FLOP EAR LEARNS TRICKS
Flop Ear, at first, was so frightened at finding himself in the boy’s
arms, that he did not know what to do. He trembled and tried to get
away, but the boy said:
“Keep still, little rabbit. I won’t hurt you. I will be kind to you.”
Flop Ear understood a little of this talk, but, best of all, he
understood the kind, stroking hand of the boy, who rubbed his fur
softly. Animals can tell just by the way you touch them whether or not
you are going to be nice to them.
But still Flop Ear was frightened. To a little rabbit, a boy is as big
as a giant would be to you or me, and this was the first time, in all
his life, Flop Ear had ever been near a human being.
If there were giants in the world, I think we would all be very much
frightened if we saw one for the first time, and did not know whether
he would be cross or kind. But after we had seen the giant two or
three times, and learned that he would not harm us, we would not be so
worried. It was this way with Flop Ear. It was the first time he had
ever seen a boy close by, and he was afraid.
“Now don’t try to get away, little bunny,” said the boy kindly. “I
won’t hurt you. See him, Mother! Isn’t he cute?”
“Where did you get him, Jimmie?”
“Why he was in the wood basket, right under the wood, and when I lifted
out the last sticks I saw him.”
“In the wood basket! How in the world did he get there?”
“He must have come in from the fields or woods and hopped in to hide,”
said Jimmie, the boy. “I am going to keep him for a pet if he will stay
with me. I’ll teach him some tricks.”
“Put him down on the floor and see if he will stay,” suggested the
woman.
“I’m afraid he’ll run. Wait until I shut the door,” the boy said.
“And I’ll get him a carrot to eat,” returned his mother. “Maybe he
won’t run when he sees that.”
She put a carrot down on the kitchen floor, and the boy placed Flop Ear
in front of it. The carrot smelled very good to Flop Ear, for he was
hungry, so he did not run away, though his heart was still beating fast.
Then the boy saw the little rabbit’s funny, drooping ear.
“Oh, Mother! See!” cried Jimmie. “What a funny rabbit! Isn’t he
comical? He’s as comical as Squinty, the pig!”
“Yes, he does look odd,” said the woman. “I think Flop Ear would be a
good name for him.”
And so, you see, without any trouble at all, Flop Ear got his own right
name. It was natural to call him that.
“I like him better than I do Squinty,” said the boy. “I was over on Mr.
Jones’ farm the other day, and I saw Squinty in the pen. Mr. Jones said
some children were going to take him for a pet, but I would rather have
Flop Ear, the funny rabbit.”
“Well, this isn’t so bad,” thought Flop Ear, as he nibbled the carrot.
“If this boy knows my friend Squinty I guess he will be kind to me. So
some children are going to take Squinty away for a pet; are they? I
hope they will be good to him, and give him what he likes to eat.”
All this while Flop Ear himself was eating the carrot, one of his ears
standing up, and the other drooping down, and he looked so funny that
the boy and his mother had to laugh.
“I did not know rabbits would come in our woodshed,” the boy said. “I
wonder what made this one do so?”
“Perhaps he was hungry,” said Jimmie’s mother. And that was the reason,
as you know, why Flop Ear had come to the farmhouse and had gone into
the shed.
Flop Ear was not so frightened now. He looked all about him, and he
thought he was in a very queer place――a farmhouse kitchen. There was a
big black thing there, and in it was a fire. Flop Ear knew what fire
was, for once the woods near his burrow were blazing, and the rabbits
had to run underground and stay there to keep away from the hot flames.
“I wonder why people want fires in their houses!” thought Flop Ear. “We
never have any in our burrow.”
Then he saw Jimmie’s mother put a pan on the big black thing with fire
in it, and soon white smoke, so it seemed to Flop Ear, rose from the
pan. Jimmie’s mother was cooking dinner over the fire, made with some
of the wood taken from the basket in which the rabbit had hidden.
“Flop Ear,” said the boy, speaking to the rabbit just as if it could
understand――“Flop Ear, you are a nice bunny, and I like you. I am going
to keep you for myself, and I will teach you some tricks in a few days
when you are not so frightened. And I must make a little house for you
to stay in. A box will do, though I suppose you can gnaw your way out
with your teeth if you don’t like it. But I will get a strong box, and
give you plenty to eat, and maybe you will not try to get away.”
“I think you are a very nice boy,” thought Flop Ear to himself. “You
seem to be kind to me, but still I can not promise to stay always with
you. I want to go back to my own home and folks. But I will stay here a
while and eat carrots.”
Of course the boy could not know Flop Ear was thinking this. But the
boy could see that the rabbit was not so frightened as he had been at
first.
“I think he likes me,” said the boy to his mother. “I will teach him to
do some tricks, and maybe I can sell him to a circus.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t sell him,” Jimmie’s mother said. “Keep him for
yourself.”
“All right. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“Let me see――circus. Where have I heard that word before?” thought Flop
Ear. “Oh, I remember. Blackie, the lost cat, told me she met Dido, the
dancing bear, in a circus. Well, if Dido is there I wouldn’t mind going
to a circus. But still I shall like it here for a while.”
The boy found a strong, heavy box to make into a little house for Flop
Ear. He put it out in the yard, under a tree where the rabbit would be
in the shade. Flop Ear was given some lettuce leaves to eat, and he
liked them even better than he did carrots. There was also a pan of
nice water for the rabbit to drink.
“Well, this is nicer than running through the woods with a dog after
you,” thought Flop Ear. “Still I would like to find my own home again,
and have a good game of tag with Pink Nose and Snuggle.”
Just as the boy thought, Flop Ear did try to gnaw his way out of the
box. For the boy knew something about rabbits. They are good gnawers,
almost as good as rats and mice. They have four front teeth just made
for cutting through wood, and they use them in taking bark off trees to
eat.
So Flop Ear, with his strong front teeth, tried to gnaw out of the box.
If it had not been a heavy thick one he might have done it, and gotten
away. But the boy saw what his new rabbit pet was doing, and put some
tin inside the box. Rabbits, rats or mice can not gnaw through even
thin tin. It is too strong for their sharp teeth.
That afternoon, when Flop Ear had taken a little sleep in his box, on
some soft straw which the boy put in for him, Jimmie said:
“Now I will try to teach Flop Ear some tricks. Come on out, bunny boy,
and let me see what you can do.”
Of course, Flop Ear did not in the least know what was going to happen
to him. But he knew, by this time, that the boy was good and kind, and
would not hurt him.
“We will try an easy trick,” Jimmie said. “I will see if you know how
to jump through a barrel hoop.”
The boy set Flop Ear down on the ground, outside the box. Of course the
rabbit might have run away, but he thought he would not.
“There is time enough for that later on,” Flop Ear said to himself. “I
will see what he means by tricks, and jumping through a hoop.”
The boy had with him a round hoop from a barrel. He held this up in
front of the rabbit, but Flop Ear did not know what to do.
“Jump, Floppy! Jump!” cried the boy. “Jump through the hoop!”
But Flop Ear did not.
“I know how to make him,” said Jimmie. Then he took a carrot and put it
on the ground. In front of it he held up the round hoop. Flop Ear saw
the carrot and wanted to get it to eat. He started around one side of
the hoop, but the boy gently pushed him back.
“You must jump through the hoop if you want the carrot,” said Jimmie.
Flop Ear tried to go around the other way, but the boy would not let
him. Then the rabbit saw that the easiest way to get the sweet carrot
was to jump through the hoop, which he did, as nicely as you please. It
was easy for him to jump, you know. To go through the hoop was the only
new thing about it.
[Illustration: The rabbit saw that the easiest way to get the sweet
carrot was to jump through the hoop.]
“Fine! That’s the way to do it!” cried Jimmie, much pleased. “You have
learned a trick, Flop Ear.”
“I don’t call that much of a trick,” thought the rabbit. “But still it
may be.”
Three or four times Jimmie made the rabbit jump through the hoop and
each time Flop Ear was given a bit of carrot. Then he learned to do it
without anything to eat, and after a bit Flop Ear grew to like to do
the trick, for it seemed to please the boy, who patted the bunny’s soft
fur.
“Now we have one trick, we’ll try another,” said Jimmie, a few days
later. “I wonder if you can stand up on your hind legs, and hold a bit
of carrot on your nose?”
Well, it was easy enough, of course, for Flop Ear to stand up on his
hind legs. He had done that in the woods often enough. And it was not
hard for him to hold a bit of carrot on his nose. But as soon as Jimmie
put it there Flop Ear let the carrot fall to the ground and ate it. He
thought that was what it was for.
“No, no! You must not do it that way,” said Jimmie. “I want you to
stand up on your hind legs, and hold the carrot on your nose until I
tell you to eat it, and clap my hands. Then you may take it. Now we’ll
try again.”
Once more Flop Ear stood up on his hind legs. Again the carrot was put
on his nose, but he dropped it off and――no, he did not eat it this
time, for the boy grabbed it away as soon as it fell to the ground.
“You must not eat it until I tell you to, Flop Ear,” said Jimmie.
It took quite a while for the rabbit to learn this trick, but finally
he came to understand what Jimmie wanted. And then, after a bit, Flop
Ear would stand up when the boy told him to, and when the carrot was
put on the rabbit’s nose he would not let it drop off and eat it until
Jimmie clapped his hands.
“Now you are quite tame, and you know two tricks,” said the boy. “You
are getting to be quite a circus rabbit. I must teach you another
trick.”