I Love Animal Stories. Aesop
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Well, that boy-giant wanted to know all about Uncle Wiggily, where he came from and where he was going, and all that, and Uncle Wiggily told about how he was traveling around to seek his fortune.
"Oh, I believe I know where you can find lots of money, Uncle Wiggily," said the giant's boy kindly, as he reached over and stroked the rabbit's ears. "I have always heard that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The next time we see one, you and I will go out and search for the money. Then you will have your fortune, and you won't have to travel around any more."
"That will be fine!" cried the rabbit, "for, to tell you the truth, I am getting pretty tired of going about the country. Still, I will not give up until I find my fortune."
"All right. But we will have to wait until it rains, and then we'll see where the end of the rainbow is," said the giant's boy. "Now we will have some games together. Let's play tag."
Well, they started to play that, but, land's sake, flopsy dub and a basket of ice cream cones! Uncle Wiggily ran here, and there, and everywhere, and he jumped and leaped about so that the giant's little boy couldn't catch him, for the big-little fellow wasn't very spry on his feet.
"Oh, I guess we had better not play that game any more," said the boy giant, as he accidentally nearly stepped on Uncle Wiggily's left ear. "I might hurt you. Let's play hide-and-go-seek."
But Uncle Wiggily was even better at this game than he had been at tag, for he could hide in such small holes that the boy giant couldn't even see them, so of course that wouldn't do for a game. It was no fun.
Then all at once it began to rain. My! how it did pour! It rained snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails, with the puppies fast to the tails, of course, and the streets were covered with them. Then it rained a few ice cream cones, and Uncle Wiggily and the giant boy had all they wanted to eat, the giant eating fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, and part of another one, while Uncle Wiggily had only two cones.
"Oh, there is the rainbow!" cried the boy giant at last, as he saw the beautiful gold and green and orange and red colors in the sky. "Now for the pot of gold."
So he and Uncle Wiggily started off together to find it. But they had not gone very far through the woods before they met the papa giant.
"Where are you going?" he asked of them.
"To the end of the rainbow to get the pot of gold," said the giant's little boy.
"You don't need to," said the giant, "for there is none there. That is only a fairy story. Wait, I'll show you."
So he stretched out his long arm as far as it would go and he reached away down to the end of the rainbow and he felt all around with his long fingers, and sure enough, there wasn't a bit of gold there, for his hand came back empty.
"It's too bad," said the giant's little boy to Uncle Wiggily. "There is nothing there for you. But perhaps you will find your fortune to-morrow. Come and stay with me until morning."
So Uncle Wiggily went back to the giant's house, and the next day quite a surprising adventure occurred to him, and in case the gasoline in my motorboat doesn't wash all the paint off my red necktie I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Grand-daddy Longlegs.
STORY XXXI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND DADDY LONGLEGS
Uncle Wiggily got up early the morning after the good giant had shown him that there wasn't any gold at the end of the rainbow. The old gentleman rabbit looked where a place had been set for him at the table, but alas and alack a-day, the table was almost as high from the floor as the church steeple is from the ground, and Uncle Wiggily could not reach up to it.
"Hum, let's see what we will do," spoke the papa giant. "I know, I'll get a spool of thread from the lady giant next door, and that will answer for a table for you, Uncle Wiggily, and you can use another toothpick for a chair."
So while the boy giant went for the spool of thread, the papa giant served Uncle Wiggily's breakfast. First he brought in a washtub full of milk and a bushel basket full of oatmeal.
"What is that for?" asked the rabbit in surprise.
"That is for your breakfast," was the answer. "Isn't it enough? Because I can get you more in a jiffy, if you want it."
"Oh, it is entirely too much," said Uncle Wiggily. "I can only take a little of that oatmeal."
"Very well, then, I will take this myself, and get you a small dish full," spoke the papa giant, and he ate all that oatmeal and milk up at one mouthful, but even then it was hardly enough to fill his hollow tooth.
Then the boy giant came back with the spool, which was as big as the dining-room table in a rabbit's house. Up at this new table the traveling uncle sat, and he ate a very good breakfast indeed.
"Now I must start off again to seek my fortune," he said, as he took his crutch, striped red, green and yellow, like a cow's horn. Oh, excuse me! I was thinking of circus balloons, I guess. Anyhow Uncle Wiggily took his crutch and valise, and, as he was about to start off, the boy giant said:
"I will walk along a short distance with you, and in case any bad animals try to hurt you I'll drive them away."
"Oh, I don't believe any one will harm me," spoke the rabbit, but nevertheless something did happen to him. As he and the boy giant were walking along, all of a sudden there was a noise from behind a big, black stump, and out jumped a big, black bear. He rushed right at the rabbit, and called out:
"Ha! Now I have you! I've been waiting a long while for you, and I thought you'd never come. But, better late than never. Now for my dinner! I've had the fire made for some time to cook you, and the kettle is boiling for tea." He was just going to grab our Uncle Wiggily, when the giant's little boy called out:
"Here, you let that rabbit alone! He's a friend of mine!" But, listen to this, the bear never thought a thing about a boy giant being with Uncle Wiggily, and he never even looked up at him. Only when the bear heard the giant's boy speaking he thought it was distant thunder, and he said:
"Oh, I must hurry home with that rabbit before it rains. I don't like to get wet!"
"Yes, I guess you will hurry home!" cried the giant's boy, and with that he reached over, and he grabbed that black, ugly bear by his short, stumpy tail and he flung him away over the tree tops, like a skyrocket, and it was some time before that bear came down. And when he did, he didn't feel like bothering Uncle Wiggily any more.
"Now I guess you'll be all right for a while on your travels," said the boy giant as he called good-by to the old gentleman rabbit. "Send me a souvenir postal when you find your fortune, and if any bad animals bother you, just telephone for me, and I'll come and serve them as I did the bear."
Then the old gentleman rabbit thanked the boy giant, and started off again. He traveled on and on, over hills and down in little valleys, and across brooks that flowed over green mossy stones in the meadow, and pretty soon Uncle Wiggily came to a big gray stone in the middle of a field. And, as he looked at the stone, the old gentleman rabbit saw something red fluttering behind it, and he heard a noise like some one crying.
"Ha! Here is where I must be careful!" exclaimed the rabbit to himself. "Perhaps that is a red fox behind the stone, and he is making believe cry, so as to bring me up close, and then he'll jump out and grab me. No indeed, I'm going to run back."
Well, Uncle Wiggily was just going to run back, when he happened to look again, and there, instead of a fox behind the stone, it was a little boy, with red trousers on, and he was crying as hard as he could cry, that boy was.
"What is the matter, my little chap?" asked the rabbit kindly. "Are you crying because you have on red trousers instead of blue? I think red is a lovely color myself. I wish I had red ears, as well as red eyes."
"Oh, I am not crying for that,"