The Runaway Bunny took out his little toy watch and looked at it. And, though he could not tell time, he said, “My fur and cottontail! It seems to be time for something to eat.”
He decided to ask the first animal he met for some breakfast.
He went hopping and skipping along until he met Pit-A-Pat, the Cat. He told her how very hungry he was.
She said, “Come home with me and I’ll give you a saucer of milk.”
The Runaway Bunny replied:
Then he whispered to Pit-A-Pat that he wished he had stopped for Old Mother Bun’s breakfast, and he went hopping down the path.
Pit-A-Pat remarked, “I ought to have asked who Mother Bun is. I might want to know some day.”
My, how hungry the Runaway Bunny was! By and by he met Rough Coat, the old tramp dog, and asked him for a tiny bite of breakfast.
“By and by he met Rough Coat”
Rough Coat said, “If you come with me I will give you a fine bone I buried last week.”
The Runaway Bunny bowed politely and said:
“What are you running away for?” asked Rough Coat.
But the little fellow was in too much of a hurry to stop to answer him. He could not forget how hungry he was.
He sang:
A wise old owl in the tree overhead, who said his name was Who-Who, offered the Rabbit a juicy bat.
But the Runaway Bunny replied:
He went on hippety-hop, hippety-hop, until he met Old Brother Bear, who offered him a taste of honey.
Now Old Brother Bear loved honey. So he was relieved when the Runaway Bunny replied:
He went on his way, singing about Old Mother Bun’s coffee and rolls and doughnuts.
He sang:
Next he met Foxy-Lox, that sly old fellow! The Runaway Bunny fairly shouted:
Foxy-Lox crept up very, very close and whispered in the Runaway Bunny’s right ear:
Then Foxy-Lox, that crafty old fellow, crept up and whispered in the Runaway Bunny’s left ear:
No wonder the Runaway Bunny was hungry. No breakfast, no dinner, no supper!
Foxy-Lox said:
The Runaway Bunny followed him, muttering:
They went along until they came to the den.
There was a table set with carrots and cabbage and tender green spring-flower shoots and everything else, in fact, that a hungry Bunny would like to eat.
“Waiting their turn to be served”
Sure enough, the six little Foxy-Loxies sat like little gentlemen round the table, waiting their turn to be served.
Old Foxy-Lox invited the Runaway Bunny to eat a good square meal.
Nodding his head in the direction of the visitor, he whispered to his little Foxes:
The Runaway Bunny had sharp ears. He began to twitch them nervously to and fro.
He could not hear what Old Foxy-Lox was whispering about. But he thought the old fellow was up to some mischief. So he said:
Then he looked at the carrots and said:
Then he waved his paw toward the table of tempting things.
And he shouted:
Then he gave one bound and was out of the den before Foxy-Lox could wink an eyelash.
His talkative little ticking Watch made this remark:
The Runaway Bunny was thinking hard again, “No breakfast, no dinner, no supper!” He sat down on a log to think.
Pitter, patter, clitter, clatter, came the sound of two little feet. And another Bunny stood in the path before him.
This new friend now said:
“Then he stood on his head”
Then he stood on his head and did several circus tricks, as cunning as could be. At any other time the Runaway Bunny would have laughed. But he only said mournfully:
The Circus Bunny said:
They went hippety-hop until they came to the garden. Here they ate the tops of some early spring flowers and some bits of tender lettuce. They had a fine meal before they were through with it. The Circus Bunny said: