"I wonder what makes me feel so good?" said Sammie to his sister. "It"s just as if Christmas was coming, or something like that; yet it isn"t. I don"t know what it is."
"I know," spoke Susie, who was very wise for a little bunny-rabbit girl.
"What is it?" asked Sammie, as he paused to nibble at a sweet root that was sticking out of the ground.
"It is because we have been kind to somebody," went on Susie Littletail.
"We did the little brown bird a kindness in showing her the squirrel"s nest where she could go to housekeeping, and that"s what makes us happy."
"Are you sure?" asked Sammie.
"Yes," said Susie; "I am," and she sat up on her hind legs and sniffed the air to see if there was any danger about. "You always feel good when you do any one a kindness," she went on. "Once I wanted to go out and play, and I couldn"t, because Nurse Fuzzy-Wuzzy was away and mamma had a headache. So I stayed home and made mamma some cabbage-leaf tea, and she felt better, and I was happy then, just as we are now."
"Well, maybe that"s it," admitted Sammie Littletail. "I am glad Mrs.
Wren has a nice home, anyhow. But I wouldn"t like to live away up in a tree, would you?"
"No, indeed. I would be afraid when the wind blew and the nest shook."
"It is ever so much nicer underground in our burrow," continued Sammie.
"It certainly is," agreed Susie, "but I s"pose that a bird would not like that. They seem to want to be high up in the air. But I don"t like it. Once I went away up on top of Farmer Tooker"s woodpile, because his gray cat chased me, and when I looked down I was very dizzy, and it was not as high as a tree."
So the two bunny children hurried along, talking of many things, and, now and then, finding some nice sweet roots, or juicy leaves, which they ate. They paused every once in a while to look over the tops of little hills to discover if any dogs or hunters or ferrets were in sight, for they did not want to be caught.
At length they came to a little brook that was not far from their home.
The edge of the stream had ice on it, for, though spring was approaching, the weather was still cold.
"Ah! There is some ice. I am going to have a slide!" Sammie shouted.
"You had better not!" cautioned his sister. "You might fall in."
"I will keep close to the sh.o.r.e," promised her brother, and he took a run and slid along the ice. "Come on!" he cried. "It"s fun, Susie."
The little bunny girl was just going to walk out on the ice, when Sammie, who had taken an extra long run, slid right off the ice and into the water.
"Oh! Oh, Susie!" he screamed. "I"ve fallen in! Help me out!"
"What shall I do?" asked his sister, and she stood up on her hind legs and waved her little paws in the air.
"Get a stick and let me grab it!" called Sammie. "But don"t come too close, or you may fall in, too," for Sammie was very fond of his sister, and did not want her to get hurt. He clung to the edge of the ice, and shivered in the cold water, while, with her teeth, Susie gnawed a branch from a tree. The branch she held out to her brother, who grasped it in his mouth and was soon pulled up on sh.o.r.e. But, oh, how he shivered! And how his fur was plastered down all over him, just like a cat when it falls in the bathtub. But I hope none of you children ever put p.u.s.s.y in there.
"You must run home at once," said Susie, "and drink some hot sa.s.safras tea, so you won"t take cold. Come on, I"ll run with you."
So they started off, running, leaping and bounding, and by the time they got to their burrow, Sammie was quite warm. Down the front door hole they plunged, and, as soon as Sammie"s mother saw him, she cried out:
"Why, Sammie! You"ve been in swimming! Didn"t I tell you never to go in swimming?"
"I haven"t been swimming, mother," said Sammie.
"Yes, you have; your hair is all wet," she answered.
Then Sammie told how he had fallen in. Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old rabbit, heard him, and said he guessed he would have to give Sammie and Susie some lessons in swimming, and if you are good, I will tell you to-morrow night what happened on that occasion.
X
JANE FUZZY-WUZZY GIVES A LESSON
Uncle Wiggily Longears was a very wise old rabbit. He had lived so long, and had escaped so many dogs and hunters, year after year, that he knew about all a rabbit can know. Of course, that may not be so very much, but it was a good deal for Uncle Wiggily Longears. So the day after Sammie came home from having fallen in the brook the old rabbit got ready to give Sammie and Susie Littletail their swimming lesson.
"You will want to know how to get out of the water when you fall in," he said. "You come with me, and I will show you. It is not very cold out, and I will give you a short lesson."
"Be careful not to let them drown," cautioned Mamma Littletail.
"I will," promised Uncle Wiggily Longears, and he started from the burrow, followed by the two bunny children. But, just as their uncle got out of the front door he was seized with a sharp spasm of rheumatism.
"Oh! oh! oh, dear!" he cried three times, just like that.
"What is the matter?" asked Sammie.
"Rheumatism," answered Uncle Wiggily Longears, and he put his left front paw on his left hind leg. "I have it very bad. I don"t believe I would dare go in the water with you children to-day. We will have to wait. Yet I don"t like to, as you ought to learn to swim. I wonder if you could learn if I stood on the bank and told you what to do?"
"I think it would be much better if you could come into the water and show us," said Susie.
"Yes, of course it would," admitted Uncle Wiggily Longears. "Of course it would, my dear, only you see--ouch! Oh, me! Oh, my!" and poor Uncle Wiggily Longears wrinkled his nose and made it twinkle like a star on a frosty night, and he wiggled his ears to and fro. "Oh, that was a terrible sharp pain," he said. "I don"t believe I"d better go, children.
I"m awfully sorry----"
"Let me take the children and show them how to swim," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, who had just finished peeling the potatoes for dinner. She could peel them very nicely with her long, sharp front teeth, which were just like a chisel that a carpenter uses.
"Yes, I guess you could teach them," said Uncle Wiggily, as he rubbed his leg softly. "You are a much better swimmer than I am; but can you spare the time from the housework?"
You see, Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had to do all the housework for the Littletail family, but, as she was a very good muskrat, she was able to do it, and she often had time to spare, so she answered:
"Yes, I can just as well go as not, for I have the dinner on the stove, and Mr. Littletail will not be home to lunch. I will give the children a swimming lesson. It will not take long."
"Well," spoke Uncle Wiggily Longears, "I wish you would. I must go and get something for my rheumatism."
"You had better try a hot cabbage leaf," said Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. "I have heard that is good."
"I will," said the old rabbit, and he crawled back down into the burrow, while Susie and Sammie, with Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, went on to the brook.
The muskrat was a very good swimmer, indeed, and as soon as she reached the water she plunged in and swam about, to show Sammie and Susie how it ought to be done. She dived, and she shot across; she swam on her side, and in the ordinary way. In fact, she swam in a number of ways that you and I could not. At length she swam entirely under water for some distance, and the bunny children were afraid she was drowned, but she came up smiling, showing her sharp teeth, and explained that this was one of the ways she used to escape from dogs, boys and other enemies.
Then the nurse-muskrat gave the bunny children their lesson. She had little trouble in teaching them, as they learned quickly. She was just showing them how to float along with only the tip of the nose showing, in order to keep out of sight, when suddenly there was a noise on the bank.
No, it was not some one after the bunny rabbit children"s clothes, for they had left them at home when they went to take a lesson. But it was a number of boys with a dog, who were making the noise. As soon as the boys saw the rabbits and the rat they gathered up a lot of stones, and one boy cried out: