"Get up, get up, you lazy folks,
I'm shining in the sky.
Awake, awake, your breakfast take,
Before the noon is nigh.
No time for lazy folks I think,
So don't lie still and blink and blink,
But jump up with a laugh and smile
And sing a little all the while."
SO up jumped Billy Bunny from his bed of leaves where he had slept all
night, as I told you in the last story, and after he had combed his fur
with a little chip and dusted off his knapsack he opened it and took out
his breakfast.
And what do you suppose he had? Well, first he ate some nice fresh
lettuce leaves, with powdered sugar carrots, and then a piece of apple
pie, and when kind Mrs. Quail saw what a nice breakfast he had, she
said:
"I like pie, Mr. William Bunny." Now the reason the little rabbit hadn't
offered her some was because he hadn't seen her. You see, she had gone
to sleep on the other side of the bush.
"Here is some pie," said Billy Bunny, and he gave her a big piece and
some cracker crumbs and some birdseed and then a drink of lemon soda.
Pretty soon Mrs. Quail didn't feel a bit hungry, and neither did the
little rabbit.
And after that he buckled on his knapsack and started off to find his
dear Uncle Lucky, but first he thanked Mrs. Quail for her kindness in
letting him sleep under her bush all night and part of the early
morning.
Well, sir, that little rabbit hopped along almost all day, and still he
didn't reach his Uncle Lucky's house. "I wonder if I have lost the way?"
he said aloud, and, all of a sudden, a voice answered: "I guess you
have. Lots of people do," and a kind-looking old mooley cow pushed her
head over the fence and smiled at him. And, oh, my, she had a big,
beautiful smile, and this made the little rabbit laugh and forget how
tired he was.
"Do you know where my Uncle Lucky lives----Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot?" he
asked.
"To be sure," replied the mooley cow. "He lives over yonder," and she
pointed across the meadow. "Hop under the fence, little rabbit, and then
hop across the meadow, over the daisies and buttercups, and you'll find
the place, never fear."
So the little rabbit did as she told him, and when he came to the fence
on the other side he saw his uncle's house not very far away. But, oh,
dear me! The fence was not at all like the fence on the other side.
There wasn't any room between the woven wires to crawl through, and so
Billy Bunny didn't know what to do.
But he didn't wonder very long. No, sireemam. He started right in to dig
a tunnel under that wire fence, and pretty soon he was on the other
side, hopping away toward Uncle Lucky's house, and in about five hundred
and a half hops, skips and jumps he came to the front gate.
And there on the porch sat the kind old gentleman rabbit, with the big
diamond pin which his nephew had given him shining like a star in his
red tie. And in to-morrow's story I'll tell you what a good time the
little rabbit had at his uncle's house.