In honor of apple picking season, our literary feature harkens back to childhood and the wonderful wit of a long-eared gentleman...

"An apple dumpling very hot
Is what these squirrels would like a lot,
And Uncle Wiggily with this dish
Is bringing true that special wish.
It tastes so good they just can't wait
They want to taste what's on the plate."

- Howard R. Garris from Uncle Wiggily and His Friends

The thought of harvest time and apples can be connected to literature in many ways. However, as I thought about apples my mind went quickly to one of my favorite childhood stories from a book by Howard R. Garis called Uncle Wiggily and His Friends. I hope you were as fortunate as I was to have a mother who read to me from some of the most wonderful children's literature. I am so thankful that she had a love of books and instilled that love in me from an early age. This particular book was full of stories about a long-eared rabbit gentleman, Uncle Wiggily, and the many "situations" in which he found himself. The story I remember best was called "Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling."

This story begins as the loveable Uncle Wiggily Longears and his live-in maid Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy are puttering around the house. She cooks and cleans for him, and on this particular day she sets about to make him a wonderful dessert. You guessed it... apple dumplings. Once the dumplings are done Uncle Wiggily discovers that Nurse Jane has made two, one for him and one for Grandfather Goosey Gander. So, Uncle Wiggily sets out to take the dumpling to Grandpa.



On his journey he happens upon a shabby home which has no glass in the windows and is in quite a state of disrepair. As Uncle Wiggily ponders this, he hears a voice from inside crying about being cold and hungry. He climbs out of his automobile and peers in the window to find a mother squirrel and her two children looking quite cold and hungry. Touched by their plight, he gives them the apple dumpling, (and they think he must be some kind of fairy.) Uncle Wiggily then proceeds to make a trip to the store to buy tools for repairing the squirrels' home and more food for them to eat. (And, in keeping with its childhood simplicity, he brought them so much "that they were never cold and hungry again.")

After this Uncle Wiggily returns home to Nurse Jane to retrieve the other apple dumpling. She wants to know what became of the other one and Uncle Wiggily tells her "never mind what happened to it." He says he'll take the second one to Grandpa Goosey, and he sets off to do so.

This story ends with one of my favorite things about the Uncle Wiggily stories, a witty teaser for the next story. This one reads, "And, if the loaf of bread doesn't get a toothache and jump out of the oven into the dishpan, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance." I don't know about you, but I'm on the edge of my seat!



Uncle Wiggily's author, Howard Roger Garis, was a native of Binghamton, New York. He was most famous for his Uncle Wiggily series and also for the Bobbsey Twins. He used his own name for the Uncle Wiggily series, but he was an extremely prolific ghostwriter using several pen names: Victor Appleton as author of the Tom Swift tales, Laura Lee Hope for twenty-five of The Bobbsey Twins books, Clarence Young for the Motor Boys series, Lester Chadwick for the Great Marvel series and Baseball Joe, Marion Davidson for several Camp Fire Girls books and there were others. Wikipedia states that, "By virtue of his accessible characters and engaging plots, Garis was the one of the most influential children's authors of his day." The Uncle Wiggily series, as well as some of his other writings, are still in print. Some are even available online:

Uncle Wiggily's Adventures at Project Gutenberg

Uncle Wiggily's Travels at Project Gutenberg

Uncle Wiggily in the Woods at Project Gutenberg