CHAPTER I PLANTING THE GARDEN

One bright spring morning Old Mother Bun was talking to herself.

Old Father Bun cried,

[Pg 4]

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny said,

Old Mother Bun answered,

So those cute little Bunnies ran out with rake, and hoe, and wheelbarrow, and they all worked in Mother Bun’s garden, helping her prepare the soil for her garden. She was very happy and shook the packages of seeds in her gingham apron, saying,

“Not for me, not for me,” called a voice, and a very wild looking Bunny peeped over the fence.

[Pg 5]

He offered to help, for every one loved Old Mother Bun, but he was such a careless fellow, he did not dig the rows straight, and Old Father Bun soon made him stop, so he sat on a fence.

When the ground was ready, Old Father Bun drove in stakes at the end of the rows, and he tied a cord from one stake to another so they could plant in even rows.

Old Mother Bun used the hoe and the little Bunnies ran after her and dropped in seeds.

[Pg 6]

“What did you forget, Mother Bunny?” asked Healthy Bunny.

“Can we help you to remember?” added Pretty Bunny.

“We are waiting,” said Old Father Bunny.

She read the directions on each envelope to find out how far apart the seeds were to be planted, and how deep they were to be placed. This was important, for some seeds grow better planted deep, and some grow better planted near the surface with a very little dirt scattered over them.

That day she planted lettuce and radishes and Old Father Bun said,

[Pg 7]

Old Mother Bun said that early vegetables could stand a little frost and if we plant North-Grown seeds, the vegetables can even stand a little snow.

It was late in March and the air was cool, though the sun shone warm and bright.

She said,

Old Father Bun said they would help her plan out the paths, and that Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny might use the wheelbarrow and bring over some bricks to lay in the paths.

Soon the garden began to look very well indeed.

[Pg 8]

Old Mother Bun grew thoughtful and said,

They had plenty of room, so they made their brick walks, or paths as they called them, four feet wide.

Old Father Bun said,

All the Bunnies sat down and put on their Thinking-Caps, for they had an old brick walk in the back yard, and grass and weeds crept up between the bricks every year.

The Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny said at last,

[Pg 9]

Old Father Bun remembered this was a good idea, but he said no salt must get into the garden soil.

Old Mother Bun said,

They divided off the part of the garden that was left, and planned out many pretty Flower Beds.

She said, “Oh, see the star-shaped bed! Oh, see the garden we planted last year!” All of them bent down, and it was Old Mother Bun who discovered the first Crocus.

Sure enough, there was a purple Crocus in bloom. She said,

Old Father Bun did a lot of thinking and said presently,

[Pg 10]

He marked off the letters on the ground and said they would plant there next day.

Old Mother Bun picked the Crocus and took it in-doors and set it in a vase. When they had washed their paws they sat around and admired it.

[Pg 11]

Old Mother Bun began to knit for she was never idle.

She looked hard at Happy-Go-Lucky, who did not answer her.

Pretty Bunny liked to have a blooming plant in the window.

Old Father Bun said,

The little Crocus in the vase began to nod, and nod, and open its petals, and, to the surprise of all, began to talk.

[Pg 12]

[Pg 13]

Then the Crocus began to tell the story or legend she liked the best. She said, “I am the little child, Krokus, who was killed by an accident when Mercury threw a quoit one day, and I was changed at once into a flower.” (Crocus continued)

“Saffron, Saffron, what do I know about Saffron?” asked Old Father Bun.

Old Mother Bun said,

The Crocus said, “Saffron is made from my stamens; several thousand of[Pg 14] them are needed for one ounce of Saffron.”

So saying, the Crocus closed her petals and fell asleep.

Pretty Bunny said, “I wonder if every flower has a story to tell.”

Healthy Bunny said, “Old Mother Bun, what kind of flowers will you have in your garden this year?”

She reminded her children that Annuals, as they are called, grow from seeds and bloom only one season, while[Pg 15] Biennials live over winter and bloom the next year, and then die.

[Pg 16]

Old Father Bun said,

He thought a while and then continued,

Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny said,

Old Father Bun continued,

Healthy Bunny said, naming some Biennials, “How I do like turnips, beets and carrots, how I do like parsnips.”

Old Father Bun continued,

Pretty Bunny said,

[Pg 17]

Old Mother Bun said,

The Bunnies drew close while she drew a picture of a Morning Glory and said,

She drew the little fine roots of the Morning Glory and the long, winding stem and dainty leaves and flower.

The Family Clock struck nine, and Old Father Bun said,

[Pg 18]

Old Mother Bun had been planting a wild-flower garden for years and years. The Bunnies had often gone to the woods and dug up a single plant of its kind for they did not want to rob even the woods of beauty, and so they had many wild flowers growing in their home garden, and they had also a lovely bed of ferns.

Old Mother Bun said,

Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny jumped out the open window and ran out in the moonlight.

Pretty Bunny and Healthy Bunny went to bed.

Old Mother Bun tried to remember the names of some of her Flowers. She made what she called an “Acrostic”[Pg 19] which spelled the names of Flowers read to the right, and spelled the name of a Flower downward. She wrote the following:

The Old Family Clock sang,

Old Mother Bun went to bed wondering who her visitor would be in the Garden to-morrow. She made up her mind to rise at sunrise and see if any of her visitors had come.

She said,

The Family Clock remarked,

[Pg 20]

CHAPTER II. THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN

Bright and early Old Mother Bun went out to look at her Wild Flower Garden. She said,

As Old Mother Bun tip-toed about her Wild Flower Garden the flowers nodded their welcome and began to talk to her.

[Pg 21]

Old Mother Bun said, “I am glad you grow in my Garden, and I like the Solitary Flowers just as well as though they grew in clusters like those of Lily-of-the-Valley.”

Just then Old Father Bun looked out the window and called,

Pretty Bunny just then called out,

Healthy Bunny cried,

[Pg 22]

Just as Old Mother Bun began to think a member of her own family would be her first visitor she heard a whir of wings, and a humming sound, and a Humming Bird lighted on a Tulip.

[Pg 23]

The Humming Bird sang to her,

Old Mother Bun said,

The Humming Bird went from flower to flower, finding honey and nectar in them. He said he came to visit the garden unusually early, as he was really a summer visitor.

The Anemones were the next flowers that wanted to speak. They said,

Old Mother Bun had to search for the flower on the Wild Ginger plant. There was a single flower well hidden beneath the velvety leaves. She gave a cry of pleasure, for looking up she saw a Yellow Lady’s Slipper in bloom. The Lady’s Slipper nodded in a friendly way and said,

[Pg 24]

She said there were three species of Lady’s Slippers. She sang sweetly,

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny and Old Father Bun came out and leaned down low to catch the faintest whisper from the flowers. The Solomon’s Seal whispered,

Just then Jack-In-The-Pulpit fairly shouted,

A voice called merrily,

All the Bunnies examined the Blood root with the leaf circling round the stem, and the delicate flowers.

[Pg 26]

Old Father Bun remarked,

Just then a beautiful Butterfly sailed by, and attracted by the color in the Tulip Bed, sailed down, so, as a Butterfly and Humming Bird came to the garden that day, Old Mother Bun said, “What fine visitors.”

Old Father Bun said,

Old Mother Bun said,

Old Father Bun said,

[Pg 27]

Father Bun continued,

Just then a shout arose and a voice called,

They were all glad to see him, of course, and began to play a Flower Game. He stood in the centre of a circle they formed and said,

He pointed to Healthy Bunny who cried, “Violet,” and changed places with him, calling for a flower whose name began with another letter, as “D” for “Dandelion” or “Daisy.” The game went on merrily. Every time after a flower was named the Bunnies skipped round the circle singing, to the tune of “Twinkle Little Star,”

[Pg 28]

They had such a merry time that they almost forgot to go in to dinner.

As they finally sat down to dinner a Fairy Voice called,

Though the Bunnies liked Vegetable Cabbage they would not let the Skunk Cabbage in.

After dinner was over, Old Father Bun said, “I like to tell stories.”

Old Mother Bun, who was something of a tease, said,

[Pg 29]

Old Father Bun thought a few minutes and then said,

Old Mother Bun had picked a Snowdrop and it nodded to them and whispered, before Old Father Bun could say another word.

The Snowdrop said a story was told about her being made from a snowflake as an angel breathed upon her, and this comforted Eve, with the mes[Pg 30]sage of Spring, and so the Snowdrop became a flower of comfort and promise.

[Pg 31]

As the Bunnies grew thoughtful they noticed a few flakes of snow falling, and they saw that they took the form of beautiful snow crystals.

“Oh, oh,” cried Old Mother Bun. “See the snow falling.”

Old Father Bun said,

Sure enough, the light fall of snow did not hurt the flowers at all, and soon the sun shone and Shadow Bunny called,

When evening came the Bunnies were so tired they went happily off to bed. Old Mother Bun told them a story about her Tulip Bed. She said she once heard a Folk-Tale about Old Mother Delight who went out one night with a lighted lantern in her garden, and discovered that the Fairies had hidden their babies in her Tulips for the night.

[Pg 32]

Mother Delight planted more Tulip Bulbs and the Fairies were so happy they brought her Good Luck.

Mother Delight looked at one of her Tulips and said, “You look so like a turban, I believe you were named from your resemblance to it, and you are so beautiful no wonder they hold a Tulip Festival in Turkey every year.”

Old Mother Bun’s voice grew lower and lower and sank to a whisper as the little Bunnies fell asleep.

They did not know at that very minute FIVE LITTLE FAIRIES WERE CURLED UP IN THE TULIPS IN THEIR OWN GARDEN.

These Fairies were named the Ticklish Elf, the Useful Elf, the Laughing Elf, the Impish Elf, the Pretty Elf.

The first letters of their names spelled downward made the name “TULIP.”

If you read on you will learn what the little Elves did in Mother Bun’s Garden.

[Pg 33]

CHAPTER III. MORE WILD FLOWERS.

Old Mother Bun called,

The little Bunnies did not like to get up and the Elves in the Tulip Bed said,

The Ticklish Elf tumbled out of the Tulip Bed head first, and climbed up the water spout, and into the window where Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny were lying in their little beds.

[Pg 34]

The Useful Elf helped them dress.

The Laughing Elf set them laughing.

The Impish Elf hid their hair ribbons, and shoes, and played many tricks upon them.

The Pretty Elf just sat on the mantle piece and looked as pretty as pretty could be.

The Bunnies had a merry time and Old Mother Bun was happy when she saw her red Tulips, red and yellow, for the Elves had used their paint brushes to make the Tulips gay.

Old Mother Bun said,

Her wild flower garden was bordered with little dwarf dandelions.

The Bunnies all went into the garden and the Elves disappeared.

[Pg 35]

Old Mother Bun said,

So they began to pull weeds and talked about watering thirsty flowers.

Old Father Bun came out with a basket and said he was going to the woods to get Mullen leaves. He said,

Old Mother Bun said, “Be sure to gather plenty of Mullen leaves, for I will soak them in oil and if any one gets a pain that will help them.” So Old Father Bun went off singing,

The Sunflowers had been sowing their own seeds in Old Mother Bun’s garden.[Pg 36] She was so glad to see them and knew they would attract birds who liked to eat the seeds.

She knew, too, that oil from them could be used to burn. She continued, that paper is made from stalk, head, and stem of the sunflower.

The Humming Bird came and sang,

Sure enough, the Humming Bird greatly loved flowers of a certain color, and the Fringed Gentian was nearer the color of the sky than any Flower that grew. Best of all, the Gentian was really growing in one corner of Old Mother Bun’s garden, and the Humming Bird hummed with delight.

The little Bunnies said,

They liked to imagine that the Elves from the Tulip Bed were about the garden in the day time, to help them.

The old Lilac bush was full of buds and Pretty Bunny picked a branch and[Pg 38] took it into the house, and set it in a jar of water.

Old Mother Bunny taught the Bunnies the names of all the Wild Flowers in her garden. There were the Violets and Anemones, the Blood-Root, and Dandelions, the Wild-Ginger and fringed Gentian, the Jack-In-The-Pulpit and Trillium, the Flax, and Mustard, and Lady’s Slipper and many others.

Healthy Bunny whispered to Pretty Bunny,

[Pg 39]

They slipped away to look for this wild flower that grows by the roadside, but they were too early to find it in bloom.

They met Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny, and Shadow Bunny, and Homeless Bunny, and they all traveled together and sang,

It was almost Apple Blossom time.

Shadow Bunny followed them around everywhere and said by and by,

He explained that the farmer disliked this flower for sowing itself, and spreading over fertile soil they wanted for planting.

[Pg 40]

Just then, Old Father Bun returned with his pocket full of mullen leaves and he said he brought home a bouquet of dandelions. He had buttercups, too, in his basket. He said that he found buttercups all over the meadows and they were not liked by cows or horses because of the bitter juice they contained. He said as nothing troubled the buttercups, they bloomed freely everywhere. He had gathered marsh buttercups, creeping buttercups and bristly buttercups.

[Pg 41]

He said he found some common flax growing a foot and a half high. The blue flowers were pretty and he said it was a most useful plant, linen being made from its fibres, and oil from its seed.

He said while resting in the meadow the Flax told him this story: “The Earth Goddess Hilda comes to visit us. She comes to the earth to see how much Flax is planted, and returns by winter to see if there is enough Flax for spring and if the spinning wheels are all busy. She rewards the busy people and punishes the lazy ones.”

After supper the Bunnies gathered round the bunch of Dandelions Old Father Bun had gathered, and one Dandelion, larger than the rest, began to talk. It said, “Once upon a time the South Wind loved me, for I was then a young girl with yellow hair, and for a while I grew more and more beautiful; but by and by I grew old and faded, for I was touched by a breath of the North Wind. The South Wind sighed, and soon I was gone, but the next year[Pg 42] the ground was covered with flowers like me. I am now said to resemble the sun, and, like other flowers, turn toward it.”

The Bunnies drew and colored a picture of the dandelion and wrote the story in a little book to keep.

The Evening Primrose was opening. It was uncurling its petals for the visit of the night moth.

Pretty Bunny said, “I wonder if it will be the cradle for a wee little Elf, as the Tulip is.”

Healthy Bunny said, “I know a funny thing about it. Its root was used to eat, long before that of the sweet potato.”

A dwarf dandelion in the garden sang,

[Pg 43]

There was music in the garden for the Harebells were ringing; they sang of the “Bluebells of Scotland.”

Old Father Bun said,

Old Mother Bun replied,

[Pg 44]

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny went off to bed singing,

Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny and Homeless Bunny had gone away, but they begged to be allowed to come and plant next day.

Just as the little Bunnies were falling asleep there arose a voice, and they knew that spring had surely come, for the dear Little Tree Toad, who ate harmful insects, called,

The Ticklish Elf peeped in the window early next morning and tickled the Bunnies with a bit of grass, calling,

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny got up quickly and dressed and the Ticklish Elf said, as the Bunnies complained that the grass tickled their toes,

“Are there Fairy Families and Flower Families?” asked the Bunnies in surprise.

The Ticklish Elf did not answer the first part of the question but went off singing,

So saying, he floated away on a sunbeam and the Bunnies cried,

[Pg 46]

CHAPTER IV. ROOTS OF A PLANT—THE LEGEND OF COTTON.

Every one was hurrying next day to finish the seed planting. There were Morning Glory seeds and Nasturtium seeds to plant by the porch. There were Pansy seeds to plant in the little round bed by the front door. There were seeds of Bachelor’s Buttons and Mignonette.

Suddenly Old Father Bun came with a flag from the house and shouted,

[Pg 47]

“A red, white and blue garden,” said Healthy Bunny.

“A red, white and blue flower bed,” said Pretty Bunny.

“Red, white and blue, red, white and blue,” sang the Bunnies together. Echo Bunny called, “Red, white and blue.”

Old Mother Bun helped plan the red, white, and blue flower bed. She said, “We can have Salvia for the red flowers, and Daisies for the white. For the blue flowers we can have Forget-Me-Nots, or Phlox, Blue Bells or Gentians.” She said, “Where did you get the idea?”

Old Father Bun said,

The Bunnies went to work in real earnest on the red, white, and blue flower bed.

When they grew tired working, they played this flower game.

[Pg 48]

Old Father Bunny stood in the centre of a circle.

Father Bunny pointed to any Bunny in the circle saying,

He called on any Bunny who had to name a blue flower or go out of the game. A different color was called for each time and they sang a little song to the tune of “Lightly Row,”

Shadow Bunny, and Homeless Bunny, and Happy-Go-Luck Bunny helped them play the game. Pretty Bunny and Healthy Bunny could not always name a flower quickly.

Those five little Bunnies stood in a row and watched Old Mother Bun plant her garden, then as a little shower came up[Pg 49] all came inside but Shadow Bunny who called,

Said Old Father Bun, talking half to himself,

He said the root is the simplest part of the plant and he said a plant has a primary root which it sends down into the soil, and some plants also have secondary roots which spring from the stem.

Some time before Old Mother Bun had planted a sweet pea. She had stretched a piece of netting over a glass with water in it, and had placed the pea on top of the netting.

The Bunnies saw the roots growing downward.

[Pg 50]

The Bunnies decided to plant some seeds in this way and watch the roots grow.

Pretty Bunny said, “What are aerial roots?”

Healthy Bunny said,

They remembered that they had learned about Swallows being called “aerial birds,” because they spent so much time in the air, and so they asked eagerly where they could find some aerial roots.

Old Mother Bun had read of a wonderful tree in India which sent out aerial roots.

She said,

[Pg 51]

Old Father Bun said,

Old Mother Bun remarked,

Old Father Bun said in the Nature world about us everything had work to do, and everything had to do its part.

[Pg 52]

A wee voice was heard calling,

Healthy Bunny went to let the Useful Elf into the house.

The Wee Elf shook the water off his tiny leaf umbrella and called merrily,

He said he had been waiting under a toad-stool to keep dry. He had noticed the open window and so thought he would come in a while. He continued,

[Pg 53]

Pretty Bunny inquired, “Do roots have names?”

Healthy Bunny said, “Do fibrous roots like water?”

The Useful Elf nodded and remarked,

He produced a tiny basket filled with carrots and they had a feast. When his basket was quite empty he said,

To the surprise of all, the basket was soon filled with vegetables again and the Beets called in loud voices,

[Pg 54]

The Radishes blushed and said,

The Turnips were not to be out-done by the rest so they cried,