It was Christmas Eve in Bunnyville. Bunnyville was in a lovely great
forest, and was the place where all the rabbits lived. Mr. and Mrs. Hare
and six baby hares lived in a nice hollow tree, by the side of a clear
stream of water, so that they never suffered for a cool drink or a bath.
The little Hares were very much excited tonight, and were staying up far
beyond the usual time, because they had so much to talk about, and were
wondering what the morrow would bring. Now, this was to be the first
time in their little lives that these dear little rabbits had ever hung
up their stockings, for their papa and mamma had not known until
recently that there was such a thing as Santa Claus.
Mamma Hare saw that her little soft, wooly babies were getting too much
excited, so she said to them, “Now, children, you really must go to bed,
or the Santa rabbit will not come to you at all, and then how will you
feel? Come! Hurry, now.”
So they all scampered toward the mamma and gave her a good hug, with
their little furry arms, and jumped into bed, all six of them in a row.
The mamma leaned over them, and tucked them all in snugly, pulling the
long gray moss up close around their necks, for the night was bitter
cold, and the wind was howling fiercely around their tree home. Then she
kissed each one, but her way of doing this was to rub her nose against
each one of the little wrinkled noses, and that was a rabbit kiss.
They were soon sound asleep, and Mr. and Mrs. Hare were just dozing off,
too, when they heard a queer, scratching sound, outside of their big
tree, and they lay there peeping out from the moss with their bright
eyes until suddenly, through the hole in the tree, there stepped—old
Santa. He was a big—a very big—white rabbit, with long ears, and pink
eyes, and long whiskers. He had such a kind face that they were almost
tempted to speak to him, but they were afraid if they did he might get
scared, and run away, before filling the stockings. Those were the
funniest stockings you ever saw. Of course, the little rabbits did not
wear stockings, only when it was very cold, they sometimes put on extra
fur shoes to play in the snow. So the mamma had made each one a nice,
large one, to hang up, and there they hung in a row, on some pegs driven
to the inside of the tree. Old Santa looked around a minute, and soon
spied these queer fur stockings; but he was used to that, for all the
little bunnies he had visited that night had that same kind, so, with a
low chuckle to himself, he took a big fur bag off his shoulders and
reaching down into it he drew forth the loveliest things papa and mamma
rabbit had ever seen. Their eyes fairly sparkled, as they thought of how
delighted their babies would be when they awoke. Santa Claus did not
forget anybody—not even papa and mamma, for they saw him stuffing a lot
of things down at the foot of their bed, as he laughed to think of their
surprise. When he left they jumped out of bed, and peeked through the
tree, and saw him leap into a sleigh which was made out of a big, big
pumpkin and drawn by tiny white mice. Their little silver bells tinkled
as they flew over the snow—for the whole world outside was now covered
with a beautiful sparkling robe of snow. The rabbits were awake long
before the dawn next morning, and made such a noise, giggling and
whispering, under their cover of moss, that the mamma could not sleep.
Finally they said: “O, mamma, can’t we get up?”
“Yes, I guess you might as well,” she replied, “as you won’t go to
sleep.” So out they scampered, all six of them, tumbling all over each
other in their eagerness to see what good old Santa had brought them. O,
how delighted they were, as they ran their little paws down into each
fur stocking, and brought forth the most wonderful things, surely, that
rabbits ever had.
There were little red apples, and all kinds of nuts, and nice green
things to eat, and actually, a doll, made out of cornstalks, and
corn-silk for hair. They had never had a doll before, and they hugged
them to their little furry breasts with ecstasy. When the children were
all through looking at their gifts the papa and mamma looked at the foot
of their bed and found the things Santa had brought them. There were
bushels of red and yellow apples, bags of wheat, great cabbages and
celery, tender lettuce and all the good things so dear to the heart of a
rabbit.
Dear, dear! Their mouths fairly watered, as they looked at these things.
More than enough to last them all winter, and now they would not have to
go out in the cold, bitter weather, searching for something to eat. They
could stay in their good warm tree, and have a jolly time together, and
eat all the good things they wanted. After breakfast the children all
ran out and played snowball and frolicked around at leap-frog and such
outdoor sports all morning, which made them so hungry that they felt as
if they could eat up the whole lot of winter supplies. After a while
mamma called them in, and they joyfully sat down to their Christmas
dinner. There was a long table, just filled with good things, and the
children all sat on big strong toadstools. My! how hungry they were. But
mamma had known they would be, and had provided everything good that a
rabbit likes, and actually had some tiny cakes, and little red candies.
What a jolly meal that was! Everybody laughing and chewing away at
something held tightly between their two little front paws, and
wrinkling up their funny brown noses, smelling at all the good things on
the table. It was quite late when they finished the merry meal, and
after looking for some time at the things which Santa had brought, papa
and mamma said: “Children, we have another surprise for you now.”
Another surprise! What could it be? It seemed to them that they already
had every surprise in the world, and they could not imagine how anything
else could be thought of.
Mamma made each of them put on a very heavy fur coat, and fur shoes, and
they all went out, and went skipping over the cold white snow, until at
last, through the darkness they caught a glimpse of something sparkling,
and bright and beautiful. Bright lights hung everywhere, and in the
center of it all was a tree—that was not like any tree they had ever
seen before in all their little rabbit lives. It was a rabbit Christmas
tree, just covered with beautiful gifts for all, and there all around
the tree were dozens and dozens of rabbits many of whom were friends of
theirs, and what a jolly crowd it was. Everybody good natured, and all
jumping and hopping, as if their lives depended upon it. Pretty soon
from out the darkness who should appear but Santa himself? O, what
hurrying and scurrying of little furry feet there was, as all the little
bunnies tried to get near him. He smiled upon them all as he stepped to
the tree and began handing gifts to each and every one of them. And the
funniest part of it was, that he knew every one of their names. After
the gifts had all been distributed they all joined hands around Santa
Claus, and went around in the wildest, merriest dance, that was ever
danced by a party of rabbits. So light of feet and so happy were they
that they fairly flew over the ground. Then the good old Santa told them
good-by till next year, and jumping into his sleigh, vanished from
sight. They all went home very tired, but O, so very, very happy to be
tucked away again into their soft, warm nests of gray moss.
Jessie Juliet Knox.