Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble

								

was just like the looking-glass some men shave by, and she thought: "Oh,
what a lovely bonnet I have! How fine I shall look when I go for a walk on
Sunday!"
And just then--really I'm not exaggerating a bit--If it didn't begin to
rain! Now, of course, rain couldn't hurt Alice any, for she was a duck
and was used to the water, but she knew it would spoil her new bonnet. So
she took it off and laid it under a big burdock plant leaf near the pond,
to keep the flowers and ribbons dry.
"I wish it would stop raining," said Alice, after a while. "I want to go
home," but the big drops kept on falling, and she had to remain near her
bonnet for fear something would happen to it.
Then, in a little while, oh, maybe half an hour or so, all at once as
quick as a wink, along came Mooleyooly, the big brown cow. Mooleyooly
walked up to the burdock leaf, under which was the new bonnet, and
Mooleyooly saw the pretty yellow flowers on it, and she saw the blue
flowers on it and she saw the red flowers on it. Then Mooleyooly said, as
she licked her lips with her red tongue:
"What have we here? It looks very nice."
"It is nice," answered Alice proudly, for she was glad to have some one,
even a cow, admire her bonnet.
"It looks just like the green meadow where I live," went on Mooleyooly,
"with buttercups, and daisies, and ragged sailor flowers and some red
poppies growing in it. Oh, very fine, indeed. Why, those flowers are
real!" exclaimed the cow, looking carefully at the new bonnet under the
big leaf.
"Of course," cried Alice, "certainly they are real."
"Better and better!" went on Mooleyooly. "Most delightful, I am sure!"
Then, oh, how sorry I feel that I have to tell it--then, if that brown cow
didn't start right in and eat up Alice's new bonnet!
Yes, sir, every single bit, down to a bunch of green grass that looked so
pretty on it. She ate it all up at one mouthful, before Alice could cry
out "stop" or "halt" or "cease" or any words like that. Well, of course,
Alice cried. Wouldn't you, boys and girls--I mean, of course, you
girls--have done the same? Well, I guess so!
Then, when the cow saw how sorry Alice felt, Mooleyooly felt badly, too,
and she cried great big tears until you would have thought it was raining
harder then ever. Then, being a good cow, Mooleyooly promised to get Alice
a new bonnet, which she did, made of the finest straw in the stable.
So Alice had a hat for Sunday after all, even if one was eaten up by
mistake. Well, pretty soon it stopped raining and Alice went home with the
bonnet the cow gave her, and Mamma Wibblewobble said it was even better
than the one she had bought. Now, wasn't that rather odd? I thought so,
myself.
To-morrow night if you do not sneeze, I hope to have the pleasure of
telling you how Jimmie Wibblewobble almost fell over the waterfall; but
don't let that alarm you the least bit, for he was saved in a most