“Oh, dear!” he cried. “This is quite too bad! In fact, it is terrible. What shall I do!”
He tried to get up, but he could not, and he did not want to take off his rubber coat, and so free himself, for fear he might catch cold without his coat.
“Oh, dear! I don’t know what to do!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Help! Help! Will no one help me to get loose?”
Then, through the woods he suddenly heard a rub-a-dub-dub drumming sound.
“Ha! I wonder if that can be my friend, the butcher?” thought the bunny uncle. But when he looked he saw a baker coming along, dressed in a spotless white apron and cap. The baker had a loaf of bread in his hand, and with a large spoon he was pushing himself along in his tub through the puddles of water, which had not yet solidly frozen over, though there were chunks of ice in them. And the baker was singing:
“Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub;
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker;
But I am the one with the hot baked potato.”
Then the baker, seeing Uncle Wiggily sitting on the log, called to the bunny uncle as he stopped his tub boat:
“Would you like to buy a loaf of bread?” asked the baker.