ed around
to run away, and the squirrel girl tickled him with the comb, and he ran
faster than ever, and the bear didn't eat Uncle Wiggily that night.

Then the rabbit stayed at the red squirrel's mamma's house the rest of the
evening, and the next day the squirrel went to the surprise party with her
tail the regular size it ought to be, and not as big as the Bushytail
brothers' tails, and everybody was happy.

Now in case the granddaddy longlegs doesn't tickle the baby with his long
cow-pointing leg and make her laugh so she gets the hiccoughs, I'll tell
you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the brown wren.

STORY II

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BROWN WREN

Well, just as I expected, the granddaddy longlegs did tickle the baby, but
she only smiled in her sleep, and didn't awaken, so, as it's nice and
quiet I can tell you another story. And it's going to be about how Uncle
Wiggily, in his travels about the country, in search of his fortune,
helped a little brown wren.

"Well, where are you going this morning?" asked the red squirrel's mother
as Uncle Wiggily finished his breakfast, and shook out from his long ears
the oatmeal crumbs that had fallen in them.

"Oh, I suppose I will have to be traveling on," answered the rabbit. "That
fortune of mine seems to be a long distance off. I've tried rainbows and
moon-beams and I didn't find any money at their ends. I guess I'll have to
look under the water next, but I'll wait until I get back home, and then
I'll have Jimmie Wibblewobble the duck boy put his head at the bottom of
the pond and see if there is any gold down there."

So off the old gentleman rabbit started, limping on his crutch, for his
rheumatism was troubling him again, and at his side swung his valise, with
some crackers and cheese and bread and butter and jam in it--plenty of
jam, too, let me tell you, for the red squirrel's mamma could make lovely
preserves, and this was carrot jam, with turnip frosting on it.

Well, Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, over the hills and through the
deep woods, and pretty soon he came to a place where he saw a lot of
little black ants trying to carry to their nest a nice big piece of meat
that some one had dropped.

"My, how hard those ants are working," thought the rabbit. "But that meat
is too heavy for them. I'll have to help carry it."

Now the piece of meat was only as big as a quarter of a small cocoanut,
but, of course, that's too big for an ant to ca