"Why don't you build a house for yourself on the Sunny Meadow?"
"I don't need one," answered the little rabbit. "Old Bramble Patch, U. S. A., is where I live."
"But everybody is building a home," went on Jimmy Jay. "Why don't you get to work?" and the mischievous little bird picked off a hard round bud and threw it at the little rabbit. Then off he flew, singing at the top of his voice:
"Some folks are so lazy
They never do a thing,
But bother everybody
Who's busy in the Spring."
"I wonder if he means me," thought the little rabbit. "Oh, dear me! I wonder if he means me!" and this time the little rabbit spoke out loud, for he felt so badly he just couldn't keep it to himself.
"If he does he isn't telling the truth," said Bobbie Redvest.
"He's a mischief maker," cried another voice, and there stood Timmy Meadow Mouse. "Don't let him worry you, little rabbit." After that the little bunny felt ever so much better, for what is nicer than to have your friends stick up for you in this world, I should like to know, and he hopped off home to help his mother, who was busy beating the carpets and putting up the curtains in camphor for the Summer. And after he had polished the front doorknob and fed the canary, she gave him five carrot cents and told him he might go down to the Three-in-One Cent Store to buy a raspberry lollypop.
MOTHER NATURE
"Oh, I shall be so glad when the leaves are on the trees and bushes and the Sunny Meadow is covered with grass," said Little Jack Rabbit, one lovely morning. You see, in the dear old Summer time there are thousands of hiding places, but in the Winter and early Spring everything is bare. I'm sure I don't know how this little bunny, all winter, would have escaped the eager eyes of Hungry Hawk, Mr. Wicked Weasel and Danny Fox, if his fur overcoat hadn't been white—for, of course, you haven't forgotten that his coat turns white in the Winter time, and that this is one way that Loving Mother Nature looks after the welfare of her little rabbit children. For when the snow is on the ground Little Jack Rabbit in his white fur overcoat looks like a snow ball, and at the first sign of danger he sits perfectly still, making it mighty hard for even Hungry Hawk's bright eyes to see him.