Mother Bunny and her flowers

Every one was hurrying next day to finish the seed planting. There were Morning Glory seeds and Nasturtium seeds to plant by the porch. There were Pansy seeds to plant in the little round bed by the front door. There were seeds of Bachelor’s Buttons and Mignonette.

Suddenly Old Father Bun came with a flag from the house and shouted,

“A red, white and blue garden,” said Healthy Bunny.

“A red, white and blue flower bed,” said Pretty Bunny.

“Red, white and blue, red, white and blue,” sang the Bunnies together. Echo Bunny called, “Red, white and blue.”

Old Mother Bun helped plan the red, white, and blue flower bed. She said, “We can have Salvia for the red flowers, and Daisies for the white. For the blue flowers we can have Forget-Me-Nots, or Phlox, Blue Bells or Gentians.” She said, “Where did you get the idea?”

Old Father Bun said,

The Bunnies went to work in real earnest on the red, white, and blue flower bed.

When they grew tired working, they played this flower game.

Old Father Bunny stood in the centre of a circle.

Father Bunny pointed to any Bunny in the circle saying,

He called on any Bunny who had to name a blue flower or go out of the game. A different color was called for each time and they sang a little song to the tune of “Lightly Row,”

Shadow Bunny, and Homeless Bunny, and Happy-Go-Luck Bunny helped them play the game. Pretty Bunny and Healthy Bunny could not always name a flower quickly.

Those five little Bunnies stood in a row and watched Old Mother Bun plant her garden, then as a little shower came up all came inside but Shadow Bunny who called,

Said Old Father Bun, talking half to himself,

He said the root is the simplest part of the plant and he said a plant has a primary root which it sends down into the soil, and some plants also have secondary roots which spring from the stem.

Some time before Old Mother Bun had planted a sweet pea. She had stretched a piece of netting over a glass with water in it, and had placed the pea on top of the netting.

The Bunnies saw the roots growing downward.

The Bunnies decided to plant some seeds in this way and watch the roots grow.

Pretty Bunny said, “What are aerial roots?”

Healthy Bunny said,

They remembered that they had learned about Swallows being called “aerial birds,” because they spent so much time in the air, and so they asked eagerly where they could find some aerial roots.

Old Mother Bun had read of a wonderful tree in India which sent out aerial roots.

She said,

Old Father Bun said,

Old Mother Bun remarked,

Old Father Bun said in the Nature world about us everything had work to do, and everything had to do its part.

A wee voice was heard calling,

Healthy Bunny went to let the Useful Elf into the house.

The Wee Elf shook the water off his tiny leaf umbrella and called merrily,

He said he had been waiting under a toad-stool to keep dry. He had noticed the open window and so thought he would come in a while. He continued,

Pretty Bunny inquired, “Do roots have names?”

Healthy Bunny said, “Do fibrous roots like water?”

The Useful Elf nodded and remarked,

He produced a tiny basket filled with carrots and they had a feast. When his basket was quite empty he said,

To the surprise of all, the basket was soon filled with vegetables again and the Beets called in loud voices,

The Radishes blushed and said,

The Turnips were not to be out-done by the rest so they cried,

Those funny little vegetables began to dance, and the Useful Elf began to dance, and soon the Bunnies were all dancing as though by magic.

When they had danced themselves quite out of breath they sat down in a circle and begged the Elf to tell them a Fairy Tale.

He said,

He looked hard at Old Mother Bun, for her garden was famous to all Elves and Fairies.

She said,

The Elf said the same little verse looking hard at Old Father Bun,

Old Father Bun mentioned a Butterfly and a Toad, a Robin and an Oriole, a Moth and Dragon Fly, but the Elf screwed up his wee face into many wrinkles, and it was only when Pretty Bunny cried out that he got started, and you see for yourself now what she mentioned.

The Elf capered about and cried out,

He began to tell the Fairy Tale of Cotton, saying,—Once upon a time there was a Fairy forever spinning,

She was continually spinning from morning ’till night,

There was another spinner who lived near the Fairy. He was an enormous spider with stripes upon his back. He did not like to think the Fairy was a more wonderful spinner than he, so he decided to kill her. She was frightened and began to run, carefully hiding her spindle, and the spider ran after her.

The Mouse was busy eating cheese and would not open the door of his house.

You might guess a long time before you could tell who at last befriended the Fairy. It was a Firefly at last who led her onward by his fairy lantern. He showed her a pink flower and told her to jump inside. She did so, spindle, spinning wheel and all, but the ugly Spider was almost upon her.

There was nothing left for the Fairy to do but to stab him with the spindle, so she did so, and the ugly spider fell to the ground. Then the pink flower closed over the Fairy.

Though the ugly Spider wove a web over the flower he could not get in. He said,

Time passed, the Fairy did not come out. The flower lost its petals, still no Fairy was seen.

The ugly Spider died but the Fairy was alive and well hidden in the ball the flower had made. The ball opened soon and out came a pure, white tassel the Fairy had been spinning!

We love to think of the industrious Fairy now when we wear a garment made of cotton.

The voice of the little Elf sank lower and lower and soon the little Bunnies were fast asleep. He sang,