XVIII.
MRS. MEADOWS RESUMES HER STORY.
The pause was occasioned by Mr. Rabbit. He had fallen into a doze while Mrs. Meadows was telling her story, and just as she came to the point where the Conjurer had lifted the little girl in his arms and carried her into his cave, Mr. Rabbit had dreamed that he was falling. His chair was tilted back a little, and he made such a mighty effort to keep himself from falling in his dream that he lost his balance and went over sure enough.
“I declare!” he exclaimed. “I ought to be ashamed of myself to be falling heels over head this way without any reason in the world, and right before company too. Wasn’t there something in your story about falling?”
“Not a word!” replied Mrs. Meadows firmly.
“Well, well, well!” exclaimed Mr. Rabbit. “I’ll try and keep my eyes open hereafter.”
The children tried their best to keep from laughing at Mr. Rabbit’s predicament, but Drusilla was finally compelled to give way to her desire, and then they all joined in, even Mr. Rabbit smiling somewhat grimly.
“Let me see,” said Mrs. Meadows, after a while; “the last we heard of the little girl I was telling you about, the Conjurer had carried her into his cave?”
“Yes,” answered Sweetest Susan; “and now I want to know what became of her.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Meadows, “the shortest way to tell you that is the best way. It happened that on the very day the little girl ran away to visit her nurse, the nurse had concluded to visit the little girl. So she put on her best things and went to the little girl’s home. When the woman came to the garden she saw the gate open, and presently her husband, the gardener, came out trundling a load of weeds and trash in his wheelbarrow. She asked about the little girl.