y
hunt for his fortune any longer.

"Now take care of yourself," the porcupine had said to the rabbit, as they
bade each other good-by, "and don't let any wasps sting you."

"What should I do, in case I happened to be stung?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"Put some mud on the place," said the porcupine. "Mud is good for stings."

"I will," said the rabbit, and then he hopped on with his valise and his
red-white-and-blue-striped-barber-pole crutch. Uncle Wiggily hoped he
would soon find his fortune, for he wanted to get back home and see Sammie
and Susie Littletail, and all the other animal friends. So he looked
around very carefully for any signs of gold. He also asked all the animals
and flowers whom he met if they could tell him where his fortune was.

"No," said a warty-spotted toad, "I can't tell you, but I should think you
would dig in the ground for gold."

So Uncle Wiggily dug in the dirt in many places, but no gold did he find.

"Perhaps you can tell me where my fortune is?" he said to a tailor-bird
who was sewing some leaves together to make a nest.

"It might be up in the air," said the tailor-bird. "If I were you I should
hop up into the air and look for it."

Well, Uncle Wiggily hopped up, but you know how it is with rabbits.
They're not made to fly, and he couldn't stay up in the air long enough to
do any good, so he couldn't find any gold that way.

"Oh, dear! I guess I'll never find my fortune," said the rabbit
sadly-like. Then he saw a little blue flower, shaped just like a bell,
hanging on a stem over a small babbling brook of water.

"Ah, there is a bluebell!" said the rabbit. "Perhaps she knows where my
fortune is. I'll ask her, for flowers are very wise."

"No, I can't tell you where there is any gold," said the bluebell when
Uncle Wiggily had asked her most politely. "All I do is to swing backward
and forward here all day long, and I ring my bell and I am happy. I do not
need gold."

"I wish I didn't have to have it, but I do. I need it to make my fortune,
and then I can go home," said the rabbit.

"Very well," spoke the blue flower, as she rang her bell, oh so sweetly!
so that it seemed to the rabbit as if she played a song about the blue
skies, and birds singing and fountains spouting upward in the sun while
pretty blossoms grew all around. "Go on, Uncle Wiggily, but if you don't
find your fortune come back here, and I will sing you to sleep," she
added.

"I will," spoke the rabbit, as he