retty soon the
'Coon and 'Possum came down, too, and helped him, and now and then, when
they happened to look at each other across the table, they would wink
and smile, but they didn't say a word. By and by the three pies were
brought in and set in a row at one end of the table, and nobody could
tell from looking at them but what they were exactly as the Crow had
baked them.

[Illustration: MR. RABBIT CAME IN CARRYING A LARGE BUNCH OF EARLY
FLOWERS.]

Just then there was a knock down stairs, and Mr. Rabbit came in carrying
a large bunch of early flowers that he had gathered as he came along,
and dressed in his new spring suit. They saw a little white roll in one
of his coat pockets, too, and they knew it was a poem for the occasion,
for Jack Rabbit writes poems whenever he gets a chance, specially in the
early springtime.

Mr. Crow hurried out and got the pair of pink glass vases that Mr.
'Coon had given him for Christmas and put the flowers in them for the
table, while he asked Jack Rabbit if it was muddy walking and if he had
seen anything of Mr. Turtle.

[Illustration: MR. TURTLE HIMSELF WADDLED IN.]

[Illustration: LEFT THE OTHERS TO SIT AROUND THE TABLE AND TALK.]

Mr. Rabbit said that the ground was rather damp, but that he could pick
his way pretty well, and that he had never seen such a wet spring since
the year that the Wide Blue Water came up over his back garden and
drowned his early pease. He hadn't seen Mr. Turtle, but just then Mr.
Turtle himself waddled in with a basket of nice water salad, which he
had gathered before starting. Then Mr. Crow hurried off to put his
biscuits in the oven and left the others to sit around the table and
talk.

After they had talked about the weather and told the latest things that
had happened to Mr. Dog, who lived with Mr. Man, and whom none of them
liked very well, the 'Possum said all at once that being this was April
First he shouldn't wonder if it was to be a sort of surprise party in
some way.

That made Mr. Turtle and Jack Rabbit curious right away, and they wanted
to know what kind of a surprise he thought it was going to be and if he
thought it would be a pleasant one. Mr. 'Possum said he was sure it
would be pleasant, and then he looked at the three fine pies on the
table and said it was just as apt to be in one of those pies as
anywhere. Then Mr. Turtle said he'd heard of "four and twenty blackbirds
baked in a pie," and how they began to sing when the pi