Billy Bunny and Uncle Bull Frog | Page 5

ladders lying about, so that kind
old gentleman rabbit peeped over the edge of the hole and called down
again, "Keep up your courage! We'll get you out!"
Although he didn't know how he was going to do it, and neither do you
and neither do I and neither does the printer man.
Well, after a while, and it was quite a long while, too, Billy Bunny
found a wild grapevine which he let down into the hole. "Make a loop
and put it around your waist and Uncle Lucky and I will haul you out,"
he called down, and then Mr. O'Hare did as he was told, and after the
two little rabbits had pulled and pulled until their breath was almost
gone, Mr. O'Hare's head appeared at the top of the hole.
And then with one more big pull they brought him out safely, although
his waist was dreadfully sore because the grapevine had cut into his fur
and squeezed all the breath out of him.
"I'm going to complain to the street cleaning department or the first
policeman I see," said Mr. O'Hare. "It's a dreadful thing to have a hole
like this right in the middle of the Friendly Forest Trail."
"Never mind that," said Billy Bunny, "let's go back to the Luckymobile.

It will be late before we get out of the woods and maybe the electricity
will all be gone and then we can't light the lamps, and maybe we'll be
arrested."
And this is just what happened. They had only gone a little ways when
they heard a voice say:
"Stop your motor car, I say, You have no lamps to light the way. Come,
stop your car and get right out! Listen, don't you hear me shout? Stop
your car or I will shoot. Don't try away from me to scoot!"
"We don't intend to," said Uncle Lucky, and he put on the brake and the
Luckymobile came to a standstill. And there in the road stood a big
Policeman Cat, with a club and gold buttons on his coat and a big
helmet, and his number was two dozen and a half.
"Get out of your car," he commanded, which means to say something
sternly, but before the two little rabbits obeyed, something happened,
but what it was you must wait to hear in the next story.

STORY VII.
BILLY BUNNY AND THE POLICEMAN CAT.
Well, I'm glad to say it was something nice that happened just as I left
off in the last story. You remember the Policeman Cat had arrested
Billy Bunny and his Uncle Lucky.
Well, just as that Policeman Cat lifted his club to tickle Uncle Lucky's
left hind foot, a big elm tree began to bark and of course the Policeman
Cat was nearly scared to death. He thought it was a dog, you see, and
instead of tickling dear, kind Uncle Lucky with his club, he turned tail
and ran off down the road.
And he ran so fast that he left his number behind and Uncle Lucky
picked it up and put it on the automobile, and after that they asked two
little fireflies to sit inside the lamps and make them shine, for you

remember the electricity had all burned up.
Well, after a while, they came to a turn in the road and, goodness
gracious! before they could stop the automobile they ran into a milk
wagon. And, oh, dear me! there was whipped cream all over the place,
and Billy Bunny and Uncle Lucky looked like two little cream puffs.
And I suppose you are wondering where the driver of the milk wagon
was all this time. And so were Uncle Lucky and Billy Bunny, and if
you'll wait a minute I'll tell you, as soon as my typewriter behaves itself,
for it got so excited when Luckymobile ran into the milk wagon that it
caught my thumb and pinched it.
Well, pretty soon, after Uncle Lucky had looked behind the moon and
Billy Bunny into all the empty milk cans and one full one, they found
the driver up in a weeping willow tree.
"I'll come down if you'll promise not to run over me," he said, for he
was nearly frightened to death and looked dreadfully funny, for one of
the milk can covers had fallen on his head.
"I thought he would be mad as a hornet," whispered Billy Bunny to his
rabbit uncle.
"But where's my horse?" said the milkman when he reached the ground.
So they all looked around and everywhere else, but they couldn't find
him until they looked up into another weeping willow tree. And there
was the poor horse high up in the branches.
"Oh, I'll come down from this willow tree, If you'll