FLOP EAR THE FUNNY RABBIT

HIS MANY ADVENTURES

BY

RICHARD BARNUM

Author of “Squinty, the Comical Pig,” “Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant,” “Dido, the Dancing Bear,” “Blackie, a Lost Cat,” etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY

WALTER S. ROGERS

PUBLISHERS BARSE & HOPKINS NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.

Copyright, 1916 by Barse & Hopkins

Flop Ear, The Funny Rabbit

Printed in the United States of America

ILLUSTRATIONS

[7]

FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT

CHAPTER I FLOP EAR HEARS A NOISE

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, a family of rabbits lived in the woods near the top of a mountain. There were six in the family, counting Flop Ear, the funny rabbit, and I speak of him first because this story is going to be mostly about him and his adventures, or what happened to Flop Ear.

Besides Flop Ear there was his mother, Mrs. Bunny, his father, Mr. Bunny, and Lady Munch, who was the grandmother. The reason the grandmother had that name was because she always made her mouth go in such a queer, wobbling way when she munched, or chewed, the cabbages or the carrots.

Then there was Pink Nose, a brother to Flop Ear, and Snuggle, a little rabbit.

[8]

Snuggle was called that because she always wanted to cuddle up, or snuggle close, to her mother. And you can easily guess why Pink Nose had his name. Yes, you have guessed it. His nose was as pink as a baby’s toes.

And the reason Flop Ear had his name was because one of his ears flopped over to one side, as if it were going to fall off his head. But of course it never did. The two ears of most rabbits stand up straight, when they are not stretched back along their backs, but when Flop Ear wanted to put both his ears up straight only one would go, and the other dropped down in a queer way.

“Oh, Flop Ear, you are such a funny little white rabbit,” Lady Munch, his grandmother, would say.

“Funny? How is that?” the little boy bunny would ask.

“Why, you look so funny,” the old lady rabbit would answer. “I always want to laugh when I see you.”

“Well, is that a bad thing or a good thing?” Flop Ear would ask.

“Oh, it is a very good thing,” said Lady Munch. “To make rabbit folk laugh is to make them happy so they forget their troubles, and that is always good.”

“What are troubles?” Flop Ear questioned.

[9]

“You will find out soon enough without my telling you,” answered the grandmother bunny. “Be happy while you can in your home in the woods, for you may not always be here.”

“Why not?” asked Flop Ear, but just then his grandmother had to go down into the burrow, or underground house, to help Mrs. Bunny make the beds.

Oh, you needn’t laugh! Rabbits have beds in their underground homes as well as you children have. Only, of course, the beds are not the same as yours.

The beds in Flop Ear’s home were just bunches of soft grass and leaves, piled together, and sometimes the rabbits used the soft white cotton from inside the milkweed plant. These beds had to be stirred up, fluffed and made soft by the rabbits once in a while, and that is what Lady Munch and Mrs. Bunny were doing.

“Troubles; eh?” thought Flop Ear. “I wonder what they can be, and I wonder if I shall ever go away from these woods? Well, I’ll be happy while I’m here, anyhow. And now I guess I’ll go and get Pink Nose and Snuggle and have some fun.”

Rabbits have fun by themselves, and with other animals, just as you children do; and rabbits can think and talk. Of course, they can’t talk as we do, but they can talk among themselves,[10] and with other animals, and, very often, they know what you say to them, just as your kitten knows enough to come when you call her to dinner, or as your dog knows enough to carry your books from school when you put them in his mouth.

So when, in this story, I say that Flop Ear said something, or thought something, I mean he did it in a rabbit way, just as your cat and dog talk together in their languages. For some cats and dogs are good friends you know.

There was a dog named Don, who once ran away. He and Blackie, a lost cat, were really good friends, as you know if you have read the books about them.

I spoke about Flop Ear’s living in a burrow, or underground house. It may seem strange to hear of a house underground, but there are such places. Sometimes in gold mines, or coal mines, men and horses stay underground for a long time, and if they have a place underground why can’t rabbits?

Besides, boys like to dig caves, or holes underground, and play they are living there. It’s lots of fun. I used to do it. Only, of course, the caves that boys play in are larger than was Flop Ear’s home.

If you had walked through the woods, near the top of the mountain where the Bunny family[11] lived, I do not think you would have noticed the rabbits’ home; for all you would have seen would have been a hole in the ground. But if you could once get down in this hole (supposing you were small enough) you would see many rooms and halls, almost like those in your own home, only not so nice, of course, and there would be no furniture in them.

So Flop Ear and his sister and brother lived in this underground home, which Papa and Mamma Bunny had dug for themselves with their feet, just made for digging.

And the reason the house was built underground, and had only a hole leading down into it, was so that no dogs or hunters would see it. For dogs and hunters chase and shoot rabbits to kill them to eat. And if Mr. Bunny had built his home on top of the ground, as your house is built, the hunters and dogs would more easily see it.

“You can’t be too careful about hunters and dogs,” said Mr. Bunny one day.

“No indeed you can’t,” added Lady Munch. “It is dreadful to be shot.”

So Flop Ear and Pink Nose and Snuggle lived together in the woods and had lots of fun. All day long they would play down in the underground house, or outside near the front door. It was dark in their house, but the rabbits did not[12] mind that. Rabbits are like cats, and can see quite well even on a dark night. And what they cannot see they can smell.

Rabbits, and other wild animals, you know, have very good noses for smelling. They can smell danger a good way off, and they can smell their food, and smell their way about, so they will not run into things when they are hurrying along at night.

“Let’s have a game of tag,” said Flop Ear to Pink Nose, as he saw his brother lying in the sun on a pile of soft leaves near the front door of the underground burrow. “Come on, let’s see if you can tag me.”

Of course I don’t suppose rabbits really call their game “tag,” as we do, but they have a game so much like it that I have given it that name in order that you would understand better. If I gave you the name in rabbit language it would be so hard to spell that I might break my typewriting machine in putting it on paper. So it is easier to call it tag.

“Oh, I don’t want to play tag,” said Pink Nose. “I want to sleep.”

“You have slept enough,” laughed Flop Ear. “Come on, get up and run about. If you sleep so much you will grow to be a lazy rabbit, Lady Munch says; and then you can’t run fast when there is danger.”

[13]

“There is no danger around here,” said Pink Nose, stretching out one leg. “I can’t see any.”

“Mother says there may be danger when you can’t see it,” put in Snuggle, coming out of the underground house just then.

“Will you play a game of tag with me?” asked Flop Ear of his sister.

“Yes, I will,” she answered. “Come on,” and away she ran.

The two rabbits were soon jumping about on the soft green moss and cuddling down among the leaves of the woods. They would chase each other, and jump over one another, just as you have often seen dogs and cats play their game of tag.

All this while Pink Nose was stretched out lazily in the sun, with his eyes closed. Pretty soon Flop Ear and Snuggle grew tired of playing rabbit-tag. Snuggle looked over at her sleeping brother, and said, with a laugh:

“Let’s play a trick on him, Floppy.” Sometimes she called her other brother Floppy for short.

“What trick shall we play?” asked Flop Ear.

“We’ll get a long stick, hide behind a stump and tickle him,” went on Snuggle. “He won’t see who it is and he’ll be surprised.”

“All right,” said Flop Ear.

So the two bunnies got a long stick, and, hiding[14] behind a stump near which Pink Nose was asleep, they reached over and tickled him. Pretty soon Pink Nose opened his eyes. He put up his paw to brush off what he thought was a fly on his ear. Then he tried to go to sleep again, but Flop Ear and Snuggle tickled him once more.

“Ouch!” cried Pink Nose, jumping up. “Who’s doing that?”

He acted so queerly that Flop Ear could not help laughing, and his brother heard him from behind the stump.

“Ah, it is you; is it?” cried Pink Nose. “I’ll fix you for spoiling my sleep!”

He chased after Flop Ear, only in fun, of course, and around among the trees the brother rabbits ran.

“Now Pink Nose is playing tag!” cried Snuggle, and so he was, whether he wanted to or not.

Then the three rabbits played together, having lots of fun in their own way, jumping over each other’s backs as boys play leap-frog. Sometimes one would hide down in among the leaves, and the others would look for him. This was the game of hide-and-go-seek, you see.

At different times Mr. and Mrs. Bunny would tell their children the things all rabbits must learn. Just as your folks tell you about cleaning your teeth, and washing your hands and faces, so[15] the rabbit children were told how to do things to keep themselves clean. Of course they did not clean their teeth, but they washed themselves with their tongues, as cats do.

“And you must always be careful, when you go out in the woods, that dogs do not see you and chase you,” said Lady Munch. “Always be careful about dogs.”

“And hunters with guns,” added Papa Bunny. “They are worse than dogs.”

The rabbit children promised to be careful, and for several days after that Flop Ear looked all about him when he went off in the woods.

One afternoon he was hopping along, quite a distance from his underground house, when, all at once, he heard a loud banging noise.

“Why, can that be thunder?” asked Flop Ear. “It must be going to storm.” He looked up at the sky. There was not a cloud in it. The sun was shining brightly, and Flop Ear knew it never thundered, or at least very seldom, when the sun was shining.

“I wonder what that queer noise was?” he asked.

Then he heard it again:

“Bang!”

“I’m going to run!” thought Flop Ear. “That may be danger. I’ll go home and tell the folks I heard a queer noise.”

[16]

CHAPTER II FLOP EAR FINDS SOMETHING

Along through the woods ran Flop Ear, the funny rabbit. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder, to see if there was a storm coming up. For sometimes it thundered away off on the other side of the mountain, and it would be a good while before the rain came near the rabbit house. But this time not a cloud came into the sky, and the loud banging noise did not sound again.

“If that was thunder, it was a very queer kind,” Flop Ear said to himself. “I never before heard any like it.”

Along he hopped, going faster and faster, until, a little way ahead of him in the woods, he saw his brother Pink Nose.

“Hello!” cried Pink Nose. “Why are you running so fast?”

“Because I heard a funny noise,” answered Flop Ear, “and I want to tell mother and father about it.”

“I don’t hear any noise,” said Pink Nose.

He sat up on his hind legs and listened, as all rabbits do.

[17]

“No, I can’t hear it now, either,” said Flop Ear. “But I heard it very plainly a while ago. Come on, let’s run. It may be danger!”

So Flop Ear and Pink Nose ran along together, until, in a little while, not far from their home, they saw Snuggle, who was poking about among the leaves.

“What are you looking for, Snuggle?” asked Flop Ear.

“For some sweet roots to eat,” answered the little sister rabbit. “But why are you two running?” she asked, in bunny language.

“Flop Ear heard a funny noise,” said Pink Nose. “He is going to tell papa and mamma about it, and I am going with him.”

“It may be a danger-noise, such as Grandma Munch tells about,” added Flop Ear.

“If it’s danger I’m not going to stay here,” Snuggle cried. “I’ll go with you.”

So the three little rabbits ran along together, and they soon reached the underground house. Lady Munch was sitting at the front door, looking all around. She had just finished making up the leaf-beds, and she wanted to come out in the air.

“Why, what is the matter, children?” she asked, as she saw Flop Ear, Pink Nose and Snuggle running toward her. “What has happened?”

[18]

“Flop Ear heard a queer noise!” cried Snuggle and Pink Nose together.

“What sort of a noise was it?” asked Lady Munch, chewing on a bit of carrot.

“It was a loud noise,” answered Flop Ear. “It went: ‘Bang! Bang!’ two times, just like that.”

“Oh, my goodness!” cried Lady Munch. “I know what that noise was! Quick! Down into the burrow, all of you!”

She fairly pushed the three rabbit children into the hole in the ground, and then she ran down herself.

“Oh, I do hope your father and mother are safe!” said Lady Munch when they were all in the underground house. “I wish they were home!”

“Why, was that noise so dangerous?” asked Pink Nose.

“Was it thunder?” Flop Ear demanded.

“Indeed it was a dangerous noise, and it was not thunder,” said the grandmother. “It was a hunter man, shooting a gun. Well I know that sound. I have been shot at many times. It’s a good thing you were not shot, Flop Ear.”

“A hunter man with a gun! Was that what made the noise?” asked Snuggle, and she cuddled up close to her nice grandmother.

[19]

“That’s what it was,” went on the old lady rabbit. “There are hunters in our woods; but, so far, none of them has come near our home. And I hope they do not.”

“Then I did right to run away from the noise; did I, Grandmother?” asked Flop Ear.

“You certainly did, little boy. Always run when you hear that gun-banging noise. I hope your father and mother will be able to run away from it. I wish they were home.”

Just then there was a sound at the door of the underground house, and the rabbits in it were much afraid, until they saw it was Mrs. Bunny coming home.

“Oh, I am so glad you are safe!” exclaimed Lady Munch. “Did you see anything of Mr. Bunny?”

“Why no, I didn’t,” answered Mrs. Bunny. “I was out looking for some cabbage, but I could not find any. But what is the matter, and why are you all so frightened?”

“Flop Ear heard a gun-shooting noise,” answered Pink Nose.

“That means there are hunters in the woods,” added Lady Munch. “Oh, I do hope Mr. Bunny will get home safely.”

Just then came another sound at the door of the underground house, and every one was frightened until it was seen that it was Mr. Bunny himself[20] coming home. And he came in a hurry, too.

“Oh, my! Such a time!” panted the father rabbit, lying down on a pile of soft leaves. “Such a time!”

“I had a time, too,” Flop Ear said. “I heard a gun-banging noise in the woods, and I ran home.”

“I heard it too!” said his father. “That is why I ran. A hunter man shot his gun at me, but he did not hit me.”

“Oh, I am so glad of that!” exclaimed Mrs. Bunny. “If you should be shot and killed I don’t know what we would do.”

“We must all stay down here underground until night,” said Lady Munch, who, being an old rabbit, knew much about keeping out of danger. “When it is night the hunter will have gone home, and it will be safe for us to go out.”

So the rabbits stayed down in their underground house, listening for another sound of the gun, which Flop Ear, hearing for the first time in his life, had thought was thunder. But the hunter did not find the rabbit burrow, and no more banging sounds were heard. After a while Mr. Bunny poked his head a little way out of the hole.

“Is it all right?” Flop Ear asked.

“Yes, it’s all right now,” answered the papa[21] bunny. “It is getting dark, and we can soon go out and get something to eat.”

So the rabbits did, and no hunter shot them that time.

For a week after that, every time Flop Ear, Snuggle and Pink Nose went out in the woods they would listen for any sound that might be a hunter’s gun. Once Flop Ear thought he heard it, and he ran. But this time it was really thunder, and soon it rained and he had to hurry home, getting all wet. But with his thick fur he did not mind.

“It is hard to tell a hunter’s gun from thunder,” thought Flop Ear.

Not far from where Flop Ear lived in the wood was a farm, and on the farm was a pig pen. Once when there were none of the farm people about Flop Ear and Pink Nose went close to the pig pen. They could look in through the cracks of the board pen and see nine pigs.

Two of the pigs were large and the other seven were small. And one little pig had a funny, squinting eye, so that when he looked out at Flop Ear and Pink Nose they had to laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” asked the little pig, who could speak the language understood by all animals. “What is the matter?”

“It is you,” answered Flop Ear. “You have such a funny squint.”

[22]

“Well, Squinty is my name,” said the little pig. “They name me that because of my eye. Don’t you like it?”

“Oh, yes,” answered Pink Nose. “I think it’s a pretty name.”

“And we didn’t really mean to laugh at you,” exclaimed Flop Ear. “You see, I have a funny ear, and I am named after that.”

“Oh, I don’t mind being laughed at,” Squinty said quickly. “I am used to it. Whenever the folks come and look down in my pen they laugh at me too.”

“And my rabbit friends laugh at me,” said Flop Ear, “so it is all the same.”

“Do you like it in the pen?” asked Pink Nose. “It seems so open, where every one can look in on you.”

“Oh, yes, we all like it here,” said Squinty. “We have lots of fun. We play, and scratch each others’ backs. Did you ever have your back scratched, little rabbits?”

“Oh, no, never,” said Flop Ear. “But sometimes mother rubs my ears, and I like that.”

“I guess it’s all the same,” Squinty said, trying to turn around to look at the curl in his tail.

Then the bunnies said good-by to the little pigs, and ran on. But if you would like to know more about Squinty you may read of him in a book like this one, named “Squinty, the Comical Pig; His Many Adventures.”

[23]

[24]

“I shouldn’t like to be a pig; should you?” asked Flop Ear of his brother Pink Nose, as they hopped along together.

“I don’t believe I should,” answered the other bunny. “I think it is more fun to be a rabbit.”

Flop Ear lived with his brother, his sister, his father, mother and Lady Munch in the woods for some time. The rabbits heard no more gun sounds and they were hoping that the hunters had gone away, and would not come back.

Flop Ear and the other two little rabbits had much fun and many good times. Sometimes Flop Ear would dig a hole in the ground, which he could quickly do with his fore paws, and then he would hide himself in it, covering himself up with leaves.

Then, when his brother or his sister came along he would suddenly jump out and cry “Boo!” at them in rabbit talk, just as sometimes you hide at the bottom of the stairs, and pretend to scare your father or big brother as he comes down.

Often Flop Ear, Snuggle and Pink Nose would go off through the woods, to find nice things to eat—sweet roots, wild carrots or berries.

“I do wish I could find some cabbage,” said[25] Mr. Bunny as he came home one day. “I have looked all over for some cabbages growing, that I might bring back some of the sweet, juicy leaves. But I can not find any.”