Polite bunny

CHAPTER IV.
MANNERS AT TABLE.

Every Bunny is surely able

To learn good manners at the table,

And you in turn will not regret

If you learn table etiquette.

Next day Pretty Bunny put her room in order and went hoppety skip down stairs, and straight to the breakfast table.

She started to slip into her chair, when to her surprise the chair said,

“To learn some manners it is best,

Do not sit down before the rest.”

Pretty Bunny said, “This is the most wonderful house I was ever in for even the furniture talks to me.”

Just then Aunt Etiquette came in with a steaming cup of coffee. Pretty Bunny pulled out a chair for her and waited to sit down until she was seated and said a pleasant “Good morning.”

She said, “I do like cakes and honey;

Where’s my friend, the Bed-Room Bunny?”

Aunt Etiquette smiled and said quite as though she had not heard this question,

“Pretty Bunny, are you able

To keep your elbows off the table?”

Pretty Bunny blushed rosy red, unfolded her napkin and sat very straight. When helped to coffee, cakes and honey, she began to eat rather noisily and Aunt Etiquette said,

“Bunnies, as well as girls and boys,

Can eat their meals with little noise.”

Pretty Bunny said, “How I do love to learn lessons by saying jingles over and over, for the funny little rhymes I can’t forget, and they make me remember useful things.”

Just then a crash was heard and Pretty Bunny was so excited she left the table without stopping to say, “Excuse me.”

She ran up stairs and found the mirror in her room had fallen and broken into many pieces. She looked all about for the Looking-Glass Bunny but caught only a glimpse of her long ears, and though she called him again and again she received no answer.

Aunt Etiquette called,

“Perhaps the mirror can be mended;

Do not leave the meal ’till it is ended.”

Pretty Bunny slipped back into her place at the table and said, “Please excuse me, Aunt Etiquette, I was so excited by the noise.” Aunt Etiquette answered,

“Manners at table, manners at table

You can learn for you’re plenty able.”

Pretty Bunny said, “Please teach me good table manners, Aunt Etiquette, so I will never be ashamed.”

Aunt Etiquette then said a magic verse and everything on the table received a voice and one thing after another began to talk.

Said the pretty silver knife,

“I’ve had troubles all my life;

In your mouth I don’t belong;

Tell it in rhyme, tell it in song.”

Pretty Bunny used her knife to cut butter with, which was perfectly proper, and she ate her food neatly with her fork and spoon. Then a new voice piped up,

“I will teach a lesson very soon,

Eat from the side of your spoon.”

The spoon went on telling about some people who will take soup the wrong way, putting the point of the spoon into the mouth instead of sipping it from the side.

Pretty Bunny twisted round a good deal in her chair until the chair said,

“You’re a restless Bunny, I declare;

Try to sit still in your chair.”

She dropped some crumbs on the floor and the rug under her feet sang out,

“Good manners require one thing more,

Don’t drop crumbs upon the floor.”

Pretty Bunny was excited to hear all these voices and she was very hungry, too, so she said, “Give me coffee, please. May I have more honey?”

The honey pitcher remarked sweetly,

“Wait ’till food is passed to you,

As a well mannered Bunny would do.”

Pretty Bunny said, “Aunt Etiquette, there are so many things to learn, I do wonder what broke the mirror?”

Aunt Etiquette said,

“The cord was broken once before;

I think it fell upon the floor.”

Pretty Bunny was still hungry and started to take two cookies at a time to finish up her breakfast and the cookie plate called out,

“If you can learn a simple rhyme,

Take just one thing at a time.”

Pretty Bunny put one cookie back on the plate. Now, as she was not always careful to chew with her mouth closed, Aunt Etiquette remarked,

“To be well mannered ’tis supposed

To eat your food with mouth well closed.”

Pretty Bunny began to drum upon the plate and the table said,

“Bunny, ’tis a sad mistake

Drumming noises now to make.”

Pretty Bunny finished breakfast.

Now, I am happy to relate,

Her knife and fork lay on her plate

Side by side, and the proper thing,

She put her napkin in the ring.

Just as Pretty Bunny said, “Aunt Etiquette, may I be excused from the table?” “Ting-a-ling,” rang the door bell, and Pretty Bunny went to answer.

There to her surprise stood Homeless Bunny, and Happy Bunny, and Healthy Bunny and Heedless Bunny; they had come on a hike all the way.

Pretty Bunny bowed to her visitors and asked them in and introduced them one at a time to Aunt Etiquette.

Aunt Etiquette said,

“You are welcome to stay a year and day;

You may attend school just down the way.”

There Stood Homeless, Happy, Heedless, and Healthy Bunny

“School!” said Homeless Bunny.

“School!” said Happy Bunny.

Healthy Bunny asked, “Is it schooltime?”

Heedless Bunny said, “Would we really have to go to school?”

Aunt Etiquette answered,

“School is in session, as a rule;

Fine manners you can learn in school.”

Then, without a word of warning, instantly and in a moment of time, Heedless Bunny turned a somersault and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.

Happy Bunny said, “If you will excuse me, Aunt Etiquette, I will hurry homeward.” Heedless Bunny said, “Good bye,” and so you see only Healthy Bunny was willing to stay and go to school.

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny talked after they had gone to bed that night and Pretty Bunny said,

“You can learn, if you are able,

Very good manners at the table;

Perhaps you’ve heard me say before,

Don’t drop crumbs upon the floor;

Use your knife to butter bread,

For food use fork and spoon instead;

Keep your lips closed, if you please,

Don’t make noises—do not tease.

This lesson you can learn quite soon,

Drink soup from the side of the spoon;

To fold your napkin you are able,

And say “Excuse me from the table.”

Pretty Bunny’s head went nid-nid, nodding, and she was soon fast asleep, but Healthy Bunny heard the “patter, patter, patter,” of little feet upon the stairs. He wondered if it could be Bunny Brag coming with the suit case.

He ran out in the hall and saw no one, so he said “I must have fallen asleep and been dreaming after all. I wish I could see the Looking-Glass Bunny, but I suppose he broke the mirror and ran away.”

Healthy Bunny crept down into the hall and danced before the mirror and there he saw the Looking-Glass Bunny dancing merrily. He asked the Looking-Glass Bunny who went “pitter, patter,” on the stairs, but the Looking-Glass Bunny only nodded and smiled and danced, and did not answer a word for sixteen minutes, then he whispered,

“I could tell you, if I choose,

But you’d scatter far and wide the news.”

Healthy Bunny laughed and went back to bed, for the Looking-Glass Bunny could keep some secrets after all.

Healthy Bunny dreamed that he sat at table with Aunt Etiquette and sang to the tune of “Twinkle Little Star,”

“Bunnies, you will not regret

Lessons learned in Etiquette;

At the table have a care

To sit straight up in your chair.”

Next morning at breakfast Healthy Bunny asked if he might repeat the song.

Aunt Etiquette said, “Yes,” and added,

“Manners at table, manners at table,

Are taught by Fairy Tale and Fable;

If we try, we all are able

To learn good manners at the table.”

About This Book

CHAPTER IV. MANNERS AT TABLE.

CHAPTER IV.
MANNERS AT TABLE.