JANE FUZZY-WUZZY GIVES A LESSON


Uncle Wiggily Longears was a very wise old rabbit. He had lived so long,
and had escaped so many dogs and hunters, year after year, that he knew
about all a rabbit can know. Of course, that may not be so very much,
but it was a good deal for Uncle Wiggily Longears. So the day after
Sammie came home from having fallen in the brook the old rabbit got
ready to give Sammie and Susie Littletail their swimming lesson.

"You will want to know how to get out of the water when you fall in," he
said. "You come with me, and I will show you. It is not very cold out,
and I will give you a short lesson."

"Be careful not to let them drown," cautioned Mamma Littletail.

"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily Longears, and he started from the
burrow, followed by the two bunny children. But, just as their uncle got
out of the front door he was seized with a sharp spasm of rheumatism.

"Oh! oh! oh, dear!" he cried three times, just like that.

"What is the matter?" asked Sammie.

"Rheumatism," answered Uncle Wiggily Longears, and he put his left front
paw on his left hind leg. "I have it very bad. I don't believe I would
dare go in the water with you children to-day. We will have to wait. Yet
I don't like to, as you ought to learn to swim. I wonder if you could
learn if I stood on the bank and told you what to do?"