first to spy anything With his wonderful lookout eye. “I’m inviting all my friends to the circus,” replied the little bunny, with a happy laugh. “We all leave to-morrow morning at 7, right after breakfast. Where’s Cocky Doodle?” “Here I am,” crowed the little rooster. “I heard you. I’ll go to the circus. Many thanks.” “Cackle, cackle, what do you think, This morning the sky was yellow and pink. Mr. Merry Sun was just out of bed— His nightcap crinkled all over his head,” cackled Henny Jenny, who had just laid a pretty white egg in her little round nest. “Will you come to my circus party?” asked Little Jack Rabbit. “We start to-morrow morning at seven from the Old Bramble Patch. Father has hired the Billy Goat Stage Coach to take us all to Uncle Lucky’s Circus at Turnip City.” “Oh, yes, I’ll wear my nicest dress And my pinky coral comb. You’ll surely bring me back again, For it’s very far from home.” “Of course we will,” answered Little Jack Rabbit. “Don’t forget me,” cried Goosey Lucy. “Will you come?” asked the little bunny. “To be sure,” answered the nice lady goose. “Don’t forget Ducky Waddles.” “Where is he?” asked the bunny boy, looking here and there and everywhere. “He went for a swim in the Old Duck Pond,” answered Henny Jenny. “Why, I just came from there,” replied the little bunny. “I didn’t see him. I saw only Granddaddy Bullfrog.” “Well, you see him now,” quacked a familiar voice, and there stood Ducky Waddles himself. He had just waddled around from behind the Big Red Barn. “Will you come to my circus party?” asked Little Jack Rabbit. “I couldn’t refuse,” laughed the nice little duck. Now, I wonder next who will be invited to the Circus. Listen, and you shall hear, for the little bunny has just hopped around the Big Haystack. “Mrs. Cow, won’t you come to the circus?” “Where is it?” enquired that nice lady cow, whipping her tail to and fro to scare away the flies. “I can’t go far for my little baby calf needs me ’most all the time.” “At Turnip City,” answered Little Jack Rabbit. “Oh, dear! You must excuse me,” replied Mrs. Cow. “That’s too far away. I’ll wait for Uncle Lucky’s Circus to come to Rabbitville. But thank you, just the same.” “Now, who else?” thought the little bunny, when, all of a sudden, he spied Turkey Tim. “Won’t you come to my circus party?” “Yes, indeed,” answered the big turkey gobbler. “What time, and where, and how?” “To-morrow morning at seven o’clock we all go in the Billy Goat Stage Coach. Be on time at the Old Bramble Patch,” and away hopped Little Jack Rabbit, his long ears catching the turkey gobbler’s poetry answer: “I’ll be there before it’s seven, I’ll be first of the umpty-’leven.” Pretty soon the little bunny spied Squirrel Nutcracker in his gray fur suit, sitting on a tree stump in the Shady Forest. “Oh, 

 Prev. P 36/158 next