er, a tiny rabbit when he was born, and not very big when the old
woman took him away on his first trip to the street corner. Bumper had
never seen so many people before, and he was a little shy and frightened
at first; but Jimsy and Wheedles, his brothers, laughed at his fears, and
told him not to mind.

After that he plucked up courage, and when a little girl suddenly ran out
of the crowd and picked him up in her arms, he tried not to be afraid.
"Oh, you sweet little thing!" the girl exclaimed, pinching his ears
softly. "Where did you come from, and where did you get those pink eyes
and those long, fluffy ears?"

Then the girl kissed Bumper and rubbed his nose against her soft, fresh
young cheek; but when the old lady approached, all smiles, and said, "Want
him, dear?" she put him down in the basket again.

"Want him? Of course, I want him!" she replied a little scornfully. "But I
can't buy him to-day. I spent all my birthday money on candies and cakes.
Take him now before I steal him and run away."

She was a pretty girl, with red hair, a dimple in her chin, and one big
freckle on the end of her nose; but her eyes were blue, and they made
Bumper think of the sky which he could see through a hole in the roof of
his house. I suppose it was because he had pink eyes that he thought blue
was so becoming to little girls.

That night when he got home, Bumper was bursting with excitement. The
day's experience was enough to cause this, but the words of the little
girl who had spent all of her birthday money for candies and cakes were
fresh in his mind. The first thing he did when he got in his box was to
pester his mother with so many questions that she had hard work answering
them.

"A little girl asked me where I came from, mother, and I couldn't answer
her. Where did I come from?"

"Why, dear, from a snowball, of course. How else could you be so white?"

"And have I pink eyes?" That was the little girl's second question.

"What color did you think they were?" asked Bumper's mother, smiling.
"Look at the eyes of your brothers and sisters."

Bumper looked in Jimsy's and Wheedle's eyes, and saw they were pink, but
he was still doubtful. "But mine," he added, "are you sure they're pink?
They might be green or yellow--"

Mother rabbit laughed and hopped over to a basin of water which the good
old woman kept filled for her pets. "Look in that," she said, "and then
tell me what you see."

Trembling with excitement,