SAMMIE SAVES BILLIE BUSHYTAIL
Sammie Littletail was out in a green field digging a burrow, or underground house. He didn't really need another house, for the one he, and his papa, and mamma, and sister, lived in was very nice, but, as he had nothing else to do, he thought he would dig a big hole, and, maybe, go all the way through to China. Sammie thought he would like to see how China looked, and he thought he might make the acquaintance of some Chinese rabbits.
Well, he hadn't gotten down very far, and he was still a good many miles from China, when he heard some one singing a song in a very loud voice. Now I don't advise you to sing it quite so loudly, for you might awaken the baby, if you have one in your house. Anyway, it does just as well to sing it softly. This is the song Sammie heard:
"I want to be a sailor
And sail the ocean blue.
I'd journey to a distant land
And then come back to you.
I'd bring you lots of happiness,
A big trunk filled with joy;
A barrel full of hickory nuts
For every girl or boy."
Well, when Sammie heard that he cried out:
"Is that a fairy?"
"No, it's me," was the answer.
"Oh, then you must be Billie or Johnnie Bushytail," went on Sammie, for he remembered that once the little boy squirrels went sailing and were shipwrecked.
"Yes, I'm Billie," said the voice, and then up popped the little squirrel. "But what did you say about a fairy?" he asked.
"I thought at first you were a fairy," continued Sammie, and then he stopped digging the hole in the ground. "There have been such a lot of fairies around here lately," Sammie added. "Red ones, and green ones, and blue ones, and—"
"Are you talking about Easter eggs or something else?" inquired Billie Bushytail.
"Fairies, of course."
"Oh, get out! Oh, ho! Don't tell me that! Why, how superfluous!" cried Billie, for that last was a new word he had just learned. "Don't mention fairies to me!" he continued.
"Why not?" Sammie wanted to know.
"Because I don't believe there are such things!" cried Billie, frisking his big tail until it looked like a dusting brush that they use after sweeping to knock the dust from the furniture onto the floor again. "Don't talk to me like that, Sammie."
"Well," remarked the little boy rabbit, "all I've got to say is that there are fairies! But where's Johnnie? Maybe he believes in 'em."
"No, he doesn't. Besides he's gone out walking with Sister Sallie. Come on, let's have a catch. Where's your ball?"
"I didn't bring it," replied Sammie. "But we can have some fun playing in this hole I've dug." So they played for some time, and pretty soon, oh, in about two and a half frisks of Billie's tail, what should happen, but that, all of a sudden, a great big hawk swooped down from the sky and grabbed that little boy squirrel up in its claws, and flew off with him. Well, you can just imagine how scared Sammie was. His nose wiggled so he sneezed three times. Then he looked up, and there was the hawk, flying away, and away, and away with poor Billie. Oh, wasn't it dreadful!
"Save me! Save me!" Billie cried from up there among the clouds.
"I will! I will!" shouted Sammie, and then he got so excited that he ran around in a circle, and tried to catch his tail, but it was so short that he couldn't even see it, no matter how fast he went around. Then he grabbed up a stone, and he threw it at that hawk, but of course he couldn't hit him, for the big, bad bird was too far away. "Oh, whatever shall I do?" exclaimed Sammie. "If I could only fly now, I'd go up after that hawk. Oh, why didn't Susie wish for wings for me and her instead of for a golden chariot and ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots the time she saw the blue fairy? Oh, why didn't she? Wings would have been of some use!"
Then he ran around after his tail some more, but he couldn't catch it, and the hawk kept taking Billie farther and farther away, and then Sammie cried out: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" three times, just like that. Then, all at once, if the little green man didn't suddenly appear. He always appears when any one says "Oh, dear!" three times in exactly the right way, but it's hard to know just what is the right way.
"Well," said the little green man, "you seem to be in trouble."
"I am," cried Sammie. "A hawk has Billie Bushytail, and I want to save him."
"Very well," said the little green man, "since you are so kind, you shall save him. Shut your eyes, cross your front paws, and wrinkle your nose three times and a half." So Sammie did this, and, would you believe me? if, in another instant, the little green man hadn't changed into a big, kind, good-natured eagle. "Get up on my back," the eagle said to Sammie, "and we will save Billie."
So Sammie got on the eagle's back, and the big bird flew after that hawk, and, pretty soon, it caught up to him.
"Here, you let Billie Bushytail go!" cried Sammie, and then he took a long stick he had grabbed up, and he hit that hawk. At first the hawk wasn't going to let go of the little squirrel, but when the eagle bit him three times on each leg, then that bad bird was glad enough to drop Billie and fly off. Oh, my, no, he didn't drop Billie to the ground; that would have been too bad. He only dropped him on the eagle's back, where Sammie was, and pretty soon the two boys were safe on the ground once more, and the eagle had turned into a little green man again.
"I'm ever so much obliged to you for saving me, Sammie," spoke Billie.
"Oh, I couldn't have done it if it hadn't been for the green fairy," replied Sammie, and of course he couldn't. Then Billie thanked the little man very kindly, and he felt sorry for not believing in fairies, and he said he would try to, after that. So the boy squirrel and the boy rabbit played together some more, until it was time to go home. Now, if you don't walk in your sleep to-night, I'll tell you to-morrow about Susie and the fairy carrot.