you
please give this to Jill when you see her?"

Out from behind the bush stepped Jack, the little Mother Goose boy.
In his hand he held a piece of white birch bark, prettily colored
red, green and pink, and on it was a little verse which read:

"Can you tell me, pretty maid,
Tell me and not be afraid,
Who's the sweetest girl, and true?--
I can; for she's surely you!"

"What's this? What's this?" asked Uncle Wiggily, in surprise.
"What's this?"

"It's a valentine for Jill," said Jack. "To-day is Valentine's Day,
you see, but I don't want Jill to know I sent it, so I went off here
and hid until I could see you to ask you to take it to her."

"All right, I'll do it," Uncle Wiggily said, laughing. "I'll take
your valentine to Jill for you. So that's why you weren't 'round to
get the pail of water; is it?"

"Yes," answered Jack. "I wanted to finish making my valentine. As
soon as you give it to Jill I'll get the water."

"Oh, never mind that," said the bunny uncle. "I'll get the water,
just you do the falling-down-hill part. I'm too old for that."

"I will," promised Jack. Then Uncle Wiggily went on up the hill, and
pretty soon he heard some one else calling him, and, all of a
sudden, out from behind a stump stepped Jill, the little Mother
Goose girl.

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" said Jill, bashfully holding out a pretty red
leaf, shaped like a heart, "will you please give this to Jack. I
don't want him to know I sent it."

"Of course, I'll give it to him," promised the rabbit gentleman.
"It's a valentine, I suppose, and here is something for you," and
while Jill was reading the valentine Jack had sent her, Uncle
Wiggily looked at the red heart-shaped leaf. On it Jill had written
in blue ink:

"One day when I went to school,
Teacher taught to me this rule:
Eight and one add up to nine;
So I'll be your valentine."

"My, that's nice!" said Uncle Wiggily, laughing. "So that's why
you're hiding off here for, Jill, to make a valentine for Jack?"

"That's it," Jill answered, blushing sort of pink, like the frosting
on a strawberry cake. "But I don't want Jack to know it."

"I'll never tell him," said Uncle Wiggily.

So he went on up the hill to get a pail of water for Mother Goose.
And on his way back he gave Jill's valentine to Jack, who liked it
very much.

"And now, since you got the water, Jill and I will go tumble down
hill," said Jack, as he found the little girl, where she was reading
his