emam, he staid inside and so did the
little lady rabbit, and by and by the two bad foxes went away and told
their father, Daddy Fox, all about it, and he said, "Don't make any
excuse.

"You are very poor hunters if you can't catch a rabbit when he's
dancing the Fox Trot." And I guess he was right, for Slyboots and
Bushy Tail were so ashamed that they didn't dare look in their
mother's looking-glass for two days and three nights.

And in the next story if Billy Bunny gets out of that hollow stump
before I see him, I'll ask Robbie Redbreast to tell me what he does so
that I can write to-morrow's story for you to read.

STORY XVIII.

BILLY BUNNY AND RAGGED RABBIT.

Robbie Redbreast told me this morning he saw Billy Bunny hop out of
the hollow stump where he had hidden with the little lady bunny, you
remember in the last story, to escape from the two bad foxes.

Well, after he had looked all around to make sure they were gone, he
said good-by to Miss Rabbit. And then, so Robbie Redbreast told me, he
looked at his gold watch and chain, which his dear, kind Uncle Lucky
had given him for a birthday present, and it was just thirteen
o'clock.

"That's my lucky number," exclaimed the little rabbit; "maybe I'll
find my fortune to-day." And he looked all about him, under a stone and
behind a bush, but there wasn't any fortune in sight, not even a
twenty-dollar gold piece. So he wound his watch and started off again;
and by and by, not so very far, he came to a castle where lived a
giant bunny whose name was "Ragged Rabbit" because he always wore torn
and tattered clothes.

And when he saw Billy Bunny hopping along, he said, "Ha, ha. Ho, hum,
I'll eat that little bunny as sure as I'm a foot high!" And as he was
twenty-one feet high less or more, he surely thought he would.

"What did you say?" asked Billy Bunny, for his quick ears had caught
the sound of the Ragged Rabbit's voice, but not the words.

"Oh, never mind," answered the Ragged Giant Rabbit. "Come and I'll
show you my castle." And, oh, dear me. Billy hopped in and the big
Giant Rabbit closed the door with a bang, and all the pictures on the
walls almost fell down and the chandelier rattled like a milk wagon
full of empty cans. But the little rabbit wasn't frightened. And could
you guess what he did if I let you guess until to-morrow night?

Well, sir, that brave little bunny took his popgun out of his knapsack
and shot it off, and it made a dreadful l