UNCLE WIGGILY SAW THE MONKEY DOODLE GENTLEMAN MAKING SALT WATER TAFFY AT THE SHORE. THE BUNNY TRIED IT, BUT NURSE JANE SAID: “NEVER MORE!”

Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane were going along the board walk at the seashore one day, when they saw a Monkey Doodle gentleman pulling molasses taffy. “Here, where are you going?” cried Nurse Jane, as she saw Uncle Wiggily hop toward the candy booth. “You can’t help him pull it!” Uncle Wiggily tried to get his coat tails away from the muskrat lady. “I just want to ask how he makes it,” he said.

As soon as he reached the summer cottage, where he and Nurse Jane were stopping, Uncle Wiggily put on the stove in a kettle, a lot of sugar, molasses, butter, cocoanut and all such things as go into taffy. “I’m going to have a taffy pull myself!” laughed Mr. Longears, as he invited many animal boys and girls. “There’s going to be a terrible time here soon,” sighed Nurse Jane, rocking to and fro. “Terrible!”

“Well, I guess the taffy has boiled long enough now,” said Uncle Wiggily after a while. The kitchen was filled with delicious smells. “Now be careful!” called Nurse Jane. Uncle Wiggily said he would, but in carrying the kettle over to the table, he spilled some on the floor. “Oh, we can pry this up and eat it when it gets cold!” cried Sammie and Susie the rabbits. Nurse Jane cried: “Look out!”

“Accidents will happen!” laughed Uncle Wiggily as he poured the taffy from the kettle into a buttered pan, and waited for it to cool. “A little on the floor doesn’t matter.” Then he took up the lump of partly-cooled candy, and started to hang it on the stove poker he had bent into a hook like the Monkey Doodle’s. But, all of a sudden, the bunny gentleman found his paws stuck fast in the sticky taffy.

Nurse Jane put butter on Uncle Wiggily’s paws, and at last he got the lump of taffy off, and placed it on the poker hook for pulling. “Now we’ll soon have real salt water taffy!” he told the animal children. “Hurray!” bleated Billie the goat. Nurse Jane stood ready with a pitcher of water and a long spoon filled with butter, in case the bunny got stuck again. Uncle Wiggily pulled out a long candy strand.

Everything seemed to be going nicely, but all of a sudden, as Uncle Wiggily tried to throw a loop of candy rope around the hook, to pull it out again, he slung it around Nurse Jane. “Oh, I’m caught in the sticky candy!” cried the muskrat lady. “Uncle Wiggily lassoed Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy just like in a Wild West show!” barked Jackie Bow Wow. “Dear me! I didn’t mean to do this!” cried the bunny.

For a time it seemed that they would have to send for Dr. Possum. But at last Uncle Wiggily and the animal children got Nurse Jane free from the sticky candy rope. “Now I’ll try to pull the taffy again,” said the bunny. He threw another loop of the sticky stuff at the poker hook, but it tangled around the horns of Billie Wagtail. “Baa-aa-aa! Maa-aa-aa!” bleated Billie. “Dear me!” said the bunny.

After some little time Nurse Jane managed to get Billie loose from the sticky candy. “You’d better give up trying to make taffy,” she told the bunny. “This time I’ll make it,” he said, as he slung a big lump of the sticky stuff at the hook. But the poker came loose from the wall, down fell the candy and Uncle Wiggily sat right down in it! “Help! Help!” cried the bunny, and they all rushed to help him get up.

By using a kettle of warm water Nurse Jane managed to get Uncle Wiggily loose from the candy on the floor. The animal children with shovels, hoes and croquet-mallets also helped. Uncle Wiggily washed and dressed himself in his best. “Where are you going?” asked Nurse Jane as he hopped out the door. “I’m going to buy some taffy,” answered Mr. Longears. “It’s easier than making it.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Page Changed from Changed to

Chapter Heading [omitted] UNCLE WIGGILY’S SILK HAT or A TALL SILK HAT MAY BE STYLISH AND ALSO USEFUL

Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.

Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.