CHAPTER XII

FLOP EAR GETS HOME AGAIN

“What are you doing in these woods?” asked Mappo of Flop Ear, as soon as the merry monkey had seated himself on a soft cushion of green moss at the foot of the tree.

“I am hopping through them, trying to find my lost home,” answered Flop Ear. “I live in woods like these, but not in this part. I am lost. What are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m staying here for a while,” answered Mappo. “Years ago, when I was a little fellow, I used to live in the woods, but not here. In my country it was very warm. It was what is called a jungle.”

“Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, lived in a jungle,” said Flop Ear.

“What! do you know about Tum Tum?” asked Mappo in surprise.

“Oh, I have met him,” the rabbit replied. “I was near the circus, where he was, and Dido, the dancing bear; and Tum Tum saved my life.”

Then Flop Ear told how the elephant lifted him up in his trunk, and pulled him out from under the circus wagon wheel.

“But you spoke of Tum Tum as though _you_ knew him,” said Flop Ear to the merry monkey. “How did that happen?”

“It was this way,” explained Mappo. “I had not lived in the jungle very long before I was caught by some men who want monkeys to go around with the hand-organ players. I was put on a ship and brought to this country. There Tum Tum and I became good friends. He was also caught in the jungle and brought over on the ship. Then he went with a circus. I was there, too, for a while. But I ran away and met Squinty, the comical pig.”

“Why, I know him, too!” cried Flop Ear.

“You know many of my friends,” the merry monkey said. “I am glad to hear that. Well, after a while I was taken in by a nice family, and I have lived there ever since until yesterday, when I ran away again.”

“Why?” asked Flop Ear.

“Oh, I wanted to have some adventures. I grew tired of staying in one place so long, so I ran away to the woods, which are a little bit like those of the jungle where I used to climb from tree to tree. After a while I shall run back to the nice people with whom I lived, for I like them very much.”

“I liked the boy from whom I ran away,” said Flop Ear. “Still we animals were made to roam through the woods and over the fields. It is no fun to be shut up in a cage.”

“That’s right,” chattered Mappo, winding his long tail around his neck, as you might put a scarf about yours. “Still Tum Tum, the elephant, and Dido, the dancing bear, do not seem to mind being in the circus.”

“I guess that’s different,” said Flop Ear.

“Perhaps it is,” agreed Mappo.

Flop Ear told his adventures to the merry monkey――how the bunny had been driven away from his burrow home, how he had gone into the wood basket and had been found by the boy, and all that followed.

“My! you certainly had quite a time,” said Mappo. “Now what do you say to this? You and I will live together in these woods for a while. I like it here, and so do you. We will make ourselves a little house of green branches, and stay in it until I want to run back home again.”

“But what about my home?” asked Flop Ear. “I ought to be looking for it. That’s why I ran away from Jimmie, the boy who taught me to do tricks.”

Mappo thought for a second or two.

“I’ll tell you what we can do,” he said. “We’ll stay here a while, and have a good time, and then I’ll come with you and help you look for your home. After that I’ll go back to mine.”

“That will be fine!” said Flop Ear. “You are very kind to me.”

“Oh, I like being kind,” said Mappo. “I learned it of Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.”

Flop Ear thought Mappo a very funny and merry monkey. Mappo could do more things than could Flop Ear, for the monkey really had four hands, though as he walked on his hind ones, I suppose they ought to be called feet. And Mappo’s tail was almost as good as another hand to him, for the merry monkey could hold himself up in a tree by it, and could swing to and fro like the pendulum of a clock.

If you want to read more about the monkey you may do it in the book called “Mappo, the Merry Monkey; His Many Adventures.” In that I have told many things about the jolly four-handed chap.

“Well, if we are going to live together in the woods,” said Mappo to Flop Ear, “we had better start making our house.”

“I will cut down branches of trees with my sharp gnawing teeth,” said Flop Ear.

“And I will make them into a house,” said the monkey. “And since you like to live part of the time down under ground you may dig for yourself a hole in the middle of the house. We will call that a cellar.”

“That will be fine!” cried Flop Ear.

So the two animal friends started to work together. By standing up on his hind legs, Flop Ear could reach the low branches of some evergreen trees. These he gnawed off almost as nicely as if they had been cut with a knife. And, as fast as the tree branches were cut off, Mappo, with his paws, which were like hands, stuck them in the ground, making a sort of green tent.

Then inside that tent Flop Ear dug for himself a hole under ground, for rabbits like to stay beneath the top of the earth part of the time. When the house and the cellar-hole were finished Mappo said:

“Now we are all right, except that we need something to eat.”

“That will be no trouble for me,” said Flop Ear. “I can eat the bark off the trees and sweet roots, and perhaps there may grow, not far from here, some cabbages or carrots.”

“I could eat carrots or cabbages,” said Mappo, “but I would not care for bark from trees. Still I may find some fruit, though in this country there are no banana or cocoanut trees, such as I love, and which grew in my own country. Did you ever climb a cocoanut tree, and pick the nuts?” he asked Flop Ear.

“I never did,” replied the white bunny. “A rabbit would look funny, I think, climbing a tree.”

“Perhaps so,” agreed Mappo. “But, if you will excuse my saying so, you are quite a funny rabbit as it is.”

“So I have been told,” laughed Flop Ear. “I don’t mind a bit being called that. But suppose we go to look for something to eat. It will soon be dark, and though I can see in the night pretty well, I don’t suppose you can.”

“Not very well,” said Mappo.

So, after they had finished making their little house, the monkey and the rabbit set off together. Flop Ear found a field where turnips grew, and Mappo found an orchard where some pears and peaches were growing on trees.

“This fruit will be just fine for me,” Mappo said. “Maybe you would like some of these, Flop Ear,” and he pointed to the trees which grew in an orchard, not far from the carrot field.

“Yes, I think I should like them,” the rabbit answered. “But I can not climb a tree to get them.”

“Oh, I’m just great at climbing trees,” said the monkey. “You just watch me!” With that, merry Mappo sprang over the fence, and before Flop Ear could count up to ten (supposing that he knew how), the monkey had picked some peaches and pears and had scrambled back to the ground again.

“Here, eat some,” he said to Flop Ear, and the rabbit did.

“Are they good?” asked Mappo.

“Oh, fine!” cried Flop Ear. Then the bunny ate some carrots, and, as he had paws in which he could carry them, Mappo took home to the leafy house some fruit and some of the yellow carrots.

“Then we won’t have to come back for more right away,” he said. “I guess the man who owns them won’t mind if we take a few.”

It was very nice for Flop Ear and Mappo, living in the leafy house together. Even when it rained they did not get very wet, for the rabbit could go down cellar, and Mappo made the roof thick with more branches, so the rain drops could not drip through on him.

Still, every now and then, Flop Ear would think of his own burrow, where he had been so happy with his father and mother, and with Pink Nose and Snuggle, before the hunter drove him away.

“When are we going to look for my house?” the rabbit would ask the monkey.

“Oh, pretty soon now,” Mappo would answer. “I don’t want to go home quite yet. I like it here in the woods.”

“So do I,” Flop Ear would say. “But still, I want to go to my own home.”

And one day the two started off to look for Flop Ear’s home. Every time they came to a hole in the ground Mappo would ask:

“Is this it, Flop Ear?”

But the rabbit would look, and then he would say:

“No, I am sorry, but that is not it.”

“Then we must go on some more,” said Mappo, and on they would go.

One day, just as it was getting a little dark, toward evening, Flop Ear, who was hopping along through the woods with Mappo, heard a thumping noise. It was a noise such as rabbits make when they call to one another, and Flop Ear knew at once that some other rabbit was making signals.

“I’ll go and see who that is thumping,” said Flop Ear. “Maybe it’s a rabbit who knows where my home is.”

He ran along a little farther and there, behind a bush, he saw an old lady rabbit.

“Excuse me,” Flop Ear said to her, “but are you thumping for any one?”

The old lady rabbit turned around, and who do you suppose she was? Yes, she was Lady Munch, Flop Ear’s grandmother!

“Oh, Grandma! Grandma!” he cried. “I’ve found you at last! Where is my home, and where are all the others?”

“Oh, Flop Ear! Flop Ear!” cried Lady Munch. “You have come home at last. Oh, we thought you were gone forever! Here, Mr. Bunny! Mrs. Bunny! Snuggle and Pink Nose! Come here. Flop Ear is back!”

Out of a hole near by, in the ground, came running the other rabbits. There they were――all of Flop Ear’s family. They ran up to him, hugging and kissing him the way rabbits do. Oh! how glad they were to see him!

“Where have you been, Flop Ear? Where have you been?” they asked him.

“Oh, everywhere,” he answered. “And I have had _so_ many adventures! But how is it you are living in this new home? This is not where we used to live.”

“We came here after the hunter chased us,” said the papa rabbit, “and we have been living here ever since. We looked everywhere for you but we could not find you.”

“And I was out in front of the new burrow just now, thumping with my feet, and hoping some rabbits might hear it, so I could ask them about you,” said Lady Munch. “And, lo and behold! along you come yourself, Flop Ear.”

“Yes,” said Flop Ear, “and I’m mighty glad I did.”

“But who is your friend?” asked Mamma Bunny, looking at Mappo.

“Oh, he is a merry monkey, who was very kind to me,” said Flop Ear. “He and I have been living in the woods and we have had good times together. His name is Mappo, and he knows Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, in the circus.”

“What’s a circus?” asked Pink Nose.

“And what’s an elephant?” Snuggle demanded.

“I’ll tell you all about it,” said Flop Ear, and he did.

All the adventures that had happened to him since he had run away did Flop Ear tell to his brother and sister. Papa and Mamma Bunny listened also, as did Lady Munch.

“But oh! how glad I am to be at home again,” said Flop Ear. “I hope no more hunters will come along.”

“We hope so, too,” said his father.

Flop Ear was taken down into the new burrow and given something to eat. He liked the new home very much. Mappo, the monkey, was too large to go down into the underground house, but he found a place in a tree where he could stay all night, and the rabbits gave him some supper.

The next morning Mappo said good-by to Flop Ear, and to the other bunnies.

“I’m going back to the house where I live,” said Mappo. “I have had enough of running away.”

“And so have I!” cried Flop Ear. “After this I am going to stay at home.”

And he did. And though he had more adventures they were little ones, in the woods around the new burrow. And Pink Nose and Snuggle were never tired of hearing Flop Ear tell of all the wonderful things that had happened to him, just as I have told you here.

And, now since Flop Ear is safe at home again, we will say good-by to him.

THE END

GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN

(From four to nine years old)

THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES

By RICHARD BARNUM

In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and the reason is obvious, for nothing entertains a child more than the antics of an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents such as children adore, and the characters are so full of life, so appealing to a child’s imagination, that none will be satisfied until they have met all of their favorites――Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, and the rest.

1 Squinty, the Comical Pig. 2 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel. 3 Mappo, the Merry Monkey. 4 Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant. 5 Don, a Runaway Dog. 6 Dido, the Dancing Bear. 7 Blackie, a Lost Cat. 8 Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit. 9 Tinkle, the Trick Pony. 10 Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat. 11 Chunky, the Happy Hippo. 12 Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox. 13 Nero, the Circus Lion. 14 Tamba, the Tame Tiger. 15 Toto, the Rustling Beaver. 16 Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo. 17 Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck.

_Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated._

BARSE & HOPKINS Publishers Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Notes:

――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).

――Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.

――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.

――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.

End of Project Gutenberg's Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit, by Richard Barnum