And then, would you believe me, Uncle Wiggily heard seven voices, all calling at once:
"Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe!"
"Oh, now the whole family is after that lost child," said the rabbit. "I had better go for a policeman." And then he happened to look up, and he saw a whole lot of little birds sitting on a tree, and each one was calling:
"Phoebe!" just like that. Really I'm not fooling a bit; honestly.
"Oh my! How surprised I am!" cried the rabbit. "Was that you birds calling for the little lost girl?"
"It was," said the largest bird, "but there isn't any lost girl. You see we are Phoebe birds, and that is the way we always sing. We always say 'Phoebe—Phoebe' over and over again. We didn't mean to fool you. It's only our way of calling."
"Oh, that's all right," said the rabbit. "I don't mind. It was good exercise for me to run after you."
Well, those birds liked Uncle Wiggily so much that they sang their prettiest for him, and asked him to stay to dinner, which he did. And he had chocolate cake with candied carrots on top.
And that's all to this story, if you please, but in case a red bird brings me some green flower seeds to plant in my garden so I can grow some lollypops, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the milkman.