bird, and he flapped his wings and sang "Yankee Doodle Dandy" three
times over and then once more. And this made the old gentleman rabbit
so excited that he stood up and made a speech, and then he threw his
old wedding stovepipe hat up into the air and gave three cheers and
half a dozen tigers and two or three bears.
And after that Billy Bunny opened his knapsack and took out an
American flag and put it on the top of the beanstalk so that all the
people in the aeroplane could see it and say "Hip-hur-ray for the U.
S. A.!"
"When the little eagles come out of their shells you must bring them
to call on me," said good, kind Uncle Lucky to Mrs. Eagle. "I have
some popcorn and lollypops at home, and I know how children like those
things."
And this made Mrs. Eagle very happy and Mr. Eagle very proud, and he
helped the two little rabbits to climb down the beanstalk in time for
me to write what they did in the next story, which will be about an
adventure in the Friendly Forest.
STORY XXVIII.
BILLY BUNNY AND SCATTERBRAINS.
After Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky reached the ground, for they had
climbed down the beanstalk, you remember, as I told you in the last
story, they jumped into the Luckymobile and drove off toward the
Friendly Forest, and when they had gone maybe a mile in and out among
the trees, for there wasn't really any automobile road to go on, you
know, they came across Scatterbrains, the gray squirrel.
Now Uncle Lucky knew Old Squirrel Nutcracker very well, and as the old
gentleman squirrel was very nice and well behaved it made Uncle Lucky
provoked to think that his son should be such a scatterbrains. So
Uncle Lucky stopped the automobile and said:
"Well, young squirrel, have you been troubling your father lately?"
and Scatterbrains answered, "No, Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot, not lately.
Not since yesterday."
"What!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, "do you mean to say you
troubled him yesterday? Why didn't you wait until to-morrow?" and then
Uncle Lucky winked at Billy Bunny and then scowled at Scatterbrains.
And just then they heard a dreadful noise. It sounded just as if the
trees were snapping to pieces and, all of a sudden, a tornado struck
them and up in the air went the Luckymobile with the two little
rabbits, but what happened to the little squirrel I really don't know,
unless it took him up, too, and hid him in a cloud.
And perhaps it did, for I've often seen clouds that looked exactly
like squirrels, haven't you, and other animals, too, like bears and
cats?
"Gracious me!" cried Uncle Billy. "Hang on, Billy Bunny, and don't let
the cushions slip or the electricity run out of the cabaret, for if we
ever get back to earth, I'd like to get home and stay home forever.
Oh, home, sweet home," and the old gentleman rabbit took off his
automobile goggles, for they were full of tears and he couldn't see
anything.
Well, by and by, the tornado let go and the automobile fell on top of
a clothesline and balanced there as nicely as a tight-rope dancer, and
when the two little rabbits looked about them, they found they were in
Mrs. Bunny's backyard in the Old Brier Patch. Wasn't that lucky? Well,
I guess it was!
And just then Mrs. Bunny came out of the kitchen door to hang up some
of Billy Bunny's little shirts on the line, for it was Monday morning,
you know.
And when she saw the Luckymobile on her clothesline she gave a scream,
and then she began to laugh, and after that she ran back into the
house and brought out her scissors and cut the rope and the automobile
came down with a bang, and out tumbled the two little rabbits.
"Well, well, well," said Mrs. Bunny, and she sat down on the
clothespin basket and laughed, but, of course, there weren't any
clothespins, or any other kind of pins, in it, you see, for then she
wouldn't have laughed.
And in the next story, if my umbrella doesn't open and stand over my
bed to keep off the mosquitoes, I'll tell you another story to-morrow
night.
STORY XXIX.
BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. BLACK CAT.
Awake, awake, 'tis early morn.
The cow is climbing the stalks of corn,
The little bird is beating an egg,
And the rooster is dancing about on one leg,
And the pig is trying on her new bonnet,
With a little blue bow and a red cherry on it.
Uncle Lucky rolled over in bed and then he got up and wiggled his nose
and his left ear, and after that he was so wide awake that he didn't
want to get back into bed, as I did, when I woke up this morning.
And just then the breakfast bell rang and Mrs. Bunny put on the coffee
and the baked lollypops and the stewed prunes, and, oh, dear me! I
really can't remember what rabbits eat every day, for I'm sure they
don't eat the same old thing, for if they did they wouldn't be jolly
and gay and hop about merrily all through the day, but would sit in a
corner and sulk and be sad, and maybe get angry and maybe get mad.
So always remember to have something new, for no one can always enjoy
a prune stew. There! I've gone and written another piece of poetry and
my typewriter wouldn't print it properly. Isn't that too bad?
Well, after breakfast the old gentleman rabbit went out for a walk in
the Pleasant Meadow, and he went all alone, too, for Billy Bunny had
to stay home and polish the front door knob and sweep the piazza and
feed the canary and bring in the wood, for Mrs. Bunny had to hurry up
with the breakfast dishes so as to be able to go over and see Cousin
Cottontail, who had just had a new baby rabbit.
Well, as I was saying, Uncle Lucky hopped along the Pleasant Meadow
until he came to the Old Farm Yard where Cocky Docky and Henny Jenny
and all the other Barn Yard Folk lived with the good-natured farmer.
And just as he was going through the gate, who should bounce out at
him but a big black cat. And, oh, dear me. Her claws were sticking out
of her feet like pins and her eyes were yellow as fire and her teeth
glittered and her whiskers stood out like bayonets, and her tail was
as big as a rolling pin and her back was humped up worse than a
camel's.
If you can think of anything worse than the way that cat looked I wish
you would write me a letter and tell me so that I can scare Uncle
Lucky, for, would you believe it, he wasn't the least big frightened.
No, sireemam.
He just took off his old wedding stovepipe hat and bowed most politely
to Mrs. Black Cat, and she was so surprised that she turned around and
went back to her three little kittens who never wore mittens because
they didn't have any.
And after that the old gentleman rabbit hopped into the barn and ate
some corn and had a talk with Mr. Sharptooth Rat. And maybe he would
have been talking there yet if something hadn't happened. And when you
don't expect it, something very often, and sometimes most always, does
happen. The Miller's dog ran into the barn and made a grab for the old
gentleman rabbit, but Uncle Lucky was too quick for him.
He hopped to one side and then out of that barn so that he hopped
right into to-morrow night's story. Wasn't that wonderful?
STORY XXX.
BILLY BUNNY AND BIG YELLOW DOG.
Let me see. Didn't I say that Billy Bunny hopped out of the Old Barn
so fast in last night's story that he jumped right into this one?
Well, he did, and here he is saying, "I'm ready for another
adventure!"
And no sooner had he said this than along came a big yellow dog with a
muzzle on his nose, and when the little rabbit saw him he laughed out
loud, "Oh, ho! Mr. Yellow Dog! Did you put your nose into a mouse
trap?"
"No, I didn't," replied the Yellow Dog. "It's a muzzle to keep me from
biting little rabbits," and then he gave a dreadful growl and tried to
pull off the muzzle with his front paws.
"I won't wait until you get it off," said Billy Bunny, and he hopped
away as fast as he could, for he wasn't the least bit curious to see
whether that muzzle was tied on tight!
And by and by he came to a hollow stump where lived an old rabbit
named Hoppity-hop.
"Helloa, my little friend," said the old rabbit, and then he wriggled
his nose a million times or less, for I guess he smelt the lettuce
sandwich which Billy Bunny had in his knapsack.
"Good morning," said Billy Bunny, but he didn't open his knapsack. No,
sir! It wasn't fourteen o'clock, which is the luncheon hour in
Rabbitville, so I've been told. And this, of course, made the old
rabbit very sad. "Oh, dear me," he cried, "I'm so hungry, and if there
is anything I love more than a lettuce sandwich it's apple pie!"
"How do you know I've got an apple pie?" asked Billy Bunny, and he
took out his gold watch and chain to see what time it was, for he
began to feel hungry all of a sudden. But, oh, dear me!
It wasn't fourteen o'clock, or anywhere near it, so he twisted the
stem of his watch until the hands pointed at the luncheon time, and
then he took out the lettuce sandwich and the apple pie and he and the
old rabbit ate them up right then and there, and after that they felt
ever so much better.
"Now I'll tell you a secret," said the old rabbit. "There's a carrot
candy shop not very far from here, and if you've got any money in your
knapsack I'll take you there."
Wasn't that kind of that old rabbit? So off they hopped and pretty
soon, not so very far, they came to the candy shop, and the old lady
woodchuck who kept it was awfully kind and generous, for she filled up
a paper bag right to the top for a lettuce dollar bill, which I think
was a very cheap price to pay for all that candy, don't you?
And when it was all gone, Billy Bunny said good-by and hopped away
singing at the top of his voice:
"Oh, who is so merry and who is so gay
As a rabbit who always has money to pay
For candy and popcorn and nice apple pie
And other sweet things that you're longing to buy."
And in the next story, if Billy Bunny does eat any more carrot candy
and get so dizzy he can't hop in a circle, I'll tell you some more
about the little rabbit.
STORY XXXI.
BILLY BUNNY AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
It very often happens
You don't know what to do,
And then's the time the Mischief Man
Comes smiling round to you.
He whispers something in your ear
You know you shouldn't stop to hear,
And then's the time for you to say,
"Oh, Mischief Man, please go away!"
This is what dear good Uncle Lucky wrote in Billy Bunny's album, for
it was the little rabbit's birthday, you know, and Uncle Lucky thought
he ought to warn him against the Mischief Man.
Well, as soon as the ink was dry so that the little rabbit could put
the album away in Uncle Lucky's desk, the kind old gentleman rabbit
said: "Let us take a ride in the Luckymobile. Maybe we can go some
place where we will have a good time."
So they got into the automobile and started off, and by and by they
came to a shady spot in the woods. And there right under a big
spreading chestnut tree, was a little table covered with a clean white
cloth and in the middle was a lovely birthday cake with candles and
big frosted letters, which read, "A Happy Birthday to Billy Bunny!"
And oh, my, wasn't he delighted and so were all the little forest
folk, for they were all there, let me tell you, from Old Squirrel
Nutcracker to the Big Brown Bear.
And so were the little people from the Pleasant Meadow, Dicky Meadow
Mouse and Robbie Redbreast and many others. And pretty soon along came
the barnyard folk, Cocky Docky, Henny Jenny and Duckey Daddies. Even
Mrs. Cow wasn't too busy to be there, and if you'll wait a minute I'll
tell you the names of some more of Billy Bunny's friends:
Turkey Purky, Danny Beaver, Old Mother Magpie, Timmy Chipmunk,
Scatterbrains, the gray squirrel, and Shadow Tail, his brother. Daddy
Fox would like to have been there, only Uncle Lucky hadn't sent him an
invitation. The only friend who wasn't there was Uncle Bullfrog. He
couldn't leave his log in the Old Mill Pond, so he sent his regrets by
little Mrs. Oriole, who lived in the willow tree by the Old Mill.
"Now we'll cut the cake," said kind Uncle Lucky, and he went over to
the Luckymobile to get the big carving knife which he had hidden under
the cushions.
"There's a little gold ring hidden away somewhere," he said as he cut
the cake very carefully so as not to topple over the pretty candles
and get the pink and green melted wax all over the white frosting.
And then everybody ate up his piece of cake as fast as he could to
find the little gold ring. "I've got it! I've got it!" screamed Timmy
Chipmunk. But, oh, dear me. It wasn't the ring at all. It was only a
hard nut.
And the little chipmunk was so disappointed that he ran home to tell
his mother all about it, and she gave him one she had found when she
was a little girl in the toe of her stocking one happy Christmas
morning. And in the next story you'll be surprised to hear who got the
ring after all.
STORY XXXII.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE LOST RING.
Something's going to happen;
I feel it in the air.
But what it is you soon shall know,
So hold your breath and stare.
You remember in the last story I told you about Billy Bunny's birthday
party and promised to tell you who found the little gold ring in the
frosted cake.
Well, just as the little rabbit said, "I've found it!" Daddy Fox
sprang from behind a bush and grabbed the piece of cake right out of
the little rabbit's paw.
And then he jumped over the Luckymobile and ran off to his den to give
it to Slyboots or Bushy Tail, his two little sons, you know, but which
one got it I can't remember, for everybody was so excited that they
forgot to ask the naughty old fox before he got away.
"That's too bad," said kind Uncle Lucky; "I'll have to get you another
one," so he said good-by to everybody and took Billy Bunny down to the
3 and 10 cents store, where they bought a lovely gold ring with a big
ruby in it. Wasn't that nice?
And then they came back to the woods, but everybody had gone home and
there was no more birthday cake anywhere to be seen, not even a little
piece of candle.
"Well, what shall we do now?" said the kind old gentleman rabbit, and
he poured some lettuce oil into the cabaret and took out his blue
polka-dot handkerchief and wiped his ear, and then he dusted off his
old wedding stovepipe hat and honked the automobile horn and blew up a
tire and turned a cushion upside down to hide a grease spot. And after
that he put on his goggles and started off again, and by and by, not
so very long, they came to a signpost on which was written:
"Which road shall I take?"
"Goodness, gracious me!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, "what's
the matter with my goggles?" and he took them off and looked at the
signpost again.
"It says the same old thing," he said with a sigh, and he took off his
old wedding stovepipe hat and dusted the top, and after he had put it
on his head again he heard a voice saying:
"Take the road that leads to the left,
And not the one to the right,
For if you don't you will get left
And you won't get home till night."
"Who's speaking?" said Billy Bunny. And the reason he hadn't said
anything before was because he had been sound asleep.
And then who should come out from behind that funny signpost but a
great roaring bull with two horns and about ten feet long and big red,
snorting nostrils.
"Don't let us disturb you," which means bother or something like that,
said Uncle Lucky, and he honked the horn with all his might, and,
would you believe it, the bull was so frightened that he ran away and
never stopped till he got home and covered himself with the crazy
quilt on his old four-poster bed.
STORY XXXIII.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE GREAT NEWS.
Once upon a time,
So I've heard tell,
There lived a little rabbit
In a shady dell.
And on one side a clover patch,
Where red-topped clovers grew,
And 'tother side was lollypops
Of red and white and blue.
This is the song Mrs. Bunny sang one morning as she set to work to
wash her little rabbit's white duck trousers, for it was Monday, and
that is washday in Rabbitville, so they tell me.
And just as she was hanging them out on the line who should fly up but
Old Mother Magpie, and, my! wasn't she excited. Why, she was so
disturbed that her bonnet had fallen off her head and was hanging by
the strings.
"Have you heard the news?" she asked, and she rolled off one of her
black silk mitts and turned her wedding ring around three times and a
half.
"Heard what?" asked Mrs. Bunny, putting the clothespin in her mouth
instead of on the clothesline.
"Why, the Miller's boy has gone off to the war."
"Hurray!" shouted little Billy Bunny, who was polishing the brass door
knob on the back door. "Hurray!"
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Old Mother Mischief. "His
poor mother is nearly crazy with grief."
"I'm sorry for her," said Mrs. Bunny, and she thought how thankful she
ought to be that her little rabbit didn't have to shoulder a musket.
"Well, I'm glad he's going," said Billy Bunny. "He can shoot at
something else now besides little rabbits."
Old Mother Magpie ruffled her feathers. "Well, if I had a boy like you
I'd teach him not to glory over another person's grief," and then she
flew away.
"I'm sorry for his mother," said Mrs. Bunny, "but the Miller boy will
never be missed," and the clothespin fell out of her mouth and stood
up in the grass like a little wooden soldier.
"Do you want anything at the store?" asked the little rabbit, after he
had finished cleaning the door knob. "If you do, tell me, for I'm
going by there."
"You can order a pound of carrot tea and some lollypops," answered his
mother, and then Billy Bunny picked up his striped candy cane and set
off for the village, and by and by he came to the post office and the
nice lady postmistress called to him that there was a letter there
addressed to Billy Bunny, Old Brier Patch, but what was written in it
I'm not going to tell you now, for I must stop and play a game of
pinochle with dear, kind Uncle Lucky, who just telephoned me to come
over to his house and have a game with him this evening, and I mustn't
keep him waiting another minute.
STORY XXXIV.
BILLY BUNNY AND JENNY MUSKRAT.
Well, I played pinochle with Uncle Lucky Lefthindfoot last evening and
it was so late when I got home that I overslept myself this morning.
And maybe I'd have slept all day if Robbie Redbreast hadn't come to my
window and told me that Billy Bunny was reading a letter which I told
you about in yesterday's story and that every time he turned a page he
laughed harder than ever.
Well, I was so curious to know what he was laughing at that I told
Robbie Redbreast to fly back to him and look over his shoulder and see
what was in the letter while I hurried and dressed as fast as I could,
and when I was all ready to go into the Friendly Forest where the
little rabbit was, I saw him coming toward me with the letter in his
hand and the little robin perched upon his knapsack.
"Good morning," he said and handed me the letter, and now you shall
hear what was written to Mr. William Bunny, Brier Patch, Old Snake
Fence Corner, U. S. A., care of Uncle Sam!
"My dear Billy Bunny:
"Just a few lines from your old friend the Circus Elephant to tell you
that he is coming to see you as soon as he gets over the measles. If
you've never had the measles, dear Billy Bunny, don't get them, for
they are dreadful things for there's so many of them.
"Please give my love to Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot and tell him as soon as
I'm well, I'll be back in his circus.
"Your friend,
"Elly."
And as soon as I'd read the letter the little rabbit put it in his
pocket and hopped away and by and by he came to a little stone house
by a river. And before I go any farther I'll just whisper to you how I
know all this.
You see, the little robin told me all about it, for he and I are great
friends and his nest is in the old apple tree just under my window.
Well, pretty soon, after looking all around, Billy Bunny knocked on
the door of the little stone house and in a few minutes it was opened
by a nice lady muskrat, whose name was Jenny Eva.
"How do you do, little rabbit," she said, and then she invited him in
and gave him a cookie made out of carrot seeds and pumpkin flour. And
after that he showed her the letter from his friend, the circus
elephant, and just then, all of a sudden, the front door flew open and
in came the miller's dog.
And, oh, dear me! Mrs. Jenny Eva Muskrat forgot all about her society
manners and ran down the back stairs into the river and the little
rabbit forgot to say good-by and hid himself in a big hat box where
she kept her last year's Easter bonnet. And then, what do you suppose
the miller's dog did? Why, he began to sing:
"Old Mrs. Muskrat jumped into the river,
Splasherty, splasherty, splash!
And little boy rabbit jumped into the box,
That held her best bonnet and trampled upon it.
Masherty, masherty, mash!"
And in the next story you shall know what the miller's dog did when he
stopped singing, that is, if Robbie Redbreast isn't too frightened to
look into the window and tell me all about it.
STORY XXXV.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE MILLER'S DOG.
After the Miller's Dog stopped singing, as I told you in the story
before this, he poked his nose into the hat box where Billy Bunny had
hidden himself and said in a deep, growly voice:
"Come out of there or I will growl and bite the bonnet
That Mrs. Muskrat wears for best
And the purple flowers on it.
And then she'll think it's you who did
This dreadful unkind deed,
And never speak to you again
Or you with cookies feed."
"Goodness me, but you are a very poor sort of a poet," said the little
rabbit, peeping out of the hat box. "Your poetry is dreadful," and
this made the Miller's Dog so ashamed of himself that he couldn't wag
his tail or even bark.
No, sir. He couldn't do a thing but slink out of the door and close it
so softly that it didn't pinch his tail hardly at all.
"Ha! ha!" laughed the little rabbit. "Did you ever see such a silly
dog?" And neither did I and neither did you, I know.
Well, after a little while, Mrs. Jenny Eva Muskrat carne up the back
stairs from the river, where she had gone in the last story, you
remember, and wasn't she glad that nothing more had happened? "If you
had jumped into that other hat box," she said, "you would have spoilt
my next year's Easter bonnet, and that would have been too dreadful
for anything."
And wasn't the little rabbit glad? Well, I guess he was twice over and
maybe three times. And after that he said good-by and hopped away, and
after he had traveled for a long, long ways he came to the field where
his old friend the Scarecrow lived.
"How have you been?" asked the little rabbit, and he took a lollypop
out of his knapsack and offered it to the scarecrow, but he didn't
want it. "Haven't you got a cigar?" he asked. "I haven't smoked for
ever so long."
"I'm sorry," said Billy Bunny. "I don't think I have any really and
truly cigars. Here's a chocolate one if that will do," and he handed
it to his friend the Old Clothes Man.
But the Old Clothes Man couldn't smoke it at all, although he tried
the best he could, and pretty soon it began to rain and the chocolate
became soft and sticky, and the little Bunny all wet, so he said: "I
guess I'll crawl into a hollow stump if I can find one."
And it didn't take him long, for he hopped away to the woods nearby,
and the first thing he saw was an old stump, so he hopped inside. And
no sooner was he safely out of the rain than a voice said:
"What are you doing in my hollow stump;
Who are you anyway?
Why didn't you knock on this old wood block
If you really want to stay?"
And in the next story I'll tell who it was that said this.
STORY XXXVI.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE WOODCHUCK.
You remember in the last story that just as Billy Bunny hopped into
the hollow stump a voice said, "What are you doing in here?"
"I came in to get out of the wet," answered the little rabbit, and
then the voice replied:
"What! Is it raining? I'll lend you an umbrella!" and an old woodchuck
opened a little door in the side of the stump and winked at Billy
Bunny.
"That's very kind of you," said the little rabbit, and he opened his
knapsack and gave the woodchuck a nice lollypop, and after that the
woodchuck said: "I think you'd better stay here with me until the rain
is over. Don't you think so?"
And Billy Bunny said yes, for the woodchuck was very nice and had such
good manners that the little rabbit felt quite at home.
But oh, dear me! it began to rain so hard right then and there that
the water just poured into the old hollow stump, and pretty soon it
was very uncomfortable. So the woodchuck said:
"Now don't you ever tell anybody where I'm going to take you. For it's
my very own house, and I never let anybody know just where I do live.
You see, so many people are after me, some with guns and some with
sharp teeth and claws, that I have to be very careful."
So the little rabbit promised, and then he followed the woodchuck
through the little door and down a long passage until they came to a
nice, large, comfortable room.