ndering what adventure would happen to him
next, and where he would stay that night. All of a sudden he felt
something tugging at the hook and line.

"Oh, I've got a fish! I've got a fish!" he cried, as he lifted up the
pole. Up out of the water with a sizzling rush flew the string and the
sweet cracker bait, and the next minute out leaped the big, savage
alligator that had escaped from a circus.

"Oh, ho! So you tried to catch me, eh?" the alligator shouted at Uncle
Wiggily.

"No--no, if you please," said the rabbit. "I was after fish."

"And I'm after you!" cried the alligator, and, scrambling up the bank, he
made a jump for Uncle Wiggily, and with one sweep of his kinky, scaly
tail he flopped and he threw the old gentleman rabbit and his crutch and
valise right up into a big tree that grew near the brook.

"There you'll stay until I get ready to eat you!" exclaimed the alligator,
as he stood up on the end of his tail under the tree, and opened his mouth
as wide as he could so that if Uncle Wiggily fell down he'd fall into it,
just like down a funnel, you know.

Well, the poor gentleman rabbit clung to the topmost tree branch,
wondering how in the world he was going to escape from the alligator. Oh,
it was a dreadful position to be in!

But please don't worry or stay awake over it, for I'll find a way to get
him down safely. And in the story after this, if the milkman doesn't leave
us sour cream for our lemonade, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the
black crow.

STORY III

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CROW

Let me see, where did I leave off in the last story? Oh! I remember. It
was about Uncle Wiggily Longears being up in the top of the tall tree, and
the alligator keeping guard down below, ready to eat him.

Well, the old gentleman rabbit was wondering how he could ever escape, and
he felt quite badly about it.

"I guess this is the end of my adventures," he said to himself. "It would
have been much better had I stayed at home with Sammie and Susie." And as
he thought of the two rabbit children he felt still sadder, and very
lonely.

"I wonder if Susie could have put anything in my satchel with which to
scare an alligator," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll look." So he
looked, and what should he find but a bottle of toothache drops. Yes,
there it was, and wrapped ground it was a little note Susie had written.

"Dear Uncle Wiggily," she said in the note, "if you ever get the
toothache