Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit gentleman, was out walking in the snow-covered fields one day, when he met Sammie and Susie Littletail, the two rabbit children, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrel brothers. “Where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Susie. “Oh, just to look for an adventure,” replied Mr. Longears. “Don’t you want to come?” They started, Uncle Wiggily holding Susie’s paw, the boys throwing snowballs. “I’d like to see the bad Pipsisewah or Skeezicks now!” said Billie.
“Why do you want to see the Pipsisewah or Skeezicks, Billie?” asked Johnnie, the other squirrel boy. “Oh, so I could throw snowballs at ’em!” answered Billie, “and pay them back for trying to get Uncle Wiggily’s souse.” The bunny rabbit made some holes in the snow with his red, white and blue-striped rheumatism crutch, and then, all of a sudden, Susie cried: “Well, you have you wish, Billie Bushytail! Look, there’s the Skeezicks now, and the Pipsisewah and bad fox are with him! Oh! Oh! What shall we do?”
When Uncle Wiggily saw the bad Pipsisewah, the Skeezicks and the fuzzy fox, the rabbit gentleman said: “Come on! We must run as fast as we can to get away from these creatures!” And Uncle Wiggily ran, pulling Susie along by her paw. Johnnie and Billie scampered along. “Take your white handkerchief off that stick, Sammie!” called Billie to the rabbit boy. “Else they’ll think we have surrendered, and we haven’t—we’re going to fight ’em! Take down the white flag!”
“Run along, children, run along!” cried Uncle Wiggily. Sammie and Susie and Johnnie and Billie ran over the hard, cold water of a frozen brook. “What are you going to do, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Susie, when the little rabbit girl was safe on the other side of the brook. “I’m going to make a hole in the ice so the Pip, the Skee and the fox can’t cross and get us, I hope.” With his crutch he made a hole in the ice. But the Pip, Skee and fox had not given up the chase. On they came, faster and faster.
After Uncle Wiggily had chopped a hole in the ice with his crutch, he ran on with the animal children. But Susie, looking back, cried: “Oh, Uncle Wiggily! See what they’re doing!” And, surely enough, the bad chaps had pulled some boards off a fence, and, making a bridge of them, they crossed the hole in the ice and still kept on after Uncle Wiggily and the animal children. “We must have our souse to-day,” said the Pip; also the Skee, and the funny fox joined in the chorus.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily!” cried Susie, after she had run on a little farther, after the Pip, Skee and fox had crossed the ice on the fence boards. “Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I can’t go another step!” “I’ll carry you!” said the brave rabbit gentleman. “We won’t leave you behind, Susie, for the bad Pipsisewah!” Susie cuddled down in Uncle Wiggily’s warm, fur coat. Billie threw a snowball at the bad chaps. All of a sudden Sammie cried: “Oh, if we can reach the old snow fort we made last week, maybe we will be saved!”
Running fast, Uncle Wiggily and his little animal friends reached the old snow fort before the Pip, Skee and fox could catch them. But the bad chaps still came on. “Quick, now!” cried Uncle Wiggily, “we must get ready to snowball the bad chaps!” Susie made herself a little red cross from a piece of Johnnie’s red neckerchief, and Sammie gave his sister his white handkerchief to tear up into bandages in case any of them should be hurt in the battle soon to take place. “We want souse!” howled the Pip.
“Come on now!” cried the Pip to the Skee and fox. “We must charge on them in the fort! We must capture Uncle Wiggily!” The Skee and fox ran up the hill with the Pip. “Ouch! Wouch!” cried the Skee. “Some one hit me in the eye with a snowball!” Uncle Wiggily had made a lot of snowballs for the animal boys to throw at the enemy. “Bang away! Bang away!” cried brave Uncle Wiggily. “Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!” shouted the boys, while Red Cross Nurse Susie was all ready with rolls of bandages.
The boys throw so many hard snowballs over the wall of the fort at the Pip, Skee and fox, that the bad animals were glad enough to run away. “Oh, wow! Come on out of this!” howled the Pip to the Skee, and down the hill they ran. “Hoist the flag! We’ve won the fight!” cried Sammie. He made a banner from red and blue pieces of Billie’s and Johnnie’s neckerchiefs and pieces of white from his own handkerchief. A hole was in Uncle Wiggily’s hat, but Susie bandaged it up. The snow fort saved Uncle Wiggily.
