about, and in one was a big gray squirrel, who sat up and chattered at
the sight of Sammie, as if he had never seen a rabbit before.

"What are you doing here?" asked the squirrel. "Don't you know rabbits
are not allowed here?"

"Why not?" asked Sammie.

"Because there are nice trees about, and the keepers of the park fear
you and your family will gnaw the bark off and spoil them."

"We never spoil trees," declared Sammie, though he just then remembered
that his Uncle, Wiggily Longears, had once said something about
apple-tree bark being very good to eat.

"There's another reason," went on the squirrel, chattering away.

"What is it?" asked Sammie.

"Look over there and you'll see," was the reply, and when Sammie looked,
with his little body half out of the hole he had made, he saw a great
animal, with long horns, coming straight at him. He tried to run back
down the hole, but he found he had not made it large enough to turn
around in.

So Sammie Littletail, frightened as he as at the dreadful animal, had to
jump out of the burrow to get ready to run down it again, and, just as
he did so, the big animal cried out to him:

"Hold on there!"