“Look here!” he cried to Sammie.  “They’ve put the stuff out for us.  Oh, what a lot of it!  Nice, sweet batter, and nice maple-sugar frosting.  How kind they are.”

“Do you s’pose all this is for us?” asked Sammie, who, whenever he cleaned out the baking dishes, had never seen so much as that in them.

“Of course it is,” answered Bully.  “Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy said she’d put it out for us, and here it is out.  Of course, it must be for us.”

Well, Sammie thought so, too, after that, and then the little boy rabbit and Bully sat down, with those two dishes, that had stuff in to make Hot Cross Buns, and they began to eat it all up.  And after awhile, when it was pretty nearly all gone, who should come limping along but Uncle Wiggily Longears.

“Well, well,” he said, just like that.  “What have we here?” Then Sammie told him how the good stuff had been left out by Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy.  “My goodness me!” exclaimed the old rabbit, leaning on his cornstalk crutch, “how very odd.”

“Would you like some?” asked Bully, the frog, very, very politely.

“Indeed I would,” answered Uncle Wiggily Longears.

So they gave him some, and it tasted just as good as when he was a little boy rabbit.  But just as the last of the sweet batter and the maple-sugar frosting was eaten up, what should happen but that Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy went to the window to take it in to bake, and of course it was gone.  Well, you should have seen how surprised she was.  She was going to scold Sammie and Bully, only they said it was all a mistake.  So they didn’t get a whipping, and very luckily there was enough more stuff in the burrow to make more Hot Cross Buns.  So Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy and Susie mixed up some, and these were soon baking in the oven.  And, oh, how good they smelled, and they tasted as good as they smelled, each one with a maple-sugar cross on.  Now, to-morrow night, if you would like me to, I’ll tell you about hiding the Easter eggs.

XXIV

HIDING THE EASTER EGGS

What a lot of Easter eggs there were!  I’m sure if you tried to count all that Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Papa and Mamma Littletail, to say nothing of Uncle Wiggily Longears and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had colored, ready for Easter, you never could do it, never, never, never!  Of course, Uncle Wiggily couldn’t get so very many of the eggs ready for the children, because, you know, he has rheumatism, but then Sammie and Susie were so quick, and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy hurried so, that long before Easter Sunday-morning, or Easter Monday morning, whenever you children hunt for your eggs, they were all ready.

You see, the rabbits have to hide all the Easter eggs that you children hunt for.  Of course, I don’t mean those in the store windows; the pretty ones, made of candy, and with little windows that you look through to see beautiful scenes.  Oh, no, not those, but the ones you find at home.  Those in the windows are put there by different kinds of rabbits.