The next day after Billy Bunny arrived at Uncle Lucky's house the good,
kind old gentleman rabbit said: "Let's go out for a ride in the
Luckymobile, for that was the name of Uncle Lucky's new car, you know."
So off they started, and this time you can well believe the old
gentleman rabbit filled his lamps full of electricity oil, for he hadn't
forgotten the time some million stories ago he had been caught without
any lights on his automobile.
Well, as I was just going to say when my typewriter had to go and
explain all about how poor Uncle Lucky had once been arrested for not
having his lamps lit, they started off--not the lamps, but Billy Bunny
and Uncle Lucky, and by and by they came across an old Drake.
And if you don't know what a Drake is, I'll tell you; he's the husband
of a duck and spends most of his time swimming on the pond while she
stays at home to look after the little ducks. Well, if Uncle Lucky
hadn't stopped the automobile just where he did, Mrs. Duck would have
been a widow.
"What do you mean by not seeing where you're going?" shouted Uncle
Lucky, getting very red in the face.
"Why didn't you toot your horn?" said Mr. Drake with an angry quack, and
then he waddled into the water and swam away.
"What can you expect from an old ferryboat like that?" laughed Uncle
Lucky, watching Mr. Drake paddle away. "He's an old-fashioned
side-wheeler. Let him go!" and the kind old gentleman rabbit leaned out
of the automobile and handed a stick of candy to a little goose who had
stood by listening with eye and bill wide open to all he had said.
Then the old gentleman rabbit took off his wedding stovepipe hat and
bowed to Mrs. Duck, who stood in the doorway of her house, and tooted
his horn and drove off.
And by and by Billy Bunny asked Uncle Lucky to let him run the
automobile, so the old gentleman rabbit changed seats with his little
nephew, and after that he fell asleep. For the road was very smooth and
the wind was soft and warm, and Billy Bunny didn't talk all the time the
way some boys do.
And as Billy Bunny didn't want to wake him up, he kept on going farther
and farther away from home until after a while he found himself in a
thick woods. And then the automobile came to a stop and Uncle Lucky, of
course, woke up with a bump.
"Gracious me! Have I been asleep?" he exclaimed, rubbing his right eye
with his left hind foot. And just then a little flower struck 4 o'clock,
just like a little clock, and that's the reason they call this little
flower "Four o'Clock" I guess. "Gracious me! I have been asleep!" cried
Uncle Lucky, and then he took out the lunch basket and he and Billy
Bunny ate a lot of nice things.
But, goodness me, it's so late that I must stop now, for there isn't
time for the two little rabbits to get home. But I guess they'll cuddle
up in the Luckymobile and sleep until to-morrow morning.