ss, for he might meet one again.

"Look, look! what is that?" cried Winkle as he pointed to a fat, brown,
furry animal which was coming slowly toward them.

"I do not know," replied Twinkle. "Don't you think that we had better
go now?"

"No, indeed," said Pinkie Whiskers, who had suddenly become very brave.
"I want to wait and see what kind of an animal he is."

When the fat, brown, furry animal was near enough to hear, Pinkie
Whiskers called out:

"Hello! who are you?"

"I am Sammy Woodchuck. I live here in the meadow. You look like
strangers. Where do you live?" he inquired.

"Our names are Twinkle Gray, Winkle Gray and Pinkie Whiskers Gray,"
replied Pinkie Whiskers. "We live in the cheese factory."

"Why, that is strange, that is strange," said Sammy Woodchuck. "You must
be relatives of Uncle Whiskers. I have heard him speak of you. Welcome
to the country."

"Thank you very much for your welcome," replied Pinkie Whiskers, for
Mother Gray had taught her children to be very polite.

"Why do you call our Uncle Whiskers, your Uncle Whiskers," inquired
Twinkle. "Is he related to you also?"

Sammy Woodchuck threw back his fat head and laughed until his eyes were
full of tears. "No, no!" he cried. "He is not related to me. How could a
rat and a woodchuck be related? Everyone calls him Uncle Whiskers
because we all love him. He is so kind and good to us all. You see I
have known him all my life and 'Uncle' is my pet name for him. You ask
any of the animals about here and they will tell you the same thing."

"That is very nice," said Pinkie Whiskers. "When I get old, I hope
everyone will love me enough to call me 'Uncle.' I shall try and be good
and kind like Uncle Whiskers."

"Won't you come home with me?" urged Sammy Woodchuck. "It is just a
nice walk from here."

"Yes, we would love to go home with you," cried the three little
brothers all at once. As they walked along they came to a beautiful tree
and at the foot of this tree lay a shiny new axe.

Pinkie Whiskers ran and picked it up. He had never seen anything like
it, so he turned it over and over and inquired:

"What is this wonderful thing and what is it for?"

"It is an axe," replied Sammy Woodchuck. "It is very sharp and Farmer
Gale uses it to cut down trees. You see he has already started to chop
this tree down. He must have been called away and I am sure that he
intends to return soon or he would not have left his axe here."

"I will help hi