ET OUT FOR HOME WITHOUT WAITING TO SAY GOOD-BYE"]

"'I'll make _you_ laugh,' he said, 'when I catch you!'

"Then I saw he was cross about something, and I set out for home without
waiting to say good-bye to Mr. Man, for I didn't want to waste any more
time, though I missed my supper and got a scolding besides.

"But I was glad I didn't bring home a black eye and scratched nose, and
I'm more glad than ever now that Mr. Man didn't get back in time with
that box, or I might be in a menagerie this minute instead of sitting
here smoking and telling stories and having a good time on Christmas
Day."

The Story Teller looks down at the Little Lady.

"I'm glad Mr. 'Coon didn't get into the menagerie, aren't you?" she
says.

Very glad, says the Story Teller.

"He went lickety split home, didn't he?"

He did that!

"I like them to go lickety split better than lickety cut, don't you?"
says the Little Lady. "They seem to go so much faster."

Ever so much faster, says the Story Teller.

HOW MR. RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL

MR. RABBIT TELLS SOME INTERESTING FAMILY HISTORY

THE Little Lady waited until the Story Teller had lit his pipe and sat
looking into the great open fire, where there was a hickory log so big
that it had taken the Story Teller and the Little Lady's mother with two
pairs of ice tongs to drag it to the hearth and get it into place.
Pretty soon the Little Lady had crept in between the Story Teller's
knees. Then in another minute she was on one of his knees, helping him
rock. Then she said:--

"Did Mr. Rabbit tell his story next? He promised to tell about losing
his tail, you know."

The Story Teller took his pipe from his mouth a moment, and sat thinking
and gazing at the big log, which perhaps reminded him of one of the
limbs of the Hollow Tree where the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black
Crow lived and had their friends visit them that long-ago snowy
Christmas-time.

Why, yes, he said, that's so, Mr. Rabbit _did_ tell that story. When Mr.
'Coon got through telling how he came near getting into a menagerie,
they all said that it certainly was a very narrow escape, and Mr. 'Coon
said he shouldn't wonder if that menagerie had to quit business, just
because he wasn't in it; and Mr. 'Possum said he thought if anything
would _save_ a menagerie that would, for it would keep them from being
eaten out of house and home.

Then Mr. 'Coon said that if that was so, Mr. 'Possum had saved at least
three me