The red-headed girl, with the freckles on her nose, and a dimple in her chin, didn"t stop until she was on the top floor of the big house where Toby"s howls couldn"t be heard. She opened the door of a dark room, and went in, slamming and locking the door after her.
"There, now I guess he can"t find us!" she exclaimed.
Then to b.u.mper, she turned and began crooning: "You poor little rabbit!
Did Toby hurt you? Don"t be frightened now. I won"t let him have you again. I"ll buy you if it takes all my Christmas money. You"re mine now!"
You can never imagine how these words soothed b.u.mper"s ruffled feelings.
It was like being rescued from a terrible giant who intended to dash out your brains and eat you for supper. b.u.mper"s heart began to beat slower and slower until pretty soon it wasn"t going any faster than the ticking of the clock outside in the hallway.
They sat there in the dark room for a long time, the girl rubbing b.u.mper"s head and back and crooning gently to him. Then a noise outside--the sound of approaching footsteps--alarmed the white rabbit again.
"Edith!" a voice called. "Edith, are you up here?"
It was Mary, her cousin, calling, and the red-haired girl gently pushed open the door, and whispered.
"I"m in here, cousin Mary. Where"s Toby?"
"He"s looking for you. I think you"d better get out of the house before he finds you. Take b.u.mper with you, and we"ll buy him something else to keep him quiet."
"Then I can keep him?--call him really and truly mine?"
"Yes, if you can get away with him. Toby isn"t old enough yet for pets."
"He"s old enough," sniffed Edith, "but he"s been spoilt, and don"t know how to treat them. If he ever lays hands on my rabbit again, I"ll box his ears so hard he"ll never forget it. That"s what I"ll do!"
Mary seemed to concur in this, for she smiled, and rubbed b.u.mper"s head before adding. "He"d raise an awful howl, I suppose, if he knew you were here. You"d better go home now. You can get through the backyard without Toby seeing you."
"Let him see me if he likes," retorted Edith, shaking her red curls and tilting her freckled nose upward. "I won"t let him have the rabbit. Aunt Helen ought to spank him. That"s what he deserves."
Mary walked ahead down the stairs to see if Toby was around, and then when they reached the kitchen Edith climbed through an open window into the backyard. There was a thick hedge around the yard, and back of that another yard which smelt so sweet with flowers and green lawn that b.u.mper raised his head and sniffed.
My, what a whiff that was! There was a vegetable garden hidden back of the rose bushes, filled with crisp lettuce, golden carrots, emerald-green cabbages, blood-red beets, blanching celery, peas, beans, corn, potatoes, and green gra.s.s everywhere. It was a whiff from Rabbit Arcady, and b.u.mper forgot all the dangers he had been through.
"No, no, you mustn"t jump out of my arms!" warned Edith when he struggled to get down and roll around in the green gra.s.s. "Toby might be looking."
There was an opening in the thick hedge, and through this the red-haired girl crawled into the second garden. If anything, this was a more wonderful garden than the first. The odors were intoxicating. There were flowers and birds and trees as well as succulent vegetables. A most wonderful elm tree spread out like an umbrella and shaded the whole lawn.
Beneath this the girl stopped a moment, and let b.u.mper nibble at the green gra.s.s.
For a city rabbit who had never seen green gra.s.s growing, and had only tasted of vegetables several days or a week old, this visit to the garden was like a foretaste of what all rabbits must consider heaven. Nothing b.u.mper had ever eaten tasted quite so good as that gra.s.s, and when the girl picked a fresh, crisp carrot from the garden he couldn"t believe it was anything but a magic carrot. It was so sweet and juicy that it made his mouth water.
"Now you must come in the house," Edith said after he had eaten so much that he was in danger of exploding like an over ripe tomato. "I"m going to keep you right in my bedroom to-night. Then daddy will make a house for you in the morning."
[Ill.u.s.tration: He couldn"t believe it was anything but a magic carrot]
b.u.mper spent the night in a box lined with fresh, green gra.s.s at the foot of the little girl"s bed, but not until after he had met another person whom he feared and disliked almost as much as the bad boy called Toby. She was a cross old nurse, who looked after Edith, and she didn"t like rabbits--not live ones. She admired b.u.mper"s soft, white hair, and remarked:
"Wouldn"t it make a handsome fur neck scarf? I wonder how much it would cost."
Edith s.n.a.t.c.hed the rabbit from her hands. "You wicked old thing!" she exclaimed. "I believe you"d kill b.u.mper just for his fur."
"What a funny little girl you are," the nurse laughed. "What are rabbits for if you can"t use their skins for furs."
With that Edith clapped b.u.mper in the box, and sat on the lid. "I"m going to sit there until you go," she said.
The nurse laughed, and when she finally left the room the red-haired girl jumped up and locked the door. Then she patted b.u.mper again before slipping in bed for the night.
It was early morning before the rabbit heard another word from her. The moon peeking in through the window made b.u.mper feel quite at home, and with it came the sweet aroma of that garden, intoxicating smells of roses, green gra.s.s and succulent vegetables.
"Are you there, little b.u.mper?" the girl called just as the sun rose. She was in her thin nightie, with her wonderful braids of red hair streaming down her back. b.u.mper thumped on the box with both hind feet to express his delight at seeing her again.
"Now you"re coming to bed with me," she added. And sure enough, she lifted the white rabbit from the box and carried him to her bed. It was soft and warm under the sheets, and b.u.mper began playing hide-and-seek with her toes, making her shout and giggle every time his whiskers rubbed against one. It must have been the noise they made that attracted the nurse, for she suddenly knocked on the door and tried to open it.
Edith sprang out of bed, and put the rabbit in his box before she opened the door. "Why was that door locked?" asked the nurse severely.
"Because," replied Edith saucily, "I didn"t want you snooping in here in the night to steal bunny."
"Well, of all things! If you ever do that again, I"ll tell your mother!
Suppose the house took fire with you locked in here."
"I"d know enough to unlock the door, wouldn"t I?" retorted the girl.
The nurse went to the bed and threw back the sheets to air them. Then, in angry amazement, she exclaimed: "You"ve had that dirty beast in the bed!
Now don"t tell me a story."
"Yes, Nursy, and we had a beautiful time playing hide-and-seek under the bedclothes."
The nurse stared hard at Edith, and then shook her head. "You"re a naughty girl, and I"ll give the rabbit to Carlo. See if I don"t?"
This didn"t frighten the girl a bit, and she laughed in the nurse"s face; but it gave b.u.mper such a shock that he missed three heart beats and one of his whiskers, for he knew Carlo was the dog he had heard barking all night long.
STORY VI
b.u.mPER AND CARLO
The little white rabbit found a home already waiting for him in the prettiest corner of the garden, but before that the red-haired girl harnessed him to a ribbon, and let him eat gra.s.s and vegetables to his heart"s content wherever he took a fancy to go. Edith lost her appet.i.te apparently in watching her pet eat, for she wouldn"t go into breakfast even after the nurse had called her several times; but finally, when her mother came out, and took her by the hand, she obeyed.
"Can"t I take the rabbit in with me?" she asked.
"No, dear, put him in the pen over there. He"ll be quite content alone."
So b.u.mper found himself alone in the garden, or rather in a pen shut off from the rest of the garden by stout chicken wire. There was a box in back of the pen, filled with soft gra.s.s and straw, and a tin pan filled with fresh water. There was such a variety of things to eat that he kept nibbling first a carrot, then a cabbage, then a blade of gra.s.s, then some corn, then a piece of bread, then some crackers, then a red beet, then a spear of gra.s.s again, and so on through all the long list of good things.
It was such a mixture that he was never sure just what he had in his mouth. It was just as if a boy or girl had crammed the mouth full of gum drops, chocolates, fudge, lollypops, taffy, peppermint, lemon and wintergreen drops, and a few pieces of fruit cake by way of change. How could he or she tell just what the teeth were munching on?
b.u.mper tasted them all, and thought that each one was sweeter and better than the other; but when he got around to the end of his circle he had to begin all over again to see if they didn"t all taste better the second time. My, it was a feast that made his eyes open and his stomach swell like a toad"s trying to swallow a gnat.