unny.
"That's what you get for fooling people so they'll come into your house,"
called the squirrel boy. "It serves you right, Mr. Owl. Come on, Uncle
Wiggily, we'll get away from here."
So they went on together until it was time for Johnnie to go home, and he
said he'd tell Uncle Wiggily's friends that he had met the old gentleman
rabbit, and that he hadn't found his fortune yet, but that he was looking
for it every minute, and had had many adventures.
Well, Uncle Wiggily went on some more, for quite a distance, until it was
noon time, and then he sat down in the cool, green woods, where there were
some jacks-in-the-pulpit growing near some ferns, and there Uncle Wiggily
ate his lunch of lettuce sandwiches, with carrot butter on them, and
gnawed on a bit of potato. Just as he was almost through, he heard a
rustling in the bushes, and a voice exclaimed:
"Oh, dear!"
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Uncle Wiggily, thinking perhaps an
adventure was going to happen to him. "Who are you?"
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed the voice again.
Then, before the old rabbit could jump up and run away, even if he had
wanted to, out from under a big bush came a little white poodle dog, with
curly, silky hair. He walked right up to Uncle Wiggily, that dog did, and
the rabbit wasn't a bit afraid, for the dog wasn't much bigger than he
was, and looked very kind.
"What do you want, doggie?" gently asked Uncle Wiggily.
The dog didn't answer, but he gave a little short bark, and then he began
turning somersaults. Over and over he went, sometimes backward and
sometimes frontward, and sometimes sideways. And when he was finished, he
made a low bow, and walked around on his two hind legs, just to show he
wasn't proud or stuck up.
"There!" exclaimed the poodle doggie. "Is that worth something to eat, Mr.
Rabbit?"
"Indeed it is," answered Uncle Wiggily, "but I would have given you
something to eat without you doing all those tricks, though I enjoyed them
very much. Where did you learn to do them?"
"Oh, in the circus where I used to be, I always had to do tricks for my
dinner," said the doggie.
"What is your name?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"Fido Flip-Flop," was the answer. "You see they call me that because I
turn so many flip-flops," and then Uncle Wiggily gave him some lunch, and
told the dog about how he, himself, was traveling all over in search of
his fortune.
"Why, that's just what I'm doing, too," exclaimed Fido Flip-Flop.
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