HUNGRY HAWK
“I must leave now,” said the Yellow Dog Tramp, who, you remember in the last story, had found the lost penny for little Jenny Wren.
“Come and see me soon again,
If it doesn’t chance to rain,”
said Little Jack Rabbit, as he watched his good friend run away.
Well, after that, the little bunny hopped along, and by and by he saw Timmy Meadowmouse near his little house in the Sunny Meadow. And if you’ve forgotten what Timmy Meadowmouse’s house looks like I’ll tell you. It’s like a little ball, made out of grass, woven together on the top of two or three stiff stalks of meadow grass.
“Hello, Timmy Meadowmouse. What are you doing?”
“Keeping a lookout for Hungry Hawk,” he answered. “It was only a few minutes ago he flew by, way up in the sky. Oh, ever so high. But I don’t want to be caught in his cruel claws,” and the little meadowmouse shivered at the thought.
“Neither do I,” said Little Jack Rabbit. “I won’t wait, but hurry home to the Old Bramble Patch.” And it was a good thing he did, for just then Hungry Hawk came sailing by and if he had seen the little rabbit maybe he would have stooped down and caught him then and there and maybe some other place.
“What has kept you so late?” asked Lady Love as her little bunny son hopped up the garden walk to the kitchen door, where the good lady bunny stood shading her eyes with her left hind paw. She said nothing when she learned how he had almost been caught by Mr. Wicked Wolf and that the Yellow Dog Tramp had come by just in time. But when he said he had found a penny, she exclaimed: “Where is it?”
“Oh, dear,” answered the little rabbit, “it belonged to Jenny Wren. She lost it this morning, so I had to give it to her.”
And just then the telephone rang.
“Hello,” said Little Jack Rabbit. “Is it you?”
“It surely is,” said the old gentleman rabbit. “What do you suppose is the matter?” But Little Jack Rabbit couldn’t guess, and I don’t believe you can, so I’ll tell you right away.
“My Sonora won’t stop singing,” said the old gentleman rabbit, “and the three grasshoppers and the black cricket on the hearth can’t sleep. So what shall I do?”
“Call in the Old Red Rooster. He used to work in a talking machine factory before he came to you.”
And that’s just what Uncle John Hare did, and the next day he came over in his Bunnymobile and took Little Jack Rabbit out for a long drive.
CANDY CATS AND CHOCOLATE
MICE
After the Old Red Rooster had repaired the Sonora, he went back to the barn to dust off the cobwebs. But, oh, dear me! All of a sudden, he brushed down a little black spider who had her web in the northeast corner.
“You’re a very mean rooster to pull down my web,
For now I must spin me another,
If things must be clean you’ve no right to be mean,
I’ve a notion to tell your good mother.”
“Please don’t,” begged the Old Red Rooster. “She’s a very old hen and it might worry her so she couldn’t lay an egg.”
Just then Little Jack Rabbit and Uncle John Hare drove up in the Bunnymobile, so the little black spider began to spin a new web and the Old Red Rooster commenced to dust off the top of the buggy.
“Well, here we are, home again,” said the old gentleman rabbit, and he took off his old wedding stovepipe hat and wiped his forehead with his blue silk polkadot handkerchief, and after that he looked at his gold watch and chain and fixed the diamond horseshoe pin in his red necktie. You see, there was a little old broken mirror which he kept in the barn so that in case his stovepipe hat wasn’t on straight he could fix it before going out automobiling.
As soon as the Bunnymobile was safe in the garage he and Little Jack Rabbit went into the house and wound up the graphophone. And this is the song it sang:
“The candy cat ate a chocolate mouse,
O dearie, dearie me.
And the little toy dog chased the little toy cat,
Till she climbed up a cinnamon tree.”
Dear, dear me! Here we are at the end of the book. I wonder why the pages turn over so quickly; perhaps it is because Little Jack Rabbit hops so fast. But never mind, dear little reader, I am going to tell you some more about this little bunny boy in another book entitled “Little Jack Rabbit and Hungry Hawk.”
Yours for a story,
David Cory,
The Jack Rabbit Man.
SOME PICTURES OF LITTLE JACK RABBIT’S
TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES
| The three Little grasshoppers bowed to Uncle Lucky. | Cocky Doodles and Henny Jenny take a walk. |
| “Hold up Yours,” said the Policeman Dog. | Mr. Wicked Wolf had to shut his eyes. |
| “I saw Little Jack Rabbit last night, my dear,” said the Fox. | This made Mrs. Cow laugh. |
| “Goodness me! Where has that little bunny gone?” he said. | The little rabbit said goodbye. |
Transcriber’s Notes:
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.