STORY XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DUSTY CARPET

“Be careful, please! Look out! Kindly¹ wipe your feet!” cried Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat² lady housekeeper³, as Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, was going into his hollow stump⁴ bungalow⁵ one day, after he had been out riding in his airship.

 

“Why, what is the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily. “Don’t I always wipe my feet, Nurse Jane?” and this time the rabbit gentleman was very particular to give them an extra polish, or two, on the door-mat before entering.

 

“Oh, yes! as a rule you are very good that way,” said Nurse Jane politely, as she looked at her tail to see if Sammie Littletail, the boy rabbit, had tied any knots in it for a joke. But he had not, I am glad to say.

 

“Yes, as a rule, you are very careful,” went on Nurse Jane, “but you see I am house cleaning, and I have just scrubbed the floors, and so I don’t want a speck⁶ of dirt on them.”

 

[Pg 115]

 

“Ah, ha! I see! House cleaning!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “Well, I suppose it has to be done once in a while, but I do not like it at all. I think I will go to my room and read, and when supper is ready, call me, please.”

 

“I will,” promised Nurse Jane, and then she went on looking for moth-millers, which eat up your clothes, and she hunted for dust in all the corners, Nurse Jane did, and she swept and cleaned, and she had a great old time, she did!

 

“My, this is awful!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he went inside the hollow stump bungalow. “Why, there is hardly room to move!”

 

And well might he say so, for the chairs and tables were all scattered⁷ about, the carpets and rugs were piled in the middle of the floor, and the whole place seemed very much upset, indeed.

 

“Well, I suppose it’s always this way when house cleaning has to be done,” thought Uncle Wiggily, with a sigh. “I must put up with it.”

 

Then he stumbled over a stool, tripped on a chair, fell over a roll of carpet, and finally he reached his room, and sat down to read a book about how to make yellow carrots turn pink by coloring them with Easter eggs.

 

By and by after a while, Uncle Wiggily began to feel hungry.

 

“I wish I had something to eat,” he said,[Pg 116] looking in the book at a large picture of a red, white and blue turnip⁸, with a pink ribbon tied on it. “I wonder if supper is not nearly ready?”

 

Uncle Wiggily went to the door of his room and listened. He wanted to see if he could hear, down in the kitchen, the rattle⁹ of dishes and the clatter¹⁰ of the knives and forks. That would show Nurse Jane was setting the table, and when she set the table it was, nearly always, meal time.

 

But Uncle Wiggily could hear nothing but the moving and scraping of chairs about on the floor, and the flip-flop of the dusting cloth as Nurse Jane snapped it here and there, knocking the dust off the furniture upon the carpet, so she could not see it so plainly.

 

“Ha! Hum!” murmured Uncle Wiggily. “That doesn’t sound much like supper. I shall have to wait a bit longer.”

 

So he waited and waited, but there came no welcome sound of the rattle of dishes, nor the clatter of knives and forks. Nor was there any nice smell of ice cream frying on the stove, nor of peanuts boiling in the tea kettle. Nothing like supper at all.

 

“Well, this is very strange!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he got up from his chair about the forty-’leventh time to listen if supper were ready.[Pg 117] “Something must have happened to Nurse Jane. I’ll go look,” he said.

 

Putting aside his book, down stairs the rabbit gentleman went, and he saw the muskrat lady in the yard, stretching a dusty carpet out on the green grass.

 

“Ahem! Pray pardon and excuse me, Nurse Jane,” said Uncle Wiggily, “but may I ask when tea will be ready?” You see he said tea to be more polite like.

 

“Tea!” exclaimed Nurse Jane. “Why, I can not give you your supper, Wiggy, until I have beaten all the dust out of this dusty carpet. And it will take me some time, Wiggy.” You see she called him Wiggy for short, because she was very busy at house cleaning.

 

“No supper until that carpet is beaten?” cried Uncle Wiggily, sad and disappointed like.

 

“No, indeed,” answered Nurse Jane. Then, with her long tail, which was like a carpet beater stick, the muskrat lady began to whip the dust out of the dusty carpet to make it clean.

 

“Oh, my! That is going to take a long time!” thought the rabbit gentleman. “I shall be very hungry indeed before I get any supper this evening, if I can’t get it until that carpet is beaten.”

 

So he waited and waited, and Nurse Jane kept[Pg 118] on beating the dusty carpet with her long tail, and Uncle Wiggily was getting more and more hungry, when, all of a sudden, he heard some voices shouting:

 

“That’s the way to run! Throw the ball! Slide to home base! Put him out! Over the fence! Hurray! A home run!”

 

“Ha! Animal boys playing ball!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “I have an idea! I’ll give them five cents each, and get them to beat the dusty carpet with the baseball bats! Then Nurse Jane will not have to do it and can get supper for me!”

 

Out he went to the vacant lot where the animal boys were playing ball. Charlie, the chicken chap, was at the bat.

 

“Boys, will you beat a dusty carpet for Nurse Jane?” asked Uncle Wiggily. “I would do it myself, only my rheumatism¹¹ is so bad that I can’t!”

 

“Surely, we will beat it!” cried Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck. So the animal boys soon beat the dusty carpet with their baseball bats, and Uncle Wiggily gave them five cents each for ice cream cones¹².

 

And, shortly after that, Nurse Jane made ready the rabbit gentleman’s supper, and everybody was happy, and when the carpet was no[Pg 119] longer dusty, house cleaning time was over, and Uncle Wiggily could live in peace and quietness and he was glad.

 

And that’s the end of this story, but if the ivy¹³ vine doesn’t climb up in my window and pull the clothes off the rubber doll’s bed I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the little lamb.

 

1 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。

2 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。

3 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。

4 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。

5 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。

6 speck   

n.微粒，小污点，小斑点

参考例句：

• I have not a speck of interest in it.我对它没有任何兴趣。
• The sky is clear and bright without a speck of cloud.天空晴朗，一星星云彩也没有。

7 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

8 turnip   

n.萝卜，芜菁

参考例句：

• The turnip provides nutrition for you.芜菁为你提供营养。
• A turnip is a root vegetable.芜菁是根茎类植物。

9 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。

10 clatter   

v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声

参考例句：

• The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
• Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。

11 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。

12 cones   

n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒

参考例句：

• In the pines squirrels commonly chew off and drop entire cones. 松树上的松鼠通常咬掉和弄落整个球果。 来自辞典例句
• Many children would rather eat ice cream from cones than from dishes. 许多小孩喜欢吃蛋卷冰淇淋胜过盘装冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句

13 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。