CHAPTER III

BUNNY RABBIT'S EFFORTS

Mr. Bunny Rabbit hopped up on a fallen tree where he could the better
be seen while telling his story, and where, also, he might have eyes
and ears on the alert for danger. A cautious old fellow is Bunny, else
he would not be alive this day, for among the wood folk there is more
than one who has a fondness for rabbit pie or stew, and that member of
the Rabbit family who lives to have children of his own has given good
proof that he keeps his wits about him the greater portion of the
time.

"I was telling you about Cheeko's foolishness, and how nearly it cost
him his life," Mr. Bunny said after a pause so long that it really
seemed, for the time, as if he had forgotten the story.

"Of course, old Mr. Crow flew back to the oak tree as soon as Slowly
Turtle had let go of his leg, and, oh me! oh my! how he did scold
about Mr. Turtle, never once seeming to think that Cheeko Squirrel
had anything to do with the matter. Nearly every member of the club
pretended to believe that Slowly was the only one who should be
blamed, although they knew that Cheeko is a master hand at making
mischief; but it so happened that he wasn't there to make trouble, and
the result was that the president of the club had everything his own
way.

"It was voted that Mr. Turtle should never be made welcome at Crow's
Corner; that he had behaved in an unseemly manner, and ought to be
shunned by every member of the club. This matter had no more than been
settled when we heard Master Squirrel screaming and chattering as if
he were the only real thing in the woods, and as his voice sounded
nearer and nearer, telling that he was coming to join the company, I
looked around to see what had become of the Professor and the 'Squire.

"If you'll believe it, they were nowhere to be seen, and I'm such a
silly thing, sometimes, that I really believed they had given up the
scheme I saw them working on. Then I got interested in what Mr. Crow
was saying, for he started in the best he knew how to have all the
members of the club vote that Slowly Turtle and his entire family
should be turned out of the pond, and never allowed to come near it
again.

"Cocky Robin wanted to know who'd do the 'turning out,' and how it was
to be done, but the old man Crow was so angry he wouldn't go into that
part of the business at all, and claimed that after the vote had been
taken it would be time enough to settle what he called the 'minor