“Where have you two been?” she asked when she had finished hugging her little bunny boy. But I won’t tell you what Billy Bunny told her, for you know it already and, anyway, it would take maybe two hundred and forty-nine and a half stories to do it. So we’ll leave Billy Bunny alone for a little while with his dear mother and go across the Pleasant Meadow to the Old Farm Yard to see how Cocky Docky and Henny Jenny are.
And maybe we’ll hear something nice about Ducky Doodles and Turkey Purky and Mrs. Cow, unless you’ve forgotten all about these old friends.
Well, it’s strange how news travels. Robbie Redbreast had seen Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky drive up to the Old Brier Patch, and had flown over to tell the Weathercock on the Old Barn, who told Cocky Docky and then, of course, all the Barn Yard Folk knew that Billy Bunny was back again at the Old Brier Patch.
Then Ducky Doodle said he thought he’d go for a swim, and off he waddled to the Old Mill Pond. And as soon as he got there he told Uncle Bullfrog. But he didn’t tell the Miller’s Boy. No, siree! He didn’t want him to know, you may be sure.
And then, pretty soon, not so very long, Robbie Redbreast flew into the Friendly Forest and told Old Mother Magpie the news, and after that everybody knew that Mr. William Bunny had returned home from his travels. And that night the twinkle twinkle star shone right over the little rabbit’s room and sang:
The twinkle twinkle star will peep
At Billy Bunny fast asleep,
And send to him a pretty dream
Of silver fishes in a stream.
STORY XX—BILLY BUNNY AND THE BABBLING BROOK
The next morning after Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky had returned to the Old Brier Patch, as I told you in the last story, it rained and poured, and, of course, nobody could go out.
If it had been a gentle shower it wouldn’t have made any difference, but it rained so hard that I really believe Billy Bunny would have been drowned if he had even hopped out of the front door and back again.
“Now the best thing for you to do,” said Mrs. Bunny after breakfast, “is to go up into the garret and play with all your old toys. You’ve been away so long they’ll all seem just like new.”