Mr. Rabbit and Mrs. Meadows had come out of the house in time to hear this, and they laughed heartily. In fact, they all laughed except Mr. Thimblefinger and Drusilla.
“It happens every day,” said Mrs. Meadows. “We never notice it. I suppose if it happened up there where you children live, everybody would make a great to-do? I’m glad I don’t live there where there’s so much fussing and guessing going on. I know how it is. Something happens that doesn’t happen every day, and then somebody’ll guess one way and somebody another way, and the first thing you know there’s a great rumpus over nothing. I’m truly glad I came away from there in time to get out of the worst of it. You children had better take a notion and stay here with us.”
“Oh, no,” cried Sweetest Susan. “Mamma and papa would want to see us.”
“That’s so,” said Mrs. Meadows. “Well, I just came out here to tell you not to get too near the Green Moss Swamp beyond the hill yonder. There’s an old Spring Lizard over there that might want to shake hands with you with his tail. Besides it’s not healthy around there; it is too damp.”
“Oh, we are not going anywhere until we start home,” Sweetest Susan remarked.
“How large is the Spring Lizard?” inquired Buster John.
“He’s a heap too big for you to manage,” replied Mrs. Meadows. “I don’t know that he’d hurt you, but he’s slept in the mud over there until he’s so fat he can’t wallow scarcely. He might roll over on you and hurt you some.”
“Are there any lions over there?” inquired Sweetest Susan.
“No, honey, not a living one,” said Mrs. Meadows.
By this time Mr. Rabbit had come out on the piazza, bringing his walking-cane and his pipe. He presently seated himself on the steps, and leaned his head comfortably against one of the posts.