5 The New Wheelbarrow]

5

The New Wheelbarrow

There was something that Jimmy Rabbit wanted. He had teased for it for a
long time. And at last, after he had almost made up his mind that he
wasn't going to get it, one day to his great joy his father brought home
the very thing Jimmy had begged for. It was a wheelbarrow! Jimmy Rabbit
could hardly believe his eyes.

"Well, young man, you ought to be pretty grateful for this," Mr. Rabbit
said.

"Yes, Father!" Jimmy answered. He picked up the handles of the
wheelbarrow, and began pushing it proudly about the dooryard. "I'm
going to play with my wheelbarrow all the time after this," Jimmy said.

"I reckon you can do a little work with it, too," Mr. Rabbit told him.
"I shall expect you to bring home the vegetables for the whole family,
every morning."

"Yes, Father!" Jimmy answered. He thought that would be great sport. He
didn't stop to think that it would take a good many vegetables to feed
his father and his mother, his four sisters, his two brothers, and
himself.

"I hope, now, to have a little time for recreation," Mr. Rabbit
remarked.

"It's too bad you have to work so hard," said Jimmy. "Recreation" was a
big word. Jimmy supposed that it was some kind of specially hard work.
He did not know that it meant _play_. "I'll go down to Farmer Green's
garden right away and get a load of his best vegetables!" Jimmy
exclaimed.

Down in Farmer Green's garden Jimmy worked busily, loading his new
wheelbarrow to the very top. And then he trundled it home again. No
prouder youngster was ever seen in Pleasant Valley than Jimmy Rabbit,
pushing that little wheelbarrow up the hill.

"Let me push it!" Frisky Squirrel begged.

But Jimmy Rabbit said that he mustn't let anybody else play with that
wheelbarrow.

"Let me take hold of one handle!" Billy Woodchuck pleaded.

But Jimmy Rabbit told him that _that_ was no way to wheel a wheelbarrow.

Somehow, the next day Jimmy didn't have half so much fun getting the
vegetables. And the day after that he actually began to think that
gathering vegetables was a good deal like work. And before a week had
passed he just hated the sight of Farmer Green's garden.

But all Jimmy's friends still crowded around and begged him to let them
push the wheelbarrow. And all the while he had been very firm. He had
not given one of them leave to touch the barrow.

At last Jimmy Rabbit had an idea.

"I'll tell you what I'll do," he said to