“If you’ll promise not to come here again,” said kind Uncle Lucky, “I’ll call up the hospital. If you don’t promise I’ll call the Policeman Dog and ask him to tickle you with his club,” and the old gentleman rabbit hopped down to the front gate and pretended to call a policeman, which frightened Old Man Weasel nearly to death. He’d rather have a sprained knee than be tickled by a policeman’s club any day in the week.
“I’ll promise! I’ll promise!” he cried, and then Billy Bunny went to the telephone and called up the hospital and they sent an ambulance around. And the doctor—the man in white, you know, who sits on the back seat of the ambulance—tied up the weasel’s knee so he couldn’t bend it, and his ankle so he couldn’t wiggle it, and then he placed him in the ambulance, while the Policeman Dog stood by to keep the crowds away, only of course there wasn’t any crowds there, for it was midnight, you know.
And in the next story I will tell you more about the two little rabbits if they only get up in time, for they’ve stayed up pretty late to-night and may not hear the alarm clock in the morning.
STORY XXIX—BILLY BUNNY AND THE POLICEMAN DOG
“Well, that’s a great relief,” exclaimed Uncle Lucky, as the ambulance drove away with Old Man Weasel, who had tried to eat up Billy Bunny and his kind uncle in the story before this, and would have swallowed them both if the little rabbit hadn’t hit him with a cork bullet from his popgun, you remember.
Of course, it was very kind of Billy Bunny to call up the ambulance to take away the wicked weasel, after he had sprained his ankle, but it was also very wise. For who wants a wicked weasel around, even if he has a sprained ankle and can’t do you any harm?
Well, after everything was quiet and the Policeman Dog had taken a drink of cider and a cigar, the two little rabbits sat down on the front porch, for it was too late to go to bed, or maybe it was too early, for the first faint streaks of daylight were spreading over the sky, and by the time Uncle Lucky could unlace his shoes and untie his red cravat and wind his gold watch, it would be time to get dressed again.
So he and Billy Bunny sat down and waited for breakfast, and by and by the Japanese cook came out to sweep off the front porch, and when he saw Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot and his nephew, Billy Bunny, sitting there, he ran back into the kitchen and dropped two eggs on the floor and put the tea into the coffee grinder and the salt into the sugar bowl, he was so excited because he thought it must be ’way past breakfast time.
And then the old gentleman rabbit began to sing:
“Never hurry—makes worry;
Worry makes you thin.
If you’re clever you’ll endeavor
Never to begin.”