Billy Bunny and Daddy Fox Read online

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  DOWN THROUGH THE CEILING DROPPED DADDY FOX.]

  _Billy Bunny Books_

  BILLY BUNNY

  _AND_

  DADDY FOX

  BY

  DAVID CORY

  AUTHOR OF "BILLY BUNNY AND UNCLE BULL FROG,""BILLY BUNNY AND THE FRIENDLY ELEPHANT,""BILLY BUNNY AND UNCLE LUCKY LEFTHINDFOOT"

  ILLUSTRATIONS BYHUGH SPENCER

  NEW YORKCUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  BILLY BUNNY BOOKSBY DAVID CORY

  _Large 12 mo. Illustrated_

  1. BILLY BUNNY AND THE FRIENDLY ELEPHANT.2. BILLY BUNNY AND DADDY FOX.3. BILLY BUNNY AND UNCLE BULL FROG.4. BILLY BUNNY AND UNCLE LUCKY LEFTHINDFOOT.

  _Other Volumes in Preparation_

  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, NEW YORK

  COPYRIGHT, 1920, BYCUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  _Billy Bunny and Daddy Fox_

  Printed in U. S. A.

  CONTENTS

  - STORY I--BILLY BUNNY AND THE JAIL HOUSE - STORY II--BILLY BUNNY AND LADY HORNET - STORY III--BILLY BUNNY AND PHOTOGRAPHER CRANE - STORY IV--BILLY BUNNY AND THE ORGAN GRINDER - STORY V--BILLY BUNNY AND MR. TOOTIE OWL - STORY VI--BILLY BUNNY AND BILLY GOAT - STORY VII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE HEAD OF LETTUCE - STORY VIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE SCARECROW - STORY IX--BILLY BUNNY AND MR. DRAKE - STORY X--BILLY BUNNY AND THE FROG KING - STORY XI--BILLY BUNNY AND THE TURKEY GOBBLER - STORY XII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE DONKEY - STORY XIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE LITTLE SUGAR PILLS - STORY XIV--BILLY BUNNY AND THE BILLY GOAT - STORY XV--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. BRUIN - STORY XVI--BILLY BUNNY AND THE BEAR CUBS - STORY XVII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE SQUIRREL INNKEEPER - STORY XVIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE TAILOR BIRD - STORY XIX--BILLY BUNNY AND ROBBIE REDBREAST - STORY XX--BILLY BUNNY AND THE BABBLING BROOK - STORY XXI--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. WILDCAT - STORY XXII--BILLY BUNNY AT WINDY CAVE - STORY XXIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE WILD CANARY - STORY XXIV--BILLY BUNNY AND THE LITTLE SPARROWS - STORY XXV--BILLY BUNNY AND ROBIN REDBREAST - STORY XXVI--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. QUAIL - STORY XXVII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE THEATER PLAY - STORY XXVIII--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. WEASEL - STORY XXIX--BILLY BUNNY AND THE POLICEMAN DOG - STORY XXX--BILLY BUNNY AND THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT - STORY XXXI--BILLY BUNNY AND THE CHEERFUL LITTLE BIRD - STORY XXXII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE MILLER'S BOY - STORY XXXIII--BILLY BUNNY AND OLD MOTHER MAGPIE - STORY XXXIV--BILLY BUNNY AND DICKEY MEADOW MOUSE - STORY XXXV--BILLY BUNNY AND BIG BROWN BEAR - STORY XXXVI--BILLY BUNNY AND PROFESSOR CROW - STORY XXXVII--BILLY BUNNY AND MRS. GROUSE - STORY XXXVIII--BILLY BUNNY AND THE CARLOAD OF LETTUCE LEAVES

  STORY I--BILLY BUNNY AND THE JAIL HOUSE

  Daddy Fox was very irregular in his habits about coming home, so, whenthe Bunny Boy Scouts captured him, after his escape from the Circus CowBoy, and put him in the Jail House at Lettuceville, no one became uneasyfor two or three days. After that time, Mrs. Fox said to Sly Boots andBushy Tail, her two little sons: "Something has happened to your father.I know it, for he never stays away like this without telephoning orsending a message home. We'd better go out to-night and look for him."

  So when the big, round, silver moon was shining in the middle of the skyand the twinkle, twinkle star was peeping into the bedroom windows oflittle boys and girls, who were sound asleep and dreaming of lollypopsand ice cream cones and other things, Mrs. Fox put on her bonnet andstarted out with her two little foxes.

  And by and by they came to the Jail House. And while they were walkingaround it, smelling here and there to find out where their Daddy Foxwas, they heard him singing in a sorrowful voice:

  "I wonder if my two little boys Are thinking of Daddy Fox; If mother would only find me here She'd open this old jail box. She'd find the key to the iron door, Which is hid in the crack outside in the floor Of the little porch, and she'd get me out. Oh, dear, I wonder what they're about!"

  And of course when Mrs. Fox heard that, she looked on the floor of thelittle porch; and, sure enough, there was the big iron key almost hiddenfrom sight in a little, tiny crack.

  Wasn't that lucky? Well, I guess it was, and in a jiffy and a half sheunlocked the iron door and set Daddy Fox free.

  My! But he was thin and miserable. They had shaved his head and put astriped suit of clothes on him and he didn't look anything like theirdear, kind father, thought Sly Boots and Bushy Tail, although theydidn't say so.

  They just hugged him nearly to death, for they loved him, because he wastheir father, and they didn't know it was wicked to steal chickens,because all foxes do, and if you don't know a thing is wicked and thengo and do it it's not nearly so bad as when you know a thing is wrongand then go and do it. So please remember this, for it's very importantand will help you keep out of lots of trouble.

  "Come home at once," said Mrs. Fox; "I have a nice stewed duck forsupper, although it's past supper time." So Daddy Fox hurried as fast ashe could so as not to let the duck stew get cooked too much, and by andby they came to their den.

  And Mrs. Fox had the table set and the supper ready in less than a winkand everybody was happy as could be. And perhaps Daddy Fox will be gooduntil the next time, that is if he doesn't see a chicken before thechicken sees him.

  STORY II--BILLY BUNNY AND LADY HORNET

  "Early to rise, early to rise, Will make little bunny boys win the firstprize," sang Mrs. Bunny at the foot of the stairs. And then Billy Bunnylifted up his left hind leg and his right ear, and he wiggled his noseforty times less once, and after that he was wide awake.

  And when he had washed his face and whiskers, and parted his hair downhis back nice and smooth, he went down to eat his breakfast of carrotmush and raspberry juice which his kind mother had made from the fruitthat grew in the old bramble patch. And then, oh yes, oh yes! hepolished the brass knob on the front door, and after that he went downto the postoffice to see if a new spring mattress had come by parcelpost.

  But it hadn't, and the postmistress, who was a nice Lady Hornet, said itwas a bit early in the season for spring mattresses, but she thought bynext month it would come along, that is, if the weather kept nice andwarm.

  Well, anyway, she had something for the little rabbit. It was a letterwith two carrot cents postage due, which the little bunny paid.

  And then he opened his letter, and what do you think he found inside?Why, a beautiful tinted photo of his circus elephant friend, and on theback was written in purple ink, "To Billy Bunny, from Elly, the circuselephant."

  "Now, isn't that nice of him," said Billy Bunny. "I must send him mineright away," so he hopped away to the nearest photographer, who was anice Crane and had his place in Rabbitville about 450 hops away.

  By and by Billy Bunny reached the picture gallery, and after he had toldthe Crane photographer what he wanted he sat down on a little greenmossy rock in front of a big canvas painted like the ocean with biggreen waves and white foam.

  And all around the rock was sprinkled sand so that when the picture wastaken it looked just as if the little bunny had been to Newport for thesummer.

  "How many do you want?" asked the Photographer Crane, who was certainlya splendid picture man, for his legs were just the right length so thathe could look into the back of the camera without standing on a stool.

  And, wasn't it funny, you couldn't tell his legs apart from the legs ofthe camera, only the camera had three and the Crane only two.

  "I'll take seven," said the little rabbit. "That's my lucky number. Iwant to send one to Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot; he's my Uncle Lucky."

  "And one to my friend, the circus elephant, for he's my best friend. Itwill make Daddy Fox mad to think he wasn't here at the same time, forhe's always trying to catch me."

  And just then
who should peep in through the window but Daddy Foxhimself. And in the next story you shall hear what happened after that.

  STORY III--BILLY BUNNY AND PHOTOGRAPHER CRANE

  You remember in the last story Daddy Fox was peeping in through thewindow just as Billy Bunny was having his picture taken, don't you?

  Well, no sooner did the little rabbit see him than he hopped quickerthan a lightning bug to the door and closed it, and the PhotographerCrane pulled down the window shade to make it dark inside so that DaddyFox couldn't see them.

  After that he stuffed the fireplace full of sofa cushions for fear thecrafty fox might slide down the chimney. But, oh dear me! he forgot allabout the skylights--the windows in the roof, you know, and the nextmoment down through the ceiling dropped Daddy Fox.

  Oh, my! What a scramble there was in that photo parlor. The Crane flewup on the mantelpiece and the little rabbit crept into the waste basketand pulled a photograph album on top of him.

  And, of course, it was so dark that Daddy Fox didn't see them do allthis, so he had to play hide-and-seek and there was nobody to call out,"You're getting hotter and hotter" when he stood near the mantelpiece,nor "You're burning up!" when he passed close to the waste paper basket,so after a while he sat down on a pincushion (excuse me, I mean a sofacushion), and listened with both ears cocked up.

  But the Crane never breathed and Billy Bunny held his breath, so by andby Daddy Fox started to hunt around the room again. First he pulled allthe cushions out of the fireplace and then he pulled up the shades andunlocked the front door.

  And this was very foolish of him, for he should have known that theCrane and the little rabbit hadn't had time to get out. Then he went outon the little porch and peeped into the woodbox, and while he was doingthat the Crane flew down the mantelpiece and locked the door.

  And then he pulled the strings to close the skylight and stuffed thecushions back into the fireplace, and lifted the album off the littlerabbit, for it was so full of pictures of fat people that it wasdreadfully heavy.

  After this Billy Bunny opened his knapsack and took out his gun andpeeked out through a hole in the window shade. And right there by thewindow stood the dreadful fox trying to open it. Bang! went the littlerabbit's gun and the cork hit the fox on the tip of his nose and madehim sneeze so badly that he had to run into the woods to find hishandkerchief.

  And he hunted all day long for it, and when evening came he rememberedhe had sent it to the laundry, so he had to go out and buy one at thethree and one cent store.

  Of course, Billy Bunny didn't have any more pictures taken that day. Hehopped home as fast as he could, and the Crane telephoned down to thepolice station and told them to send up a man to guard the studio, andif the Twinkle Twinkle Star to-night sings me to sleep, I'll tell youanother story of Billy Bunny and the sheep.

  STORY IV--BILLY BUNNY AND THE ORGAN GRINDER

  Well, the Twinkle Twinkle Star didn't sing me to sleep and so I can'ttell you about Billy Bunny and the woolly sheep as I said I would in thelast story, but I will tell you something else if you'll only wait fivehundred short seconds. And this is what it's going to be about:

  The organ grinder's monkey Who wears a little cap, Is always kept so busy He cannot take a nap.

  He's dancing to the music, And picking up the dimes; But oftener it's nickels. And pennies most the times.

  As soon as Billy Bunny heard the "Star-Spangled Banner," for that wasthe tune which the old organ grinder was playing, he pricked up his earsand hopped out of the Old Briar Patch, and by and by he came up to themonkey, who held out his little red cap.

  "Here's a carrot cent for you," said the little rabbit, but the organgrinder scowled a deep, gloomy scowl and said:

  "Me no lika da mun!" But what could Billy Bunny do? And as the organgrinder kept on scowling a deep, gloomy scowl, the little rabbit openedhis knapsack and looked through it. And pretty soon he found an applepie, and when the organ grinder saw it he stopped grinding the music andput out his hand.

  And in a very few minutes there wasn't any pie to be seen anywherearound for miles and miles, and the organ grinder had a lovely smile onhis face! And then he played that pretty song called "In this sweet pieand pie there are apples fresh and dry," and after that he swung theorgan over his back and the monkey jumped on top and off they went togrind out more tunes for money.

  But the little rabbit didn't go with them. No, siree. For if he had topay a whole apple pie for a tune he'd rather go another way, even if hecouldn't hear the lovely music, for you can't grind out apple pies theway you can tunes.

  Well, by and by, after a while, not so very long, he came to a river andhe couldn't get across, so he looked all about him to find a littlehorse; but there wasn't any horse and there wasn't any boat, so thelittle rabbit said, "Well, I guess I'll have to float" So what did he dobut find an old plank and then floated over on it to the other bank.

  Now I don't know what is the matter with my typewriter that it didn'tmake a verse out of all these rhymes, but it didn't--it just went alongin a prosy way, and so you'll have to make a poem out of them yourself,for I have no more room in this story.

  STORY V--BILLY BUNNY AND MR. TOOTIE OWL

  Let's see, I left off in the last story just where Billy Bunny landed onthe bank of the river. Well, now I'm going to tell you what happenedafter that.

  "I was lucky to get across on that old board," thought the littlerabbit, as he hopped up the bank to look about him. The field wascovered with daisies and in the distance a black cow stood flicking offthe flies with her long tail.

  "Helloa!" cried the little rabbit. "Why don't you eat the flowers?" Theblack cow looked up and said:

  "Why don't you stand on your head?" And, would you believe it, BillyBunny did. Yes, sir. He stood first on his right ear and then on hisleft ear, and then he turned two somersaults and a handspring backward,and this made the cow laugh so hard that she got her tail twisted arounda fence rail and couldn't get away.

  "What shall I do?" she cried, anxiously. "It's almost milking time, andwhen I don't come home they'll wonder where I am. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"

  "Don't worry," said Billy Bunny, and he opened his knapsack and took outhis little hatchet and chopped the tail--I mean the rail--off the fenceso that she could get home, although, of course, she had to drag therail all the way back to the farm, and the farmer scolded her forbreaking down his fence, which was too bad, for she couldn't help it,you know.

  Well, after that the little rabbit hopped away, and by and by, just asit was getting quite dark, he came to a big pile of wood. "Now this willbe a good place for me to sleep," he said to himself, and looked aboutfor a hole to squeeze into. But, oh dear me, and oh dear you!

  A big owl flew out and hooted and tooted three times and a half, andthen winked his eyes at the little rabbit until he was so scared hecould hardly stand up.

  "Oh, please, Mr. Owl, don't hooty-tooty me so. I don't mean any harm."

  "What are you doing in my woodpile?" asked the blinky old bird fiercely."Trying to steal my wood, eh?"

  "Oh, no, Mr. Owl," cried Billy Bunny. "I was only looking for a place tosleep."

  "I don't believe you," screeched the blinky winky bird, and he made agrab for the little rabbit with his hooked feet. And he would havecaught Billy Bunny, too, and eaten him for supper that very night, Iguess, if the little rabbit hadn't pulled his popgun out of his knapsackand hit the wicked owl on the tail with the cork bullet, which so scaredthe ugly old bird that he flew into the forest. After that Billy Bunnycrept into the woodpile and went to sleep and dreamed that it caught onfire and the sparks flew up into the air and covered the whole sky withtwinkling stars.

  STORY VI--BILLY BUNNY AND BILLY GOAT

  It was a bright and beautiful sunshiny morning as Billy Bunny hopped outof the woodpile where he had slept all night and started off on hisjourney of adventure.

  He had only gone a little ways when all of a sudden from behind a bushout jumped a big Billy G
oat. He had a long goatee and he looked veryfierce, and when he lowered his head and pointed his horns at the littlerabbit, how do you suppose Billy Bunny felt?

  Well, he felt just like a piece of paper all crinkled up, he was soscarified. And so would you, for that goat's horns were as sharp asneedles.

  "Stop! Stop!" cried the little rabbit. "Don't you know who I am? BillyBunny's my name, from Old Brier Patch, Snake Fence Corner," and then hehanded his card to the angry Billy Goat, who ate it up without evenreading it. Wasn't that rude in him?

  "I don't like your card a bit," said the Goat. "It tastes likepeppermint." Of course it did, for the little rabbit carried his stripedcandy cane in his front paws, and some of the candy came off on them andgot on to the card when he handed it to the Billy Goat.

  "If you had read it you wouldn't have tasted the peppermint," said BillyBunny politely, not wishing to make the Goat feel badly.

  Well, by this time the Goat had raised his head and so his sharp hornsdidn't point at Billy Bunny, which made him feel lots better. Then heopened his knapsack and took out an apple-pie and gave it to the Goat,who ate it up in two and a half bites, and then asked for more.

  "Sorry, but that's all I have," said the little rabbit. "Would you likea lollypop?" And when that was all gone, the little rabbit brought out achocolate cake and the Goat ate that up just as fast.

  "What else have you?" asked the Goat, wiping the crumbs from his goateeand peeking over Billy Bunny's shoulder.

  "I've got a pair of rubber boots," said the little rabbit. And would youbelieve it, that Goat ate those rubber boots up too and then asked formore.