Billy Bunny and Uncle Bull Frog Part 8

"Now be good until I see you again," said the kind old gentleman rabbit as he drove off, and by and by Billy Bunny saw something moving among the trees.

"What's that?" he said to his rabbit uncle. But before the old gentleman rabbit could reply, a big stone hit one of the lamps on the automobile and broke it to splintereens.

"Stop that whoever you are!" shouted Billy Bunny. "If you do it again I'll shoot!" and he held his popgun up to his shoulder just like a soldier boy in battle.

And if the little canary in my room doesn't wink at me all night so that I can't hear the alarm clock in the morning, I'll tell you another story.

STORY XXIV.

BILLY BUNNY AND DANNY BILLYGOAT.

Well, my little canary bird didn't wink at me all night, as I feared it might in the last story, and my alarm clock said "good morning" to me at half-past fourteen o'clock, so I got up in time, and here is the story I wrote before I went out into the garden to eat raspberries with Robbie Redbreast.

One evening as Uncle Lucky and Billy Bunny were driving along in the Luckymobile, who should they come across but a little billygoat named Danny.

He had a little beard that hung down from his chin and two little horns that stuck up from his head, and he was playing on a flute while he sat cross-legged on a stone by the roadside. And when he saw our two small friends in their machine, he began to play:

It's not so far to the twinkle star In the little white boat of sleep.

So list to my tune, like a breeze in June, Where the honeysuckles creep.

Over the sky, way up high, In the little white boat of sleep.

Ever so far to the twinkle star Way up in the sky blue deep.

"Where did you learn that lullaby," asked kind Uncle Lucky, brus.h.i.+ng a tear from his eye, for he remembered just a little song his mother used to sing when he was a little boy rabbit, you know.

"I don't know," answered Danny Goat. He pulled on his goatee and smiled, and then he began again:

"Up in the sky when the sun is high The white cloud boats go sailing by, And the summer breeze in the tall, tall trees Is singing a song the whole day long.

And this is the song they sing: We ring the bell in the cool damp dell That grows on the lily's stalk, We bend the ferns in the river's turns And the tail of the great gray hawk; And the foamy spray in the big deep bay We blow on the great boardwalk."

"That reminds me of Atlantic City," said Uncle Lucky. "Let's drive down there and go for a swim."

"Just the thing," said the little rabbit; "I've got my bathing suit in my knapsack. I'm ready."

So off they went, and by and by they came to the seash.o.r.e. But there wasn't a hotel in sight, so of course they knew they had made a mistake. They didn't care, especially Billy Bunny, for not very far from land was the big good-natured whale who had taken him for a sail a long, long time ago. "There's my friend the Whales.h.i.+p!" cried the little rabbit.

And in the next story, if that whale doesn't swim away, I'll tell you something more about Billy Bunny and his kind Uncle Lucky.

STORY XXV.

BILLY BUNNY AND THE WHALE.

You remember in the story before this that Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky were at the seash.o.r.e, and out a little ways from the land was the good-natured Whale.

Well, as soon as he saw the little rabbit he swam up to the beach and said "h.e.l.lo." And then Billy Bunny introduced him to Uncle Lucky, and after that the Whale said:

"Don't you both want to go for a sail?" and as the old gentleman rabbit had never been on a whales.h.i.+p in his life, he said yes right away, and so did the little rabbit.

Then the Whale pushed his tail up on the sand and the two little rabbits hopped over it just like a bridge, and then they sat down, and away went the whale with a swish of his tail that spattered the spray all over the bay.

"Goodness me!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, "I'll have to wipe off my spectacles," and he took his polka-dot handkerchief from his pocket, and after that he tied it over his old wedding stovepipe hat, for he wasn't going to lose that hat, no siree, and a no sireemam, not even if he had to tie the anchor to it. By and by, not so very long, they heard a sweet voice singing, so they looked everywhere, but the only thing they saw was the big green ocean.

"I wonder who is singing?" said Uncle Lucky, and he took his spygla.s.s out of his waistcoat pocket and twisted it around and around until he could see distinctly, which means plainly, you know.

"There she is!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, and he got so excited that he looked through the wrong end of the spygla.s.s and then he said, "No, she isn't!" for he couldn't see anything at all that way, you know.

"What did you see?" asked the little rabbit, and he pushed forward Uncle Lucky's old wedding stovepipe hat to keep it from falling over his left ear.

"A mermaid!" cried the old gentleman rabbit, and before he could turn the spygla.s.s the other way a lovely mermaid swam up and handed him her card, and on it was written in lovely purple ink:

Miss Coral Seafoam, Oceanville, U. S. A.

"Pleased to meet you," cried the old gentleman rabbit most politely.

"This is my nephew, William Bunny, Brier Patch, Old Snake Fence Corner, and my name is Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot and I live in Lettuceville, corner of Carrot and Lettuce streets," and then he tried to take off his hat, but he couldn't, for it was tied down tight, you remember, with his blue polka-dot handkerchief.

And after that the mermaid asked them to visit her coral island, where she and her sisters sold coral beads and scarfpins. And in the next story you shall hear--well, I guess I won't tell you now, but let you wait and see.

STORY XXVI.

BILLY BUNNY AND THE MERMAID.

Well, now we'll commence by saying that as soon as Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky reached the coral island, where the lovely mermaid lived, for she had asked them to call, you remember, they got off the Whale, and, after asking him to wait for them while they made a little visit, sat down on the sand, and pretty soon the mermaid brought them each a lovely coral scarfpin, and the one she gave to Uncle Lucky was a little image of herself and the one she gave to Billy Bunny was a little fish.

Then the little rabbit opened his knapsack and took out a lovely apple pie and gave it to her. And she was so pleased that she ate it all up, and then she said, "I'll give you a lovely breast-pin made of beautiful coral for your mother, Mr. Billy Bunny, if you'll give me another pie."

So the little rabbit opened his knapsack and took out another fresh, juicy apple pie and placed the beautiful present for his mother carefully in the knapsack, and after that he ate a lollypop and Uncle Lucky drank a bottle of ginger ale, and then they said good-by and got aboard the Whales.h.i.+p and sailed away.

And would you believe it? Dear, kind Uncle Lucky almost cried! You see, he had never seen a mermaid before, and he thought she was lovely, and I guess she was, for Uncle Lucky couldn't make a mistake, I'm sure, for he had travelled abroad and had seen lots and lots of beautiful lady bunnies.

"And now where are we going?" asked the little rabbit, but Uncle Lucky was too busy trying to find his other blue polka-dot handkerchief with which to wipe his eyes to answer.

And then he couldn't find it, and the reason was because he had given it to a Chinaman the day before, but he didn't remember that, for he was so miserable at leaving the beautiful mermaid.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" sighed the old gentleman rabbit,

"'Tis sad to part.

My poor old heart Is nearly, nearly breaking; Alas! alas! that mermaid la.s.s Has set my head a-shaking!"