Well, Uncle Wiggily held fast, and the first thing he knew the can in which he was a prisoner gave a lurch and a swaying motion, and then it almost turned upside down, and then he knew it must be up on the back of the hippity-hop toad.
Then, my goodness! I wish you could have seen that toad hop. Up and down he went like the dasher in a churn, or like a steam pump. Up and down! Up and down, faster and faster! The molasses splashed all over and some got up Uncle Wiggily's nose and some in his eyes, and it was all he could do to hold on to the sides of the can. But somehow he managed it.
But pretty soon the molasses got thicker and thicker, and then it began to get harder and harder, and pretty soon it was turned into sticks of molasses candy. Then Uncle Wiggily took these candy sticks and made a ladder of them, and when the hippity-hop toad set down the can off his back the rabbit climbed up the inside of it on his candy ladder, went down his wooden ladder outside the can and he was safe.
Of course he had lots of spots of molasses on him, but the toad showed him where there was a brook of water in which he washed himself. Then he thanked the hippity-hop toad and went back to the monkey house, though still without his fortune.
Now in the next story, in case the mucilage bottle doesn't upset on the doormat and make the letterman stick fast to it so he can't whistle, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the angle worms.
STORY XXVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE WORMS
"Well, where in the world have you been?" asked the red monkey of Uncle Wiggily, as the old gentleman rabbit hopped along after he had gotten out of the molasses can.