A COMPACT BETWEEN FISHERMEN
Everyone was fairly holding his breath. Tad Coon and Doctor Muskrat, who
both fish for themselves, were mighty interested to see how Tommy was
going to catch that bass. Doctor Muskrat was in the shadow of a cattail
where he could see it. Tad was sitting up on his hind legs like Chatter
Squirrel, trying to see without letting the fish see him. Watch didn’t
even wag his tail and Nibble was trying to remember not to thump his
feet or let his ears fly up, the way he always does when he’s excited.
My, but his tickly nose was twitching! Even Stripes Skunk, hidden in the
bushes, had his ears pricked, listening for what was going to happen.
“What’s he doing now?” breathed Nibble. “What’s he doing?”
“Hssh! He’s looking,” said Doctor Muskrat, putting up a paddle-paw to
keep Nibble quiet. “The least little wiggle will scare him. He’s
turning; he’s coming; he’s bit—Ow-w-w! Wonderful! Hold on! Hold on!” For
that big bass nearly yanked Tommy Peele out of the tree when he found
Tommy had caught him.
And then the noise did burst out. Everybody was bouncing and thumping
and barking and squealing, getting into everybody’s way, trying to keep
out of Tommy’s. And Tommy was trying to hold on to that fish line while
he scrambled back to the ground where he could do some strong hauling.
And the great big bass was jerking and jabbing and pulling and fighting,
trying to get away from him.
And not a single one of them succeeded. Tad Coon got under Watch’s dancy
paws; and Watch tripped Tommy Peele; and Tommy Peele went splash right
into the pond; and that great big bass jumped, splash, right out of it.
But he didn’t get away! Not with all those fellows after him!
For just as Tommy fell he threw up his hand to keep his fish line from
being tangled. And that was just when the fish was jumping. You’d better
believe he made a great big jump that time. He jumped in a great big
half-circle right up into the bushes where Stripes Skunk was hiding. And
then he began flouncing and bouncing to get back into the water again.
And of course Stripes Skunk, who fishes a bit his own self, went to stop
him.
Then there was a battle! The big bass snapped and flapped and put up all
his pickery spines on his back fin. And Stripes Skunk slawed him and
pawed him, trying to spear his toenails into those slippery, slidy
scales to hold him. And Doctor Muskrat slapped his tail and fairly
barked with excitement. “Bite him behind the eyes, Stripes! Bite him
behind the eyes!” And at last Stripes got his teeth on the big roach of
neck that begins just behind a fish’s eyes and bit. The bass gave one
tremendous flap that sent the dust and sand and dead grass flying, and
lay still.
But you ought to have seen Tommy Peele. He didn’t know what to do about
it. Here was a strange beast he didn’t know at all, a small black beast
that looked something like a pussy cat, only it had the most beautiful
long, dark fur, with a wide white stripe parted behind its ears and
running all the way down to the round white tip of its wonderful plumy
tail. “Better let go that fish,” Tommy advised. “You certainly are a
good fighter, but if you try to eat it you’ll get a fishhook in your own
mouth, and there certainly will be trouble.”
[Illustration: Stripes battles with a big fish]
Now of course Stripes didn’t know what Tommy meant. But he knew it was
Tommy’s fish in the first place, and besides, Watch the Dog was just
trembling on the tips of his toes because he wanted to snatch it back
for Tommy. Only he didn’t have to. For Stripes was glad enough to put it
down and stretch his tired neck and get the cramp out of his jaws that
were stiff from gripping it. And when he yawned Tommy could see his pink
throat and his pointy tongue—and some little hurty, bleedy spots where
that pickery back-fin had stuck into him.
And there was Doctor Muskrat waddling up beside him to sniff the bass
and say: “Well bitten, Stripes—very well bitten, indeed!” and Tad Coon
was sort of chuckling in his throat: “By Tadpoles, Stripes, I’m glad you
never tried to fight with me,” and Nibble was fairly purring, “I’m proud
of you, Stripes. This is one more joke on Tad Coon. He said you didn’t
know what teeth were for.” Even Watch wasn’t quite sure that he oughtn’t
to be ashamed of himself for growling. He looked to see what Tommy Peele
was going to do.
Tommy pulled in his line and took the hook out of the fish’s mouth—and
then maybe you think they weren’t curious about it! “Aha!” said the wise
old muskrat. “I thought it wasn’t just like the wire that caught you,
Nibble. A fish is so slippy I couldn’t see how that would hold him. This
is cold and smelly, like the cold jaws that caught me. Better not get
too close to it.” And that’s just about what Tommy said when Tad Coon
wanted to take the shiny thing in his handy-paws to look at it. And when
Stripes Skunk saw that none of the others was afraid, he came closer,
too, and crinkled up his nose at it.
That made Tommy laugh. “He’s friends,” shouted Nibble. “A man always
makes friends when he laughs at you.” And Watch knew that, because it’s
how the first dog made friends with the man and his wife and his baby in
the First-Off Beginning.
Tommy looked at the bass and then he looked at Stripes Skunk again. He
tossed it right beneath Stripes’ crinkly nose and said: “I believe you
want this. Well, you can have it. There are lots more fish in Doctor
Muskrat’s pond, and I just love fishing.” So Stripes knew Nibble Rabbit
was right.
I guess you’d have liked to go fishing that sunny afternoon down by
Doctor Muskrat’s pond your own self—I just believe you would! Tommy
perched on the trunk of the tree again and did the fishing. Doctor
Muskrat was cuddled down under the bulrushes most interested to see how
Tommy did it. Nibble was nipping the tops of clovers, with an ear cocked
so he wouldn’t miss any of the excitement when Tommy caught one—not that
he cared for fish, but some other fellows did.
Tad and Stripes had eaten the great big bass, and now Tad was dozing,
flat on his back in the sun, with his handy-paws folded over his fat
tummy, and Stripes was curled up as tight as his fullness would let him,
with his wavy tail over his shiny black nose, to keep the flies off it.
Even Watch was contented. He was napping, too. Sometimes he squirmed and
growled to himself because he didn’t approve one little bit of having
Tommy make friends with a bad Thing-from-Under-the-Earth like Stripes
Skunk. It was plenty bad enough to have him make friends with
mischievous Tad Coon! But Watch was happy all the same.
Pretty soon Stripes opened his shiny black eyes; he stretched himself
and yawned. A leaf blew past and he pounced on it like a kitten. Then a
grasshopper clicked up and he chased it. Next he took to playing with
some leaves that were dancing in the wind, and then he took after his
own plumy tail, whirling round and round in a mad little dance of his
own, humming a little tune that was a happy, not a whiny, one.
Watch pricked up his ears because he was so surprised to think Stripes
could sing—Bad Ones can’t, you know. And his own tail began to beat in
time to Stripes’ patty little feet. So Stripes slyly pounced on it.
Well, you know what happened then! Watch began to chase him. Only he
couldn’t chase very fast because Stripes does look so funny when he’s
running. His fur fluffs up and his hind feet are pigeon-toed, and his
draggy, wavy tail goes flourishing in and out between them.
First Stripes got scared, but pretty soon he saw even Watch was
laughing. And Watch tipped him right over on his back and snooted him in
the ribs like he does the kittens. “You silly old thing,” he chuckled.
“I won’t make any better compact with you than I did with Tad Coon, but
I won’t hurt you while you behave yourself.”
“I’ll show you how I’ll behave,” said Stripes, and he deliberately boxed
Watch’s big ear, just to show that he wasn’t afraid of him. And Tommy
Peele ’most fell into the pond all over again, he was laughing so hard
at them. They all made so much noise that the spotty blue kingfisher
came over to cock his crest and see what they were doing. He and Doctor
Muskrat gave Tommy a lot of good advice, only of course he didn’t
understand it. But he did know they were very friendly, and that was the
main thing.