THE TUNNEL
“I don’t see him anywhere,” whispered Timmy Meadowmouse.
“That doesn’t prove anything,” replied Little Jack Rabbit. “He may be hiding some place where we can’t see him.”
“Don’t you think I might run over the Sunny Meadow and look for the entrance to my tunnel?”
“No sir-e-e!” answered the little rabbit. “Suppose Danny Fox waited until you had gone quite a way and then ran in between you and the Old Bramble Patch. What would you do then?”
“Oh, don’t talk about it,” replied the little meadowmouse with a shiver. “But how am I to get back to my little house?”
“Begin a tunnel from here,” answered Little Jack Rabbit. “I’ll keep a bright lookout. If I see Danny Fox, you turn around and come back here.”
“All right,” said Timmy Meadowmouse, and in a few minutes he had burrowed down into the snow.
“Don’t go too far at first,” advised Little Jack Rabbit. “You might not be able to get back in time.”
Timmy Meadowmouse didn’t answer, for his mouth was full of snow.
“Be careful,” said Little Jack Rabbit, bending over the hole in the snow down which the little meadowmouse had disappeared.
Pretty soon, the little rabbit hopped out just beyond the Old Bramble Patch and looked about him. Everything seemed all right. Mr. Merry Sun was shining down from the cold blue sky and Billy Breeze was behaving himself very well. Once in a while he blew snow in the little rabbit’s eyes, but that was the way Billy Breeze played snowball, I guess.
All of a sudden Timmy Meadowmouse’s head appeared above the snow. He had climbed up a stalk of tough meadowgrass to see where he was going.
“My! how you startled me!” cried Little Jack Rabbit, for Timmy Meadowmouse’s head had almost bumped into him.
“Would you dare hop over to that big tuft of grass sticking out of the snow and tell me if you find a little hole in the snow close by?”
“Is that where you left off tunneling and jumped out to run over to the Old Bramble Patch?” asked the little rabbit.
“I think so,” replied Timmy Meadowmouse, “but I was so frightened when Danny Fox chased me that I can’t be sure.”
“I don’t dare hop out much farther,” whispered Little Jack Rabbit. “Billy Breeze may stir up a snow cloud and hide Danny Fox. I’m afraid something dreadful may happen.”