Part 2

"I'll come," answered Ducky Waddles, "and I won't forget to tell the Barnyard Folk that they're invited."

"Don't lose the ring," cautioned Little Jack Rabbit, as he and the little squirrel hurried down the Old Cow Path to the Shady Forest. Just then they met Mrs. Cow. She was wagging her head back and forth to brush off the flies and the little bell on her leather collar made a pretty tinkling sound.

"Let's ask her to come and ring the wedding bells."

"The very thing," laughed Twinkle Tail. "Won't you come to my wedding, Mrs. Cow? Please do."

"When is it to be?" she asked.

"To-night at five," answered Twinkle Tail, with a blush.

"Pretty near milking-time," explained Mrs. Cow.

"Oh, it won't take long," replied the little rabbit. "Do come, Mrs. Cow. We want you to ring your bell at the wedding. Did you ever ring a wedding bell?"

"No," answered Mrs. Cow, "but I guess I know how. I'll come, but I may not be able to stay all the time for I must get back in time for milking."

Then the three started off together, and when they reached the Shady Forest, Twinkle Tail looked back and saw Henny Penny and Cocky Doodle coming up the Old Cow Path dressed in their Sunday clothes. Just behind them were Ducky Waddles and Goosey Lucy and in the distance Turkey Tim hurrying along the Old Rail Fence to catch up to them.

"Goodness me!" exclaimed the little squirrel, "I won't have much time to dress," and he set off at a great pace, leaving Mrs. Cow and Little Jack Rabbit behind.

When he reached his house he found Miss Squirrel anxiously looking out of the window, but when she saw him, she laughed and said, "I thought you were lost, dear Twinkle Tail!"

Pretty soon Parson Owl arrived, and when all the guests were seated, he told Twinkle Tail and Miss Squirrel to stand up before him. And after Twinkle Tail had placed the little gold ring on Miss Squirrel's little finger toe, Mrs. Cow rang the wedding bells and Bobbie Redvest sang a song.

"NUTS AND RAISINS"

There was a grand feast after the wedding of Twinkle Tail and little Miss Squirrel. There were nuts and raisins for everybody, and I don't know of anything much nicer than nuts and raisins.

Of course, all the Barnyard Folk ate raisins, for they couldn't crack the nuts. It almost gave Ducky Waddles a toothache watching Twinkle Tail crack the shells.

Cocky Doodle made a pretty speech, wishing the Twinkle Tails a long life and a happy one, in which all the little people of the forest joined him.

After that everybody looked at the wedding presents, which if not beautiful, were very useful.

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.

On the way home if it hadn't been for some friendly Fireflies, Little Jack Rabbit might have lost his way. And then again, maybe not, for he was a pretty bright little bunny and like all the Forest Folk, knew how to take care of himself. At the same time, it's nice to have a lantern on a dark night. One might, you know, stumble into a deep hole.

When they reached the Old Bramble Patch, the little rabbit said: "I'd ask you in, only I'm afraid mother's asleep."

"Thank you just the same," answered the kind Fireflies. "We are glad to have helped you with our little lanterns," and they flew away to the Sunny Meadow to wink and blink like little stars among the tall grasses.

The little rabbit opened the door and hopped softly up to his room and was soon fast asleep in his comfortable bed.

BAD NEWS

It's really too bad that the Miller's Boy Should be snooping around with his gun. Why doesn't he stay in the Old Mill all day And leave little folks to their fun?

That's what the Little People of the Shady Forest and the Sunny Meadow thought. You see, the Miller's Boy had very little to do just now, for the farmers were busy in the fields and the corn wasn't ready to be ground into meal. So all the Miller's Boy had to do was to attend to a few chores and then get out his gun and go hunting. And of course all the little four-footed and feathered people were dreadfully afraid of that great noisy gun.

"Look here," said Mrs. Rabbit, one day to her little son, "you had better be careful. 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.

"Mother says a bullet goes faster than Danny Fox," explained the little bunny, and as everybody in the Shady Forest knew Mrs. Rabbit never told anything that wasn't true, as Grandmother Magpie did, for instance, these two little friends looked very serious. Yes, indeed, they looked serious. They began to feel that the Miller's Boy was a dangerous person.

"Let's tell all our friends," said Woody Chuck, so off the three started and by and by, not so very far, they came to the Shady Forest Pond where Busy Beaver lived.

"Pooh, pooh!" he said, when he heard the news. "I'm safe in the water. He can't get a shot at me."

"Don't be too sure," answered Little Jack Rabbit, as he ran down to the Old Duck Pond to tell Granddaddy Bullfrog.

Now the old gentleman frog was half asleep on his log, his chin resting on his gray waistcoat and his eyes closed, for he had just eaten a big dinner of flies.

"Helloa, there, Granddaddy Bullfrog," shouted the little rabbit. The old frog opened his eyes and took out his watch to see the time, for he thought at first it was Mrs. Bullfrog calling him home.

"Oh, it's you, is it?" he said to the little rabbit. "Gracious me, I must have fallen asleep, for I had a dream.

"I thought I'd caught a thousand flies, All on this summer day. But now that you've awakened me They all have flown away.

"Oh, it was such a pleasant dream, I fear I shall grow thinner. You should have let me slumber on Until I'd finished dinner."

POOR JIMMY MINK

As soon as Little Rabbit had told the old gentleman frog to watch out for the Miller's Boy, he hopped along by the Bubbling Brook, as it wound in and out among the trees of the Shady Forest or went splashing over rocks and fallen logs. All of a sudden he met Jimmy Mink. But, oh dear me! What was the matter with Jimmy Mink? He was hobbling on three legs. What could be the matter?

"Helloa, there, Jimmy Mink," shouted the little rabbit.

"What makes you walk on three legs, When you can walk on four? I didn't know that you had been A soldier in the war."

"I haven't," replied Jimmy Mink. "I got caught in a trap," and he lifted up his right foreleg.

"Why, your foot's gone!" gasped the little rabbit. "Isn't that dreadful?"

"Yes, it's pretty bad," answered Jimmy Mink. "But the only way I could free myself was to bite off my foot."

"Oh! oh! oh!" cried the little rabbit, sorrowfully. "Tell me how it happened." So Jimmy Mink explained how one day when he had crept out of his little house under the bank of the Bubbling Brook, he had seen a nice fat trout on an old log. "There was a queer looking iron thing there, too," he said, "but I didn't think anything about that. But, oh dear me! When I picked up the trout, something snapped and my leg was caught fast. Oh, how it pinched! I pulled and pulled. But I couldn't get away. Then I tried to bite the iron thing that held my foot, but I couldn't break it. So at last I gnawed off my foot."

"Whew!" whistled the little bunny through his teeth. "I never could do that. My, but you're a brave fellow."

"There's the iron thing over there," said Jimmy Mink, pointing to a trap that lay on an old log close to the bank. The little rabbit hopped over and looked at it. And, sure enough, pinched in between the jaws of the cruel trap was Jimmy Mink's little black foot.

"But I've learned my lesson," said Jimmy Mink. "Next time if I want trout, I'll catch him in the water, not on top of a log," and he jumped into the pool and swam away. Then the little rabbit hopped along the Shady Forest Trail, but he couldn't forget poor little Jimmy Mink.

Well, after a while, all of a sudden, he heard a great chickering and chirring overhead. Around and around the trunk of the tree went two bodies, one a yellowish brown, about as large as a cat, and the other gray, with a long bushy tail.

Up to the top they went as fast as lightning, around and around, corkscrew fashion, and then down they came to the ground and before his yellowish brown enemy could catch him, Twinkle Tail dashed into a crack between two stones.

PROFESSOR JIM CROW'S LESSON

"I'm so glad Twinkle Tail got away," said Little Jack Rabbit to himself, as the frightened gray squirrel squeezed in between the rocks. And then the little rabbit hopped away as fast as he could, and pretty soon he saw Professor Jim Crow with his little Black Book in his claw.

"Tell me, Professor Jim Crow," said the little rabbit, "what is the name of the yellowish-brown animal that chases little gray squirrels around and around the trunks of trees?"

"How big was he?" asked the wise old bird, putting on his spectacles and turning over the leaves of his little Black Book.

"Larger than the farmer's black cat," answered the little rabbit.

"Did it look something like a fox?" asked the old crow.

"Yes, he did," replied the little rabbit.

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.

[Illustration: "I'm in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth." _Page_ 59]

"Well, I'm going to have a good time now," thought the little rabbit to himself. "I've learned my daily lesson. I'll call up Uncle John." So off he hopped to the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth.

"What number do you want?" asked the telephone girl who was a little wood-mouse.

"One, two, three, Harefield," answered the little rabbit, and in less than five hundred short seconds, he heard his Uncle's voice over the wire.

"Goodness gracious meebus!" exclaimed Mr. John Hare, "I thought you'd forgotten all about your old uncle. Where are you?"

"I'm in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth," answered the little rabbit.

"I'll come right over to the Old Bramble Patch," said Uncle John, and the old gentleman hare dropped the receiver on his left hind toe he was so excited. You see, he hadn't heard from his little bunny nephew for so long that he supposed he had enlisted in Uncle Sam's Army or Aunt Columbia's Navy! Well, anyway, as soon as the little rabbit had paid the little wood-mouse five carrot cents, he hopped home to tell his mother that Uncle John Hare was coming over to supper.

TO THE POST OFFICE

"Billy Breeze, please blow no more The leaves around the kitchen door. It takes my time till ten fifteen To make the doorstep nice and clean,"

said Little Jack Rabbit the next morning after he had polished the front doorknob and fed the canary and filled the woodbox in the kitchen with kindling wood.

Oh, my, yes, he was a busy little rabbit. He had to help his mother in lots of ways, especially when Uncle John Hare was making a visit at the Old Bramble Patch.

Well, when the little rabbit had done all these things, his mother asked him to go down to the post office and buy her three War Savings Stamps and the Rabbitville Gazette for Uncle John, who had a touch of rheumatism in his left hind toe and didn't feel like hopping around, but preferred to sit in an armchair on the back stoop where it was warm and sunny.

Now, as Little Jack Rabbit hopped along, he met Chippy Chipmunk under the Big Chestnut Tree, so of course he stopped and said good morning.

"Where are you going?" asked the little Chipmunk. And when he found out, he took two twenty-five carrot cent pieces out of his pocket and asked the little rabbit to buy him two Thrift Stamps.

"All right," said the little bunny, dropping the two quarters in his knapsack, and by and by, not so very far, he met Squirrel Nutcracker.

"Where are you going?" asked the old gray squirrel.

"Down to the Post Office," answered the little rabbit.

"Will you buy me a dollar's worth of Thrift Stamps, please," said Squirrel Nutcracker. So the little rabbit tucked the lettuce dollar bill in his waistcoat pocket and hopped along. And pretty soon, not so very far, he met Busy Beaver. He was plastering the top of his little mud house and was dreadfully busy, but when he heard where Little Jack Rabbit was going, he put his little muddy paw in his pocket and took out a fifty cent piece.

"Please buy me two Thrift Stamps, I've no time to go to the village. I must finish my house before the frost comes."

The little rabbit put the fifty cent piece in his knapsack and hopped along, and by and by Parson Owl, who sat winking and blinking in his Hollow Tree House, called out to the little rabbit as he hopped over the dry leaves:

"Hey, there! Where are you going?"

"Down to the Post Office to buy stamps!"

"Will you buy me ten dollars' worth if I give you the money?" asked the winky, blinky old owl. Goodness me; it will take another story to tell what happened after that.

MORE STAMPS

Now let me see. We left little Billy Bunny on his way to the Post Office to buy Thrift Stamps and the Rabbitville Gazette. And, oh dear me! I'm all mixed up. I can't remember whether Timmy Chipmunk gave the little rabbit ten dollars or whether Old Parson Owl did. Or whether the Squirrel Brothers wanted two stamps, or whether it was Busy Beaver who wanted three, or maybe four and perhaps five. Oh dear me again!

But never mind. I guess the little rabbit wasn't mixed up, for he hopped along as happy as you please, and just before he came to Rabbitville, he heard a voice in the treetops say:

"Where are you going, little Hoppity Hop, You're going so fast maybe you can't stop."

"Oh, yes, I can," answered Little Jack Rabbit. "What do you want?"

"That depends on where you are going," said Professor Jim Crow, for it was the old blackbird who had stopped the little rabbit, you see.

"I'm going to the Post Office to buy Mother Three Thrift Stamps and Uncle John the Rabbitville Gazette, and let me see. 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 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. Buy me ten Thrift Stamps," and he handed over a two and one-half dollar lettuce bill. "Don't lose the half," added the wise old crow, and then he flew up into his old pine tree and cawed away right merrily. And after that the little rabbit hopped along and when he came to the Post Office, he went up to the little stamp window and asked the old maid grasshopper, who was the postmistress, you remember--but if you don't, she was, just the same, for Bobbie Redvest told me so--if there were any letters. But there was only the Rabbitville Gazette done up in a pink wrapper and yellow two-cent stamp.

"Have you Thrift Stamps?" asked Bunny Boy. And when the lady grasshopper said yes, he told her just how many he wanted, for he could remember everything, you see, which is more than I can, let me tell you, unless I look back over this story. And after he had put the stamps carefully in his knapsack with little pieces of wax paper between so that they wouldn't stick together, he started back for the Old Bramble Patch. And in the next story, if all those stamps don't get angry and try to lick each other, I'll tell you what happened after that.

BUSY TIMES

When Little Jack Rabbit finally reached home with the stamps and the Rabbitville Gazette, he found his Uncle John singing at the piano this lovely song:

The Autumn leaves are falling Along the Woodland ways, In scarlet, brown and yellow coats These cool November days.

They rustle by the Old Rail Fence, They whisper in the lane, Or from the shivering half-clad trees They sing a sad refrain.

But Mrs. Rabbit was too busy putting up carrot preserves and lettuce pickles to even listen. All the little people of the Shady Forest and Sunny Meadow were getting ready for Winter.

The little feathered people were pruning their wings for a long flight to the warm Southland, and the four-footed folk were gathering nuts and grain for their storehouses.

The Squirrel Brothers had a bushel of nuts, and maybe more, laid away carefully in the old chestnut tree, and Chippy Chipmunk had filled his underground storeroom with nuts and corn.

Granddaddy Bullfrog was almost ready to dive into the Old Duck Pond to hide in the soft warm mud. Teddy Turtle, too, would soon find for himself a nice warm spot on the mud bottom of the mill pond before Jack Frost touched the water with his icy fingers.

And Mr. John Hare had telephoned to the Old Red Rooster to come over and put up Mrs. Rabbit's storm-door and bank the cellar windows with dry leaves.

"Mother," said Little Jack Rabbit, as he polished the brass doorknob, "I guess Jack Frost will soon be around."

"Shouldn't wonder," she replied, "but who's afraid of Jack Frost? Danny Fox and Mr. Wicked Weasel, to say nothing of Hungry Hawk, are more to be feared." And that good lady rabbit began her ironing, for it was Tuesday, the day when all Rabbitville irons Monday's wash, I'm told.

Just then Bobbie Redvest began to sing:

The summer time is over, And all the golden hours, No more the roses crimson bloom Amid the garden bowers.

The little birds have left their nests And now are strong of wing, They will not build themselves a home Until the lovely spring,

But fly away to Southern lands, Where warmth and sunshine reign, They cannot brave the winter wind, The snow drifts in the lane.

And little four-foot furry folks Will safely hide away, And sleep until the winter's past And Spring has come to stay.

AN ACCIDENT

Well, after Uncle John Hare had spent about a week at the Old Bramble Patch, he thought it time to go home. So he called up his house and ordered his Bunnymobile sent for him.

"Now don't worry about Little Jack Rabbit," he said to the anxious lady bunny, "I'll take good care of him and send him home safe and sound."

Then he put on his goggles while the little rabbit cranked up the Bunnymobile, and off they went.

You see, Uncle John was so fond of his little rabbit nephew that he just had to take him out for a drive.

But, goodness me. They had gone only a little way when they ran into a load of hay. And, oh dear me! It tumbled down on top of them and hid the Bunnymobile from sight. Wasn't that dreadful?

Well, I don't know what would have happened--they would have been smothered or had hay fever, I guess--if a big Circus Elephant hadn't come hurrying along just then.

Well, sir! He wound his trunk around that pile of hay and put it back on the wagon. Then he dropped in his pocket the nickel the farmer gave him, but he wouldn't take the carrot cent that grateful Uncle John offered him.

[Illustration: The Elephant Put the Hay Right Back on the Wagon. _Page_ 74]

"I'm so nervous you'd better drive," cried the old gentleman hare. So Little Jack Rabbit took the wheel and for a little while everything went along nicely. But pretty soon it grew dark, so the little rabbit hopped out to light the lamps. But when he struck a match he found that the lamps were smashed to pieces. You see, they had hit the back of the hay wagon.

"What shall we do?"

"Get in and go along the best you can," answered the old gentleman hare. "We ought to be pretty near home by this time." And I guess they would have reached his little red house in a few minutes if the Policeman Dog hadn't stopped them.

"What do you mean by running your Bunnymobile without lights?" he growled. "I'll fine you ten bones!"

"Make it carrots and I'll pay you," said Uncle John.

But the Policeman Dog wouldn't take carrots. You see, he liked bones much better. Then he jumped on the running board and told them to drive to Station House No. 13.

But wasn't it lucky? They had gone only a little way when they came to a butcher shop, where Uncle John traded ten carrots for ten bones. And when he gave them to the Policeman dog, he told them they might drive home slowly.