the cupboard and took out a carrot candy gumdrop and gave it to Billy
Bunny, and then he lighted a big cigar and sat down in his old
armchair and smoked.
And all the time they could hear the rain pattering on the grass
overhead, for it's wonderful how you can hear all sorts of sounds when
you're under ground and have big ears like a rabbit, you know.
"Now, I'll tell you a story," said the old woodchuck after he had
blown some lovely round rings of smoke into the air.
"Once upon a time,
Not so very long ago,
A band of tiny fairies
Lived in the woodland near.
And often I would hear them
A-singing soft and low
When all was dark and quiet
And the moon shone bright and clear.
So one evening I stole softly
Out of the hollow stump,
And found them dancing merrily
With tiny skip and jump;
And just as I was going
To say how do you do,
The Fairy Queen began to scream.
And then away she flew.
And then her tiny subjects
Took fright and ran off, too,
And now I never see them more
A-dancing near my old stump door."
"That's too bad," said the little rabbit, for he was so interested in
what the old woodchuck was saying that he had forgotten all about his
lollypop and had dropped it on the floor.
And in the next story he'll pick up his lollypop and eat it, because I
hate to have him lose it, don't you?
STORY XXXVII.
BILLY BUNNY AND LITTLE PEEWEE.
Let me stop for a moment and think where I left off last night. Oh,
now I remember. Billy Bunny was in the old woodchuck hollow stump, and
it was raining.
Oh, my, yes. Cats and dogs, as they say in grown-ups' stories, so
we'll say kittens and puppies. Well, after a while the rain stopped
and the little rabbit said good-by and hopped away, and pretty soon,
not very long, a little bird began to sing:
"Down the shady Forest Trail,
O'er the hill and through the vale,
Billy Bunny hops along
With a whistle and a song.
And if you have never heard
A rabbit whistle like a bird,
You must ask each little rabbit
If he has the whistling habit."
"Who's singing?" asked Billy Bunny, and he took his silver policeman's
whistle out of his knapsack and blew on it so hard that the little
bird began to cry:
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! You will whistle my ear off!" And then, of
course, the little rabbit stopped, for he didn't want to hurt that
dear little bird. No sireemam.
"Who are you?" he asked, and the little bird replied: "I'm Peewee, the
littlest bird in the whole Friendly Forest."
"What do you look like?" said the little rabbit, curiously, gazing
here and there and everywhere and behind a tree and under a stone.
"I've never seen a Peewee."
And then that little bird flew down from a tree and Billy Bunny saw
the tiniest little bird he had ever seen. Why, it wasn't much larger
than a butterfly.
"Goodness, but you're small," said Billy Bunny. "Are you so small that
you don't like lollypops?"
Of course, the little bird said no, and so would you, no matter how
small you were, but when she tried to fly away with the lollypop, she
couldn't. No sireemam. Wasn't that too bad? So the little rabbit gave
her some sweet cracker crumbs instead, and after that he hopped away
looking for another adventure.
And it wasn't long before he had one. For, just as he was hopping
across a fallen log that made a narrow bridge over a brook, a little
fish swam up to the top of the water and said:
"Here is a letter from your friend, the Whale," and he held up in his
mouth a blue envelope. I guess it was made of some kind of waterproof
paper, for it wasn't the least bit damp.
And when Billy Bunny opened it, he found a small coral ring inside,
and in the letter it said: "This ring is for you, Billy Bunny.
"The pretty mermaid asked me to send it to you, so here it is. Please
tell the little fish that you have received it and that it fits you
perfectly." And then the Whale signed himself, "Your great big-hearted
friend, the Whale."
STORY XXXVIII.
BILLY BUNNY AND OLD MOTHER MAGPIE.
Uncle Bullfrog sings a song
That is never very long.
All he says is, "Chunk, ker-chunk!"
Then he splashes in ker-plunk,
And the little fishes swim,
Oh, so fast away from him!
If they didn't, don't you think
He would eat 'em in a wink?
Now who do you suppose was singing this song? Why, a little tadpole
named Taddylegs. And it made Uncle Bullfrog quite cross, for he didn't
like tadpoles anyway, and Taddylegs wasn't very polite, as you can
see.
"Now swim away," said the old gentleman frog, and he looked angrily at
Taddylegs. "Now swim away or I'll swallow you and maybe your cousin
and your aunt if they're around." So the little tadpole swam away and
after a while Old Uncle Bullfrog saw Billy Bunny not very far away. He
was talking to Mrs. Cow about the clover patch.
You see, Mrs. Cow was very fond of clover and so was the little
rabbit, and he knew that Mrs. Cow could eat maybe three hundred and
forty-seven times as much clover as he could, and so he was afraid she
might eat up the whole patch and leave nothing for anybody else.
"Please don't eat all the clover tops; mother wants to preserve some
for the winter."
"Don't you worry," replied Mrs. Cow, and she whisked a big horse fly
off her side with her long tail. "Don't you worry and don't you fret,
there'll be some clover blossoms yet."
So the little rabbit felt ever so much better and hopped away and by
and by he came across Old Mother Magpie. And he wasn't a bit pleased,
for she was always finding fault with him, and everybody else, for
that matter.
Yes, Old Mother Magpie made lots of trouble and Billy Bunny had never
liked her. But he couldn't get away without her seeing him, although
he tried his best.
"Good morning, Billy Bunny," said the old lady magpie, and she raised
her bonnet so she could see him better, for the brim was half over her
left eye.
"Good morning," replied the little rabbit. "I'm sorry, but I'm in a
dreadful hurry," and he hopped away so fast that he left his shadow a
mile behind him.
"Gracious me!" exclaimed Old Mother Magpie. "That bunny doesn't like
me very much I guess."
"Yes, you don't have to guess again," cried a voice, and Parson Crow
cawed and hawed, and this made the old lady magpie so angry that she
flew away to tell Barney Owl that she was a very much abused person.
But here we are at the end of this book, and so we will have to jump
to the next, which I will call, "BILLY BUNNY AND UNCLE LUCKY
LEFTHINDFOOT."
THE END