"To keep myself cool," said the locust. "I am fanning myself with my buzzy wings for it is going to be a very hot day."
"Then we must keep in the shade as we travel along," said the porcupine, and that is what he and the old gentleman rabbit did. And it is a good thing they did so, for, as they walked along where it was cool and dark, beneath clumps of ferns, and under big, tall trees, they passed by a place where a bad snake lived.
"Look out! There's the snake's hole!" cried Uncle Wiggily, and he jumped to one side.
"Ha! I'm ready for him!" called the porcupine, and he got some of his stickery quills ready to jab into the snake. But the snake was out on a big rock, sunning himself in the hot sun, though when he heard the rabbit and porcupine talking he made a jump for them and tried to catch them.
But you see they were in the cool shadows, and the snake's eyes were blinded by the sun, so he could not see very well, and thus the rabbit and his friend escaped.
"I tell you it is a good thing we heard the locust sing, and that we kept in the shade, or else we might have stepped right on that snake and he'd have bitten and killed us," said the porcupine, and Uncle Wiggily said that this was true.
Well, they kept on and on, and pretty soon they sat down in the shade of a mulberry tree and ate their lunch. Then they rested a bit, and in the afternoon they traveled on farther.
And, just as they were passing by a large, gray rock, that had nice, green moss on it, all of a sudden they heard something calling like this:
"Cheep! Cheep! Chip-cheep-cheep! Oh, cheep! Peep! Peep!"
"What's that?" asked Uncle Wiggily in a whisper.