Uncle Wiggily and His Friends ~ by Howard R. Garis

Uncle Wiggily and His Friends ~ by Howard R. Garis, 1939, children's, 9/10
The book has eight stories in it, not all of which I remember seven decades later, if indeed all these were in my original book (this one shows 1939, but was published in 1955).

Uncle Wiggily and the Barber

He helps the barber monkey, who later helps him.

Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling

While taking a dumpling to a friend, he discovers a hungry squirrel family and gives them his own apple dumpling -- and he goes to the store for other things they need, like coal for heat.

Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance

It's a delightful surprise for Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, when he is later able to dance with her.

Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Plow

He makes a wooden snow plow for the front of his automobile and makes paths in the snow for the whole animal community.

Uncle Wiggily and the Wagon Sleds

By adding wheels to a couple of sleds, he makes animal children happy, even when there's no snow.

Uncle Wiggily and the Peppermint

He's even polite to a big black bear who was "snappish."  The bear ends up with a sore throat, and Uncle Wiggily delivers more peppermint to Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Uncle Wiggily and the Red Spots

More details about this story below.  It's one that "tickled my funny bone" when I was a child.

Uncle Wiggily and the Canoe

When his balloon "airship" flies away, he make a canoe out of birchbark.

I do remember the story about the red spots and how the author would introduce the upcoming stories.  This is at the end of the Peppermint story:

And if the snow man doesn't come in our house and sit by the gas stove until he melts into a puddle of molasses, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and The Red Spots.

Red spots meant measles, back then, in the days before we had a vaccine for that disease.  When the gentleman rabbit came home with red spots, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy sent him to bed.  It turns out it was spots from running into the berries of some bushes.  That wouldn't be exciting enough for today's kids, I guess.  They expect superheroes.  My childhood stories were tame by comparison.  Gentle Uncle Wiggily teaches children to be polite, rather than violent.

By the way, notice in the illustration that Doctor Possum came to Uncle Wiggily's bedside.  I remember when doctors used to make house calls.  Mothers with sick children didn't have to sit in a waiting room making all the other children sick.

Having re-read these stories this afternoon, I still rate this book 9 of 10, an excellent book.