So they ran away, and my! how angry that sly old fox was.  He almost bit his own tail.  But Sammie and Susie did not mind.  They were very thankful to Bully for telling them of their danger.  Then they hopped on and on, until they were quite tired.

They were afraid they were never going to find any eggs, but, all of a sudden Susie cried: 

“Oh, look, Sammie!”

And there, on a nest in the grass, was Mrs. Cluck-Cluck the kind lady hen, and she gave the rabbit children all the eggs they wanted.  Sammie and Susie carried them home to their underground house, and, after a while, they had a lot of fun with them.

The next story will be about Susie learning to jump the rope, and I’ll tell it to you, if the cow doesn’t fall off the top of the telegraph pole, and tickle the rag doll with her horns.

XXI

SUSIE LITTLETAIL JUMPS ROPE

Sammie and Susie Littletail were coming home from school.  Didn’t I mention before that the little bunny children went to school?  Well, I meant to, I’m sure, and if I overlooked it I hope you will excuse me, and I’ll see that it does not happen again this spring or summer.  Oh, my, yes; they went to school in an old hollow tree, and an owl was the school teacher—­a good, kind old owl, who never kept the bunny children in.

So, as I said, they were coming home from school, and Sammie had stopped to play marbles with some of his little boy rabbit friends, while Susie walked on with some little rabbit girls.  Some of the girls were jumping rope, and they invited Susie to join them.

“Come on,” said one little rabbit with two pink eyes, “we will turn for you, and you can have ‘three slow, pepper,’ Susie dear.”

But Susie couldn’t, because she didn’t know how to jump rope.  Now isn’t that strange?  No, sir, she didn’t know the first thing about jumping rope, for she had never had a chance to learn.

So when she got home to the burrow that afternoon, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had given her a bit of chocolate-covered carrot, Uncle Wiggily Longears noticed that the little rabbit girl looked rather sad.

“What is the matter, Susie?” he asked.

“I can’t jump rope,” she answered, “and all the other rabbit girls can.”

“Never mind,” said Uncle Wiggily, “I will show you how.  Come with me.  Oh, dear!  Oh, my goodness me, and some sassafras root!  Oh! oh!”

“What is the matter?” asked Susie, much frightened, for she had never heard her uncle cry so.

“Oh, it’s only my rheumatism, Susie dear,” he answered.  “Don’t mind me.  I shall be all right presently.  Just ask Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy to bring me the watercress liniment.”

So when the muskrat nurse had brought the liniment, and Uncle Wiggily had rubbed some on his leg, he felt better.

“Now, Susie,” he said, “I will show you how to jump rope.  I used to do it when I was a boy, but I am not so lively and nimble now as I was then.”