Sammie and Susie Littletail | Page 5

camera, not a gun. It does not hurt to have your picture taken. It is not like being shot."
"Then I wish all hunters would take pictures of us, instead of shooting at us," said Sammie, and Susie also thought it would be much nicer. And Uncle Wiggily told how lovers of animals often take their pictures, to put in books and magazines, for little boys and girls to look at.
"Well," said Papa Littletail, "I suppose I should be very proud to have my picture taken, but I am not the least bit."
Then he gave Sammie some nice pieces of chocolate-covered turnip, which Mr. Drake had sent to the little boy with the lame leg.
"Do you think I can get out to-morrow?" asked Sammie, after supper. "My leg is quite well."
"I think so," replied his papa. "I will ask Dr. Possum."
Which he did, and Sammie was allowed to go out. He had a very curious adventure, too, and I think I shall tell you about it to-morrow night, if you go to bed early now.

V
SAMMIE LITTLETAIL DIGS A BURROW
Sammie Littletail found that his leg was quite well enough to walk on, without the cornstalk crutch, so the day after his papa's picture had been taken, the little rabbit boy started to leave the burrow.
"Come along, Susie," he called to his sister.
"I will also go with you," said Uncle Wiggily Longears. "I will give you children a few lessons in digging burrows. It is time you learned, for some day you will want an underground house of your own."
So he led them to a nice place in the big park on top of the mountain, where the earth was soft, and showed Sammie and Susie how to hollow out rooms and halls, how to make back and front doors, and many other things a rabbit should know.
"I think that will be enough of a lesson to-day," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, after a while. "We will go home, now."
"No," spoke Sammie, "I want to dig some more. It's lots of fun."
"You had better come with us," remarked Susie.
But Sammie would not, though he promised to be home before dark. So while Uncle Wiggily Longears and Susie Littletail started off, Sammie continued to dig. He dug and he dug and he dug, until he was a long distance under ground, and had really made quite a fine burrow for a little rabbit. All at once he felt a sharp pain in his left fore leg.
"Ouch!" he cried. "Who did that?"
"I did," answered a little, furry creature, all curled up in a hole in the ground. "What do you mean by digging into my house? Can't you see where you are going?"
"Of course," answered Sammie, as he looked at his sore leg. "But couldn't you see me coming, and tell me to stop?"
"No, I couldn't see you," was the reply.
"Why not?"
"Why not? Because I'm blind. I'm a mole, and I can't see; but I get along just as well as if I did. Now, I suppose I've got to go to work and mend the hole you made in the side of my parlor. It's a very large one." The mole, you see, lived underground, just as the rabbits did, only in a smaller house.
"I'm very sorry," said Sammie.
"That doesn't do much good," spoke the mole, as she began to stop up the hole Sammie had made. She really did very well for a blind animal, but then she had been blind so long that she did not know what daylight looked like. "You had better dig in some other place," the mole concluded, as she finished stopping up the hole.
Sammie thought so himself, and did so. He went quite deep, and when he thought he was far enough down, he began digging upward, so as to come out and make a back door, as his uncle had taught him to do. He dug and he dug and he dug. All at once his feet burst through the soft soil, and he found that he had come out on top of the ground. But what a funny place he was in! It was not at all like the part of the park near his burrow, and he was a little frightened. There were many tall trees about, and in one was a big gray squirrel, who sat up and chattered at the sight of Sammie, as if he had never seen a rabbit before.
"What are you doing here?" asked the squirrel. "Don't you know rabbits are not allowed here?"
"Why not?" asked Sammie.
"Because there are nice trees about, and the keepers of the park fear you and your family will gnaw the bark off and spoil them."
"We never spoil trees," declared Sammie, though he just then remembered that his Uncle, Wiggily Longears, had once said something