"All day he nibbled pie Till at last I thought he"d die,"
Said the doctor with a sigh.
And then Mr. William Bunny looked at his small son and sighed, too, for he had just paid the doctor"s bill.
"Please don"t sing any more," said little Billy Bunny. "Don"t you remember the doctor said I was to be kept quiet?"
So Mr. William Bunny went out on the porch to smoke a cigar and read the Rabbitville "Gazette" until after supper time.
And while he was reading Mrs. Bunny looked over his shoulder and read: "Wanted, a secondhand automobile in good condition."
"Ring up your Uncle Lucky on the telephone," she called to Billy Bunny. "Here"s a chance for him to sell his Luckymobile." So the little rabbit rang up 000 Lettuceville, and in a few minutes he heard the old gentleman"s voice at the other end of the wire.
"But I don"t want to sell my Luckymobile," he said. "It"s the only one in ex-is-tence," which means the only one ever made, and I guess he was right, for I never rode in a Luckymobile, did you?
"But mother thinks you ought to sell it," said Billy Bunny, "and so does father, for they both say you"ll have a terrible accident some day if you don"t look out."
"Well then, I"ll look out," said Uncle Lucky with a laugh. "But I won"t sell my Luckymobile." And then he asked Billy Bunny to make him a visit. So the little rabbit put on his knapsack and picked up his striped candy cane and started off, after first asking his mother"s permission, of course.
And after he had gone for maybe a million Hops, he came to a big tree where Old Barney the Owl had his next. But of course, he wasn"t awake.
Oh, my, no. He had his eyes tightly closed, for owls don"t like a bright light, you know. They can see in the dark but not in the daytime.
But when Billy Bunny called out, "h.e.l.loa, Mr. Barney," the old gentleman owl blinked his eyes and said, "Who"s calling me?" And then the little rabbit thought he"d play a joke, so he said, "Mr. Mouse!"
And if there was anything that Old Barney loved to eat, it was mice.
And in the next story I"ll tell you what Billy Bunny did.
STORY XIII.
BILLY BUNNY AND MR. MOLE.
You remember in the last story I promised to tell you what Billy Bunny did when Old Barney the Owl asked him, "Who"s there?" and the little rabbit replied, "Mr. Mouse," just to fool him, you know. Well, after that
Old Barney the Owl Gave a terrible scowl As he looked at little Bill Bunny.
You thought you were wise, But my blinky old eyes Can see you are not a bit funny.
I can see from my house You are not Mr. Mouse.
And then the old blinkerty, winkerty owl flopped down to the ground and tried to catch the little rabbit. But Billy Bunny was too quick for him. He jumped into a hollow stump before you could say "Jack Rabbit!"
"Come out of there," cried Old Barney, in a screechery, teachery voice, but you just bet the little bunny didn"t. He knew what would happen if he did.
Well, by and by, after a long while, he looked around, and, would you believe it, he found a little pair of stairs. So down he hopped until he came to a door on which was painted in red letters: "Mr. Mole, Subway Contractor."
Then the little rabbit knocked on the door and pretty soon it was opened and there stood Mr. Mole himself.
"What do you want?" he asked, trying to squint out of his little tiny eyes that were hidden all over with hair.
"It"s me--Billy Bunny," replied the little rabbit. "Mr. Owl tried to catch me and I hopped into your hollow stump entrance, but I haven"t got a ticket for the subway."
"Well, you can come in anyway," said the kind old mole; "my subway isn"t finished yet and the trains won"t be running for some time. Come in." So Billy Bunny hopped inside and sat down on a chair close to a little bra.s.s railing, behind which stood Mr. Mole"s desk.
Then Mr. Mole sat down and looked at Billy Bunny as much as to say, "And now what can I do for you?" So Billy Bunny said, "I would like to get up on the ground again. Can you show me a new way, because I don"t want to go back the way I came?"
Then Mr. Mole pressed a little bell, and in came a mole with overalls on and a little pickaxe. "Show my friend, Mr. Billy Bunny, through the tunnel to the Moss Bank entrance."
"Thank you," said the little rabbit, and he hopped after the workman mole until they came to an opening. And when the little rabbit got outside once more he found himself on a mossy bank where blossomed a lovely bed of violets.
So he picked a bouquet for himself and stuck it in his b.u.t.tonhole, and after that he hopped away singing a song. And if Robbie Redbreast hadn"t heard it I never would have been able to tell it to you. Wasn"t it lucky that the little robin sang it to me this morning while I was still in bed? Because, if he hadn"t, how would I have ever learned it?
Over the clover and over the gra.s.s Hoppity, hop, I go; Over the leaves from the autumn trees And over the soft white snow, With a whistle and song I go hopping along, I"m Billy Bunny, you know.
STORY XIV.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE WATER SNAKE.
"Over the gra.s.s or over the snow, Fast as a little white breeze I go.
I"m Billy Bunny, Billy Bunny, you know."
Thus sang the little rabbit even after I left off in last night"s story. Isn"t it strange? Maybe I dreamed it. Anyhow, that"s what I think he did, and after a while, when he had stopped singing, you know, he came to a little hill on the top of which was a high white pole with an American Flag flying from it.
And underneath was a whole regiment of little Boy Bunny Scouts, dressed in khaki, with guns and caps and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and guns and drums and a captain and a fife, and I guess there were three or four fifes, and as soon as they saw the little rabbit, they all shouted, "Here comes Billy Bunny. Let"s get him to join our regiment."
"I belong to the Billy Bunny Boy Scouts of Old Snake Fence Corner,"
replied the little rabbit. "I can"t join your regiment." So he hopped along and by and by he came to a big white swan that was sailing up and down on a pond.
"Would you like to take a sail?" she asked, coming up close to the bank. "Because if you would, just hop on my back and I"ll take you around the pond two times and maybe a half if you"ll give me a lollypop."
So the little rabbit opened his knapsack and gave her one and then he hopped on her back and went for a lovely sail in and out among the pond lilies and little green gra.s.s islands.
Well, everything was going along beautifully when, all of a sudden, just like that, a big water snake came swimming by.
"Oh, don"t let him swallow me," cried the little rabbit, and he took his popgun out of his knapsack and stuck the cork in the end.
"I"ll shoot you on the tail if you touch me," he cried just as bravely as he could, but he nearly slipped off the swan"s back just the same, he was so frightened.
"Don"t you come any nearer," said the swan with a fierce hiss, but the snake didn"t care. He swam around and around until the little rabbit got so dizzy that he had to hold on to the swan"s neck.
"Please swim around the other way," pleaded the little rabbit, "you make me dreadfully dizzy." But the bad water snake said he wouldn"t, because that"s just what he wanted Billy Bunny to be--so dizzy that he would fall into the water and then that dreadful water snake could swallow him and maybe a pond lily besides.
"Look here," said the swan, "if you don"t stop making snakery circles all around me, I"ll bite your head off with my big, strong beak." And then what do you think the little rabbit did? Why, he managed somehow to lift up his gun and shoot it off, and the cork hit the water snake on the end of the tail and gave him such a headache that he swam over to the long gra.s.s and ate watercress salad and a piece of lemon pie.
And while he was doing that the swan took the little rabbit to the other side of the pond and he hopped away so fast that he didn"t tell me what he was going to do in to-morrow"s story.