And it is a good thing Kittie Kat didn't roll the ball, for inside of it was a big rat, and he might have bitten the little pussy girl. Mind, I'm not saying for sure, but that might have happened.
"Now, this is the third day," spoke Uncle Wiggily when they got up one morning, after having slept in a hollow stump. "By nightfall we ought to come to the hill, and on the other side will be my fortune. Oh, how glad I am!"
So they kept on and on, stopping for dinner in a nice shady place, and toward evening they came to the hill.
"There it is!" cried the rabbit as he hurried up it. "Oh, I can hardly wait until I get to the other side."
Up he went, and up went the red monkey and up went Kittie Kat. And on the way the bad fuzzy fox sprang out from the bushes and tried to catch them, but Uncle Wiggily tickled him with his crutch and made him sneeze and fall down hill.
Then they came to the top of the hill. The sun was just setting in the clouds, and they were all colored golden and violet and purple, and oh, it was beautiful! Uncle Wiggily came to a stop. On one side was the red monkey and on the other the pussy girl. The rabbit rubbed his eyes. Then he took off his glasses and polished them on his handkerchief. Then he looked down the hill.
"Why--why!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "There must be some mistake. I don't see any gold or diamonds. And this place--why, it's the very place I started away from so many weeks ago! There is where I live--there is where Sammie and Susie Littletail live--that's the tree where Johnnie and Billie Bushytail live, and there is the pond where Alice and Lulu and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the ducks, live! This is home! There can't be a fortune here!"
Oh, how disappointed he felt. The sun sank lower behind the clouds and made them more golden and green and purple.
Then out from their homes ran the rabbit children and the squirrel brothers and the duck children, and Peetie, and Jackie Bow-Wow, and Bully the Frog, and his brother, and Dottie and Munchie Trot, and Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg--and all the others.
"Oh, here is Uncle Wiggily! Our Uncle Wiggily has come back!" they cried, leaping about in joy. "Oh, how glad we are to see you. Happy! Happy welcome! You are rich, Uncle Wiggily! Rich! Very rich!"