BUNNY COTTONTAIL 



OOK out, papa, and see who's here." 

 Three full-grown rabbits playing on 

 the lawn were what papa saw. Back 

 and forth, round and round they ran 

 like children playing tag. Sometimes 

 one would jump high into the air and 

 kick up his heels. They cut up all 

 kinds of antics, for all the world like 

 a lot of schoolboys. The rabbits had 

 come to feel very secure in the black- 

 berry thicket behind the apiary, and 

 would come out to play in the morning or 

 evening, and sometimes in the middle of the 

 day. There were dozens of them living in the 

 orchard and the little wood. In summer they 

 were the delight of the whole family, although 

 they did eat most of the peas planted in the 

 garden, but in winter they were the despair of 

 the Naturalist, because, try as he would, he 

 could not prevent them from girdling his 

 young fruit trees, cutting off the tender shoots 

 of his shrubbery, and barking his blackberry 

 bushes. Every winter the trouble increased, 



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