"
"Is that the reason your eyes are so big?" asked Dorothy.
"I suppose so," returned the rabbit; "you see we have only our eyes
and our ears and our legs to defend ourselves with. We cannot fight,
but we can always run away, and that is a much better way to save our
lives than by fighting."
"Where is your home, bunny?" enquired the girl.
"I live in the ground, far down in a cool, pleasant hole I have dug in
the midst of the forest. At the bottom of the hole is the nicest
little room you can imagine, and there I have made a soft bed to rest
in at night. When I meet an enemy I run to my hole and jump in, and
there I stay until all danger is over."
"You have told me what you see in summer," continued Dorothy, who was
greatly interested in the rabbit's account of himself, "but what do
you see in the winter?"
"In winter we rabbits," said Bunny so shy,
"Keep watch to see Santa go galloping by."
"And do you ever see him?" asked the girl, eagerly.
"Oh, yes; every winter. I am not afraid of him, nor of his reindeer.
And it is such fun to see him come dashing along, cracking his whip
and calling out cheerily to his reindeer, who are able to run even
swifter than we rabbits. And Santa Claus, when he sees me, always
gives me a nod and a smile, and then I look after him and his big load
of toys which he is carrying to the children, until he has galloped
away out of sight.
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