"You can stay here forever, and have carrot ice cream every day if you
like," the man said.
"Oh, thank you very much, but I think I'll travel on," replied Uncle
Wiggily. "I have still to seek my fortune."
"Why, _I_ will give you a fortune!" said the boy's papa. "I will give you
a thousand million dollars, and a penny besides."
"That would be a fine fortune," spoke the rabbit, "but I would much rather
find my own. It is no fun when you get a thing given to you. It is better
to earn it yourself, and then you think more of it."
"Yes, that is so," said the man. "Well, we will be sorry to see you go."
Uncle Wiggily started off the next day, once more to seek his fortune, and
the little boy felt so sad at seeing him go that he cried, and put his
arms around the old gentleman rabbit, and kissed him between the ears. And
Uncle Wiggily felt badly, too.
Well, the old gentleman rabbit traveled on and on for several days after
that, sleeping under hay stacks part of the time, or in empty hollow
stumps, and sometimes he dug a burrow for himself in the soft ground.
And one afternoon, just as the sun was getting ready to go to bed for the
night, Uncle Wiggily came to an open place in the woods where there was a
cave, made of a lot of little stones piled up together.
"My! I wonder who lives there?" thought the rabbit.
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