Flop Ear told his adventures to the merry monkey—how the bunny had been driven away from his burrow home, how he had gone into the wood basket and had been found by the boy, and all that followed.
[“My! you certainly had quite a time,” said Mappo.] “Now what do you say to this? You and I will live together in these woods for a while. I like it here, and so do you. We will make ourselves a little house of green branches, and stay in it until I want to run back home again.”
“But what about my home?” asked Flop Ear. “I ought to be looking for it. That’s why I ran away from Jimmie, the boy who taught me to do tricks.”
Mappo thought for a second or two.
“I’ll tell you what we can do,” he said. “We’ll stay here a while, and have a good time, and then I’ll come with you and help you look for your home. After that I’ll go back to mine.”
“That will be fine!” said Flop Ear. “You are very kind to me.”
“Oh, I like being kind,” said Mappo. “I learned it of Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.”
Flop Ear thought Mappo a very funny and merry monkey. Mappo could do more things than could Flop Ear, for the monkey really had four hands, though as he walked on his hind ones, I suppose they ought to be called feet. And Mappo’s tail was almost as good as another hand to him, for the merry monkey could hold himself up in a tree by it, and could swing to and fro like the pendulum of a clock.
If you want to read more about the monkey you may do it in the book called “Mappo, the Merry Monkey; His Many Adventures.” In that I have told many things about the jolly four-handed chap.
“Well, if we are going to live together in the woods,” said Mappo to Flop Ear, “we had better start making our house.”