"Now tell me the rabbit story," commanded the Little Lady on the next
evening. "You know you promised to."
"So I did," said the Story Teller, "and it goes this way:--"
[Illustration]
"One afternoon in the early spring Mr. Jack Rabbit and his friends were
out for an airing. The Hollow Tree people were along, and Mr. Turtle, as
usual. By and by they came to a log under a big tree and sat down for a
smoke and talk. They talked about the weather at first and other things,
till somebody mentioned Easter. Then they all had something to say about
that.
"'What I object to,' says Mr. Rabbit, when it came his time to talk, 'is
this thing of people always saying that the Easter eggs belong to me.'
"'Oh, but that's just a joke,' says Mr. 'Coon, laughing.
"'I know it's just a joke, of course, but it's a pretty old joke, and
I'm tired of it,' says Jack Rabbit.
"'How did it get started anyway?' asked Mr. 'Possum.
"Then Mr. Rabbit took his pipe out of his mouth and leaned forward a
little, so he could talk better.
"'I tell you how it got started,' he says, 'and after that I don't want
to hear any more of it. This is how it happened:--
"'Once upon a time, as much as twenty grandmothers back, I should think,
there was a very nice family of Rabbits that lived in a grassy place on
a hillside back of a big farmyard. There was quite a hole in the ground
there, and they had a cosy home in it, and a soft bed for their little
folk."
[Illustration: A FEW LESSONS IN RUNNING AND HIDING.]
"'Now, every bright morning, Father and Mother Rabbit used to take the
children out for a walk, and for a few lessons in running and hiding
from Mr. Dog, who bothered about a good deal, and one day as they were
coming home they heard a great cackling, and when they got to their
house there was a nice fresh egg lying right in the children's bed. Some
old hen from the farmyard had slipped in and laid it while they were
gone. A good many hens, especially old hens, like to hide their nests
that way, and this was one of that kind.
"'Well, of course all the young Rabbits claimed it, and Mother Rabbit at
last gave it to the smallest and weakest one of the children, a little
girl, who was always painting things with the juice of flower petals.
And the very first thing that little girl did was to stain that egg all
over with violet juice, not thinking what trouble it was going to cause
our family forever after."
[Illustration: IT WAS A NICE BLUE EGG WHEN SHE GOT THROUGH.]
"'It was a nice blue egg when she got through with it, and the next day,
when they all came back from their walk again there was another white
egg right by it. The old hen had been there again and laid another while
they were gone. The second little girl claimed that egg, of course, and
she painted it a bright yellow with buttercup juice. Then the next day
there was another egg, and the next day there was another egg, and the
next day there was another egg, until there was one apiece for every one
of the children, and some over."
[Illustration]
"'And they all painted them. Some painted theirs pink or red with
roseleaves or japonica, some painted them yellow with buttercups, and
some blue or purple with violets, as the first little girl had done.
They had so many at last that it crowded them out of their bed, and they
had to sleep on the floor.
"'And then, one Sunday, and it must have been Easter Sunday, they all
went out walking again, and when they came back every one of those
beautiful colored eggs was gone. The children cried and made a great
fuss, but it was no use. Some of Mr. Man's boys out hunting hen's nests
had found them and taken them all home with them.
"'And of course all those colored eggs set Mr. Man to wondering, and he
came with his boys to the place where they had found them; and when they
looked in out jumped the whole Rabbit family, helter skelter in every
direction."
[Illustration: LEANING OVER TO LIGHT HIS PIPE FROM MR. 'POSSUM'S.]
"'And right then,' said Mr. Rabbit, leaning over to light his pipe from
Mr. 'Possum's, 'right then Mr. Man declared those colored eggs were
rabbit eggs, and he's kept on saying so ever since, though he knows
better, and he knows I don't like it. He takes eggs and colors them
himself now, and makes believe they're mine, and he puts my picture all
over things about Easter time. I suppose he thinks I don't care, but I
do, and I wish that little Miss Rabbit twenty grandmothers back had left
that old hen's egg white as she found it.'
"'It's too bad,' says Mr. Crow. 'It's like that story they tell about
the fox making me drop the cheese.'
"'Or like Mr. Man making believe that the combs he uses are really made
out of my shell,' says Mr. Turtle.
"Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum shook their heads. They had their troubles,
too."