me too
hard, which she couldn't help, she was so fond of me. When I would sit
up straight and wash my face, as I did every morning, she would call
everybody to see me, and said I was the dearest thing in the world."
When Miss Meadows said that Jack Rabbit looked at her with his head
tipped a little to one side, as if he were trying to decide whether Mr.
Man's little girl had been right or not. Then he looked at the Hollow
Tree people and said:
"H'm! H'm! Very nice little girl" (meaning Mr. Man's, of course), "and
very smart, too."
"I got used to being without my own folks," Miss Meadows went on, "but I
did not forget the nice green grass of the country, and always wanted to
go back to it. If I had known what was going to happen to me in the
country I should not have been so anxious to get there.
"I had been living with that little girl and her family about a month, I
suppose, when one day she came running to my house and took me out, and
said:
"'Oh, Brownie'--that was her name for me--'we are going to the country,
Brownie dear, where you can run and play on the green grass, and eat
fresh clover, and have the best time.'
"Well, of course I was delighted, and we did go to the country, but I
did not have the best time--at least, not for long.
"It was all right at the start. We went in Mr. Man's automobile. I had
never seen one before, and it was very scary at first. I was in a box on
the back seat with Mr. Man's little girl and her mother, and I stood up
most of the time, and looked over the top of the box at the world going
by so fast that it certainly seemed to be turning around, as I once
heard the little girl say it really did. When we began to come to the
country I saw the grass and woods and houses, all in a whirl, and the
little girl helped me so I could see better, and my heart beat so fast
that I thought it was going to tear me to pieces. I felt as if I must
jump out and run away, but she held me very tight, and by and by I grew
more peaceful.
"We got there that evening, and it was a lovely place. There was a large
lawn of grass, and some big trees, and my little girl let me run about
the lawn, though I was still so scared that I wanted to hide in every
good place I saw. So she put me in a pretty new house that had a door,
and wire net windows to look out of, and then set the little house out
in the yard and gave me plenty of fresh green food, and I was just
getting used to everything when the a
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