STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BABY RABBIT

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, the little rabbit girl, one afternoon, as she came over to Mr. Longears’ hollow stump¹ bungalow². “I wonder if you can guess what came to our burrow³ in the night?”

 

“Let me see,” said Uncle Wiggily, slow and thoughtful like; “was it a mouse?”

 

“Nope!” cried Susie, laughing and clapping her paws.

 

“Was it a thunder storm?” asked the rabbit gentleman, sort of puzzled like.

 

“Nope! I’ll give you one more guess, and then I’ll tell you,” spoke⁴ Susie, laughing more than ever.

 

“Was it—er—let me see—you didn’t have a party come to your house last night, did you, Susie?”

 

“No! Oh, I knew you couldn’t guess! It was a baby rabbit. Sammie and I have a little baby brother. He came last night.

 

[Pg 91]

 

“Oh, how fine!” cried Uncle Wiggily, tying his ears up in a hard knot and then untying⁵ them again. “I must go right over and see it. Come on, Susie, we’ll go in my airship.”

 

“Don’t let Susie fall out!” cried Nurse Jane, the muskrat⁶ lady housekeeper⁷, as the old gentleman rabbit, followed by Susie, went out to the henhouse, where he kept his clothes basket airship.

 

“I won’t!” promised Uncle Wiggily, and then he and Susie sailed off, up near the clouds, over the fields and woods, to the burrow where Mrs. Littletail, Susie’s mamma, lived.

 

“Where is that baby rabbit?” cried Uncle Wiggily, as he lowered his airship to the ground. “I must see him.”

 

“Here he is,” said Mrs. Littletail, proudly, bringing out the new little baby rabbit. “But be careful not to squeeze him too hard, as he is very soft and tender.”

 

“Oh, I’ll be careful!” said Uncle Wiggily with a laugh.

 

Then he took the baby rabbit and toddled⁸ him up and down on his knee, and said “Ootsie-Cootsie!” and “Tummy-tummy!” and “petsie-etsie!” You know the way old gentleman always talk to babies, whether they are animals or not.

 

[Pg 92]

 

“Isn’t he just too sweet!” cried Susie, as she stood peeping lovingly at her new baby brother. “And doesn’t he look just like Sammie?”

 

“Hu! Do I look like that?” asked Sammie, standing⁹ off to one side, with his paws in his pockets.

 

“You did when you were little,” said his mamma, smiling.

 

“Ha! Well, I don’t now,” spoke Sammie sort of thankful like. “Come on, Susie, I’m going to school—the last bell has almost rung.”

 

“Wait until I give baby a kiss,” said Susie, and, when she had done so, she hurried to school with Sammie.

 

Uncle Wiggily stayed with Mrs. Littletail for some time, and he jiggled and joggled the baby rabbit up and down on his knee, and talked baby talk to it, and had just a lovely time as all old gentleman rabbits do at such times.

 

After a while Mrs. Littletail said:

 

“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I have to go to the store to get a rattle¹⁰ box for baby rabbit, to amuse him when he cries! I wonder if you would stay here and take care of him until I come back!”

 

“Of course I would, and I’d be glad to—real proud and happy to do so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Won’t I, baby rabbit? Ootsie-cootsie ’unnin’-cunnin’!”

 

[Pg 93]

 

“Goo!” said the baby rabbit. I guess that meant “yes” in baby rabbit talk.

 

So Mrs. Littletail went to the store for a rattle box for her new bunny baby, and then Uncle Wiggily jiggled and joggled the little chap up and down on his knee some more.

 

“Goo-goo!” said baby rabbit, as cute as anything.

 

“Oh, you’re just too lovely!” cried Uncle Wiggily, exactly as Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy might have done.

 

But, all of a sudden, baby rabbit began to cry.

 

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily sort of disappointed like. “Hold on if you please! Don’t do that! Stop it!”

 

But the more he talked the more the baby rabbit sobbed¹¹.

 

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried the small chap. “Wah-h-h-h-h-h-h!”

 

“Oh, my!” shouted Uncle Wiggily. “I guess I must walk up and down with you!” and he did, as fast as anything, but the baby rabbit only cried the harder.

 

“Ha! Maybe you want me to stand on my head for you!” said Uncle Wiggily. So he put the baby in its crib and stood on his head, in a corner, wiggling his feet in the air. But the baby rabbit still cried:

 

[Pg 94]

 

“Wah! Wah! Wah!”

 

“Oh, come now, be nice!” begged Uncle Wiggily, looking around for something with which to amuse the rabbit baby. “I guess you want your rattle box. I wish Mrs. Littletail would hurry back.”

 

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” cried baby rabbit.

 

“I know what I’ll do!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take you in my airship to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. She’ll know what to do.”

 

So, bundling the baby rabbit up in its warm blankets, the old gentleman rabbit hurried out to his airship, which he had left standing in the yard. It had been all fixed¹² since the mosquitoes had bitten holes in the balloons, and was better than ever.

 

“Now we’re all right!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he started off through the air. “Nurse Jane will soon fix you, little fellow!”

 

“Why, you shouldn’t have brought a new, little baby rabbit out in your airship,” said the muskrat lady, when she saw what Uncle Wiggily had done. “It might take cold.”

 

“Wah! Wah! Wah!” howled the baby rabbit.

 

“Listen to that! I couldn’t make it stop crying,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I did everything,[Pg 95] even to making funny faces at it. What do you do in a case like this?”

 

“Silly old Uncle Wiggily!” laughed Nurse Jane. “I guess this little fellow is hungry!” And, surely enough, when she gave baby rabbit some warm milk and sugar from a bottle, the little chap stopped crying at once and went to sleep.

 

“Well, I do declare!” cried Uncle Wiggily, in surprise. “It is so easy when you know how!” And then, while the baby rabbit slept, Uncle Wiggily took it home in his airship, and just in time, too, for Mrs. Littletail had come back with the rattle box, and she was wondering where in the world her baby was. Then she thanked Uncle Wiggily, and put the baby rabbit in its crib, and that is the end of this story.

 

But in the next story, if the door knob doesn’t turn a somersault over the pepper caster and slide off the table, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the popgun.

1 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

2 bungalow   

n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房

参考例句：

• A bungalow does not have an upstairs.平房没有上层。
• The old couple sold that large house and moved into a small bungalow.老两口卖掉了那幢大房子，搬进了小平房。

3 burrow   

vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞

参考例句：

• Earthworms burrow deep into the subsoil.蚯蚓深深地钻进底土。
• The dog had chased a rabbit into its burrow.狗把兔子追进了洞穴。

4 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。

5 untying   

untie的现在分词

参考例句：

• The tying of bow ties is an art; the untying is easy. 打领带是一种艺术，解领带则很容易。
• As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 33他们解驴驹的时候，主人问他们说，解驴驹作什么？

6 muskrat   

n.麝香鼠

参考例句：

• Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
• I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。

7 housekeeper   

n.管理家务的主妇，女管家

参考例句：

• A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
• She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家，一家人吃得很省。

8 toddled   

v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的过去式和过去分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步

参考例句：

• It's late — it's time you toddled off to bed. 不早了—你该去睡觉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her two-year-old son toddled into the room. 她的两岁的儿子摇摇摆摆地走进屋里。 来自辞典例句

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

11 sobbed   

哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说

参考例句：

• She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
• She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。

12 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。