Polite bunny

CHAPTER VI.
SHOPPING MANNERS

Have you thought of this before,

To have good manners in the store?

If you go there day or night,

Always try to be polite.

Pretty Bunny said to the strange Bunny, “I am sure you are mistaken; I am on my way home from school.”

The stranger Bunny said, “Ha, ha, ha, so you think you can fool me again; indeed, I have never had such a search in all my life.”

The strange Bunny was very near-sighted, and she really did mistake Pretty Bunny for her own run-away Grandchild!

On they went until they came to the grocery store, then in they went.

Pretty Bunny was very hungry.

Are you ever hungry after school?

She picked up a few peanuts that were in a box on the counter, really without thinking, and the strange Bunny boxed her ears, saying,

“Your ways seem very rude and funny;

Don’t help yourself, but pay your money.”

Another Bunny was ordering of another clerk and kept asking questions and said the prices were much too high and talked so as to take up all the clerk’s time.

The strange Bunny asked Pretty Bunny if she had noticed this after they had left the store, and remarked,

“To be well-mannered I hope you’ll try;

Don’t handle things unless you buy.”

Pretty Bunny said, “Let me go home, please let me go home; you have made a mistake, I am not your grandchild at all, I am visiting Aunt Etiquette.”

The strange Bunny went hurrying on as though nothing had been said. They went into a house at last and the door latched behind them.

The strange Bunny looked at Pretty Bunny very hard and said,

“I think perhaps I have been tricked

But it is not your business to contradict.”

She went on to say we should be very careful about disputing with our elders; even if we feel sure we are right, we should say politely, “I think it was this way.”

Pretty Bunny sat down and cried.

The stranger Bunny said,

“We should try, in all times and places,

To be cheerful, with smiling faces;

You don’t know some things I suspect;

To older people show respect.”

Then Pretty Bunny got up and bowed low and said,

“I did not really want to come;

Let me go home, let me go home.”

The strange Bunny said,

“A little Bunny should not tease,

But use words like ‘If you please’.”

After this, the strange Bunny began to act wild and said “Who broke my water pitcher this morning? and who hid my coal scuttle? Who ran off with my big cabbage?”

Now Pretty Bunny wished for the hundredth time she had gone right home from school and truly she did not know what to do, for she had done none of these things, and I don’t know what in the world would have happened if the Run Away Bunny had not come bounding in at that very moment.

He said,

“I am hungry, I want honey,

I am back, Run Away Bunny.”

The strange Bunny put on her best spectacles and said,

“I did make a mistake I see,

But Bunnies look alike to me.”

For all that, she would not let Pretty Bunny go home in the dark, for evening had come.

Run Away Bunny was very impolite and called the strange Bunny by her first name.

She boxed his ears and said,

“I have told you before, it is a shame

To call an older person by their first name.”

Pretty Bunny said, “I learned another lesson one day in politeness. Shall I tell it to you?”

“We should not laugh at a story we tell,

Not even if we relate it well.”

The strange Bunny asked her grandchild for another ball of yarn, for she was busily knitting. She was surprised to have it tossed to her from across the room.

She said,

“Do not toss things, that’s rarely done;

Always hand them, please, to every one.”

Just then she remembered she was thirsty and asked Pretty Bunny to go and get her a pitcher of water, which pretty Bunny was glad to do, of course, but she handed her the pitcher in the wrong manner, still holding onto the handle herself.

Said the strange Bunny,

“Some manners you have learned I see,

But the handle please turn toward me.”

She continued by saying that we should always pass an article to another with the handle toward them; that was the correct thing to do.

Pretty Bunny said, “I am afraid Aunt Etiquette will be looking for me at home.”

The strange Bunny said,

“She will worry, I do not doubt it,

But what can we really do about it?”

Pretty Bunny said she was not afraid of the dark and was anxious to get back to Aunt Etiquette, but the strange Bunny said, “It is not safe for youngsters to be out late,” so they sat for an hour and ten minutes thinking over the matter.

The strange Bunny said, “This thing I’ll do,

I will walk on home to-night with you.”

No sooner said than done.

The Run Away Bunny was left to keep house, and the other went off in the dark, the strange Bunny saying,

“I learned, before I grew so old,

To always do as I was told.”

Pretty Bunny replied,

“I really meant to keep the rule,

And not linger after school.”

A light shone from Aunt Etiquette’s door-way.

She stood in her own door-way, and as they drew near they heard her say,

“Where, oh, where, is Pretty Bunny?

I wouldn’t lose her for a mint of money.”

Several Bunnies crowded round Aunt Etiquette.

Said Homeless Bunny, “I hear foot-steps.”

Said Heedless Bunny, “Perhaps she is coming home.”

Said Happy Bunny, “I think I hear her voice.”

Said Healthy Bunny, “Here come two Bunnies down the road, clippety, clippety, clip.”

Sure enough the strange Bunny and Pretty Bunny were coming nearer every minute, and in less time than it takes to tell it Pretty Bunny was in Aunt Etiquette’s arms and the strange Bunny came inside and had a cup of tea and said,

“I am sorry I made this mistake;

Very good tea, indeed, you make.”

It is polite to compliment a hostess on her food and drink. The strange Bunny said she was very near sighted and had been looking for her Run-Away grandchild all day. She was sorry, indeed, she had made such a mistake.

Aunt Etiquette politely asked her visitor to stay all night, but she declined and asking Aunt Etiquette to call on her soon, went homeward.

Pretty Bunny said she learned more about manners every day of her life.

She said, “I am learning more, and more,

We can have good manners in the store;

We should not complain about the price,

Or ask the same thing over twice;

If things we don’t intend to buy,

To keep our hands off we must try;

We should not sample things, ’tis true,

Unless the clerk should ask us to.”

Aunt Etiquette kissed Pretty Bunny good night, and said,

“You are fortunate this time, it’s true;

No telling what might have happened to you.”

The other Bunnies crowded round for their good night kiss and Aunt Etiquette said to them all,

“To-morrow, if we chance to meet,

I’ll teach you manners on the street.”

Pretty Bunny went to sleep, singing,

“There’s something in my heart that sings,

We can show good manners in little things;

We should be polite and never bold,

And always do what we are told.”

About This Book

CHAPTER VI. SHOPPING MANNERS

CHAPTER VI.
SHOPPING MANNERS