"Clean your last year's panama,
Wear your last year's suit,
Don't replace a single thing
Except a worn-out boot."
Now who do you suppose sang that little verse? You'll never guess, so I'll tell you right away. Grandmother Magpie!
"I'm sorry I can't wait," said the little rabbit, and off he hopped for the Old Bramble Patch to ask his mother if she were going to clean her last year's panama bonnet.
THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD
"I wonder where I'm going to stay to-night," said Little Jack Rabbit to himself one late afternoon, after traveling all day with his knapsack on his back and his striped candy cane in his right paw, and just then he came in sight of a little wooden house. So he stopped and tapped on the door, rat-a-tat-tat, very softly, you know. And when the door opened a little monkey dressed in a red cap and a green coat said, "What do you want?"
"I beg your pardon," answered the little rabbit, "but, you see, it's getting late and I'm looking for a place to sleep."
"Well, come right in," said the little monkey, and after Little Jack Rabbit had hung his knapsack and striped candy cane on the hatrack in the hall he followed the monkey into the sitting room.
Well, after a little while he told the monkey all about the Old Bramble Patch and Danny Fox and Mr. Wicked Weasel, and lots of other things, too, which I haven't room in this story to mention. And when he had finished the monkey said he had once belonged to a man who owned a hand organ and went about the country playing music for pennies, and sometimes for nothing.
"But that was long ago," said the little monkey, "for one day my master beat me so cruelly that I ran away to the wood, and by and by I built this little house, where I have lived ever since." Just then a knock came at the door and who do you suppose was outside? Why, the Yellow Dog Tramp, the little rabbit's friend, you remember.