“I really think I must be traveling on to-day,” said Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, one bright morning when he had gone out to the Bushtail barn to see if there were any slivers sticking in the rubber tires of his automobile. “I have been here quite a while now, boys, and I want to pay a visit to some of my other friends,” he added.
“Oh, please don’t think of going!” begged Johnnie Bushtail, the boy squirrel.
“Please, can’t you stay a little longer?” asked Billie, his brother. “Johnnie and I are going to make Jack-o’-lanterns to-night from the pumpkin you got us, and you may help if you like.”
“Oh, that will be fine,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I suppose I really must stay another night. But after that I shall have to be traveling along, for I have many more friends to visit, and only to-day I had a letter from Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, asking when I was coming to see him.”
“Well, never mind about that. Let’s get to work at making Jack-o’-lanterns now and not wait for to-night,” suggested Johnnie. “We’ll make three lanterns, one for Uncle Wiggily and one for each of us.”
So they sat down on benches out in the back yard, where the pumpkin seeds wouldn’t do any harm, and they began to make the lanterns. And this is how you do it. First you cut a little round hole in the top of the pumpkin—the part where the stem is, you know. And then you scoop out the soft inside where all the seeds are, and you can save the seeds to make more pumpkins grow next year, if you like.
Then, after you have the inside all scraped out clean, so that the shell is quite thin, you cut out holes for the two eyes and a nose and a mouth, and if you know how to do it you can cut make-believe teeth in the Jack-o’-lantern’s mouth. If you can’t do it yourselves, perhaps some of the big folks will help you.
So that’s how the squirrel boys and Uncle Wiggily made their Jack-o’-lanterns, and when they were all finished they put a lighted candle inside and say! My goodness! It looked just like a real person grinning at you, only, of course, it wasn’t.
“Won’t we have fun to-night!” exclaimed Johnnie as he finished his lantern.
“We certainly will!” said Billie, dancing a little jig.
“What are you going to do with your lantern, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Johnnie.
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered the old gentleman rabbit. “I may take it with me on my travels.”
Well, after the three lanterns were made, there was still plenty of time before it would be dark, so Uncle Wiggily and the boys made some more lanterns. And along came Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck children, and as they had no Jack-o’-lanterns of their own, Johnnie gave Lulu one and Billie gave Alice one, and Uncle Wiggily gave Jimmie one, and my! you should have seen how pleased those duck children were! It was worth going across the street just to look at their smiling faces.
Well, pretty soon, after a while, not so very long, it was supper time, and there was pumpkin pie and carrot sandwiches and lettuce salad, and things like that for Uncle Wiggily, and nut cake and nut candy and nut sandwiches for the squirrels.
Uncle Wiggily was folding up his napkin, and he was just getting out of his chair to go in the parlor, and read the paper with Mr. Bushytail, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock on the front door.
“My goodness! I wonder who that can be?” exclaimed Mrs. Bushytail.
“I’ll go see,” spoke her husband, and when he went to the door there was kind old Mrs. Hop Toad on the mat, wiping her feet.
“Oh, is Uncle Wiggily Longears here?” asked Mrs. Toad. “If he is, tell him to come back to the rabbit house at once, for Sammie Littletail is very sick, and they can’t get him to sleep, and the nurse thinks if he heard one of Uncle Wiggily’s stories he would shut his eyes and rest.”
“I’ll come right away,” said Uncle Wiggily, for he had gone to the front door, also, and had heard what Mrs. Hop Toad had said. “Wait until I get on my hat and coat and I’ll crank up my automobile and go see Sammie,” said the rabbit gentleman.
“I won’t wait,” said Mrs. Toad. “I’ll hop on ahead, and tell them you’re coming. Anyhow it gives me the toodle-oodles to ride in an auto.”
So she hopped on ahead, and Uncle Wiggily was soon ready to start off in his car. Just as he was going, Billie Bushytail cried out:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily, take a Jack-o’-lantern with you and maybe Sammie will like that.”
So the old gentleman rabbit took one of the pumpkin lanterns up on the seat with him, and away he went. And then, all at once, as he was going through a dark place in the woods in his auto, the wind suddenly blew out all his lanterns—all the oil lamps on the auto I mean, and right away after that a policeman dog cried out:
“Hey, there, Mr. Longears, you can’t go on in your auto without a light, you know. It’s against the law.”
“I know it is,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll light the lamps at once.” But when he tried to do it he found there was no more oil in them.
“Oh, what shall I do?” he cried. “I’m in a hurry to get to Sammie Littletail, who is sick, but I can’t go in the dark. Ah! I have it. The Jack-o’-lantern! I’ll light the candle in that, and keep on going. Will that be all right, Mr. Policeman?”
“Sure it will,” said the policeman dog, swinging his club, and wishing he was home in bed.
So Uncle Wiggily lighted the Jack-o’-lantern and it was real bright, and soon the old gentleman rabbit was speeding on again. And, all of a sudden out from the bushes jumped a burglar fox.
“Hold on there!” he cried to Uncle Wiggily. “I want all your money.” And just then he saw the big pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern, with its staring eyes and big mouth and sharp teeth, looking at him from the seat of the auto, and the fox was so scared, thinking it was a giant going to catch him, that he ran off in the woods howling, and he didn’t bother Uncle Wiggily a bit more that night.
Then the old gentleman rabbit drove his auto on toward Sammie’s house, and he was soon there and he told Sammie a funny story and gave him the Jack-o’-lantern, and the little rabbit boy was soon asleep, and in the morning he was all better.
