Mr. Rabbit

“ A LUCKY CONJURER. “Now, I think that was a pretty good story,” said Mr. Rabbit. “It had something about cows in it, and there was nothing about kings and princes. I wouldn’t give that”—Mr. Rabbit blew a whiff of smoke from his mouth—“or all your princes and kings. Of course that’s on account of my ignorance. I don’t know anything about them. I reckon they are just as good neighbors as anybody, when you come to know them right well.”
Buster John laughed at this, but Sweetest Susan only smiled. ”

“ Man would get scared when he failed to see it at night. Since that time the Moon has been taking a rest about every two weeks. At least it used to be that way. I never bother about it now.”
XVIII.
WHY THE BEAR IS A WRESTLER. “Well,” said Mr. Rabbit, after a pause, “what about the story? Was there any moral to it?”
“None at all,” replied Mrs. Meadows. “It was just an old-time tale.”
“Now, I’m truly glad to hear you say so,” cried Mr. Rabbit, appearing to be very much pleased. “It’s as good as taking a nap.” He winked gravely at Buster John, and then proceeded to refill his pipe. ”

“ Rabbit was ready for him, and then he trotted along comfortably, thinking how he would eat the Rabbit's fine dinner first, and then there would be time enough for Mr. Rabbit himself afterward.
So, when he got to Jack Rabbit's house he straightened his vest and his necktie a little, and then he knocked and turned around and whistled while he was waiting for Mr. Rabbit to come to the door. But Jack Rabbit didn't come to the door. He opened an upstairs window and said:—
"Why, it's Mr. Dog! Sit right down on the porch, Mr. Dog, till I get my house ready and the dinner cooked." ”

“ Just then something happened. Isn’t it a shame that unpleasant things so often happen?
“No, you’re not going to hear bunny stories to-night,” growled a deep ugly voice, and there, just outside the Old Bramble Patch, stood Mr. Wicked Wolf. Dear me! How cruel he looked, his big red tongue hanging out of his mouth and his long sharp teeth gleaming like bowie knives in the sunlight.
“What—what are you here for?” asked the little rabbit, all a-tremble.
“Never you mind!” snarled the ugly beast. “I’ll wait here for you.”
“No, no, please don’t wait!” cried the frightened little rabbit. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If you let well enough alone, you are all right; but the minute you try to better it, everything goes wrong.”
“Dat wuz de way wid ol’ man Adam,” remarked Drusilla.
“Why, of course,” said Mr. Rabbit, “and it was the way with all the Rabbits and everybody and everything else.”
“But how did they live up there by the Moon?” asked Sweetest Susan. “How did they keep from falling off?”
Mr. Rabbit scratched his head a little before replying. “Well,” said he, after awhile, “they got along just as we do down here,—heads up and feet down. ”

“ I told him I was mighty sorry to miss his company and his conversation, and then I tipped my hat and took my cane from under my arm and went down the road that led to Brother Bear’s house.”
Here Mr. Rabbit paused, straightened himself up a little, and looked at the children. Then he continued:—
“I reckon you all never stood on the top of a hill three quarters of a mile from the smoking pits and got a whiff or two of the barbecue?”
“I is! I is!” exclaimed Drusilla. “Don’t talk! Hit make me dribble at de mouf. I wish I had some right now.” ”

“ ONCE upon a time, said the Story Teller, the Robin, and Turtle, and Squirrel, and Jack Rabbit had all gone home for the winter, and nobody was left in the Hollow Tree except the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow. Of course the others used to come back and visit them pretty often, and Mr. Dog, too, now that he had got to be good friends with all the Deep Woods People, and they thought a great deal of him when they got to know him better. ”

“ For many years he had eaten up pigs, calves, dogs, donkeys and chickens and had twice feasted on men, besides avoiding all their traps and dodging every one of their bullets. So he began to think he could laugh at all his enemies. Yet, proud as he was, he was destined to be outwitted by a creature without strength or sting, claws or hoofs, as we shall see.
Mr. Rabbit, who burrowed in a hill near the village, had often heard the squealing of unfortunate pigs and the kicking of braying donkeys, as they made dinners for Old White Whiskers. ”

“ The doctor called him back for a moment.
"You can slip away in the morning when you like," he said. "And don't let us see your ugly face again."
"Not so much about my face, if yer don't mind," said Mr. Rabbit. "An' I shan't be at all sorry ter go; I don't 'alf like the company you keep!"
With this doubtful compliment flung at me, Mr. George Rabbit shuffled out of the room, with a parting grin at the doctor. I took him out of the house and across the grounds towards the stable, showed him where, by mounting a ladder, he could get to his nest among the straw in the loft. ”

“ Children will eagerly follow the doings of little Jack Rabbit, who, every morning as soon as he has polished the front door knob and fed the canary, sets out from his little house in the bramble patch to meet his friends in the Shady Forest and Sunny Meadow. And the clever way he escapes from his three enemies, Danny Fox, Mr. Wicked Weasel and Hungry Hawk will delight the youngsters. ”

“ When Brother Lion fell into the hogshead of hot water, the end of his tail slipped through the bunghole.”
This explanation was such an unexpected one that the children laughed, and so did Mrs. Meadows. But Mr. Thimblefinger, who had put in an appearance, shook his head and remarked that he was afraid that Mr. Rabbit got worse as he grew older, instead of better.
XIV.
BROTHER LION HAS A SPELL OF SICKNESS. “The fact is,” remarked Mr. Rabbit, “I was just telling the story—if you can call it a story—to please company. ”

“ I didn't care for anything, except to go capering about the woods, gathering flowers and trying to make up poetry, when I should have been doing my examples. I didn't like school or J. Hickory Whack, and every morning I hated to start, until, one day, a new family moved into our neighborhood. They were named Bun, and one of them was a little girl named Bunty—Bunty Bun."
When Mr. Rabbit got that far in his story he stopped a minute and sighed, and filled his pipe again, and took out his handkerchief, and said he guessed a little speck of ashes had got into his eye. ”

“ Rabbit walked pretty fast—even lazy folks do that when they go fishing, and Mr. Jack Rabbit wasn't lazy, by a good deal. So pretty soon he came to the Hollow Tree, and there, looking out of an up-stairs window, he saw the 'Coon, the 'Possum, and the Old Black Crow. ”

“ Grandfather Rabbit. “And from that day all the Rabbit family have had short tails and long ears, which is just as it should be, for we can hear Mr. Dog a long way off, and we do not have the bother of looking after a long tail when we run to cover. So don’t wish to have yours changed again, for you see now that you are better off than poor Short Ears was, don’t you?”
Bunny Rabbit said he did, and that he should never wish for a long tail and short ears again. And he didn’t.
[Pg 166]
THE HUNTER’S FRIEND, JOHNNIE BEAR In a hut on the side of a mountain lived an old hunter all alone. ”

“ All the rabbits held their breaths, and glanced from the blind leader to Bumper.
"When he came—this white rabbit, with pink eyes—we were to receive him and make him our king and leader. His wisdom would be greater than that of all ours combined, and in time he would deliver us from our enemies. You know how it is with us in the woods here. We're the meekest and most innocent of the wild animals. Even the birds prey upon us at times, and Mr. Fox and Buster the Bear hold us in contempt [Pg 117] because we cannot defend ourselves. ”

“ My typewriter must show its color as well as a man!
[Pg 42]
Well, pretty soon, the old gentleman rabbit began to get uneasy, for he wasn’t used to sailing through the sky in a sleigh drawn by reindeer. “What do you think’s going to happen!” he asked anxiously.
“Oh, don’t worry, Uncle John,” answered the little rabbit. “I’ve often seen pictures of Santa Claus riding through the air in his sleigh.”
And this quite comforted the old gentleman bunny, you know, and he began to smile and the Yellow Dog Tramp barked two times and a half, and after that they came to a snowy road right in the sky. ”

“ Man ain't hatter study long 'fo' he see how de lan' lay, en den he laff, en tell de Little Gal dat he done gone en disremember all 'bout Mr. Rabbit, en den he up'n say, sezee:—
"'Nex' time Mr. Rabbit come, you tak'n tu'n 'im in, en den you run des ez fas' ez you kin en come en tell me, kase I got some bizness wid dat young chap dat's bleedze ter be 'ten' ter,' sezee.
"Sho' nuff, nex' mawnin' dar wuz de Little Gal playin' 'roun', en yer come Brer Rabbit atter he 'lowance er greens. ”

“ He would ask all his neighbors to help him, and perhaps then he could get his house and garden in order by the time Old Mother Nature arrived. So Mr. Rabbit called on Mr. Skunk and Mr. Coon and Mr. Mink and Mr. Squirrel and Mr. Chipmunk, and all the rest of his neighbors, telling them of his trouble and asking them to help. Now, in spite of the trouble Mr. Rabbit was forever making for other people by his dreadful curiosity and meddling with other people's affairs, all his neighbors had a warm place in their hearts for Mr. ”

“ Ez [79] fer Brer Rabbit, he’d des laugh, an’ nobody ain’t know what he laughin’ at. It went on dis way twel it look like natur’ can’t stan’ it, an’ den, bimeby, one night when de moon ain’t shinin’, Brer Rabbit take a notion dat he’d call on Mr. Man; but when he got ter de place, Mr. Man done gone ter bed. De lights wuz all out, an’ de dog wuz quiled up un’ de house soun’ asleep.
“Brer Rabbit shake his head. He ’low, ‘Sholy dey’s sump’n wrong, kaze allers, when I come, Mr. Man call up his chickens whar I kin look at um.’ I dunner what de matter wid ’im. An’ I don’t see no chickens, needer. ”

“ Meadows by way of explanation. “It means that somebody’s trying hard to show off.”
“I reckon that’s so,” said Mr. Rabbit, opening his eyes. He appeared to be much relieved. “Well, Mrs. Blue Hen got mad and went to setting. She was in a snug place and nobody bothered her. It was such a quiet place that she could hear Mr. Willy Weasel and Miss Mimy Mink gossiping in the calamus bushes, and she could hear Mrs. Puddle Duck wading in the branch. One day Mrs. Puddle Duck made so bold as to push her way through the briars and look in upon Mrs. Blue Hen. But her visit was not relished. Mrs. ”

“ So Peter Rabbit put on his best suit, which was very shabby, and set out for the Lone Pine to see what old Mother Nature wanted. When he got there, he found all the little people of the Green Meadows and all the little folks of the Green Forest there before him. There were Reddy Fox, Johnny Chuck, Striped Chipmunk, Happy Jack Squirrel, Mr. Black Snake, old Mr. Crow, Sammy Jay, Billy Mink, Little Joe Otter, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle, old King Bear, his cousin, Mr. Coon, and all the other little people. ”

“ Man could get over there.
"When Mr. Man did get hold of me, he said that I'd better take what was left of me home, for they were going to feed the animals pretty soon, and that I would likely get mixed up with the bill of fare.
"After that he took me to the entrance and pushed me outside, and I heard all those [40] fierce creatures in the cages growl and roar louder than ever, as if they had expected to sample me and were sorry to see me go. ”

“ Well, when the little rabbit had finished his work, he hopped out to the Sunny Meadow where Mr. Merry Sun was making the buttercups grow more yellow every day, and the daisies whiter.
[121]
MRS. ORIOLE'S MIRROR
Oh, Mrs. Cow has a little bell
Tied to her neck with a string,
And every time she shakes her head
It gives a ting-a-ling-ling.
"Helloa, little rabbit," said Ducky Waddles. "I guess I'll go down to the Old Duck Pond and take a swim." So off he went, wabbly, wabbly, on his big yellow feet, and pretty soon he saw Granddaddy Bullfrog on his log. ”

“ Brer Rabbit, he hate mighty bad fer ter lose his cow, but he lay his plans, en he tell his chilluns dat he gwineter have dat beef yit. Brer Wolf, he bin tuck up by de patter-rollers ’fo’ now, en he mighty skeer’d un um, en fus news you know, yer come Brer Rabbit hollerin’ en tellin’ Brer Wolf dat de patter-rollers comin’. ”

“ De wedder wuz sorter col’, en Brer Rabbit, he got ’im a bottle er dram en put out fer de creek, en w’en he git dar he pick out a good place, en he sorter squot down, he did, en let his tail hang in de water. He sot dar, en he sot dar, en he drunk his dram, en he think he gwineter freeze, but bimeby day come, en dar he wuz. He make a pull, en he feel like he comin’ in two, en he fetch nudder jerk, en lo en beholes, whar wuz his tail? ”

“ Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter. ”