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"Bushy-Tail went swimming away, But he'll come back in a year and a day." "Oh" and "Ah" and "Oh" and "Ah," cried all the little Cotton-Tails, "Bushy-Tail is swimming away is he?" They all went merrily to bed. The next morning Grandpa Grumbles called out, "The Cotton-Tails are all in bed, Every one is a sleepy-head." "My fur and whiskers, we have overslept," said Bunny Cotton-Tail.

"He ain' home," Melissa said, in the raised voice that she felt to be necessary to the German's understanding of her English. "He's gone to shoot cotton-tails. Ah 'low Ah'll make you-all a pie, 'f ye like," she added, offering this practical sympathy to the suffering that she saw written on his face. "A pie of cotton-tails! Delightful!

So, among my neighbors in the cattle country, is a gentleman from France, a very successful ranchman and a thoroughly good fellow; he cares nothing for hunting big game, and will not go after it, but is devoted to shooting cotton-tails in the snow, this being a pastime having much resemblance to one of the recognized sports of his own land.

Tippy Toes did not want to go home either, but he said, "Thank you Bunny for the ride." Soon Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes were ready to go. They stood before the mirror and danced this way and that way and sang, "Tell us, good mirror, whom shall we meet?" The mirror answered, "Circus Cotton-Tails in the street." Then Snubby Nose held his breath and Tippy Toes held his breath.

Grandpa Grumbles waved his green cotton umbrella and shouted, "Have you a merry-go-round?" The Circus Cotton-Tails stood still. They cried "Hurrah, Bunny! Hurrah, Susan! Of course we have a merry-go-round." Then the real little Circus Parade stopped. The Circus Cotton-Tails cried, "Hurry, hurry! Help us unpack." They went to one of the wagons and began to unpack the merry-go-round.

"Bunny and Susan, what do you say? I am so old and deaf to-day." Then Snubby Nose cried into his right ear, and Tippy Toes cried into his left ear, but Grandpa Grumbles only said, "I can't hear, my deafness grows; Ask the umbrella, for it knows." Then the Cotton-Tails asked the umbrella what had become of Bushy-Tail and the umbrella said,

It sounds like the roar of a Lion." They did not know whether to go east any longer or not. They hid behind some bushes by the roadside, and all the while the sound of the band came nearer and nearer. All the while the lion roared louder and louder. They peeped through the branches. Soon the Circus Cotton-Tails came in view.

Only when leaves fall and the light is low and slant, one sees the long clean flanks of the jackrabbits, leaping like small deer, and of late afternoons little cotton-tails scamper in the runways. But the most one sees of the burrowers, gophers, and mice is the fresh earthwork of their newly opened doors, or the pitiful small shreds the butcher-bird hangs on spiny shrubs.

The line of the Cliff House beach was opposite, a vessel under full sail was moving in through the Golden Gate. The hills fell sharply away to the beach, Gioli's ranch-house, down in the valley, was only one deeper brown note among all the browns. Here and there cows were grazing, cotton-tails whisked behind the tall, dried thistles.

The wind blew harder and colder as the hours went by, and about midnight a fine icy snow came ticking down on the dead leaves and hissing through the brush-heap. It might seem a poor night for hunting, but that old fox from Springfield was out. He came pointing up the wind in the shelter of the Swamp and chanced in the lee of the brush-pile, where he scented the sleeping Cotton-tails.