Mother Bunny and her flowers

Old Mother Bun called,

The little Bunnies did not like to get up and the Elves in the Tulip Bed said,

The Ticklish Elf tumbled out of the Tulip Bed head first, and climbed up the water spout, and into the window where Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny were lying in their little beds.

The Useful Elf helped them dress.

The Laughing Elf set them laughing.

The Impish Elf hid their hair ribbons, and shoes, and played many tricks upon them.

The Pretty Elf just sat on the mantle piece and looked as pretty as pretty could be.

The Bunnies had a merry time and Old Mother Bun was happy when she saw her red Tulips, red and yellow, for the Elves had used their paint brushes to make the Tulips gay.

Old Mother Bun said,

Her wild flower garden was bordered with little dwarf dandelions.

The Bunnies all went into the garden and the Elves disappeared.

Old Mother Bun said,

So they began to pull weeds and talked about watering thirsty flowers.

Old Father Bun came out with a basket and said he was going to the woods to get Mullen leaves. He said,

Old Mother Bun said, “Be sure to gather plenty of Mullen leaves, for I will soak them in oil and if any one gets a pain that will help them.” So Old Father Bun went off singing,

The Sunflowers had been sowing their own seeds in Old Mother Bun’s garden. She was so glad to see them and knew they would attract birds who liked to eat the seeds.

She knew, too, that oil from them could be used to burn. She continued, that paper is made from stalk, head, and stem of the sunflower.

The Humming Bird came and sang,

Sure enough, the Humming Bird greatly loved flowers of a certain color, and the Fringed Gentian was nearer the color of the sky than any Flower that grew. Best of all, the Gentian was really growing in one corner of Old Mother Bun’s garden, and the Humming Bird hummed with delight.

The little Bunnies said,

They liked to imagine that the Elves from the Tulip Bed were about the garden in the day time, to help them.

The old Lilac bush was full of buds and Pretty Bunny picked a branch and took it into the house, and set it in a jar of water.

Old Mother Bunny taught the Bunnies the names of all the Wild Flowers in her garden. There were the Violets and Anemones, the Blood-Root, and Dandelions, the Wild-Ginger and fringed Gentian, the Jack-In-The-Pulpit and Trillium, the Flax, and Mustard, and Lady’s Slipper and many others.

Healthy Bunny whispered to Pretty Bunny,

They slipped away to look for this wild flower that grows by the roadside, but they were too early to find it in bloom.

They met Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny, and Shadow Bunny, and Homeless Bunny, and they all traveled together and sang,

It was almost Apple Blossom time.

Shadow Bunny followed them around everywhere and said by and by,

He explained that the farmer disliked this flower for sowing itself, and spreading over fertile soil they wanted for planting.

Just then, Old Father Bun returned with his pocket full of mullen leaves and he said he brought home a bouquet of dandelions. He had buttercups, too, in his basket. He said that he found buttercups all over the meadows and they were not liked by cows or horses because of the bitter juice they contained. He said as nothing troubled the buttercups, they bloomed freely everywhere. He had gathered marsh buttercups, creeping buttercups and bristly buttercups.

He said he found some common flax growing a foot and a half high. The blue flowers were pretty and he said it was a most useful plant, linen being made from its fibres, and oil from its seed.

He said while resting in the meadow the Flax told him this story: “The Earth Goddess Hilda comes to visit us. She comes to the earth to see how much Flax is planted, and returns by winter to see if there is enough Flax for spring and if the spinning wheels are all busy. She rewards the busy people and punishes the lazy ones.”

After supper the Bunnies gathered round the bunch of Dandelions Old Father Bun had gathered, and one Dandelion, larger than the rest, began to talk. It said, “Once upon a time the South Wind loved me, for I was then a young girl with yellow hair, and for a while I grew more and more beautiful; but by and by I grew old and faded, for I was touched by a breath of the North Wind. The South Wind sighed, and soon I was gone, but the next year the ground was covered with flowers like me. I am now said to resemble the sun, and, like other flowers, turn toward it.”

The Bunnies drew and colored a picture of the dandelion and wrote the story in a little book to keep.

The Evening Primrose was opening. It was uncurling its petals for the visit of the night moth.

Pretty Bunny said, “I wonder if it will be the cradle for a wee little Elf, as the Tulip is.”

Healthy Bunny said, “I know a funny thing about it. Its root was used to eat, long before that of the sweet potato.”

A dwarf dandelion in the garden sang,

There was music in the garden for the Harebells were ringing; they sang of the “Bluebells of Scotland.”

Old Father Bun said,

Old Mother Bun replied,

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny went off to bed singing,

Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny and Homeless Bunny had gone away, but they begged to be allowed to come and plant next day.

Just as the little Bunnies were falling asleep there arose a voice, and they knew that spring had surely come, for the dear Little Tree Toad, who ate harmful insects, called,

The Ticklish Elf peeped in the window early next morning and tickled the Bunnies with a bit of grass, calling,

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny got up quickly and dressed and the Ticklish Elf said, as the Bunnies complained that the grass tickled their toes,

“Are there Fairy Families and Flower Families?” asked the Bunnies in surprise.

The Ticklish Elf did not answer the first part of the question but went off singing,

So saying, he floated away on a sunbeam and the Bunnies cried,