"I suppose you think I'd have shown better manners if I'd asked you to excuse me before I lit out for that clover, eh?" Mr. Bunny Rabbit asked, as he hopped up on the log with his mouth filled with clover heads and leaves. "The trouble is that you don't know much of anything about it," he added, chewing meditatively on the green delicacy, while he gazed at a clump of ferns as if fancying it concealed an enemy.

"If you were better acquainted with us wood folk, you'd know that Jimmy Hedgehog is hiding over there in the ferns. Watch and you can see them waving directly against the wind, which tells that something heavy is moving among them. When I caught sight of those delicious clover heads I could see that young hedgehog was getting ready to go for them. The only thing that held him back was the fear that you might try to make trouble for him. I had to scoop them up lively, or they'd gone into Jimmy's stomach while you were asking questions. I may not be able to make such a terrible show of fighting; but when it comes to getting the best of whatever is being pa.s.sed around your Mr.

Bunny Rabbit doesn't often get left, more especially if Jimmy Hedgehog is the only fellow he has to beat.

"Oh, yes, I was telling how the club meeting wound up when Professor Hawk came around to make trouble. Well, as I was saying, Cheeko's brother and I were snuggled together under the thorns, watching that wicked bird out of both eyes and thanking our lucky stars that the old 'Squire wasn't alive to take a hand in the game. Then that foolish squirrel got it into his head that he could run faster than the Professor could fly, and declared that he wasn't going to get the life scratched out of him simply because a hungry bird had made up his mind to eat us.

"'I'm going right out, as a decent fellow should who doesn't want others to call him a coward, and you'll see how I'll get the best of the smartest hawk that ever lived," he said, shaking his tail as well as he could amid the thorns.

"'Now, you're talking like Cheeko and showing yourself to be just as foolish,' I said, trying hard not to let him see that I was angry because he hadn't better sense. 'If your brother hadn't tried to prove that he wasn't a coward he wouldn't be sick in bed this very minute.

You'd better stay where you are, for you won't find many such snug hiding places as this, not if you search the big woods from one end to the other.'

"'If I couldn't take care of myself better than you do I'd hide my head,' he said, pert as you please. 'Of course, it isn't right to expect very much of a fellow whose hind legs are twice as long as his front ones, and I don't suppose you can help being afraid of your own shadow.'

"Now, I'm willing to admit that I'm not the bravest animal that ever lived; but it isn't pleasant to be talked to in such a manner by an impudent youngster like Cheeko's brother, and I resolved that I wouldn't open my mouth again, no matter what folly he might attempt.

Because I held my tongue he thought he'd make me ashamed of myself, and went on worse than ever, saying that he wasn't afraid of the Professor, with all his family behind him; that he wouldn't stay among the thorns any longer than he pleased and a lot of cheap talk like that which went to prove that he was as impolite as he was silly.

"All the while he ran on like that he kept working his way through the thorns, and I could see that the Professor had his eye on him sharp as a needle. Cheeko's family are all alike, forever thinking they must do something, no matter how foolish, to show that they are dreadfully brave, when, according to my way of thinking, they are only proving themselves silly.

"Well, Cheeko's brother kept creeping nearer and nearer to the edge of the thorns, looking back at me every once in a while, as if believing I'd be scared out of my wits because he was so venturesome; but I never opened my mouth and finally he said with a flirt of his tail:

"'Now's the time when I will show that old hawk how much he knows about catching squirrels!'

"It was exactly as Cheeko would have spoken, and I could but feel sorry for him even though he had insulted me. He stood at the edge of the thorn bushes a minute, twisting and turning his tail as if he wanted to attract the attention of every member of the club to his folly, and then out he went, running the best he knew how across the open s.p.a.ce at the foot of the tree.

"Now if you've ever had any acquaintance with the Professor, you know he's not slow by any means, and Cheeko's brother had given him all the notice he needed that the foolish squirrel was going to show off before the other wood folks. Mr. Weasel himself couldn't have moved more quickly than the Professor did. I saw him twist his head as if to get a better view, and then down he came faster than you could wink your eye.

"Of course Cheeko's brother didn't have half a chance; he hadn't much more than well begun to run when the Professor had him in his claws, and oh me! oh my! how that squirrel did squeal! It wasn't any use to howl after he'd just the same as coaxed the Professor to catch him, and there wasn't a member of the club who didn't insist that he'd been served exactly right.

"'If an animal is brave there isn't any need of his running around telling people,' Mr. Crow said when the Professor and Cheeko's brother had disappeared. 'But if he sticks his nose into danger just for the sake of showing folks how clever he is he not only shows that he is mistaken as to the meaning of the word brave, but has proven himself very foolish.'

"You may believe it or not, but it's the solemn truth that there wasn't one of the wood folk who felt sorry for Cheeko's brother, and that's saying a good deal, for as a rule we're all broken up when anything like that happens, especially when it is done right on the club's premises.

"'Cheeko himself will come to just such an end, and for that you may take my word,' Mr. Jay said as he straightened out his feathers, which had been ruffled a good bit when he flew off so suddenly to get out of the Professor's way.

"'We'll hope that the lesson he has just had will teach him to have better sense in the future,' Mr. Crow replied, for the old fellow always looks on the bright side of everything, and Mr. Jay added in an angry tone:

"'But it won't and that you may depend on. I've lost all patience with the Squirrel family. They go chattering and scolding around as if they owned the whole of the big woods, and I've yet to see one of them raise a paw toward helping a neighbor.'

"Before any one else could speak we heard a terrible noise among the bushes and had no more than well hidden ourselves when up comes Mr.

Man's boy Tommy with one of those miserable slings on a forked stick, and it went without saying that he had a lot of small stones in his pocket ready to shoot at the first one of us, even including Mr. Crow, who should show himself. Of course, he can't kill anything with such a toy; but it is possible for him to hurt a fellow mighty bad, as I know to my cost.

"Why, do you know, not a great while ago I was hopping across the path that leads to Mr. Man's barn, when that wretched boy aimed straight for me, and, what's a great deal worse, hit me with a small stone just behind the ears. I really thought for the moment that I had got what I'd never recover from! I did manage to hobble away, of course, else I wouldn't be here to-day; but my head ached for two or three days as though it would split open. I can't for the life of me imagine why boys find so much sport in hurting animals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WE HEARD A TERRIBLE NOISE AMONG THE BUSHES]

"Well, there was the boy Tommy, and in his hand was the sling, with a little stone in it ready to be fired. Mr. Crow had crept around the trunk of the tree, hoping to keep out of sight; but the boy, looking for something to shoot at, espied the old bird, and in another second the president of the club flew away crying 'Caw, caw, caw' with all his strength. Mr. Man's boy Tommy shot at him, but Mr. Crow wasn't there, so he didn't get hit.

"It seemed to me that the moment had come when I should take to my heels, for I was hidden only by a few mullein leaves, and Tommy wouldn't have to hunt very long before he stumbled right over me.

While he was putting another stone in the sling I jumped out from under the leaves, and headed straight for home, but unluckily for me, the boy got a glimpse of the tip of my tail, short though it is, as I darted through a clump of alders.

"Now it so happened that lying on the ground where he could get at it handily was a piece of half-decayed wood, which had most likely fallen from the big oak a long while before, and, if you'll believe it, that boy had time to pick it up and shy the thing at me before I got out of sight. Not once in a hundred times could he have hit me; but it so happened that this was the unfortunate once, and I was knocked head over heels into the brook, so nearly stunned that I was almost drowned before I came to myself.

"When I did get my senses that miserable boy was just reaching out his hand to pick me up, and you never saw a rabbit struggle as I did then!

Being in the water, and not knowing how to swim, it was quite a task to get out quickly. More than once he had his fingers on my ears; but each time I contrived to wriggle away, and at the very moment when it seemed as if I must give up and go into the stew or pie, as his mother should decide, I gave him the slip.

"I was wet as a drowned rat; the mud stuck to my hair until it seemed as if my coat were twice as heavy as usual, and I was sore all over from the blow; but yet I could run faster than he, and if ever a rabbit put his best foot forward, it was I! I had never believed he could move as quickly as he did then, and no matter how I struggled he kept uncomfortably near my heels till just as I darted around a clump of mullein stalks whom should I come plump upon but Mrs. Rabbit herself.

"'Gracious me, Bunny, what a disgraceful condition you are in!' she cried, holding up both front paws and getting ready to read me one of her long lectures; but I swung her around by the ears as I said, speaking queerly, I suppose, because of breathing so hard after the long chase:

"'Don't stop here to talk if you want to save your skin! Mr. Man's boy Tommy has nearly killed me, and he can't be far away this very minute.

Run, run for your life!'

"Sometimes Mrs. Rabbit is a very sensible animal, and on this occasion she took my advice, running at full speed, especially when she heard Tommy cry:

"'By Jiminy! Now I've got two rabbits! Come on, fellers, the woods are full of 'em!'

"Of course we knew by the words that there was more than one boy out with slings, and I was so tired that it didn't seem as if I could run another inch! When I was knocked into the brook I somehow was turned around, so that I was headed away from home, and we had a long, long distance to go before there was the littlest kind of a show for safety. It seemed as if matters were just as bad as they could be; but it appears that they were not, for just then who should pop out of some tall gra.s.s but my poor little Sonny Bunny, and those dreadful boys so close behind that I could almost hear them breathe."

At this point Mr. Bunny ceased speaking, and began to chew a straw, as if seeing in his mind's eye the picture of that wild race for life.

CHAPTER VII

CHEEKO'S CURIOSITY

Mr. Bunny remained silent a long while, and not until he was reminded that he had broken off his story at a very exciting point did he continue. Then it was to say:

"Even at this day I am surprised that all three of us were not captured by that army of boys, each of whom was armed with one of those disagreeable sling-shots, pea-shooters, or whatever you choose to call them. I was panting from long running, and my wife so excited as hardly to know whether she was on her feet or her ears, while poor little Sonny Bunny was so confused by seeing us in such a state that he actually quivered.

"Of course I had sense enough to know that we hadn't a single second to spare in that neighborhood, and it was up to me to save the family, or go down into the stew with them. I don't like to boast, as do the Squirrels; but yet I must say that, except when we come face to face with Mr. Weasel, we Rabbits can do a powerful lot of thinking in a short time when we are in a hole--or, perhaps I should say, when we want to get into our own particular hole.

"I twisted one of Mrs. Rabbit's ears right sharp, to bring her to her senses quickly, and jumping straight for Sonny Bunny, tossed him around with my nose, as I whispered:

"'Run for your life, Sonny, and run as you never did before. It's up to you to see that your mother gets home before those wicked boys can lay their hands on her, so move lively!'

"Sonny Bunny is a good deal like me in some things, and it was as if the little fellow understood the whole situation in a sniff of your nose. Before you could say Jack Robinson, in case you wanted to, he was showing his mother the way home, his little legs twinkling like drumsticks amid the bushes.

"Mrs. Bunny and Sonny hadn't much more than disappeared when Mr. Man's boy Tommy was almost the same as walking all over me, and I had to do some mighty lively hopping to keep out from under his feet. Now I'm not trying to make myself out the bravest fellow that ever walked; but it is a fact that I had sense enough not to run straight for home, as I knew the rest of the family were doing, and when that busy Tommy caught a glimpse of me, I was steaming off as if we lived in the very middle of the big swamp. Of course he came after me with a whoop and a yell and, if the noise was anything to be judged by, there were more than a hundred other boys close at his heels.

"I wasn't fretting very much just then, because I'd had a breathing spell, to say nothing of knowing that Mrs. Bunny and Sonny were clean out of the muss, so off I went limperty, limperty, limp, taking my own time and leading that crowd of boys and sling-shots straight into the swamp, where I was allowing they'd pitch head over heels into the mud till they were in such shape that their mothers couldn't help whipping them soundly when they got home.

"Mr. Man's boy Tommy wasn't quite so simple as I'd taken him to be, for when he came to the edge of the swamp he fired one shot that never came anywhere near touching me, and yelled to the fellows behind:

"'Hold up, or we'll be in the mud up to our necks! What's the use of chasing a lot of rabbits that aren't worth eating at this time of year, when we can catch more'n a thousand squirrels between now and to-morrow morning?'