MR. MAN'S BOY TOMMY
"I suppose you think I'd have shown better manners if I'd asked you to
excuse me before I lit out for that clover, eh?" Mr. Bunny Rabbit
asked, as he hopped up on the log with his mouth filled with clover
heads and leaves. "The trouble is that you don't know much of anything
about it," he added, chewing meditatively on the green delicacy, while
he gazed at a clump of ferns as if fancying it concealed an enemy.
"If you were better acquainted with us wood folk, you'd know that
Jimmy Hedgehog is hiding over there in the ferns. Watch and you can
see them waving directly against the wind, which tells that something
heavy is moving among them. When I caught sight of those delicious
clover heads I could see that young hedgehog was getting ready to go
for them. The only thing that held him back was the fear that you
might try to make trouble for him. I had to scoop them up lively, or
they'd gone into Jimmy's stomach while you were asking questions. I
may not be able to make such a terrible show of fighting; but when it
comes to getting the best of whatever is being passed around your Mr.
Bunny Rabbit doesn't often get left, more especially if Jimmy Hedgehog
is the only fellow he has to beat.
"Oh, yes, I was telling how the club meeting wound up when Professor
Hawk came around to make trouble. Well, as I was saying, Cheeko's
brother and I were snuggled together under the thorns, watching that
wicked bird out of both eyes and thanking our lucky stars that the old
'Squire wasn't alive to take a hand in the game. Then that foolish
squirrel got it into his head that he could run faster than the
Professor could fly, and declared that he wasn't going to get the life
scratched out of him simply because a hungry bird had made up his mind
to eat us.
"'I'm going right out, as a decent fellow should who doesn't want
others to call him a coward, and you'll see how I'll get the best of
the smartest hawk that ever lived," he said, shaking his tail as well
as he could amid the thorns.
"'Now, you're talking like Cheeko and showing yourself to be just as
foolish,' I said, trying hard not to let him see that I was angry
because he hadn't better sense. 'If your brother hadn't tried to prove
that he wasn't a coward he wouldn't be sick in bed this very minute.
You'd better stay where you are, for you won't find many such snug
hiding places as this, not if you search the big woods from one end to
the other.'
"'If I couldn't take care of myself better than you do I'd hide my
head,' he said, pert as you please. 'Of course, it isn't right to
expect very much of a fellow whose hind legs are twice as long as his
front ones, and I don't suppose you can help being afraid of your own
shadow.'
"Now, I'm willing to admit that I'm not the bravest animal that ever
lived; but it isn't pleasant to be talked to in such a manner by an
impudent youngster like Cheeko's brother, and I resolved that I
wouldn't open my mouth again, no matter what folly he might attempt.
Because I held my tongue he thought he'd make me ashamed of myself,
and went on worse than ever, saying that he wasn't afraid of the
Professor, with all his family behind him; that he wouldn't stay
among the thorns any longer than he pleased and a lot of cheap talk
like that which went to prove that he was as impolite as he was silly.
"All the while he ran on like that he kept working his way through the
thorns, and I could see that the Professor had his eye on him sharp as
a needle. Cheeko's family are all alike, forever thinking they must do
something, no matter how foolish, to show that they are dreadfully
brave, when, according to my way of thinking, they are only proving
themselves silly.
"Well, Cheeko's brother kept creeping nearer and nearer to the edge of
the thorns, looking back at me every once in a while, as if believing
I'd be scared out of my wits because he was so venturesome; but I
never opened my mouth and finally he said with a flirt of his tail:
"'Now's the time when I will show that old hawk how much he knows
about catching squirrels!'
"It was exactly as Cheeko would have spoken, and I could but feel
sorry for him even though he had insulted me. He stood at the edge of
the thorn bushes a minute, twisting and turning his tail as if he
wanted to attract the attention of every member of the club to his
folly, and then out he went, running the best he knew how across the
open space at the foot of the tree.
"Now if you've ever had any acquaintance with the Professor, you know
he's not slow by any means, and Cheeko's brother had given him all the
notice he needed that the foolish squirrel was going to show off
before the other wood folks. Mr. Weasel himself couldn't have moved
more quickly than the Professor did. I saw him twist his head as if to
get a better view, and then down he came faster than you could wink
your eye.
"Of course Cheeko's brother didn't have half a chance; he hadn't much
more than well begun to run when the Professor had him in his claws,
and oh me! oh my! how that squirrel did squeal! It wasn't any use to
howl after he'd just the same as coaxed the Professor to catch him,
and there wasn't a member of the club who didn't insist that he'd been
served exactly right.
"'If an animal is brave there isn't any need of his running around
telling people,' Mr. Crow said when the Professor and Cheeko's
brother had disappeared. 'But if he sticks his nose into danger just
for the sake of showing folks how clever he is he not only shows that
he is mistaken as to the meaning of the word brave, but has proven
himself very foolish.'
"You may believe it or not, but it's the solemn truth that there
wasn't one of the wood folk who felt sorry for Cheeko's brother, and
that's saying a good deal, for as a rule we're all broken up when
anything like that happens, especially when it is done right on the
club's premises.
"'Cheeko himself will come to just such an end, and for that you may
take my word,' Mr. Jay said as he straightened out his feathers, which
had been ruffled a good bit when he flew off so suddenly to get out of
the Professor's way.
"'We'll hope that the lesson he has just had will teach him to have
better sense in the future,' Mr. Crow replied, for the old fellow
always looks on the bright side of everything, and Mr. Jay added in an
angry tone:
"'But it won't and that you may depend on. I've lost all patience with
the Squirrel family. They go chattering and scolding around as if
they owned the whole of the big woods, and I've yet to see one of them
raise a paw toward helping a neighbor.'
"Before any one else could speak we heard a terrible noise among the
bushes and had no more than well hidden ourselves when up comes Mr.
Man's boy Tommy with one of those miserable slings on a forked stick,
and it went without saying that he had a lot of small stones in his
pocket ready to shoot at the first one of us, even including Mr. Crow,
who should show himself. Of course, he can't kill anything with such a
toy; but it is possible for him to hurt a fellow mighty bad, as I know
to my cost.
"Why, do you know, not a great while ago I was hopping across the path
that leads to Mr. Man's barn, when that wretched boy aimed straight
for me, and, what's a great deal worse, hit me with a small stone just
behind the ears. I really thought for the moment that I had got what
I'd never recover from! I did manage to hobble away, of course, else I
wouldn't be here to-day; but my head ached for two or three days as
though it would split open. I can't for the life of me imagine why
boys find so much sport in hurting animals.
[Illustration: WE HEARD A TERRIBLE NOISE AMONG THE BUSHES]
"Well, there was the boy Tommy, and in his hand was the sling, with a
little stone in it ready to be fired. Mr. Crow had crept around the
trunk of the tree, hoping to keep out of sight; but the boy, looking
for something to shoot at, espied the old bird, and in another second
the president of the club flew away crying 'Caw, caw, caw' with all
his strength. Mr. Man's boy Tommy shot at him, but Mr. Crow wasn't
there, so he didn't get hit.
"It seemed to me that the moment had come when I should take to my
heels, for I was hidden only by a few mullein leaves, and Tommy
wouldn't have to hunt very long before he stumbled right over me.
While he was putting another stone in the sling I jumped out from
under the leaves, and headed straight for home, but unluckily for me,
the boy got a glimpse of the tip of my tail, short though it is, as I
darted through a clump of alders.
"Now it so happened that lying on the ground where he could get at it
handily was a piece of half-decayed wood, which had most likely fallen
from the big oak a long while before, and, if you'll believe it, that
boy had time to pick it up and shy the thing at me before I got out
of sight. Not once in a hundred times could he have hit me; but it so
happened that this was the unfortunate once, and I was knocked head
over heels into the brook, so nearly stunned that I was almost drowned
before I came to myself.
"When I did get my senses that miserable boy was just reaching out his
hand to pick me up, and you never saw a rabbit struggle as I did then!
Being in the water, and not knowing how to swim, it was quite a task
to get out quickly. More than once he had his fingers on my ears; but
each time I contrived to wriggle away, and at the very moment when it
seemed as if I must give up and go into the stew or pie, as his mother
should decide, I gave him the slip.
"I was wet as a drowned rat; the mud stuck to my hair until it seemed
as if my coat were twice as heavy as usual, and I was sore all over
from the blow; but yet I could run faster than he, and if ever a
rabbit put his best foot forward, it was I! I had never believed he
could move as quickly as he did then, and no matter how I struggled he
kept uncomfortably near my heels till just as I darted around a clump
of mullein stalks whom should I come plump upon but Mrs. Rabbit
herself.
"'Gracious me, Bunny, what a disgraceful condition you are in!' she
cried, holding up both front paws and getting ready to read me one of
her long lectures; but I swung her around by the ears as I said,
speaking queerly, I suppose, because of breathing so hard after the
long chase:
"'Don't stop here to talk if you want to save your skin! Mr. Man's boy
Tommy has nearly killed me, and he can't be far away this very minute.
Run, run for your life!'
"Sometimes Mrs. Rabbit is a very sensible animal, and on this occasion
she took my advice, running at full speed, especially when she heard
Tommy cry:
"'By Jiminy! Now I've got two rabbits! Come on, fellers, the woods are
full of 'em!'
"Of course we knew by the words that there was more than one boy out
with slings, and I was so tired that it didn't seem as if I could run
another inch! When I was knocked into the brook I somehow was turned
around, so that I was headed away from home, and we had a long, long
distance to go before there was the littlest kind of a show for
safety. It seemed as if matters were just as bad as they could be; but
it appears that they were not, for just then who should pop out of
some tall grass but my poor little Sonny Bunny, and those dreadful
boys so close behind that I could almost hear them breathe."
At this point Mr. Bunny ceased speaking, and began to chew a straw, as
if seeing in his mind's eye the picture of that wild race for life.