“Ha, hum!” exclaimed the rabbit.  “Perhaps that may be a bear.  I had better look out for myself.”

He started to hop softly away, so the bear, or whatever it was, wouldn’t hear him, but he was too late.  In an instant out of the bushes popped something big and black and shaggy, and the rabbit, taking one look at it, saw that it was a big dog.

“New is the time for me to run!” cried Uncle Wiggily.  “That dog will eat me up, sure pop!”

Away hopped the old gentleman rabbit, his heart going “pitter-patter-pat,” he was so frightened.  On and on he ran down a path in the woods.

“Here, come back here!  Come back!” cried the dog.

“Indeed, I will not,” answered Uncle Wiggily.  “I know what you want to do.  You want to eat me.”

“No, I don’t, honestly!” cried the dog.  “But come back, for if you run any farther on that road you’ll fall into a lake and be drowned.”

“Humph!  I don’t believe that!” cried the rabbit.  “You are saying that to scare me,” and on he hopped faster than ever.

“Come back!  Come back!” cried the dog again, but Uncle Wiggily wouldn’t.  My! how fast he did hop, until, all of a sudden, as he returned around the corner of a stump, he saw a lake of water right in front of him.  And before he could stop himself he had fallen plump into it; crutch, satchel and all, and of course he couldn’t swim.  And he could hear the dog coming barking down the path after him.

“Oh, this is the end of me, sure pop!” thought poor Uncle Wiggily.  “I’ll never get any fortune now.”

“Oh, dear!” cried the dog.  “I told you how it would be.  I tried to save you from getting in the water,” and then the rabbit knew the big dog had been telling the truth.  But it was too late now.  Uncle Wiggily was going down under the deep, dark, cold water when, all of a sudden, along came the elephant with a great big ice cream cone for himself, and a little one for Uncle Wiggily.  He saw the rabbit in the water and he also saw the big shaggy dog.

“Did you push Uncle Wiggily in the water?” asked the elephant, “because if you did I’m going to throw you in.”

“No, indeed, I didn’t,” answered the dog.  “It was an accident,” and he told the elephant how it happened.  “But I’ll jump in, grab him and swim out with him,” said the dog.

“No, don’t do that, you might accidentally bite him,” spoke the elephant.  “I have a better plan.”  So he laid down the ice cream cones and then he put the end of his hollow trunk in the lake, and he began to suck up and drink the water, just as you suck lemonade up through a straw.

And presto chango! in a few seconds all the water was sucked out of the lake by the elephant, and it was dry land and the rabbit could walk safely to shore, and so he wasn’t drowned after all.  And how he did thank the elephant!  Uncle Wiggily ate his ice cream cone, and the elephant gave some of his to the dog, and they were all happy.