And he rolled, head first, right into a snow-bank.
Bobtail didn"t like that very well. He kicked and kicked to get out of the snow.
He shook his fur coat and he shook his long ears.
Then he looked down the hill to see what had become of Billy.
Billy was on the sled. And the sled was sliding down the hill.
It came to the pond.
Crack, crack! Splash, splash! it went.
Crack, crack! Splash, splash! and Billy slid right into the water.
It was not very deep, but it was very wet.
When Billy climbed out on the bank he was very wet, too.
"Oh, dear me!" he said, "the water is cold."
"Oh, dear me!" said Bobtail, "the snow is cold."
"Oh, dear me!" said Bunny, "I hurt my nose."
"Let"s run home to Mother Rabbit," said Billy.
"Yes, let"s run home!"
So the three little rabbits hopped along the path through the woods as fast as they could go.
Bobby Gray Squirrel was running up and down in the big oak tree.
"Come and play with me," he said.
But the little rabbits did not stop to answer.
They hopped along the path as fast as they could go.
And they didn"t stop once until they were safe in their own cosy home.
A CHRISTMAS TREE
I
The little pine tree stood near the path that led through the woods.
In summer the rabbits often sat under this tree to rest.
The tree listened to the stories they told of the good times they had together.
The birds flew to its branches and talked to each other about the things they had seen in the woods.
Bobby Gray Squirrel and his brothers often ran up into the pine tree to play tag.
But Sammy Red Squirrel knew something about this tree that no one else knew.
He knew where there was a small hole in one of the branches.
He found it one day when he ran up into the tree to eat a nut.
And when he saw the hole he said to himself, "That is a good place to hide some nuts for the winter."
The hole was not very large, but Sammy hid ten acorns in it. He packed them in one by one.
Last of all he put a piece of bark in the hole.
"This is a good door for my store-house," he said, "I am sure no one will find these acorns."
And no one did find them.
Sammy ran to the hole very often and lifted the door just a crack.
The ten little acorns were just where he had put them.
"I will eat these nuts last of all," he said to himself.
All through the fall the little red squirrel hunted for nuts under the trees.
Sometimes he could not find any on the ground.
Then he would run round and round hunting for holes where he had hidden acorns away.
If the holes were empty Sammy knew some other little squirrel had been there before him.
And sometimes Sammy found nuts that other squirrels had stored away.
The hunting was always good, and no squirrel ever went to bed hungry.
But at last Jack Frost came and covered everything with snow.
All the nuts and acorns were frozen into the ground so the squirrels could not dig them out.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The squirrel hunted for nuts.]