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Title: The Tale of Jimmy Rabbit
Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
Illustrator: Eleanore Fagan
Release date: February 16, 2008 [eBook #24628]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Joe and Isaac Longo, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF JIMMY RABBIT ***
Produced by Joe and Isaac Longo, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
THE TALE of JIMMY RABBIT
[Illustration: He trundled the wheelbarrow home again]
THE TALE
of
JIMMY
RABBIT
By
Arthur Scott Bailey
_Author of_
The Cuffy Bear Books
Sleepy-Time Series, Etc.
_Illustrations
by_
Eleanore Fagan
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers--New York
Copyright, 1916, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Jimmy Finds a New Tail 9
II Troublesome Mr. Mink 14
III May Baskets 19
IV Making Somebody Happy 23
V The New Wheelbarrow 28
VI A Narrow Escape 34
VII A Fast Runner 40
VIII The Great Race 46
IX Playing Leap-Frog 52
X The Tooth Puller 58
XI A Slight Dispute 63
XII The Strange Man 69
XIII Mr. Crow's Picture 74
XIV Boy Lost! 80
XV Telling Fortunes 85
XVI Red Leggins 91
XVII The Rabbits' Ball 96
XVIII A Dance Without Music 101
XIX Jimmy Grows Too Cheeky 105
XX A Queer Cure 109
_The Tale of Jimmy Rabbit_
[Illustration: 1 Jimmy Finds a New Tail]
Chapter 1
Jimmy Finds a New Tail
Jimmy Rabbit wanted a new tail.
To be sure, he
already had a tail--but it was so short that he felt it was
little better than none at all.
Frisky Squirrel and Billy
Woodchuck had fine, bushy tails;
and so had all the other
forest-people, except the Rabbit family.
Jimmy had tried his hardest to get a handsome tail
for himself.
And once he had nearly succeeded. For he almost
cut off Frisky Squirrel's big brush.
But Mrs. Squirrel had
appeared just in time to save her son from so dreadful a
mishap.
After that, Jimmy Rabbit tried to _buy_ a tail; but
no one would sell him one.
Then he set out to _find_ one, in
the hope that some day some one would forget his tail and go
off and leave it lying in the woods, and not be able to
remember where he left it.
In fact, Jimmy Rabbit often lurked behind trees and
bushes, watching his neighbors as they took naps in the
sunshine.
But when they awaked and stretched themselves, and
went trotting off, there was not one of them that didn't take
his tail right along with him.
It was disappointing. Still, Jimmy Rabbit continued
his search.
Now, Jimmy had decided that if he could only get a
long tail he didn't care what color it was, if it was only a
brownish yellow, to match the rest of him.
And at last, as he
was wandering through the woods one day, to his great joy he
found almost exactly what he wanted.
Lying near a heap of
chips was a beautiful tail!
But it was red, with a black tip.
That was the only drawback about it.
This tail, however, was so handsome that Jimmy made
up his mind that he would wear it, anyhow,
even though it did
not match his coat.
So with a bit of string which he had
carried with him for weeks for that very purpose, he tied the
red tail to his own short stub.
There was great excitement among the forest-people
when Jimmy Rabbit appeared among them.
Most everyone told him
how much better he looked. In fact, old Mr. Crow was about
the only person who didn't say something pleasant.
He only
shook his head, and muttered something to himself about
"handsome is as handsome does."
But Jimmy Rabbit paid little
attention to him.
"Whose tail is that?" Mr. Crow finally asked.
"Mine, of course!" Jimmy told him.
"Well, you'd better look out!" said Mr. Crow.
"Unless
that tail is bought and paid for, there's trouble ahead of
you, young man."
To his friends Frisky Squirrel and Billy Woodchuck,
Jimmy said something about Mr. Crow in a low voice.
And they
laughed loudly. Whereupon Mr. Crow flew away, croaking to
himself about the shocking way children are brought up
nowadays.
You know, Mr. Crow was a great gossip.
And
everywhere he went that day he spread the news about Jimmy
Rabbit's finding a red tail in the woods.
Probably that was the pleasantest day of Jimmy
Rabbit's life.
But toward evening something startled him.
He
had been over to the brook, to look at himself in a pool. And
he was coming back towards home when some one called:
"Hi, there, young fellow!"
Jimmy Rabbit hurried along faster. He knew that it
was a mink's voice.
And he didn't like minks.
Mr. Mink ran after him, calling "Stop, thief!" at the
top of his voice.
Jimmy Rabbit did not stop.
But he glanced around. And
his heart sank as he saw that Mr. Mink had no tail!
At the
same time Jimmy ran faster than ever.
He did not want even to
speak to Mr. Mink, for he felt that by waiting to talk with
him he had nothing at all to gain, and a great deal to lose.
There was his new tail! He certainly did not want to
part with that!
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