y thought to himself. "I wonder why he is
flying so high? He hardly ever goes up so near the clouds.

"And he seems to have some one on his back," spoke Uncle Wiggily out
loud this time, sort of talking to the loaf of bread and the pound
of sugar. "A lady, too," went on the bunny uncle. "A lady with a
tall hat on, something like mine, only hers comes to a point on top.
And she has a broom with her. I wonder who it can be?"

And when the big white bird came nearer to the airship Uncle Wiggily
saw that it was not Grandfather Goosey Gander at all, but another
big gander, almost like his friend, whom he often went to see. And
then the bunny uncle saw who it was on the bird's back.

"Why, it's Mother Goose!" cried Uncle Wiggily Longears. "It's Mother
Goose! She looks just like her pictures in the book, too."

"Yes, I am Mother Goose," said the lady who was riding on the back
of the big, white gander.

"I am glad to meet you, Mother Goose," spoke Mr. Longears. "I have
often heard about you. I can see, over the tree tops, that Nurse
Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat lady housekeeper, is getting dinner
ready. I can tell by the smoke. Will you not ride home with me? I
will make my airship go slowly, so as not to get ahead of you and
your fine gander-goose."

"Alas, Uncle Wiggily," said Mother Goose, scratching her chin with
the end of the broom handle, "I cannot come home to dinner with you
much as I would like it. Alas! Alas!"

"Why not?" asked the bunny uncle.

"Because I have bad news for you," said Mother Goose. "That smoke,
which you saw over the tree tops, was not smoke from your chimney as
Nurse Jane was getting dinner."

"What was it then?" asked Uncle Wiggily, and a cold shiver sort of
ran up and down between his ears, even if he did have warm, red
mittens on his paws. "What was that smoke?"

"The smoke from your burning bungalow," went on Mother Goose. "It
caught fire, when Nurse Jane was getting dinner, and now----"

"Oh! Don't tell me Nurse Jane is burned!" cried Uncle Wiggily.
"Don't say that!"

"I was not going to," spoke Mother Goose, kindly. "But I must tell
you that your hollow-stump bungalow is burned to the ground. There
is nothing left but some ashes," and she made the gander, on whose
back she was riding, fly close alongside of Uncle Wiggily's airship.

"My nice bungalow burned!" exclaimed the rabbit gentleman. "Well, I
am very, very sorry for that. But still it might be worse. Nurse
Jane might h