One beautiful sunshiny day, when the wind was blowing through the tree-tops, making music like a church organ many miles away, Uncle Wiggily awakened in the little house which the red monkey had built for him in the deep woods.
"Well, I'm going to make another search for my fortune this morning," he said as he wiggled his whiskers to get the dried leaves out of them, for he had slept on a bed of leaves, you know.
"And I'll go with you," said the red monkey; "Because the last two or three times you went off by yourself you got into trouble."
"Trouble? I should say I did!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit.
"There was the time when you fell into the can of molasses, and the hippity-hop toad had to jump up and down with it on his back, until it was made into sticks of candy," said the red monkey.
"True enough," spoke Uncle Wiggily.
"And then there was the time when the skillery-scalery alligator chased you," went on the red monkey, "and the angle worms tied themselves into knots about his legs to stop him. Do you remember that?"
"Indeed I do," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And I will be very glad to have you come along with me and help me. We will start right after breakfast."
So the two friends built a little camp-fire in front of the wooden house in the woods and they cooked some oatmeal and some carrots and turnips, and Uncle Wiggily made a cherry pie with plenty of red juice in it. And the monkey found a bag of peanuts under a chestnut tree and he roasted them for his breakfast. Then they started off.
On and on they went through the woods, over the hills, up one side and down the other, around the corner, where a big gray rock rested on some green moss, and then, all of a sudden, there was a queer noise up in the air. It was like wings fluttering and a voice calling. And the voice said: