The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-19
Bedtime Stories
Uncle Wiggily and the Spoon.
BY HOWARD r. GARIs


| There came knock on the door of
the hollow stump bungalow where in
Woodland, underneath the shadow of
the Orange Mountains, Uncle Wiggily
Lengears lived with his muskrat lady
housekeeper. Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy.
Come ini'' called the bunny uncle.
"Oh, you shouldn't speak SO quick
~ said Nurse Jane, who was mend
ing hole in Uncle Wiggily's rheu-
natism crutch.
Why not?" asked the bunny gem
tleman.
lery-scalery alligator and
Nonesense" laughed Uncle Wig
slly. All those used-to-be- bad chaps
are friends of mine now. Come I'M"
ne ne called again, and in came Mr..
Sharpnose, the fox gentleman.
How d. dol" cried Uncle Wiggily,
jolly like Glad to see you!"
Ana I'm glad to see YOU" spoke
Mr.. Sharpnose. 81 came over to find
when you were going to give my boy,
freddy, his next lesson in polite table
manners
IN come right away" spoke Uncle
Wiggily.
Il think you'd better said the papa
fox. Because Teddy, at breakfast to-
day. used his spoon to eat pie with
Is that right %
Most decidedly not!" cried Uncle
Wiggily. "A fork for pie, but not for
soup, if you eat in the kitchen or on
the front stoop."
I'm glad to know that said Mr..
Sharpnose. So while he ran back to
his burrow, or underground house. to
say that Uncle Wiggily was coming.
the bunny gentleman, taking a spoon
from the cupboard to use in giving
Teddy his lesson, set out from the hol-
cow stump bungalow.
| Don't you think you ought to take
a knife or fork, also?" asked Nurse
Jane.
'Why?" Uncle Wiggily asked. st
gave Teddy his knife and fork lessons
| last week.
well, you might need a fork 20
tickle some of the foxes in the ribs, if
they try to bite you," spoke the musk
rat lady.
Observation-Disclosures" laughed the
| bunny. "A spoon is all 1 need to get
me out of troublei' And just you wait
and see how true it all happened, just
as I'll tell you.
Over the fields and thru the woods
went the bunny uncle with the spoon
Sharpnose, the little boy fox, his
| politeneSs talk. And when the bunny
reached the burrow he found many
other little fox boys and girls there,
all anxious to learn Teddy's lesson
also.
So Mr.. Longears taught them how
| to eat from the side of the spoon
nearest them, instead of turning it to
get at the end, and he told them they
must never polish their spoons with
their tongues.
And now we will have a lesson in
eating soup" went on the bunny.
You must make no noise taking it
! from your spoons, rememberi"
Mrs. Sharpnose set plates of cab
bage and lettuce soup before the foxes
and Uncle Wiggily. The bunny made
no noise at all taking his from the
side of his spoon, but some of the
| fox boys were not quite so lucky
| why, 1 can hear that soup as we'll
as see it," laughed Uncle Wiggily.
Then Teddy and the others did bet
ter. They We're so busy eating. listen
ing to Uncle Wiggily and learning the
polite way to use spoon, that none
of them thought of looking out of the
window of the underground house
| But just as the rabbit gentleman
when the soup was all gone, suddenly
called: "Present-spoonsi" Teddy
happened to glance up and he cried:
"Oh. dear."
Whats the matter?" asked Uncle
| Wiggily quickly. did you cut YOUR
self on your spoon, Teddy, as you used
| to on your knife?''
mo. But look at the snow," cried
the fox boy.
very hard outside. The white flakes
were sitting down from the sky and
the wind was blowing them into Ceep
drifts. The ground was covered more
than foot deep and the flakes were
still falling. 1t was like a blizzard.
"Oh. what fun Wen have sleigh
ridingi" cried Teddy. And just then
his mother came running Into the
dining room.
| "Oh!" she cried, something terrible
has happened! OH"
"What?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
What is it -
1.-The snow has drifted in front of
the front door and I can't get out, and
dinner when he comes from the egg
factory" said lady fox. "Oh, such 4
big drift is in front of the door"
"Ha, Trouble! We must see to this!'
ct the drift. When he came back to
the dining room he called to the fox
boys and girls:
"AlI ready, Shoulder spoons! For
ward, march, And with our spoons
we'll dig way thru the snowdrift so
Mr.. Sharpnose can get in"
Uncle Wiggily began shoveling away
the snow with his big tablespoon and
the fox boys and girls tossed the white
flakes aside with their dessert spoons
and soon the front door was cleared
so the papa fox could get in. And all
the while it showed Teddy and his
friends kept the front door clear of
snow with their spoons. Weren't they
clever?
And Mrs. Sharpnose was very glad
of the spoon lesson which the bunny
gentleman had given, and in the next
story, if the curtain cord doesn't tie
itself in a knot SO hard that the clock
can't wind itself up. I'll tell you about
Uncle Wiggily and the platter
/ downright, 1917, by Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.)
Awaiting herself of her ecclesiastical
| privileges the clergyman's wife asked
questions which. coming from anybody
| else, would have been thought i'm