"Those boys!" cried the old rabbit. "If I wasn't laid up with rheumatism, I'd show them!" and he snapped his teeth in quite a savage manner indeed, for a rabbit can get angry at times.
After dinner Mamma Littletail asked Sammie and Susie to go to the cabbage-field store for her, but, as Sammie wanted to stay home and make a whistle out of a carrot, Susie went alone. As she was walking along under a big tree, she heard a noise in the branches, and, looking up, she saw a number of squirrels. One was the squirrel who had given her old nest to Mrs. Wren. The little gray chaps were running about, seemingly much excited over something. Presently they all scampered down, and Susie saw that they had their mouths full of nuts. They put them on the ground in a little heap, and then the little bunny girl noticed that there was, nearby, an old stump, and it was set just like a table, with dried leaves for plates, and the tops of acorns for cups.
"What is going on here?" Susie asked the squirrel whom she knew.
"I am giving a party in honor of having moved into my new nest," said the squirrel. "Wouldn't you like to come?"
"Yes," said Susie very politely, "I would like very much to."
"Then," said the squirrel, "hop up on the stump, and I will get an extra plate for you." Susie did so. It was the first party she had ever attended, but I can't tell you what happened until to-morrow.
XII
SUSIE GOES TO A PARTY
Up and down the big oak tree scampered the squirrels, bringing nuts and acorns from hollows, where they had been hidden all winter.