The little white rabbit found a home already waiting for him in the
prettiest corner of the garden, but before that the red-haired girl
harnessed him to a ribbon, and let him eat grass and vegetables to his
heart's content wherever he took a fancy to go. Edith lost her appetite
apparently in watching her pet eat, for she wouldn't go into breakfast
even after the nurse had called her several times; but finally, when her
mother came out, and took her by the hand, she obeyed.
"Can't I take the rabbit in with me?" she asked.
"No, dear, put him in the pen over there. He'll be quite content alone."
So Bumper found himself alone in the garden, or rather in a pen shut off
from the rest of the garden by stout chicken wire. There was a box in back
of the pen, filled with soft grass and straw, and a tin pan filled with
fresh water. There was such a variety of things to eat that he kept
nibbling first a carrot, then a cabbage, then a blade of grass, then some
corn, then a piece of bread, then some crackers, then a red beet, then a
spear of grass again, and so on through all the long list of good things.
It was such a mixture that he was never sure just what he had in his
mouth. It was just as if a boy or girl had crammed the mouth full of gum
drops, chocolates, fudge, lollypops, taffy, peppermint, lemon and
wintergreen drops, and a few pieces of fruit cake by way of change. How
could he or she tell just what the teeth were munching on?
Bumper tasted them all, and thought that each one was sweeter and better
than the other; but when he got around to the end of his circle he had to
begin all over again to see if they didn't all taste better the second
time. My, it was a feast that made his eyes open and his stomach swell
like a toad's trying to swallow a gnat.
Edith came out so soon that Bumper knew right away that she hadn't eaten
much breakfast, and half of it was in her hands, and apparently the other
half was on her face instead of being in her stomach where it should have
been.
"Do you like bread and jam?" she asked, poking the bread she had been
eating at Bumper.
Like a well-bred rabbit, Bumper stuck his nose up and sniffed at the
dainty proffered him; but when he got some of the jam on his nose he
hopped away and sneezed. It was gooseberry jam, and Bumper hated
gooseberries, although he had never tasted of them before.
"Oh, you funny bunnie!" exclaimed the girl. "Why don't you like jam?"
Then she caught a reflection of her face smeared with jam in the pan of
water, and she laughed happily. "I don't wonder you don't like it on your
face, Bumper," she said. "It does look awful, doesn't it? My, I must have
nearly a quart on my face."
Then she began cleaning her lips and chin, using Bumper's pan of water for
a wash basin. Bumper didn't object to this, but he did hope she'd remember
to change it, and give him clean water to drink. Even gooseberry-jam-water
wasn't to his liking.
Early in the morning Edith was carried away by the nurse for her lessons,
and then her music teacher appeared, and Bumper could hear her fine, small
voice singing in accompaniment to the piano. After that she came into the
garden again to play with him.
But she was soon called away to lunch, and then she had to go walking with
her mother, and it was nearly sundown when she returned. Her first thought
was of the rabbit, and she came running pell-mell across the garden to
greet him.
"Have you missed me, Bumper?" she asked, squatting down on the grass in
her new white dress. "I've been awfully lonely without you. I do hate
music lessons and visiting. I wish I could stay here all the time with
you, and maybe eat grass and green things, and grow fat and white like
you. I wonder how it feels to be a rabbit. Yes, I believe next to being a
little girl, I'd rather be a rabbit than anything else. Rabbits don't have
to work or study or sing or do anything. Goodness! what an easy time you
have of it."
Bumper thought so, too, and he began to swell up with pride. He was a very
young rabbit, and he was easily flattered. He wanted to tell her that he
would rather be a white rabbit than a girl with red hair, when the nurse
called Edith to dinner, and she had to leave him.
It was a beautiful moonlight night, and Bumper wasn't a bit sleepy. What
rabbit could be in such a wonderful garden with the moon shining down upon
it. Bumper danced around in his small pen, and sat upon his hind legs as
if praying to the moon; but in reality he was trying to see how high the
wire fence was, and wondering if he could jump over it. He had tried all
day to nibble through it, and dig under it, but the wire had only hurt his
teeth without giving way a particle. If he was going to get out so he
could run around the garden, he would have to do it by jumping clear over
the wire fence.
He tried it once, and fell short by several inches. He got a hard jolt in
doing it, and rubbed his head where it hit the earth. But the next time he
nearly reached the top.
"I can do it with a few more trials," he said, happy at the thought of his
freedom. "I'll surprise the little girl when she hunts for me in the
morning."
He hopped back a few feet, and then took a flying leap, and landed plump
on the top of the fence. The wire caught him in the middle of the stomach,
and there he hung for a moment undecided which way to fall. But he kicked
with his hind feet, and that seemed to upset his balance, for he plunged
headfirst down, and landed on the other side in a wild somersault.
"Well, that wasn't exactly graceful," he said, "but I'm here, and that's
where I wanted to be. Now I'll explore the garden by moonlight."
First he ran to the vegetable garden, and nibbled at whatever he could
find; but he was really so full he couldn't eat much more. Then he frisked
around on the lawn, playing with his tail, and trying to jump as high up
in the air as he could. It was great fun, and Bumper panted with joy.
Then suddenly out of the dark shadows of the garden something large,
fierce and frightfully noisy came bounding toward him. Bumper stood stock
still until a deep baying sound told him that it was Carlo, the big dog,
whose barking under the bedroom window had disturbed his sleep the night
before.
With a bound Bumper leaped over a rose bush, and started for his pen in
the corner, but Carlo took the bush in a powerful leap and made a grab for
his neck with his jaws. Bumper squealed with fright, and turned to the
left to find shelter under some prickly gooseberry bushes. Carlo yelped
with pain when the thorns of the bushes stuck in his nose, and from that
moment Bumper began to like gooseberries.
But the chase was not over. Carlo drove him out of the bushes and chased
him across the lawn into the garden. Bumper tried to hide behind a
cabbage, but Carlo saw his white head, and pounced upon him. He missed by
an inch, and Bumper, now terribly frightened, and panting for breath, made
a dive for a big, dark hole that suddenly opened directly in his pathway.
He ran in this as fast as he could. Carlo followed a short distance, and
then got stuck. The black hole grew smaller at the other end, and Bumper
felt that he was safe for the present.
"My, what a narrow escape!" he said, panting for breath. "Now, how am I
ever going to get out again! Carlo will pounce on me if I stick my nose
out. I guess the best thing I can do is to sleep in here, and in the
morning go out when Edith calls me. She'll keep Carlo away."
And with this remark, he rolled up in a ball, and went to sleep.