The Most-Beloved Animal Stories in One Volume. Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг

      Pretty soon they came to a big bridge, over a stream of water, and this was the beginning of the place where the good giant lived.

      "We'll all have to go back now," said the purple ant, with the green patchwork squares on his checks. "If we crossed over the bridge we might fall off and be drowned. We'll go back, but you go ahead, and we wish you good luck, Uncle Wiggily."

      "Indeed we do," said a white ant with gold buckles on her shoes.

      Well, after a little while Uncle Wiggily found himself right inside the good giant's house. And oh! what a big place it was. Why, even the door mat was so big that it took the rabbit three hops to get to the top of it. And that front door! I wish you could have seen it! It was as large as one of your whole houses, and it was only a door, mind you.

      "Hello! hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he pounded with his crutch on the floor. "Is any one at home?"

      "But no one answered, and there wasn't a sound except the ticking of the clock, and that made as much noise as a railroad train going over a bridge, for the clock was a big as a church steeple.

      "Hum! No one is home," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll just sit down and make myself comfortable." So he sat down on the floor by the table that was away over his head, and waited for the giant to come back.

      And, all of a sudden, the rabbit heard a noise like a steam engine going, and he was quite surprised, until he happened to look up, and there stood a pussy cat as big as a cow, and the cat was purring, which made the noise like a steam engine.

      "My, if that's the size of the cat, what must the giant be," thought the rabbit. "I do hope he's good-natured when he comes home."

      Well, pretty soon, in a little while, as Uncle Wiggily was sitting there, listening to the big cat purr, he felt sleepy, and he was just going to sleep, when he heard a gentle voice singing:

      "Oh, see the blackbird, sitting in the tree,

       Hear him singing, jolly as can be.

       Now he'll whistle a pretty little tune,

       Isn't it delicious in the month of June?

       "Hear the bees a-buzzing, hour by hour,

       Gathering the honey from every little flower.

       The katydid is singing by his own front door,

       Now I'll have to stop this song—I don't know any more."

      "Well, whoever that is, he's a jolly chap," said the rabbit, and with that who should come in but the giant himself.

      "Ho! Ho! Whom have we here?" the giant asked, looking at Uncle Wiggily. "What do you want, my little furry friend with the long ears? You must be able to hear very well with them."

      "I can hear pretty well," said the rabbit. "But I came to seek my fortune."

      "Fine," cried the good giant, for he it was. "I'll do all I can for you," and he laughed so long and hard that part of the ceiling and the gas chandelier fell down, but the giant caught them in his strong hands, and not even the pussy cat was hurt. Then the giant sung another song, like the first, only different, and he fixed the broken ceiling, and said:

      "Now for something to eat! Then we'll talk about your fortune. I'll get you some carrots." So he went out, and pretty soon he came back, carrying ten barrels of carrots in one hand and seventeen bushels of cabbage in the other.

      "Here's a little light lunch for you," he said to Uncle Wiggily. "Eat this, and I'll get you some more, when we have a regular meal."

      "Oh, why this is more than I could eat in a year," said the rabbit, "but I thank you very much," so he nibbled at one carrot, while the good giant ate fifteen thousand seven hundred and eight loaves of bread, and two million bushels of jam. Then he felt better.

      "So you want to find your fortune, eh?" the giant said to the rabbit. "Well, now I'll help you all I can. How would you like to stay here and work for me? You have good ears, and you could listen for burglars in the night when I am asleep. Will you?"

      "I think I will," said Uncle Wiggily. And he was just reaching for another carrot, when suddenly from outside sounded a terrible racket.

      "Where is he? Let me get at him! I want him right away—that rabbit I mean!" cried a voice, and Uncle Wiggily jumped up in great fright, and looked for some place to hide. The giant jumped up, too, and grabbed his big club.

      But don't be alarmed. Nothing bad is going to happen to our Uncle Wiggily—in fact he is going to have lots of fun soon.

      So if my motorboat doesn't turn upside down and spill out the pink lemonade, I'll tell you in the next story about Uncle Wiggily and the giant's little boy.

STORY XXX

      UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GIANT'S BOY

       Table of Contents

      Let me see, I believe I left off where Uncle Wiggily was in the house of the good giant, and the old gentleman rabbit heard a terrible noise. Didn't I?

      "My goodness!" exclaimed the rabbit, jumping up so quickly that he upset one of the giant's toothpicks, on which he had been sitting for a chair, for the giant's toothpicks were as large as a big chestnut tree. "My goodness!" cried Uncle Wiggily, "what in the world is that?"

      "I guess it's my little boy coming home from school," said the good giant as softly as he could, but, even then, his voice was like thunder. "He must have heard that you were here."

      "Will he hurt me? Does he love animals?" asked the rabbit, for he was getting frightened. "Will your little boy be kind to me?"

      "Oh, indeed he will!" cried the good giant. "I have taught him to love animals, for you know he is so big and strong, even though I do call him my little boy, that it would be no trouble for him to take a bear or a lion, and squeeze him in one hand so that the bear or lion would never hurt any one any more. But, just because he is big and strong, though not so big and strong as I am, I have taught my boy to be kind to the little animals."

      "Then I will have no fear," said Uncle Wiggily, winking his nose—I mean his eyes—and just then the door of the giant's house opened and in came his little boy.

      Well, at first Uncle Wiggily was so frightened that he did not know what to do. I wonder what you would say if you were suddenly to see a boy almost as big as your house, or mine, walk into the parlor, and sit down at the piano? Well, that's what the old gentleman rabbit saw.

      "Ah, my little boy is home from school," said the giant, kindly. "Did you have your lessons, my son?"

      "Yes, father, I did," was the answer. "And I learned a new song. I'll sing it for you."

      So he began to play the piano with his little finger nail, and still, and with all that, he made as much noise as a circus band of music can make on a hot day in the tent. Oh, he played terribly loud, the giant's boy did, and Uncle Wiggily had to put his paws over his ears, or he might have been made deaf. Then the giant's little boy sang, and even when he hummed it the noise was like a thunder storm, only different. Now, this is the boy giant's song, and you will have to sing it with all your might, as hard as you can, but not if the baby is asleep.

      "I am a little fellow,

       But soon I will grow big.

       And then I'll sit beside the sea,

       And in the white sand dig.

       "I'll make a hole so very deep,

       To China it will go.

       And then I'll fill it up with shells

       Wherein the wild waves blow."

      And with that the giant's little boy banged so hard on the piano with his little finger nail that he broke a string, and made a funny sound, like a banjo out of tune.

      "Oh, I didn't