Then Bunny spoke into his right ear, and Susan spoke into his left ear, and asked him to tell where he had left Bushy-Tail.
Grandpa Grumbles shook his head and said,
"Bunny and Susan, what do you say?
I am so old and deaf to-day."
Then Snubby Nose cried into his right ear, and Tippy Toes cried into his left ear, but Grandpa Grumbles only said,
"I can't hear, my deafness grows;
Ask the umbrella, for it knows."
Then the Cotton-Tails asked the umbrella what had become of Bushy-Tail and the umbrella said,
"Bushy-Tail went swimming away,
But he'll come back in a year and a day."
"Oh" and "Ah" and "Oh" and "Ah," cried all the little Cotton-Tails,
"Bushy-Tail is swimming away is he?"
They all went merrily to bed.