Part 13 (1/2)

”I don't believe you could have changed him into anything at all,” said Uncle Wiggily, quite boldly. ”I don't even believe you are a fairy prince.”

”There it goes again!” cried the mud turtle, and he wept big tears that made a little puddle of water. ”Very few persons do believe in me. But I a.s.sure you I am a fairy prince,” he added, ”and, what's more, all I would have had to say to that boy was 'Oskaluluhinniumhaddy,' and he would have been turned into anything I liked. But I see you still do not believe me--that is, all but Alice. So I will just do a magic trick for you.

Return here in an hour, and in this very spot you shall find a round stone. Take a rock and break open the stone and you will see what happens.”

So the Wibblewobble children and Uncle Wiggily went away, wondering what was going to happen. They came back in an hour, and, sure enough, right where the mud turtle had been standing was a large, round stone.

”Wonderful!” cried Alice.

”Let's see what's inside,” suggested Jimmie.

So he and Uncle Wiggily took up a rock, and hit that stone once, and they hit it twice, and they hit it three times, and, at the third blow, if that stone didn't break open, and out stepped the mud turtle fairy prince! He was right inside that stone! Now, wasn't that a magic trick? I think so, anyhow.

”Oh, tell us how you did it!” begged Lulu.

”It was very simple, very simple,” said the turtle, as he flicked a bit of mud off his nose. ”You see, I just rolled myself up in some soft clay, and then made it round like a stone. Then I stayed in the sun until it was baked as hard as a rock, and then I rolled along here to wait for you.

Very simple, indeed. But, now, do you believe I am a fairy prince?” And they all declared they did, even Uncle Wiggily, and Alice said three times: ”We salute thee, fairy prince.” Oh, it was as good as a play!

Well, now, let's see about to-morrow night. How about a story of the rat who took the eggs? Do you think you would like that? Very well, then, you shall hear it, providing my golden slipper doesn't fall off.

STORY XIX

THE RATS WHO TOOK THE EGGS

Nothing had happened at the Wibblewobble house in several days, and Jimmie and Lulu and Alice were beginning to feel that it was about time they went off on another picnic, or else tried to find the fairy prince again. But, one day, just as Jimmie was looking for his baseball and his catching glove, his mamma came out of the pantry, where she had gone to get some dishes to set the table.

”Did any of you children take my eggs?” she asked, and she looked very severely at them.

”What? Are the eggs gone?” asked Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat.

”Yes,” said Mamma Wibblewobble, ”there were just thirteen eggs, and now there are only ten. Three have been taken, and I hope Lulu and Alice and Jimmie didn't touch them.”

”Oh, no indeed, mamma,” spoke Alice very quickly, as she finished tying a sky-blue-pink ribbon around her neck. ”I never touched them.”

”Neither did I,” added Lulu.

”Nor me,” said Jimmie. ”I don't like eggs anyhow.”

”I was saving them to hatch more little ducklings out of,” went on Mamma Wibblewobble, in sorrowful tones. ”Now I shall have to wait. Oh, it's such a disappointment to me!”

”Maybe they fell off the shelf,” suggested Jimmie.

”No,” replied his mother. ”If they had fallen from the shelf out of the basket, where I had them, the eggs would have broken, and made a mark on the floor,” and, of course, you know they would, for when an egg breaks on the floor it makes a splish and a splash and a big yellow and white spot that you can't help but see; now, doesn't it? So Mamma Wibblewobble knew the eggs couldn't have fallen.

”Well,” remarked Aunt Lettie, ”it's very strange. Perhaps they have been stolen. You should notify the police.”