I
It was a warm summer day.
Bunny and Billy were over in the meadow eating clover.
Mother Rabbit and Bobtail were in the garden eating cabbage.
Billy was fond of cabbage, too. But the garden was far away, across
the field and over the other side of the road.
So Billy ate clover in the meadow.
Bunny had eaten cabbage the day before. So he ate clover in the meadow
with Billy.
The two little rabbits nibbled at the tender leaves.
"I have had enough to last me all day," said Bunny. "Now let's go and
play."
"Oh, no!" said Billy. "I am going home and take a nap."
"Oh, do come and play with me," said Bunny.
But Billy only shook his head and hopped off toward home.
Bunny looked around to see if there was any one to play with.
He could not see any of his friends.
"I think I will go over to the garden and find mother and Bobtail," he
said to himself.
Now when Bunny thought of anything he always did it the very next
minute.
So he hopped off as fast he could go.
He hopped across the field and across the road.
When he came to the barn he stopped to see if Mr. Man or Jip were
anywhere in sight.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" called the rooster, who was sitting on the fence.
[Illustration: "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" called the rooster.]
"Where are you going so fast this bright day?"
"I am going to the garden again," said Bunny. "Mother and Bobtail are
there eating cabbage."
Bunny hopped along past the hen-yard fence, and into the orchard.
All at once he stopped. He saw something in the grass ahead of him.
It was white and round and furry. And it had two long ears just like
his own.
Bunny stood very still and looked and looked.
"That must be a snow rabbit," he said to himself.
"But I never saw a snow rabbit in the summer. I am sure this hot sun
would melt the snow."
Just then the white rabbit saw Bunny.
"Who are you?" he asked. "I never saw you before."
"I never saw you," said Bunny. "Where did you come from?"
"I live in a little house near the barn," said the white rabbit.
"Jack left the gate open this morning when he fed me, and so I thought
I would take a walk."
"Do you like to live in a little house?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, yes," answered the white rabbit. "I always have something to eat
and I am never cold.
"And when Jack forgets to close the gate, I have a good play in the
field."
"I live in the woods," said Bunny. "My door is never closed, and I can
run out any time I wish.
"But sometimes I am hungry, and sometimes I am cold."
"Come and live with me," said the white rabbit. "There is room enough
in my house for two."
Now Bunny knew he would not like to live in a house all the time, but
he thought he might go and visit the white rabbit.
So Bunny and Whitie, as Bunny called him, hopped off toward the barn.
"That is my home," said the white rabbit, and he pointed to a little
house under the apple tree.
There was a yard in front of the house. And there was a fence around
the yard,--a fence with a gate that could be shut and locked.
Bunny saw the house and he hopped along after Whitie.
But he was frightened. He had never been so near the barn before.
What if Mr. Man or Jip should see him.