Mr. Rabbit's Wedding Hollow Tree Stories   By: Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937)

"I USED TO RUN OUT AND GET BEHIND, WITH BUNTY, AND TAKE HER BOOKS"]

MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING

[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

12mo, Cloth. Fully Illustrated

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

HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK Illustrated. 8vo.

HOLLOW TREE SNOWED IN BOOK Illustrated. 8vo.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING

Copyright, 1915, 1916, 1917, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published October, 1917

CONTENTS.

PAGE

LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND BUNTY BUN 11 COUSIN REDFIELD AND THE MOLASSES 31 MR. BEAR'S EARLY SPRING CALL 51 MR. JACK RABBIT BRINGS A FRIEND 71 MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING 95

LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND BUNTY BUN

JACK RABBIT TELLS ABOUT HIS SCHOOL DAYS, AND WHY HE HAS ALWAYS THOUGHT IT BEST TO LIVE ALONE

THE Little Lady has been poring over a first reader, because she has started to school now, and there are lessons almost every evening. Then by and by she closes the book and comes over to where the Story Teller is looking into the big open fire.

The Little Lady looks into the fire, too, and thinks. Then pretty soon she climbs into the Story Teller's lap and leans back, and looks into the fire and thinks some more.

"Did the Hollow Tree people ever go to school?" she says. "I s'pose they did, though, or they wouldn't know how to read and write, and send invitations and things."

The Story Teller knocks the ashes out of his pipe and lays it on the little stand beside him.

"Why, yes indeed, they went to school," he says. "Didn't I ever tell you about that?"

"You couldn't have," says the Little Lady, "because I never thought about its happening, myself, until just now."

"Well, then," says the Story Teller, "I'll tell you something that Mr. Jack Rabbit told about, one night in the Hollow Tree, when he had been having supper with the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, and they were all sitting before the fire, just as we are sitting now. It isn't really much about school, but it shows that Jack Rabbit went to one, and explains something else, too."

Mr. Crow had cooked all his best things that evening, and everything had tasted even better than usual. Mr. 'Possum said he didn't really feel as if he could move from his chair when supper was over, but that he wanted to do the right thing, and would watch the fire and poke it while the others were clearing the table, so that it would be nice and bright for them when they were ready to enjoy it. So then the Crow and the 'Coon and Jack Rabbit flew about and did up the work, while Mr. 'Possum put on a fresh stick, then lit his pipe, and leaned back and stretched out his feet, and said it surely was nice to have a fine, cozy home like theirs, and that he was always happy when he was doing things for people who appreciated it, like those present.

[Illustration: MR. RABBIT SAID HE CERTAINLY DID APPRECIATE BEING INVITED TO THE HOLLOW TREE]