Little Jack Rabbit and Uncle John Hare Part 9

Now the manager of the sugar department was a very nice pig, and when he advised Uncle John Hare to take a barrel of sugar instead of three pounds for twenty-five cents, the old gentleman rabbit said all right, he would. But, goodness me. They had a dreadful time getting that heavy barrel into the Bunnymobile. But after a while they rolled it up on the back seat, and then they started off for home. But, goodness me again!

They had gone but a little way when, all of a sudden, just like that, a voice sang out:

"What have you got in that barrel That sits up so straight on the seat.

You'd have a close call if it happened to fall On top of your four little feet."

"Who are you?" asked the old gentleman bunny, stopping the Bunnymobile and looking all about him. But he couldn't see anybody, and neither could the little rabbit, although he put up his spygla.s.ses and looked over the top of a tall oak tree.

"Here I am," said the voice, and all of a sudden, just like that, a big honey bee flew out of a flower.

"Ha, ha!" laughed the old gentleman rabbit, "I guess you smelt sugar. We have enough in that barrel to last for maybe a year and a day, as they say in Fairy Land."

"I will give you a box of honey for two pounds of sugar," said the bee.

"Mr. Bee told me this morning that he was tired of honey in his coffee."

"Get in the Bunnymobile and come with us," said the old gentleman bunny.

"When we get there I'll open the barrel and give you some." So away they went and soon they came across an old rag doll lying in the dusty road.

"Goodness me," exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, "she must have fainted." And, sure enough, this was the case, for as soon as she was lifted into the Bunnymobile she opened her eyes and said: "In the next story I'll tell you how I was lost by a little girl with a blue sunbonnet."

THE YELLOW DOG TRAMP

"I'm a plain rag doll in a dress of blue, And I've been lost, an hour or two By a little girl with a curly head Who will cry for me when she goes to bed."

This is what the Rag Doll said to the two little rabbits who picked her up in the last story, you remember.

"Dear me!" exclaimed the old gentleman bunny. "What's the name of the little girl?"

"Lucy Locket," said the Rag Doll. And then Little Jack Rabbit began to laugh, for he had once read of a little Lucy Locket who had lost her pocket, and he remembered that she lived not far away. So he steered the Bunnymobile while the old gentleman bunny talked to the Rag Doll, and by and by, not so very long, they came to a pretty house, and right there on the front porch sat a little girl crying.

"h.e.l.lo, don't cry; wipe your eye!" shouted kind Uncle John Hare. "We have found your rag dolly!" And in another minute the Rag Dolly was in the little girl's arms.

"Good-by," said the two little rabbits, and they drove away to find another adventure, and pretty soon they found one. Oh, my yes! The Yellow Dog Tramp came out of the wood and said:

"I've been tramping, tramping, tramping For many a weary mile; Across the way, through fields of hay, And through the old turnstile.

Oh, won't you take me for a ride?

I've a dreadful pain in my poor old side."

"Jump in," said the old gentleman rabbit with a kind smile. "You're not the kind of a dog who bothers little bunnies."

"No, I'm not," answered the Yellow Dog Tramp, "I'd like to find a nice home and stay there."

"Well, you come with us," said the little bunny. "You can clean the Bunnymobile and work in the garden."

"Hurrah!" barked the Yellow Dog Tramp. "I feel like a boy again already, I used to do those things before I became a hobo doggy."

Well, by this time they were almost home, and in less than five hundred more short seconds they were in the garage where the old gentleman rabbit fixed up a little room for the Yellow Dog Tramp, with a looking gla.s.s at one end and a little white bed at the other.

"Now you brush your coat and trousers and part your hair in the middle and then come in to supper," said the old gentleman rabbit. And in the next story you shall hear what happened after that.

"ALWAYS TRUST THE FAIRIES"

Uncle John's little garden Is full of bright flowers And the fairies play tag Through all the bright hours.

"Dear me," said the Yellow Dog Tramp, to himself, peeping out of the garage, where we left him in the last story, "they seem to be having a fine time!" And he sighed, for he was thinking of another garden up in Vermont and the old farm where he was a boy, long ago, before he had run away from home.

"Who's eye is watching us?" cried one of the fairies, all of a sudden, just like that. And then, of course, all these little people stopped playing but they couldn't see anything but the Yellow Dog Tramp's right eye, which, I forgot to tell you, was peeping through a tiny knothole.

"The Yellow Dog Tramp, who is old and lame Is watching you play your tag-a-rag game,"

he answered, whereupon all the fairies said:

"Jump over the fence, and play awhile Drop your scowl and put on a nice smile."

And when the Yellow Dog Tramp heard that, he couldn't help but laugh, and in less than five hundred short seconds he was over the wall. But, oh dear me. In a few minutes the big Ragged Rabbit Giant leaned over the tree top and said in a deep gruff voice:

"Fee, fum, f.a.g, fog.

I smell the blood of a yellow dog."

"Quick, I must change you into a fairy puppy," said the queen fairy, and she waved her bright wand, and in less time than I can take to tell it he became small enough to creep into a tulip flower.

"Where has that dog gone?" asked the big Ragged Rabbit Giant, peeking under the bushes and behind the sunflowers, but he never thought to look in the tulip.

"Thunder and lightning! What happened to that dog," and the Giant Rabbit dusted off the knees of his trousers after creeping under a lilac bush; "he must be here somewhere." But not a fairy said a word, and pretty soon a mosquito stung that wicked old Giant Rabbit on the back of his neck, which made him so angry that he stepped over the garden wall and walked away.

And when he was out of sight the queen fairy changed the Yellow Dog Tramp back again into his natural shape:

"Always trust the fairies If danger you are in.

And always say 'A lucky day!'

When e'er you find a pin,"

sang the queen fairy as the happy Yellow Dog Tramp ran into Uncle John Hare's little house.

And there we will leave him for the present, but in another book, ent.i.tled "Little Jack Rabbit and Professor Crow," you'll hear more about the little rabbits and their friends.

THE END