The Little Girl Tied a Ribbon Around Uncle John Hare's Neck.
"I sell these ribbons for Pussy Cats and Bow-wow Dogs," she said, opening a box which she carried under her arm. "Then I buy groceries and shoes for myself, and some day when the prince comes riding by on his big white horse he will stop to see me, and then maybe he'll ask me to marry him, and I shall be a princess. But I shall take my little magic tree with me and plant it in the castle garden, for it is my lucky charm." And in the next story, just wait until you hear what happens.
THE FAIRY CAT
When the two little rabbits and the little girl reached the One-Two-Three-Cent Store in Catnip City, they all jumped out of the Bunnymobile. Now, I don't believe I ever told you about the One-Two-Three-Cent Store. It was kept by a Fairy Cat, whose name was Tabby Tiny Cat. And all the fairies for miles around bought things at her store, for she kept every kind of a thing—candies made of honey dew, nuts and maple sugar, Sunbeam Taffy and Moonlight Marshmallows, as well as Cobweb Laces and pretty moss rugs and Sugar Maple Icicle Candy.
"Come in, come in," said the Fairy Cat.
"I've things for a penny and some for two, and others for three, now what will it be?"
"Let me look around first," said Little Jack Rabbit. "Mrs. Daisy Duck, my uncle's housekeeper, makes all the good things we want to eat, but maybe you will have something we'd like to buy." So while he and Uncle John Hare looked around, the little girl showed the lovely Magic Tree Ribbons to the Fairy Cat who said:
"I'll take them all, for the Fairy Cats will need bows for Easter." Then the little girl bought flour and sugar and a pair of little red shoes, and a dainty sunbonnet with a yellow butterfly on it. And then she was ready to go home. But the two little rabbits were still looking around trying to find something which they could buy for Mrs. Daisy Duck.
Pretty soon a Yellow Bird in a wicker cage began to sing:
"Buy a fairy dewdrop pin
Your purple tie to fasten in."
"Good," said Uncle John Hare, "that's what I want."
"Buy a silver tick-tock watch
To tell the time of day.
You'll find it very useful
When riding miles away,"
sang the little bird.
"That's the very thing," exclaimed Little Jack Rabbit. And as soon as they had paid the Fairy Cat, they all jumped into the Bunnymobile and started back for the little girl's house where in the garden grew the Magic Ribbon Tree I told you about in the last story.
But, oh dear me. Just as they drew up at the front gate, they saw the Ragged Rabbit Giant behind the house. "Oh, dear," said the little girl. "He will pick off all the lovely ribbons. What shall I do?"
Well, just then, all of a sudden, a big tremendous long snake crawled out from behind a tree. And in the next story, you shall hear what happened after that.
THE BIG BLACK SNAKE
"I'm as strong as an iron rope
I can bind a giant fast;
If I coil like a belt around his waist,
I can make him breathe his last,"
sang the Big Black Snake just as I finished the last story.
"Then help us," said Little Jack Rabbit, "for the Ragged Rabbit Giant is picking all the lovely ribbons from the little girl's magic tree."
"Keep quiet," said the snake, "and I will glide around into the garden and see what I can do."
So Uncle John Hare, Little Jack Rabbit and the little girl hid behind a lilac bush. And pretty soon, not so very long, they heard a dreadful noise. Oh, dear me, yes. And in another minute the Ragged Rabbit Giant ran out of the garden with the big snake coiled about his waist.
Now the Ragged Rabbit Giant was tremendously strong, and the snake found it hard work to squeeze the breath out of him. But, just the same, Ragged Rabbit Giant was mighty uncomfortable, let me tell you. And pretty soon he said in a whisper:
"If you will tell this dreadful snake
To bother me no more,
I'll never pass this way again
Nor knock upon your door."
"Shall I let him go?" asked the snake, winking his left eye at Uncle John Hare. "First make him give us a promise," answered the wise old gentleman rabbit. So the big bunny giant made a solemn vow never to bother them again.
"You are a very kind snake," said the little girl, "I will give you some ribbons for your children's Easter bonnets." And she ran into the garden and with her silver scissors clipped off some pretty ribbons and gave them to the snake, who then glided away to his home.
Just then the sound of a bugle was heard and the little girl cried:
"Here comes the prince on his snow-white steed
As my godmother told me he would,
To take me away to his castle gay
In the midst of the whispering wood."
And sure enough, in a few minutes the prince came by and asked the little girl to come to his castle. So she pulled up the Magic Ribbon Tree and locked the door of her little house, and then the handsome prince lifted her up on the saddle and rode away to the castle. And as soon as the little girl was seated behind him she grew into a beautiful young princess. And in the next story, oh, just wait until you hear what happens.
THE SUGAR BARREL
Said Mrs. Daisy Duck one day,
"The sugar all has gone away
The ants have made a call I fear,
And taken it away from here."
"Never mind," said Uncle John Hare, the old gentleman rabbit, "perhaps they couldn't buy any lollypops at the One-Two-Three-Cent Store."
"But what am I to do?" asked Mrs. Daisy Duck. "I must have sugar to make Angel cake."
"If that's the case," said the old gentleman bunny, "I'll motor over to Turnip City and buy some." So he and Little Jack Rabbit jumped into the Bunnymobile and away they went, and after a while, and maybe a mile, and a laugh and a smile, they stopped at the Big Grocery Store.
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 spyglasses 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.
"Hello, 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 glass 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, fag, 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, entitled "Little Jack Rabbit and Professor Crow," you'll hear more about the little rabbits and their friends.