my friend," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And, mind you, you
had better correct it three times and a half if you ever want it
paid."

And in the next story you shall hear of an exciting adventure which
the two little rabbits had with a fretful porcupine.

STORY XXIII.

BUNNY AND THE FRETFUL PORCUPINE.

Oh, never tease a porcupine,
For reasons I'll relate,
He's like a cushion full of pins
That stand out stiff and straight.
And if you stand too close I know
He'll stick one in your little toe.

Well, that's just what Uncle Lucky did, and of course he got stuck
with one of those prickly, stickery porcupine needles and it was an
awful bother to get it out.

And the fretful porcupine laughed and this made Billy Bunny very
angry, and he took his popgun out of his knapsack and hit the
porcupine on the end of the nose with the cork bullet, and this made
the prickly animal run away.

And after that the two rabbits started off again in the Luckymobile
and by and by they came to a little village where they made lollypops
by the million. And the first thing Uncle Lucky did was to buy a big
box full of them and put it in the back of the Luckymobile, "for,"
said the kind old gentleman rabbit, "we may run across some boys and
girls and then we'll have something nice to give them."

Wasn't that kind of him? But he was always doing nice things, was
dear, kind, generous Uncle Lucky.

Well, after a while they came to some woods where a picnic was being
held. There were lots and lots of children playing under the trees and
the women were sitting around talking and telling their troubles, and
the men were making whistles and bows and arrows for the boys and
telling how they used to shoot with them when they were little boys.

"Helloa there, children!" cried Uncle Lucky, while Billy Bunny honked
the horn. "Don't you want some lollypops?" And in about five hundred
short seconds there wasn't a lollypop left in that big box, and Uncle
Lucky was a hero, or a Santa Claus, I don't remember which. And then
one big boy said, "Let's give three cheers for the two rabbits and one
more for the Luckymobile."

And you never heard such a noise in your life. One little boy got so
excited that he swallowed a raspberry lollypop and his mother had to
reach down his throat and pull it out by the stick.

"Now be good until I see you again," said the kind old gentleman
rabbit as he drove off, and by and by