All at once in a corner he saw a tiny, house-looking thing with an open door inviting him to come in. Bunny went in and found there a sweet red apple. But he couldn’t come out again! Try as he might, the door would not open. He was in a rabbit trap!
The next morning Farmer Green came and carried poor Bunny to the barn and left him shut up in a large room. By and by the hired man came in and left the door open. Quick as a flash Bunny was out and running through the door. Then down he fell into a tar bucket, sticky and black. There he twisted and turned over and over until he was all covered with tar.
It seemed as if he would never reach the side of the bucket, but finally one black little foot stretched up and he pulled with all his might, till over he went and started to run again. This time he ran straight into a cotton basket full of white cotton. He was certainly a sight now, for the cotton stuck to the tar. For a long time he lay there and rested.
When night came he crept out of the basket and ran home where his poor little frightened mother was crying. You may be sure she hardly knew her son, and she began at once to wash and scrub and scrape him to get off the tar and the cotton. At last he was the same little rabbit again, except for a fluffy little piece of cotton which clung to his tail and still clings there yet. And that is why we call him cotton tail.
LEGEND OF THE WOODPECKER
In which we see how a well-known bird got its color and habits.
Once there lived an old woman on the edge of a wood far away from anybody. She lived in a little cabin and did all her own work. Nobody ever came to see her because she was cross and mean and selfish, and nobody ever cares to visit a person like that.
She always wore a black dress, a white apron with bows, and a queer little red bonnet on her head. How selfish she was! She could not keep a dog, nor a cat, nor even a bird because she would not feed them. She raised no flowers because she would not spare the water to keep them alive.