Snubby Nose said, “I beg you not to talk about noses,” and he cried and he screamed and he howled, louder than ever.

Tippy Toes saw something must be done, so he said, “Oh, never mind, I will go home with you.  It will be a long walk around then to my house.”

They both went east.

Snubby Nose said, “Listen, what is that?  It sounds like a band!”

Tippy Toes said, “What is that?  It sounds like the roar of a Lion.”

They did not know whether to go east any longer or not.  They hid behind some bushes by the roadside, and all the while the sound of the band came nearer and nearer.  All the while the lion roared louder and louder.  They peeped through the branches.  Soon the Circus Cotton-Tails came in view.

[Illustration:  “SOON THE CIRCUS COTTON-TAILS CAME IN VIEW”]

Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes danced out of their hiding places and cried, “Hurrah for the Circus Cotton-Tails!  They have formed a real little Circus!”

There was the band wagon.  There were the elephants and camels.  There were the animals in cages.

The Circus Cotton-Tails cried, “Hurrah, hurrah!  Here are Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes.  Come and join the Big Parade.”

Bunny Bright Eyes said, “Can you walk a tight rope?”

Tippy Toes said he did not know, but Snubby Nose said he had walked a tight rope off and on all his life!

Tippy Toes drew a little mirror out of his pocket and said,

     “Who will walk the tight rope?  Whom do you suppose?”

The mirror answered,

      “Two cunning little Bunnies, Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes!”

CHAPTER XII

Bunny and Susan sat quietly by the cheerful fire warming their paws.

Bunny said, “My fur and whiskers, I hope Snubby Nose got home safely.”

Susan said, “Bless my buttons, I was thinking of Tippy Toes this very minute.  Those two cunning little Bunnies are as much alike as two peas!  We could not tell them apart if Snubby Nose did not cry so much.”

Bunny said, “I suppose we shall have no visitors for some time now.”

“Don’t be too sure of that,” said a gruff old voice, “Here I am standing now.”  There stood Grandpa Grumbles in the doorway.  He had never looked so happy in all his life.  He struck the floor fiercely with his green cotton umbrella and said,

     “The Circus Cotton-Tails will come,
     A-rat-a-tat, just hear the drum.”

Bunny and Susan listened.  Sure enough, they heard the “rat-a-tat,” of a drum.  Soon they heard the Lion roar in his cage.  They all went out as fast as they could.

There came the Circus Cotton-Tails on parade!

Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes danced in front beating a drum.

Bunny and Susan and Grandpa Grumbles cried, “Hurrah, hurrah, for the
Big Parade!”

Grandpa Grumbles waved his green cotton umbrella and shouted, “Have you a merry-go-round?”