CHAPTER IX.
THE GREEN HOUSE BUNNY
One afternoon Old Mother Bun had worked so hard in her garden that she fell asleep, and she thought instead of autumn it was springtime, and that she heard all her Flowering Trees talking together.
The Redbud Tree said,
The Silver Bell Tree laughed and its laughter sounded like a bell going “tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.”
The Catalpa Tree sang,
The Witch Hazel Tree said,
The Hawthorn Tree said,
A voice sang,
The Nutmeg Flowers grow on an evergreen tree.
The voice continued,
Old Mother Bun was wakened from her dream by hearing a voice call,
Old Father Bun had many flower-pots in a row, and the little Bunnies were helping him pot Geraniums.
He said,
Old Mother Bun said, “I had such a wonderful dream! I thought it was springtime.”
That evening as they sat by the fire, they heard some one call,
They opened the door and the cutest little fellow stood, hat in hand, saying,
He told Old Father Bun there were plenty of bricks in the back yard to start in building the Green House, and there were some old window-lights that would do for the hot beds.
Next day they all set to work in real earnest and began to build.
Old Mother Bun began to think of selling her flowers.
She wrote cute little cards saying,
Many of the potted plants fairly trembled in their pots as they thought of having a nice warm place to spend the winter in and a real Green House.
The little Bunnies were planning one corner for their bulbs. They were planning to plant slips in a bed of sand.
The Green House Bunny sang to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,”
Chorus:
The Green House Bunny remarked,
Old Mother Bun said,
The Green House Bunny answered,
He took the Bunnies out into the garden and bent a branch down to the ground. He cut a notch in it, and covered it with earth. He said it would root by and by and could be cut off then from the main branch.
He said we could also make plants grow from slips, seeds, and bulbs.
As they went back into the Green-house, the Green House Bunny showed them a picture of a water-lily, saying, “A Water-Nymph hides in the shape of a water-lily, and becomes a beautiful maiden when she chooses and,
The little water-sprite tries to play tricks on any one who gathers the Water-lilies.”
So saying,
Old Mother Bun said,
Old Father Bun said,
Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny went with him, and my! what treasures they did find to bring back!
They brought gay autumn leaves, and milk-weed pods, and wild grapes, and nuts, and they sang,
All went merrily with the Bunnies until Pretty Bunny grew ill. She was sleepy all the time and nothing seemed to interest her.
The sunshine said, “I will wake her.”
The raindrops said,
Pretty Bunny did not laugh at the raindrops.
It crept up, up, up, and peeped in at Pretty Bunny and inside the rose was curled up Little Tickle Toes, the merry Elf.
Soon Pretty Bunny was well and helped Old Mother Bun protect her roses, and cover the fern bed and soon snow fell on Old Mother Bun’s garden, but the flowers in the Green House were blooming merrily, and many customers came to buy.
Nearly every house in Bunnyville had a blooming plant in the window.
Old Father Bun went off every evening into his little work-shop. He kept up a great singing and humming and all the Bunnies wondered what he was doing. He said to himself,
He took a Tulip petal, and traced around it on card board and used this as a pattern. He cut many petals from red crepe paper for his Tulips. He placed wire between two paper petals and glued them together, then he wired all the petals together and put a little yellow round on the end of his stem, which he wrapped with green paper.
While he was doing this, Old Mother Bun had some fun of her own. She cut out some birds and butterflies of paste-board and painted them gayly. She fastened them on twigs and set them around in the flower pots.
When Old Father Bun came out with his paper Tulips everything looked very gay.
Late that night, when the rest of the Bunnies were sleeping, Old Mother Bun looked out into her garden covered with snow. She sighed for her flowers but a fairy voice called,
The Moon peeped out from a cloud and said,
A little star twinkled and hummed,
The Sun-dial showed the days were getting shorter and shorter.
It said,
Pretty Bunny and Healthy Bunny dreamed that night that they were sailing away, away, in milk-weed cradles.