One day when the nice young lady robin school teacher, about whom I told
you last night, called the roll of her class, to see if all the animal
children were there, Samuel Littletail, the rabbit boy, didn't answer.
"Why, I wonder where Sammie can be?" asked the teacher. "Has anyone seen
him this morning?"
They all shook their heads, and Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, answered:
"If you please, teacher, perhaps his sister, Susie, knows."
"Oh, of course! Why didn't I think to ask her?" said the teacher. So she
looked over on the girls' side of the room, but, would you believe it?
Susie, the rabbit girl, wasn't there either.
"That is very odd," said the teacher, "both Sammie and Susie out! I hope
they haven't the epizootic, or the mumps, or carrot fever, or anything
like that. Well, we'll go on with our lessons, and perhaps they will
come in later."
So the first thing the pupils did was to sing a little song, and though
I can't make up very nice ones, I'll do the best I can to give you an
idea of it. This is how it went, to the tune, "Tum-Tum-Tum, Tiddle
De-um!"
Good morning! How are you?
We hope you're quite well.
We're feeling most jolly,
So hark to us spell.
C-A and a T, with
A dot on the eye.
Makes cat, dog or rat,
Or a bird in the sky.
Take two and two more.
What have you? 'Tis five!
What? Four? Oh, of course,
See the B in the hive.
Now sing the last verse,
Ah, isn't it pretty?
We're glad that you like
Our dear little kittie.
Well, after the children had sung that they all looked around to see if
Sammie or Susie had come in, but they hadn't, and then the lessons
began, and everyone got a perfect mark. Still the rabbit children didn't
come, and after school Bully No-Tail said:
"I think I'll stop at Sammie's house and see what is the matter."
"I wish you would," spoke the teacher, "and then you can tell us
to-morrow. I hope he is not ill."
But Sammie was worse than ill, as Bully very soon found out when he got
to the house. He found Mr. and Mrs. Littletail very much excited. Mrs.
Littletail was crying, and so was Susie, and as for Nurse Jane
Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, she was washing up the dishes so fast
that she broke a cup and saucer and dropped a knife and spoon. And Uncle
Wiggily Longears was limping around on his crutch, striped red, white
and blue like a barber pole, and saying: "Oh dear! Oh dear me! Oh hum
suz dud."
"Why, whatever has happened?" asked Bully. "Is Sammie dead?"
"Worse than that," said Susie, wiping her eyes on her apron.
"Much worse," chimed in Uncle Wiggily. "Just think, Bully, when Sammie
was starting off for school this morning, he went off in the woods a
little way to see if he could find a wild carrot, when a big boy rushed
up, grabbed him, and put him in a bag before any of us could save him!
And now he's gone! Completely gone!"
"So that's why he didn't come to school to-day," said Nurse Jane sadly.
"And I didn't feel like coming either," spoke Susie, crying some more.
"I tried to find Sammie, but I couldn't. Oh dear! Boo hoo!"
"We all tried to find him," said Mr. Littletail sadly.
"But we can't," added Mrs. Littletail still more sadly. "Our Sammie is
gone! The bad boy has him!"
"Oh, that is awful!" cried Bully. "But I'll see if I can't find him for
you."
So Bully hopped off through the woods, hoping he could find where the
boy lived who had taken Sammie away with him.
"And if I find him I'll help Sammie to get away," thought Bully. So he
went on and on, but for a long time he couldn't find Sammie. For,
listen, the boy who had caught the little rabbit had taken Sammie home,
and had made a cage for him.
"I'm going to keep you forever," said the boy, looking in through the
wire cage at Sammie. "I've always wanted a rabbit and now I have one."
Well, poor Sammie asked the boy to let him go, but the boy didn't
understand rabbit language, and maybe he wouldn't have let the bunny go,
anyhow.
Well, it was getting dark, and Sammie was very much frightened in his
cage, and he was wondering whether any of his friends would find him,
and help him escape.
"I'll call out loud, so they'll know where to look for me," he said, and
he grunted as loudly as he could and whistled through his twinkling
nose.
Well, it happened that just then Bully was hopping up a little hill, and
he heard Sammie calling.
"That's Sammie!" exclaimed Bully. "Now, if I can only rescue him!"
So the frog boy hopped on farther, and pretty soon he came to the yard
of the house where the boy lived. And Bully peeped in through a knothole
in the fence, and he saw Sammie in the cage.
"I'm here, Sammie!" cried Bully through the hole. "Don't be afraid, I'll
get you out of there."
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sammie, clapping his paws.
But, after he had said it, Bully saw that it wasn't going to be very
easy to get Sammie out, for the cage was very strong. The boy was in the
house cutting up some cabbage for the rabbit, and the little frog knew
he would have to work very quickly if he was to rescue Sammie.
So Bully hunted until he found a place where he could crawl under the
fence, and he went close up to the cage, and what did he do but hop
inside, thinking he could unlock the door for Sammie. For Bully was
little enough to hop through between the holes in the wire, but Sammie
was too big to get out that way.
But Bully couldn't open the door because the lock was too strong, and
the frog boy couldn't break the wire.
"Oh, if Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy were only here!" he exclaimed, "she could
get us out of this trap very soon. But she isn't."
"Let's both together try to break it," proposed Sammie, but they
couldn't do it. I don't know what they would have done, and perhaps
Sammie would have had to stay there forever, but at that moment along
came the old alligator. He looked through the knothole in the fence, and
he saw Sammie and Bully in the cage.
"Ah, here is where I get a good dinner!" thought the alligator, so with
one savage and swooping sweep of his big, scaly tail, he smashed down
the fence and broke the cage all to pieces, but he didn't hurt Bully or
Sammie, very luckily, for they were in a far corner.
"Now's our chance!" cried the frog. "Run, Sammie, run!" And they both
scudded away as fast as they could before the alligator could catch
them, or even before the boy could run out to see what the noise was.
And when the alligator saw the boy the savage creature flurried and
scurried away, taking his scalery-ailery tail with him, and the boy was
very much surprised when he saw that the rabbit was gone.
But Sammie and Bully got safely home, and the next day Sammie went to
school as usual, just as if nothing had happened, and every one said
Bully was very brave to help him.
So that's all for to-night, if you please, and in case the housecleaning
man gets all the ice cream up from under the sitting-room matting, and
makes a snowball of it for the poll parrot to play horse with, I'll tell
you next about Bully and Bawly going to the circus.