The next day, when Bunny Cotton-Tail woke up, he heard the rain
pattering against the window panes. He cried so loud, and his tears
fell so fast, that his little brother thought the roof was leaking!
Mother Cotton-Tail said it would do no good to cry about the rain, and
she went to the closet and brought out a beautiful new silk umbrella.
She had bought it for a birthday present for Bunny, but she hated to
see Bunny unhappy, so she said he might go out in the rain so as to use
it.
Now, Bunny was not a very careful little rabbit, so he did not wait
to learn how to open it, but ran out of the house and down the road
with the umbrella in his paw. That is the reason you see him so in the
picture. He ran fast, because he wanted to show Susan his new present.
Now, wasn’t it odd that on that very same morning Susan Cotton-Tail
cried when she saw the rain, and that her mother gave her a beautiful
new umbrella? But Susan was a careful rabbit, and learned how to open
and use the umbrella before she went out.
Susan had left her basket at Bunny’s house the night before, so her
mother said she might go after it. That is the way the two rabbits
happened to meet.
Bunny was delighted when Susan showed him how to open his umbrella,
and they stood there some time, talking in the rain. Of course it was
too wet to go for berries, but they wanted to have some fun, so they
decided to go to Bunny’s house and blow soap-bubbles.
On the way home they passed a nice garden. Farmer Jones was out working
in it that morning. Bunny wished very much for a bite of cabbage, so he
begged Susan to come and hide behind the raspberry bushes, so that they
could nibble something while Farmer Jones was not looking. Now Susan
was a good little rabbit, and she knew that to steal is very wrong, so
she said, “No.”
Then Susan and Bunny went on to Bunny’s house, and here they blew
soap-bubbles all the morning.
[Illustration:
Little Bunny Cotton-Tail
Should not try to roam
In Farmer Jones’s cabbage-patch;
He ought to stay at home.]