  When you first hear welcome news, You can hardly keep your shoes From running off with both your feet And telling every one you meet. This is just the way little Jack Rabbit felt on seeing Blue Bird, the sweet-voiced Messenger of Spring. To know that Spring had come, after the long hard Winter, made the little rabbit almost as happy as if it were Xmas morning. "There comes Professor Jim Crow," exclaimed the little rabbit, looking out from the Old Bramble Patch, and then over the Sunny Meadow fluttered Redwing and Song Sparrow. "All the birds will soon be here," laughed the little bunny, hopping out to the Sunny Meadow to look about him. Pretty soon he heard the merry whistle of Mr. Meadow Lark. "Good-by, Little Jack Rabbit!" cried Snow Bunting. "I'm going farther North. It will soon be too warm for me!" And then Mr. Meadow Lark whistled, "I'm here! I'm here!" And his yellow breast shone in the sunlight as bright as a new Lincoln penny! After that the little rabbit hopped over to the Bubbling Brook, and, would you believe it, the ice was gone and the sparkling water was flowing swiftly onward to the deep blue sea! Oh, how fast the snow was melting. Only along the Old Rail Fence or in the hollows were patches of dingy whiteness. Up at the Old Farm the feathered folk strutted about in the warm sunshine. Even the Weathercock seemed more lively as he turned this way and that in the gentle breeze. "Spring is coming, Spring is here, Soon the meadow will be clear Of its snowy coat of white And the grass will sparkle bright With the dandelion and All the yellow cowslip band. "I must tell all my friends that Spring is here," cried the little rabbit. He just couldn't wait, you see, for them to find it out. He thought he must be a little four-footed messenger boy bunny and spread the glad tidings. So away he hopped, clippity, clip, lippity, lip, past the Barnyard where Cocky Doodle was singing his cock-a-doodle-do song, and Henny Penny was cackling over her new laid egg. Ducky Waddles, too, was happy as could be. In a few days he would be swimming in the Old Duck Pond and standing on his head to gobble up the little fish that came too near his great big yellow bill. "Good-by, I'm off to tell the glad news," and away went the little rabbit. Pretty soon, not so very far, he saw at the edge of the Shady Forest, on his favorite tree, Professor Jim Crow in his glistening suit of black feathers. |
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