UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE FAIRY SPECTACLES
Sammie and Susie Littletail were playing out in front of their burrow. Their mamma had a headache, and had gone to lie down in a dark room, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had put a mustard leaf on the back of Mamma Littletail's neck, for that is sometimes good for a headache.
"What shall we do?" asked Susie.
"Oh, I don't know," replied her brother. "S'pose we play stump tag?"
"All right; you're 'it,' Sammie," called Susie.
So Sammie began to hop after Susie. You see, when you play stump tag you have to keep on a stump if you don't want to be tagged. It's lots of fun. Try it some day, if you can find a place where there are plenty of stumps. Well, after playing this for some time, the rabbit children got tired. Then they played other games, and they were making quite a noise, when Uncle Wiggily Longears came out.
"You children will have to make less racket," he said, real cross like. "Your mamma has a headache."
Then Sammie and Susie were quieter for a time, but soon they were almost as noisy as ever.
"Now you must run right away from here!" cried Uncle Wiggily, coming to the door of the underground house again, and he spoke still more crossly.
"What do you s'pose ails Uncle Wiggily?" asked Susie, as she and Sammie hopped away.
"I don't know," replied Sammie, "unless it's his rheumatism again."
"No, it can't be that. Don't you remember, the red fairy cured him?"
"Maybe it came back."
"Oh, no, fairies don't do things that way. I guess he must have indigestion. But I wish he wouldn't be so cross, especially when mamma has a headache and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy can't come out to play with us. Oh, dear! Isn't it too bad?"
"What's too bad?" asked a little voice, under a big clump of grass, and at that moment what should come walking out but a little pink fairy. Oh, she was the dearest little thing you ever saw! I just wish I could take you to see her, but it's not allowed. Some day, perhaps—but there, I must get on with the story. Well, the little pink fairy stood out in the sunlight, and she asked again: "What is the matter?"
"Oh," explained Susie, who, by this time, had gotten used to fairies of all kinds, "Mamma has a headache, and Uncle Wiggily is cross."
"Headache, eh? Uncle Wiggily cross. Perhaps his glasses do not fit him," suggested the fairy.
"Oh, I guess there's nothing the matter with his spectacles," answered Sammie. "I saw him reading a book with them."
"You never can tell," declared the pink fairy. "Suppose you call him out here, and we'll take a look at his glasses. Maybe he has the wrong kind."
"What about mamma's headache?" asked Susie.
"Oh! I'll stop that in a minute," replied the fairy kindly, so she waved her magic wand in the air three times. "Now your mamma's head is all better," she added.
And, sure enough, when Susie ran in the burrow to ask Uncle Wiggily to come out, if Mamma Littletail's head wasn't all well. Wasn't that just fine? Well, at first Uncle Wiggily didn't want to come out. He was still cross, but finally Susie begged him so hard that he did. He saw the little pink fairy, and he asked, real cross like: "Well, what do you want of me?"
"Aha!" exclaimed the pink fairy. "I see what the trouble is. It's your spectacles."
"They're all right," growled Uncle Wiggily.
"They are not," declared the fairy very decidedly. "Let me look at them," and before you could say "Pussy-cat Mole jumped over a coal," she frisked those glasses off. "Oh!" she cried, "look here, Sammie and Susie! What terribly gloomy spectacles!" Then she held them up, first in front of Sammie, and then in front of Susie. And when they looked through them the little rabbit children saw that everything was dark, and gloomy, and dreary, and even the sun seemed to be behind a cloud. Oh, it was as cold and unpleasant as it is just before a snowstorm. "No wonder you were cross!" cried the fairy. "But I will soon fix matters! Presto-chango! Ring around the rosey, sweet tobacco posey!" she cried, and then she rubbed first one pink finger on one glass, and then another pink finger on the other glass of the spectacles.
And a most wonderful thing happened, she smiled as she held the glasses up in front of Sammie and Susie, and as true as I'm telling you, if everything wasn't as bright and shining as a new tin dishpan. Oh, everything looked lovely! The flowers were gay, and the sun shone, and even the green grass was sort of pink, while the sky was rose-colored.
"There," said the fairy to Uncle Wiggily. "Try those."
So Uncle Wiggily Longears put on his glasses again, and he cried out:
"Why, goodness me! Oh, my suz-dud! Oh, turnips and carrots and a chocolate cake! Oh, my goodness me!"
"What's the matter?" asked Susie.
"Why, everything looks different," answered her uncle. "Oh, how much better I feel! Whoop-de-doodle-do!" and he began to dance a jiggity-jig. "Who would have thought my glasses were so dark and gloomy?" he went on. "I feel ever so much better, now. Come on, Sammie and Susie, and I'll buy you some cabbage ice cream. And you too, little pink fairy." You see, he had been looking through gloomy glasses all that while, and that was what made him cross.
"Oh, thank you, I only eat rose-leaf ice cream," the fairy said. "But I'm not hungry now. Good-luck to all of you, and may you be always happy!" Then she turned into a little bird and flew away singing, while Uncle Wiggily and the rabbit children went to the ice cream store. Now, unless I'm much mistaken, to-morrow night's story will be about Sammie and how he saved Billie Bushytail. But of course you never can tell what will happen.