"She's the kindest person I have ever known," said Uncle Wiggily, as he limped along on his crutch¹ that Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had gnawed² out of a cornstalk for him. "She is very—Oh dear! Oh me! Oh my! Oh disproportionability! Wow! Ouch! My rheumatism⁴ again!" and it hurt him so he had to stand still and waggle his ears as hard as ever he could. Then he felt better, especially after he had rubbed a horse chestnut⁵ on his sore leg.

 

You see the rheumatism which was cured by a red fairy, as I told you about in the first book, came back because Uncle Wiggily got his feet wet going out one day without his umbrella.

 

Of course Papa and Mamma Wibblewobble were much surprised to hear about the ball game, and the broken window, but they didn't scold Jimmie very much, and pretty soon, oh, in a little while after supper, you know, it was bedtime for the duck children and they went to bed.

 

Well, it got darker and darker, and soon it was nice and quiet around the pond where the ducks lived. Only the frogs seemed to be awake, and they were croaking⁶ away in the water. And pretty soon Lulu and Alice were dreaming and so was Jimmie, and the funny part of it is that they all dreamed different things.

 

Pretty soon it got even darker, and then up popped the silvery moon, and it wasn't quite so dark. But it was more quiet. Oh my, yes! It was so quiet that I believe if a feather had fallen off a duck's back it would have made a noise when it struck the ground. Oh, it was very quiet.

 

Then, all of a sudden Jimmie awakened⁷. He sniffed⁸ and he snuffed, and he smelled smoke. So he got up and he called to Lulu and Alice in the next room:

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