Imperial Valley Press

UNCLE WIGGILY'S THIRSTY LESSON

"Well, my dears," said Uncle Wiggily to Baby Bunty and some of his rabbit boys and girls as they came hopping home from the Hollow Stump School one day. "Did you know your lessons for the Lady Mouse Teacher?"

"I knew mine, Unkie Wig," answered Bunty, doing no more baby talk than just those two words, for she knew that was all she was allowed. "I said all my lessons."

"So did I!" called Buster, from where he was playing leap frog with his brothers, Bumble and Stumble. And just as Bumble was jumping over Stumble's back down Stumble fell in a lump and Bumble fell on top of him and Buster on top of them and there the three rabbit boys were in a heap.

"Ho! Ho!" laughed Jingle and Jangle, the two little rabbit twins. "Aren't they funny!"

Buster, Bumble and Stumble hopped up, laughing, and Buster said: "Oh, I'm so thirsty! I'm going to get a drink of water before I play any more."

"So am I!" said his brothers.

And seeing the boy rabbits drinking the cool water from the open spring near the hollow stump bungalow made Jingle, Jangle, Bunty and the other girls thirsty also.

Some people say rabbits should not drink water—that they get enough in the lettuce and cabbage they eat. But Uncle Wiggily liked a nice cool drink of water himself, and so did his children.

Seeing the little bunnies lapping up the water from the spring made Uncle Wiggily think of something he had long planned to do.

"I think, my dear," whispered Mr. Longears to his wife, who stood in the doorway looking at the splashing bunnies, "I think I shall give the children a thirsty lesson."

"What do you mean by a thirsty lesson?" asked Mrs. Longears. "It seems to me that when they have been in school all day, having reading, writing and arithmetic lessons that is enough."

"No, it isn't," said Mr. Longears. "There are lessons to be learned outside of school as well as inside. And rabbits, especially, who are in the woods and fields so much, must learn the lessons of out of doors. How to get a drink when you are thirsty is a very good lesson. I shall teach it to my little bunnies."

Without telling them what he was going to do, Uncle Wiggily called to Buster, Stumble, Jingle, Baby Bunty and all the others, saying: "Come, hop along with me, my dears! We shall have time to go to the woods before supper. And we may have an adventure."

"Oh, how jolly that will be!" cried Baby Bunty.

Uncle Wiggily hopped ahead, leading his children along the woodland paths, up hill and down dale, over the meadow and through the hay and clover fields. All the while Mr. Longears kept hopping faster and faster until, at last, Baby Bunty called: "Oh, Unkie Wig, please go slow!"

"Yes, Daddicums, please!" added Jingle. "I'm all out of breath!"

"And I'm so hot and thirsty!" sighed Jangle.

The boy rabbits were also, but they didn't want to say so. However, they were glad their sisters had spoken of it. And Buster said: "I smell water! There must be a spring around here! Can't we get a drink, Daddieums?"

"You may have a drink if you can find the spring," said Uncle Wiggily. "But where is it?" Uncle Wiggily himself knew very well where the spring was, but he wanted to teach his little rabbits to find it. For, if they were alone in the woods, without him, they would have to find water as best they could.

A thirsty rabbit has a good nose for smelling, and soon Buster and Jingle, by hopping around and sniffing, had found a spring of water. But, alas! The water was down between two rocks and the hole was so small, and the water was so far down that the rabbits couldn't reach it. They could see and smell the water, but it was as though it were on the bottom of a narrow neck bottle.

"Oh, I'm so thirsty! But I can't get a drink!" cried Bunty.

"Now here is where the second part of my thirsty lesson comes in," said Uncle Wiggily. "What is the next thing to do when you know where there is water but you can't reach it?"

"If I had a rubber tube or a bean blower or something like that I could put it down between the rocks and suck up water," said Buster.

"Hurray! That's the idea!" said Uncle Wiggily. "Well, here is a weed plant that has long, hollow stems, children, stick them down in the water hole and suck up enough so you will not be thirsty."

So the rabbits picked the hollow weed stems and soon each one was sucking up water just as you drink an ice cream soda through a straw.

They had learned their thirsty lesson and they never forgot it. And if the camel doesn't try to crowd both its humps in the elephant's trunk, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily's bluebird.