"Oh, fine!" exclaimed Susie, and she clapped her two front paws together, she was so glad.
So she and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy made a nice dish of maple-sugar frosting to go on top of the buns when they were baked.
"Now," said the cook, after a little while, "we must get the pans ready to bake them in. And, as we haven"t much room in the kitchen, we will just set the dish of dough and the frosting out on the window sill, where they won"t be in our way. As soon as we have the tins greased we will make the buns and put them in the oven to bake."
So the nice, sweet, good-smelling and good-tasting batter and the dish of maple-sugar frosting were set outside on the window sill. Oh, how nice it smelled. It"s a good thing that sly old fox wasn"t around, I tell you!
Well, after a while, Sammie and Bully got tired of playing marbles, and they walked around to the back of the underground house. And what do you think? If Bully didn"t see those dishes that had been set out on the window sill! Yes indeed, he saw them! Oh, he had sharp eyes, let me tell you!
"Look here!" he cried to Sammie. "They"ve put the stuff out for us. Oh, what a lot of it! Nice, sweet batter, and nice maple-sugar frosting. How kind they are."
"Do you s"pose all this is for us?" asked Sammie, who, whenever he cleaned out the baking dishes, had never seen so much as that in them.
"Of course it is," answered Bully. "Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy said she"d put it out for us, and here it is out. Of course, it must be for us."
Well, Sammie thought so, too, after that, and then the little boy rabbit and Bully sat down, with those two dishes, that had stuff in to make Hot Cross Buns, and they began to eat it all up. And after awhile, when it was pretty nearly all gone, who should come limping along but Uncle Wiggily Longears.
"Well, well," he said, just like that. "What have we here?" Then Sammie told him how the good stuff had been left out by Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. "My goodness me!" exclaimed the old rabbit, leaning on his cornstalk crutch, "how very odd."
"Would you like some?" asked Bully, the frog, very, very politely.
"Indeed I would," answered Uncle Wiggily Longears.
So they gave him some, and it tasted just as good as when he was a little boy rabbit. But just as the last of the sweet batter and the maple-sugar frosting was eaten up, what should happen but that Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy went to the window to take it in to bake, and of course it was gone. Well, you should have seen how surprised she was. She was going to scold Sammie and Bully, only they said it was all a mistake. So they didn"t get a whipping, and very luckily there was enough more stuff in the burrow to make more Hot Cross Buns. So Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy and Susie mixed up some, and these were soon baking in the oven. And, oh, how good they smelled, and they tasted as good as they smelled, each one with a maple-sugar cross on. Now, to-morrow night, if you would like me to, I"ll tell you about hiding the Easter eggs.
XXIV
HIDING THE EASTER EGGS
What a lot of Easter eggs there were! I"m sure if you tried to count all that Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Papa and Mamma Littletail, to say nothing of Uncle Wiggily Longears and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had colored, ready for Easter, you never could do it, never, never, never!
Of course, Uncle Wiggily couldn"t get so very many of the eggs ready for the children, because, you know, he has rheumatism, but then Sammie and Susie were so quick, and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy hurried so, that long before Easter Sunday-morning, or Easter Monday morning, whenever you children hunt for your eggs, they were all ready.
You see, the rabbits have to hide all the Easter eggs that you children hunt for. Of course, I don"t mean those in the store windows; the pretty ones, made of candy, and with little windows that you look through to see beautiful scenes. Oh, no, not those, but the ones you find at home.
Those in the windows are put there by different kinds of rabbits.
Well, all the Easter eggs were ready, and Sammie and Susie, their papa and mamma, Uncle Wiggily Longears and Nurse Jane-Fuzzy-Wuzzy, set out to hide them. There were many colors. I think I have told you about them, but I"ll just mention a few again. There were red ones, blue ones, green ones, pink ones, Alice blue ones, Johnnie red ones, Froggie green ones, strawberry color, and then that new shade, skilligimink, which is very fine indeed, and which turned Sammie sky-blue-pink.
So the rabbits started off with their baskets of colored eggs on their paws.
"Now, be careful, Sammie," called his mamma. "Don"t fall down and break any of those eggs."
"No, mamma," answered Sammie, who was still colored sky-blue-pink, for it hadn"t all worn off yet. "I"ll be very careful."
"So will I, mamma," called Susie.
So they walked on through the woods to visit Newark and all the places around where children want Easter eggs. Of course, if you had gone out in the woods on top of Orange Mountain you could not have seen those rabbits, because they were invisible. That is, you couldn"t see them, because Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the fairy hen, had given them all cloaks spun out of cobwebs, just like the Emperor of China once had, and this made it so no one could see them. For it would never do, you know, to have the rabbits spied upon when they were hiding the eggs. It wouldn"t be fair, any more than it would be right to peek when you"re "it" in playing blind man"s buff.
Well, pretty soon, after a while, as they all walked through the woods, Sammie kept going slower and slower and slower, because his basket was quite heavy, until he was a long way in back of his papa, his mamma and Susie. But he didn"t mind that, for he knew he had plenty of time, when all at once what should come running out of the bushes but a great big dog. At first Sammie was frightened, but then when he looked again he knew the dog was not a rabbit-dog. No, what is worse, he was an egg-dog.
Now an egg-dog is a dog that eats eggs, and they are one of the very worst kinds of dogs there are. So the dog saw Sammie and knew what the little rabbit boy had in his basket. But he asked him, making believe he didn"t know: "What have you in that basket, my little chap?" You see, he called him "little chap" so as to pretend he was a friendly egg-dog.
"There are Easter eggs in the basket," said Sammie politely.
"And what, pray, are Easter eggs, if I may be so bold as to ask?"
inquired the dog, licking his teeth with his long red tongue, and blinking his eyes, as if he didn"t care.
"Easter eggs," replied Sammie, "are eggs for children for Easter, and they are very prettily colored."
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the dog, just like that, and he sniffed the air.
"Please excuse me. But would you kindly be so good as to let me see those eggs? I never saw any colored ones."
"Well," answered Sammie, "I am in a hurry, but you may have one peep."
So he opened the top of the basket and there, sure enough, were the eggs, the green, the blue, the pink, the Johnnie red and the skilligimink colored ones and all.
"Oh, how lovely!" cried the bad dog, sniffing the air again. "May I have one?"
"No," said Sammie, very decidedly, "these are for the little children."
Then that dog got angry. Oh, you should have seen how angry he got. No, on second thoughts I am glad you did not see how unpleasant he was, for it might spoil your Easter. Anyhow, he was dreadfully angry, dreadfully!
He showed his teeth, and he made his hair stand up straight, and he growled: "Give me all those eggs, or I"ll take them right away from you! I am an egg-dog, and I must have eggs. Give them to me, I say!"
Well, maybe poor Sammie wasn"t frightened! He trembled so that the eggs rattled together and very nearly were broken. Then he started to run away, but the bad dog ran after him, and what do you think? Just as the horrid creature was about to take those lovely Easter eggs out of the basket and eat them up, who should come flying through the woods but Mrs. Cluck-Cluck, the fairy hen! She dashed at that dog, with her feathers sticking out, and made him run off. Then how glad Sammie was!
He hurried and caught up to his papa and mamma, and soon all the Easter eggs were hidden.
Oh, what fun Sammie and Susie had running back through the woods after the eggs were all put in the secret places! Susie found a turnip in a field, and Sammie a carrot, and they ate them as they hopped along.
Uncle Wiggily walked quite slowly, for his rheumatism was bothering him, and when those rabbits got home to the burrow, what do you think they found? Why, there were invitations for them all to come to a party that was going to be given by Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble. Alice and Lulu were little duck girls, and they lived with their papa and mamma, Mr.
and Mrs. Wibblewobble, in a pen, not far from the rabbit burrow. They had a brother named Jimmie, but it wasn"t his birthday, for he was a day older than his sisters, who were twins. That is their birthdays came at the same time. Some day I"m going to tell you a lot of stories about these same ducks.
"May we go to the party, mamma?" asked Susie.
"Of course," answered Mamma Littletail, and they all went, even Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. They had a fine time, which I will tell you about in another book that has a lot of duck stories in it. But I just want to mention one thing that occurred.
Just as the party was over, and every one was coming home, Uncle Wiggily couldn"t find his crutch, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had gnawed out of a cornstalk for him. Finally he did find it behind the door. Then he, and Sammie and Susie, and Mr. and Mrs. Littletail started for the burrow.
Then, all at once, when they were in the front yard of the Wibblewobble home, if a silver trumpet didn"t sound in the woods: "Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!" just like that, and up came riding a little boy, all in silver and gold, on a white horse. He wanted to know if he was too late for the party, the little boy did, and when Uncle Wiggily said yes, the little boy was much disappointed.
Then Uncle Wiggily asked him who he was, and the little boy said:
"I am the fairy prince! I used to be a mud turtle, and live in the pond where Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble swim. But I got tired of being a mud turtle, though I _was_ a fairy prince, so I changed myself into a little boy."
But, do you know, Uncle Wiggily didn"t believe him, and, what"s more, he said so. Oh, yes, indeed he did! Then what did that little boy-fairy-prince do, but up and say:
"Well, you soon will believe me, Uncle Wiggily. You come back to the woods a little later, and something wonderful will happen. I"ll make you believe in fairies; that"s what I will, for you will see a red fairy very shortly."
But still Uncle Wiggily didn"t believe, and he went home, moving his nose and ears at the same time. But you just wait, for if I should happen to find a penny rolling up hill, I will tell you, to-morrow night, about Uncle Wiggily and the red fairy.