"What is it?" asked Sammie, as he paused to nibble at a sweet root that was sticking out of the ground.
"It is because we have been kind to somebody," went on Susie Littletail. "We did the little brown bird a kindness in showing her the squirrel's nest where she could go to housekeeping, and that's what makes us happy."
"Are you sure?" asked Sammie.
"Yes," said Susie; "I am," and she sat up on her hind legs and sniffed the air to see if there was any danger about. "You always feel good when you do any one a kindness," she went on. "Once I wanted to go out and play, and I couldn't, because Nurse Fuzzy-Wuzzy was away and mamma had a headache. So I stayed home and made mamma some cabbage-leaf tea, and she felt better, and I was happy then, just as we are now."
"Well, maybe that's it," admitted Sammie Littletail. "I am glad Mrs. Wren has a nice home, anyhow. But I wouldn't like to live away up in a tree, would you?"
"No, indeed. I would be afraid when the wind blew and the nest shook."
"It is ever so much nicer underground in our burrow," continued Sammie.
"It certainly is," agreed Susie, "but I s'pose that a bird would not like that. They seem to want to be high up in the air. But I don't like it. Once I went away up on top of Farmer Tooker's woodpile, because his gray cat chased me, and when I looked down I was very dizzy, and it was not as high as a tree."
So the two bunny children hurried along, talking of many things, and, now and then, finding some nice sweet roots, or juicy leaves, which they ate. They paused every once in a while to look over the tops of little hills to discover if any dogs or hunters or ferrets were in sight, for they did not want to be caught.
At length they came to a little brook that was not far from their home. The edge of the stream had ice on it, for, though spring was approaching, the weather was still cold.