It was Christmas Eve in Bunnyville. Bunnyville was in a lovely great forest, and was the place where all the rabbits lived. Mr. and Mrs. Hare and six baby hares lived in a nice hollow tree, by the side of a clear stream of water, so that they never suffered for a cool drink or a bath. The little Hares were very much excited tonight, and were staying up far beyond the usual time, because they had so much to talk about, and were wondering what the morrow would bring. Now, this was to be the first time in their little lives that these dear little rabbits had ever hung up their stockings, for their papa and mamma had not known until recently that there was such a thing as Santa Claus.

Mamma Hare saw that her little soft, wooly babies were getting too much excited, so she said to them, “Now, children, you really must go to bed, or the Santa rabbit will not come to you at all, and then how will you feel? Come! Hurry, now.”

So they all scampered toward the mamma and gave her a good hug, with their little furry arms, and jumped into bed, all six of them in a row. The mamma leaned over them, and tucked them all in snugly, pulling the long gray moss up close around their necks, for the night was bitter cold, and the wind was howling fiercely around their tree home. Then she kissed each one, but her way of doing this was to rub her nose against each one of the little wrinkled noses, and that was a rabbit kiss.

They were soon sound asleep, and Mr. and Mrs. Hare were just dozing off, too, when they heard a queer, scratching sound, outside of their big tree, and they lay there peeping out from the moss with their bright eyes until suddenly, through the hole in the tree, there stepped—old Santa. He was a big—a very big—white rabbit, with long ears, and pink eyes, and long whiskers. He had such a kind face that they were almost tempted to speak to him, but they were afraid if they did he might get scared, and run away, before filling the stockings. Those were the funniest stockings you ever saw. Of course, the little rabbits did not wear stockings, only when it was very cold, they sometimes put on extra fur shoes to play in the snow. So the mamma had made each one a nice, large one, to hang up, and there they hung in a row, on some pegs driven to the inside of the tree. Old Santa looked around a minute, and soon spied these queer fur stockings; but he was used to that, for all the little bunnies he had visited that night had that same kind, so, with a low chuckle to himself, he took a big fur bag off his shoulders and reaching down into it he drew forth the loveliest things papa and mamma rabbit had ever seen. Their eyes fairly sparkled, as they thought of how delighted their babies would be when they awoke. Santa Claus did not forget anybody—not even papa and mamma, for they saw him stuffing a lot of things down at the foot of their bed, as he laughed to think of their surprise. When he left they jumped out of bed, and peeked through the tree, and saw him leap into a sleigh which was made out of a big, big pumpkin and drawn by tiny white mice. Their little silver bells tinkled as they flew over the snow—for the whole world outside was now covered with a beautiful sparkling robe of snow. The rabbits were awake long before the dawn next morning, and made such a noise, giggling and whispering, under their cover of moss, that the mamma could not sleep. Finally they said: “O, mamma, can’t we get up?”

“Yes, I guess you might as well,” she replied, “as you won’t go to sleep.” So out they scampered, all six of them, tumbling all over each other in their eagerness to see what good old Santa had brought them. O, how delighted they were, as they ran their little paws down into each fur stocking, and brought forth the most wonderful things, surely, that rabbits ever had.

There were little red apples, and all kinds of nuts, and nice green things to eat, and actually, a doll, made out of cornstalks, and corn-silk for hair. They had never had a doll before, and they hugged them to their little furry breasts with ecstasy. When the children were all through looking at their gifts the papa and mamma looked at the foot of their bed and found the things Santa had brought them. There were bushels of red and yellow apples, bags of wheat, great cabbages and celery, tender lettuce and all the good things so dear to the heart of a rabbit.

Dear, dear! Their mouths fairly watered, as they looked at these things. More than enough to last them all winter, and now they would not have to go out in the cold, bitter weather, searching for something to eat. They could stay in their good warm tree, and have a jolly time together, and eat all the good things they wanted. After breakfast the children all ran out and played snowball and frolicked around at leap-frog and such outdoor sports all morning, which made them so hungry that they felt as if they could eat up the whole lot of winter supplies. After a while mamma called them in, and they joyfully sat down to their Christmas dinner. There was a long table, just filled with good things, and the children all sat on big strong toadstools. My! how hungry they were. But mamma had known they would be, and had provided everything good that a rabbit likes, and actually had some tiny cakes, and little red candies. What a jolly meal that was! Everybody laughing and chewing away at something held tightly between their two little front paws, and wrinkling up their funny brown noses, smelling at all the good things on the table. It was quite late when they finished the merry meal, and after looking for some time at the things which Santa had brought, papa and mamma said: “Children, we have another surprise for you now.”

Another surprise! What could it be? It seemed to them that they already had every surprise in the world, and they could not imagine how anything else could be thought of.

Mamma made each of them put on a very heavy fur coat, and fur shoes, and they all went out, and went skipping over the cold white snow, until at last, through the darkness they caught a glimpse of something sparkling, and bright and beautiful. Bright lights hung everywhere, and in the center of it all was a tree—that was not like any tree they had ever seen before in all their little rabbit lives. It was a rabbit Christmas tree, just covered with beautiful gifts for all, and there all around the tree were dozens and dozens of rabbits many of whom were friends of theirs, and what a jolly crowd it was. Everybody good natured, and all jumping and hopping, as if their lives depended upon it. Pretty soon from out the darkness who should appear but Santa himself? O, what hurrying and scurrying of little furry feet there was, as all the little bunnies tried to get near him. He smiled upon them all as he stepped to the tree and began handing gifts to each and every one of them. And the funniest part of it was, that he knew every one of their names. After the gifts had all been distributed they all joined hands around Santa Claus, and went around in the wildest, merriest dance, that was ever danced by a party of rabbits. So light of feet and so happy were they that they fairly flew over the ground. Then the good old Santa told them good-by till next year, and jumping into his sleigh, vanished from sight. They all went home very tired, but O, so very, very happy to be tucked away again into their soft, warm nests of gray moss.

Jessie Juliet Knox.