Sammie and Susie Littletail.

by Howard R. Garis.

I

SAMMIE LITTLETAIL IN A TRAP

Once upon a time there lived in a small house built underneath the ground two curious little folk, with their father, their mother, their uncle and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy was the nurse, hired girl and cook, all in one, and the reason she had such a funny name was because she was a funny cook. She had long hair, a sharp nose, a very long tail and the brightest eyes you ever saw. She could stay under water a long time, and was a fine swimmer. In fact, Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy was a big muskrat, and the family she worked for was almost as strange as she was.

There was Papa Littletail, Mamma Littletail, Sammie Littletail, Susie Littletail and Uncle Wiggily Longears. The whole family had very long ears and short tails; their eyes were rather pink and their noses used to twinkle, just like the stars on a frosty night. Now you have guessed it. This was a family of bunny rabbits, and they lived in a nice hole, which was called a burrow, and which they had dug under ground in a big park on the top of a mountain, back of Orange. Not the kind of oranges you eat, you know, but the name of a place, and a very nice place, too.

In spite of her strange name, and the fact that she was a muskrat, Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy was a very good cook and quite kind to the children bunnies, Sammie and Susie. Besides looking after them, Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy used to sweep the burrow, make up the beds of leaves and gra.s.s, and go to market to get bits of carrots, turnips or cabbage, which last Sammie and Susie liked better than ice cream.

Uncle Wiggily Longears was an elderly rabbit, who had the rheumatism, and he could not do much. Sometimes when Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy was very busy he would go after the cabbage or turnips for her. Uncle Wiggily Longears was a wise rabbit, and as he had no other home, Papa Littletail let him stay in a warm corner of the burrow. To pay for his board the little bunnies' uncle would give them lessons in how to behave. One day, after he had told them how needful it was to always have two holes, or doors, to your burrow, so that if a dog chased you in one, you could go out of the other, Uncle Wiggily said:

"Now, children, I think that is enough for one day, so you may go out and have some fun in the snow."

But first Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy looked out of the back door, and then she looked out of the front door, to see that there were no dogs or hunters about. Then Sammie and Susie crept out. They had lots of fun, and pretty soon, when they were quite a ways from home, they saw a hole in the ground. In front of it was a nice, juicy cabbage stalk.

"Look!" cried Sammie. "Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy must have lost that cabbage on her way home from the store!"

"That isn't the door to our house," said Susie.

"Yes it is," insisted Sammie, "and I am going to eat the cabbage. I didn't have much breakfast, and I'm hungry."

"Be careful," whispered Susie. "Uncle Wiggily Longears warned us to look on all sides before we ate any cabbage we found."

"I don't believe there's any danger," spoke Sammie. "I'm going to eat it," and he went right up to the cabbage stalk.

But Sammie did not know that the cabbage stalk was part of a trap, put there to catch animals, and, no sooner had he taken a bite, than there came a click, and Sammie felt a terrible pain in his left hind leg.

"Oh, Susie!" he cried out. "Oh, Susie! Something has caught me by the leg! Run home, Susie, as fast as you can, and tell papa!"

Susie was so frightened that she began to cry, but, as she was a brave little rabbit girl, she started off toward the underground house. When she got there she jumped right down the front door hole, and called out:

"Oh, mamma! Oh, papa! Sammie is caught! He went to bite the cabbage stalk, and he is caught in a horrible trap!"

"Caught!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily Longears. "Sammie caught in a trap!

That is too bad! We must rescue him at once. Come on!" he called to Papa Littletail, and, though Uncle Wiggily Longears was quite lame with the rheumatism, he started off with Sammie's papa, and to-morrow night I will tell you how they saved the little boy rabbit.

II

SAMMIE LITTLETAIL IS RESCUED

When Uncle Wiggily Longears and Papa Littletail hurried from the underground house to rescue Sammie, Mamma Littletail was much frightened. She nearly fainted, and would have done so completely, only Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy brought her some parsnip juice.

"Oh, hurry and get my little boy out of that trap!" cried Mamma Littletail, when she felt better. "Do you think he will be much hurt, Uncle Wiggily?"

"Oh, no; not much," he said. "I was caught in a trap once when I was a young rabbit, and I got over it. Only I took a dreadful cold, from being kept out in the rain all night. We will bring him safe home to you."

While Uncle Wiggily Longears and Papa Littletail were on their way, poor Sammie, left all alone in the woods, with his left hind foot caught in a cruel trap, felt very lonely indeed.

"I'll never take any more cabbage without looking all around it, to see if there is a trap near it," he said to himself. "No indeed I will not,"

and then he tried to get out of the trap, but could not.

Pretty soon he saw his father and his uncle coming over the snow toward him, and he felt much better.

"Now we must be very careful," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, to Papa Littletail. "There may be more traps about."

So he sat upon his hind legs, and Papa Littletail sat up on his hind legs, and they both made their noses twinkle like stars on a very frosty night. For that is the way rabbits smell, and these two were wise bunnies, who could smell a trap as far as you can smell perfumery. They could not smell any traps, and they could not see any with their pink eyes, so they went quite close to Sammie, who was held fast by his left hind leg.

"Does it hurt you very much?" asked his papa, and he put his front paws around his little rabbit boy, and gave him a good hug.

"Not very much, papa," replied Sammie, "but I wish I was out."

"We'll soon have you out," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, and then with his strong hind feet he kicked away the snow and dried leaves from the trap. Then Sammie could see how he had been fooled. The trap was so covered up that only the cabbage stump showed, so it is no wonder that he stepped into it.

The two rabbits tried to get Sammie out, but they could not, because the trap was too strong.

"What shall we do?" asked Papa Littletail, as he sat down and scratched his left ear, which he always did when he was worried about anything.

"The trap is fast to a piece of wood by a chain," said Uncle Wiggily Longears. "We will have to gnaw through the wood, and then take Sammie, the trap, chain and all, home. Once there, we can call in Dr. Possum, and he can open the trap and get Sammie's leg out."

So the two big rabbits set to work to gnaw through the wood, to which the chain of the trap was fastened. Sammie Littletail tried not to cry from the pain, but some tears did come, and they froze on his face, close to his little wiggily nose, for it was quite cold.

"I should have given you a lesson about traps," said Uncle Wiggily Longears; "then perhaps you would not have been caught. I will give you a lesson to-morrow."

Finally the wood was gnawed through, and Sammie, with his uncle on one side and his papa on the other, to help him, reached home. The trap was still on his leg, and he could not go very fast. In fact, the three of them had to go so slow that a hunter and his dog came after them. They managed, however, to jump down the hole of the underground house just in time, and the big dog did not get them. He soon got tired of waiting, and went away. Then Dr. Possum was sent for, and with his strong tail he quickly opened the trap, and Sammie was free. But his leg hurt him very much, and Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy put him in a bed of soft leaves and gave him some sa.s.safras and elderberry tea. Dr. Possum told Sammie he would have to stay in the burrow for a week, until his leg was better. Sammie did not want to, but his mother insisted on it, and to-morrow night I will tell you an adventure that happened to Susie Littletail, when she went to the store for some cabbage.

III

WHAT HAPPENED TO SUSIE LITTLETAIL

It was very lonesome for Sammie Littletail to stay in the underground house for a whole week after he had been caught in the trap. He had to move about on a crutch, which Uncle Wiggily Longears, that wise old rabbit, gnawed out of a piece of cornstalk for him.

"Oh, dear, I wish I could go out and play!" exclaimed Sammie one day.

"It's awfully tiresome in here in the dark. I wish I could do something."

"Would you like a nice, juicy cabbage leaf?" asked Susie.