Papa Cotton-Tail said, “If you ever read your Mother Goose you would know she is not in the well.”

“Who pulled her out?” asked Tippy Toes.

Mother Cotton-Tail said, “Hush, be still, you ask too many questions!”

Tippy Toes wondered all day who pulled poor Pussy out.  He danced this way, and he danced that way, and he set the table for breakfast.

He said, “If you are home by dinner time Papa Cotton-Tail, may I go and visit Bunny and Susan?”

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “If I get home in time with Susan’s spectacles you may go to-day.”

Papa Cotton-Tail put on his big fur coat and went merrily down the road.  Mother Cotton-Tail began to make cookies and Tippy Toes rolled them out for her.  Now, will you believe it? before they had a single pan of cookies baked, Papa Cotton-Tail was back home again.

Mother Cotton-Tail said, “Why are you back so soon?”

Tippy Toes said, “Did you get the spectacles already?”

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “I met a peddler and he had a pair of black spectacles in his pack.”

Papa Cotton-Tail put on the black spectacles and he looked so funny that Mother Cotton-Tail said, “Let me try them on,” and Tippy Toes cried, “Please let me try them on!”

Mother Cotton-Tail said, “I will pack Bunny’s lamp and Susan’s spectacles and you may start on your long journey at once.”

Tippy Toes put on his best coat and cap and kissed his mother good-bye.  Papa Cotton-Tail went with him again to the bend of the road.  Suddenly Tippy Toes stopped still.  He stopped stock-still in the road.  He said, “Oh, Pa, I must go back, I forgot something!”

What do you suppose Tippy Toes forgot?

He always danced up and down before the mirror before he went out.  So, he went back home, hoppity, skippity, hop; and Papa Cotton-Tail waited for him at the bend of the road.

Tippy Toes stood before the mirror and he danced this way and he danced that way and said,

     “Who is so ugly?  Nobody knows.” 
     The mirror answered, “Snubby Nose.”

Then Tippy Toes laughed and laughed.

“I will go and find Snubby Nose,” he said, “for he must be as ugly as I am with my little turned-up nose.”

He went running down the road and was soon off and away.  The wind whistled in his ears.

At that very minute he heard Papa Cotton-Tail crying, “Hello, hello!  Come back to the bend in the road, Tippy Toes.”

Tippy Toes said to himself, “What can Papa Cotton-Tail want?  Shall I never get started?”

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “How will you know the house when you come to it?”

Tippy Toes said, “I will ask any one I meet.”

Papa Cotton-Tail said, “That is right, and be sure to bow when you meet
Grandpa Grumbles.”

Then they said “Good-bye” again, and Tippy Toes went merrily along.  He met Bushy-Tail, the sly old Fox.  Bushy-Tail asked, “Where are you going in such a hurry, Snubby Nose?”