Said Brer Rabbit to his wife one day, "Oh, how I should like to see the world! It is very dreary living in this green field, and always having the same thing over and over again."

"My dear," answered his wife, "it is a dangerous world beyond the green fields, where all manner of strange things dwell, and two-footed animals lie in wait to gobble you up. I do not want to leave my little burrow."

And Brer Rabbit's wife tucked herself up in her little bed and went to sleep.

But Brer Rabbit kept thinking and thinking, and longing and longing to go beyond the green field in which he had his home; and one fine morning he popped out of his hole and ran away with all his might and main.

Over the fields he went faster and faster. On the way he passed whole families of rabbits, and when they called after him, "Where are you going to, Brer Rabbit?" never a word he answered.

At last Brer Rabbit began to feel tired. It was long since he had left his home, and he had travelled many, many miles, and now felt very hungry.

"I wonder where I could get something to eat," he said to himself.

But he looked about in vain. Not a blade of nice sweet grass could he see anywhere, and he began to feel very sad.

"Oh, what shall I do?" thought poor Brer Rabbit. "How I wish I had never left my nice home!"

But now he was too tired to go back; and even if he would, he could not go, for, in his haste, he had not noticed by which way he had come.

Just then he spied a nice box with a lot of straw in it.

"Ah," said Brer Rabbit, "this looks a nice quiet bed. I will just pop in here and have a good sleep."

So in he popped, and curled himself up in the corner, and soon fell fast asleep.

Brer Rabbit must have been sleeping for a long time when he awoke with a fearful start.

And what do you think had happened?

Some one had put a chair inside the box and packed it in with more straw, and now the lid was being hammered on, and poor Brer Rabbit was too terrified to move. There he was held fast in a prison, and no one to let him out.

"Oh dear, dear me!" wailed Brer Rabbit. "If only I had taken my wife's advice and never left my nice little home!"

But Brer Rabbit wailed in vain, for never an answer was there to his cry.

Presently Brer Rabbit felt the box being lifted and put into a train. Then the door was shut, the whistle blown, and away he went, far, far across the country to a strange land.

Brer Rabbit shivered and shook with fright, and he got so ill with hunger that he was forced to eat the hard coarse straw. How he longed for some green grass and a nice cool drink!

After many hours the train stopped and the box was taken out; then it was put into a van and taken to a big shop in a town. There, with poor Brer Rabbit still in it, the box was put into a dark cellar.

After a long time a man came to the box and took off the lid; then he took out the chair.

"I am lost now," said Brer Rabbit, "for surely this is a two-footed animal come to gobble me up."

So he huddled himself up in the corner, but it was so dark in the cellar that the man never saw him, and he took the chair away, and left Brer Rabbit all alone, and the lid off the box.

"Now," said Brer Rabbit, "I am at least free of this box, but I will just wait awhile before I pop out in case any one should come in and see me."

So he waited till all was quiet, and then popped out of his prison. Oh, how weak and ill he did feel! He could scarcely hop round the floor. He looked all over for something to eat, and found some crumbs, but no water to drink.

So Brer Rabbit stayed there all that night and the next day, until he was almost dead and had lost count of time.

"O sir," said Bob, the errand boy, to his master, "there is a great big rat in the cellar. I have never seen such a big one before, and I am almost afraid of it."

"I will come and see," said the master. And off he went with Bob to the cellar.

Bob opened the door very gently and peeped in.

"It is still there," said he.

"Let me look," exclaimed the master, and he too peeped in at the door.

"Why," he said, "that is not a rat; it is a wild rabbit."

Bob's eyes nearly dropped out with surprise. And no wonder, for here was poor Brer Rabbit sitting in the corner, too weak and ill to run away.

"Now," he thought, "I must surely die, for I am caught at last."

But Bob's master was a kind man, and he loved animals very much.

He took Brer Rabbit up in his arms, and gave him some milk to drink and biscuits to eat, and then put him into a warm basket, and took him home for his little girls and boys to look at.

That same day they took Brer Rabbit away into the country, and put him down in a lovely green field, and gave him his freedom.

And this was the end of Brer Rabbit's adventure. After many long days he found his wife and family again, and when he had told them all about it, he said,—

"I shall never, never again want to see the world."