maybe Slyboots, or maybe Bushy Tail, would have caught the little
bunny. But the lady rabbit saw them just in time and she gave a scream
and hopped into a hollow stump and Billy Bunny after her, and then all
that the two foxes could do was to stand close by and say:

"Isn't that a shame,
To spoil their little game,
To stop their dancing
And their prancing,
Who do you think's to blame?"

"You are, you two bad foxes," said Billy Bunny, but he didn't come out
of that hollow stump. No, sireemam, he staid inside and so did the
little lady rabbit, and by and by the two bad foxes went away and told
their father, Daddy Fox, all about it, and he said, "Don't make any
excuse.

"You are very poor hunters if you can't catch a rabbit when he's
dancing the Fox Trot." And I guess he was right, for Slyboots and
Bushy Tail were so ashamed that they didn't dare look in their
mother's looking-glass for two days and three nights.

And in the next story if Billy Bunny gets out of that hollow stump
before I see him, I'll ask Robbie Redbreast to tell me what he does so
that I can write to-morrow's story for you to read.




STORY XVIII.