Part 3 (1/2)

”Hair!” echoed Rudolf and Peter loudly.

”Bless me,” said their new friend, ”that's not at all _my_ business, is it? Not at all in my line--oh, no!” He gathered up his hat, dress-suit case, and little umbrella from the floor where he had dropped them. ”Be sure you don't follow me,” he said, nodding pleasantly and winking at the children. Then he stepped to the door without so much as a look at the Gentleman Goose who called out angrily:

”Stop, stop! Catch 'em, Squealer--at 'em, Squawker--hold 'em, boys!”

It was too late. The boys were too much afraid of the Hare to do more than flutter and squawk a little, and as the Gentleman Goose did not seem inclined to make an attack single-handed, the Hare, with the children behind him, got to the door in safety. Peter, however, had to be dragged along by Ann and Rudolf, for the Lady Goose had just removed the great pot from the stove in time to prevent its contents from boiling over, and the little boy was sniffing hungrily at the steam. Now she came after the children carrying a large spoonful of the bubbling stuff. ”All done, all done,” she cried. ”Don't go without a taste, dears.”

”What's done?” asked Peter, eagerly turning back to her.

”Worms, dear; red ones and brown ones,” answered the Lady Goose,--”boiled in vinegar, you know--just like mother used to make--with a wee bit of a gra.s.shopper here and there for flavoring.

Mother had the recipe handed down in her family--her side--you know, from my great-great-grandmother's half-sister who was a De l'Oie but married a Mr. Gans and was potted in the year--”

They got Peter through the door by main force, Ann and Rudolf pus.h.i.+ng behind and the Hare pulling in front. Even then, I am ashamed to say, Peter kept calling out that he would like ”just a taste”, and he didn't see why the Goose's worms wouldn't be just as good as the white kind cook sent up with cheese on the top!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER IV

THE FALSE HARE

As they hurried away from the Goose's house, the children cast one last look behind them. There at the window was the Lady Goose waving in farewell the spoon she had stirred the hot worms with. Suddenly a whirl of white feathers flew out of the chimney, the window and the door, which the children in their haste had left open behind them, and hid her completely from their sight. At the same instant two feeble shrieks came from within the house.

”Squealer and Squawker both went into the heap that time, I guess,”

said Rudolf.

”I'm glad of it!” Ann cried. ”_I'd_ never help either of the horrid little things out again. Would you, sir?” she asked, turning politely to the Hare.

”I dare say not,” he answered, yawning. ”That is, of course, unless I had particularly promised _not_ to. In that case I suppose I'd have to.”

All three children looked very much puzzled.

”Would you mind telling us,” asked Ann timidly, ”what you meant when you said _this_”--and she touched her hair--”was not your business?”

”Not at all,” said the Hare cheerfully. ”I meant that it was.”

”But you said--”

”Oh, what I _said_ was, of course, untrue.”

”Do you mean you tell stories?” Ann looked very much shocked, and so did the others.

”Certainly,” said the Hare, ”that's my business, I'm a False Hare, you know. Oh, dear, yes, I tell heaps and heaps of stories, as many as I possibly can, only sometimes I forget and then something true will slip out of me. Oh, it's a hard life, it is, to be thoroughly untruthful every single day from the time you get up in the morning till the time you go to bed at night--round and round the clock, you know! No eight-hour day for me. Ah, it's a sad, sad life!” He sighed very mournfully, at the same time winking at Rudolf in such a funny way that the boy burst out laughing. ”Take warning by me, young man,”

he continued solemnly, ”and inquire very, _very_ carefully concerning whatever business you go into. If I had known what the life of a False Hare really was, I doubt if I should have ever--But, dear me, this will never do--you're getting me into mischief! I've hardly done so much as a fib since we met.”

”Oh, you mustn't mind _us_,” said Rudolf, trying hard not to laugh, as he and Ann and Peter marched along beside the False Hare. ”You mustn't let us interfere with your--your business, you know. We sha'n't mind, at least we'll try not to. Whatever you say we'll believe just the opposite. It'll be as if he were a kind of game,” he added to Ann who was still looking very doubtful. She looked happier at once, for Ann was quick at games and knew it.