t," said Nurse Jane. "But I'll bring her in and she can
tell you, herself, what she wants."

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried Mother Goose, as she set her broom down
in one corner, for she never went out unless she carried it with
her. She said she never could tell when she might have to sweep the
cobwebs out of the sky. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I am in such a lot of
trouble!"

"Well, I will be very glad to help you if I can," said the bunny
uncle. "What is it?"

"It's about Higgledee Piggledee," answered Mother Goose.

"Higgledee Piggledee!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, "why that sounds
like----"

"She's my black hen," went on Mother Goose. "You know how the verse
goes in the book about me and my friends."

And, taking off her tall peaked hat, which she wore when she rode on
the back of the old gander, Mother Goose sang:

"Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Sometimes nine and sometimes ten.
Higgledee Piggledee, my black hen.
Gentlemen come every day,
To see what my black hen doth lay."

"Well," asked Uncle Wiggily, "what is the trouble? Has Higgledee
Piggledee stopped laying? If she has I am afraid I can't help you,
for hens don't lay many eggs in winter, you know."

"Oh, it isn't that!" said Mother Goose, quickly. "Higgledee
Piggledee lays as many eggs as ever for gentlemen--sometimes nine
and sometimes ten. But the trouble is the gentlemen don't get them."

"Don't they come for them?" asked Uncle Wiggily, sort of puzzled
like and wondering.

"Oh, yes, they come every day," said Mother Goose, "but there are no
eggs for them. Some one else is getting the eggs Higgledee Piggledee
lays."

"Do you s'pose she eats them herself?" asked the old rabbit
gentleman, in a whisper. "Hens sometimes do, you know."

"Not Higgledee Piggledee," quickly spoke Mother Goose. "She is too
good to do that. She and I are both worried about the missing eggs,
and as you have been so kind I thought perhaps you could help us."

"I'll try," Uncle Wiggily said.

"Then come right along to Higgledee Piggledee's coop," invited
Mother Goose. "Maybe you can find out where her eggs go to. She lays
them in her nest, comes off, once in a while, to get something to
eat, but when she goes back to lay more eggs the first ones are
gone."

Uncle Wiggily twinkled his nose, tied his ears in a hard knot, as he
always did when he was thinking, and then, putting on his fur coat
and taking his rheumatism crutch with