STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BUTTERFLY

“Are you going out in your airship this morning?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, as he left the breakfast table one day.

 

“Well, I did not intend to,” he said. “The electric fan that goes around whizzie-izze, and makes me sail through the clouds, is broken, and I shall have to have it mended. So I am not going in the airship to-day. Was there anything you wanted me to do for you?”

 

“Why, yes, there was,” replied the muskrat¹ lady, as she looked at the end of her tail, to see if it needed dusting. But it did not, I am glad to say. “I wish you would bring me a yeast² cake from the store if you are near there. I am going to bake bread,” said Nurse Jane.

 

“Most gladly will I bring you a yeast cake,” spoke³ Uncle Wiggily, with a low and polite bow. “Only I will walk after it, instead of going in[Pg 103] my airship. And, while I am out walking, instead of airshipping, I will look for an adventure also.”

 

“Very good,” answered Nurse Jane, as she carried the butter out in the hammock where it could swing and keep cool.

 

So Uncle Wiggily started off after the yeast cake and anything else he might find. At first he went along slowly, and then he hurried along a little faster, and pretty soon, as he came to a beautiful white lily, he heard a voice sadly saying:

 

“Oh, dear! What shall I do? I cannot fly after honey, and I shall surely die! Oh, woe⁴ is me!”

 

“Ha! Some one in trouble, I imagine!” Uncle Wiggily cried, as he looked all about. But he could see no one. Still he again heard the voice saying:

 

“Oh, how I suffer! If only some one would help me!”

 

“I will help you,” said Uncle Wiggily, “only I cannot see you. Where are you, if you please?”

 

“Look in the lily!” went on the sad voice, and, looking, Uncle Wiggily saw within the flower, which was like a little house, a poor butterfly, with a broken wing.

 

[Pg 104]

 

“Ah, that is too bad! How did it happen?” asked the rabbit gentleman kindly⁵.

 

“I was caught in a hail storm yesterday,” said the butterfly, “and the hail stones broke one of my wings. I managed to flutter to my home in the lily, but I cannot go out now, as my wing is too sore. And, if I do not fly around among the flowers and suck out the honey, on which I live, I shall surely die.”

 

“Ha! No, indeed, you will not!” Uncle Wiggily cried. “I will not let you die. I will help you. See, I am going now for Dr. Possum, the animal gentleman who helps us woodland creatures, and mends broken wings and legs and everything like that. He will fix your wing for you, and then as to honey and flowers—well, I can fix that, too. Just don’t worry any more.”

 

“Oh, how good you are!” sighed the poor butterfly.

 

So Uncle Wiggily hurried after Dr. Possum and brought him to the lily house, and then while the butterfly’s broken wing was being mended, with rose leaves and marshmallow candy, Uncle Wiggily went to some kind bees whom he knew, and said:

 

“Now, dear buzzing bees, a friend of mine—a butterfly—has broken her wing. She cannot go fluttering around the flowers, sipping⁶ honey.[Pg 105] So, until her wing is better, will you not, every day, carry her a little honey to her home in the white lily?”

 

“Of course we will!” cried the queen bee. “Gladly will we do that. Why, my goodness gracious me sakes alive and some apple blossoms! I should say we would do a kindness like that! Wouldn’t we, bees?”

 

“Buzz! Buzz!” said all the other bees. “Yes! Yes!”

 

“Then everything will be all right,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Thank you!”

 

He hurried back to the butterfly, whose wing Dr. Possum had fixed⁷ by this time, and the rabbit gentleman told the poor creature in the lily how he had arranged for the bees to bring her honey every day until her wing was healed.

 

“Oh, you are so good!” she murmured, as she went to sleep.

 

“Pray do not mention it,” said Uncle Wiggily, politely, and then he hurried to the store for the yeast cake.

 

Now comes a little sad part to this story, but I will not make it any longer than I can possibly help.

 

About a week after this, Nurse Jane heard Uncle Wiggily groaning⁸ in his bed, and saying:

 

“Oh, dear! How ill I am. It’s that old rheumatism⁹[Pg 106] pain again! Please send for Dr. Possum.”

 

“I will,” said the muskrat lady. And when Dr. Possum came he said:

 

“Uncle Wiggily, you are very ill indeed. You have rheumatism fever, and you must take bitter medicine, and, since the weather is so warm, you must have some one fan you every day with a fan to cool you.”

 

“But who can do it?” asked the rabbit gentleman. “Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, my muskrat housekeeper¹⁰, is too busy, all my animal children friends have to go to school, so they can graduate, and all my other friends are too busy. No one can come to fan me.”

 

“What about the electric fan on your airship?” asked Nurse Jane.

 

“Alas! that is broken,” said Uncle Wiggily, and he felt very ill indeed. He needed fanning then and there.

 

“I don’t know what to do,” spoke Dr. Possum. “I would stay and fan you myself, but I have to call on the sick animals. I don’t know who can fan you.”

 

“Oh, please let me!” cried a voice at the window, and in flew the butterfly, whose broken wing was all well now. “I was coming over to thank Uncle Wiggily,” she said, “and I heard[Pg 107] what you said. I would just love to perch¹¹ on his pillow and fan him with my wings.”

 

“The very thing!” cried Dr. Possum. So the butterfly lady perched herself on Uncle Wiggily’s pillow, and with her beautiful wings fluttering up and down, she fanned him, making a lovely cool breeze, so that he soon fell asleep. And with the gentle fanning, and because of Dr. Possum’s medicine, the rabbit gentleman was soon all well again.

 

So that shows you should always help a butterfly when you can, as you never can tell when a butterfly might help you.

 

And that’s all I can tell you to-night, but on the next page, if the garden rake doesn’t jump over the fence and play tag with the rose bush and get all scratched, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the sawdust.

1 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。

2 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

3 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。

4 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

5 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

6 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

7 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。

8 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

9 rheumatism   

n.风湿病

参考例句：

• The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism.潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。

10 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。

11 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。