“My name is Cheer-Up,” replied the bird. “I am called that because I try to make my friends cheer up and be happy by singing to them.”
“That’s fine!” cried Flop Ear. “I wish I could sing.”
“Well, I suppose it is nice,” the bird said, trilling a few notes.
“And I wish I could fly, like you,” went on the rabbit. “Then maybe I could find my home. You see I am lost. A hunter chased me far away from my burrow and I could not find it again. I have been living with a boy named Jimmie, and he taught me some tricks.
“But I grew tired of staying shut up in a box most of the time, though the boy was very good to me. So I have just run away, and I am going to try to find my home, and my father and my mother, my sister and my brother, and Lady Munch.”
“Who is Lady Munch?” asked Cheer-Up.
“She is my grandmother, and a dear old lady rabbit. And I want to see them all so much that I wish I could fly as you can. I might find them then.”
“Yes, it is nice to fly,” said Cheer-Up. “But still, if you can not sing and fly as I do, there are things which you do that I can not do. I have no thick warm fur to keep me warm in winter, though my feathers do very well. And I can not dig in the ground, as you can, to hide away from cats who often climb up the tree where my nest is. So you see you can do some things also.”
“Yes,” said Flop Ear, “I suppose we animals can do the things the best intended for us. I must not find fault. But I must hurry off. I want to get to my home. I don’t suppose you know where it is; do you?”