THREE GUESSES
Now, let me see. Oh, yes, I remember now where we left off. It was just when Little Jack Rabbit gave Charlie Chickadee three guesses. Yes, sir, that’s where we left off. The little chickadee had only three guesses to find out why Little Jack Rabbit had gone down the Hollow Tree Stump Mine to see the old miner, Mr. Mole.
“Are you ready?” asked the little bunny.
“Yes,” answered the little chickadee, “you went to get some gold!”
“No, I didn’t,” answered the little rabbit.
“Then you went to get some silver.”
“No, I didn’t,” replied the little bunny.
“Oh, dear me,” said Charlie Chickadee.“I’ve only one guess left, and I’m sure Mr. Mole hasn’t got a coal mine,” and then the little bird cocked his head on one side and looked out of the corner of his left eye to see if he had guessed it a little bit. But Little Jack Rabbit didn’t pay any attention—he just took out the two big diamonds and the three immense big rubies and looked at them carefully. At once Charlie Chickadee hopped up and down, and fluttered his wings, and shouted, “I know, I know! Ha, ha ha, ha! you went to get diamonds and rubies!”
“No, I didn’t,” said Little Jack Rabbit, and he strapped up his knapsack and started off for Uncle John Hare’s house, for he wanted to give his kind Uncle a ruby, you know, and maybe a diamond.
“Goodness me, why did you go, then?”asked Charlie Chickadee. “Everybody around here knows how dangerous that Hollow Tree Stump Mine is.”
“Because Mr. Wicked Wolf was so close to me I had nowhere to go,” answered Little Jack Rabbit, and then he told the little bird all that had happened. “And now I’m off to see Uncle John Hare.” And the little bunny shouldered his knapsack.
Well, after a while he came to Carrot Square in Turnip City, U. S. A., so he went along for maybe three hundred and ninety-five and a half hops till he came to Cabbage Avenue, where on the corner stood a little white house.
“Oh, here I am, how glad I am,” sang the little rabbit, and just then Uncle John himself opened the front door, and when he saw his little nephew he began to sing:
“Hello, hello, how glad I am,I’m as happy as a clamAt hightide to see you now,So come in and tell me howAll the folks are getting onAnd if you love your Uncle John.”
“Hello, hello, how glad I am,I’m as happy as a clamAt hightide to see you now,So come in and tell me howAll the folks are getting onAnd if you love your Uncle John.”
“Hello, hello, how glad I am,I’m as happy as a clamAt hightide to see you now,So come in and tell me howAll the folks are getting onAnd if you love your Uncle John.”
“Hello, hello, how glad I am,
I’m as happy as a clam
At hightide to see you now,
So come in and tell me how
All the folks are getting on
And if you love your Uncle John.”
“Wait till I show you what I’ve got for you.” And then the little bunny opened his knapsack.
“Well, I guess you love your old Uncle,” said Mr. John Hare, as he looked at the precious stones. “To-day’s my birthday. How did you remember?”
For answer the little bunny just hugged his nice old uncle.