When Tommy tickled her nose with the tender end of a grass-blade she ate it.
CHAPTER III
NIBBLE’S BUNNY MAKES ONE FRIEND TOO MANY
You remember how scary wild Nibble Rabbit was when he was a baby. That was because his mother taught him that being scary is the very safest thing for a bunny to be. Most everything will eat him if it can catch him. But Nibble’s babies weren’t scary a bit. All they knew, so far, was making friends with folks. They made friends with their father, first of all. Then they’d made friends with Doctor Muskrat and with Stripes Skunk and his kittens, and Bob White Quail and his nice brown mate and all their little chicks. They hadn’t had a single thing to frighten them.
That’s why they weren’t very scared when Tommy Peele tried to catch them. They weren’t as scared as Stripes Skunk’s kittens. You know the kittens had seen their mother killed, so they knew dreadful things did happen. But they could see their father wasn’t afraid of Tommy, and he didn’t tell them to run. He just sat down to watch the fun.
Fun it was! Those bunnies and kittens played hide and seek with the little boy in and out of the potatoes until he didn’t have any wind left for running and laughing. The minute he’d stop they’d all come back as if they were teasing him to chase them again. They’d put up their little noses and sniff at him and they’d stamp their little feet at him. The skunks stamped their front feet and the bunnies stamped their hind ones. And Tommy Peele’s father, who had come to look over the potato patch, stamped the only feet he has and shouted: “Go it, Tommy! That’s the time you nearly got one!”
The only one who didn’t think it was funny was Nibble’s mate, Silk-ears. She was terribly frightened. And she was pretty cross with Nibble for laughing at her.
“Don’t worry,” Nibble chuckled. “That boy can’t catch them. And he wouldn’t hurt them if he could.”
But Nibble was only half right. You remember the baby who hid in a deep footprint, back in the Deep Woods? Nibble had called her a “hop-toad” for doing it. Well, she tried it again. And this time someone did see her--Tommy did. He scooped her up in his hand.
Poor Silk-ears was nearly distracted. She thumped hard and called: “Jump! Quick, bunny, jump!”