise. "What
are you doing out so late, I'd like to know?"

"Waiting for a moon-beam, so I can see if there is any gold for my fortune
at the end of it," was the answer. "Is the moon coming up over the trees,
Mr. Owl?"

"Yes, here it comes," said the owl, "and now I must fly off to the dark
woods, for I don't like the light," and he fluttered away.

Then the moon came up, all silver and glorious; shining over the tree tops
like a shimmering ball, and soon the moon-beams fell to the ground in
slanting rays, but they fell so softly, like feathers, that they did not
get hurt at all.

"Well, I guess I'll follow that big one," said the old gentleman rabbit,
as he picked out a nice, broad, large, shiny moon-beam. "That must have
gold at the end, and, if I find it, my fortune is made." So off he started
to follow the moon-beam to where it came to an end.

It seemed to go quite a distance through the dark woods, and Uncle Wiggily
traveled on for several hours, and he didn't seem to be any nearer the end
by that time than he was at first.

"My land, this is a very long beam," he exclaimed. "It is almost big
enough to make a church steeple from. But I'll keep on a little longer,
for I'm no