“Here!  Hold on, if you please!” shouted Uncle Wiggily.  “I’ll have to make a boat, if you keep on shedding so many tears, for there will be a lake here.  Wait, I’ll look once more.”

So he looked again, and this time he saw just the little, tiniest, baby-tack you can imagine—­about the size of a pinhead—­sticking in the elephant’s foot.

“Wait!  I have it!  Was this it?” suddenly asked the rabbit, as he took hold of the tack in his paw and pulled it out.

“That’s it!” exclaimed the elephant, waving his trunk.  “It’s out!  Oh, how much better I feel.  Whoop-de-doodle-do!” and then he felt so fine that he began to dance.  Then, all of a sudden, he began to cry once more.

“Why, what in the world is the matter now?” asked Uncle Wiggily, wishing he had a pail, so that he might catch the elephant’s salty tears.

“Oh, I feel so happy that I can’t help crying, because my pain is gone!” exclaimed the big creature.  Then he cried about forty-’leven bushels of tears, and a milk bottle full besides, and there was a little pond around him, and Uncle Wiggily was in it up to his neck.

Then, all of a sudden, in came swimming the alligator, right toward the rabbit.

“Ah, now I’ll get you!” cried the skillery-scalery beast.

“No you won’t!” shouted the elephant, “Uncle Wiggily is my friend!” So he put his trunk down in the water, and sucked it all up, and then he squirted it over the trees.  That left the alligator on dry land, and then the elephant grabbed the alligator up in his strong trunk, and tossed him into the briar bushes, scalery-ailery tail and all, and the alligator crawled away after a while.

So that’s how Uncle Wiggily was saved from the alligator by the crying elephant, and the rabbit and elephant traveled on together for some days.  Now, as I see the sand man coming, I must stop.

But, in case I don’t fall into the washtub with my new suit on, and get it all colored sky-blue-pink, so I can’t go to the picnic, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the cherry tree.

STORY XXIV

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE CHERRY TREE

Uncle Wiggily Longears and the crying elephant were walking along together one day, talking about the weather, and wondering if it would rain, and all things like that.  Only the elephant wasn’t crying any more, for the rabbit had pulled the tack that was hurting him, out of the big beast’s foot, you remember.

“We’ll travel on together to find our fortune, and look for adventures,” said the elephant, as he capered about, and stood on his hind legs, because he felt so jolly.  “Won’t we have fun, Uncle Wiggily?”

“Well, we may,” spoke the old gentleman rabbit, “but I don’t see how we are going to carry along on our travels enough for us to eat.  Of course, I don’t need much, but you are such a big chap that you will have to have quite a lot, and my valise is small.”