CHAPTER VI

IN A CAVE

Out from under a large, green leaf, underneath which he had been sitting, crawled a long green creature. The green creature looked at the brown Monkey, who, after jumping about, sat down on a little hummock of grass to rest.

"What did you say you were doing?" asked the bug.

"Cutting up Monkeyshines," was the answer. "We Monkeys, whether we are toys or not, call our fun 'Monkeyshines,' and I thought I'd cut up a few while I was here by myself. I didn't know you minded."

"Oh, bless you, I don't mind," said the green creature. "I like to watch you. It is fun. You are quite a jumper, and I am something of a jumper myself."

"Who are you?" asked the Monkey.

"I'm a Grasshopper," was the answer. "I live here in this green meadow and sing songs all day long."

"I am glad to meet you, Mr. Grasshopper," said the Monkey. "Singing songs must be nice."

So the Monkey and the Grasshopper sat there talking together. The Monkey told the different things that had happened to him from the time he had awakened in a box on the breakfast table until he fell off Carlo's back.

"Do you have any adventures here in the meadow?" asked the chap who had been cutting up Monkeyshines.

"Oh, yes, we have had things happen here," said the Grasshopper. "Of course they are not as exciting as those you have told me about. But we rather like them. Do you want to----"

But just then something began running through the tall grass a short distance away from where the Monkey sat on a hummock. At first the Monkey thought it was Carlo, the dog, coming back, but in another moment he saw a pink nose and two long, flapping ears.

He knew then it was not Carlo, but he thought it was another friend of his, so the Monkey called:

"I say! Hold on there a minute! I want to talk to you, my friend! Wait, can't you?"

"Who is it?" asked the Grasshopper, stretching out one long hind leg. "Who do you see?"

"My friend, the Candy Rabbit," was the answer. "He just ran through the grass."

"That isn't a Candy Rabbit," said the Grasshopper.

"Who is it, then?" asked the Monkey, in surprise.

"That's Jack Hare, a real, live rabbit who lives in the meadow here," was the reply. "He wouldn't like it if you called him a Candy Rabbit."

The grass waved to and fro, and a moment later a big, white rabbit came jumping through, and sat down on his hind legs near the big leaf on which the Grasshopper was perched. The Monkey could see that this rabbit was different from the one made of candy. This bunny was larger, and his nose was not so pink. His ears, too, were bigger.

"Hello, who's your friend, Mr. Grasshopper?" asked Jack Hare.

"He is a stranger in our meadow," was the answer. "I just met him. He was cutting up some--er--polishes, I think he said."

"Shines! Shines! Monkeyshines, not polishes, though they are somewhat alike," explained the Monkey. "I cut some Monkeyshines after I fell off a dog's back."

"A dog! Good gracious! Don't tell me there's a _dog_ around here!" exclaimed Jack Hare, looking quickly over his shoulder. "A dog will chase me as soon as he will a cat. I guess I'd better be going."

"Oh, don't be afraid," said the Monkey. "The dog I mean is Carlo. He is chasing a cat now, and so he won't come here."

The Grasshopper and the Live Rabbit sat looking at the Monkey. Soon, from under another leaf, came hopping a black bug not quite as large as the green one. The black bug wiggled her legs and chirped cheerfully:

"Well, well! Whom have we here?"

"Oh, this is Mr. Monkey Shine," said the Grasshopper. "Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Monkey Shine, Miss Cricket!" and the green creature nodded from one to the other.

"Excuse me, I am Monkey on a Stick, not Monkey Shine, though I do cut up shines once in a while," said the jolly chap who had fallen off Carlo's back. "That is my right name--Monkey on a Stick."

"I'm pleased to meet you," chirped the Cricket. "Welcome to our meadow, Monkey on a Stick."

"Thank you," replied the Monkey.

Then the Grasshopper, the Live Rabbit and the Cricket sat and looked at the Monkey, and, after a while, he cut some more Monkeyshines for them, even standing on his head and waving his tail in the air.

"I wonder if I could do that," said Jack Hare. "I'm going to try."

"Better not," warned the Monkey. "In turning over you might break off your ears."

"Oh, my ears are not made of candy. They will bend, and not break," said Jack Hare. "Here goes! I'm going to turn a somersault just as you did. Maybe I can cut some Monkeyshines, too!"

Well, the Live Rabbit tried, but I can not say that he did it very well. First he fell over to one side, and then he fell to the other side. And once he got stuck in the middle, standing on his head with his ears lying flat along the ground and his legs sticking up in the air.

"Go on over! Why don't you turn all the way over?" asked the Grasshopper.

[Illustration: Monkey Does Some "Monkey Shines." _Page 65_]

"I--I can't!" answered the Live Rabbit. "I seem to be stuck half way! If one of you would be so kind as to give me a push, or a pull, I might finish my somersault. Come on, help me!"

"I'll help you," kindly said the Monkey. He took hold of the Live Rabbit's hind legs and gave him a push. Over went Jack Hare, finishing his somersault, though not doing it very well.

The Live Rabbit thanked the Monkey on a Stick for what he had done and then said:

"Since you have come to our meadow would you not like to visit my house?"

"Where do you live?" asked the Monkey.

"In a burrow, or underground house, called a cave," answered the Rabbit. "Perhaps you may not like it, but we Bunnies think it rather nice. Will you come to my cave, and visit the other Rabbits?"

"I should love to," said the Monkey. "But you see I belong to a little boy named Herbert. He got me for a birthday present, and he and Dick tied me on the dog's back. I fell off and the two boys may come back here to look for me. If I should go to your cave they might come here, and, not finding me, might think I had left them forever. I like Herbert, and as his friends have some of the other toys with whom I used to live in the store, I want to stay with him."

"That is easily managed," said the Grasshopper. "You go and visit Jack Hare's cave, Mr. Monkey. Miss Cricket and I will stay here, and if we see the boys and the dog coming back, looking for you, we'll hop over and tell you."

So it was planned that the Monkey should visit the Rabbit's cave, and if by any chance, Herbert and Dick came back, the Grasshopper and Cricket would bring word to the Monkey, who could quickly hop back.

"Come along, Mr. Monkey," called the Rabbit, and soon the two new friends were jumping through the grass together. The Monkey was off his stick, and so he could get along quite well, though not quite so fast as Jack Hare. But the Rabbit took short jumps and did not get too far ahead, waiting for the Monkey to catch up to him.

"Here we are at my cave," said Jack Hare at length, stopping in front of a hole in the ground.

"Oh, so this is where you live, is it?" asked the Monkey. He had hopped across the green meadow through the grass after his new friend.

"Yes, we'll go down in now, and meet Mrs. Hare and the children," went on the Live Rabbit. "Mind your step, and don't fall. It's rather steep until you get inside."

"And it's dark, too," said the Monkey, following the Rabbit down the hole into the ground. "How in the world do you see?"

"Oh, I forgot you aren't like us animals, and can not see quite so well in the dark," said the Live Rabbit. "Just a moment, I'll turn on the lamps."

He stopped and gave three thumps with, his feet on the earthen sides of the cave. Instantly a soft glow shone all around, and the Monkey could see very well indeed.

"Do you have electric lights?" he asked in surprise.

"No. These are lightning bugs," was the Rabbit's answer. "I keep them to make the place bright when strangers come. We Rabbits don't need light ourselves, for we can see in the dark."

"Some of the toys can, also," said the Monkey. "But I am not very good at that sort of thing yet. I like light. We had gas and electricity at the toy store."

The Monkey followed the Live Rabbit on down through the winding burrow. It twisted and turned, this way and that, now to the right and now to the left. Here and there, clinging to the earthen sides, were lightning bugs, which made the place so bright that the Monkey did not stumble once.

"But why does it twist and turn so, like a corkscrew?" the Monkey asked the Rabbit.

"We always build our burrow caves like this, to keep out dogs and other enemies," was the reply. "My real home is still a little farther on. We'll be there in a moment."

The Monkey followed on, and soon came to a place where, seated about a table made from a piece of a flat stump, were several little Rabbit children and a lady Rabbit.

"This is my family," said the Live Rabbit. "Mrs. Hare, allow me to present Mr. Monkey on a Stick, who has come to pay us a visit."

"Pleased to meet you," said Mrs. Rabbit, bowing low.

"Hi, Daddy!" called one of the little Rabbits, "where's his stick?"

And then everybody laughed.