and some hot ashes got on that."

"Well, that isn't so bad," said Uncle Wiggily. "It may be that I can
clean it for you." But when he looked at Polly's dress he saw that
it could not be fixed, for, like Pussy Cat Mole's best petticoat,
Polly's dress had been burned through with hot coals, so that it was
full of holes.

"No, that can't be fixed, I'm sorry to say," said Uncle Wiggily.

"Oh, dear!" sobbed Polly Flinders, as she sat among the cinders.
"What shall I do? I don't want to be whipped by my mother."

"And you shall not be," said the bunny uncle. "Not that I think she
would whip you, but we will not give her a chance. See here, I have
a new dress that I was taking to Susie Littletail. Nurse Jane can
easily make my little rabbit niece another.

"So you take this one, and give me your old one. And when your
mother comes she will not see the holes in your dress. Only you must
tell her what happened, or it would not be fair. Always tell mothers
and fathers everything that happens to you."

"I will," promised Polly Flinders.

She soon took off her old dress and put on the new one intended for
Susie, and it just fitted her.

"Oh, how lovely!" cried Polly Flinders, looking at her toes.

"And now," said Uncle Wiggily, "you must sit no more among the
cinders."

"I'll not," Polly promised, and she went and sat down in front of
the looking-glass, where she could look proudly at the new
dress--not too proudly, you understand, but just proud enough.

Polly thanked Uncle Wiggily, who took the old soiled and burned
dress to Susie's house. When the rabbit girl saw the bunny uncle
coming she ran to meet him, crying:

"Oh! did Nurse Jane send you with my new dress?"

"She did," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but see what happened to it on
the way," and he showed Susie the burned holes and all.

"Oh, dear!" cried the little rabbit girl, sadly. "Oh, dear!"

"Never mind," spoke Uncle Wiggily, kindly, and he told all that had
happened. It was a sort of adventure, you see.

"Oh, I'm glad you gave Polly my dress!" said Susie, clapping her
paws.

"Nurse Jane shall make you another dress," promised Uncle Wiggily,
and the muskrat lady did. And when the mother of Polly Flinders came
home she thought the new dress was just fine, and she did not whip
her little daughter. In fact, she said she would not have done so
anyhow. So that part of the Mother Goose book is wrong.

And thus everything came out all right, and if the shavi