The table was a nice flat stone, and the table-cover was made of pretty ferns and flowers, which the little bunnies and squirrels picked. Mr. Neddy, the donkey, had his dinner under a shady tree, while the others waited patiently for Mr. Bunnikins-Bunny.
Pretty soon they saw him in the distance, puffing and panting along, and dragging behind him some large object. When he came nearer, his wife saw that he was bringing a life-preserver.
“My dear,” she called, “what can you want that for?”
“For Bobtail,” Mr. Bunnikins shouted back. “If we should camp near a pond, he would surely fall in, and then, as he can’t swim, he would be drowned, unless we had a life-preserver.”
“But how can we carry it?” protested his wife. “The cart is already so full that Neddy can scarcely pull it.”
“Oh! I have thought all that out,” replied Mr. Bunnikins. “We will hang it around Neddy’s neck, where he can carry it easily, and it will look quite ornamental.”
They had soon finished their luncheon of carrot and lettuce salad and walnut pie, and after harnessing the donkey into the cart, and persuading him, much against his will, to let them hang the life-preserver around his neck, they started off once more.