as Uncle Wiggily finished his breakfast, and shook out from his long ears
the oatmeal crumbs that had fallen in them.

"Oh, I suppose I will have to be traveling on," answered the rabbit. "That
fortune of mine seems to be a long distance off. I've tried rainbows and
moon-beams and I didn't find any money at their ends. I guess I'll have to
look under the water next, but I'll wait until I get back home, and then
I'll have Jimmie Wibblewobble the duck boy put his head at the bottom of
the pond and see if there is any gold down there."

So off the old gentleman rabbit started, limping on his crutch, for his
rheumatism was troubling him again, and at his side swung his valise, with
some crackers and cheese and bread and butter and jam in it--plenty of
jam, too, let me tell you, for the red squirrel's mamma could make lovely
preserves, and this was carrot jam, with turnip frosting on it.

Well, Uncle Wiggily traveled on and on, over the hills and through the
deep woods, and pretty soon he came to a place where he saw a lot of
little black ants trying to carry to their nest a nice big piece of meat
that some one had dropped.

"My, how hard those ants are working," thought the rabbit. "But that meat
is too heavy for them. I'll have to help carry it."

Now the piece of meat was only as big as a quarter of a small cocoanut,
but, of course, that's too big for an ant to carry; or even for
forty-'leven ants, so Uncle Wiggily kindly lifted it for them, and put it
in their nest.

"Thank you very much," said the biggest ant. "If ever we can do you a