"Save me! Save me!" Billie cried from up there among the clouds.
"I will! I will!" shouted Sammie, and then he got so excited that he ran around in a circle, and tried to catch his tail, but it was so short that he couldn"t even see it, no matter how fast he went around. Then he grabbed up a stone, and he threw it at that hawk, but of course he couldn"t hit him, for the big, bad bird was too far away. "Oh, whatever shall I do?" exclaimed Sammie. "If I could only fly now, I"d go up after that hawk. Oh, why didn"t Susie wish for wings for me and her instead of for a golden chariot and ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots the time she saw the blue fairy? Oh, why didn"t she? Wings would have been of some use!"
Then he ran around after his tail some more, but he couldn"t catch it, and the hawk kept taking Billie farther and farther away, and then Sammie cried out: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" three times, just like that. Then, all at once, if the little green man didn"t suddenly appear.
He always appears when any one says "Oh, dear!" three times in exactly the right way, but it"s hard to know just what is the right way.
"Well," said the little green man, "you seem to be in trouble."
"I am," cried Sammie. "A hawk has Billie Bushytail, and I want to save him."
"Very well," said the little green man, "since you are so kind, you shall save him. Shut your eyes, cross your front paws, and wrinkle your nose three times and a half." So Sammie did this, and, would you believe me? if, in another instant, the little green man hadn"t changed into a big, kind, good-natured eagle. "Get up on my back," the eagle said to Sammie, "and we will save Billie."
So Sammie got on the eagle"s back, and the big bird flew after that hawk, and, pretty soon, it caught up to him.
"Here, you let Billie Bushytail go!" cried Sammie, and then he took a long stick he had grabbed up, and he hit that hawk. At first the hawk wasn"t going to let go of the little squirrel, but when the eagle bit him three times on each leg, then that bad bird was glad enough to drop Billie and fly off. Oh, my, no, he didn"t drop Billie to the ground; that would have been too bad. He only dropped him on the eagle"s back, where Sammie was, and pretty soon the two boys were safe on the ground once more, and the eagle had turned into a little green man again.
"I"m ever so much obliged to you for saving me, Sammie," spoke Billie.
"Oh, I couldn"t have done it if it hadn"t been for the green fairy,"
replied Sammie, and of course he couldn"t. Then Billie thanked the little man very kindly, and he felt sorry for not believing in fairies, and he said he would try to, after that. So the boy squirrel and the boy rabbit played together some more, until it was time to go home. Now, if you don"t walk in your sleep to-night, I"ll tell you to-morrow about Susie and the fairy carrot.
x.x.xI
SUSIE AND THE FAIRY CARROT
Susie and Sammie Littletail had been off in the woods for a walk, and to gather some flowers, for they expected company at the underground house, and they wanted it to look nice. Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail and Billie and Johnnie and Sister Sallie were coming, and Susie and her brother hoped to have a very nice time.
Well, they wandered on, and on, and on, and had gathered quite a number of flowers, when Sammie said:
"Come on, we"ve got enough; let"s go home."
"No," answered Susie, "I want to get some sky-blue-pink ones. I think they are so pretty."
"I don"t," answered her brother, for that color always reminded him of the time he fell in the dye pot, when they were coloring Easter eggs.
"I"m going home. Yellow, and red, and blue, and white flowers are good enough. I don"t want any fancy colors."
"Well, you go home and I"ll come pretty soon," said his sister, so while Sammie turned back, the little rabbit girl kept on. Oh, I don"t know how far she went, but it was a good distance, I"m sure, but still she couldn"t seem to find that sky-blue-pink flower. She looked everywhere for it, high and low, and even sideways, which is a very good place; but she couldn"t find it. And she kept on going, hoping every minute it would happen to be behind a stump or under a bush. But no, it wasn"t.
And then, all of a sudden, about as quick as you can shut your eyes and open them again, if Susie wasn"t lost! Yes, sir, lost in those woods all alone. She looked all around, and she didn"t know where she was. She"d never been so far away from home before, and, oh, now frightened she was! But she was a brave little rabbit girl, and she didn"t cry, that is, at first. No, she started to try to find her way back, but the more she tried the more lost she became, until she was all turned around, you know, like when they blindfold you and turn you around three times before they let you try to pin the tail on the cloth donkey at a party.
Yes, that"s how it was.
Well, then Susie began to cry, and I don"t blame her a bit. I think I would do the same myself. Yes, she sat right down and cried. Then she felt hungry and she looked around for something to eat, and what should she see, right there in the woods, but a carrot.
"Oh!" she cried, "how lucky! Now I shan"t be hungry, anyhow." So she picked up the carrot and started to eat it, when all at once that carrot spoke to her. What"s that? You don"t see how a carrot could speak? Well, it did all the same. But you just listen, please, and maybe you"ll see how it happened.
"Please don"t eat me," the carrot said, in a squeaky voice.
"Why not?" asked Susie, who was very much surprised.
"Because I am a fairy carrot," it went on. Now do you see how it could speak? Well, I guess! "Yes, I am a fairy carrot, Susie, and I can help you. What do you want most?" it asked.
"I want to find my way home," said the little rabbit girl.
"Very well, my dear," went on the vegetable. "Place me on the ground in front of you, stand on your hind legs, wiggle your left ear, and see what happens."
So Susie did this, and would you believe me, for I"m not exaggerating the least bit, if that fairy carrot didn"t roll right along on the ground in front of Susie.
"Follow, follow, follow me, And you soon at home will be,"
the carrot said, in a sing-song voice, and it rolled on, still more, and Susie followed.
First the carrot went through a deep, dark part of the woods, but Susie wasn"t at all afraid, for she believed in fairies. Then, pretty soon, the carrot came to a great big hole. It was too big to jump over, and too deep to crawl down into, and too wide to run around.
"Oh, dear!" cried Susie, "I don"t see how I"m going to get over this."
But do you s"pose that carrot was bothered? No, sir; not the least bit.
It stretched out, like a piece of rubber, and stuck itself across that hole until it was a regular little bridge, and Susie could walk safely over. Then it became an ordinary fairy carrot again, and rolled on in front of her, showing her just which way to go.
After a while she came to a great big lake, one she had never seen before.
"Oh, how shall we get over this?" cried Susie.
"Don"t worry," spoke the carrot. Then what did it do but turn into a little boat, and Susie got into it, and sailed over that lake as nicely as you please. Then it turned into an ordinary, garden, fairy carrot again, and rolled on, Susie following. Pretty soon they came to a place where the woods and brush were all on fire.
"Oh, I know we shall never get over that place!" exclaimed Susie, for she was very much afraid of fire, because she once burned a hole in her ap.r.o.n.
"Oh, we"ll get over that," promised the carrot. "Just you watch me!" And really truly, if it didn"t turn into a rainstorm, and sprinkle down on the flames, and put that fire out, and then, just so Susie wouldn"t get wet it turned into an umbrella; and held itself over her all the rest of the way home. So Susie got safely back to the burrow, with all the flowers but the sky-blue-pink one, and maybe she wasn"t glad! And maybe her folks weren"t glad too! They had begun to worry about her, and Sammie was just going to start off to look for her. So Susie told how the fairy carrot had brought her home, and Uncle Wiggily said:
"Well, there are certainly queer things happening nowadays. I never would have believed it if you hadn"t told me."
Now, listen, to-morrow night"s story is going to be about--let me see--Oh! on second thought I believe there are enough stories in this book, and, if you would like to read some more I"ll have to put them in another. How would you like to hear about some squirrels? Billie and Johnnie Bushytail and Sister Sallie and Jennie Chipmunk and their friends, eh? If you would like to read of them you can do so in the next volume, which is going to be named, "Bedtime Stories: Johnnie and Billie Bushytail." I hope you will like the squirrels, for they are very good friends of Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Uncle Wiggily Longears, too.
Now, good-bye for a little while, dear children.
THE END