"Smut was next to go--a nice little chap with a blackish nose. A little girl of Mr. Man's bought him, and it was another little girl that bought me. She looked at all of us a good while, and pretty soon she happened to see that I was looking at her, and she said she could see in my eyes that I was asking her to take me, which was so, and pretty soon I was in a bag, too, and when the little girl opened the bag I was in her house--a very fine place, with a number of wonderful things in it besides her family, and plenty to eat--much more than I wanted, though I had a good appetite, being young.
"I was very lonesome, though, for there were none of the Rabbit family there, and I had nobody to talk to, or cuddle up to at night. I had a little house all to myself, but often through the day my little girl would hold me and stroke my fur, trying as hard as she could to make me happy and enjoy her society.
"I really did enjoy it, too, sometimes, when she did not squeeze me too hard, which she couldn't help, she was so fond of me. When I would sit up straight and wash my face, as I did every morning, she would call everybody to see me, and said I was the dearest thing in the world."
When Miss Meadows said that Jack Rabbit looked at her with his head tipped a little to one side, as if he were trying to decide whether Mr. Man's little girl had been right or not. Then he looked at the Hollow Tree people and said:
"H'm! H'm! Very nice little girl" (meaning Mr. Man's, of course), "and very smart, too."
"I got used to being without my own folks," Miss Meadows went on, "but I did not forget the nice green grass of the country, and always wanted to go back to it. If I had known what was going to happen to me in the country I should not have been so anxious to get there.
"I had been living with that little girl and her family about a month, I suppose, when one day she came running to my house and took me out, and said:
"'Oh, Brownie'--that was her name for me--'we are going to the country, Brownie dear, where you can run and play on the green grass, and eat fresh clover, and have the best time.'
"Well, of course I was delighted, and we did go to the country, but I did not have the best time--at least, not for long.