Great Aunt Charlotte, who had finished supper long before, sat in her chair rocking and holding baby Ellen. The baby was asleep and would have been in bed if Mrs. Tyler hadn’t been so interested in the story the children were telling. Once she did say something about it being made up but Donald defended them.
“One thing’s sure,” he said. “They didn’t make up the rabbit.”
“I made up a name for him,” said Muffs. “It’s Bunny Bright Eyes.”
“And a bright little rabbit he is too,” agreed Donald, “to get inside the hat without your knowing it.”
“Mr. Lippett says I played a trick,” Muffs told him sorrowfully. “But I wasn’t playing any trick. It was Bunny Bright Eyes played a trick on me.”
Mrs. Tyler had to laugh at this, but Great Aunt Charlotte kept looking at Muffins as if she were not telling the truth. Mary and Tommy didn’t say anything because they were busy eating the alphabet soup. Muffs ate her soup too and a little while after that Mr. Tyler came in again.
“The rabbit’s all fixed up for the night,” he said. “I put him in an A-coop until someone comes for him.”
Muffs wanted to ask what an A-coop was but just then it was decided that Donald should go for her things and, if Mr. and Mrs. Lippett were willing, make arrangements for her to sleep all night with Mary.
“She’s far too tired to walk back there herself,” Mrs. Tyler said. Then she showed Muffs the high bed where she and Mary were to sleep and told her Mary would be up as soon as she had finished drying the dishes.
Muffs undressed herself quickly and slid between the blankets. She lay there listening to the clatter of dishes downstairs and thinking. At first she thought it was strange that she had been sent to bed ahead of Mary. Then she thought how tired she was and how warm the alphabet soup made her feel. Maybe the letters spelled w-a-r-m down in her stomach. They ought to spell s-l-e-e-p. The rabbit was probably asleep now in his A-coop. What a funny name! Muffs made up a little song about it and sung it to herself. The song went like this: