"
"Humph! I wonder if that means me?" thought the old gentleman rabbit.
"Let's see, gold grows under ground, in mines, and perhaps this is a gold
mine. I'm going down. I'm sure there is a fortune waiting for me. Yes,
I'll go down."
So he laid aside his valise and barber-pole crutch and got ready to go
down in the hole, which wasn't very big.
"But I can scratch it bigger if I need to," said Uncle Wiggily.
Well, he had no sooner gotten his front feet and part of his nose down the
hole, but his ears were still sticking out, when he heard a voice calling:
"Here! Where are you going?"
"Down this hole after gold," replied Uncle Wiggily.
"You mustn't go down there," went on the voice, and pulling out his nose
and looking about him, the old gentleman rabbit saw a white pussy cat
sitting on a stump. And the pussy cat was washing his face with his paws,
taking care not to let the claws stick out for fear of scratching his
eyes.
"Why can't I go down this hole, Pussy?" asked the rabbit. "Do you have
charge of it?"
"No, indeed," was the answer, "but there is a bad snake who lives down
there, and he puts up that sign so the animals will come down, and then he
eats them. That's the reason he says they are welcome. No, indeed, I
wouldn't want to see you go down there!"
"Ha! Hum! I wouldn't like to see myself!" spoke Uncle Wiggily, and he
crawled away from the hole just in time, for the snake stuck out his ugly
head and was about to bite the rabbit.
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