Billy Bunny and Uncle Bull Frog | Page 8

came to get the horn.
Well, sir, after the music started, he pulled out his horn and gave a tre-men-dous honk on it, and everybody thought an automobile was going to run over him.
Some jumped into the Pool and some ran up the trees, and, oh, dear me! everybody got all out of tune, and the bear lost the air and couldn't find it again!
And just then who should come along but a peddler with a pack of tin cans, rattling away on his back, and of course he made more noise than all the singing school put together.
And when the big bear saw him he was so angry that he jumped from behind a tree and said, "Boo!"
"Do you want to buy a tin plate?" asked the peddler, trying hard not to be frightened, "or would rather have a dishpan?"
"Don't want either," said the bear with a terrible growl.
"Perhaps you'd like a nutmeg grater," said the poor old peddler, and he was so frightened by this time that his knees knocked into the tin pans and made a dreadful noise.
"I've a dandy egg beater," went on the peddler, in a trembling voice, but after that he never said another word, for that great big bear jumped right at him and took the egg beater out of his hands and growled so terribly that the tin peddler turned away and ran down the forest path as fast as he could go.
And then all the little and big forest folk began to sing:
"Hip, hip hurray, the peddler's gone away. No more he'll make his tin pans shake And spoil our singing school beside the Forest Pool."
And in the next story, if the baby who lives in the house opposite doesn't shake his rattle at me all night so that I can't get to sleep and dream about the next story in time to write it for to-morrow night, I'll tell you more about the little rabbit's adventures.

STORY XII.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE RABBITVILLE "GAZETTE."
There was once a little rabbit Who was very fond of pie, Apple pie, with sugar on the crust. And he had a little habit, When his mother wasn't nigh, Of eating apple pie until he bust.
This is what Mr. William Bunny, the little rabbit's father, you know, was singing one day, and the reason was because Mrs. Bunny had found little Billy Bunny in the pantry.
And what happened to the little rabbit I'm not going to tell you, for it is so sad that it would make you weep to hear it.
"All day he nibbled pie Till at last I thought he'd die," Said the doctor with a sigh.
And then Mr. William Bunny looked at his small son and sighed, too, for he had just paid the doctor's bill.
"Please don't sing any more," said little Billy Bunny. "Don't you remember the doctor said I was to be kept quiet?"
So Mr. William Bunny went out on the porch to smoke a cigar and read the Rabbitville "Gazette" until after supper time.
And while he was reading Mrs. Bunny looked over his shoulder and read: "Wanted, a secondhand automobile in good condition."
"Ring up your Uncle Lucky on the telephone," she called to Billy Bunny. "Here's a chance for him to sell his Luckymobile." So the little rabbit rang up 000 Lettuceville, and in a few minutes he heard the old gentleman's voice at the other end of the wire.
"But I don't want to sell my Luckymobile," he said. "It's the only one in ex-is-tence," which means the only one ever made, and I guess he was right, for I never rode in a Luckymobile, did you?
"But mother thinks you ought to sell it," said Billy Bunny, "and so does father, for they both say you'll have a terrible accident some day if you don't look out."
"Well then, I'll look out," said Uncle Lucky with a laugh. "But I won't sell my Luckymobile." And then he asked Billy Bunny to make him a visit. So the little rabbit put on his knapsack and picked up his striped candy cane and started off, after first asking his mother's permission, of course.
And after he had gone for maybe a million Hops, he came to a big tree where Old Barney the Owl had his next. But of course, he wasn't awake. Oh, my, no. He had his eyes tightly closed, for owls don't like a bright light, you know. They can see in the dark but not in the daytime.
But when Billy Bunny called out, "Helloa, Mr. Barney," the old gentleman owl blinked his eyes and said, "Who's calling me?" And then the little rabbit thought he'd play a joke, so he said, "Mr. Mouse!"
And if there was anything that Old Barney loved to eat, it was mice. And in the next story I'll tell