Uncle Wiggily looked, and he saw something like a big tree moving, and that was the giant. Then he felt the ground trembling as if a railroad train was rumbling past, and he heard a noise like thunder, and that was the giant walking and speaking:
“I smell rabbits! I smell rabbits!” cried the giant. “I must have them for supper!” Then he came on straight to where Uncle Wiggily was, but he hadn’t yet seen him.
“Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?” cried the bunny. “Let me hide behind that stone.” He made a jump for a rock, taking his valise and crutch with him, but the first red ant said:
“It is no good hiding there, Uncle Wiggily, for the giant can see you.”
“Oh, what shall I do?” he asked again, trembling with fear.
“I know!” cried the second little red ant. “Let’s all bring grains of sand, and cover Uncle Wiggily up, leaving just a little hole for his nose, so he can breathe. Then the giant won’t see him. It will be like down at the seashore, when they cover people on the beach up with the sand.”
“Oh, it will take many grains of sand to cover the rabbit,” said the first red ant, but still they were not discouraged. The first two ants called their brothers and sisters, and aunts, and uncles, and papas, and mammas, and cousins, and nephews, and forty-second granduncles. Soon there were twenty-two million four hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety-one ants, and a little baby ant, who counted as a half a one, and he carried baby grains of dirt.
Then each big ant took up a grain of sand, and then they all hurried up, and put them on Uncle Wiggily, who stretched out in the grass. Now all those ants together could carry lots of sand, you see, and soon the rabbit was completely buried from sight, all but the tip of his nose, so he could breathe, and when the giant came rumbling, stumbling by, he couldn’t see the bunny, and so he didn’t eat him. And, of course, the giant didn’t eat the ants, either for he didn’t like them.
“Hum! I thought I smelled a rabbit, but I guess I was mistaken,” said the giant, grumbling and growling, as he tramped around.
And that’s how Uncle Wiggily was saved, and pretty soon, if there isn’t any sand in my rice pudding, I’ll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the bad giant.
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BAD GIANT
Do you remember about the giant, of whom I told you a little while ago, and how he couldn’t find Uncle Wiggily, because the rabbit was covered with sand that the ants carried? Yes, I guess you do remember. Well, now I’m going to tell you what that giant did.
At first he was real surprised, because he couldn’t find the bunny-rabbit, and he tramped around, making the ground shake with his heavy steps, and growling in his rumbling voice until you would have thought that it was thundering.