STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FIRE

“What do you think, mamma!” cried Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, as he came running in the house after school one fine day. “Oh, what do you think?”

 

“Why, I’m sure I don’t know, Sammie, my dear,” said Mrs. Littletail, smiling at him. “I think of a great many things, of course.”

 

“Oh, he means what do you think teacher told us!” cried Sammie’s sister Susie, as she came in more slowly, for girl rabbits cannot run quite as fast as can rabbit boys.

 

“Did your teacher say you were good little animal children to-day, and that you had your lessons well?” Mrs. Littletail wanted to know.

 

“Well, she did say that,” spoke¹ Sammie, sort of bashful like and shy, “but I think you can’t guess what I mean. She said we ought to make a little garden, each for ourselves, and grow things to eat in it. The one who has the best garden will get a prize.”

 

[Pg 36]

 

“And I’m going to have a garden and raise lettuce²!” cried Susie.

 

“And I’m going to have one and plant carrots. And I’m going to give Uncle Wiggily some!” added Sammie.

 

“It will be very nice for each of you to make a garden,” said the rabbit children’s mamma. “You may each have a little part of our big garden for yourselves.”

 

“And we are to do all the work, too,” explained Sammie. “We must clear off the ground, spade it up, rake it smooth, put in the seeds and water them when they come up.”

 

“Oh, of course, if it’s your garden, you must look after it yourselves,” said Mrs. Littletail.

 

So Sammie and Susie began to make their garden. First they raked away the brush, sticks and leaves from the ground that was to be dug up. This brush they piled in a big heap in the large garden.

 

“That pile of brush does not look very nice there,” said their mamma.

 

“Oh, we are going to burn it when we get through,” said Sammie. “Teacher said we were to burn up all trash and rubbish, for the ashes were good to mix with the garden dirt. I don’t know why, but ashes make the ground better.”

 

“Yes,” agreed Mrs. Littletail, “but you had[Pg 37] better let your papa burn the brush. He will have more brush when he rakes up the ground for his garden. Animal or real children should not play with fire,” said the mamma rabbit.

 

So Sammie and Susie Littletail went on making their garden, and in it they planted cabbage, radishes, lettuce and carrots—all things that rabbits love to eat. A few days later their papa, Mr. Littletail, the rabbit gentleman, made his garden, and he raked up a big pile of brush. When the garden was all nice and smooth Mr. Littletail said:

 

“Now I will burn that brush.”

 

“And may we watch you?” asked Sammie.

 

“Yes, if you do not come too close,” his papa said.

 

Mr. Littletail set fire to the big pile of dried brush, sticks and leaves, and my goodness me sakes alive and some peanut pancakes! How it did blaze up! It crackled like the Fourth of July, and the heat was so great that Mr. Littletail had to jump back very quickly.

 

“Oh, what a fine fire!” cried Susie.

 

“We could roast potatoes in it if it were not so large,” spoke Sammie. “But it is too hot now.”

 

“Indeed it is,” his father said. “Keep back.”

 

Hotter and hotter grew the brush fire. The[Pg 38] blaze leaped up, and then every one had to run far away. The fire grew so hot that the Littletail house began to smoke and scorch³.

 

“Oh, our house will catch fire from the brush!” cried Sammie.

 

“Yes, I am afraid it will!” exclaimed Mr. Littletail. “I must get some pails of water and throw on the brush fire.”

 

But, by this time, the fire was so hot that, when Mr. Littletail had the water, he could not get near enough to toss it on the blaze.

 

“Oh, what shall we do!” cried his wife. “Our house will burn down! Oh, I must save what I can!”

 

So she threw the clock and a lot of her best dishes out of the window, and they were broken, I am sorry to say. Then Mrs. Littletail carefully carried out the feather bed. You see she was so excited that she did things backwards⁴. She should have thrown the feather bed out of the window, for that would not break. And she ought to have carried the clock and dishes down stairs in her apron⁵.

 

Hotter and hotter grew the fire, and the rabbit house was beginning to smoke and blaze.

 

“Call out the water bug⁶ fire department!” shouted Grandfather Goosey Gander. But the[Pg 39] water bugs⁷ had gone away on an excursion, and could not come.

 

“Oh, my lovely house will burn!” cried Mrs. Littletail.

 

“No, I know how to save it!” shouted Sammie. “I’ll go get Uncle Wiggily Longears in his airship. We can go up in the air over the fire and spill a pail of water on it. He won’t be burned as he will be so high up, but the water will put out the fire.”

 

“Go and get him quickly then!” shouted Mr. Littletail hopping⁸ up and down on his big ears.

 

Uncle Wiggily came sailing along in his airship right away when Sammie called him. The rabbit gentleman took up with him many pails of water, and when he had steered⁹ his airship high up over the fire, where he was out of danger, Uncle Wiggily spilled down the water, just like rain from the clouds, and the fire hissed¹⁰ like a snake, and went out.

 

The brush was all burned up, of course, and the Littletail house was scorched¹¹ on the roof, but not very much. Uncle Wiggily had put it out just in time.

 

“But if it hadn’t been for your airship I don’t know what we would have done!” cried Mr. Littletail. “Thank you so much!”

 

“Pray do not mention it,” said Uncle Wiggily[Pg 40] politely, as he wagged his tail up and down as well as sideways.

 

Then the rabbit gentleman helped pick up the broken dishes, and he mended the broken clock and all was well. And Mr. Littletail did not make such a big brush fire again.

 

And on the next page, if the carpenter man doesn’t take our bathtub away to slide his little puppy dog down hill in, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and Dr. Possum.

 

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

3 scorch   

v.烧焦，烤焦；高速疾驶；n.烧焦处，焦痕

参考例句：

• I could not wash away the mark of the scorch.我洗不掉这焦痕。
• This material will scorch easily if it is too near the fire.这种材料如果太靠近炉火很容易烤焦。

4 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

5 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

6 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

7 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

9 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

11 scorched   

烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦

参考例句：

• I scorched my dress when I was ironing it. 我把自己的连衣裙熨焦了。
• The hot iron scorched the tablecloth. 热熨斗把桌布烫焦了。