STORY XXV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND GRANDPA GOOSEY
One day, not very long after the elephant had picked the cherries off the tree, so that Uncle Wiggily could make the cherry pies for Grandpa Goosey, the three friends were traveling along together through a deep, dark, dismal woods.
"Where are we going?" asked the elephant, who had run away from the circus man to travel by himself.
"Oh, to some place where we may find our fortune," said the old gentleman rabbit.
"I would much rather find some snails to eat," said Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old gentleman duck, as I shall call him for short. "For I am very hungry."
"What's that?" cried the rabbit. "Hungry after the nice pie I made for you?"
"Oh, that was some time ago. I could eat another pie right now," spoke the old duck. But there wasn't any pie for him, so he had to eat a cornmeal sandwich with watercress salad on, and Uncle Wiggily ate some carrots and cabbage, and the elephant ate a lot of grass from a field—oh! a terrible lot—about ten bushels, I guess.
Then, all at once, as they were walking along over a bridge, a man suddenly jumped out from behind a tree, and cried:
"Ah, ha! Now you won't get away from me, Mr. Elephant. This time I am surely going to take you back to the circus." And with that he threw a rope around the elephant's trunk, and led him away. The elephant cried so many tears that there was a muddy puddle right near the bridge, and the big animal begged to be allowed to stay with Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey Gander, but the man said it could not be done.