"Of course not!" said the wolf, who was very proud of his jumping. "I'll jump anywhere you say, and then I'll jump down and get you."
"Very well," said Uncle Wiggily, slow and sad-like, "just jump on that round stone up there on the beach, will you?"
"I will," said the wolf, and he didn't know that what he thought was a stone was only the horseshoe crab waiting to stick him with his sharp tail.
So the bad wolf gave one big jump up into the air, and down on top of the horseshoe crab he came, and the crab just stuck up his sharp pointed tail, and it tickled that wolf in the ribs so very much that the wolf had to laugh whether he wanted to or not, and he laughed so hard that he had a conniption fit, and so he couldn't get the rabbit.
Then the horseshoe crab dug away the sand around the stone, and helped Uncle Wiggily get his leg out, and the rabbit was safe, and he thanked the crab, and hopped away and the wolf didn't get him after all.
So that's all to-night, if you please, but the next Bedtime Story will be about Uncle Wiggily and the pink shell--that is if the red lobster doesn't pinch the stove's legs and make it dance a hornpipe on top of the washtubs.
STORY XII
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE SHELL