CHAPTER IIIFLOP EAR IS LOST
Under the fence crawled Flop Ear, and, running up to where a head of cabbage was growing, the little white rabbit began nibbling the tender green leaves.
“Oh, how good that tastes!” he said to himself. “I’ll eat my share here, and carry some to the folks at home. I can tell them where the field is, and they can come and get more for themselves.”
Flop Ear was nibbling away at the cabbage, which to him was as good as ice cream or lollypops are to you. And the little rabbit was wondering how many leaves he could carry home, when, all at once, he heard a barking sound.
“Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!”
“A dog!” thought Flop Ear, quickly sitting up on his hind legs. “Oh, the hunter man must be coming after me with his gun!”
Flop Ear looked all about him, to see which way to run to get away from the danger, as he had been taught to do. But before he could jump back under the fence he saw, comingtoward him, a big, shaggy dog, who was barking. Flop Ear started to hop away, but he had no time. The dog was quickly standing right over him.
“Oh, please, please don’t bite me!” begged Flop Ear, in animal language.
“Bite you? I wasn’t going to bite you,” said the dog. “I was just going to drive you out of my master’s cabbage patch. Come run along now, rabbit chap. You can’t stay here.”
“All right. I’ll go right away,” said Flop Ear, very thankful that the dog had not bitten him. “I’ll go at once. But I was so hungry for cabbage, and we haven’t had any in a long while. I was going to take a few leaves home, carrying them in my mouth. Papa and mamma have been looking everywhere for cabbage, but they didn’t find any.”
Sadly enough Flop Ear started out of the field.
“Hold on a minute,” said the dog, more kindly this time. “What is your name?”
“I am called Flop Ear, and I guess you can tell why. It’s because one of my ears flops over.”
“Yes, I can see that,” said the dog, and he waved his tail now, which showed that he was getting friendly. “So your name is Flop Ear; eh? Well, mine is Don.”
“I am glad to meet you, Don. And I hopeyou will not tell your master, the hunter man, which way I run when I go away. I do not want him to chase me and shoot me.”
“My master is not a hunter, and does not shoot rabbits,” said Don. “But wait a minute. You need not go away without some cabbage.”
“Oh, do you really mean I may take some?” asked Flop Ear, in delight.
“Why yes, take a few leaves. I guess my master won’t mind. He tells me to keep watch over his cabbage field, but I’m sure, if he were here, he’d let you take a little, so I’ll do the same.
“I’m sorry I barked at you so crossly just now, but I thought you were one of a lot of rabbits who had come here to take all the cabbages.”
“Oh, no. I only want a few leaves,” Flop Ear said.
“That will be all right,” went on Don. “Help yourself. I don’t believe I ever saw you before; did I?”
“I don’t know,” answered the rabbit. “I’m sure I never saw you until just now. And I am glad your master does not have a gun. I met a pig named Squinty the other day,” said the rabbit as he began eating more cabbage leaves.
“Yes, I know him,” said Don. “He is a comical chap; isn’t he?”
“Indeed he is,” answered Flop Ear. “He looks at you in such a funny way.”
The dog and the rabbit talked together a little longer, and then Don said:
“Well, I must go back to the house now. I’ll see you again some time, perhaps—that is, if I don’t run away, as I once did.”
“Oh, did you run away?” asked Flop Ear.
“Yes, and many things happened to me.”
“Tell me about them,” begged the funny little rabbit, who loved stories.
Don told about having gone away, but as this book is mostly about Flop Ear I’ll just say that those of you who wish to read about the kind dog may do so in the volume named “Don, a Runaway Dog; His Many Adventures.”
When Flop Ear, after listening to Don’s story, went back home, the little rabbit took with him some cabbage leaves.
“Oh, where did you get them?” asked his mother. “I am so glad you found them!”
“I got them in a field,” said Flop Ear. “At first a dog was going to chase me away, but he did not, and was kind to me, letting me take some leaves.”
“That’s nice,” said Lady Munch, as she nibbled a bit of sweet cabbage leaf. “This will make a very fine dinner for all of us.”
The Bunnys were very glad to get the cabbage, and a few days later Mr. and Mrs. Bunny went to the field, which Flop Ear showed them. Donwas there again, and he was good to the rabbits, letting them take as much cabbage as they wanted. And, after all, they did not take very much, and the man who owned the field never missed it.
“If you didn’t eat it the worms might get it,” said Don, kindly, “so take as many heads as you need.”
It was two or three days after this that Flop Ear, going through the woods on a short cut to the cabbage field, saw a black animal walking along—an animal about as large as himself.
“Oh, I wonder what that is?” he said. “It looks so black that it may be something dangerous.”
Then the other animal said: “Mew mew!” and asked:
“Who are you?”
“Why, I am Flop Ear, the funny rabbit,” was the answer.
“You do look funny,” said the other animal, waving its tail. Flop Ear’s tail was so short he could only wiggle it.
“What is your name?” asked Flop Ear.
“My name is Blackie, and I am a lost cat.”
“Lost?” asked Flop Ear.
“Yes, I ran away from home, and now I am rather sorry. But I am trying to find my way back again.”
“Oh, I’d never run away from home,” Flop Ear said. “I like it too much.”
“Well, I liked my home, too,” said Blackie; “but I wanted to have some adventures, and learn to become a good fence-jumper, so I went away, and got lost.”
“Did you have any adventures?” asked Flop Ear.
“Oh, many of them, and I may have more,” answered the black cat.
“Tell me about them,” begged Flop Ear, and Blackie did. I have not room for them here, but if you will get the book called “Blackie, a Lost Cat; Her Many Adventures,” you may read about them for yourself.
“I like you,” said Flop Ear, as Blackie finished her story. “I thought at first, when you told me you were a cat, that you might bite me.”
“Oh, no indeed! I wouldn’t bite a rabbit,” Blackie said.
“That’s what Don, the runaway dog, said,” returned the bunny.
“What! Do you know him?” asked the black cat. “Why, he is a friend of mine.”
“I am glad to know that,” cried Flop Ear. “Don was very good to me. He let me take cabbage.”
“Yes, Don is a good dog, even if he did run away.”
“I know Squinty, the Comical Pig, too,” went on Flop Ear. “Do you know him?”
“Well, I may have met him,” Blackie said. “But I do not now just remember. I have had so many things happen to me on my travels that I can not remember them all. You never met Dido, the dancing bear; did you?”
“Oh, no, never. What! a bear?” cried Flop Ear. “I’d be afraid!”
“Oh, you needn’t be afraid of him. He is a good, kind, dancing bear,” said the cat. “He lives in a cage in the circus, and when some bad boys chased me I ran under the circus tent and hid in the straw in Dido’s cage.”
“He must be a nice bear,” Flop Ear said.
“He is,” replied the black cat. “You’ll like him if you ever meet him.”
“I hope I shall meet him,” Flop Ear said.
The rabbit and the cat talked together a little longer.
“Where are you going?” finally asked Blackie.
“To get something to eat,” Flop Ear answered. “First I will go to the cabbage field, and then I may find some carrots. Did you ever eat carrots?”
“Never!” answered Blackie.
“What do you eat?” Flop Ear inquired.
“Oh, meat and milk, and fish when I can get them.”
“Well, I hope you get them,” said Flop Ear, as he hopped on toward the cabbage field. “And I hope you will soon find your home.”
“I hope so, too,” returned Blackie. Then the lost cat went off by herself, and in her own book you may read about her, after you have finished this one.
Flop Ear was eating some cabbage, when along came Don.
“Hello!” exclaimed the kind dog.
“Hello!” answered Flop Ear. “I just met a friend of yours.”
“Who was it?” Don inquired. “Tum Tum the jolly elephant, or Mappo the merry monkey?”
“Neither one. I don’t know either of them,” answered Flop Ear. “It was Blackie, a lost cat.”
“Oh, yes, I know her quite well,” said Don. “She is a nice cat. I like her.”
“So do I,” said Flop Ear. “Will you have some cabbage?”
“No, thank you. I never eat it,” Don said.
Two or three days after this something dreadful happened to Flop Ear.
It happened to the other rabbits, too, and made them very sad, at least for a time, so I’ll tell you about it.
This is how it was. They had all been awaytogether getting some cabbage in the field that Don watched over, the dog letting them take as much as they could eat, and now they were on their way home.
All of a sudden there sounded a loud noise.
“Bang! Bang!” it went twice.
“Oh, my goodness!” cried Papa Bunny. “It’s a hunter man with a gun! Oh, my! Run everybody! Run, and hide!”
“And don’t all run together,” added Lady Munch. “Scatter! Some go one way and some another. If we all keep together the hunter man will see us more easily.”
“Bang!” went the gun again, and then a dog—not Don—barked.
Flop Ear looked over his shoulder. He saw a man with a smoking gun running toward him. Flop Ear ducked under a bush to hide, and, oh, how fast he ran! He wanted to get away. Flop Ear could see Lady Munch, his papa and his mamma, his brother and his sister also running under bushes. The man and dog ran after them.
On and on hopped Flop Ear, as fast as he could go, until he was too tired to run any farther. Then he stopped and listened. He could not hear the dog barking now, nor could he hear the banging noise of the gun.
Flop Ear came out from under the bush and looked around. He was in a part of the woodshe had never seen before. It was all strange to him.
“I guess I had better go back to my home,” he thought. “The others will be there when I get there.”
Flop Ear started off, carefully looking on all sides for danger.
“I guess I got safely away from that hunter man, with his dog and his gun,” thought Flop Ear. “I hope the others did too. Oh dear! I suppose it is right for hunters to chase us, but it is very hard.”
On and on went Flop Ear.
“Surely I ought to be near my home now,” he thought. He looked all around, but he could not see the hole in the ground that was the front door to his underground house.
“Oh dear!” said Flop Ear. “I wonder if I am lost.”
He hopped on a little farther. The woods were still strange to him. He had never been in that part before.
“Yes, I am lost!” said poor Flop Ear, after a bit. “I don’t know where my home is. Oh, I am lost! What shall I do?”