“Does it hurt you very much?” asked his papa, and he put his front paws around his little rabbit boy, and gave him a good hug.

“Not very much, papa,” replied Sammie, “but I wish I was out.”

“We’ll soon have you out,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears, and then with his strong hind feet he kicked away the snow and dried leaves from the trap.  Then Sammie could see how he had been fooled.  The trap was so covered up that only the cabbage stump showed, so it is no wonder that he stepped into it.

The two rabbits tried to get Sammie out, but they could not, because the trap was too strong.

“What shall we do?” asked Papa Littletail, as he sat down and scratched his left ear, which he always did when he was worried about anything.

“The trap is fast to a piece of wood by a chain,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears.  “We will have to gnaw through the wood, and then take Sammie, the trap, chain and all, home.  Once there, we can call in Dr. Possum, and he can open the trap and get Sammie’s leg out.”

So the two big rabbits set to work to gnaw through the wood, to which the chain of the trap was fastened.  Sammie Littletail tried not to cry from the pain, but some tears did come, and they froze on his face, close to his little wiggily nose, for it was quite cold.

“I should have given you a lesson about traps,” said Uncle Wiggily Longears; “then perhaps you would not have been caught.  I will give you a lesson to-morrow.”

Finally the wood was gnawed through, and Sammie, with his uncle on one side and his papa on the other, to help him, reached home.  The trap was still on his leg, and he could not go very fast.  In fact, the three of them had to go so slow that a hunter and his dog came after them.  They managed, however, to jump down the hole of the underground house just in time, and the big dog did not get them.  He soon got tired of waiting, and went away.  Then Dr. Possum was sent for, and with his strong tail he quickly opened the trap, and Sammie was free.  But his leg hurt him very much, and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy put him in a bed of soft leaves and gave him some sassafras and elderberry tea.  Dr. Possum told Sammie he would have to stay in the burrow for a week, until his leg was better.  Sammie did not want to, but his mother insisted on it, and to-morrow night I will tell you an adventure that happened to Susie Littletail, when she went to the store for some cabbage.

III

WHAT HAPPENED TO SUSIE LITTLETAIL

It was very lonesome for Sammie Littletail to stay in the underground house for a whole week after he had been caught in the trap.  He had to move about on a crutch, which Uncle Wiggily Longears, that wise old rabbit, gnawed out of a piece of cornstalk for him.

“Oh, dear, I wish I could go out and play!” exclaimed Sammie one day.  “It’s awfully tiresome in here in the dark.  I wish I could do something.”