Let me see, I think I promised to tell you a story about Uncle Wiggily and
the skyrocket, didn't I? Or was it to be about a firecracker, seeing that
it soon may be the Fourth of July? What's that--a firecracker--no? A
skyrocket? Oh, I'm all puzzled up about it, so I guess I'll make it a
sky-cracker, a sort of half-firecracker and half-skyrocket, and that will
do.

Well, after Uncle Wiggily had gotten the little yellow bird, that looked
like gold, out from the string-trap in the tree, the old gentleman rabbit
spent two nights visiting a second cousin of Grandfather Prickly
Porcupine, who lived in the woods. Then Uncle Wiggily got up one morning,
dressed himself very carefully, combed out his whiskers, and said:

"Well, I'm off again to seek my fortune."

"It's too bad you can't seem able to find it," said the second cousin to
Grandfather Prickly Porcupine, "but perhaps you will have good luck
to-day. Only you want to be very careful."

"Why?" asked the old gentleman rabbit.

"Well, because you know it will soon be the Fourth of July, and some boys
may tie a firecracker or a skyrocket to your tail," said the porcupine.

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Wiggily. "They will have a hard time doing that,
for my tail is so short that the boys would burn their fingers if they
tried to tie a firecracker to it."