“I wonder if I could do that,” said Jack Hare.  “I’m going to try.”

“Better not,” warned the Monkey.  “In turning over you might break off your ears.”

“Oh, my ears are not made of candy.  They will bend, and not break,” said Jack Hare.  “Here goes!  I’m going to turn a somersault just as you did.  Maybe I can cut some Monkeyshines, too!”

Well, the Live Rabbit tried, but I can not say that he did it very well.  First he fell over to one side, and then he fell to the other side.  And once he got stuck in the middle, standing on his head with his ears lying flat along the ground and his legs sticking up in the air.

“Go on over!  Why don’t you turn all the way over?” asked the Grasshopper.

[Illustration:  Monkey Does Some “Monkey Shines.” Page 65]

“I—­I can’t!” answered the Live Rabbit.  “I seem to be stuck half way!  If one of you would be so kind as to give me a push, or a pull, I might finish my somersault.  Come on, help me!”

“I’ll help you,” kindly said the Monkey.  He took hold of the Live Rabbit’s hind legs and gave him a push.  Over went Jack Hare, finishing his somersault, though not doing it very well.

The Live Rabbit thanked the Monkey on a Stick for what he had done and then said: 

“Since you have come to our meadow would you not like to visit my house?”

“Where do you live?” asked the Monkey.

“In a burrow, or underground house, called a cave,” answered the Rabbit.  “Perhaps you may not like it, but we Bunnies think it rather nice.  Will you come to my cave, and visit the other Rabbits?”

“I should love to,” said the Monkey.  “But you see I belong to a little boy named Herbert.  He got me for a birthday present, and he and Dick tied me on the dog’s back.  I fell off and the two boys may come back here to look for me.  If I should go to your cave they might come here, and, not finding me, might think I had left them forever.  I like Herbert, and as his friends have some of the other toys with whom I used to live in the store, I want to stay with him.”

“That is easily managed,” said the Grasshopper.  “You go and visit Jack Hare’s cave, Mr. Monkey.  Miss Cricket and I will stay here, and if we see the boys and the dog coming back, looking for you, we’ll hop over and tell you.”

So it was planned that the Monkey should visit the Rabbit’s cave, and if by any chance, Herbert and Dick came back, the Grasshopper and Cricket would bring word to the Monkey, who could quickly hop back.

“Come along, Mr. Monkey,” called the Rabbit, and soon the two new friends were jumping through the grass together.  The Monkey was off his stick, and so he could get along quite well, though not quite so fast as Jack Hare.  But the Rabbit took short jumps and did not get too far ahead, waiting for the Monkey to catch up to him.

“Here we are at my cave,” said Jack Hare at length, stopping in front of a hole in the ground.