"Good morning," he said and handed me the letter, and now you shall
hear what was written to Mr. William Bunny, Brier Patch, Old Snake
Fence Corner, U. S. A., care of Uncle Sam!

"My dear Billy Bunny:

"Just a few lines from your old friend the Circus Elephant to tell you
that he is coming to see you as soon as he gets over the measles. If
you've never had the measles, dear Billy Bunny, don't get them, for
they are dreadful things for there's so many of them.

"Please give my love to Mr. Lucky Lefthindfoot and tell him as soon as
I'm well, I'll be back in his circus.

"Your friend,

"Elly."

And as soon as I'd read the letter the little rabbit put it in his
pocket and hopped away and by and by he came to a little stone house
by a river. And before I go any farther I'll just whisper to you how I
know all this.

You see, the little robin told me all about it, for he and I are great
friends and his nest is in the old apple tree just under my window.

Well, pretty soon, after looking all around, Billy Bunny knocked on
the door of the little stone house and in a few minutes it was opened
by a nice lady muskrat, whose name was Jenny Eva.

"How do you do, little rabbit," she said, and then she invited him in
and gave him a cookie made out of carrot seeds and pumpkin flour. And
after that he showed her the letter from his friend, the circus
elephant, and just then, all of a sudden, the front door flew open and
in came the miller's dog.

And, oh, dear me! Mrs. Jenny Eva Muskrat forgot all about her society
manners and ran down the back stairs into the river and the little
rabbit forgot to say good-by and hid himself in a big hat box where
she kept her last year's Easter bonnet. And then, what do you suppose
the miller's dog did? Why, he began to sing:

"Old Mrs. Muskrat jumped into the river,
Splasherty, splasherty, splash!
And little boy rabbit jumped into the box,
That held her best bonnet and trampled upon it.
Masherty, masherty, mash!"

And in the next story you shall know what the miller's dog did when he
stopped singing, that is, if Robbie Redbreast isn't too frightened to
look into the window and tell me all about it.

STORY XXXV.

BILLY BUNNY AND THE MILLER'S DOG.

After the Miller's Dog stopped singing, as I told you in the story
before this, he poked his nose into the hat box where Billy Bunny had
hidden himself and said in a deep, growly voice:

"Come out of