still do not believe
me--that is, all but Alice. So I will just do a magic trick for you.
Return here in an hour, and in this very spot you shall find a round
stone. Take a rock and break open the stone and you will see what
happens."

So the Wibblewobble children and Uncle Wiggily went away, wondering what
was going to happen. They came back in an hour, and, sure enough, right
where the mud turtle had been standing was a large, round stone.

"Wonderful!" cried Alice.

"Let's see what's inside," suggested Jimmie.

So he and Uncle Wiggily took up a rock, and hit that stone once, and they
hit it twice, and they hit it three times, and, at the third blow, if that
stone didn't break open, and out stepped the mud turtle fairy prince! He
was right inside that stone! Now, wasn't that a magic trick? I think so,
anyhow.

"Oh, tell us how you did it!" begged Lulu.

"It was very simple, very simple," said the turtle, as he flicked a bit of
mud off his nose. "You see, I just rolled myself up in some soft clay, and
then made it round like a stone. Then I stayed in the sun until it was
baked as hard as a rock, and then I rolled along here to wait for you.
Very simple, indeed. But, now, do you believe I am a fairy prince?" And
they all declared they did, even Uncle Wiggily, and Alice said three
times: "We salute thee, fairy prince." Oh, it was as good as a play!

Well, now, let's see about to-morrow night. How about a story of the rat
who took the eggs? Do you think you would like that? Very well, then, you
shall hear it, providing my golden slipper doesn't fall off.

STORY XIX

THE RATS WHO TOOK THE EGGS

Nothing had happened at the Wibblewobble house in several days, and Jimmie
and Lulu and Alice were beginning to feel that it was about time they went
off on another picnic, or else tried to find the fairy prince again. But,
one day, just as Jimmie was looking for his baseball and his catching
glove, his mamma came out of the pantry, where she had gone to get some
dishes to set the table.

"Did any of you children take my eggs?" she asked, and she looked very
severely at them.

"What? Are the eggs gone?" asked Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat.

"Yes," said Mamma Wibblewobble, "there were just thirteen eggs, and now
there are only ten. Three have been taken, and I hope Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie didn't touch them."

"Oh, no indeed, mamma," spoke Alice very quickly, as she finished tying a
sky-blue-pink ribbon a