How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Tail Hollow Tree Stories   By: Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937)

SET UP HIS EARS AND WENT BY, LICKETY SPLIT]

HOW MR. RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL

[Illustration: HOLLOW TREE STORIES

BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

ILLUSTRATED BY J. M. CONDÉ]

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON

HOLLOW TREE STORIES

BY

ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

HOW MR. DOG GOT EVEN HOW MR. RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL MR. RABBIT'S BIG DINNER MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE MAKING UP WITH MR. DOG MR. POSSUM'S GREAT BALLOON TRIP WHEN JACK RABBIT WAS A LITTLE BOY MR. CROW AND THE WHITEWASH MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING

HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK HOLLOW TREE SNOWED IN BOOK HOLLOW TREE NIGHTS AND DAYS

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1901, by ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL

Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

PAGE MR. DOG PLAYS SANTA CLAUS 3 MR. DOG AT THE CIRCUS 23 WHEN MR. 'COON WAS A LITTLE BOY 45 HOW MR. RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL 67 HOW THE OTHER RABBITS LOST THEIR TAILS 87

[Illustration: MAP OF THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS COUNTRY]

EXPLANATION OF MAP

THE top of the map is South. This is always so with the Hollow Tree People. The cross on the shelf below the edge of the world (where the ladder is) is where Mr. Dog landed, and the ladder is the one brought by Mr. Man for him to climb back on. The tree that Mr. Man cut down shows too. The spot on the edge of the world is where the Hollow Tree People sometimes sit and hang their feet over, and talk. A good many paths show, but not all by a good deal. The bridge and plank near Mr. Turtle's house lead to the Wide Grass Lands and Big West Hills. The spots along the Foot Race show where Grandpaw Hare stopped, and the one across the fence shows where Mr. Turtle landed. Most of the other things tell what they are, and all the things are a good deal farther apart than they look. Of course there was not room on the map for everything.

MR. DOG PLAYS SANTA CLAUS

A STORY TOLD WHEN IT WAS SNOWING OUTSIDE, AND THE LITTLE LADY WAS WONDERING HOW IT WAS IN THE FAR DEEP WOODS

ONCE upon a time, said the Story Teller, the Robin, and Turtle, and Squirrel, and Jack Rabbit had all gone home for the winter, and nobody was left in the Hollow Tree except the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow. Of course the others used to come back and visit them pretty often, and Mr. Dog, too, now that he had got to be good friends with all the Deep Woods People, and they thought a great deal of him when they got to know him better. Mr. Dog told them a lot of things they had never heard of before, things that he'd learned at Mr. Man's house, and maybe that's one reason why they got to liking him so well.

He told them about Santa Claus, for one thing, and how the old fellow came down the chimney on Christmas Eve to bring presents to Mr. Man and his children, who always hung up their stockings for them, and Mr. Dog said that once he had hung up his stocking, too, and got a nice bone in it, that was so good he had buried and dug it up again as much as six times before spring. He said that Santa Claus always came to Mr. Man's house, and that whenever the children hung up their stockings they were always sure to get something in them.

[Illustration: HE TOLD THEM ALL ABOUT SANTA CLAUS]