SUSIE LITTLETAIL JUMPS ROPE
Sammie and Susie Littletail were coming home from school. Didn't I mention before that the little bunny children went to school? Well, I meant to, I'm sure, and if I overlooked it I hope you will excuse me, and I'll see that it does not happen again this spring or summer. Oh, my, yes; they went to school in an old hollow tree, and an owl was the school teacher—a good, kind old owl, who never kept the bunny children in.
So, as I said, they were coming home from school, and Sammie had stopped to play marbles with some of his little boy rabbit friends, while Susie walked on with some little rabbit girls. Some of the girls were jumping rope, and they invited Susie to join them.
"Come on," said one little rabbit with two pink eyes, "we will turn for you, and you can have 'three slow, pepper,' Susie dear."
But Susie couldn't, because she didn't know how to jump rope. Now isn't that strange? No, sir, she didn't know the first thing about jumping rope, for she had never had a chance to learn.
So when she got home to the burrow that afternoon, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had given her a bit of chocolate-covered carrot, Uncle Wiggily Longears noticed that the little rabbit girl looked rather sad.
"What is the matter, Susie?" he asked.
"I can't jump rope," she answered, "and all the other rabbit girls can."
"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily, "I will show you how. Come with me. Oh, dear! Oh, my goodness me, and some sassafras root! Oh! oh!"
"What is the matter?" asked Susie, much frightened, for she had never heard her uncle cry so.
"Oh, it's only my rheumatism, Susie dear," he answered. "Don't mind me. I shall be all right presently. Just ask Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy to bring me the watercress liniment."
So when the muskrat nurse had brought the liniment, and Uncle Wiggily had rubbed some on his leg, he felt better.
"Now, Susie," he said, "I will show you how to jump rope. I used to do it when I was a boy, but I am not so lively and nimble now as I was then."
"But I have no rope," objected Susie, though she felt a little more happy. "I can't jump without a rope."
"Tut! tut! Do not think about such a little thing as that," went on her uncle. "I will have a rope for you in a few minutes. Come with me."
Just then Sammie came along, and, after he had had some corn bread with preserved sweet cabbage leaves on, he went with his sister and uncle in the woods.
"I am going to learn to jump rope," said Susie, quite proudly. "Don't you want to learn, Sammie?"
"No," he said, "that's only for girls. I'd rather play marbles and fly a kite, but I'll turn for you, if we can find a rope," for, you see, Sammie was always kind to his sister.
"We will have a rope in a minute," remarked Uncle Wiggily. "I know where to find it."
Just then who should come walking along but Possum Pinktoes, and, as soon as he saw the rabbits, he pretended to go to sleep.
"Oh, you do not need to go to sleep, and make believe that you are dead," spoke Sammie. "We would not hurt you for the world."
Then Possum Pinktoes, who was only pretending to sleep, as he always did when he thought he was in danger, opened first one eye, then the other.
"I am going to learn to jump rope," said Susie to him.
"Ha! Jump rope, eh?" exclaimed Possum Pinktoes. "I know the very thing for you. A wild grapevine! It will make a fine rope."
"That's just what I was going to say," called out Uncle Wiggily.
"Come with me, and I'll show you where there are plenty of vines," went on the possum, so they followed him, and pretty soon they came to the place. Sammie and Uncle Wiggily cut a long piece, and then they took hold of each end and began to turn the rope for Susie. At first she could not do very well, even though there was a nice, smooth, grassy place to learn on. Then out of a pond jumped Bully, the frog, and, as he was one of the best jumpers in the woods, or, for that matter, on Orange Mountain, he showed Susie just how to do it.
So she learned to jump "salt," which is slow, and "pepper," which is fast, and "double pepper," which is very fast indeed. Then she learned to jump with two ropes, one going one way and one the other, and finally she could skip as well as any little rabbit girl in the owl's school. Uncle Wiggily tried to jump, but he was so stiff and his rheumatism hurt him so that he couldn't do it.
Then they all started for home, and what do you think happened? Something quite serious, I do assure you, and I'm not fooling. A big hawk, not the kind, good fish-hawk, but another kind, who was out looking for early spring chickens, swooped down and tried to carry Susie Littletail off to his nest. Now Uncle Wiggily was so old he couldn't do much, but Sammie was not going to see his little sister harmed, so what did he do but jump at that hawk with his sharp little feet, and kick him until the bad bird let go of poor Susie. She was quite frightened, but not much hurt, and maybe she didn't hug and kiss Sammie for saving her. Then they all hurried home to the burrow, and if there is nothing to prevent it, to-morrow night's story will be about Sammie turning sky-blue-pink.