ad picked up the
two empty ice cream cones.

"Oh, let me go!" cried Uncle Wiggily to the bear.

"Indeed I'll not!" shouted the savage creature. "I want you for supper."

Well, he was just going to eat Uncle Wiggily up, when that brave rabbit
just took the sharp points of those two empty ice cream cones, and he
stuck them in the bear's ticklish ribs, and Uncle Wiggily tickled the bear
so that the furry, savage creature sneezed out loud, and laughed so hard
that Uncle Wiggily easily slipped out of his paws, and hopped away before
he could be caught again.

So that's how the rabbit got safely away, and the empty ice cream cones
were of some use after all. But Uncle Wiggily wondered how he could get a
full one for Grandfather Goosey Gander, and how he did I'll tell you
pretty soon, when, in case a butterfly doesn't bite a hole in my straw
hat, the next story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the red ants.

STORY XXVII

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RED ANTS

When Uncle Wiggily got to where Grandfather Goosey Gander was waiting for
him, under the shady tree, the old gentleman duck jumped up and cried out:

"Oh, how glad I am to see you! I've just been wishing you would hurry back
with those ice cream cones. My! I never knew the weather to be so warm at
this time of the year. Oh, won't they taste most delicious--those cones!"

You see he didn't yet know what the bear had done--eaten all the ice cream
out of the cones, as I told you in the other story.

"Oh, dear!" cried the rabbit. "How sorry I am to have to disappoint you,
Grandfather, but there is no ice cream!"

"No ice cream!" cried the alligator--oh, dear me! I mean the duck. "No ice
cream?"

"Not a bit," said Uncle Wiggily, and then he told about what the savage
bear-creature had done, and also how he had used the cones to tickle him.

"Well, that's too bad," said Grandfather Goosey, "but here, I'll give you
money to buy more cones with," and he put his hand in his pocket, but lo
and behold! he had lost all his money.

"Never mind, perhaps _I_ have some pennies," said the rabbit; so he
looked, but, oh, dear me, suz-dud and the mustard pot! All of Uncle
Wiggily's money was gone, too.

"Well, I guess we can't get any ice cream cones this week," said the old
gentleman duck. "We'll have to drink water."

"Oh, no you won't," said a buzzing voice. "I'll get you each an ice cream
cone, because you have always been so kind--both of you." And with that
out from