ilroad must be level, he
thought a man would come with a big scythe and slice off the top of the
hill like a loaf of bread and lay the slices in the hollows.

This wasn't so very strange, seeing that he was only a little bunny boy
and, of course, didn't know anything about building railroads.

Every day the railroad came nearer being finished. The hill was dug out.
As Mr. Mole remarked, "It was done almost as well as I could have done
it, only, of course, I would have made a tunnel."

Then the sleepers were laid. Busy Beaver smiled as he watched the men
lay the great logs on the smooth earth.

"Wouldn't they be dandy for my dam?" he remarked.

"You've got all you need," answered Little Jack Rabbit. "I'm glad they
didn't break up the Old Rail Fence and make railroad ties out of it."

Finally the rails were fastened on the logs and the railroad was
finished; the first train was to run through and everybody was waiting
to see it.

Mr. and Mrs. John Rabbit put on their Sunday clothes and took Little
Jack Rabbit and Brother Bobby Tail to the end of the Old Rail Fence.

Pretty soon a black speck appeared at the end of the long line. It grew
bigger and bigger. A cloud of smoke arose and drifted over to the Shady
Forest. There was a rattle and a roar and a din. Little Jack Rabbit hid
behind his mother's skirt, but the train had already passed them.

And there on the platform of the last car, stood the Farmer's Boy,
holding on by the door, bowing and smiling and proud as a king.

A NARROW ESCAPE

Hear the engine whistle toot!
See the smoke and smell the soot!
Lucky that the train don't stay,
But flashes by and far away!

AT first the Grown-ups in the Shady Forest and the Sunny Meadow were
very sorry to have the railroad come so near, but after a while they
found it didn't matter so much; for the cars passed through a "cut" so
deep that the engine's smokestack hardly reached the top, and you only
knew they were there by the sound.

Of course, it took Cousin Cotton Tail ever and ever so long to get used
to the Old Bramble Patch. You see, it wasn't anything like the Old
Brush Heap, with its covering of trailing vines, and she was glad when
she was able to go back to her old home on the other side of the
Bubbling Brook.

On this side the Sunny Meadow was just the same; so was the Shady
Forest, and by and by everybody almost forgot that there had been a time
when there