Little Jack Rabbit

“ The Farmer is milking the little black cow,
The Rooster is blowing his shiny tin horn
And Billy Breeze’s whistling a tune in the corn.
Goodness me! Up jumped Little Jack Rabbit. You remember that the tired little bunny boy had been too sleepy to hop upstairs after playing a game of pinochle with Uncle John Hare, and had fallen asleep in a big arm chair for the night. That’s where we left him, and now we find him wide awake. ”

“ But even after Bobbie Redvest had cautioned Little Jack Rabbit that curious little bunny boy wanted to hop over to the Fairy Forest.
“No, sireebus!” cried Uncle John Hare. “You do what that little robin says and you’ll not go far wrong.”
“All right, Uncle John,” answered the little bunny boy cheerfully, for he was a good little rabbit and had learned to obey his elders without sulking, which is the better way, after all. For when we do a thing with a smile it’s so much easier. ”

“ Up in the sky the pretty stars peep;
Down in the meadows the clover tops
Are winking away at the lollypops,” sang Lady Love, as she rocked the cradle in which lay Little Jack Rabbit.
Out in the kitchen Old Mrs. Bunny, who had come over for the day, was baking cabbage cake and Mr. Rabbit was reading in the Bunnybridge Bugle a story about the new baby rabbit in the Old Bramble Patch.
“Look, mother!” cried the proud rabbit father, turning the paper toward the good lady bunny. ”

“ Pretty soon as the little rabbit slept on who should come tiptoeing by but Old Man Weasel. Dear, dear me! No sooner did he see Little Jack Rabbit than he tip-toed even more softly around the big tree. Then he peeked out, first on one side and then on the other. I suppose he thought the Big Brown Bear might be in his cave wrapping up Lollypops and Ice Cream Cones.
By and by the old weasel grew bolder. Nobody came around and the little bunny boy rabbit kept on sleeping, oh, so peacefully, dreaming about red clover tops and carrot candies and ’licious lollypops and marshmallow drops. ”

“ Faster and faster their fleet hoofs are trying
To race with the North Wind that blows o’er the snow,
Tinkle, tink, tinkle, and crinkle, crink, crinkle,
Swift through the snowflakes they dash in a row.”
And pretty soon out came Little Jack Rabbit with his fur overcoat, and jumping into the sleigh sat down beside dear, kind Uncle John Hare.
“On, Dixon and Blixon! On, Bullet and Arrow!” cried the old gentleman rabbit, and away went the reindeer, while Lady Love waved her calico apron from the window and smiled to see how happy was her little bunny boy. ”

“ Daisy Duck from her hiding place. “I declare, my heart beat so loudly I mistook it for the Old Grandfather Clock. Dear, dearie me! I don’t like such great big bunny men. Little ones are nicer,” and hugging Little Jack Rabbit, she gave him a cough drop from a little box she carried in her calico apron pocket. ”

“ Rabbit," said Cocky Doodle; "he's a very kind farmer." Mrs. Rabbit smiled, as if she only half believed [46] the little rooster. Then she turned to her little rabbit boy and said, "Keep a bright lookout, and don't forget you're only a small bunny."
After that away went the three little people, Cocky Doodle, with his bright red comb, and Henny Penny in her pretty gray speckled feathers, and Little Jack Rabbit, in his fur waistcoat, white as the big clouds that chased Mr. Merry Sun over the bright blue sky.
"Who is this little bunny?" asked Turkey Tim when they all came to the Farm Yard. ”

“ Rabbit told him that he was making a good deal of noise for a dead man, and that if he'd get up and pick up all the things he'd upset maybe he'd come to life again.
Then little Jack Rabbit got up and ran to his mother and cried against her best dress and got some tears on it, and Mrs. Rabbit sat down in her rocker and looked at her stove and rocked him until he felt better. And by-and-by she changed her dress and went to cleaning her stove while little Jack picked up all the things—all the spools and buttons and needles and knitting-work—every single thing. ”

“ Quick as a minute Uncle John Hare put on his hat and he and Little Jack Rabbit hopped away as fast as they could, and even faster, and pretty soon they came to the Old Bramble Patch, where Lady Love, the little bunny’s mother, stood waiting for them. ”

“ And green apples give you a pain!”
Poor Little Jack Rabbit! all alone—in the sack—on the back—of Mr. Wicked Wolf.
Just then a little voice from the treetop whispered: “Haven’t you a knife in your pocket, little rabbit?”
It was Bobbie Redvest’s voice, so low and sweet that Mr. Wicked Wolf, who was old and deaf, never heard a word.
“Oh, oh, oh!” thought the little rabbit, all a-tremble, his little knees going clitter, clatter and his little heart pitter, patter, “I wonder if I have?” ”

“ Little Jack Rabbit was too surprised to answer—he just opened his mouth, and the only sound his mother heard was a funny little noise like a whistle.
"Don't you hear me?" she asked, tying the strings of her Sunday bonnet under her furry chin.
"Whew!" said the little rabbit at last recovering from his surprise. "Why do you want me to go to school?"
"Because all the Shady Forest grown-ups think it's a good thing to have a school for [22] the children," and she gave her bonnet a push and pulled on her black silk mitts. ”

“ Lady Love has a baby boy bunny. Carrot City, Bunnybridge, Lettucemere and Turnip City papers please copy.”
“It makes me as proud as a peacock to see it in the [Pg 12] paper,” laughed Mr. Rabbit. “And to think that Little Jack Rabbit will soon be old enough to hop about the Sunny Meadow and through the Shady Forest.”
Just then in came Timmie Meadowmouse to see the new little bunny boy.
“Little Jack Rabbit is asleep,” explained his careful father. “Why didn’t you come early this afternoon? You ought to know, Timmie Meadowmouse, that little bunny babies are asleep by this hour.” ”

“ That pup was some dog!” barked the Yellow Dog Tramp, wagging his tail.
“Well, just the same, I’m glad to be back on my old log,” said Granddaddy Bullfrog. “There’s always something going on in the Old Duck Pond. If it isn’t a perch chasing a minnow, it’s Ducky Waddles. Mrs. Darning Needle is never idle and the little tadpoles make me laugh.”
After a week, however, every one settled down again. Little Jack Rabbit had almost forgotten that he’d ever been to a circus when one day just about noontime, who should come along but the Big Circus Elephant. ”

“ Well, by and by, when there was nothing more to talk over, except the folks at home and the new baby across the way, Little Jack Rabbit said;
“Come out for a ride in the Luckymobile,
It’s such a long time since you went. [Pg 204]
We’ll sure bring you back to your little log shack.
Do you like it as well as a tent?”
“I like it better in the winter,” answered the Elephant. “But I’ve had lots of fun at the circus! Do you remember one day last summer I shouted, ‘Give me a peanut!’”
“Give me a peanut!” ”

“ You see, we often grow tired of the same old thing. Our roller skates are put aside, our bat and ball don’t interest us; we don’t wish to even run about and look for a good time. And that’s just the way Little Jack Rabbit felt. So, what did he do? Well, he didn’t do anything till Lady Love, his patient bunny rabbit mother, suggested that he read a book. ”

“ Well, after kind Uncle John Hare had put the Bunnymobile in the garage, he led the little reindeer into the barn and gave him some nice hay to eat, and then he closed the door so that Mr. North Wind couldn’t get in, and after that the kind old gentleman bunny went into the house, with Little Jack Rabbit and the Yellow Dog Tramp who was with him, you remember, in the last story. ”

“ I see a pair of roller skates,
A dandy coasting sled;
A stocking full as full can be,
And a lovely little Xmas tree.”
And then the little Black Cricket came out of her crack in the warm hearth and looked in her stocking, for she believed in Santa Claus just the same as she always did when she was a little young cricket and played hop, skip and jump in the Sunny Meadow grass.
“Hurrah! Hurrah! I’ve got everything I asked for!” shouted Little Jack Rabbit. So you see, dear, kind Uncle John Hare must have spent all his money at the Three-in-one-cent Store! ”

“ It’s growing late,” said the old dog, after finishing three éclairs and emptying five tea-cups. “Thank you,” and away he ran.
“Cousin Cottontail has invited us over this evening,” said Lady Love, as she put away the dishes. “She has a new radio set. We’ll go over in time to hear the Jack Rabbit Man tell his stories.”
“Ha, ha!” cried the little bunny, “that will be fine!” and with a skip and a jump he hopped out on the porch where the little canary lived in her gold cage.
“Hello! Little Rabbit,” she twittered. “What makes you so happy?” ”

“ At any rate, all of a sudden, the two little rabbits woke up with a start.
“Run, run!” cried Mrs. Cow. “Hide, hide! He’s coming!”
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Little Jack Rabbit didn’t wait to rub his eyes, neither did Brother Bobby Tail, but away they hopped. And just in time, too; for no sooner had they hidden in the straw than in walked the Kind Farmer with a nice hot supper for Mrs. Cow. But you can well believe that these two little rabbits were up and on their way home the next morning long before the Kind Farmer had even opened his eyes.
111 SQUIRREL NUTCRACKER
Heigh ho, how the winds blow! ”

“ She was a very pretty gray speckled hen and lived in a little house [43] by the Big Red Barn. But instead of laying her nice white eggs in the comfortable nests in the Henhouse, she came all the way over to the Old Rail Fence Corner.
But Little Jack Rabbit didn't know that. He didn't know whose nest it was until Henny Penny cried distractedly, "Who has stolen my eggs? Did you, Little Jack Rabbit?" ”

“ We’re all going in the Billy Goat Stage Coach. Won’t we have fun?”
“More fun than a bagful of monkeys,” answered the Big Brown Bear, filling his pipe with dry corncob silk and puffing away for maybe a minute and maybe more, while the smoke curled up to the top of the door.
[Pg 80]
“Who else is going?”
“Oh, everybody,” answered Little Jack Rabbit. “Granddaddy Bullfrog, Henny Jenny, Cocky Doodle, Turkey Tim, Goosey Lucy, Ducky Waddles, Timmie Meadowmouse, Chippy Chipmunk, and lots more whom I haven’t yet invited.” ”

“ And all the cheery little Chick-a-dees flew out of the low bushes and winged their way into the quiet places of the wood.
“Gracious me!” exclaimed Mrs. Rabbit, “how that dreadful gun shakes the house. I’m afraid the candlesticks will fall off the mantel,” and she lifted them down and put them in a safe place.
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“Well, there’s one good thing about it all,” said Little Jack Rabbit to Bobby Tail as they hopped through the snow-covered corn field, “Old Danny Fox won’t be around again for some time.”
“It’s safer at home when the bad farmer’s boy
Is tramping around with his gun. ”

“ 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. ”