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

Uncle Wiggily was just going to run back, when he happened to look again, and there, instead of a fox behind the stone, it was a little boy, with red trousers on, and he was crying as hard as he could cry, that boy was.

      "What is the matter, my little chap?" asked the rabbit kindly. "Are you crying because you have on red trousers instead of blue? I think red is a lovely color myself. I wish I had red ears, as well as red eyes."

      "Oh, I am not crying for that," said the little boy, wiping away his tears on a big green leaf, "but you see I am like Bo-peep, only I have lost my cows, instead of my sheep, and I don't know where to find them."

      "Oh, I'll help you look," said Uncle Wiggily. "I am pretty good at finding lost cows. Come, we'll hunt farther." So off they started together, Uncle Wiggily holding the little boy by one of his paws—one of the rabbit's paws, I mean.

      Well, they looked and looked, but they couldn't seem to find those cows. They looked at one hill, and on top of another hill, and down in the hollows, and under the trees by the brook, but no cows were to be seen.

      "Oh, dear!" cried the little boy, "if I don't find them soon there'll be no milk for dinner."

      "And I am very thirsty, too," said the rabbit. "I wish I had a drink of milk. But where in the world can those cows be?" and he looked up into the sky, not because he thought the cows were there, but so that he might think better. Then he looked down at the ground, and, as he did so he saw a little red creature with eight long legs, and the creature wiggled one leg at the rabbit friendly-like as if to shake hands.

      "Why don't you ask me where the cows are?" said the long-legged insect.

      "Why, can you tell?" inquired Uncle Wiggily.

      "Of course I can. I'm a grand-daddy longlegs, and I can always tell where the cows are," was the reply. "Just you ask me."

      So Uncle Wiggily and the little boy, both together, politely asked where they could find the cows, and the grand-daddy just pointed with one long leg off toward the woods where the rabbit and boy hadn't thought of looking before that.

      "You'll find your cows there," said grand-daddy longlegs, and then he hurried home to his dinner. And Uncle Wiggily and the boy went over to the woods, and there in the shade by a brook—sure enough were the cows, chewing their gum—I mean their cuds. And they were just waiting to be driven home.

      So Uncle Wiggily, and the boy with the red trousers, drove the cows home, and they were milked, and the old gentleman rabbit had several glasses full—glasses full of milk, not cows, you know. Goodness me! A cow couldn't get into a glass could it? I guess not!

      And after that Uncle Wiggily——

      Well, but see here now. I think I've put enough adventures about Uncle Wiggily in this book, and I must save some for another one. So I think I will call the following book "Uncle Wiggily's Travels," for he still kept on traveling after his fortune you know. And he found it, too, which is the best part of it. Oh, my yes! He found his fortune all right. Don't worry about that. And in the next book, the very first thing he did, was to have an adventure with a red squirrel-girl, who was some relation to Johnnie and Billie Bushytail.

      So that's all there is to Uncle Wiggily, for a little while, if you please, but if you want to hear anything else about him I'll try, later on, to tell you some more stories. And now, dear children, good-bye.

Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard

       Table of Contents

       CHAPTER I UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER GOOSE

       CHAPTER II UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST PIG

       CHAPTER III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND PIG

       CHAPTER IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD PIG

       CHAPTER V UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BOY BLUE

       CHAPTER VI UNCLE WIGGILY AND HIGGLEDEE PIGGLEDEE

       CHAPTER VII UNCLE WIGGILY AND LITTLE BO PEEP

       CHAPTER VIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE TUCKER

       CHAPTER IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND PUSSY CAT MOLE

       CHAPTER X UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK AND JILL

       CHAPTER XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND JACK HORNER

       CHAPTER XII UNCLE WIGGILY AND MR. POP-GOES

       CHAPTER XIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND SIMPLE SIMON

       CHAPTER XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CRUMPLE-HORN COW

       CHAPTER XV UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD

       CHAPTER XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND MISS MUFFET

       CHAPTER XVII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRST KITTEN

       CHAPTER XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SECOND KITTEN

       CHAPTER XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE THIRD KITTEN

       CHAPTER XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE JACK HORSE

       CHAPTER XXI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CLOCK-MOUSE

       CHAPTER XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LATE SCHOLAR

       CHAPTER XXIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND BAA-BAA BLACK SHEEP

       CHAPTER XXIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND POLLY FLINDERS

       CHAPTER XXV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE GARDEN MAID

       CHAPTER XXVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE KING

      CHAPTER I

      UNCLE WIGGILY AND MOTHER GOOSE