Part 13 (1/2)
”I can't get the cork out,” said Nurse Jane. ”The cork is stuck in the bottle.”
”Let me try,” spoke the bunny uncle. But he could not get the cork out, either, and his pain was getting worse all the while.
Just then came a knock on the bungalow door, and a voice said:
”I am the cow with the crumpled horn. I just met Dr. Possum, and he told me Uncle Wiggily had the rheumatism. Is there anything I can do for him? I'd like to do him a favor as he did me one.”
”Yes, you can help me,” said the rabbit gentleman. ”Can you pull a tight cork out of a bottle?”
”Indeed I can!” mooed the cow. ”Just watch me!” She put her crooked, crumpled horn, which was just like a corkscrew, in the cork, and, with one twist, out it came from the bottle as easily as anything.
Then Nurse Jane could rub some medicine on Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism, which soon felt much better.
So you see Mother Goose's crumpled-horn cow can do other things besides tossing cat-worrying dogs. And if the fried egg doesn't go to sleep in the dish pan, so the knives and forks can't play tag there, I'll tell you next of Uncle Wiggily and Old Mother Hubbard.
CHAPTER XV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND OLD MOTHER HUBBARD
”Uncle Wiggily, have you anything special to do this morning?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper for the rabbit gentleman, as she saw him get up from the breakfast table in his hollow-stump bungalow.
”Anything special? Why, no, I guess not,” answered the bunny uncle.
”I was going out for a walk, and perhaps I may meet with an adventure on the way, or I may help some friends of Mother Goose, as I sometimes do.”
”You are always being kind to some one,” said Nurse Jane, ”and that is what I want you to do now. I have just made an orange cake, and----”
”An orange cake?” cried Uncle Wiggily, his pink nose twinkling. ”How nice! Where did you get the oranges?”
”Up on the Orange Mountains, to be sure,” answered the muskrat lady, with a laugh. ”I have made two orange cakes, to tell the exact truth, which I always do. There is one for us and I wanted to send one to Dr. Possum, who was so good to cure you of the rheumatism, when the cow with the crumpled horn pulled the hard cork out of the medicine bottle for us.”
”Send an orange cake to Dr. Possum? The very thing! Oh, fine!” cried the bunny uncle. ”I'll take it right over to him. Put it in a basket, so it will not take cold, Nurse Jane.”
The muskrat lady wrapped the orange cake in a clean napkin, and then put it in the basket for Uncle Wiggily to carry to Dr. Possum.
Off started the old rabbit gentleman, over the woods and through the fields--oh, excuse me just a minute. He did not go over the woods this time. He only did that when he had his airs.h.i.+p, which he was not using to-day, for fear of spilling the oranges out of the cake.
So he went over the fields and through the woods to Dr. Possum's office.
”Well, I wonder if I will have any adventure to-day?” thought the old rabbit gentleman, as he hopped along. ”I hope I do, for----”
And then he suddenly stopped thinking and listened, for he heard a dog barking, and a voice was sadly saying:
”Oh, dear! It's too bad, I know it is, but I can't help it. It's that way in the book, so you'll have to go hungry.”
Then the dog barked again and Uncle Wiggily said:
”More trouble for some one. I hope it isn't the bad dog who used to bother me. I wonder if I can help any one?”
He looked around, and, nearby, he saw a little wooden house on the top of a hill. The barking and talking was coming from that house.
”I'll go up and see what is the matter?” said the rabbit gentleman.