"Early to rise, early to rise, Will make little bunny boys win the first
prize," sang Mrs. Bunny at the foot of the stairs. And then Billy Bunny
lifted up his left hind leg and his right ear, and he wiggled his nose
forty times less once, and after that he was wide awake.
And when he had washed his face and whiskers, and parted his hair down
his back nice and smooth, he went down to eat his breakfast of carrot
mush and raspberry juice which his kind mother had made from the fruit
that grew in the old bramble patch. And then, oh yes, oh yes! he
polished the brass knob on the front door, and after that he went down
to the postoffice to see if a new spring mattress had come by parcel
post.
But it hadn't, and the postmistress, who was a nice Lady Hornet, said it
was a bit early in the season for spring mattresses, but she thought by
next month it would come along, that is, if the weather kept nice and
warm.
Well, anyway, she had something for the little rabbit. It was a letter
with two carrot cents postage due, which the little bunny paid.
And then he opened his letter, and what do you think he found inside?
Why, a beautiful tinted photo of his circus elephant friend, and on the
back was written in purple ink, "To Billy Bunny, from Elly, the circus
elephant."
"Now, isn't that nice of him," said Billy Bunny. "I must send him mine
right away," so he hopped away to the nearest photographer, who was a
nice Crane and had his place in Rabbitville about 450 hops away.
By and by Billy Bunny reached the picture gallery, and after he had told
the Crane photographer what he wanted he sat down on a little green
mossy rock in front of a big canvas painted like the ocean with big
green waves and white foam.
And all around the rock was sprinkled sand so that when the picture was
taken it looked just as if the little bunny had been to Newport for the
summer.
"How many do you want?" asked the Photographer Crane, who was certainly
a splendid picture man, for his legs were just the right length so that
he could look into the back of the camera without standing on a stool.
And, wasn't it funny, you couldn't tell his legs apart from the legs of
the camera, only the camera had three and the Crane only two.
"I'll take seven," said the little rabbit. "That's my lucky number. I
want to send one to Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot; he's my Uncle Lucky."
"And one to my friend, the circus elephant, for he's my best friend. It
will make Daddy Fox mad to think he wasn't here at the same time, for
he's always trying to catch me."
And just then who should peep in through the window but Daddy Fox
himself. And in the next story you shall hear what happened after that.