It was a perfect little rabbit hole which was always warm and dark. Leaves which had fallen in autumn lined the hollows floor and just a single hop beyond the little hole was lush green grass, and sweet yellow flowers to nibble.
It was spring time and from the hollow came a shuffling sound followed by the smallest of squeaks. Inside of the hollow were five baby bunnies born just a few days before. Their mother was sitting outside the hollow eating some of the sweet flowers.
A boy and a girl who were playing in the meadow saw the mother rabbit and sat down in the grass to watch her eat the flowers. The little girl loved rabbits and so they sat and watched until the mother rabbit disappeared back into her hollow beneath the great oak tree.
The little girl came back as often as she could to watch the pretty rabbit and a short while later she began to see the little baby bunnies as they tried to discover where the warm glow of light came from each morning.
Each time the little bunnies would find their way to the hollows opening their mother would tumble them back down the hole to where they were safe.
One day when the little girl came to watch the bunnies she sat for hours and did not see the mother rabbit or her bunnies. Nor did she see them the next day or the day after that.
She knew she wasn’t supposed to bother the bunnies but she needed to know where they had gone and so she snuck up right next to the great oak tree and peeked down the rabbit hole. She lay stretched out on her tummy face beside the hole and listened very carefully.
She could hear the baby bunnies moving around and hear the little squeaks they made. So she backed up and sat in the grass to watch for the mother rabbit just a little while longer. Hours passed and still she did not see the mother bunny.
She crawled back over to the hollow and once again peeked down into the darkness of the hollow. The baby bunnies were still making little noises but they had become quieter than they had been the first time she peeked.
The little girl ran home and told her brother what she had seen at the rabbit hole that day. They went and spoke to their father who told them if the mother hadn’t come back all day she probably never would.
The little girl was sad and didn’t want to leave the baby bunnies all alone. The boy asked their father if they could save the little bunnies. Their father said yes but told the boy and the girl that it would be a big job to take care of them until they were big enough to survive on their own and then they would have to let them go.
So the boy found a crate and lined it with hay and together the girl and boy carried the box over to the meadow. They sat and watched for the Mother rabbit a little while longer and when another hour had passed and no sign of the mother rabbit was seen they crawled over to the hollow pulling the box behind and peered into the hole.
Only a very quiet sound could be heard from the rabbit hole as if the baby bunnies were sleepy and tired. The boy and girl knew they must save the bunnies now or not at all.
So they dug a bit more dirt away from the entrance and then they were just able to reach way deep down into the hollow and pull the baby bunnies from their home and one by one moved them to the crate.
They were very small and very quiet. The boy and girl took them home put them in the barn. For the next few weeks the boy and girl took turns feeding the bunnies milk with a medicine dropper. Slowly the bunnies grew and in what seemed to be a very short time began to eat little bits of grass and flowers.
The boy and girl had worked very hard at taking care of the baby bunnies and had saved them all. The mother rabbit had never come back. The bunnies were now little rabbits and the boy’s and girl’s father told them it was time to let them go.
So the boy and the girl carried the crate back up to the hollow and one by one sent the bunnies back down into the hollow. They sat nearby and watched each day until all of the rabbits had come out of the hollow and hopped off across the meadow to make new homes of their own.
