“I think he likes me,” said the boy to his mother. “I will teach him to do some tricks, and maybe I can sell him to a circus.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t sell him,” Jimmie’s mother said. “Keep him for yourself.”
“All right. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“Let me see—circus. Where have I heard that word before?” thought Flop Ear. “Oh, I remember. Blackie, the lost cat, told me she met Dido, the dancing bear, in a circus. Well, if Dido is there I wouldn’t mind going to a circus. But still I shall like it here for a while.”
The boy found a strong, heavy box to make into a little house for Flop Ear. He put it out in the yard, under a tree where the rabbit would be in the shade. Flop Ear was given some lettuce leaves to eat, and he liked them even better than he did carrots. There was also a pan of nice water for the rabbit to drink.
“Well, this is nicer than running through the woods with a dog after you,” thought Flop Ear. “Still I would like to find my own home again, and have a good game of tag with Pink Nose and Snuggle.”
Just as the boy thought, Flop Ear did try to gnaw his way out of the box. For the boy knew something about rabbits. They are good gnawers, almost as good as rats and mice. They have four front teeth just made for cutting through wood, and they use them in taking bark off trees to eat.
So Flop Ear, with his strong front teeth, tried to gnaw out of the box. If it had not been a heavy thick one he might have done it, and gotten away. But the boy saw what his new rabbit pet was doing, and put some tin inside the box. Rabbits, rats or mice can not gnaw through even thin tin. It is too strong for their sharp teeth.
That afternoon, when Flop Ear had taken a little sleep in his box, on some soft straw which the boy put in for him, Jimmie said:
“Now I will try to teach Flop Ear some tricks. Come on out, bunny boy, and let me see what you can do.”