“Oh, so this is where you live, is it?” asked the Monkey.  He had hopped across the green meadow through the grass after his new friend.

“Yes, we’ll go down in now, and meet Mrs. Hare and the children,” went on the Live Rabbit.  “Mind your step, and don’t fall.  It’s rather steep until you get inside.”

“And it’s dark, too,” said the Monkey, following the Rabbit down the hole into the ground.  “How in the world do you see?”

“Oh, I forgot you aren’t like us animals, and can not see quite so well in the dark,” said the Live Rabbit.  “Just a moment, I’ll turn on the lamps.”

He stopped and gave three thumps with, his feet on the earthen sides of the cave.  Instantly a soft glow shone all around, and the Monkey could see very well indeed.

“Do you have electric lights?” he asked in surprise.

“No.  These are lightning bugs,” was the Rabbit’s answer.  “I keep them to make the place bright when strangers come.  We Rabbits don’t need light ourselves, for we can see in the dark.”

“Some of the toys can, also,” said the Monkey.  “But I am not very good at that sort of thing yet.  I like light.  We had gas and electricity at the toy store.”

The Monkey followed the Live Rabbit on down through the winding burrow.  It twisted and turned, this way and that, now to the right and now to the left.  Here and there, clinging to the earthen sides, were lightning bugs, which made the place so bright that the Monkey did not stumble once.

“But why does it twist and turn so, like a corkscrew?” the Monkey asked the Rabbit.

“We always build our burrow caves like this, to keep out dogs and other enemies,” was the reply.  “My real home is still a little farther on.  We’ll be there in a moment.”

The Monkey followed on, and soon came to a place where, seated about a table made from a piece of a flat stump, were several little Rabbit children and a lady Rabbit.

“This is my family,” said the Live Rabbit.  “Mrs. Hare, allow me to present Mr. Monkey on a Stick, who has come to pay us a visit.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Mrs. Rabbit, bowing low.

“Hi, Daddy!” called one of the little Rabbits, “where’s his stick?”

And then everybody laughed.

CHAPTER VII

OUT IN THE RAIN

“Please excuse little Johnnie Hare,” said Mrs. Hare to the Monkey.  “He didn’t mean to be impolite, asking for your stick.”

“Oh, I know,” said the Monkey.  “He’s just like all children—­they just ask what they want to know about.  And I suppose it does seem funny to be a Monkey on a Stick and then not have your stick with you.  But I can tell you where my stick is, Johnnie,” said the Monkey to the little Rabbit chap, and then he related his adventure on Carlo’s back.

“Oh!  Oh!  Oh!” said all the other little Rabbits, opening wide their eyes when they heard this story.  “Tell us another, please!”