falling, and the rabbit wasn't hurt a bit. But, of course, the
balloon was broken.

So that's how Uncle Wiggily went up in a balloon and came down again, but
he hadn't yet found his fortune. And now in the next story, if our fire
shovel doesn't go out to play in the sand pile, and get its ears full of
dirt, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily in an automobile.

STORY XIII

UNCLE WIGGILY IN AN AUTO

Well, after Uncle Wiggily had been saved from the falling balloon by
Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrow children, the people were so
excited that they wanted the bad boy arrested for making a hole in the
balloon with his bean-shooter.

"No, let him go," said the rabbit gentleman, kindly. "I'm sure he won't do
it again." And do you know, that boy never did. It was a good lesson to
him.

Then the people bought all the balloons, until the man had none left, and
I guess if he could have sent for forty-'leven more he would have sold
them also.

"I will pay you good wages to stay with me, and go up in a balloon every
day," said the man to the rabbit. "You would help me do lots of business."

"No," said Uncle Wiggily. "I must travel on and seek my fortune. I didn't
find it up in the air."

But before the old gentleman rabbit traveled on, he went into the circus
with Dickie and Nellie. For they had an extra ticket that Bully the frog
was going to use, only Bully went in swimming and caught cold, and had to
stay home. So Uncle Wiggily enjoyed the show very much in his place.

"Give my love to Sammie and Susie Littletail and to all my friends," said
the rabbit, as he took his crutch and valise, after the circus was over,
and started to travel on, looking for his fortune.

Well, the first place he came to that day was an old hollow stump, and on
the door was a card which read:

COME IN.

"Ha! Come in; eh?" said Uncle Wiggily. "I guess not much! You can't fool
me again. There is a bad bear, or a savage owl inside that stump, and they
want to eat me. I'll just stay outside."

He was just hurrying past, when the door of the stump-house opened, and an
old grandfather fox stuck out his head. This fox was almost blind, and he
had no teeth, and he had no claws, and his tail was just like a last
year's dusting brush, that the moths have eaten most up, and altogether
that fox was so old and feeble that he couldn't have hurt a mosquito. So
Uncle Wiggily wasn't a bit afraid of him.

"I say, is there anything good to