STORY XX

UNCLE WIGGILY AND TOMMIE’S KITE

“Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do today?” asked Tommie Kat, the little kitten boy, one morning as he knocked on the door of the hollow stump bungalow, where Mr. Longears, the rabbit gentleman, lived.

“Anything special to do?  Why, no, I guess not,” answered the bunny uncle.  “I just have to go walking to look for an adventure to happen to me, and then—­”

“Didn’t you promise to go to the five and ten cent store for me, and buy me a pair of diamond earrings?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper.

“Oh, so I did!” cried Uncle Wiggily.  “I had forgotten about that.  But I’ll go.  What was it you wanted of me?” he asked Tommie Kat, who was making a fishpole of his tail by standing it straight up in the air.

“Oh, I wanted you to come and help me build a kite, and then come with me and fly it,” said the kitten boy.  “Could you do that, Uncle Wiggily?”

“Well, perhaps I could,” said the bunny uncle.  “I will first go to the store and get Nurse Jane’s diamond earrings.  Then, on the way back, I’ll stop and help you with your kite.  And after that is done I’ll go along and see if I can find an adventure.”

“That will be fun!” cried Tommie.  “I have everything all ready to make the kite—­paper, sticks, paste and string.  We’ll make a big one and fly it away up in the air.”

So off through the woods started Uncle Wiggily and Tommie to the five and ten cent store.  There they bought the diamond earrings for Nurse Jane, who wanted to wear them to a party Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the hen lady, was going to have next week.

“And now to make the kite!” cried Tommie, as he and Uncle Wiggily reached the house where the Kat family lived.

The bunny uncle and the little kitten boy cut out some red paper in the shape of a kite.  Then they pasted it on the crossed sticks, which were tied together with string.

“The kite is almost done,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he held it up.  “And can you tell me, Tommie, why your kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?”

“Can I tell you why my kite is like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?” repeated Tommie, like a man in a minstrel show.  “No, Uncle Wiggily, I can not.  Why is my kite like Buddy, the guinea pig boy?”

“Because,” laughed the old rabbit gentleman, “this kite has no tail and neither has Buddy.”

“Ha, ha!” exclaimed Tommie.  “That’s right!”

For guinea pigs have no tails, you know, though if you ask me why I can’t tell you.  Some kites do have tails, though, and others do not.

Anyhow, Tommie’s kite, without a tail, was soon finished, and then he and Uncle Wiggily went to a clear, open place in the fields, near the woods, to fly it.

There was a good wind blowing, and when Uncle Wiggily raised the kite up off the ground, Tommie ran, holding the string that was fast to the kite and up and up and up it went in the air.  Soon it was sailing quite near the clouds, almost like Uncle Wiggily’s airship, only, of course, no one rode on the kite.