"Yes, but this isn"t a surprise party," said Mrs. Lightfoot. "I don"t know what to do."
"We can pretend it"s a surprise party," went on Susie. "I know I was very much surprised when you asked me to come to it."
"Were you, indeed?" inquired the squirrel. "Then a surprise party it shall be. Listen!" she called to the other squirrels; "this is a surprise party for Susie Littletail."
"Humph! I don"t call this a surprise," grumbled an old squirrel, whose tail had partly been shot off. But n.o.body minded him, as he was always grumbling. So Susie went and got some cabbage leaves and carrots, and brought them to the party. She had to eat them all alone, as the squirrels did not care much for such things. The only thing Susie could eat which the squirrels did was some ice cream, made with snow, maple syrup and hickory nuts ground up fine. This was very good.
Susie had a grand time at the party, and after the hickory-nut ice cream and other good things had been eaten, she and the squirrels played "Ring Around the Old Oak Stump," which is something like "London Bridge" and "Ring Around the Rosy" mixed up together. It was lots of fun, and Susie almost forgot to go to the cabbage-field store. But she did go there, though it was just about to be closed up, and when she got home with the cabbage leaves for supper, she told about the surprise party. Then Sammie wished he had gone to the store, instead of remaining at home to make a whistle out of a carrot.
"I never had anything nice like that happen to me," said Sammie, in just the least bit of a grumbly voice. And, what do you think? The very next day something happened to Sammie, only it wasn"t very nice. He was out walking in a field, when he met a big cat.
"Where do you live?" asked the cat, in quite a friendly voice.
"Over there," said Sammie, pointing toward the burrow.
"Can you take me there?" asked the cat, and she wiggled her whiskers and licked her nose with her tongue, for she was hungry.
"Yes, I"ll show you," agreed Sammie, and he led the cat toward the burrow. Now, he did not know any better, for he did not stop to think that cats will eat rabbits. And the cat was just thinking how easily she had provided a good dinner for herself, when Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, who was peeping out of the front door of the burrow, saw p.u.s.s.y. The muskrat knew at once that the cat had come to eat the little rabbits and the big ones, too, and the only reason she did not eat Sammie was because she wanted more of a meal. So the nurse showed her sharp teeth, and the cat ran away. But she knew where the burrow was, and this was a bad thing, for she might come back again in the night, when Sammie and Susie were asleep.
"We must move away from here at once," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, when he heard about the cat. "We must find a new burrow or make one.
Sammie, you acted very wrongly, but you did not mean to. Now, you must help us pack up to move." And to-morrow night, if all goes well, I shall tell you what happened when the Littletail family went to their new home.
XIII
THE LITTLETAIL FAMILY MOVE
Did you ever see a rabbit family move? No, I don"t suppose you have, for not every one has had that chance. But the Littletail family, as I told you last night, had to move because a big cat had found out where their burrow was.
"I shall go out at once, and see if I can find a new place," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, after the excitement caused by Sammie bringing home the cat had calmed down. "We need a larger burrow, anyhow. I will find a nice one."
"Can you go out with your rheumatism?" asked Mamma Littletail. "You are very lame, you know. Perhaps you had better wait until Papa Littletail comes home to-night, and he will go."
"No, we must lose no time," said the uncle. "I can manage with my crutch, I guess."
So he started from the burrow, leaning heavily on a crutch Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had gnawed from a cornstalk.
"Be careful of the cat," cautioned Susie.
"Oh, no cat can catch me, even if I have the rheumatism very bad," said her uncle, and he limped away. While he was gone, Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy promised to keep a sharp lookout for that cat.
Uncle Wiggily Longears was gone for some time. When he returned to the burrow Papa Littletail had come back from where he worked in a carrot factory, which was a new position for him, and he had heard all the news.
"Well," he asked Uncle Wiggily, "did you find a new burrow?"
"Yes," answered the uncle, "I did. I will tell you all about it. I walked a long distance, and I met several friends of mine. I asked them about burrows, and they said the best ones were all taken. I was afraid you would have to dig a new one, until I met Mr. Groundhog, and he told me of one next to him, on the bank of a little pond. We can get it cheap, he said."
"Has it all improvements?" asked Mamma Littletail. "I want a good kitchen and a bathroom."
"It has everything," said the uncle. "It has three doors, and we can get in and out easily. It is near a cabbage-field and a turnip patch. We can bathe in the pond, so we don"t need a bathroom."
"Where is it?" asked Papa Littletail. "I must be near the trolley, you know."
"It is not far from the cars," went on Uncle Wiggily Longears. "Have you ever heard of Eagle Rock?"
None of the family had.
"Well, it is not far from there," said Uncle Wiggily. "I went out on the rock, and my! what a view there was! I could see away over the big meadows, where some of your relatives live, Miss Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and then I could see something called New York."
"What"s New York?" asked Susie Littletail.
"I don"t know," answered her uncle promptly. "I imagine it must be something good to eat." But of course, children, you know how mistaken he was. Uncle Wiggily told more about his walk, and finally it was decided to take the new burrow, so the cat could not find them.
The next day the Littletail family moved. That is all they did, they just moved. They had no packing or unpacking to do, except that Sammie took the whistle he had made out of a carrot and Uncle Wiggily carried his cornstalk crutch. By noon they were all settled, and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had cooked some of the new cabbage, which had been left in the field all winter, and also some turnips, which were piled under a lot of straw out-of-doors. She also found some potatoes, which she peeled with her sharp teeth.
That afternoon, as Sammie was hopping about his new home, he heard some one exclaim:
"h.e.l.lo!"
"h.e.l.lo," replied Sammie, who always wanted to be friendly.
"Where do you live?" the voice went on, and, all at once, Sammie thought of the cat.
"No, you don"t!" he cried. "You can"t fool me again. I know you!"
"Oh, do you?" asked the voice. "Well, seeing that I"m a stranger here, and you are too, I don"t think that you know me."
Sammie looked on top of a clod of earth, whence the voice came, and saw a big frog.
"Oh, it"s you, is it?" he asked faintly.
"Of course," replied the frog. "My name"s Bully; what"s yours?" Sammie told him. "Ever hear of me?" went on the frog, and when Sammie said he had not, the frog continued: "Well, let"s see who can jump the farthest," and with that he began to get ready. Sammie, who was a very good jumper, did also, and just as they were about to see who was the better at it, there suddenly--But there, I shall have to wait until to-morrow night to tell you what happened next.
XIV
HOW THE WATER GOT IN
Let me see, where did I leave off last night? Oh, I remember now, I was telling you about Sammie Littletail"s new playmate, Bully, the frog, and how they were about to have a jumping contest, when something happened.
This is what happened:
Bully was crouching down for a spring, when he suddenly looked up. This was not hard for him, as his eyes were nearly on top of his head, but Sammie had to get on his hind legs to peer upward properly. And this is what both of the little creatures saw: A big bird, with long legs and a very long bill, was standing on one leg right over the frog. The bird was looking intently at Bully.