The fox growled, and said:
“A pick of peppered Peters did peckle pickle—— Oh, I can’t guess your old riddle!” snarled the fox. “I’m going to eat you anyhow! What do I care about the peckled pickers?” and he made a jump for Uncle Wiggily to grab the bunny uncle.
“Eat him? You going to eat Uncle Wiggily? Oh, no! No, you’re not!” cried Peter Piper, jumping out from behind the rock. “Mother Goose doesn’t want Uncle Wiggily hurt. Be off with you!”
And with that Peter threw a pickled pepper at the fox. It struck him on the nose, and made him sneeze and turn a somersault, and before he could get straightened out Uncle Wiggily and Peter Piper had run away to the duck house.
So Mrs. Wibblewobble got the pickled peppers; that is, all but the one Peter threw at the fox, and Uncle Wiggily at last learned how to say the hard riddle-verse without tying himself in a knot. And if you can recite it, fast, without wrinkling your nose, you are doing well.
And if the candlestick doesn’t try to beat the carpet, and get dust in the eyes of the potatoes when they dance in the frying pan, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the moon-man.
CHAPTER VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MOON-MAN
“Did you hear the news, Uncle Wiggily?” asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady housekeeper, as she sat down one evening in the dining-room of the hollow-stump bungalow, where the rabbit gentleman was eating his supper of lettuce salad, with carrot sauce sprinkled on.
“News! What news?” asked the bunny uncle, reaching for a slice of carrot bread. “Is some one going to have a surprise party and invite us to dance?”