The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-16
Bedtime Stories
Uncle wiggily and The Needles.
BIZ HOWARD q. GARIs

4 w QZLyr the idoSs OiAC
! ing, as she went to where the bunny
rabbit gentleman was sitting on the
porch of his hollow stump bungalow,
but 1 would like
mo trouble at all. do assure YOU"
said Uncle Wiggily quickly. I'll do
| anything you ask"
Better wait and hear what 1 am
going to ask" said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy.
as she tel her tail in double bow
knot so she would not step on it while
she was washing the dishes Il fear
you will not want to do me this
favor
Just name it and see If l won't"
| laughed the bunny.
well, then, I'd like you to go to
| the five and six cent store for me and
get a paper of needless" said Nurse
Jane L must mend some of your
socks and l can't do it without a
| needle. Now are you sorry you prom
ised before you know what 1 was go
ing to ask?''
Uncle Wiggily made funny face
and wrinkled up his pink, twinkling
nose SO that it looked like squeezed
rubber ball playing jack straws.
Never mind whether 1 like it or
not" he said. I'll go there for you.
Nurse Jane and then. brave rabbit
gentleman that he was, off started
Uncle Wiggily for the five and six cent
store TO get the needles Ior NuIoe
Jane. She could not go herself as she
had the bungalow work to do.
! But if there is one thing worse
than another that 1 do not like to do.
| it is to go to the five and six cent store
| where SO many little mousie girls wait
on you,'' thought Uncle Wiggily. They
| look at my tall silk hat, at my red
/ white AMI blue striped rheumatism
crutch, at my long ears and pink
| twinkling nose and then they giggle.
| L do not like giggling mousie girls,
| tho other girls are very nice.
| Still a promise is a promise. so 1
must go and get Nurse James needles.
1 guess I'll put on my glasses, so I'll
look old and dignified like, and then
maybe they won't giggle."
So Uncle Wiggily, trying to look
very sedate, and like a school teacher
| giving his class an examination in
| how to make the dishes keep from
sliding off the multiplication table,
! went to the five and six cent needle
store.
| And, surely enough, the mousie girl
| clerks did giggle, and the bunny gen
i tleman was SO flerkostrated that he
| asked for paper of pins at first, and
a newspaper secondly, and not until
a mousie girl cried "Ouch!" when
| kittie-cat girl made believe scratch
i her with her claws, did the rabbit
| gentleman think of what he wanted
| needles.
When the mousie cried "Ouchi' it
! reminded him OF some one sticking
! thorn in toy balloon, and that's how
! he remembered needles.
i His ears grew very red and his pink
nose twinkled very fast when he was
waiting for his change, but at last
| everything was all right and away he
! started with the needles.
My! But I'm glad to get out of
that!" thought the bunny uncle. IT'S
! a no IN he nnti rsF
Thru the woods and over the fields
he hoped, on his way back to the
hollow stump bungalow, and he had
| not gone very far before he heard a
voice crying:
"Oh, deari Such trouble as I'm in.
oh, will no one help me?''
'Ha! OF course, I'll help you" cried
Uncle Wiggily in his most jolly voice.
''In trouble, Ell? That's what like
to help folks out of iti''
With that he looked around and
| saw beautiful red butterfly caught
| in some sticky gum on a pine tree.
The poor butterfly was flittering
her wings, trying to get loose, but her
legs were caught in the sticky stuff
There you are" cried Uncle Wig
gily, as with one of the needles from
the paper he had bought in the five
and six cent store he loosed the but
terfly's. legs, without hurting her and
set her free.
vi, NOW hluu you are. Sne WIS
pered. Some day 1 hope I may help
you. Thank you'll" And she flew away
before the bunny could say it did not
matter, that the pleasure was all his,
or something like that.
Well, Uncle Wiggily went on and
on, and pretty soon he was almost at
his hollow stump bungalow, and he
! was wondering what Nurse Jane
/ would have for dinner-carrot short
cake maybe, or lettuce pie, or some
thing like that, and Uncle Wiggily
was wondering why it was that his
| socks wore into holes and where the
holes went, when Nurse Jane mended
| them, and all things like that. when,
all of sudden, as he put his hand in
his pocket, he cried:
"Oh, my, goodness me, sakes alive
and some horse radish ice cream!
I've lost the paper of needless"
He looked in all his pockets. and
even in his tall silk hat, but it was
or no use-the needles were gonei
Il must have dropped them by the
pine tree when I took one out to help
the poor butterfly" thought the bun
ny uncle. well, must go right back
and look. Nurse Jane wants those
needles very much.'
So back he hoped to the pine
tree, but the paper of needles was
not to be found. Perhaps q tailor
bird picked them up to use in sewing
ner nest.
ooh, this is too badl'' cried Uncle
Wiggily. 1T is quite too bad"
What is?' asked a voice, and il
was the pine tree speaking
'I have lost Nurse James paper of
needles" said the bunny uncle. 81
had them here when I was helping
poor butterfly. and now they're gone
1 just can't bear to go back to the
five and six cent store with the gig
Cling mousie girl clerks and yet
There is no need to-" said the pine
tree ct have more needles than /
can ever use. Take as many as you
like. l saw how kind you were to the
butterfly. who was caught in my
sticky gum, tho it was not my fault
Now will do a kindness to you"
Then the pine tree shook down a
lot of SHINE needlesf and when Uncle