Imperial Valley Press

Bed-Time Stories
Copyright, 1923, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate
BY HOWARD R. GARIS
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FOX TRAP

Once upon a time the Fuzzy Fox sat in the doorway of his den, biting his toenails and looking cross.

"What is the matter, Mr. Fox?" asked the Woozie Wolf, who happened to be passing. "Why are you so cross? What is the matter?"

"Matter enough!" grumbled the Fox. "Here it is long past dinner time and I haven't nibbled an ear today—not an ear!"

"No more have I," said the Wolf.

"Yes, but if you hadn't bungled matters and made so many mistakes we'd have had Uncle Wiggily's ears by this time," went on the Fox. "You tried to catch him in your trap, Mr. Wolf, but he got away and now look at us—neither one with ears to nibble. Bah!"

Well, I'm as sorry about it as you are," said the Wolf. "But if you're so smart why don't you try to catch that rabbit?"

"I will!" barked the Fox, just like that—quick. "I will!"

"Hum! 'Tis easier said than done," growled the Wolf. "Uncle Wiggily is not so simple as he looks."

"All the same I shall catch him in a trap," snarled the Fox, "and just to show that I am not selfish I will let you nibble half an ear."

"You are very kind," murmured the Wolf. "I shall wait for the ear. Don't tease me, Mr. Fox."

Then the Wolf hid himself off in the woods and the Fox began to make plans for catching Uncle Wiggily in a trap.

"Let me see," said the Fox to himself, still biting his toenails hungrily. "I think I shall catch Uncle Wiggily in a molasses trap. They say you can catch more flies with molasses than you can with vinegar. And if you can catch flies with molasses why not rabbits? I'll do it."

The Fox sneaked off to the store and bought a jug of molasses. Then he spilled some outside of his den, making a long, sweet, sticky trail or line of molasses from the outside of his den up inside—the molasses leading to the deep, dark, dismal part of the cave where the Fox hid himself.

"Uncle Wiggily will come along, looking for adventures," said the Fox, as he hid himself in his den. "He will see the molasses outside and will follow it up inside, for he will think a barrel of molasses has burst and he'll want to get some for Nurse Jane.

Then when he follows the molasses trail into my den," whispered the Fox to himself, "I'll grab him, nibble his ears and show my friend the Wolf that I am smarter than he ever thought of being."

Surely enough, a little later, Uncle Wiggily started out from his hollow stump bungalow to look for an adventure. He had not hopped very far before, all of a sudden, the bunny rabbit heard on the ground a sad little voice saying:

"Oh, dear! How cold and hungry I am! I wish someone would warm and feed me."

"Who are you?" asked Uncle Wiggily.

"I am a little ant," was the answer. "I came out of my warm house underground, thinking spring had come, but alas! It hasn't! I am cold and hungry."

"I will put you in my pocket and warm you, little ant," said Uncle Wiggily, "and when I get to my hollow stump bungalow Nurse Jane shall feed you," and stooping down, he lifted up the cold and hungry ant.

Uncle Wiggily hopped on and soon he reached the den of the Fox. There the bunny rabbit saw the molasses spread on the ground.

"Oh, ho! Some good molasses!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "It is running out of that hole in the side of the hill. There must be a molasses spring I'll go in and get some.

"Wait!" cried the little ant in his pocket. "There may be danger. Let me crawl in first. I am so small I can easily hide from danger should there be any."

So Uncle Wiggily set the little ant, who was now warm, on the ground. The ant crawled along the molasses trail into the den and there the ant saw the Fox waiting, but the Fox did not see the ant. Out crawled the ant to the rabbit,

"Quick, Uncle Wiggily, run!" whispered the ant. "This is a molasses trap set by the Fox to catch you! Run!" And Uncle Wiggily, taking up the little ant, and putting the tiny creature in his pocket, hopped safely to the hollow stump bungalow.

"Thank you, little ant," said the rabbit. "You saved my ears.

But as for that Fox, oh, how angry he was when he found he hadn't caught the rabbit, even with the molasses. And if the cornstarch pudding doesn't get so stiff that it won't make a bow to the sugar bowl, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the Bob Cat's trap.