But Nibble didn’t care whether she believed him or not. “I’ve found you again,” he said, and he waggled his long ears, because he was so excited about it. “I’ve found you. Next thing you know we’ll have found Tad Coon.”
And maybe Mammy Rabbit wasn’t shocked at that! She didn’t think Tad Coon was a safe friend for any rabbit, even a big one. But that didn’t scare Silk-ears. It just made her prouder than ever of Nibble. So off they set for Tommy Peele’s Woods and Fields.
Maybe you think they didn’t have an exciting time getting their bunnies all the way over from their nest in the Deep Woods. It wasn’t because the little ones couldn’t run fast enough. It was mostly because they ran too fast. They scuttled all over and they wouldn’t pay the least attention to Nibble when he thumped his big furry feet at them. Of course they did keep watch of their mother’s white tail-tip--even tiny wee ones, as soon as their eyes are open at all, know that’s what it’s for--but they didn’t see any use in a father at all.
Just once one did. That was when the hawk swooped down. Silk-ears dodged into the Pickery Things, where no hawk could possibly reach her. Three bunnies tagged after her. Nibble just stepped under an elder bush, where the hawk couldn’t pounce from above, and one bunny squirmed right under him. Then it poked out its curious little nose from behind his elbow and blinked at the big bird.
One bunny poked out its curious little nose and blinked at the big bird.
She didn’t really mean them any harm. She was really hunting fieldmice though a hawk will pick up a wee rabbit now and again. But when she saw it was Nibble she just laughed. “Ca, ca! When did you take to hatching?” and flapped right on. She had a nest of her own not far from Nibble’s hole. Like a sensible bird she did her hunting away from home to keep out of neighbourhood quarrels. If she took one of Nibble’s babies she had a pretty good idea that someone would come after one of her own babies who as yet had only pin feathers.
But just as soon as the ungrateful little bunny saw his mother he ran to her. “Where’s the other one?” asked Silk-ears. “Wasn’t she with you?”
“I thought you had her,” said Nibble. And then the hunt for that fifth baby bunny began. They looked and looked until they were almost discouraged. Then, there she was! Where do you s’pose? In a deep footprint some horse had made. She thought she was pretty smart to have hidden so well that even her mother couldn’t find her.
“You bad little thing,” stamped Nibble. “That’s a regular hop-toad trick. We’ll call you ‘hop-toad’ if you ever do it again.”