"He's stolen the eggs!" cried the little rabbit. "He's just mean enough to steal eggs!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Did You Steal My Eggs?" Cried Henny Penny.

_Little Jack Rabbit's Adventures._ _Page 43_]

Just then Henny Penny came across the Sunny Meadow. She was a very pretty gray speckled hen and lived in a little house by the Big Red Barn. But instead of laying her nice white eggs in the comfortable nests in the Henhouse, she came all the way over to the Old Rail Fence Corner.

But Little Jack Rabbit didn't know that. He didn't know whose nest it was until Henny Penny cried distractedly, "Who has stolen my eggs? Did you, Little Jack Rabbit?"

"Is it your nest?" he gasped, so startled that he asked a question instead of answering one.

"Of course it's mine," replied Henny Penny, looking at him as if she meant to peck his little pink eyes right out of his head. "But answer my question. Did you take my eggs?"

"Of course not," said the little rabbit. "I saw the hired boy leave here a few minutes ago with his hat in his hands. Maybe he took them."

"c.o.c.k-a-doodle-do, What can I do for you?"

asked a beautiful big rooster, all of a sudden, just like that.

"O c.o.c.ky Doodle!" cried Henny Penny, "my nest has been robbed. Let's tell the Kind Farmer that the hired boy has stolen my eggs."

AT THE FARM

"ALL right, come along," said c.o.c.ky Doodle, and he started back for the Old Farm, followed by Henny Penny and the little bunny.

"Where are you going?" called out Mrs. Rabbit from the Old Bramble Patch.

"I'm going over to the Old Farm with Henny Penny and c.o.c.ky Doodle,"

answered her little bunny boy.

"You'd better be careful," said his mother, "the farmer might catch you."

"I don't think so, Mrs. Rabbit," said c.o.c.ky Doodle; "he's a very kind farmer." Mrs. Rabbit smiled, as if she only half believed the little rooster. Then she turned to her little rabbit boy and said, "Keep a bright lookout, and don't forget you're only a small bunny."

After that away went the three little people, c.o.c.ky Doodle, with his bright red comb, and Henny Penny in her pretty gray speckled feathers, and Little Jack Rabbit, in his fur waistcoat, white as the big clouds that chased Mr. Merry Sun over the bright blue sky.

"Who is this little bunny?" asked Turkey Tim when they all came to the Farm Yard.

"Don't you know?" answered Henny Penny. "Why, he's the little rabbit who colors the Easter Eggs!"

"What!" cried a big fat goose.

"This is Little Jack Rabbit," said c.o.c.ky Doodle.

"Pleased to meet you," said Goosey Lucy. "Do you paint goose eggs, too?"

But before the little bunny could say yes or no, the Kind Farmer himself came out of the house.

"Why, look who's here," he said with a smile. And such a kind smile that Little Jack Rabbit wasn't the least bit afraid.

"He saw the hired boy steal the eggs from my nest in the corner of the Old Rail Fence," cried Henny Penny.

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Kind Farmer. "So that's where you've been laying your eggs, is it, Miss Henny Penny?"

"c.o.c.k-a-doodle-do, She only laid a few.

But after this she'll lay the rest Within the little wooden nest You hung upon the Henhouse wall, And tell you with her cackle-call,"

said the little rooster, for Henny Penny was too ashamed to speak.

Then the Weatherc.o.c.k whirled around on his big toe and, pointing at the little hen, shouted through his tin megaphone:

"Why don't you stay at home and lay, And not go calling every day?

I never leave my perch up here No matter what the atmosphere."

COLORED EGGS

"I OFTEN wondered why she went across the Sunny Meadow every day," said Ducky Waddles. "It's too long a walk for me!"

"Yes, you wabble too much!" said Henny Penny.

"That's because I've little thin pieces of skin between my toes,"

answered Ducky Waddles. "My feet are too wide and flat for walking, but they make splendid paddles."

"Come, come," interrupted the Kind Farmer. "Henny Penny hasn't explained why she goes over to the Sunny Meadow to lay her eggs instead of in the nice nests in the Henhouse."

"Because I wanted Little Jack Rabbit to color them for Easter," she answered. "I thought if I laid them near the Old Bramble Patch it would be easier for him."

"Oh, that's the reason?" said the Kind Farmer. "And pray, Mr. Jack Rabbit, how do you color the eggs?"

Oh, dear me! Wasn't the little rabbit embarra.s.sed! He wasn't sure but what he'd better hop back to the Old Bramble Patch. Perhaps, too, he was a little bit afraid of the big Kind Farmer.

"I never colored any eggs," answered the little rabbit in a low voice, "but I've often helped mother color them. She takes a big red rose and rubs it over an egg until it turns red. With a b.u.t.tercup she makes a yellow one. From the violets by the Bubbling Brook she gets a beautiful purple color, and from the wild roses a lovely pink tint. Just every-day gra.s.s gives a dandy green color."

"Ha, ha," laughed the big Kind Farmer, "so that's what the rabbits do on Easter, is it?" and he turned away and went into the Big Red Barn to feed the horses.

"I guess it's time for me to be going," said Little Jack Rabbit. "Mother may worry if I stay away too long!"

"What's your hurry?" said Ducky Waddles.

"Goodby," said Henny Penny.

"Come again," said c.o.c.ky Doodle.