"Ha! Who wants me?" suddenly exclaimed a voice a little later, and out came Uncle Wiggily himself.
"We do!" cried Jackie. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily!"
"We're going to work!" added Peetie, unable to keep still any longer.
"What! You don't mean to say you're going to leave school and go to work?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"No, we're not going to leave school," exclaimed Peetie. "We are going to work after school. Jackie is going to deliver newspapers."
"And I'm going to get ten cents a week for it," said Jackie proudly, but not too proud.
"And I'm going to help at the clothes wringer for the circus elephant," exclaimed Peetie.
"Help at the wringer for the elephant!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "What does that mean? You startle and puzzle me."
"Why, you know the circus elephant has to dress up like a clown," went on Peetie. "And he plays a drum and a handorgan, and he fires off a cannon in the sawdust ring. And he does a lot of things like that. After a while his white clown suit gets all dirty and he has to wash out his clothes. Then he has to squeeze them in a wringer to get as much of the water out as he can. Then he hangs them up to dry.
"Well, he can turn the wringer himself with his trunk, but his paws are so big that he can't put the clothes through between the rubber rollers. So he advertised for some little animal boy to help him after school. I answered, and I'm going to help him wash and dry his clothes."