Little Jack Rabbit's big blue book

sang the musical alarm clock.

Out of bed hopped Little Jack Rabbit and parting his hair down the middle of his back with a little chip, picked up his knapsack and hurried down to the breakfast table.

Lady Love’s carrot coffee and lollypop porridge soon made the little bunny lose his appetite. Wasn’t that too bad? Well, I don’t know. I’d gladly lose my appetite for lollypop stew.

“Where’s father?” he asked, wiping his lips on a nice clean lettuce leaf napkin.

“Down at the Post Office,” answered his pretty mother. “He said for you to stay near the Old Bramble Patch until he got back.”

“All right,” answered the good little bunny. “May I go now, mother dear?”

“Have you polished the front doorknob and fed the canary and filled the woodbox?” she asked, with a smile. I guess she knew the little rabbit had forgotten all about his daily morning duties.

“Dear, dear, I forgot,” cried the little bunny and, picking up the box of brass polish and a rag, he set to work on the doorknob. Pretty soon it looked like a golden ball under the bright beams of Mr. Merry Sun. Perhaps he thought he’d help the little rabbit. Who knows!

Next the bunny boy fed the pretty canary in her little gold cage, which hung in the kitchen during the winter, but when the days grew warm and bright, on the front porch. After her tiny cup was filled with birdseed the little bunny hopped out to the woodpile.

“Hello, there,” said the Old Red Rooster, whom Uncle Lucky had sent over to spade the kitchen garden and plant the vegetables, “how’s Little Jack Rabbit this morning?”

“Oh, I’m all right,” answered the little bunny, picking up the hoe which the old fowl had left by the flower-bed. “I’m all right and I’m all glad and I’m fond of my mother and my dad.”

“Whoa, there, Mr. Rabbit Poet!” cried the Old Red Rooster. “How do you get that way?”

“I’ve been reading a poetry book,” answered the little bunny, handing a rose to Lady Love, who at that moment hopped out to the garden. Pretty soon she went back in the kitchen. It’s mighty lucky that she did, for just then, all of a sudden, something happened. And it would have been quite dreadful if the Old Red Rooster hadn’t given a timely warning. Yes, sir, if, right then he hadn’t hollered “Look out!” there would be little use in my putting it in now.

The moment the little bunny heard the warning he hopped through the window, quick as a wink. And it was mighty lucky that he did, for right there under the trees stood Danny Fox.

“Good morning,” he said, with a smile. But it didn’t look like a smile to Little Jack Rabbit. Oh, dear, no! It looked like a great big white-toothed grin. That’s what it did, and I guess the little bunny was right.

“I think it’s a bad morning,” replied Little Jack Rabbit. “You’ve changed everything.”

“Don’t say that,” whined Danny Fox. “What makes you so unfriendly?”

“Never you mind, you old robber,” shouted the Old Red Rooster from the top of the woodshed, on which he had taken refuge.

“Oh, you’re around,” snarled Danny Fox. “I thought you were working for Uncle Lucky Lefthindfoot, the old gentleman rabbit.”

“Well, you’ve got another think,” replied the Old Red Rooster, “and if you don’t get out of here I’ll send a wireless message to the Policeman Dog to put you in jail.”

“Yes, you will,” sneered the old fox. “How are you going to send a message, I’d like to know.”

“Ha, ha!” laughed the Old Red Rooster, with a jump and a big flap of his wings. And, would you believe it! he flew from the woodshed right over to the roof of the cowshed next the Little Red Barn! Then up he jumped to the little window overhead. That’s what he did, the wise old fowl.

“I wonder what he’s going to do?” thought Danny Fox, beginning to grow uneasy. “I wonder what he’s up to?” and again the old fox looked here and there, fearing some trick was to be sprung upon him.

“Cock-a-doodle do!” all of a sudden shouted the Old Red Rooster.

“What do you want?” asked Lady Love, looking out of the attic window. But on seeing Danny Fox she almost fainted.

“Don’t worry, mother,” cried Little Jack Rabbit. “I’m safe in the kitchen. I won’t hop out till Danny Fox goes home.”

“Ha, ha!” laughed that old robber, “maybe I’ll wait here till the 4th of July.”

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried the little rabbit’s mother, anxiously, “please go away, Danny Fox.”

“No, siree!” answered that wicked animal. “I shall stay right here for a year and a day, and maybe I’ll never go away.”

Now wasn’t that a dreadful thing to hear? Well, I guess it was. But just you wait a minute. I think the Old Red Rooster up in the loft of the Little Red Barn will do something, and do it mighty quick, let me tell you.

“Hello, hello!” he shouted, all of a sudden, just like that, from the tiny window of the Little Red Barn.

“I’m listening,” answered Lady Love from the attic.

“I hear you,” called out Little Jack Rabbit from the kitchen. But Danny Fox didn’t say a word.

“Something’s going to happen in a minute,” shouted the Old Red Rooster. “Yes, sireebus, something’s going to happen!”

“I wonder what?” thought Danny Fox, looking this way and that way and every other way. But he saw nothing, except the grass waving in the Sunny Meadow and the treetops bending in the Shady Forest.

Pretty soon he looked up at Lady Love, then at the Old Red Rooster. What were they doing? And why was the Old Red Rooster waving his pocket handkerchief? And why was Lady Love nodding her head?

“Dear, dear!” thought the old fox, “are they crazy?”

Just then, all of a sudden, just like that, quicker than bills on the first of the month, over the Old Rail Fence jumped the Policeman Dog, the Yellow Dog Tramp, the Stagecoach Dog Driver, the Billy Goat Ferryman, the Big Brown Bear and dear Uncle Lucky, the old gentleman rabbit.

“O-o-o-o!” whined Danny Fox, looking for a way to escape. By the woodpile stood the Policeman Dog, a few feet away the Yellow Dog Tramp, over by the Little Red Barn the Stagecoach Dog; by the kitchen door the Billy Goat Ferryman, at the Old Rail Fence the Big Brown Bear and a few hops away, dear Uncle Lucky.

“O-o-o-o,” again whined Danny Fox. He felt something was going to happen to him. He knew the Policeman Dog, the Yellow Dog Tramp, the Stagecoach Dog Driver, the Billy Goat Ferryman, the Big Brown Bear and dear Uncle Lucky, the old gentleman bunny, hadn’t jumped over the Old Rail Fence for fun, but he didn’t know that the Old Red Rooster had sent for them on the radio.

Yes, siree, something was, and is, going to happen to that dreadful fox, for, quick as a wink, they all closed in on him and before he could say a word or two or three, but no more, the Policeman Dog snapped a pair of handcuffs over his front paws.

sang the Policeman Dog, swinging his club up and down just like the leader of the orchestra in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

“I hope you’ll keep him there for even longer,” said the old gentleman bunny. “He’s always after Little Jack Rabbit and me. Just the other day he nearly caught up to the Luckymobile. If he had, he would have bitten the tires.”

“He’s forever hanging around the ferryslip, waiting for a chance to grab Grandmother Goose on her way home,” said the Billy Goat Ferryman. “I never cross the river in my ferryboat but what I see him sneaking along the shore.”

“He’s always trying to hold-up my stagecoach and rob the passengers,” cried the Old Dog Driver, taking his pipe out of his mouth. “Only last week a little pig passenger nearly died of fright when he pointed his pistol at her.”

“He’s a bad lot,” said the Yellow Dog Tramp. “I often see him stealing chickens from the farmyards.”

“He’d better keep away from my Cozy Cave,” growled the Big Brown Bear. “If I ever catch him stealing lollypops I’ll break every bone in his body.”

“Do you hear what they say about you?” asked the Policeman Dog, giving Danny Fox a good shake.

“Please let me go,” begged the old fox, “I’ve two little boys at home who will miss Daddy Fox if he isn’t home for supper.”

“Let him go,” begged the tender-hearted little bunny, “Bushytail and Slyboots will miss him so. They think he’s a lovely father.”

“Well, what do you say?” asked the Policeman Dog, turning to Uncle Lucky.

cried Danny Fox, tears falling from his eyes, as the Policeman Dog waited for Uncle Lucky’s answer.

“Oh, pshaw,” cried dear kind Uncle Lucky, “let him go.”

“I say so, too,” said the Yellow Dog Tramp. “That song reminds me of one my dear old mother used to sing before I left the farm to become a hobo doggie.”

“Maybe from now on he’ll behave,” cried the Billy Goat Ferryman. “I have two little kids. I know how they’d feel if their daddy didn’t come home.”

“Give the old fox another chance,” said the Old Dog Stagecoach Driver. “I remember my two little bow-wows. We had a nice home in the country.”

“I feel the same as you fellows,” cried the Big Brown Bear. “My two little cubs waited every night for me to tell them a bedtime story. They’re now in the circus, but I always think of them as little fellows. Let the old fox go for the sake of his two little boys.”

“Do you hear what they all say?” asked the Policeman Dog.

“Yes,” whined Danny Fox, and away he ran as soon as the Policeman Dog took off the handcuffs.

“Perhaps he’ll behave for a while,” said the Old Red Rooster, flying down from the hayloft. “But it’s lucky for Little Jack Rabbit that I could call you all on the wireless. Maybe that isn’t a wonderful invention.”

“Come in and have some carrot cake and turnip tea,” begged Lady Love, hopping out on the kitchen porch.

Pretty soon as they all sat around the table having a fine feast, the Yellow Tramp Dog stood up on his hind legs and barked, oh, so softly:

Some day, dear boys and girls, I shall write a story about the Yellow Dog Tramp. He just sort of rubs his nose against my knee as I write these stories. Yes, he looks up at me with big brown eyes that seem to say:

“Tell the children to be kind to yellow dogs.”