"This is a very funny business,
It gives us all a little dizziness."

Faster, faster, faster they went! It began to rain. First the rain fell
with a few drops, then it came down in sheets. My! how wet they were!

Faster, faster, faster went the merry-go-round.

Suddenly Bushy-Tail ran and jumped right into the merry-go-round and
said, "What will you give me if I stop the merry-go-round?"

Bunny said, "I will give you a warm seat by the fire, sir."

Susan said, "I will give you a basket of cookies."

The Seventeen Little Bears said, "We will give you seventeen pieces of
peppermint candy."

"Help, help, help!" they all cried, "Do stop the merry-go-round!"

Bushy-Tail looked as saucy as you please.

"I can ride faster than this," he said, "I was brought up in a
merry-go-round. I want Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes to come and pay me
a visit."

Bushy-Tail said no more, and Bunny saw there was no use to mince
matters, and the rain was coming down harder and harder.

Bunny said, "If Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes want to pay you a visit I
have no objection."

Then the merry-go-round went slower and slower, and slower, and finally
stopped.

Bushy-Tail said, "Go get Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes for me or _I will
eat you all up!_"

They all went into the house. They pretended to look for Snubby Nose
and Tippy Toes, though they knew they had gone away. They looked in
every nook and corner, but knew well enough that Snubby Nose and Tippy
Toes had gone sailing away with Grandpa Grumbles.

Bushy-Tail was angry. He went down the road calling, "Woo, woo, woo!"
He would not even stop for his basket of cookies.

Bushy-Tail called back,

"Where they have gone to nobody knows,
I'll find Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes."

Bunny and Susan said, "We are glad to get out of the merry-go-round,
but we must send word to Grandpa Grumbles not to let Snubby Nose and
Tippy Toes out. Who will carry the message?"

The First Little Bear said, "It is so far to go."

The Second Little Bear said, "I am all out of breath."

The Third Little Bear said, "Oh wait 'till to-morrow."

Now, will you believe it? The Seventeen Little Bears sat on their
seventeen little stools as though, nothing had happened!

Bunny and Susan got ready to go out in the rain. They took their
raincoats and caps and umbrellas. They went to Grandpa Grumbles' house.

The Seventeen Little Bears said in a sing-song way,

"We really are not quite