Volume 99 — WHAT THE TAME RABBIT SAID TO THE GRAND OLD GARDENER.
Reading edition
(Some way after "Alice in Wonderland.")
"The work of Major MORANT is headed Profitable Rabbit Farming. (Laughter.) Yes, that is a subject for merriment, probably, on account of its comparative novelty, but it is also a subject of satisfaction, which is akin to merriment, because this rabbit-farming appears to be a very good and promising description of pursuit.... That is the raising of tame rabbits."—Mr. Gladstone at the Hawarden Floral and Horticultural Society's Show.
AMONG THE BUNNIES.
These were the verses the Tame Rabbit recited:—
The Grand Old Man was on the stir; MORANT named me to him; He gave me a good character; I thought his meaning dim. He held me up; they thought it fun! And laughed; he chid their glee. If he should push this matter on, What will become of Me? He said I was a paying game, Commending me as such. That's the result of being tame, And living in a hutch. My notion is that it is vain For you, you Grand Old Fella, To rave of rabbits in the rain, Beneath a big umbrella. Don't let them know we fatten best, For this should ever be A secret kept from all the rest, Between yourself and me!