"Well, you can come in anyway," said the kind old mole; "my subway isn't finished yet and the trains won't be running for some time. Come in." So Billy Bunny hopped inside and sat down on a chair close to a little brass railing, behind which stood Mr. Mole's desk.
Then Mr. Mole sat down and looked at Billy Bunny as much as to say, "And now what can I do for you?" So Billy Bunny said, "I would like to get up on the ground again. Can you show me a new way, because I don't want to go back the way I came?"
Then Mr. Mole pressed a little bell, and in came a mole with overalls on and a little pickaxe. "Show my friend, Mr. Billy Bunny, through the tunnel to the Moss Bank entrance."
"Thank you," said the little rabbit, and he hopped after the workman mole until they came to an opening. And when the little rabbit got outside once more he found himself on a mossy bank where blossomed a lovely bed of violets.
So he picked a bouquet for himself and stuck it in his buttonhole, and after that he hopped away singing a song. And if Robbie Redbreast hadn't heard it I never would have been able to tell it to you. Wasn't it lucky that the little robin sang it to me this morning while I was still in bed? Because, if he hadn't, how would I have ever learned it?
Over the clover and over the grass
Hoppity, hop, I go;
Over the leaves from the autumn trees
And over the soft white snow,
With a whistle and song
I go hopping along,
I'm Billy Bunny, you know.
STORY XIV.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE WATER SNAKE.
"Over the grass or over the snow,
Fast as a little white breeze I go.
I'm Billy Bunny, Billy Bunny, you know."
Thus sang the little rabbit even after I left off in last night's story. Isn't it strange? Maybe I dreamed it. Anyhow, that's what I think he did, and after a while, when he had stopped singing, you know, he came to a little hill on the top of which was a high white pole with an American Flag flying from it.