BILLY BUNNY
STORY IX.
BILLY BUNNY AND RED ROOSTER.
Well, the next morning when the little rabbits woke up the sun was shining brightly through their bedroom window and Mrs. Mousie was singing a song down in the kitchen below as she made hot muffins for breakfast. And this is what she sang:
"Upstairs
in my nice guest room are two
Nice little rabbits in bed.
As soon as I'm able I'll fix up the table
And give them some honey and bread.
And then a hot muffin to give them a stuffin',
And then they'll be bountifully fed."
And when Billy Bunny heard her he grew so hungry that he hurried faster than he had ever hurried before, and so did the old gentleman rabbit, and he buttoned his collar on backwards and put his left shoe on his right foot and tripped over his old wedding stovepipe hat.
And after that they both hopped downstairs, and as soon as Mrs. Mousie heard them she brought in the bread and honey and the hot muffins and they all had breakfast. And after that Billy Bunny asked her to go automobiling with them.
So she put on her old gray bonnet with a bit of ribbon on it, and tied the strings under her chin, and put on her black silk mitts and her gold locket breastpin with the picture of Mr. Mousie inside.
"You don't mind if we invite the red rooster to go along, too, do you?" asked Billy Bunny, and then he told her how the rooster had scared away the old owl. And of course Mrs. Mousie didn't care, so the rooster got in and sat on the back seat with Mrs. Mousie.
Well, after they had gone for maybe a mile, and maybe some more, they came to a beautiful candy store, where the windows were full of peppermint sticks and a brown sugar monkey did all sorts of tricks.
"Stop right here," said the red rooster, "and I'll get out and buy you a bag of candy." And when he came back he had four bags of candy. Just think of that! In one bag was sugar-coated carrots for Billy Bunny, and another bag was full of candied carrots for Uncle Lucky, and in the bag he gave to Mrs. Mousie were two little chocolate mice.
"What have you got in your bag?" asked Uncle Lucky as he made the Luckymobile jump over a high ditch and run along through a lovely green meadow spread all over with buttercups.
"Sugared peanuts," answered the red rooster. "I just love them. The last time I went to the circus I ate forty-nine bags and a half and drank twenty-three glasses of pink lemonade and a bushel of popcorn."
"Wait a minute," said the old gentleman rabbit. "I've got a stomach ache listening. How did you do it?" And in the next story I'll tell you what the rooster said, that is, if nothing happens to prevent it, for he certainly was a wonderful rooster, to be able to eat all that.
