Billy Bunny and Daddy Fox.
by David Cory.
STORY I-BILLY BUNNY AND THE JAIL HOUSE
Daddy Fox was very irregular in his habits about coming home, so, when the Bunny Boy Scouts captured him, after his escape from the Circus Cow Boy, and put him in the Jail House at Lettuceville, no one became uneasy for two or three days. After that time, Mrs. Fox said to Sly Boots and Bushy Tail, her two little sons: "Something has happened to your father.
I know it, for he never stays away like this without telephoning or sending a message home. We'd better go out to-night and look for him."
So when the big, round, silver moon was shining in the middle of the sky and the twinkle, twinkle star was peeping into the bedroom windows of little boys and girls, who were sound asleep and dreaming of lollypops and ice cream cones and other things, Mrs. Fox put on her bonnet and started out with her two little foxes.
And by and by they came to the Jail House. And while they were walking around it, smelling here and there to find out where their Daddy Fox was, they heard him singing in a sorrowful voice:
"I wonder if my two little boys Are thinking of Daddy Fox; If mother would only find me here She'd open this old jail box.
She'd find the key to the iron door, Which is hid in the crack outside in the floor Of the little porch, and she'd get me out.
Oh, dear, I wonder what they're about!"
And of course when Mrs. Fox heard that, she looked on the floor of the little porch; and, sure enough, there was the big iron key almost hidden from sight in a little, tiny crack.
Wasn't that lucky? Well, I guess it was, and in a jiffy and a half she unlocked the iron door and set Daddy Fox free.
My! But he was thin and miserable. They had shaved his head and put a striped suit of clothes on him and he didn't look anything like their dear, kind father, thought Sly Boots and Bushy Tail, although they didn't say so.
They just hugged him nearly to death, for they loved him, because he was their father, and they didn't know it was wicked to steal chickens, because all foxes do, and if you don't know a thing is wicked and then go and do it it's not nearly so bad as when you know a thing is wrong and then go and do it. So please remember this, for it's very important and will help you keep out of lots of trouble.
"Come home at once," said Mrs. Fox; "I have a nice stewed duck for supper, although it's past supper time." So Daddy Fox hurried as fast as he could so as not to let the duck stew get cooked too much, and by and by they came to their den.
And Mrs. Fox had the table set and the supper ready in less than a wink and everybody was happy as could be. And perhaps Daddy Fox will be good until the next time, that is if he doesn't see a chicken before the chicken sees him.
STORY II-BILLY BUNNY AND LADY HORNET
"Early to rise, early to rise, Will make little bunny boys win the first prize," sang Mrs. Bunny at the foot of the stairs. And then Billy Bunny lifted up his left hind leg and his right ear, and he wiggled his nose forty times less once, and after that he was wide awake.
And when he had washed his face and whiskers, and parted his hair down his back nice and smooth, he went down to eat his breakfast of carrot mush and raspberry juice which his kind mother had made from the fruit that grew in the old bramble patch. And then, oh yes, oh yes! he polished the brass knob on the front door, and after that he went down to the postoffice to see if a new spring mattress had come by parcel post.
But it hadn't, and the postmistress, who was a nice Lady Hornet, said it was a bit early in the season for spring mattresses, but she thought by next month it would come along, that is, if the weather kept nice and warm.
Well, anyway, she had something for the little rabbit. It was a letter with two carrot cents postage due, which the little bunny paid.
And then he opened his letter, and what do you think he found inside?
Why, a beautiful tinted photo of his circus elephant friend, and on the back was written in purple ink, "To Billy Bunny, from Elly, the circus elephant."
"Now, isn't that nice of him," said Billy Bunny. "I must send him mine right away," so he hopped away to the nearest photographer, who was a nice Crane and had his place in Rabbitville about 450 hops away.
By and by Billy Bunny reached the picture gallery, and after he had told the Crane photographer what he wanted he sat down on a little green mossy rock in front of a big canvas painted like the ocean with big green waves and white foam.
And all around the rock was sprinkled sand so that when the picture was taken it looked just as if the little bunny had been to Newport for the summer.
"How many do you want?" asked the Photographer Crane, who was certainly a splendid picture man, for his legs were just the right length so that he could look into the back of the camera without standing on a stool.
And, wasn't it funny, you couldn't tell his legs apart from the legs of the camera, only the camera had three and the Crane only two.
"I'll take seven," said the little rabbit. "That's my lucky number. I want to send one to Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot; he's my Uncle Lucky."
"And one to my friend, the circus elephant, for he's my best friend. It will make Daddy Fox mad to think he wasn't here at the same time, for he's always trying to catch me."
And just then who should peep in through the window but Daddy Fox himself. And in the next story you shall hear what happened after that.
STORY III-BILLY BUNNY AND PHOTOGRAPHER CRANE
You remember in the last story Daddy Fox was peeping in through the window just as Billy Bunny was having his picture taken, don't you?
Well, no sooner did the little rabbit see him than he hopped quicker than a lightning bug to the door and closed it, and the Photographer Crane pulled down the window shade to make it dark inside so that Daddy Fox couldn't see them.
After that he stuffed the fireplace full of sofa cushions for fear the crafty fox might slide down the chimney. But, oh dear me! he forgot all about the skylights-the windows in the roof, you know, and the next moment down through the ceiling dropped Daddy Fox.
Oh, my! What a scramble there was in that photo parlor. The Crane flew up on the mantelpiece and the little rabbit crept into the waste basket and pulled a photograph album on top of him.
And, of course, it was so dark that Daddy Fox didn't see them do all this, so he had to play hide-and-seek and there was nobody to call out, "You're getting hotter and hotter" when he stood near the mantelpiece, nor "You're burning up!" when he passed close to the waste paper basket, so after a while he sat down on a pincushion (excuse me, I mean a sofa cushion), and listened with both ears cocked up.
But the Crane never breathed and Billy Bunny held his breath, so by and by Daddy Fox started to hunt around the room again. First he pulled all the cushions out of the fireplace and then he pulled up the shades and unlocked the front door.
And this was very foolish of him, for he should have known that the Crane and the little rabbit hadn't had time to get out. Then he went out on the little porch and peeped into the woodbox, and while he was doing that the Crane flew down the mantelpiece and locked the door.
And then he pulled the strings to close the skylight and stuffed the cushions back into the fireplace, and lifted the album off the little rabbit, for it was so full of pictures of fat people that it was dreadfully heavy.
After this Billy Bunny opened his knapsack and took out his gun and peeked out through a hole in the window shade. And right there by the window stood the dreadful fox trying to open it. Bang! went the little rabbit's gun and the cork hit the fox on the tip of his nose and made him sneeze so badly that he had to run into the woods to find his handkerchief.
And he hunted all day long for it, and when evening came he remembered he had sent it to the laundry, so he had to go out and buy one at the three and one cent store.
Of course, Billy Bunny didn't have any more pictures taken that day. He hopped home as fast as he could, and the Crane telephoned down to the police station and told them to send up a man to guard the studio, and if the Twinkle Twinkle Star to-night sings me to sleep, I'll tell you another story of Billy Bunny and the sheep.
STORY IV-BILLY BUNNY AND THE ORGAN GRINDER