Читать книгу Uncle Wiggily and the Littletails - Howard R Garis - Страница 4

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When Uncle Wiggily Longears and Papa Littletail hurried from the underground house to rescue Sammie, Mamma Littletail was much frightened. She nearly fainted, and would have done so completely, only Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy brought her some parsnip juice which made her feel better.

“Oh, hurry and get my little boy out of that trap!” cried Mamma Littletail, when she could speak again. “Do you think he will be much hurt, Uncle Wiggily?”

“Oh, no; not much,” Mr. Longears said. “I was caught in a trap once when I was a young rabbit, and I got over it. Only I caught a dreadful cold, from being kept out in the rain all night. We will bring Sammie safely home to you.”

While Uncle Wiggily Longears and Papa Littletail were on their way to the rescue, poor Sammie, left all alone in the woods, with his left hind foot caught in a cruel trap, felt very lonely indeed.

“I’ll never take any more cabbage without looking all around it, to see if there is a trap near it,” he said to himself. “No indeed I will not,” and then he tried to pull himself out of the trap, but could not.

Pretty soon Sammie saw his father and his uncle coming over the snow toward him, and he felt much better.

“Now we must be very careful,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears, to Papa Littletail. “There may be more traps about.”

So Uncle Wiggily sat upon his hind legs, and Papa Littletail sat up on his hind legs, and they both made their noses twinkle like stars on a very frosty night. For that is the way rabbits smell, and these two were wise bunnies, who could smell a trap as far as you can smell perfumery. They could not, this time, smell any more traps with their noses, and they could not see any more traps with their pink eyes, so they hopped quite close to Sammie, who was held fast by his left hind leg in the trap into which he had stepped by accident.

“Does it hurt you very much?” asked his papa, and he put his front paws around his little rabbit boy, and gave him a good hug.

“Not very much, papa,” replied Sammie, bravely, “but I wish I was out.”

“We’ll soon have you out,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears. Then, with his strong hind feet he kicked away the snow and dried leaves from the trap. Sammie could now see how he had been fooled. The trap was so covered up that only the cabbage stump showed, so it is no wonder that Sammie stepped into the open jaws and was caught.

The two older rabbits tried to get Sammie out, but they could not, because the trap was too strong.

“What shall we do?” asked Papa Littletail, as he sat down and scratched his left ear, which he always did when he was worried about anything.

“The trap is fast to a piece of wood by a chain,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears. “We will have to gnaw through the wood, and then take Sammie, the trap, chain and all, to our home. Once there, we can call in Dr. Possum, and he can open the trap and get Sammie’s leg out.”

So the two big rabbits set to work to gnaw through the wood, to which the chain of the trap was fastened. Sammie Littletail tried not to cry from the pain, but some tears did come, and they froze on his face, close to his little pink nose, for the weather was quite cold.

“I should have given you a lesson about traps,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears; “then perhaps you would not have been caught. I will give you a lesson to-morrow, Sammie.”

Finally the wood was gnawed through, and Sammie, with his uncle on one side and his papa on the other, to help him, reached home. The trap was still on his leg, and he could not go very fast. In fact, the three of them had to go so slowly that a hunter and his dog ran after them. The rabbits managed, however, to jump down the hole of the underground house just in time, and the big hunting dog did not get them. He soon got tired of waiting, and went away. Then Dr. Possum was sent for, and with his strong tail he quickly opened the trap, and Sammie was free. But his leg hurt him very much, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy put him in a bed of soft leaves and gave him some sassafras and elderberry tea. Dr. Possum told Sammie he would have to stay in the burrow for a week, until his leg was better. Sammie did not want to, but his mother insisted on it.

To-morrow I will tell you an adventure that happened to Susie Littletail, when she went to the store for some cabbage. But please ask the loaf of bread not to go sliding on the butter plate. It might slip and crack its crust.