Up and up he went, with a roar and a swoop, and just then he saw a whole
lot of boys rushing out of the woods toward the white tent. And one boy
cried:

"Oh, fellows, look! A rabbit has hold of our sky-cracker and it's on fire
and has gone off and taken him with it! Oh the poor rabbit! Because when
the sky-cracker gets high enough in the air the firecracker part of it
will go off with a bang, and he'll be killed. Oh, how sorry I am. The hot
sun must have set fire to the powder string."

You see those boys had come out in the woods to have their Fourth of July,
where the noise wouldn't make any one's head ache.

Well, Uncle Wiggily went on, up and up, with the sky-cracker, and he felt
very much afraid for he had heard what the boys said.

"Oh, this is the end of me!" he cried, as he held fast to the sky-cracker.
"I'll never live to find my fortune now. When this thing explodes, I'll be
dashed to the ground and killed."

The sky-cracker was whizzing and roaring, and black smoke was pouring out
of one end, and Uncle Wiggily thought of all his friends whom he feared he
would never see again, when all of a sudden along came flying the buzzing
bumble bee, high in the air. He was much surprised to see Uncle Wiggily
skimming along on the tail of a sky-cracker.

"Oh, can't you save me?" cried the rabbit.

"Indeed I will, if I can," said the bee, "because you were so kind to me.