“Oh, dear, I wish it were night,” said Susie Littletail.
“So do I!” exclaimed Sammie, her brother. “Then it would be Halloween.”
“And both of us wish the same thing,” said Johnnie Bushytail, as he and his brother Billie went skipping about the room of their house.
“Oh, don’t wish so hard or night might come before I’m ready for it,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit. “I’ve got to decorate my car and get my mask, you know.”
“What kind are you going to have?” asked Susie.
“Oh, I think I’ll dress up like an elephant,” said Uncle Wiggily.
“But what will you do for a trunk?” asked Mrs. Bushytail, for, you see, Uncle Wiggily and Sammie and Susie had stayed at the squirrel’s house to have some fun. “What will you do for an elephant’s trunk?” asked Mrs. Bushytail.
“I will take a long stocking and stuff it full of soft cotton so it will look just like an elephant’s face,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Then I’ll go out with the children in my car and we’ll have a lot of fun.”
So all that day they got ready for the Halloween fun they were to have that night. Johnnie and Billie had their masks. Johnnie had a wolf’s face and Billie a bear’s, and they were too cute for anything. But, of course, Sammie and Susie Littletail and Uncle Wiggily had to have some masks too, and it took quite a while for the rabbit children to decide what they wanted.
“I think I’ll dress up like a witch,” said Sammie at last.
“And I’m going to be a cat,” said Susie.
“And if any dogs chase you, I’ll growl at them, and scare them away,” said Billie, who was going to be a make-believe bear.
“Yes, and I’ll tickle them with my stuffed-stocking elephant’s trunk,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Now, I must go out and put some gas in my car, and see that the frizzle-frazzle works all right, so we can go Halloween riding to-night.”
Finally the animal children were all ready, and they were waiting for it to get dark so they could go out. And, pretty soon, after supper, when the sun had gone to bed, it did get dark. Then the four animal children and Uncle Wiggily went out in the car.
Say, I just wish you could have seen them; really I do! and I’d show you a picture of them, only I’m not allowed to do that. And besides it was too dark to see pictures well, so perhaps it doesn’t much matter.
Oh, but they were the funny looking sights, though! Billy Bushytail acted like a real bear, growling as hard as ever he could, though, of course, he was polite about it, as it was only fun. And what a savage make-believe wolf Johnnie was!
And there was Susie, as cute a little cat. And as for Sammie, well, say, he was so much like a witch that when he looked in the glass he was frightened at himself; yes, really he was.
Uncle Wiggily was dressed up like an elephant, and he sat in the front of the car to steer it. Only his stuffed-stocking trunk got in the way of the steering wheel, so Uncle Wiggily had to put it behind him, over his left shoulder and have Susie hold it. I mean she held his stuffed-stocking trunk, not the steering wheel, you know.
“Here we go!” suddenly cried Uncle Wiggily, and his voice sounded far away because it had to go down inside the stuffed-stocking elephant trunk and come out again around in back of him. Then he twisted the tinkerum-tankerum, and away they went in the car.
All at once, from around a corner, came a big clown with red, white and blue all over his face. He had a rattlety-bang-banger thing and he was making a terrible racket on it.
“Oh, I know who that is!” cried Susie. “You’re Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck.”
“That’s right,” said the clown, making more noise than ever. “Whoop-de-doodle-do! Isn’t this fun!”
Along went the car and by this time there were a whole lot of animal children prancing and dancing around it. Uncle Wiggily had to make the car go real slowly so as not to hurt any of them, for they were all over the streets.
There was Buddy Pigg, dressed up like a camel, and there was Dickie Chip-Chip and his sister, and they were dressed up like sailors. Brighteyes Pigg had on a cow’s mask and Billie Goat was dressed up like a wizard, while Nannie, his sister, was supposed to be a lady with a sealskin coat on. Oh, I couldn’t tell you how all the different animal children were dressed, but I’ll just say that Bully, the frog, with his tall hat, was dressed like a football player and Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, made believe she was a fireman, and Munchie Trot was a pretend-policeman.
And such fun as they had! Uncle Wiggily steered the car here and there, and squeaked and squawked his tooter-teeter so no one would get hurt. There were about forty-‘leven tin horns being blown, and the wooden rattlety-bang-bangs were rattling all over and some one threw a whole lot of prettily colored paper in the air until it looked as if it were raining red, pink, green, purple, blue and yellow colored snow.
And then, all at once, out from the crowd, came a figure that looked like a bear. Oh, it was very real looking with long teeth, and shaggy fur, and that bear came right up to the car that Uncle Wiggily was steering.
“I’ve come to get you!” growled the bear, away down in his throat.
“Oh, he’s almost real!” exclaimed Susie, and she forgot that she was holding Uncle Wiggily’s stuffed-stocking trunk, and let go of it, so that it hung down in front of him.
“I am a real bear!” growled the shaggy creature.
“Oh, you can’t fool us,” said Johnnie Bushytail, with a laugh. “You’re Jacko or Jumpo Kinkytail dressed up like a bear, just as my brother Billie is. You can’t fool us.”
“But I am a real bear!” growled the shaggy creature again, “and I’m hungry so I’m going to bite Uncle Wiggily.”
And, would you ever believe it? he was a real bear who had come in from the woods. He made a grab for Uncle Wiggily, but the old gentleman rabbit leaned far back in his car seat, and the bear only got hold of the stuffed-stocking trunk. And then the bear pulled on that so hard that it came all apart and the cotton stuffing came out, and got up the bear’s nose and made him sneeze.
And then up came running Munchie Trot, the pony boy, who was dressed like a policeman, and with his club Munchie tickled the bear on his ear, and that shaggy creature was glad enough to run back to the woods, taking his little stubby tail with him, so he didn’t eat anybody.
“My, it’s a good thing, I didn’t have on a real elephant’s trunk,” said Uncle Wiggily, “or that bear would have bitten it off, for real trunks are fastened on tight.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Susie. So after everybody got over being scared at the real bear they had a lot of fun and Uncle Wiggily took all the children to a store and treated them to hot chocolate, and then he and Sammie and Susie and Billie and Johnnie went home in the car, and went to bed. And Uncle Wiggily had another adventure next day.
