In the last story I left off just where Billy Bunny was setting out to
make a call on his good kind Uncle Lucky, you remember, and if you have
forgotten, please take my word for it, for I keep a scrapbook of all
these little stories and I'm sure I'm right, for I just looked to see.
Well, as the little rabbit hopped along with his knapsack on his back
and his striped candy cane in his right paw, he heard a robin redbreast
singing in her nest, and this is what she sang:
"Some day you'll be old enough
To leave the dear home nest,
But till that day just grow and say
I'll try to do my best
To make my wings grow big and strong
And learn to sing the whole day long,
For some day when I'm big and free
I'll build a nest in an apple tree."
And then the robin flew down to the ground and pushed back the pink
sunbonnet on her head so that she could see the little rabbit without
standing up on her toes.
"Well, here is my dear little friend, Billy Bunny," she twittered. "How
is he to-day?"
"Very well, thank you, ma'am," replied the little rabbit, opening his
leather knapsack to give her a piece of sponge cake for her little
birdies. "That won't hurt them a bit," said he, "for my mother made it
and it's very simple."
And then the little robins peeped over their nest and cried, "Oh, hurry,
mother dear, and give us the cake," for they were just as fond of sponge
cake as Billy Bunny was of lollypops, and while they were eating the
cake he took a lollypop out of his knapsack and ate it, for he was
hungry too, for it was half-past noon, and that's the hungry hour for
rabbits, I am told.
Well, after that he said good-by and started off again for Uncle Lucky's
house. "I must get there before sundown," he said to himself, "for I
don't want to sleep out of doors to-night if I can help it."
So he hopped along as fast as he was able, but Mr. Happy Sun was in a
hurry, too, and pretty soon he went down behind the purple hills and it
began to grow dark. "Oh, dear! oh, dear!" sighed the little rabbit,
"where am I going to sleep if I don't get to Uncle Lucky's house pretty
soon?" And just then a sleepy voice exclaimed:
"Under this bush is a soft pile of leaves,
Come and sleep on it if you please."
So Billy Bunny hopped under the bush and there he saw a little ruffed
grouse, who is often called a quail and sometimes a pheasant. "Oh, thank
you, Mrs. Quail," said Billy Bunny, "you are very kind," and then he
made a soft bed for himself and went to sleep, and if he wakes up early
enough in the morning I'll tell you in the next story how he reached
dear kind Uncle Lucky's house.