anything
our size. And this time I couldn't run. If I had, Old Klaws would surely
have carried off one of my babies. He got one of them this spring. You
remember the one you took away from him. He is grown up and has gone out
into the world for himself now. You know we Wa-pooses have three or four
families each year."

[Illustration]

XXVII. THE RABBIT DANCE

"Would you like to see a rabbit dance?" asked Father Wa-poose one day in
September.

"Indeed, I should," replied little Luke.

"Come out to-night then," said Wa-poose, "and sit down in the shadow of
the stone wall in the corner of the clover field. There you will see
something you have never seen before."

"I'll be there," said the boy.

That night little Luke went up to his room early. He took off his shoes
and threw them heavily upon the floor, and blew out the light. Then he
jumped upon his bed, so that it creaked loudly. Without taking off his
clothes, he got under the blankets, and when Aunt Martha looked in, he
seemed to be sound asleep. She did not look into the closet to see
whether his clothes were hanging up there or not.

When he thought Aunt Martha had gone to bed, the little boy got up
quietly, took his shoes in his hand, and slipped softly down the back
stairs. Silently he unlocked and opened the kitchen door, and went out
into the moonlight.

He did not feel that he was doing quite right, but he was afraid to ask
Aunt Martha. You see he was afraid that she might ask questions, which
he could not answer without telling about the Magic Flower and his wild
friends.

He went over to the clover field and sat down in the corner of the stone
fence where some bushes hid him from view.

For some time nothing happened. Pretty soon he heard a queer thump!
thump! thump! He looked up and there was old Father Wa-poose close
beside him. He had come into the field so quietly that little Luke had
not heard a sound.

"Hi! hi! there you are, Man-cub," said the old rabbit. "Now you sit
very still, and you'll see something worth seeing. Of course we are not
really afraid of you, but if some of the young folks should see you,
they might get nervous. I'll just go out and get my supper, and when the
fun begins I'll come back and keep you company. I don't care much for
dancing. I leave that mostly to the young people."

Soon from all sides, rabbits came leaping over the fence into the field.
There were young rabbits and old rabbits, big rabbi