“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?”

 

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