III

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BAD GIANT

Do you remember about the giant, of whom I told you a little while ago,
and how he couldn't find Uncle Wiggily, because the rabbit was covered
with sand that the ants carried? Yes, I guess you do remember. Well, now
I'm going to tell you what that giant did.

At first he was real surprised, because he couldn't find the bunny-rabbit,
and he tramped around, making the ground shake with his heavy steps, and
growling in his rumbling voice until you would have thought that it was
thundering.

"My, my!" growled the giant. "To think that I can't have a rabbit supper
after all. Oh, I'm so hungry that I could eat fourteen thousand, seven
hundred and eighty-seven rabbits, and part of another one. But I guess
I'll have to take a barrel of milk and a wagon load of crackers for my
supper."

So that's what he did, and my how much he ate!

Well, after the giant had gone away, Uncle Wiggily crawled out from under
the sand, and he said to the ants:

"I guess I'd better not stay around here, for it is too dangerous. I'll
never find my fortune here, and if that giant were to see me he'd step on
me, and make me as flat as a sheet of paper. I'm going."

"But wait," said the biggest ant of all. "You know there are two giants
around here. One is a good one, and one is bad. Now if you go to the good
giant I'm sure he will help you find your fortune."

"I'll try it," said the rabbit. "Where does the good giant live?"

"Just up the hill, in that house where you see the flag," said the big
ant, as she ate two crumbs of bread and jam. "That's where the good giant
lives. You must go where you see the fluttering flag, and you may find
your fortune."

"I will," said Uncle Wiggily, "I'll go in the morning, the first thing
after breakfast."

So the next morning he started off. But in the night something had
happened and the rabbit didn't know a thing about it. After dark the bad
giant got up, and he went over, and took the flag from the pole in front
of the house of the good giant, and hoisted it up over his own house.

"I haven't any flag of my own," said the bad giant, "so I will take his."
For you see, the two giants lived not far apart. In fact they were
neighbors, but they were very different, one from the other, for one was
kind and the other was cruel.

So it happened, that when Uncle Wiggily started to go to the giant's house
he looked for the fluttering flag, and when he saw it on the ba