!" chattered the boy squirrel, most impolitely.

"Oh, that isn't at all nice," said Mrs. Bushy-tail. "At least thank
Uncle Wiggily for asking you."

"Oh, excuse me, Uncle Wiggily," said Billie, sorrylike. "I do thank
you. But I want very much to have some fun, and there's no fun in the
woods. I know all about them. I know every tree and bush and stump.
I want to go to a new place."

"Well, new places are nice," said the bunny uncle, "but old ones are
nice, too, if you know where to look for the niceness. Now come along
with me, and we'll see if we can't have some fun. It is lovely in the
woods now."

"I won't have any fun there," said Billie, crossly. "The woods are no
good. Nothing good to eat grows there."

"Oh, yes there does--lots!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "Why the nuts you
squirrels eat grow in the woods."

"Yes, but there are no nuts now," spoke the squirrel boy. "They only
come in the Fall."

"Well, come, scamper along, anyhow," invited Uncle Wiggily. "Who knows
what may happen? It may even be an adventure. Come along, Billie."

So, though he did not care much about it, Billie went. Uncle Wiggily
showed the squirrel boy where the early spring flowers were coming up,
and how the Jacks, in their pulpits, were getting ready to preach
sermons to the trees and bushes.

"Hark! What's that?" asked Billie, suddenly, hearing a noise.

"What does it sound like?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"Like bells ringing."

"Oh, it's the bluebells--the bluebell flowers," answered the bunny
uncle.

"Why do they ring?" asked the little boy squirrel.

"To call the little ants and lightning bugs to school," spoke Uncle
Wiggily, and Billy smiled. He was beginning to see that there were
more things in the woods than he had dreamed of, even if he had
scampered here and there among the trees ever since he was a little
squirrel chap.

On and on through the woods went the bunny uncle and Billie. They
picked big, leafy ferns to fan themselves with, and then they drank
with green leaf-cups from a spring of cool water.

But no sooner had Billie taken the cold water than he suddenly cried:

"Ouch! Oh, dear! Oh, my, how it hurts!"

"What is it?" asked Uncle Wiggily. "Did you bite your tongue or step
on a thorn?"

"It's my tooth," chattered Billie. "The cold water made it ache again.
I need to go to Mr. Stubtail, the bear dentist, who will pull it out
with his long claws. But I've been putting it off, and putt