And then he gave them a big red cherry, a candy cherry, you know, which his friend the Clown at the circus had given him a long time ago.
“Well, I must be hopping along,” said the little rabbit after the little birds had picked the cherry candy all to pieces until there was nothing left but the stone.
So away he went again to seek more adventures, and after a little while, not so very long ago, he came to the railroad bridge where you remember he and his brother, Bobby Tail, had taken a ride one day, oh, so long ago, maybe one hundred stories back, in a big empty freight car. And just then a train came by, and when the engineer saw Billy Bunny he stopped the train, for I suppose he thought the little rabbit wanted to get aboard.
And the brakeman helped him on and away went the train, over the rails that went clunkity, clunk, clunkity clunk, while the smoke from the engine trailed out behind, like a long gray feather. And the train didn’t stop until the brakeman called out Lettuceville, where a thousand little rabbits raised lovely green lettuce in a big field.
And in the next story you shall hear how the little rabbit scratched his ear and had some lettuce salad, too, all covered o’er with sugar dew.
STORY XXXVIII—BILLY BUNNY AND THE CARLOAD OF LETTUCE LEAVES
You remember in the last story I left off just as Billy Bunny got out of the train at Lettuceville, where there was a big family of rabbits who raised lettuce leaves for all the bunnies in the big U. S. A.
And the first person he saw was an old gray-haired rabbit, who said: “Glad to see you, Mr. William Bunny. Do you want to buy a car-load of lettuce leaves?”
“How much?” asked the little rabbit.
“Five million carrot cents,” replied the old gentleman bunny, “and that’s very cheap, for the leaves are big and juicy and will keep all winter if you put them in the ice house.”