David Cory

“ HOME HUNTING It was a week or so after the Squirrel Brothers had left Nutcracker Lodge to find homes for themselves that Little Jack Rabbit came across Twinkle Tail.
It’s not an easy thing to find a new home, especially when all the nice warm hollow trees were already crowded with little people. Twinkle Tail discovered this when he started in house-hunting.
“Why don’t you take Grandmother Magpie’s nest?” asked the little rabbit. “She hasn’t used it for some time and nobody seems to want it.” This was very true; perhaps it was because nobody liked Grandmother Magpie. ”

“ OLD BARNEY OWL Well, I’m mighty glad the little rabbit lost only the fur tip to his tail. That was bad enough, but he forgot all about it the next morning when the Squirrel Brothers invited him over the ’phone to meet them at the Shady Forest Pond. He spent no time at all getting out his skates, but his mother took two minutes and a half tying a woolen muffler around his neck. She knew, like all wise mothers, that it’s lots more fun to skate when one is nice and warm. ”

“ Professor Jim Crow smiled and turned to page 49. “Listen!” he said. “The Marten looks very much like a young fox about two months old. Its color is a yellowish-brown, a little darker than a yellow fox, with a number of long black hairs. It is a great climber, hunts squirrels and robs birds’ nests.”
Then the wise old crow closed his book and wiped his spectacles. “You have learned something to-day, little rabbit. Mother Nature’s School House will teach you lots of things,” and the old professor bird flew away. ”

“ You can’t run faster than a bullet, you know. It’s all very well to run away from Danny Fox and Mr. Wicked Weasel, or to dodge from under Hungry Hawk, but a bullet is a different thing,” and the kind lady bunny patted her small son on the left ear and gave him a piece of cherry pie.
Well, as soon as the pie was gone, Little Jack Rabbit hopped out of the Old Bramble Patch, clipperty clip, lipperty lip, and pretty soon he met Chippy Chipmunk and Woody Chuck in the Shady Forest. ”

“ There was only one thing missing—the little gold wedding ring.
“There’s only one person who can help me,” cried Twinkle Tail, and off he ran to the Old Bramble Patch. In answer to his [39] impatient knock, Little Jack Rabbit opened the door. Then they both sat down on the stone step while the little squirrel told his troubles one by one.
“Parson Owl says there can’t be a wedding without a ring,” sighed Twinkle Tail, finishing his story. “But where to get the ring, I don’t know.”
“I do,” answered the little rabbit, jumping up quickly. ”

“ Henny Penny gave a nice new laid egg and Turkey Tim a bag of corn. Little Jack Rabbit brought a big carrot and Chippy Chipmunk a basket of nuts. Of course Ducky Waddles didn’t give them anything more—the little gold ring was his present, which Twinkle Tail had slipped on the little toe-finger of Miss Squirrel at a nod from Parson Owl.
You see, Twinkle Tail had never been married before, so Parson Owl had helped him a little—which I presume all good kind ministers do when they marry young people. At any rate, Parson Owl did, and so everything went off very smoothly. ”

“ The little rabbit looked again at the footprints in the snow. [112] There they were, but, thank goodness! They led away, far away, into the Shady Forest. Just then, all of a sudden, the Miller’s Boy jumped out from behind a clump of bushes.
“Run! run!” screamed Jimmy Jay, who happened by just then. And the little rabbit did. He went so fast that his shadow couldn’t keep up with him and neither could the Miller’s Boy. But, oh, dear me! The Miller’s dog did. Yes, sir! He kept so close that before he popped into the Old Bramble Patch he caught the end of the little rabbit’s tail. ”

“ Yes, sir. Squirrel Nutcracker forgot that Chatterbox wanted to steal his nuts, and Chatterbox forgot that he had been caught! And now that I come to think it over, perhaps that is the reason the little bunny laughed just before he opened his knapsack! I guess he knew how quickly those two little squirrels would forget everything when they saw a lemon lollypop!
[104] “Now promise me one thing to-day,
You little squirrels, red and gray,
That you will quarrel nevermore
Nor steal a nut from any store.
For he who steals will always end
In having neither love nor friend.” ”

“ Pretty soon he began to laugh, too, for he’s a merry little fellow and a good friend.
“My, but it’s lonely these long winter days,” sighed the little bunny. “Everybody’s sound asleep in his winter home. Only you and I and a few others are about,” and the little rabbit sighed again, for what he says is true, let me tell you. ”

“ Oh, yes; oh, yes. Chippy Chipmunk gave me two quarters to buy him two Thrift Stamps, and Squirrel Nutcracker handed me a lettuce dollar bill to buy him four, and Busy Beaver gave me a fifty-cent [67] piece to buy him two, and Parson Owl just now pinned in my inside pocket a ten-dollar lettuce bill to pay for forty stamps.”
“I wonder what he wants so many stamps for?” said Professor Jim Crow. “Why doesn’t he buy a Liberty Bond?”
“Maybe he wants to give them away,” answered the little rabbit. “But I mustn’t stop—I must be going.”
“Wait, wait,” said Professor Jim Crow. “Here’s some money. ”

“ GRANDPA POSSUM But! gracious me! Central gave Little Jack Rabbit the wrong number, for as he stood in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth, with the receiver to his ear, he heard Grandpa Possum say:
“I don’t care how hard it snows,
Nor how Old Mr. ”