"Well, now we must get ready for the picnic--get the things to eat--for
that bug flies so fast that soon all my friends will be here," said the
rabbit, so he and the pussy began to get the lunch ready.

Uncle Wiggily had some food in his valise, but they got more good things
from a kind old monkey who lived in the woods. He used to work on a hand
organ, but when he got old he bought him a nest in the woods with the
pennies he had saved up, and he lived in peace and quietness, and played a
mouth organ on Sundays.

Well, you will hardly believe me, but it's true, no sooner had Uncle
Wiggily and the pussy put up the lunch, wrapping some for each visitor in
nice, green grape leaves, than the first ones of the picnic party began to
arrive. They were Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrows, for they
could fly through the air very quickly, and so they came on ahead.

"We got your invitation that the July bug left us, Uncle Wiggily, and we
came at once," said Dickie.

"Where are the others?" asked the old gentleman rabbit.

"They are coming," answered Nellie, as she tied her tail ribbon over
again, for the bow knot had become undone as she was flying through the
air.

Well, in a little while along came hopping, Sammie and Susie Littletail,
the rabbit children, and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel
brothers, and Bully and Bawly the frogs, and Dottie and Munchie Trot, the
ponies, and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck twins, and
Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg, and oh, all the boy and girl animals I have