The Story of a Monkey on a Stick Part 7

So it was planned that the Monkey should visit the Rabbit's cave, and if by any chance, Herbert and d.i.c.k came back, the Gra.s.shopper and Cricket would bring word to the Monkey, who could quickly hop back.

"Come along, Mr. Monkey," called the Rabbit, and soon the two new friends were jumping through the gra.s.s together. The Monkey was off his stick, and so he could get along quite well, though not quite so fast as Jack Hare. But the Rabbit took short jumps and did not get too far ahead, waiting for the Monkey to catch up to him.

"Here we are at my cave," said Jack Hare at length, stopping in front of a hole in the ground.

"Oh, so this is where you live, is it?" asked the Monkey. He had hopped across the green meadow through the gra.s.s after his new friend.

"Yes, we'll go down in now, and meet Mrs. Hare and the children," went on the Live Rabbit. "Mind your step, and don't fall. It's rather steep until you get inside."

"And it's dark, too," said the Monkey, following the Rabbit down the hole into the ground. "How in the world do you see?"

"Oh, I forgot you aren't like us animals, and can not see quite so well in the dark," said the Live Rabbit. "Just a moment, I'll turn on the lamps."

He stopped and gave three thumps with, his feet on the earthen sides of the cave. Instantly a soft glow shone all around, and the Monkey could see very well indeed.

"Do you have electric lights?" he asked in surprise.

"No. These are lightning bugs," was the Rabbit's answer. "I keep them to make the place bright when strangers come. We Rabbits don't need light ourselves, for we can see in the dark."

"Some of the toys can, also," said the Monkey. "But I am not very good at that sort of thing yet. I like light. We had gas and electricity at the toy store."

The Monkey followed the Live Rabbit on down through the winding burrow.

It twisted and turned, this way and that, now to the right and now to the left. Here and there, clinging to the earthen sides, were lightning bugs, which made the place so bright that the Monkey did not stumble once.

"But why does it twist and turn so, like a corkscrew?" the Monkey asked the Rabbit.

"We always build our burrow caves like this, to keep out dogs and other enemies," was the reply. "My real home is still a little farther on.

We'll be there in a moment."

The Monkey followed on, and soon came to a place where, seated about a table made from a piece of a flat stump, were several little Rabbit children and a lady Rabbit.

"This is my family," said the Live Rabbit. "Mrs. Hare, allow me to present Mr. Monkey on a Stick, who has come to pay us a visit."

"Pleased to meet you," said Mrs. Rabbit, bowing low.

"Hi, Daddy!" called one of the little Rabbits, "where's his stick?"

And then everybody laughed.

CHAPTER VII

OUT IN THE RAIN

"Please excuse little Johnnie Hare," said Mrs. Hare to the Monkey. "He didn't mean to be impolite, asking for your stick."

"Oh, I know," said the Monkey. "He's just like all children--they just ask what they want to know about. And I suppose it does seem funny to be a Monkey on a Stick and then not have your stick with you. But I can tell you where my stick is, Johnnie," said the Monkey to the little Rabbit chap, and then he related his adventure on Carlo's back.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" said all the other little Rabbits, opening wide their eyes when they heard this story. "Tell us another, please!"

"We are just going to have dinner," said Mrs. Hare. "Won't you sit down, Mr. Monkey on a Stick, and take something? We have some nice carrots and turnips."

"Thank you, I'll take a little," said the Monkey.

A little chair, made from a piece of wood gnawed out by Mr. Jack Hare, was brought up for the Monkey to sit on, and then the Rabbit family and the visitor gathered around the table and began eating. I can not say that the little Rabbit children ate much, for they turned around so often to look at Mr. Monkey, that, half the time, they missed putting things in their mouths and dropped them on the table.

But no one minded this, and every one laughed, so there was a most jolly good time. The lightning bugs kept on glowing, so it was not at all dark in the cave, though it would have been only for these fireflies. Mr. and Mrs. Hare had many questions to ask Mr. Monkey on a Stick about his adventures, and he told them of the Calico Clown, the Sawdust Doll and others from the toy store, including the Candy Rabbit.

"Just fancy!" exclaimed Mrs. Hare. "A Rabbit made of candy! I'm glad you're not that kind, Jack."

"So am I," said her husband. "I'd be afraid, every time I jumped, that I'd break a leg or an ear, if I were made of candy."

"Now I must show you our cave house," said Mrs. Hare, when the meal was finished. "We think it is very nice."

"I'm sure it is," returned the Monkey.

So he was taken about, and he looked at the different burrows, or rooms, in the cave house of Mr. Jack Hare. There were rooms for the children Rabbits and rooms for Mr. and Mrs. Hare. In each room were lightning bugs to give light, though as Mr. Hare said, they were needed only when company came that could not see well in the dark.

"We put out every light when Mr. Mole comes," said Mrs. Hare.

"Why is that?" asked the Monkey.

"Because he has no eyes, and doesn't need to see," was the answer. "He just feels and noses his way around. All darkness is the same to him."

"Dear me! Well, I like a little light," said the Monkey. "But I think now, since I have been here quite a while, that I had better go back.

Herbert and d.i.c.k might be walking over the meadow, looking for me, for they know which way Carlo ran, with me on his back, and they often find things that are lost--those boys do."

"Oh, stay just a little longer," urged Mrs. Hare.

"And tell us another story!" begged Johnnie Hare.

"Well, I will," said the Monkey, and he did. He told about some of the funny things that had happened in the toy store--things I have told you children about in the other books. And the bunny boys and girls liked the story told by the Monkey on a Stick very much indeed.

The Monkey enjoyed himself so much in the cave house of Mr. Jack Hare that he stayed longer than he intended. It was along in the middle of the afternoon before he came out, and as the Monkey and Mr. Hare reached the outer opening of the burrow the rabbit gentleman knocked on the ground three times with his hind feet.

"What's that for?" asked the Monkey.

"To turn off the lightning bugs," was the answer. "No use burning lights when no one needs them. I'll turn them on if you call again."

"Thank you, I shall be glad to pay you another visit," said the Monkey.

"But just now I feel that I must get back to where you first saw me. I want to ask the Gra.s.shopper or Miss Cricket if they have seen the boys or the dog."

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll not go back with you," said the Rabbit. "I am not fond of dogs, and they are altogether too fond of me.

Good-bye!"