When he was not doing the wagon trick Flop Ear did not have to wear the collar, and he was glad of that, as it tickled him, and he did not like it, though it did not hurt him.
For some time Flop Ear stayed with Jimmie, learning some new tricks. Often other boys and girls would come to Jimmie’s yard to look at the pet rabbit and stroke his soft, white fur. Jimmie liked this. And because Jimmie told them about not lifting rabbits by their ears, no one ever took Floppy up that way.
And then, one day, Flop Ear suddenly felt that he ought to go away.
“It is nice here, and all that, and I have a good home,” he said to himself, “but I think I ought to travel on and see if I can not find my real underground house, and my own folks. I want so much to see them. I’m going away.”
And that afternoon, when Flop Ear was taken out of his box, to run around the yard, he waited until Jimmie went into the house, and then the bunny quickly dug a hole under the fence and got out.
“Once more I am on my travels,” he said.
CHAPTER VIII
FLOP EAR MEETS SLICKO
Flop Ear sat up on his hind legs, once he was outside the fence, and looked about him. One of his big ears stuck up straight, and the other sort of leaned over. Flop Ear put his head on one side, and his nose trembled, sort of, for he was wiggling it in order to try if he could smell any danger. Rabbits can wiggle their noses a little, and elephants can wiggle theirs a good bit, for their nose is their long trunk, and you know how Tum Tum could sling his trunk about.