Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes.

by Laura Rountree Smith.

CHAPTER I

Bunny and Susan Cotton-Tail sat by the fire one winter evening warming their paws.

"What's that?" asked Bunny.

"What's that?" asked Susan.

They went to the window and saw a very little Bunny stuck fast in a snowdrift.

"Help, help," cried Bunny, "I will get the snow-shovel."

"Help, help," cried Susan, "I will get the wheelbarrow."

Bunny and Susan went out to shovel the little Bunny out of the snowdrift. Bunny said, "You dear little fellow, how did you get stuck fast in the snowdrift?"

Susan looked hard over her spectacles and said, "Why, it is our own dear grandchild, Snubby Nose."

Then Snubby Nose cried and he screamed and he howled! Bunny Cotton-Tail shoveled as fast as he could, and in sixteen minutes he had Snubby Nose out of the snowdrift. Susan put him in the wheelbarrow and wheeled him to the house. All the time Snubby Nose cried and he screamed and he howled!

Susan said, "Go and get the big tub and we will give Snubby Nose a hot bath."

Bunny got the tub and some warm water and he and Susan gave Snubby Nose a hot bath. They rubbed him dry with a soft towel, and all the time Snubby Nose cried and he screamed and he howled!

Just at this very minute Grandpa Grumbles came in shaking the snow off his fur and whiskers. He shook his green cotton umbrella. He came in grumbling,

"It's noisy here, I do declare, I just came out to take the air."

Snubby Nose stopped his noise and stared at Grandpa Grumbles. Bunny and Susan said, "Sit down by the fire, Grandpa, and warm your paws."

Grandpa Grumbles sat down.

Snubby Nose cried, "Grandpa Grumbles, tell us a story, please tell us a story."

Bunny Cotton-Tail said, in a whisper, "Please don't mention _noses_."

Susan Cotton-Tail said, "Please don't mention _snowdrifts_."

Grandpa Grumbles was wet and cold, so he grumbled right out loud, "I will tell about as many _noses_ and _snowdrifts_ as I please in this story!" Then Snubby Nose cried and he screamed and he howled!

Susan took him up in her arms. She carried him to bed and sang him a nonsense song. By and by Snubby Nose fell asleep. Susan went back downstairs and found Grandpa Grumbles asleep by the fire.

Bunny said, "I wonder what makes him grumble so much?"

Susan said, "T wonder what happened to Snubby Nose. He has such a funny little nose!"

_Then the most surprising thing happened!_

As they sat talking, "thump, b.u.mp" was heard, and Snubby Nose fell down stairs! He fell right on his ugly little nose and broke it!

"Get the camphor! Get the smelling salts! Help, help!" cried Bunny and Susan.

Grandpa Grumbles woke, up and cried,

"Someone has a sad mishap, Just when I try to take a nap."

I do not know what in the world they would have done if Doctor Cotton-Tail had not come in that very minute. He came in to dry his fur and whiskers!

He set Snubby Nose's little ugly nose and said, "It will not look very pretty, but perhaps it did not look pretty before. You must wear a pink wrapper, and drink tea out of a pink cup, and eat pink wintergreen candy!"

Snubby Nose liked the idea of wintergreen candy. He hugged Doctor Cotton-Tail and stopped crying at once.

Susan got a pink wrapper and got a pink china cup for his tea. Grandpa Grumbles felt in his overcoat pocket and took out sixteen pieces of Wintergreen candy. It was pink wintergreen candy of course!

Susan said to Doctor Cotton-Tail, "How did you happen to come out in this big snowstorm?"

Doctor Cotton-Tail said, "I had a call to make, I was going to visit--"

Just then Susan began to sneeze. She sneezed so hard she nearly sneezed her head off!

Doctor Cotton-Tail said,

"Susan that is quite absurd, Such sneezing I have never heard."

Susan said by and by, "I beg your pardon, what were you saying when I started to sneeze?"

Doctor Cotton-Tail said, "I had a call, I was going to visit--"

At this very minute Snubby Nose set up a shout, for dear Bunny Cotton-Tail leaned too near the candle and burned one of his whiskers!

Then Grandpa Grumbles shook his green cotton umbrella fiercely and said,

"Such a noise I never heard, I cannot hear a single word."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "GRANDPA GRUMBLES HAD NOT SEEN DR. COTTON-TAIL FOR TWO HUNDRED AND SIX YEARS"]

Grandpa Grumbles had been sitting very still in a corner and Doctor Cotton-Tail had not seen him up to this minute. He got up and shook hands with him and said, "How do you do, sir, How do you do, sir!"

Grandpa Grumbles was pleased as pleased could be. He had not seen Doctor Cotton-Tail for two hundred and six years! He cried out, "How do you do, sir! How do you do, sir!"

All this time Snubby Nose sat up in his pink wrapper drinking tea out of a pink cup and eating pink wintergreen candy. By and by Susan said, "Doctor Cotton-Tail you were going to tell us where you were going to call when you came here!"

Doctor Cotton-Tail said, "I was on my way to call on little Tippy Toes!"

"My fur and whiskers," said Bunny, "I never had a grandchild named Tippy Toes!"