"Look out, look out for Danny Fox!
He sneaks about in his woolen socks, You never can tell where he is at, For he creeps around like a tip-toe cat."
PHOEBE PHEASANT
LITTLE Phoebe Pheasant"s dew-wet feet hurried along the edge of the Sunny Meadow. Mr. Merry Sun hadn"t been up long enough to dry the gra.s.s, for it was very early in the morning.
In some places the dew had turned to frost, but the little pheasant didn"t mind that in the least, for she is a hardy bird, and not a bit afraid of cold weather.
The weather is about the only thing she isn"t afraid of, for she is very timid. Although she sometimes went to the Old Farmyard for breakfast, at the slightest noise she would fly away.
As she hurried along through the dewy frost she caught sight of Little Jack Rabbit. And as he was the one person she wished to see that morning, it didn"t take her long to reach the Old Bramble Patch.
"Good morning, Phoebe Pheasant," said the little bunny. "You seem in a hurry."
"Yes, I"m in a dreadful hurry to ask you something," replied the little pheasant.
"Well, what is it?" laughed the little bunny.
"You remember Turkey Tim left the Old Farmyard before Thanksgiving?"
"Of course I do," answered the little rabbit.
"He wants to know whether the Kind Farmer has been looking for him?"
whispered Phoebe Pheasant. "He doesn"t dare go back himself to find out."
"I should say not," answered the little rabbit. "The Kind Farmer"s dreadfully put out. He had to go without his Thanksgiving turkey!"
"Then you think it would be dangerous for Turkey Tim to go back to the Old Farmyard?"
"Yes, just now," replied the little bunny. "He"d better wait until everybody has forgotten Thanksgiving."
"It"s dreadfully hard on him, all alone in the Shady Forest," sighed the little pheasant. "He"s not a Wild Turkey, you know."
"Never mind if he isn"t," answered Little Jack Rabbit. "He"ll be a Roast Turkey if he goes back now to the Old Farmyard."
THE s...o...b..LL
BILLY BREEZE had kicked up an awful racket all night around the Old Briar Patch, but Little Jack Rabbit hadn"t heard him. No, sir. The little bunny had been too sound asleep to hear anything, but when he looked out in the morning, goodness me! how he shivered.
The ground was all covered with a white mantle, but he didn"t know it was snow. This was the first snow he had ever seen. It made everything look strange, and the ground was as smooth as Mrs. Rabbit"s best linen tablecloth.
Pretty soon he hopped down to the Bubbling Brook, but it, too, had changed. It was smooth, like gla.s.s. So the little rabbit leaned over the bank to listen, but just then Billy Breeze made a dreadful racket and whirled the snow about in great clouds. But the little rabbit didn"t care; he just kept on listening, and by and by he heard the Bubbling Brook singing softly:
"Underneath the ice and snow Very gently still I flow Till I reach the Old Duck Pond And the ocean far beyond.
"Billy Breeze may whistle loud Toss the snow up in a cloud, Underneath the ice and snow Very gently still I flow."
"Dear me," said the little rabbit to himself, "I never would know that this was the Old Duck Pond if it weren"t for the Old Mill yonder. No wonder Granddaddy Bullfrog hid himself deep down in the mud before all this happened."
Yes, the whole earth seemed quiet and still. The mill wheel moved no more; great icicles hung from the paddles and long snowdrifts lay piled against the dam.
I don"t know how long the little rabbit would have stood there wondering at the sudden change if something hadn"t happened. Whiz! went a s...o...b..ll past his ear. The Farmer"s Boy leaned over and picked up some more snow.
But the little rabbit didn"t wait to see what sort of a s...o...b..ll he would make this time. No, siree. He hopped back to the dear Old Bramble Patch as fast as he could.
THE NEW SLEIGH
THE Old Farm Yard was a very comfortable sort of a place. Little Jack Rabbit liked to go there, for all the Barnyard Folk were very nice to him, especially Henny Penny and c.o.c.ky Doodle, who always gave him some of their corn.
Then, too, it was great fun playing about the High Haystack. Here they all gathered after a snow storm, for the snow soon melted on the sunny side.
Another reason, too, why the little rabbit came so often was because many of his friends were tucked away for a long winter"s nap.
Busy Beaver was safe in his little house under the ice in the Forest Pool. Squirrel Nutcracker and his family came out only on warm, sunshiny days. The rest of the time they spent sleeping in their warm little houses. As for Granddaddy Bullfrog, he never showed up--he was sound asleep in the soft mud at the bottom of the Old Duck Pond.
The little rabbit"s mother had told him not to go too often to the Old Farm Yard for fear the Kind Farmer might not like it. "Henny Penny and c.o.c.ky Doodle are your friends," she told him, "but I"m not so sure about Mr. Farmer."
"Oh, he"s all right, mother," answered the little rabbit. "He"s very kind. He feeds all the Barn Yard Folk with such nice food. I"m sure he"s very good and kind."
"Don"t be too sure," answered the little rabbit"s mother, with a knowing wag of her head.
One day when the little bunny hopped into the Old Farm Yard he heard c.o.c.ky Doodle say:
"It"s a beautiful sleigh!" And just as Little Jack Rabbit was going to ask what he meant, the Kind Farmer came out of the Big Red Barn with Betsy, the Old Gray Mare, and hitched her up to a beautiful dark green sleigh.
"Git ap!" he said, snapping the whip over her back.
"Oh, Oh!" cried the little rabbit, "Maybe mother is right. I guess he"s not such a kind farmer after all!" But of course the little bunny didn"t know that the Kind Farmer hardly touched Old Betsy, although the whip made a loud crack and she threw out her heels and ran off at a great rate.
"Jingle bells, jingle bells, On the nice new sleigh.
Oh what fun it is to run!"
Sang dear Old Betsy Gray.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I"m So Tired of Polishing This Doork.n.o.b."
_Little Jack Rabbit"s Adventures_ _Page 117_]