But on the next page, if the milk bottle doesn't roll down off the stoop and tickle the doormat, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the pumpkin pie.
STORY VIII
UNCLE WIGGILY'S JACK-O'-LANTERN
"I really think I must be traveling on to-day," said Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, one bright morning when he had gone out to the Bushtail barn to see if there were any slivers sticking in the rubber tires of his automobile. "I have been here quite a while now, boys, and I want to pay a visit to some of my other friends," he added.
"Oh, please don't think of going!" begged Johnnie Bushtail, the boy squirrel.
"Please, can't you stay a little longer?" asked Billie, his brother. "Johnnie and I are going to make Jack-o'-lanterns to-night from the pumpkin you got us, and you may help if you like."
"Oh, that will be fine," said Uncle Wiggily. "I suppose I really must stay another night. But after that I shall have to be traveling along, for I have many more friends to visit, and only to-day I had a letter from Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck boy, asking when I was coming to see him."
"Well, never mind about that. Let's get to work at making Jack-o'-lanterns now and not wait for to-night," suggested Johnnie. "We'll make three lanterns, one for Uncle Wiggily and one for each of us."
So they sat down on benches out in the back yard, where the pumpkin seeds wouldn't do any harm, and they began to make the lanterns. And this is how you do it. First you cut a little round hole in the top of the pumpkin—the part where the stem is, you know. And then you scoop out the soft inside where all the seeds are, and you can save the seeds to make more pumpkins grow next year, if you like.
Then, after you have the inside all scraped out clean, so that the shell is quite thin, you cut out holes for the two eyes and a nose and a mouth, and if you know how to do it you can cut make-believe teeth in the Jack-o'-lantern's mouth. If you can't do it yourselves, perhaps some of the big folks will help you.
