NEW HOUSEHOLDS IN THE WOODS AND FIELDS
My, but Nibble was proud of his little bunnies! He wanted to take them
back to the pond, right away quick, and show them to Doctor Muskrat.
But Silk-ears, his mate, was quite stubborn about going. “No,” she
said. “The old mother rabbit who told me how to raise them said that
pond wasn’t a good place at all. She was there last year. Every one of
her bunnies disappeared the minute they left the nest. Hooter the Owl
got one, and Glider the Blacksnake got another, and Silvertip the Fox
caught the third, and the last one just disappeared. She thinks
Slyfoot the Mink found him while she was digging a new hole. She meant
to leave him the old hole to live in. He was a very scary little
bunny.”
Nibble pricked up his ears. “She went to dig a new hole, did she?” he
asked. “Why was that?”
“Why, because she was going to raise a new family, of course, and she
couldn’t have him tracking out and in.”
“How silly I was,” said Nibble. “Now I see why the stars said in my
Fortune that Doctor Muskrat told me: ‘By dawn and by dusk you shall
travel alone.’ I was plenty old enough to begin without any telling.
And ‘All troubles are yours excepting your own.’ I was so busy getting
rid of other people’s troubles that my own went with them. Now the
Hooters have gone, and Silvertip, and Glider, and even Slyfoot doesn’t
live there.” Nibble never thought that maybe wise old Doctor Muskrat
had something to do with that fortune.
Of course his mate didn’t understand what he was talking about; she
didn’t know any of the things he’d done. But she did know that he just
insisted on talking to that wise old mother rabbit.
Of course you’ve guessed it before this--that wise old rabbit was
Nibble’s own Mammy Bunny. He was down by the pond when she came back
to see how he was getting along. She’d never think of going to ask
Doctor Muskrat about him. He told her all the stories he hadn’t told
Silk-ears and she shook her head when he told her that Tommy Peele was
his special friend. She didn’t like boys a bit. I don’t think she
really believed when he told her about Tommy’s dog, Watch, and Trailer
the Hound. But then, mothers don’t know all about everything. They now
what’s best for little bunnies, but you can’t expect them to know more
than a great big grown-up rabbit like Nibble.
But Nibble didn’t care whether she believed him or not. “I’ve found
you again,” he said, and he waggled his long ears, because he was so
excited about it. “I’ve found you. Next thing you know we’ll have
found Tad Coon.”
And maybe Mammy Rabbit wasn’t shocked at that! She didn’t think Tad
Coon was a safe friend for any rabbit, even a big one. But that didn’t
scare Silk-ears. It just made her prouder than ever of Nibble. So off
they set for Tommy Peele’s Woods and Fields.
Maybe you think they didn’t have an exciting time getting their
bunnies all the way over from their nest in the Deep Woods. It wasn’t
because the little ones couldn’t run fast enough. It was mostly
because they ran too fast. They scuttled all over and they wouldn’t
pay the least attention to Nibble when he thumped his big furry feet
at them. Of course they did keep watch of their mother’s white
tail-tip--even tiny wee ones, as soon as their eyes are open at all,
know that’s what it’s for--but they didn’t see any use in a father at
all.
Just once one did. That was when the hawk swooped down. Silk-ears
dodged into the Pickery Things, where no hawk could possibly reach
her. Three bunnies tagged after her. Nibble just stepped under an
elder bush, where the hawk couldn’t pounce from above, and one bunny
squirmed right under him. Then it poked out its curious little nose
from behind his elbow and blinked at the big bird.
[Illustration: One bunny poked out its curious little nose and blinked
at the big bird.]
She didn’t really mean them any harm. She was really hunting fieldmice
though a hawk will pick up a wee rabbit now and again. But when she
saw it was Nibble she just laughed. “Ca, ca! When did you take to
hatching?” and flapped right on. She had a nest of her own not far
from Nibble’s hole. Like a sensible bird she did her hunting away from
home to keep out of neighbourhood quarrels. If she took one of
Nibble’s babies she had a pretty good idea that someone would come
after one of her own babies who as yet had only pin feathers.
But just as soon as the ungrateful little bunny saw his mother he ran
to her. “Where’s the other one?” asked Silk-ears. “Wasn’t she with
you?”
“I thought you had her,” said Nibble. And then the hunt for that fifth
baby bunny began. They looked and looked until they were almost
discouraged. Then, there she was! Where do you s’pose? In a deep
footprint some horse had made. She thought she was pretty smart to
have hidden so well that even her mother couldn’t find her.
“You bad little thing,” stamped Nibble. “That’s a regular hop-toad
trick. We’ll call you ‘hop-toad’ if you ever do it again.”
But do you think he’d let Silk-ears shake her? Certainly not! And the
baby didn’t know what a hop-toad was yet, so she didn’t care. Anyway,
the Woodsfolk are very careless about naming their children. They just
nickname them from some way they act or look and then call them that.
And these were too little even to have nicknames yet.
The most exciting time was when they came to the brook that runs into
Doctor Muskrat’s pond. The bunnies couldn’t jump, so Nibble had to
pick them up by their furry collars, like he did the lady mouse, and
carry them over, one by one, kicking and squirming. And Silk-ears
jumped over beside him each time--as though she could do something if
they did tumble in! Oh, she was glad to get them safe in Nibble’s
home, I can tell you.
But if Nibble Rabbit had trouble with his naughty little bunnies you
just ought to have seen Stripes Skunk. His kittens had a great idea of
hunting things. When they hadn’t anything else to chase they chased
each other or their own tails. They chased Nibble’s bunnies, and
Nibble had to give one of them a kick that sent him tumbling. They
chased Bob White’s stubby-tailed chicks until Bob gave them a smart
pecking. They tried to chase the baby meadow-larks, but the little
birds who nest on the ground are up and flying before most of the
young furry things are out of their holes to bother them. That’s
exactly why Mother Nature lets them grow up so much faster. They were
very sweet-tempered kittens, anyway. They didn’t mean any harm, and
they soon learned what they mustn’t do, and saved most of their
chasing for the fieldmice.
Only they never learned not to tease Doctor Muskrat. He would no more
get to sleep in the sun on his nice flat stone than somebody’s bad
baby would pounce on him. Both Nibble and Stripes were afraid maybe
he’d get cross about it. But that was before they caught him playing
with those teasing little ones. He’d dive under the water and swim up
underneath the stone. Then he’d pop up and snap at their paws when
they tried to grab him. And they weren’t the only ones who thought it
was fun.
But if Doctor Muskrat liked them, you just ought to have heard Tommy
Peele the first time he saw them. He came out with his father to see
if it was time to go after those potato-bugs. And of course neither of
them could find a single one.
“That’s funny,” said Tommy’s father. “Those potato-bugs have been
here. You can see holes where they’ve eaten the leaves. I wonder who
cleaned them all up?”
Stripes Skunk sat up and saw what they were looking at. “It was the
birds,” he explained, only of course Tommy didn’t understand him.
Pretty soon Tommy saw something else. “This plant looks wilty,” he
said. “It looks as though a mouse had been gnawing it.”
“It was a mouse,” smiled Nibble Rabbit, because he knew Stripes
wouldn’t tell that he’d tried to stop them. He came hopping up close
to Tommy. And Tommy didn’t know what he said, either, but his father
must have understood a little.
“It’s queer about that stem,” he remarked. “I never knew mice to do
anything like that before, but mice must be what your skunk friend is
hunting here. That rabbit certainly isn’t afraid of him.”
“Those rabbits!” Tommy fairly squealed. For Silk-ears and all the
babies were peeking at him with their long ears perked up among the
potato stems. “And those skunks!” For Stripes Skunk’s three kittens
were trying to squint at him from under the leaves, and the lower they
put down their heads the higher they arched up their tails. But they
didn’t know that. They thought they were beautifully hidden. And there
were their three black plumes, with white tips squirming at the ends
of them. No wonder Tommy laughed. No wonder he said: “Say, Dad. Let’s
catch one!”
[Illustration: When Tommy tickled her nose with the tender end of a
grass-blade she ate it.]