“I reckon that’s so about the Monkeys,” remarked Mrs. Meadows. “They used to be in the country next door, and now they are no longer there.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Rabbit; “it’s just like I tell you: they were there once, but now they are not there any more. But in the world next door everybody has his ups and downs, especially his downs. I’ve heard my great-grandfather tell many a time how our family used to live close to the Moon. So I don’t make any brags1 about the way the Monkeys had to take to the bushes. I remember about my own family, and then I feel like hanging my head down and saying nothing. It is a very funny feeling, too. When I think we used to live close to the Moon, and that we now live on the ground and have to crawl there like snails2, I sometimes feel like crying; and I tell you right now if I was to begin to boo-hoo, you’d be astonished.”
Buster John and Sweetest Susan looked very serious, but Drusilla showed a desire to laugh.
“You say you used to live close to the Moon?” asked Buster John, with more curiosity than usual.
“Why, certainly,” replied Mr. Rabbit. “I don’t say that I did, but I’m certain that my family did. I’ve heard my great-grandfather tell about it a hundred times. I’ve heard that it was a better country up there than it is where you live, even better than it is down here,—a good deal more fun and fiddling3, and not half so much looking around for something to eat. That is the great trouble. If we didn’t have to scuffle around and get something to eat, we’d be lots better off.
“It’s mighty4 funny. If you let well enough alone, you are all right; but the minute you try to better it, everything goes wrong.”
“Dat wuz de way wid ol’ man Adam,” remarked Drusilla.
“Why, of course,” said Mr. Rabbit, “and it was the way with all the Rabbits and everybody and everything else.”
“But how did they live up there by the Moon?” asked Sweetest Susan. “How did they keep from falling off?”
Mr. Rabbit scratched his head a little before replying. “Well,” said he, after awhile, “they got along just as we do down here,—heads up and feet down. But one time, as I’ve heard my great-grandfather say, the Moon got into a sort of fidget, and was mighty restless for quite a while. At last, one of our family, the oldest of all, made bold to look over the fence and ask the Moon what the trouble was. He noticed, too, that the Moon had shrunk considerably5, and seemed to be in a very bad way. It could hardly hold up its head.
“But the Moon managed to look up when it heard the fuss at the fence, and, in a very shaky voice, told the oldest of all the Rabbits howdy.
“‘What is the trouble?’ says the oldest Rabbit. Says he, ‘Can I do anything to help you?’
“‘I’m afraid not,’ says the Moon. ‘You are not nimble enough.’
“‘Maybe I’m nimbler than you think,’ says the oldest Rabbit.
“‘Well,’ says the Moon, ‘I’ll tell you what the trouble is. I want to get a message to Mr. Man, who lives in the world down yonder. I’ve been shining on him at night, and I’ve caught a bad cold by being out aft............