“Oh, how it hurts!” cried Flop Ear. “What shall I do?”
“Go and find some soft mud and put that on the place where I stung you,” said the bee. “That will make it better.”
Flop Ear found a place near a spring, where there was some soft, black mud. He put some of this on the outside of his nose, and the pain was soon lessened.
Then Flop Ear hopped on again, looking, as he went, for the place where he lived. But he could not find it. Try as he did, he could not see the underground house. He met other rabbits, but none whom he knew. Some of them invited him to stay with them, but Flop Ear said he would rather find his own house, though he thanked the kind rabbits.
Then one day, as Flop Ear was hopping along through the woods, he heard a voice calling to him from up in a tree.
“I say, white rabbit,” called the voice, “who are you, and where are you going?”
“I am Flop Ear, and I am looking for my home,” the bunny answered. “Who are you?”
“I am Mappo, the merry monkey,” was the answer. “Wait a minute and I will come down and talk to you.”
And then the queer animal, who had four hands and a long tail, came scrambling down the tree.