If it hadn't been for the circus posters on Farmer Green's barn, the idea of having a circus parade would never have occurred to Jimmy Rabbit.
You see, all those wonderful pictures set him thinking. And he lost no time in inviting everybody to help. He even invited Peter Mink, though he was sorry, afterwards, that he had.
For a day or two everybody in the neighborhood of Blue Mountain was as busy as he could be, getting ready for the parade. Cuffy Bear had promised to be the elephant, because he was so big.[p. 65] Frisky Squirrel was to be a wolf, on account of his being so gray. And Jimmy had invited Peter Mink to march as a giraffe, for the reason that he had such a long neck. And as for Jimmy Rabbit himself, he said that he expected to be a little pitcher, because he had heard that they had big ears.
"I've heard that, too," remarked Billy Woodchuck. "But I never knew that a pitcher was an animal."
"Well, you see you have a good deal to learn," Jimmy Rabbit said.
Then Tommy Fox murmured something about having heard that little pitchers had big mouths, too, and that they always talked a good deal. But Jimmy Rabbit made believe he didn't hear him.
Everything would have been pleasant, on the day of the parade, if it hadn't been for Peter Mink. He insisted that he must[p. 66] lead the procession; and that made trouble at once, because Jimmy Rabbit had expected to do that.