a and sugar, and
happening to pass through the town of Bungledoo took the opportunity of
laying in a fresh supply. If Bunyip hadn't been in the shop, as was
pointed out afterwards, the trouble wouldn't have occurred. The first he
heard of it was a scream of 'Help, help, murder is being done!' and
rushing out of the shop, what was his amazement to see no less a person
than his Uncle Wattleberry bounding and plunging about the road with
Bill hanging on to his whiskers, and Sam hanging on to one leg.

[Illustration]

'I've got him,' shouted Bill. 'Catch a hold of his other leg and give me
a chance to get his whiskers off.'

'But why are you taking his whiskers off?' inquired Bunyip Bluegum.

[Illustration]

'Because they're stuck on with glue,' shouted Bill. 'I saw it at a
glance. It's Watkin Wombat, Esq., disguised as a company promoter.'

'Dear me,' said Bunyip, hurriedly, 'you are making a mistake. This is
not a puddin'-thief, this is an Uncle.'

'A what?' exclaimed Bill, letting go the whiskers.

'An Uncle,' replied Bunyip Bluegum.

'An Uncle,' roared Uncle Wattleberry. 'An Uncle of the highest
integrity. You have most disgracefully and unmercifully pulled an
Uncle's whiskers.'

'I can assure you,' said Bill, 'I pulled them under the delusion that
you was a disguised Wombat.'

'That is no excuse, sir,' bellowed Uncle Wattleberry. 'No one but an
unmitigated ruffian would pull an Uncle's whiskers.

'Who but the basest scoundrel, double-eyed,
Would pluck an Uncle's whiskers in their pride,
What baseness, then, doth such a man disclose
Who'd raise a hand to pluck an Uncle's nose?'

'If I've gone too far,' said Bill, 'I apologize. If I'd known you was an
Uncle I wouldn't have done it.'

'Apologies are totally inadequate,' shouted Uncle Wattleberry. 'Nothing
short of felling you to the earth with an umbrella could possibly atone
for the outrage. You are a danger to the whisker-growing public. You
have knocked my hat off, pulled my whiskers, and tried to remove my
nose.'

'Pullin' your nose,' said Bill, solemnly, 'is a mistake any man might
make, for I put it to all present, as man to man, if that nose don't
look as if it's only gummed on.'

All present were forced to admit that it was a mistake that any man
might make. 'Any man,' as Sam remarked, 'would think he was doing you a
kindness by trying to pull it off.'

'Allow me to point out also, my dear Uncle,' said Bunyip Bluegum, 'that
your whi