FLOP EAR MEETS DIDO
“Well, now we’re nice and comfortable, let’s talk,” said Slicko, the
jumping squirrel, as she found a soft place on a bed of moss. Flop Ear
picked himself out a nice place also.
“How did you happen to get lost?” asked Slicko, and Flop Ear told all
about it, just as I have told you so far in this book.
“And I have just run away from the nice boy who was teaching me
tricks,” finished Flop Ear.
“So you were caught by a boy too; were you?” asked Slicko. “That same
thing happened to me.”
“It did!” cried Flop Ear, in surprise.
“Yes. Some time ago, that was. A boy came to these woods to get some
nuts, and he caught me.”
“What did he do with you?” Flop Ear asked.
“He took me home, and put me in a wire cage, that had a wheel which
went around very fast. I had some good times in it, and I grew to like
the boy very much. One night a bad man came into the house to take
money, but I heard him, and made such a noise that he ran out. And for
that the boy’s father made him let me go, so I could come back to my
woods.”
“My! That was a great adventure!” cried Flop Ear.
“Sort of, yes,” said Slicko.
And if you would like to read more about the things that happened to
the squirrel, you may do so in the book called: “Slicko, the Jumping
Squirrel; Her Many Adventures.”
“I suppose you met many new animals on your travels?” said Flop Ear.
“Yes, indeed,” answered Slicko. “I met Squinty, the comical pig, and――”
“You did?” cried Flop Ear. “Why, I know Squinty! His pen is near the
burrow where I used to live. If you could only show me where Squinty is
I could find my way back to my home.”
“I wish I could do that for you,” said Slicko, “but I have forgotten
where Squinty’s pen is. Still, I might try.”
“Please do,” begged Flop Ear.
So the squirrel and the rabbit went off in the woods together, looking
for Squinty’s pen. But it was farther away than Slicko thought, and,
after searching about for some time, Slicko said:
“I don’t believe I can find it, Flop Ear. I am sorry.”
“Well, never mind,” returned the rabbit. “You had better not come too
far away from your nest, or you’ll be lost also. I must do the best I
can by myself.”
“I’d ask you to stay with me,” went on Slicko, “only I know you can’t
climb a tree to get up to my nest.”
“No, I can’t climb trees,” the rabbit said. “But I can jump through a
hoop, and stand up on my hind legs and hold a bit of carrot on my nose.
The boy taught me how to do that. I can also pull a little wagon, by a
collar around my neck.
“But I have no carrot now to put on my nose, and there is no wagon here
to draw, and no hoop to jump through. Still, I can jump without one, I
suppose.”
“Let me see how well you jump,” said Slicko.
So Flop Ear gave a big jump, and asked:
“Can you jump as far as that, Slicko?”
“Not quite as far. I can best do my jumping up in the tree, this way,”
and, scrambling up among the branches, the squirrel leaped from one
tree limb to another, landing as lightly as a feather.
“That’s fine jumping, Slicko!” called Flop Ear from down on the ground.
“I can’t do that. I’d be afraid up so high.”
“Oh, there is no danger,” the squirrel said.
Then the two friends talked some more, and just before Slicko went back
to her nest and Flop Ear traveled on again, the rabbit said:
“I hope I shall find my folks and my home soon, for I am getting quite
lonesome. I was glad to see you, Slicko.”
“And I was glad to see you,” chattered the squirrel. “Good-by!”
“Good-by!” called Flop Ear.
“My, he certainly is a funny rabbit,” thought Slicko to herself as she
watched him going along through the woods, with one ear up and the
other ear down. “He makes me laugh and feel jolly just to look at him.
I hope he finds his home.”
On and on through the woods went Flop Ear. Now and then he would stop
and thump on the ground with his feet, hoping some of his folks might
be near, and hear him.
But no answering thumps came, and Flop Ear felt sad and lonely. That
night he found a hollow tree with some dried leaves piled up in it, and
there he slept. It was not cold out, and as Flop Ear found some sweet
roots to eat, and a nice spring of water out of which to get a drink,
he was not so badly off.
The wood in which Flop Ear slept that night was near a road which was
between two large cities. In the middle of the night the rabbit was
awakened by hearing a rumbling sound.
“That must be thunder,” he said to himself. “It isn’t a hunter’s gun,
for they don’t shoot at night. I wonder if a storm is coming up. Well,
if it is, I’ll be safe in my hollow tree. I guess I’ll take a look
outside though.”
The rumbling noise grew louder, but as Flop Ear looked out he could see
no lightning. The moon was shining brightly, too, so the rabbit knew it
could not be a storm. Then as he looked toward the road he saw some big
wagons being hauled along by many horses, and from the wagons came the
smell of wild animals.
“Why――why!” exclaimed Flop Ear, wide awake now. “This must be a
circus――a circus such as Blackie, the cat, told me about. She said it
went from one city to another by night. I guess I’ll go out and look
at it. Nobody will mind me, and I may see Tum Tum, the jolly elephant
Blackie told of. I have never seen an elephant.”
Out of his hollow tree hopped Flop Ear. The rumbling noise was very
loud now, for many of the big circus wagons were passing along the
road. Then some of them stopped, for the horses were tired.
Flop Ear hopped up close to one wagon in which he could see a lot of
straw. Suddenly a big, black animal rose up from the straw and looked
out through the bars of the cage. The white rabbit, sitting beside the
road, was plainly to be seen in the moonlight.
“Hello! Who are you?” asked the black animal in the circus wagon cage.
It was standing still now.
“I am Flop Ear, the funny rabbit,” was the answer. “At least I suppose
I must be funny because every one says I am.”
“You are,” said the other animal. “It makes me want to laugh when I
look at you.”
“Go on, laugh all you like,” urged Flop Ear politely. “But what is your
name? Are you Tum Tum, the jolly elephant?”
“No, indeed! He is much larger than I. But how did you hear about Tum
Tum?”
“From Blackie, a lost cat, whom I met in the woods.”
“What! Do you know Blackie?” cried the other animal in surprise. “And
has she found her home yet?”
“She had not, the time I saw her,” answered Flop Ear. “But how is it
you know Blackie?”
“Why,” was the answer, “I am Dido, the dancing bear, and it was in my
cage that Blackie hid in the straw, when the bad boys were going to tie
a tin can to her tail.”
“Oh, yes, she told me about that,” returned Flop Ear. “So you are Dido,
eh? Blackie said you were very good to her. Would you mind dancing for
me?”
“Not at all,” said Dido. “Though, really, I have not much room in my
cage. I do most of my dancing out in the circus ring. But while the
wagons are waiting for the horses to rest I can dance a little for you.”
And Dido did. He had learned to dance when he was first caught in the
woods, in the far-away country where he lived.
“How do you like that?” he asked the rabbit, as he sat down on the
straw in his cage.
“Very nicely done, indeed!” answered Flop Ear. “I am very glad I met
you. I have met many new friends since I began my adventures.”
“So you have had adventures too, have you?” asked Dido. “Tell me about
them.” And Flop Ear did so.
“Ha! What is all this talk about?” asked a growling voice in the next
cage. “You have awakened me. What is it all about?”
“Why, a friend of mine, a white rabbit, is out in the road, and I am
talking to him,” answered Dido. “At least I call him a friend of mine,
though I never met him before. But he knows Blackie, a cat whom I know,
and as long as he is a friend of Blackie’s he is a friend of mine.”
“Ha! A white rabbit out in the road, eh?” went on the growling voice,
and Flop Ear saw some glaring eyes looking at him from the wagon cage
next to that of Dido, the dancing bear. “I used to eat white rabbits in
my country in the jungle,” growled the voice. “I would eat you too, if
I could get at you,” and a big paw, with sharp claws on it, was thrust
out of the cage.
“Don’t mind him,” said Dido to Flop Ear, who was getting ready to hop
away. “That’s Stripe, the tiger. He’s rather cross to-night, but really
he wouldn’t hurt any one.”
“Yes, I would!” growled Stripe.
“Oh, no, you wouldn’t. You know you wouldn’t,” laughed Dido, the
dancing bear. “Go on, Flop Ear, tell me more about yourself.”
So Flop Ear did, and the bear said he hoped the rabbit would soon find
his home.
“I hope so myself,” sighed Flop Ear. “I am getting quite lonesome
without my folks.”
From down the road came the sound of a horn.
“Ha! That means the circus wagons are going to start once more,” said
Dido. “Good-by, Flop Ear. I am glad I met you. Give my love to Blackie,
the cat, if you meet her again.”
“I will,” promised the rabbit. “Do you think, Dido,” he asked, “that I
could have a look at Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. I should like to tell
my brother and sister――if I ever find them again――that I had seen a
real, live circus elephant.”
“See Tum Tum? Why, certainly!” said Dido. “The elephants are farther
up ahead. If you run along there you’ll see them. Tum Tum is the first
elephant, and the largest. Tell him I sent you.”
“I will,” said Flop Ear.
He hopped forward just as the wagons were beginning to move. Then Flop
Ear saw some of the largest animals he had ever seen in his life. There
were a number of them, and they were as big as the wagons in which the
other animals were carried.
“These must be the elephants,” thought Flop Ear. He was so surprised at
their bigness that he stood still in the road. Then, all of a sudden a
voice cried right in his ear:
“Look out there, little white animal!”
And, all at once, the next thing Flop Ear knew he was being lifted high
in the air.