“What do you suppose that Queenie did now?”
Mom sat down on a packing box and looked desperate. “If she ran away again,” she said, “she can stay away. I’m not going to stop everything now and go looking for her.”
“But, Mom,” said Billy.
“Don’t ‘But, Mom’ me! I’ll not start looking for her again this morning.”
“But, Mom, she didn’t run away.”
“She didn’t run away? Then what are you talking about?”
“She had puppies. I mean rabbits. Babies. Lots of them.”
The whole family let out one big shout and ran for the back yard. True enough, Queen and Blackie were the parents of a large and handsome family. Mom and Daddy laughed so hard they leaned against the garage. “Let’s get out of here,” Mom said, “while we still can. The longer we stay here the more complicated things get.”
They went back to the cottage and hunted for something warm to wrap the baby rabbits in. Everything had been packed away, but Davey volunteered an old blanket of Butchie’s, and the infants were made ready for their first long trip.
The trailer was pretty well packed when Janie spied Mr. Mott and Mirandy coming down the road. “Hey, hey,” she cried. “Here comes Mr. Mott with Daddy’s present. He said he was coming, and here he comes.”