As for Jimmie, the boy, he had come out of the house, and, not seeing Flop Ear where he had left the rabbit, he looked about the yard for him.
“I wonder if he can have jumped back into his box,” said the boy. He looked, but Flop Ear was not there. It was then that the boy ran over to the fence. The bird, sitting high in the tree, saw him and told Flop Ear.
“Oh, my nice, tame, trick rabbit has gotten away!” cried Jimmie. “I see a hole under the fence. Maybe he got away through that.”
The boy hurried to the fence, near the hole Flop Ear had made, and jumped over. But by this time Flop Ear was safely away, as Cheer-Up could see from his perch. And the boy, not having as good a nose for smelling rabbit tracks as a dog, could not tell which way Flop Ear had gone.
Jimmie looked all around, and in the bushes, but he could not find Flop Ear. Looking up in the tree the boy saw the bird.
“Ah, little bird,” he said, “I wish you could talk, and maybe you could tell me which way my rabbit went.”
Of course Cheer-Up could not answer the boy in his own speech, but the bird said to himself:
“I am not going to tell you where Flop Ear is, for he wants to get away, and find his own home. You were kind to him, but he just had to go away.”
Then Cheer-Up flew off, and the boy, after looking about a little more for his pet rabbit gave it up, and went back into the yard. At first Jimmie was quite sad about Flop Ear’s going away, but a week afterward he was given a pet dog; and he trained that to do tricks, so he was happy again.