CHRISTMAS IN BUNNYVILLE. 



It was Christmas Eve in Bunnyville. 

 Bunnyville was in a lovely great forest, 

 and was the place where all the rabbits 

 lived. Mr. and Mrs. Hare and six baby 

 hares lived in a nice hollow tree, by the 

 side of a clear stream of water, so that 

 they never suffered for a cool drink or a 

 bath. The little Hares were very much 

 excited tonight, and were staying up far 

 beyond the usual time, because they had 

 so much to talk about, and were wonder- 

 ing what the morrow would bring. Now, 

 this was to be the first time in their 

 little lives that these dear little rabbits 

 had ever hung up their stockings, for 

 their papa and mamma had not known 

 until recently that there was such a thing 

 as Santa Claus. 



Mamma Hare saw that her little soft, 

 wooly babies were getting too much ex- 

 cited, so she said to them, "Now, chil- 

 dren, you really must go to bed, or the 

 Santa rabbit will not come to you at all, 

 and then how will you feel? Come! 

 Hurry, now." 



So' they all scampered toward the 

 mamma and gave her a good hug, with 

 their little furry arms, and jumped into 

 bed, all six of them in a row. The mam- 

 ma leaned over them, and tucked them 

 all in snugly, pulling the long gray moss 

 up close around their necks, for the night 

 was bitter cold, and the wind was howl- 

 ing fiercely around their tree home. 

 Then she kissed each one, but her way 

 of doing this was to rub her nose against 

 each one of the little wrinkled noses, and 

 that was a rabbit kiss. 



They were soon sound asleep, and Mr. 

 and Mrs. Hare were just dozing off, too, 

 when they heard a queer, scratching 

 sound, outside of their big tree, and they 

 lay there peeping out from the moss with 

 their bright eyes until suddenly, through 

 the hole in the tree, there stepped — old 

 Santa. He was a big — a very big — white 

 rabbit, with long ears, and pink eyes, and 

 long whiskers. He had such a kind face 



that they were almost tempted to speak 

 to him, but they were afraid if they did 

 he might get scared, and run away, be- 

 fore filling the stockings. Those were 

 the funnietst stockings you ever saw. Of 

 course, the little rabbits did not wear 

 stockings, only when it was very cold, 

 they sometimes put on extra fur shoes 

 to play in the snow. So the mamma had 

 made each one a nice, large one, to hang 

 up, and there they hung in a row, on 

 some pegs driven to the inside of the 

 tree. Old Santa looked around a min- 

 ute, and soon spied these queer fur 

 stockings ; but he was used to that, for 

 all the little bunnies he had visited that 

 night had that same kind, so, with a low 

 chuckle to himself, he took a big fur 

 bag off his shoulders and reaching down 

 into it he drew forth the loveliest things 

 papa and mamma rabbitt had ever seen. 

 Their eyes fairly sparkled, as they 

 thought of how delighted their babies 

 would be when they awoke. Santa Claus 

 did not forget anybody — not even papa 

 and mamma, for they saw him stuffing 

 a lot of things down at the foot of their 

 bed, as he laughed to think of their sur- 

 prise. When he left they jumped out of 

 bed, and peeked through the tree, and 

 saw him leap into a sleigh which was 

 made out of a big, big pumpkin and 

 drawn by tiny white mice. Their little 

 silver bells tinkled as they flew over the 

 snow — for the whole world outside was 

 now covered with a beautiful sparkling 

 robe of snow. The rabbits were awake 

 long before the dawn next morning, and 

 made suclj a noise, giggling and whis- 

 pering, under their cover of moss, that 

 the mamma could not sleep. Finally they 

 said: "O, mamma, can't we get up?" 



"Yes, T guess you might as well." she 

 replied, "as you won't go to sleep." So 

 out they scampered, all six of them, 

 tumbling all over each other in their 

 eagerness to see what good old Santa had 

 brought them. O. how delighted they 



214 



