Papa Cotton-Tail said, “I will go with you to the turn of the road.”

Soon they started merrily down the road and Mother Cotton-Tail called, “Good-bye, good-bye.”

They had only gone a few steps when Mother Cotton-Tail called, “Come back, come back, you have forgotten your umbrella.  What if it should rain?”

Tippy Toes went dancing merrily back and Papa Cotton-Tail waited for him.  They started on again and this time Mother Cotton-Tail called, “Come back, come back, you have forgotten your overshoes.  What if there should be a thunder storm?”

So Tippy Toes went dancing merrily back and Papa Cotton-Tail waited for him again.  When they started the third time Tippy Toes said, “We have nothing to go back for this time,” but the wind whistled in his ears.

Mother Cotton-Tail called again, “Come back, come back, Tippy Toes, you have forgotten your red silk pocket handkerchief.”

This time Papa Cotton-Tail went back with Tippy Toes and he said, “Dear Mother Cotton-Tail, do put on your thinking-cap and see if we have forgotten anything else, or we shall never get off.”

Then they looked high and low, but they could not find Mother Cotton-Tail’s thinking-cap!

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “Never mind, I will put on my thinking-cap instead.”  So he put on his red silk thinking-cap and said, “Oh, I know what we have forgotten; we have forgotten to send Bunny and Susan a present!”

“To be sure,” said Mother Cotton-Tail, “Now what shall the present be?”

Little Tippy Toes did not get started on his journey that day, for it took four days and fourteen hours for them to decide what to send Bunny and Susan.  All this time Tippy Toes was as merry as you please.  He danced about on the tips of his toes and sang,

     “A present, a present, if all things go well,
     What shall be the present?  No one can tell.”

Suddenly, at breakfast next morning Mother Cotton-Tail said, “I will go to town and buy Bunny and Susan a big parlor lamp.”

“A lamp with a pink shade,” said Tippy Toes.

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “A lamp with a tall chimney.”

Mother Cotton-Tail said, “I will buy a lamp with a pink shade and a tall chimney for Bunny, because he burns his paw in the candle.”

Then Tippy Toes danced this way, and he danced that way, and said, “Oh,
Ma, may I go with you to town to help buy the lamp?”

Mother Cotton-Tail said, “Papa Cotton-Tail has to go to work.  If I go to town and you go, too, who will tend the fire?  Who will wash the dishes?”

Tippy Toes wanted to go to town, but he was a good little Bunny, so he said,

     “Who will tend the fire?  Whom do you suppose? 
     Who will wash the dishes?  Little Tippy Toes.”

So Mother Cotton-Tail put on her best sunbonnet and took her purse and shopping basket with her, and went off with Papa Cotton-Tail calling, “Good-bye, I will be home to supper at five o’clock sharp.”