Chapter III: Part 3

It was half past fourteen o'clock and Mr. Happy Sun was laughing through the little window. So up jumped Billy Bunny and combed his fur and parted it in the middle down his back, and after that he was almost ready for breakfast, except to brush his teeth with a new toothbrush which he had bought at the Three-in-one-cent store.

After breakfast he started right out to play on the Pleasant Meadow, and the first person he saw was little Dickey Meadow Mouse. He had just come out of his little grass ball house and was looking around to see what he would do.

"Good morning," said Billy Bunny, "how are you this lovely day?"

And of course Dickey Meadow Mouse said he was well, for the little people of the Pleasant Meadow are never ill unless some enemy injures them, for they know how to take very good care of themselves, you know, and kind Mother Nature always provides them with enough to eat, and sometimes more.

And while they stood there laughing and talking Tommy Turtle passed by with his little shell house on his back, which always goes with him, rain or shine. Isn't it nice not to have to move out of your house, but always have it go with you?

"Come with me, Billy Bunny," cried Tommy Turtle, "I'm going down to the Old Mill Pond for a swim." So the little rabbit said good-by to Dickey Meadow Mouse and went with Tommy Turtle, and by and by they came to the pond where Old Uncle Bullfrog sat all day on his log and caught flies until he grew so fat that his white waistcoat bulged out till the buttons nearly popped off.

"Kerchunk! Kerchunk! Kerplunk! Kerplunk!
I'm king of this Old Mill Pond.
I never care to go anywhere,
Not even a foot beyond.

For I'm contented to stay right here
Where the cattails wave in the at-mos-phere,
And the Darning Needles and Bottle Flies
Dart and skim 'neath the summer skies."

And then the old frog blinked his eyes and swallowed a foolish fly that came too near.

"Top of the morning to you, Uncle Bullfrog," said little Billy Bunny. "Does the Miller's Boy throw stones at you nowadays?"

"Sometimes," said the old gentleman frog, "but not so often of late, for his father is away and he doesn't have the time. He has to look after the Old Mill, you know."

And just then a stone splashed in the water, but I'll let you guess who threw it until the next story.

STORY XXXV--BILLY BUNNY AND BIG BROWN BEAR

If you haven't guessed who threw the stone at Old Uncle Bullfrog in the last story, I'll tell you right now. It was that bad Miller's Boy.

Yes, siree. There he stood, not very far away, and he was just going to throw another, when the old gentleman frog thought it was time to take a dive and the little rabbit thought it was time to take a hop, and Tommy Turtle to take a swim and soon Uncle Bullfrog was deep down on the muddy bottom where he ate his breakfast without a thought of the Miller's Boy.

Well, after a few short hops Billy Bunny found himself in the Friendly Forest close to Timmy Chipmunk's little store, where he sold candy carrots and lettuce sandwiches and lemon soda.

So the little rabbit opened his knapsack and took out a handful of carrot pennies and bought a lovely apple pie, which the little chipmunk's mother had baked that very morning. And as soon as the pie was all gone Billy Bunny hopped away and by and by he came to the cave where the Big Brown Bear sold honey.

Now Mr. Bear was very cross this particular morning, for the day before while he was looking over a bees' nest some of the bees had been very rude and had stung him on the nose.

And now it was all swollen up so that he couldn't find a pocket handkerchief big enough to tickle it with, and so of course he was very miserable.

"I don't feel at all sociable," which means friendly, you know, he said to the little rabbit. "So you had better be on your way and leave a crusty old bear to himself." But do you think Billy Bunny did this? No siree, and a no sireemam.

He just opened his knapsack and took out some lettuce cold cream and rubbed it gently over the bear's nose and pretty soon it felt so well that Mr. Bear said, "Come with me, Billy Bunny, and we'll go down to the Three-and-one-cent store to buy a handkerchief, for now that my nose is well again, I don't care if I spend all my money to buy a handkerchief."

So off they started, and when they reached the store the bear forgot all about his nose and bought a little blue tin whistle instead. Wasn't that fine, for it's lots more fun to blow on a whistle than on a handkerchief, don't you think so?

"Well, now that you are happy again," said the little rabbit, "I'll go my way, for I'm seeking adventures, you know, and I want to see the wide, wide world so as to grow up a learned rabbit," and he hopped off down the Friendly Forest trail.

And in the next story, if the ink-well on my desk doesn't stub my quill pen when I sign my name to this story, I'll tell you more about little Billy Bunny.

STORY XXXVI--BILLY BUNNY AND PROFESSOR CROW

Let me see. I left off in the last story just as little Billy Bunny was hopping down the Friendly Forest path. Well, he hadn't gone very far when he saw old Professor Crow.

Now, the professor wasn't very busy, you know, for school was over and there were no little people to teach how to crow--I mean how to read and write--so he had plenty of time to himself, and as soon as he saw the little rabbit he flew down from the tree and began to talk. "I'm sorry to have to tell you," he began, "that my little boy, Blackie Crow, has the measles."

And you know that's a dreadfully uncomfortable kind of a thing to have, for you have to be so careful of your eyes. Now, when an owl gets the measles it doesn't make so much difference, for they don't want to go out in the sunlight, but with a crow, oh dear me and oh dear you! it's the hardest thing in the world to keep in the dark, and Professor Crow gave a tremendous sigh and looked very sad.

"I'm very sorry for Blackie Crow," said the little rabbit. "Won't you tell him I'm sorry?" and then the generous little rabbit took a lollypop out of his knapsack and told Professor Crow to take it home to his little boy.

Wasn't that nice? I think I know a little boy who would be glad to have the measles every day if he could get a lollypop.

And after that Billy Bunny shut up his knapsack and swung it over his shoulder and hopped away, and by and by, not so very long, he heard a little bird singing:

"Up in my nest I've five little birds,
Waiting for mother to feed them.
What would I do if I should lose two?
I'd be too unhappy to heed them.
So that is the reason I look everywhere
When I fly from my nest in the bright morning
air."

And then she looked down at little Billy Bunny with his striped candy cane in his right paw and his knapsack over his shoulder.

And then she laughed out loud, and her laugh sounded just like music, for it was a mother bird's laugh, you know, and that always has the music of love in it.

"Good morning, Mrs. Bird," said the little rabbit. "I won't hurt your little ones."

"I know that," said the mother bird, "for you are a kind little rabbit. But there are lots of four-footed little animals who are very unkind to birds, so that is the reason I sing this song to let them know that I am always watching over my nest."

And after that Billy Bunny hopped away, but before he went he left a big piece of chocolate cake on a clean white stone for Mrs. Bird to crumble up for her little ones. Wasn't that nice of the little rabbit, for he was very fond of chocolate cake, I know, for he once told me so.

STORY XXXVII--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. GROUSE

Well, before I go any further, I'll tell you that the little birds were so delighted with the chocolate cake which the little rabbit left for them on the clean white stone, as I told you in the last story, that they went right to sleep after eating it and dreamed of a little white candy bunny and a big birthday cake with seven pink candles in it.

And after that little Billy Bunny hopped away, lippity, lip, clippity clip, and by and by he came to the Old Brush Heap where Cousin Cottontail lived before she moved next door to his mother in the Old Brier Patch at Snake Fence Corner.

And just as he reached the little patch that led into the Old Brush Heap he met Mrs. Grouse with her brood of little brown birdies.

"Good morning, Billy Bunny," she said, while her small brood hid themselves in the dry leaves that strewed the ground. "Come here, children," she called, "Billy Bunny won't hurt you. He's a friend." So the little brown birds came out from their hiding places and stood in a row and bowed as nicely as you please, and the little rabbit opened his knapsack and gave them each a candy carrot.

Wasn't that kind of him? And after that he said a little poem, and how I came to hear it was because a little wild canary, who was sitting close by, told it to me.

And this is the way it went:

"I am Billy Bunny from Old Snake
Fence Corner Town,
So don't be worried, don't be hurried,
Little birds of brown.
Mother knows I will not harm you;
I'm no cruel snake to charm you,
So be merry; here's a cherry
From the Circus Clown."

And then he gave them a big red cherry, a candy cherry, you know, which his friend the Clown at the circus had given him a long time ago.

"Well, I must be hopping along," said the little rabbit after the little birds had picked the cherry candy all to pieces until there was nothing left but the stone.

So away he went again to seek more adventures, and after a little while, not so very long ago, he came to the railroad bridge where you remember he and his brother, Bobby Tail, had taken a ride one day, oh, so long ago, maybe one hundred stories back, in a big empty freight car. And just then a train came by, and when the engineer saw Billy Bunny he stopped the train, for I suppose he thought the little rabbit wanted to get aboard.

And the brakeman helped him on and away went the train, over the rails that went clunkity, clunk, clunkity clunk, while the smoke from the engine trailed out behind, like a long gray feather. And the train didn't stop until the brakeman called out Lettuceville, where a thousand little rabbits raised lovely green lettuce in a big field.

And in the next story you shall hear how the little rabbit scratched his ear and had some lettuce salad, too, all covered o'er with sugar dew.

STORY XXXVIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE CARLOAD OF LETTUCE LEAVES

You remember in the last story I left off just as Billy Bunny got out of the train at Lettuceville, where there was a big family of rabbits who raised lettuce leaves for all the bunnies in the big U. S. A.

And the first person he saw was an old gray-haired rabbit, who said: "Glad to see you, Mr. William Bunny. Do you want to buy a car-load of lettuce leaves?"

"How much?" asked the little rabbit.

"Five million carrot cents," replied the old gentleman bunny, "and that's very cheap, for the leaves are big and juicy and will keep all winter if you put them in the ice house."

Well, sir, this was a very cheap price, don't you think so? And Billy Bunny thought so, too, for he opened his knapsack and took out five million carrot cents and gave them to the old gray-haired bunny, and after that all the farmer bunnies loaded a big freight car just full of lettuce leaves and marked on the outside in chalk:

"MR. WILLIAM BUNNY,
Brier Patch, Old Snake Fence Corner, U. S. A."

"RUSH! Fast Freight."

And then it was time for lunch, so the old rabbit said to his new customer, which was Billy Bunny, of course:

"Come with me to my home and we'll have something to eat." And as Billy Bunny had a great big appetite by this time, and I might say right here that rabbits always are hungry, he hopped away with the lettuce rabbit farmer, and by and by they came to a little green house in a raspberry patch with a lovely clover field on one side and a peach orchard on the other.

"I've brought my friend, Billy Bunny, home to lunch," said the old gray-haired bunny to a nice-looking lady rabbit whose gray hair was parted in the middle and held down on each side by two red coral combs.

"Why, it's Billy Bunny," she said. "I know his mother and his cousin, Mrs. Cottontail." And she led them into the little green house. After they had eaten all they wanted she made the pianola play this song:

"The clover patch is in full bloom
With juicy red-topped clover.
Across the lea the honey bee
Looks like a golden rover."

And it might have kept on playing some more, only just then who should look into the door but Daddy Fox. As soon as the pianola saw him it stopped right then and there, and the rabbits jumped into the cupboard and closed the door and turned the key on the inside before you could say "Jack Rabbit."

"Ha! ha!" laughed Daddy Fox. "I'll stay here till you get so tired of that cupboard prison that you'll come out. And when you do, you know what will happen, for I don't like lettuce leaves and I just love rabbits."

Wasn't that a dreadful thing to hear? But, never mind. I'm not going to let that wicked fox get the best of Billy Bunny and his friends. No, sir. Not if I have to go there myself to-morrow and scare him away with a gun.

But this book won't hold any more, and I'll have to tell what happened further to our animal friends in the next one, which is entitled "Billy Bunny and Uncle Bull Frog."

THE END

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