Little Jack Rabbit and the Squirrel Brothers | Page 8

is the name of the yellowish-brown animal that chases little gray squirrels around and around the trunks of trees?"
"How big was he?" asked the wise old bird, putting on his spectacles and turning over the leaves of his little Black Book.
"Larger than the farmer's black cat," answered the little rabbit.
"Did it look something like a fox?" asked the old crow.
"Yes, he did," replied the little rabbit.
Professor Jim Crow smiled and turned to page 49. "Listen!" he said. "The Marten looks very much like a young fox about two months old. Its color is a yellowish-brown, a little darker than a yellow fox, with a number of long black hairs. It is a great climber, hunts squirrels and robs birds' nests."
Then the wise old crow closed his book and wiped his spectacles. "You have learned something to-day, little rabbit. Mother Nature's School House will teach you lots of things," and the old professor bird flew away.
[Illustration: "I'm in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth." Page 59]
"Well, I'm going to have a good time now," thought the little rabbit to himself. "I've learned my daily lesson. I'll call up Uncle John." So off he hopped to the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth.
"What number do you want?" asked the telephone girl who was a little wood-mouse.
"One, two, three, Harefield," answered the little rabbit, and in less than five hundred short seconds, he heard his Uncle's voice over the wire.
"Goodness gracious meebus!" exclaimed Mr. John Hare, "I thought you'd forgotten all about your old uncle. Where are you?"
"I'm in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth," answered the little rabbit.
"I'll come right over to the Old Bramble Patch," said Uncle John, and the old gentleman hare dropped the receiver on his left hind toe he was so excited. You see, he hadn't heard from his little bunny nephew for so long that he supposed he had enlisted in Uncle Sam's Army or Aunt Columbia's Navy! Well, anyway, as soon as the little rabbit had paid the little wood-mouse five carrot cents, he hopped home to tell his mother that Uncle John Hare was coming over to supper.

TO THE POST OFFICE
"Billy Breeze, please blow no more The leaves around the kitchen door. It takes my time till ten fifteen To make the doorstep nice and clean,"
said Little Jack Rabbit the next morning after he had polished the front doorknob and fed the canary and filled the woodbox in the kitchen with kindling wood.
Oh, my, yes, he was a busy little rabbit. He had to help his mother in lots of ways, especially when Uncle John Hare was making a visit at the Old Bramble Patch.
Well, when the little rabbit had done all these things, his mother asked him to go down to the post office and buy her three War Savings Stamps and the Rabbitville Gazette for Uncle John, who had a touch of rheumatism in his left hind toe and didn't feel like hopping around, but preferred to sit in an armchair on the back stoop where it was warm and sunny.
Now, as Little Jack Rabbit hopped along, he met Chippy Chipmunk under the Big Chestnut Tree, so of course he stopped and said good morning.
"Where are you going?" asked the little Chipmunk. And when he found out, he took two twenty-five carrot cent pieces out of his pocket and asked the little rabbit to buy him two Thrift Stamps.
"All right," said the little bunny, dropping the two quarters in his knapsack, and by and by, not so very far, he met Squirrel Nutcracker.
"Where are you going?" asked the old gray squirrel.
"Down to the Post Office," answered the little rabbit.
"Will you buy me a dollar's worth of Thrift Stamps, please," said Squirrel Nutcracker. So the little rabbit tucked the lettuce dollar bill in his waistcoat pocket and hopped along. And pretty soon, not so very far, he met Busy Beaver. He was plastering the top of his little mud house and was dreadfully busy, but when he heard where Little Jack Rabbit was going, he put his little muddy paw in his pocket and took out a fifty cent piece.
"Please buy me two Thrift Stamps, I've no time to go to the village. I must finish my house before the frost comes."
The little rabbit put the fifty cent piece in his knapsack and hopped along, and by and by Parson Owl, who sat winking and blinking in his Hollow Tree House, called out to the little rabbit as he hopped over the dry leaves:
"Hey, there! Where are you going?"
"Down to the Post Office to buy stamps!"
"Will you buy me ten dollars' worth if I give you the money?" asked the winky, blinky old owl. Goodness me; it will take another story to tell what happened after that.

MORE STAMPS
Now let me see. We left little Billy Bunny on his