Get ebook downloads in full at ebookmeta.

com

Water and Public Policy in India: Politics,

Rights, and Governance 1st Edition Deepti Acharya

https://ebookmeta.com/product/water-and-public-policy-in-
india-politics-rights-and-governance-1st-edition-deepti-
acharya/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD NOW

Explore and download more ebook at https://ebookmeta.com

Water and Public Policy in India

This book explores the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Right to

Water and analyses its values in the context of water policy frameworks of
the union governments in India. It uses a qualitative approach and combines
critical hermeneutics with critical content analysis to introduce a new water
policy framework. The volume maps the complex argumentative narrations
which have emerged and evolved in the idea of Right to Water and traces
the various contours and the nature of water policy texts in independent
India. The book argues that the idea of Right to Water has emerged, evolved
and is being argued through theoretical arguments and is shaped with the
help of institutional arrangements developed at the international, regional
and national levels. Finally, the book underlines that India’s national water
policies drafted respectively in 1987, 2002 and 2012 are ideal but are not
embracing the values and elements of Right to Water.
The volume will be of critical importance to scholars and researchers of
public policy, environment, especially water policy, law, and South Asian
studies.

Deepti Acharya is a political scientist and a researcher. For the last 15 years,
she has been associated with the Department of Political Science, Faculty of
Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, as Senior Assis-
tant Professor of Political Studies. As a faculty and a guide, she is allied with
different faculties, institutions and departments, including All India Services
Training Center, The M.S. University of Baroda (2010–14), Faculty of Law,
Department of Architecture and Faculty of technology of the M.S. Univer-
sity of Baroda, Vadodara (2010–13) and Department of Political Science,
Parul University of Vadodara, India. She has presented several papers in the
international and national seminars and has dozens of research papers to
her credit.
Water and Public Policy in
India
Politics, Rights, and Governance

Deepti Acharya
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2022 Deepti Acharya
The right of Deepti Acharya to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-00548-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07829-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21173-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003211730
Typeset in Sabon
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
MAA and PAPA
Contents

List of figures viii

List of tables ix
Preface x

1 Introduction 1

2 The concept of Right to Water: Emergence and evolution 12

3 Indian understanding on Right to Water 50

4 Right to Water in India’s national water policies 84

5 Conclusion: Towards Right to Water in India 151

Bibilography 166
Appendix A: General Comment 15 195
Appendix B: India’s National Water Policy – 1987 211
Appendix C: India’s National Water Policy – 2002 219
Appendix D: India’s National Water Policy – 2012 231

Index 245
Figures

1.1 Conceptual approach 3

1.2 The flow of the discussion 4
2.1 Dividing understanding on right to water: At global level 18
2.2 Conceptual evolution of an idea can be called as Right to
Water: expansion and relation 28
2.3 What is Right to Water? (Derived through theoretical
argument and establishments evolved through process of
institutional framework) 32
3.1 Major contributors in the rise of the idea of Right to Water
in India 72
3.2 Process of identifying and endorsing the idea of Right to
Water in post-colonial independent India 73
4.1 Water policy analysis guiding framework in context of the
idea of Right to Water 85
Tables

2.1 Meaning and Flow of Right to Water 34

3.1 Understandings on Water Resources management and on
the Idea of Right to Water: British Colonial India and Post-
colonial Independent India 62
3.2 NGO Objectives and Major Aspects of Right to Water 68
4.1 Water for/to All: Available, Accessible and Acceptable 88
4.2 Children, Women, Disadvantaged Sections and Disabled as
Special Beneficiaries 93
4.3 Needs and Priority of Water Uses 95
4.4 Government (Union as Well as State) as Duty Bearers 100
4.5 Duty-Bearing Responsibilities Private Sector as Water Supplier 104
4.6 Duties of Citizens, Civil Society and Research
community (141) 106
4.7 Institutional Arrangements to Ensure Right to Water 110
4.8 National Objectives with Regional Preferences and Local
Concerns (Special Cases of Drought and Floods) 114
4.9 Mechanisms to Facilitate, Protect and Promote Right to
Water to All 119
4.10 Efficiency with Absence of Monopoly, Discrimination and
Exploitation 126
4.11 Measures to Ensure Accountability, Transparency, and
People’s Participation 132
4.12 Sustainability (for Future Use and Protection of Environment) 139
4.13 Monitoring Systems (Review and Assessment) 145
Preface

For those people who belong to “water-have areas”, a fact which provides
that in India the water availability has been reduced to 1,486 cubic metres
per person per year (as endorsed by the World Bank in 2019), can be merely
a figure. However, for the individuals, communities and regions that are fac-
ing the consequences of the loss of water, it is a question of existence. Since
the people who are water-poor are facing the problem of water shortage
throughout the year, for them, availability and accessibility of water became
a concern of the right. As I am a student of political and policy sciences, my
sensitivity, sensibilities and concerns about such questions of existence are
natural. This is because I am one of the victims who have experienced the
meaning of no or limited water. As a resident of Rajasthan (Jaipur, Urban
area), I had felt and lived with such burning questions of survival. I am
mentioning the late 1980s and 1990s when annual per capita water avail-
ability in India was around 2,849 cubic meters per person, as the World
Bank has reported.
In those years, for families like us and others, a question of survival that
could hold a promise of development and growth was a fake argument.
The only meaning of development was to get a constant water supply from
the nearest place. This was socialised and engendered so deeply that as a
child, my belief about life and duty became limited to fetching and col-
lecting water for daily uses. I still remember that in the “water-have-not”
communities, the ability of a man or woman was pronounced based on
his/her competence to fetch water. In my area, the strongest person of the
family had a responsibility to fetch water for the entire family, and that too
from a distant place. Considerably, this was the most common scenario.
Spending three to four hours every day and climbing more than 50 stairs,
just to get water, was not a surprise. This was so much of a part of our
lives that for us, like many others, it was not a struggle. The principle of
equality was relatively working here. Rich or upper-middle-class families
were having just a few benefits. For instance, they could buy water from
the “Water Tank Owner” or could have servants who could fetch water
for them. Otherwise, the level of water tension was the same. To me, like
others, the ownership status of these “Owners”, over water, was a matter of
surprise. An unanswered question was that if the entire region was suffering
 Preface xi
from water stress, then from where were these “Owners” getting water, and
that too for selling? Many times, the purchase of water at a high price, from
these Owners, had disturbed our monthly budget, due to which we had to
compromise on many things, including social visits. On contemplation, I
can recollect that at the cost of water, my family had missed many impor-
tant social gatherings.
Social visits and gatherings were not social, in the full sense. Due to the
uncertainties associated with the water supply, the water fetchers of the
family could hardly get a chance to visit relatives or attend social gather-
ings. They were bound to remain at home to fetch water. These water fetch-
ers, who were the heroes for the family, were hardly popular among the
neighbours. This was because, in the water queues, they were harsh to them.
The uncertain condition of the water supply had left no room for mercy.
In my colony, a senior citizen whom we used to call “dadi” had to manage
with two buckets of water. Since she was living alone, there was nobody
who could fetch water for her, and none of us was in a position to help her.
About those who had physical difficulties, I have no words to write. Their
pain and suffering are justifiably beyond any expression.
Now, when I think about those days, I feel that for all of us, the question
of availability, accessibility and affordability of water had created peculiar
problems that had curtailed the right of surviving with happiness. For peo-
ple like us, the unavailability of water had created a situation where the
problem of no or limited water was not only a struggle to get water, but it
had led to new social problems, where finding a partner for marriage was
a never-ending struggle. A girl, who had played the role of “water fetcher
or water accumulator” in her parental house, would hardly agree to get
married to a boy who resides in the same situation. The fear was common
because nobody wanted to spend his/her entire life fetching water. The cri-
teria to get married was not a choice or love, but rather the availability of
water. One of my friends got married to a middle-aged man just because he
had his own house, with an ample water supply. Yes, the scenario is unim-
aginable at so many levels, but so it is. The problem was so grave that it had
killed the spirit and desire to think and work for better earning. My father,
like his friends, was more worried about fetching and collecting water than
about his enhancement and development – personal and professional. The
majority of the young boys and girls of my area who were “Bhaiyas and
didis” to me, were the water heroes, and hence they had no time to study
or train for a job. The shortage of water has made the whole generation so
busy that they had no time to think about their future. There was no pain,
no voice, just a loud silence. The story that weaves in common across every
section of the society was that of a much-awaited noise of slow-flowing
water and a rough, hard voice of feet.
A couple of years ago, as an Assistant Professor and an employee of The
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, I started thinking whether the
story had changed. I was curious to know if the Indian government/state
xii Preface
government(s) had made any efforts to change the scenario. Since India is
federal with a Union of states, my expectations were more from the Union
government, and hence, I was keen if any of the national water policy had
acknowledged water as a right and had entitled those people bereft of water
with categorisation as “water-have-nots”. My curiosity was at an all-time
high because, in 2015, the United Nations – with 195 nations – had replaced
the Millennium Development Goals with the Sustainable Development
Goals (17 goals). The new goals were formulated with a belief that differ-
ent nations with the United Nations can change the world for the better.
Significantly, for this, the idea of sustainable development has emphasised
ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation
for all (at present, Goal 6) and has endorsed this as a right. The United
Nations, along with other nations, has to achieve these goals by 2030. Since
India is one of the signatories of the promise, for me it was interesting to
investigate how Indian governments will keep the promise, especially when
per-person average water availability is reduced and is reducing constantly.
This book is an outcome of these curiosities and interests, which, instead
of underlining the problem of water scarcity and stress, argues for water
justice. My basic concern and interest, about the right to water, has made
this book multifold. This is because, to work on the line of these interests,
this book investigates multiple subjects. The book intends to investigate
the theoretical understandings and implications of the Right to Water and
explore the status of the Right to Water in India, particularly concerning
constitutional provisions, legal frameworks and judicial interpretations.
The book further examines the water governance framework concerning
the Right to Water from 1947 to 1987 and studies the three national water
policies, drafted respectively in 1989, 2002 and 2012. The core aim of the
analysis of these policies is to explore if the three policies embrace the idea
of the Right to Water.
The book explores the idea of the Right to Water, in the larger context; its
significance is not limited to India, but it is global. The strength of the book
lies specifically in three areas i.e., in the discourse of right to water, water
discourses in India and perception on Right to Water and lastly to water
policy frameworks. A normative and empirical commitment of this book
has expanded its significance that focuses on the idea of Right to Water
and argues to ensure it through national water policies as the part of the
execution of water justice. The focus of this book is extremely relevant for
water governance, as it conceptualises the idea of the Right to Water in the
context of the policy framework.
This book is intended for students and scholars in the interdisciplinary
subjects of political philosophy, public policy and environment as well as
readers with an interest in water policies in India and the region. It will be of
interest to policy makers, policy planners, bureaucrats, non-governmental
organizations working on water-related issues and the scholars interested
 Preface xiii
in water-related jurisdictions, and so it should find a place in their personal
and institutional libraries.
A word of thanks is due to all those people whose support knowledge
and input form an essential part of the present book. I am grateful to the
author of the books and research articles on water and water policies. I owe
an enormous debt of gratitude to Professor Amit Dholakia, Department of
Political Science, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, who has
remained a great source of support, advice and knowledge. I also acknowl-
edge the Hansa Mehta Library and Nehru Memorial Library for providing
access to a wide body of literature.
I would like to thank Routledge management for placing this research in
academia. It was the personal care and interest of Mr. Aakash Chakrabarty
and his able and efficient team, who ensured the publication of the book.
This book is dedicated to those generations whose voices have flowed
with the water and have not reached the top level. I dedicate this work to
Maa and Papa, who with all difficulties of our lives have remained a pillar
of strength for me. They are the real source of inspiration throughout the
academic career that has led this book here in the first place.
Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Uncle
Wiggily and Baby Bunty
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Uncle Wiggily and Baby Bunty

Author: Howard Roger Garis

Illustrator: Louis Wisa

Release date: May 11, 2024 [eBook #73603]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1920

Credits: Richard Tonsing, David Edwards, and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCLE WIGGILY

AND BABY BUNTY ***
Transcriber’s Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is
granted to the public domain.
 Uncle Wiggily

[TRADE MARK REGISTERED]

AND

BABY BUNTY

by
HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of “UNCLE WIGGILY BEDTIME STORIES”, “UNCLE
WIGGILY’S PICTURE BOOK”, “UNCLE WIGGILY’S STORY BOOK”,
Etc.

Illustrated by
LOUIS WISA

A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
 UNCLE WIGGILY BOOKS
(TRADE MARK REGISTERED)

by

HOWARD R. GARIS

BEDTIME STORIES
UNCLE WIGGILY and CHARLIE and ARABELLA CHICK
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE RINGTAILS
UNCLE WIGGILY ON SUGAR ISLAND
UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE COUNTRY
UNCLE WIGGILY’S PUZZLE BOOK
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
UNCLE WIGGILY’S ADVENTURES
UNCLE WIGGILY’S AUTOMOBILE
UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM
UNCLE WIGGILY’S BUNGALOW
UNCLE WIGGILY’S FORTUNE
UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRAVELS
UNCLE WIGGILY’S AIRSHIP

Larger Uncle Wiggily Volumes

UNCLE WIGGILY’S PICTURE BOOK

33 full colored illustrations and 32 in black and white

 UNCLE WIGGILY’S STORY BOOK

16 full colored illustrations and 29 in black and white

Copyright 1920 by
R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY

Printed in the United States of America

 STORY I
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BABY BUNTY

“Ouch! Oh, dear! My! My!”

That was what Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy heard one day in the
hollow stump bungalow. She was just getting breakfast for Uncle
Wiggily Longears, the bunny gentleman.
“My goodness me sakes alive and a basket of potato chips!” cried
Nurse Jane, accidentally dropping a stewed carrot into the turnip
marmalade. “I hope the Skeezicks, or the Pipsisewah or the
Skuddlemagoon hasn’t caught Mr. Longears!”
She looked in the dining room. The uncle bunny had just come
downstairs to his breakfast.
“Ouch! Oh, me! Oh, my!” groaned Uncle Wiggily as he sat down in
his chair, which was gnawed out of a grape vine root.
“Why, no one is biting him,” said Nurse Jane, as she looked all
around. “Whatever in the world is the matter, Wiggy?” she asked,
bringing in his breakfast turnip.
“Oh, I’m getting old, I guess,” he answered. “My joints are stiff,
and it isn’t all rheumatism, either. I can’t move around as spry as I’d
like to. Every time I bend over, or stoop, or try to hurry I get aches
and pains and——”
“Oh, nonsense!” laughed Nurse Jane. “You only imagine it. You’re
as young as ever! What you need is some one lively around the
house. Some one to chase you, to tag you and make you spry. I can’t
do it, because I have the housework to look after. But if you could get
some bright, frisky, lively little chap—why, you’d be a different
rabbit.”
 “I s’pose I would,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Do you mean to get
Johnnie or Billie Bushytail, one of the squirrel boys? They’re lively
enough.”
“Yes, they’re lively enough,” said Nurse Jane, “but they have to
frisk around their own home nest. You want some one to stay here
with you a long time.”
“All right,” said Uncle Wiggily, sad like and not very hopeful.
“After breakfast I’ll go to the five and six cent store and see if I can
get a lively little chap to cheer me up.”
“You won’t find any at the five and six, nor even at the ten and
eleven cent store,” said Nurse Jane. “True, the little mousie girl
clerks are lively enough, but they have to work. You need a—well, a
sort of companion. I’m getting too old for you.”
“Nonsense!” scoffed Uncle Wiggily.
But, as he hopped over the fields and through the woods after
breakfast the more he thought of what Nurse Jane had said the more
he knew she was right.
“I need some one lively to make me jump around,” thought the
bunny. “If only I could get a——”
Just then he heard a little voice calling:
“Let me out! Let me out.”
“Ha! Where does that voice come from?” asked the bunny. “Where
are you, whoever you are?”
“In this hollow stump, right behind you!” answered the voice. “Oh,
I hate being cooped up here! I want to get out and jump around and
chase my shadow and jump over moonbeams and all things like
that.”
“Are you—are you a fairy?” asked Uncle Wiggily sort of hopeful
like. “If I help you out of the hollow stump, could you make me feel
younger and more lively?”
“Of course I could; but I’m not a fairy,” was the answer, given with
a jolly laugh.
“You must be a fairy or else you couldn’t take away my old-age
aches and pains,” said the bunny. “Well, as long as you aren’t the
skillery-scalery alligator, or the Pipsisewah, I’ll let you out. But how
did you get in?”
 “Let me out and I’ll tell you,” said the voice.
The hollow stump was partly filled with old dried leaves, broken
sticks and bits of bark. Uncle Wiggily scraped all this away with his
paws, and out popped the dearest little girl rabbit you ever saw.
“Oh, who are you?” asked Uncle Wiggily in surprise.
“I am Baby Bunty,” was the answer. “I was going through the
woods with my papa and mamma a while ago, but a bad fox caught
them, and I was left all alone. So I hid in the hollow stump, the birds
piled leaves and bits of bark over me to cover me, but when it rained
it was packed down so hard that I couldn’t get out. So I had to cry for
help.”
“Well, I’m glad I helped you,” said the bunny. “But how are you
going to make me feel young again——”
“Tag! You’re it!” suddenly cried Baby Bunty, tapping Uncle Wiggily
with her paw. “Now you have to chase me!” and away she hopped
through the woods.
“My goodness! If she goes along like that, all alone, the fox will
catch her!” said Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll have to run after her! But my
aches—my pains—oh dear!”
Away hopped the rabbit gentleman, after Baby Bunty. She ran fast
and so did Uncle Wiggily, and when they reached his hollow stump
bungalow he was so warm and excited and so anxious about Baby
Bunty—why, he wasn’t lame or stiff a bit! Can you imagine?
“I told you so!” laughed Nurse Jane, when she saw the baby rabbit,
which Mr. Longears said he would keep in his bungalow. “Now that
you have some one young around you’ll get younger yourself.”
And Mr. Longears did. And if the top of the house doesn’t go down
cellar to see why the laundry tubs can’t wash the coal white, I’ll tell
you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s skates.
 STORY II
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S SKATES

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the bunny rabbit gentleman, was asleep

in his hollow stump bungalow one morning, when he heard, as if in a
dream, Nurse Jane Fuzzy ring the breakfast bell.
“Oh! Um! Ah! I don’t hardly believe I’ll get up this morning!” said
Uncle Wiggily, sort of stretchy like. “You may keep breakfast for me,
Nurse Jane.”
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! You must get up! You must get up! You must
get up! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, you must get up! You must get up today!
Right away!” sang a jolly little voice.
Uncle Wiggily gave a sudden start. All his aches and pains seemed
to go away at once, and he felt as spry as a new grasshopper.
“Hello! Who’s down there?” he called from the top of the stairs, for
the voice seemed to come from the dining room, down below. “Who
wants me to get up?”
“It’s Baby Bunty!” said Nurse Jane. “Have you forgotten that you
brought her home from a hollow stump yesterday, and that she’s
going to live here?”
“Oh, I did forget!” cried Uncle Wiggily. “Is she still here?”
“Well, you’d better come down here and look after her while I get
breakfast!” said Nurse Jane. “I never saw such a lively little rabbit
before! She nearly jumped over the milk bottle while I had my back
turned!”
Uncle Wiggily smiled until his pink nose twinkled on both sides at
once.
“So Baby Bunty is lively, is she?” said the bunny gentleman. “Well,
that’s just what I need to keep me from getting old and stiff.”
 “Hurry, Uncle Wiggily! Hurry!” called Baby Bunty.
“What’s the hurry?” asked Mr. Longears, as he smoothed out his
fur with a pine tree cone for a brush.
“Why, this is the first of May!” went on the little rabbit girl, who
was going to live with Uncle Wiggily. “It’s the first of May and we’re
going out and gather flowers today, tra-la!”
“Who’s going?” asked Uncle Wiggily, as he came downstairs to
breakfast.
“You and I are going to gather flowers. We’ll have fun, many joyful
hours!” sang Baby Bunty, as she danced about the breakfast room
like a sunbeam playing tag with a pussy cat.
“Oh, oh! We’ll see about that!” said Uncle Wiggily. “Now you run
out and play while I eat, and then we’ll see what happens. Did you
have your breakfast?”
“Oh, yes, Baby Bunty was up as soon as I was,” said Nurse Jane.
Uncle Wiggily ate his breakfast slowly and carefully. He didn’t like
to hurry except when the Pipsisewah was chasing him. And after he
had eaten some carrot pancakes, Uncle Wiggily felt sort of lazy like
and comfortable.
“I’ll play a little trick on Baby Bunty,” he thought. “I don’t believe it
will do my old bones good to go off in the damp woods so early in the
morning to gather flowers. I’ll wait until the sun is warmer. I’ll just
stay here and go to sleep. She’ll forget all about me.”
So Uncle Wiggily curled up in the easy chair, thinking how good it
felt to rest his tired bones and joints. But, all of a sudden, as he was
sort of dozing off to sleep, he heard Nurse Jane cry:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Come here! Come quickly! There goes Baby
Bunty off on her skates.”
“Baby Bunty? Going off on her skates! Why, she hasn’t any skates!”
cried the rabbit gentleman, suddenly waking up! “She’s too little to
have roller skates, and it isn’t the time of year for ice skates. How you
talk, Nurse Jane!”
“Well, there she goes, anyhow!” said the muskrat lady. “She’s a
lively little tyke, is Baby Bunty. She made herself a pair of roller
skates out of some old round clothespins, and there she goes on
them, skating down the woodland path. You’d better run after her,
Uncle Wiggily, or a bad fox may catch her!”
“That’s so!” cried Uncle Wiggily. Then he forgot all about his stiff
joints, and how he used to have rheumatism and all that. Away he
hopped and ran and leaped and jumped after Baby Bunty. And away
the little Bunty went on her clothespin roller skates.
“Come on, Uncle Wiggily!” she cried to him. “See if you can catch
me!”
Well, Uncle Wiggily finally did, but it was hard work, and he was
so out of breath when he finally ran and caught up to Baby Bunty
that he could hardly twinkle his pink nose at all.
“Isn’t this jolly!” laughed the little bunny girl tyke. “Now we can
get May flowers! I wanted you to be lively and come, and you did.
You came right after me!”
“Yes, but you led me quite a chase!” panted Uncle Wiggily.
“However, I guess I feel better after it. I’m not stiff, now!” And he
wasn’t a bit, and he and Baby Bunty gathered a fine bouquet of May
blossoms. And if the molasses jug doesn’t get stuck in the alley when
it’s trying to run through and tag the sugar cookie, I’ll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s ride.
 STORY III
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S RIDE

Out in front of the hollow stump bungalow sat Uncle Wiggily’s

automobile. He had put on it a new turnip steering wheel, and he was
thinking of going for a ride, when Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy came out
on the front stoop and said:
“Here’s the pepper caster, Mr. Longears.”
“Pepper caster? What do I want of that when I’m going for a ride in
my auto?” asked the bunny, in surprise. “I don’t need it!”
“Why, yes, you do,” spoke Nurse Jane. “Don’t you remember? You
always sprinkle pepper on the sausage tires of your auto, when you
want to go fast. And you might want to go fast today.”
“So I might,” said Uncle Wiggily, reflective like, and slow. “So I
might. Thank you, Nurse Jane.”
The bunny rabbit gentleman took the pepper caster from the
muskrat lady, but still he did not get in his auto and take a ride.
Instead he sat down on a bench in front of his bungalow, and he let
the sun shine through his whiskers and on his pink, twinkling nose.
“I think I’ll sit here and take a rest,” spoke Uncle Wiggily. “I did
have it in mind to go for a ride, but it is very nice here. It does my old
rheumatic joints good to let the sun soak in. I’ll just be lazy and
comfortable like today.”
So he took some soft cushions out of the Sunday parlor part of his
auto, made himself a little bed on the bench at the sunny side of his
machine, and snuggled down.
“Oh, what a funny looking rabbit you are!” cried a jolly little voice
all of a sudden. “Come on and play with me, Uncle Wiggily!”
 “No, Baby Bunty! Not today!” answered Mr. Longears, not even
bothering to open his eyes, he was so lazy like and self-contained.
But even if he did not see her, he knew it was Baby Bunty speaking.
She was the lively little rabbit girl he had found in a hollow stump,
and had brought home to live with him.
“Oh, come and play tag!” begged Bunty.
“No! Nope! Nopey!” said Mr. Longears slowly. “I just want to sit
and rest. My joints are too stiff to play tag!”
Then everything grew quiet and peaceful, and Uncle Wiggily
thought Baby Bunty had gone away so he could go to sleep. Baby
Bunty had gone away, but in a very queer way.
All of a sudden Uncle Wiggily was awakened by hearing Nurse
Jane call out:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Baby Bunty is having a
ride.”
“Is she?” asked the bunny slowly. “That’s good! I hope she has a
nice one!”
“Oh, but listen!” cried the muskrat lady. “Baby Bunty jumped in
your auto while you were asleep, and she sprinkled some pepper on
the bologna sausage tires, and now she’s riding away! Run after her!
Hop after her and catch her in the auto, or she may be hurt!”
“Oh, my! Oh, my goodness!” cried Uncle Wiggily. He was wide
awake now, and he forgot all about his stiff joints and wanting to
rest.
On through the woods he hopped. Faster and faster rode Baby
Bunty in the runaway auto. Faster and faster hopped Uncle Wiggily.
Quicker and quicker went Baby Bunty in the skippily auto. Quicker
and quicker hopped Uncle Wiggily after her.
“Stop! Stop!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “What are you trying to
do?”
“Oh! I wanted to have some fun, and make you chase me,” said
Baby Bunty. “But I didn’t mean to go so fast, and now I can’t stop!
Save me! Save me!”
“I will if I can!” panted Uncle Wiggily. He wasn’t a bit lazy or
sleepy now. Nor were his joints stiff! He was as lively as a cricket.
 Suddenly, just as Baby Bunty, not knowing much about
automobiles, was going to run into a tree, Uncle Wiggily gave a big
skip and a hop and caught up to her. In he jumped, shut off the
gasolene, put on the brakes and saved Bunty. Then the little rabbit
girl smiled sweetly and said:
“Thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I thought I could make you come and
have a ride with me.”
“Well—dont—do—it—again!” said the rabbit gentleman, all out of
breath like. “You are getting too lively for me, Baby Bunty!
Altogether too lively!”
Still he liked her, and if the can opener doesn’t take the top off the
powdered sugar basin and make the goldfish sneeze, I’ll tell you next
about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s balloon.
 STORY IV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S BALLOON

“Is she here?” whispered Uncle Wiggily to his muskrat lady

housekeeper, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, as he hopped into his hollow
stump bungalow one day.
“Do you mean Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady, who was just
here calling on me?” asked Nurse Jane. “If you mean her, she has
gone.”
“No, I mean Baby Bunty. Is she here?” asked Uncle Wiggily, still
whispering and looking all around the bungalow, while he twinkled
his pink nose expectant like.
“Baby Bunty isn’t here,” said Nurse Jane. “I gave her a penny a
while ago and she said she was going down to the one-cent store and
buy a toy balloon.”
“Ah! Then I can come in and have a rest,” said the rabbit
gentleman. “Baby Bunty is good to keep an old rabbit man’s joints
from getting stiff,” he said, as he stretched out in his easy chair, “but
too much of it is quite enough. I’ll be glad of a little rest.”
Baby Bunty, you know, was a cute little rabbit girl, whose father
and mother had been taken away by a fox. Uncle Wiggily found Baby
Bunty in the woods in a hollow stump, and brought her home with
him.
“She’s so lively she’ll keep you from getting old and stiff,” said
Nurse Jane. And Baby Bunty was very lively like and always doing
something.
“But now, since she has gone down the woodland path to buy a toy
balloon, I’ll sit here and rest,” said Uncle Wiggily. “I’ll take a nap
until it’s time to eat dinner.”
 Uncle Wiggily stretched out in his easy chair. Soon his pink,
twinkly nose was still and quiet. Mr. Longears was asleep.
The bunny rabbit gentleman was just dreaming he was chasing
Baby Bunty through the woods in his automobile when, all of a
sudden, in came running Billie Wagtail, the goat boy.
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Uncle Wiggily!” bleated Billie. “You ought to
see her!”
“See whom?” asked Mr. Longears, waking up so suddenly that his
nose twinkled twice as fast as it ought. “See whom?”
“Baby Bunty!” answered the goat boy. “She’s away up in the air
sailing over the treetops!”
“She is?” cried the bunny gentleman. “Oh, dear! Some more of her
tricks to keep me from getting old and stiff, I suppose. Did she take
my airship out, as she ran away in my auto yesterday?” he asked
Nurse Jane.
 “I think not,” answered the muskrat lady. “Your airship is still in
the stable. And are you sure you saw her up above the trees, Billie?”
“Oh, yes’m! And here comes Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel! He
saw her, too!” bleated the goat boy.
“What’s the matter with Baby Bunty?” asked Uncle Wiggily of the
chattery chap.
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered Johnnie. “But she’s sailing around
just like an airship—over the tops of the trees. Come out and see!”
Out rushed Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane and Billie, the goat, and
Johnnie, the squirrel. Surely enough, up above their heads, was Baby
Bunty floating along like a cloud.
“Oh, dear!” cried Uncle Wiggily; “that little rabbit girl is always
doing something. But I must chase after her! I must get her down!
“Quick, Nurse Jane. Bring out my flying suit of leather! Billie, you
and Johnnie run my airship out of the barn! I’ll have to sail up in my
airship and bring down Baby Bunty, but I don’t see how she got up
there!”
Uncle Wiggily was soon seated on the sofa cushions of his airship,
which had toy circus balloons to raise it up and an electric fan that
went whizzieizzie to speed it along. Soon he was sailing over the tree
tops, up near where Baby Bunty was floating.
“Oh, dear! How did you ever get up here?” asked the rabbit
gentleman.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to! Really I didn’t!” said Baby Bunty, half
crying. “But I’m glad you came after me, for it will keep you from
getting old and stiff!”
“Yes, I s’pose it will!” said Uncle Wiggily, as he sailed close to the
little bunny girl and took her into the clothes basket part of his
airship. “Ah! Ha! I see how you came to rise off the earth!” he said.
“You blew your penny toy balloon up so big that it swelled and raised
you up; didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Baby Bunty, “I did. But I didn’t mean to. I just blew and
blew into my toy balloon and it got bigger and bigger, and then I
couldn’t get the air out, and the balloon began to go up and I began
to go up, and—well, I’m glad you came and got me!” she finished.
 “Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, “I s’pose you are. But don’t do it again.”
Then he let the air out of the toy balloon that Baby Bunty had blown
too big for herself, and Mr. Longears took the little rabbit girl down
to earth in his airship. And everybody said:
“Isn’t Baby Bunty cute!”
“Yes,” said Mr. Longears, “she is. No one would get stiff joints with
her around.” And if the box of talcum powder doesn’t blow smoke in
the eyes of the potatoes and make them blink, I’ll tell you next about
Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s doll.
 STORY V
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S DOLL

“Where is Bunty?” asked Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit

gentleman, one morning, as he came down to breakfast in his hollow
stump bungalow.
“Oh, Bunty has gone out to play, long ago!” said Nurse Jane Fuzzy
Wuzzy.
“Well, I’m glad of that,” spoke Uncle Wiggily, with a sigh, sort of
restful like and ample. “It’s a good thing to have Bunty go out and
play.”
“Do you mean it’s good for her?” asked Nurse Jane, as she sliced
some carrots for the bunny’s breakfast and poured maple sugar sauce
over them.
“It’s restful for Bunty and restful for me,” said Uncle Wiggily. “Do
you know, Nurse Jane,” he went on, “since I found Baby Bunty, that
cute little rabbit girl, in a hollow stump and brought her home to live
with us, she certainly has kept me going. Yes, sir!” exclaimed Mr.
Longears, explosive like and inflammatory, at the same time
documentary, “she certainly has kept me busy!”
“But it’s good for you,” said Miss Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat lady
housekeeper. “You haven’t looked so well in months. Baby Bunty, by
being lively, and making you chase her every once in a while, keeps
you from getting stiff.”
“Well, yes, perhaps,” admitted the bunny rabbit. “But, at the same
time I am glad she has gone out to play this morning. Now, after
breakfast, I can sit and read my paper in peace and restfulness.”
And, when he had finished eating his turnip turnovers, with lettuce
frosting on, Uncle Wiggily sat down in his easy chair in the sunshine,
and began to look over the Cabbage Leaf Gazette, which is the
newspaper of the animal people of Woodland, near the Orange Ice
Mountains.
But just as Uncle Wiggily was reading how Grandfather Goosey
Gander had a cold in his bill and couldn’t quack very well, Nurse
Jane suddenly cried:
“Oh, Uncle Wiggily! Come here as quickly as you can. Hurry!”
“What’s the matter now?” asked the rabbit gentleman, as he
dropped his paper and gave three hops, a jump and part of a skip to
the window, out of which Nurse Jane was looking. “What’s the
matter?”
“See! There goes Baby Bunty’s doll!” said the muskrat lady. “It’s
skidding along over the ground as fast as the skillery-scalery alligator
can crawl. Baby Bunty’s doll is running away, and she’ll feel so
badly!”
“Baby Bunty’s doll running away? Impossible!” cried Uncle
Wiggily. “The doll isn’t alive—it can’t run away!”
“But it is!” said Nurse Jane. “See it skiddle along!”
And, as true as I’m telling you, there was Baby Bunty’s doll,
moving along the woodland path, over the green moss, over the
green grass, over the brown leaves in and out among the green ferns.
The doll was sliding along the ground, but no one was dragging her
or pulling her or pushing her—that is as far as Uncle Wiggily and
Nurse Jane could see.
“Did you ever? Can you imagine it!” cried the muskrat lady.
“I can see it!” said the bunny, rubbing his eyes, and his pink,
twinkling nose, to make sure he was awake.
“I can see it!” said Uncle Wiggily. “I don’t have to imagine it. But
what makes that doll go I don’t know. Some dolls can walk and talk,
but I never saw one slide along all by herself before.”
“Run after it, quickly!” cried Nurse Jane. “Baby Bunty will feel very
badly if her doll is lost! Run after it for her!”
“I will,” said the rabbit gentleman. Not stopping to put on his tall,
silk hat, and forgetting all about his red, white and blue striped
rheumatism crutch, out of his hollow stump bungalow rushed Uncle
Wiggily. After the doll he hopped.
 But as fast as he hopped the doll skiddled along just as fast, always
keeping ahead of Mr. Longears.
“Oh, ho! I’ll get you yet!” cried the bunny. And he hopped faster
and faster. But the doll skiddled along even more quickly. Uncle
Wiggily was hopping as he had never hopped before.
“What makes that doll skiddle along?” panted the bunny, all out of
breath. “I cannot see any one pulling or pushing her. It can’t be a
trick of the Pipsisewah or the Skuddlemagoon, for I can see neither
of those bad chaps. What makes the doll move along? I must find
out, but first I must get hold of it!”
So the bunny hopped along faster and faster, and the doll skiddled
along until, all of a sudden, Baby Bunty’s play-toy caught on a
twisted tree root, was held fast, and Uncle Wiggily, making a big
jump, grabbed it. Then he saw that a thin, black but very strong
thread was tied around the doll.
“Ha! Some one was pulling that doll along by this black string, and
I couldn’t see it,” said the rabbit gentleman. “I wonder who did it?”
“I did!” cried a jolly voice, and out from behind a bush jumped
Baby Bunty. “I tied the long thread to my doll, and then I hopped
ahead and pulled the doll after me!” said Baby Bunty. “I wanted you
to hop along fast, and not get stiff, Uncle Wiggily, and you did! Ho!
Ho! Ha! Ha!”
Uncle Wiggily rubbed his pink nose. He shook his paw at Baby
Bunty, but he couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m not stiff now,” he said, “but I may be tomorrow.”
“Oh, no you won’t!” laughed Baby Bunty! And if the bath tub
doesn’t sprinkle paregoric perfume on the wash rag, thinking it’s a
handkerchief, I’ll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Bunty’s
medicine.
 STORY VI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND BUNTY’S MEDICINE

“Oh, Baby Bunty! Baby Bunty!” called Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, to
the little rabbit girl, who had been found in a hollow stump by Uncle
Wiggily Longears. “Ho, Baby Bunty! Come here, quickly!” called the
muskrat lady housekeeper of the rabbit’s bungalow.
“Does Uncle Wiggily want to play tag with me, or hide-and-go-
seek?” asked Baby Bunty, as she came running in from the front
yard. She had been playing dolls with Susie Littletail, the big rabbit
girl, and with Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls. “Does
Uncle Wiggily want to chase me?” asked Baby Bunty.
“No, indeed!” answered Nurse Jane. “You are altogether too lively
for Uncle Wiggily, I’m afraid. He is so stiff and lame, from having
chased your doll yesterday, as you were pulling it along through the
wood by a string—Uncle Wiggily is so lame from his fast hopping
that you’ll have to go get Dr. Possum.”
“What for?” asked Baby Bunty, who was, indeed, a lively little
rabbit girl, always wanting the bunny gentleman to play with her and
chase her. She said it kept him lively. Well, it did to a certain extent.
“Why does Unk Wig want Dr. Possum?” asked Baby Bunty, giving
Mr. Longears one of his pet names.
“Because he is ill,” said Nurse Jane. “He is so lame and stiff that he
just sits in an easy chair and grunts. Dr. Possum will come and give
Uncle Wiggily some medicine and then he’ll be better.”
“All right! I’ll go!” said Baby Bunty, and pretty soon she came
riding back with the animal doctor in his automobile.
“My! But you came quickly!” said Nurse Jane, as Dr. Possum
stopped his car amid a shower of leaves, in front of Uncle Wiggily’s
hollow stump bungalow.
 “I just had to!” said Dr. Possum, getting out and curling his long
tail around his satchel of pink, blue, red, yellow and skilligimink
colored pills. “Baby Bunty said if I didn’t ride here as fast as I could
make the auto go, maybe Uncle Wiggily would never get better.”
“Oh, I think it isn’t quite as bad as that,” said Nurse Jane. “Still
Uncle Wiggily is very lame and stiff. He says he can’t move, from
having hopped too lively yesterday.”
“Hum! Anybody would be lively where Baby Bunty was,” spoke Dr.
Possum. “Now, I’ll have a look at my Uncle Wiggily friend.”
Well, Dr. Possum gave Mr. Longears red pills and pink pills and
yellow pills and brown pills, but still, all that day, the rabbit
gentleman sat in his chair and grunted and groaned and said he was
so stiff he couldn’t move. Dr. Possum shook his head.
“I can’t understand it,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be much
the matter with Uncle Wiggily, but yet he won’t get up and move
about. Suppose you make him some sassafras tea,” he said to Nurse
Jane.
“I will,” she promised. So Dr. Possum went away, and Nurse Jane
went out in the woods to dig up some sassafras roots, and Baby
Bunty was left home with Uncle Wiggily. The rabbit gentleman sat in
his easy chair, with his eyes shut and his pink nose twinkled hardly
any.
“How do you feel now?” asked Baby Bunty.
“Oh, perhaps if I read the paper I’d feel better,” said Mr. Longears.
Baby Bunty handed it to him.
“Now, if you’ll give me my glasses, my dear,” went on Uncle
Wiggily, “I’ll sit here and read until Nurse Jane comes back.”
A queer look came over Baby Bunty’s face.
“Where are your glasses?” she asked.
“On the mantel,” said the rabbit gentleman. Baby Bunty looked.
“I don’t see them,” she answered.
“Oh, maybe they’re on the clock shelf,” spoke Mr. Longears.
“No, they aren’t there,” said Baby Bunty. “I guess you’ll have to get
up and help me hunt for them, Uncle Wiggily.”
 “Oh, dear! I suppose I must,” groaned the bunny. Slowly, and with
much groaning, he got out of his chair. He looked in several places
for his glasses so he could read. But he could not find them.
“Maybe they’re behind the piano,” said Baby Bunty. Uncle Wiggily
looked there, but no glasses were to be found. “Maybe they’re over
here under the couch!” cried Baby Bunty, hopping across the room.
Uncle Wiggily followed her. The glasses were not there. “Maybe
they’re out in the kitchen. Come on, run out there with me and look,”
cried Baby Bunty.
Uncle Wiggily did. And then such a chase, all over the hollow
stump bungalow, as Baby Bunty led Uncle Wiggily looking for his
glasses! Up stairs and down stairs he hopped, getting more and more
lively all the while.
Finally, when Uncle Wiggily was trying to jump up on top of the
picture moulding, since Baby Bunty said his glasses might be there,
in came Nurse Jane with the sassafras.