LITTLE JACK RABBIT
PROFESSOR CROW’S LESSON
“I’m so glad Twinkle Tail got away,” said Little Jack Rabbit to himself, as the frightened gray squirrel squeezed in between the rocks. And then the little rabbit hopped away as fast as he could, and pretty soon he saw Professor Jim Crow with his little Black Book in his claw.
“Tell me, Professor Jim Crow,” said the little rabbit, “what is the name of the yellowish-brown animal that chases little gray squirrels around and around the trunks of trees?”
“How big was he?” asked the wise old bird, putting on his spectacles and turning over the leaves of his little Black Book.
“Larger than the farmer’s black cat,” answered the little rabbit.
“Did it look something like a fox?” asked the old crow.
“Yes, he did,” replied the little rabbit.
Professor Jim Crow smiled and turned to page 49. “Listen!” he said. “The Marten looks very much like a young fox about two months old. Its color is a yellowish-brown, a little darker than a yellow fox, with a number of long black hairs. It is a great climber, hunts squirrels and robs birds’ nests.”
Then the wise old crow closed his book and wiped his spectacles. “You have learned something today, little rabbit. Mother Nature’s School House will teach you lots of things,” and the old professor bird flew away.
“Well, I’m going to have a good time now,” thought the little rabbit to himself. “I’ve learned my daily lesson. I’ll call up Uncle John.” So off he hopped to the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth.
“What number do you want?” asked the telephone girl who was a little wood-mouse.
“One, two, three, Harefield,” answered the little rabbit, and in less than five hundred short seconds, he heard his Uncle’s voice over the wire.
“Goodness gracious meebus!” exclaimed Mr. John Hare, “I thought you’d forgotten all about your old uncle. Where are you?”
“I’m in the Hollow Stump Telephone Booth,” answered the little rabbit.
“I’ll come right over to the Old Bramble Patch,” said Uncle John, and the old gentleman hare dropped the receiver on his left hind toe he was so excited. You see, he hadn’t heard from his little bunny nephew for so long that he supposed he had enlisted in Uncle Sam’s Army or Aunt Columbia’s Navy! Well, anyway, as soon as the little rabbit had paid the little wood-mouse five carrot cents, he hopped home to tell his mother that Uncle John Hare was coming over to supper.
