Where do you suppose Tippy Toes was, and what do you suppose he was
doing? He woke up in his warm little bed at home and said, "Oh, Ma! Oh,
Pa! I want to go and visit Bunny and Susan Cotton-Tail."
Mother Cotton-Tail laughed and said, "You have read about Bunny
Cotton-Tail burning his paw by candle-light."
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "You have read about Susan's cookies!"
Tippy Toes said, "Please, may I go and visit Bunny and Susan?"
Tippy Toes was a homely little Bunny. He had a very ugly little nose,
but he was polite. He always said, "Thank you," and, "If you please."
Mother Cotton-Tail said, "You may go and pay a visit to Bunny and
Susan. Go and pack your traveling bag at once."
Tippy Toes was so pleased he hugged Mother Cotton-Tail and said, "Thank
you, Mother Cotton-Tail, I will go and pack my traveling bag."
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "I will go with you to the turn of the road."
Soon they started merrily down the road and Mother Cotton-Tail called,
"Good-bye, good-bye."
They had only gone a few steps when Mother Cotton-Tail called, "Come
back, come back, you have forgotten your umbrella. What if it should
rain?"
Tippy Toes went dancing merrily back and Papa Cotton-Tail waited for
him. They started on again and this time Mother Cotton-Tail called,
"Come back, come back, you have forgotten your overshoes. What if there
should be a thunder storm?"
So Tippy Toes went dancing merrily back and Papa Cotton-Tail waited for
him again. When they started the third time Tippy Toes said, "We have
nothing to go back for this time," but the wind whistled in his ears.
Mother Cotton-Tail called again, "Come back, come back, Tippy Toes, you
have forgotten your red silk pocket handkerchief."
This time Papa Cotton-Tail went back with Tippy Toes and he said, "Dear
Mother Cotton-Tail, do put on your thinking-cap and see if we have
forgotten anything else, or we shall never get off."
Then they looked high and low, but they could not find Mother
Cotton-Tail's thinking-cap!
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "Never mind, I will put on _my_ thinking-cap
instead." So he put on his red silk thinking-cap and said, "Oh, I
know what we have forgotten; we have forgotten to send Bunny and Susan
a present!"
"To be sure," said Mother Cotton-Tail, "Now what shall the present be?"
Little Tippy Toes did not get started on his journey that day, for it
took four days and fourteen hours for them to decide what to send Bunny
and Susan. All this time Tippy Toes was as merry as you please. He
danced about on the tips of his toes and sang,
"A present, a present, if all things go well,
What shall be the present? No one can tell."
Suddenly, at breakfast next morning Mother Cotton-Tail said, "I will go
to town and buy Bunny and Susan a big parlor lamp."
"A lamp with a pink shade," said Tippy Toes.
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "A lamp with a tall chimney."
Mother Cotton-Tail said, "I will buy a lamp with a pink shade and a
tall chimney for Bunny, because he burns his paw in the candle."
Then Tippy Toes danced this way, and he danced that way, and said, "Oh,
Ma, may I go with you to town to help buy the lamp?"
Mother Cotton-Tail said, "Papa Cotton-Tail has to go to work. If I go
to town and you go, too, who will tend the fire? Who will wash the
dishes?"
Tippy Toes wanted to go to town, but he was a good little Bunny, so he
said,
"Who will tend the fire? Whom do you suppose?
Who will wash the dishes? Little Tippy Toes."
So Mother Cotton-Tail put on her best sunbonnet and took her purse and
shopping basket with her, and went off with Papa Cotton-Tail calling,
"Good-bye, I will be home to supper at five o'clock sharp."
Then Tippy Toes danced a little fairylike dance before the mirror and
sang,
"Who is so ugly? Nobody knows."
The mirror answered, "Snubby Nose."
Tippy Toes said, "I have danced that dance before, and I sing that song
very often, but the mirror always gives me the same answer. Who is
Snubby Nose? I wonder if he has a real ugly little nose like I have?"
Then Tippy Toes made up the fire and washed the dishes and began to get
things ready to cook for supper. He said, "I do wish I could go and
find Snubby Nose; I wonder if Bunny and Susan can tell me about him."
[Illustration: "TIPPY TOES WASHED THE DISHES"]
Tippy Toes sat down in front of the clock and began to count the hours
until Mother Cotton-Tail would come home. He fell asleep and dreamed
that he saw a little Bunny exactly like himself stuck fast in a
snowdrift. When he woke up it was five o'clock and Papa Cotton-Tail had
just come home.
They got supper and waited, and waited, for Mother Cotton-Tail. At
exactly six o'clock she came in. She was an hour late.
She came on the stroke of the clock. She said, "I have been shopping
all day."
Mother Cotton-Tail took a wonderful lamp from her basket. It had a pink
shade and a tall chimney.
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "If you send the lamp to Bunny I must send
something to Susan. I will go to town to-morrow and get Susan a pair of
spectacles."
Tippy Toes said, "Oh Pa, may I go with you to town to-morrow?"
Papa Cotton-Tail said, "Who will roll out the cookies for Mother
Cotton-Tail? Who will run her little errands all day?"
Then Tippy Toes danced this way, and he danced that way, and sang,
"Who will do errands? Whom do you suppose?
Who will roll cookies? Little Tippy Toes."
So, they had a merry time at supper that evening and lighted the new
lamp, and Papa Cotton-Tail read fairy tales.
Tippy Toes did not tell what the mirror had answered him. He kept that
as a secret. He said to himself, "I do wonder _who_ Snubby Nose
is!"