Sweetest Susan plaintively.

"Oho! you want to get back into your looking-glass!" cried Mr.
Thimblefinger merrily. "Well, you won't have long to wait. By rights,
you ought to stay here twelve hours, but the old Spring Lizard and I
have put our heads together, and we've fixed it so that you can get
back before sundown."

"Isn't it night at home now?" inquired Buster John.

"Why, they are hardly through washing the dinner dishes," replied Mrs.
Meadows.

"It is just half past two," said Mr. Thimblefinger, looking at his
watch.

"Well, it look so dark all dis time dat I done got hungry fer supper,"
remarked Drusilla.

X.

MR. RABBIT AS A RAIN-MAKER.

"I hope it won't rain," said Sweetest Susan, "for then the spring
would fill up so we couldn't get out, and we should get wet down
here."

"Oh, no," replied Mr. Thimblefinger, "the water is never wet down
here. It is a little damp, that's all."

"Well, that's enough, I'm sure," remarked Mr. Rabbit. "It's enough to
give me the wheezes when I first get up in the morning, and it's not
at all comfortable, I can tell you."

"There is one funny thing about springs," said Mrs. Meadows, "no
matter how much it rains, they never get any fuller. They may run a
little freer, but they never get any fuller. Speaking of rains," she
continued, turning to Mr. Rabbit and laughing, "don't you remember the
time you set yourself up as a rain-maker?"

Mr. Rabbit chuckled so that he bent nearly double.

"I don't remember that," sighed Mr. Thimblefinger. "You two have more
jokes between you than you can shake a stick at. That comes of me
being small and puny. Tell us about it, please."

Mr. Rabbit fingered his pipe--a way he had when he put on his
thinking-cap, as Mrs. Meadows expressed it--and presently said:--

"It's not such a joke after all, but I'll let you judge for yourself.
Once upon a time, when all of us lived next door, on the other side of
the spring, there was a tremendous drouth. I had been living a long
time, but never before had seen such a long dry spell. Everybody was
farming except myself, and even I had planted a small garden.

"Well, there was a big rain about planting-time, but after that came
the drouth, and the hot weather with it. One month, six weeks, two
months, ten weeks--and still no sign of rain. The cotton was all
shriveled up, and the corn looked as if it would catch a-fire, it was
so dry; even the cow-peas turned yellow. Everything was pa