"Run, Uncle Wiggily! Run!" cried the bluebell, and then she made such a jingling-jangling noise that all the birds in the woods awakened, and by the moonlight, they flew down at that alligator, and stuck him with their sharp bills, so that he was glad to crawl away, and he didn't forget to take his scalery tail with him, either.
"My, that was a narrow escape!" said the rabbit. "I am glad he didn't eat me."
"So am I," said the bluebell, "and I'll not go to sleep again, either, I promise you."
So the flower stayed wide awake the rest of the night, and the rabbit slept on the soft moss, and in the morning he awakened and ate his breakfast out of his valise, and then, saying good-by to the flower and thanking her, he set off once more to seek his fortune.
Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, looking in all the places he could think of for some gold, but he couldn't seem to find any. And then, just when he got on top of a little hill, and started down the other side he heard some one crying—no, I'm just a bit wrong, he heard three some ones crying—three separate and distinct cries.
"Oh, dear, I've got a sliver in my foot!" blubbered one voice.
"And I've stepped on a stone and there's a big bruise on my foot!" sniffled another voice.
"Oh! none of you is as badly off as I am," quivered a third voice, "for I've cut my two feet on a piece of glass! Oh, whatever shall we do?"
"My, I wonder who they can be?" thought the rabbit, for he could see no one as yet. "Maybe those are the little children of the burglar fox, and if they are, then the burglar fox must be somewhere around here, and I had better be careful of myself."
Well, the rabbit was about to turn, and run back down the hill, up which he had just come, when he saw something white fluttering like a piece of paper.