MR. CROW'S PLOT
While one might have counted twenty Mr. Rabbit remained in a listening
attitude, and then, shaking his ears with a gesture which was very
like that of mental relief, said with a smile as he stroked his
whiskers swaggeringly:
"Do you know, just for a minute I thought the smell of young Mr. Fox
was in the air. When I got rid of that fellow's grandfather I said to
Mrs. Bunny that a full half of all our troubles had disappeared out of
the big woods, with the evidence of the good fortune nailed up on Mr.
Man's barn; but I had entirely forgotten that the old rascal left
behind him a regular gang of children and grandchildren, and I truly
believe they are the worst to be found anywhere in this world, to say
nothing of their being able to run twice as fast as their grandfather
ever could even in his best days.
"I wonder why it is that the Fox family have such a hankering for
rabbit pie, stew, or even plain rabbit? Of course, they don't turn up
their noses at a good plump partridge, and they know how to catch him,
too, when the snow is deep; but I verily believe there's nothing goes
quite so near the right spot in a fox's stomach as rabbit meat. Mr.
Crow says that years and years ago, when the mountains were only grown
into little hills, Clote Scarpe, the Great Spirit who made all the
birds and animals, used to walk around listening to any complaint his
creatures might make. I wish he would come around the big woods now!
You can set it down as a fact that I'd beg him to fix it so that the
first taste of rabbit would make a fox so sick that he'd come pretty
near turning himself inside out, and then there'd be a little peace
for my family.
"No; it's as you say, Clote Scarpe doesn't pay very much attention to
us wood folks now, and it wouldn't surprise me a little bit if it were
all one of Mr. Crow's yarns--I mean about the Great Spirit's listening
to our troubles, for if anything like that ever had happened, it seems
as if some of my people would have fixed it for us long ago. Yet, if
you'd listen to Mr. Turtle, he'd tell you that years and years ago,
before even the rocks had grown, one of his greatest, greatest
grandfathers, who didn't have any hard shell on his back, went to
Clote Scarpe and had himself fixed so that none of the animals could
bite him, and that's the reason why he's got a house to live in this
day that even Jimmy Hedgehog can't harm.
"Don't be afraid that I won't finish my story I began a while ago.
Speaking of the Fox family brought my mind to what Mrs. Bunny and I
have talked over many and many a time, and I couldn't seem to help
telling you about it. Now I'll go on about the fix I found myself in
when I was going up to the club to tell the president that I'd have to
give over being a member because it was making so much trouble for me
at home. And do you know, that very scrape with young Mr. Fox was what
broke up our meetings at Crow's Corner? It's a fact, though perhaps
the same thing might have happened in some other way.
"Well, there I was standing face to face with young Mr. Fox, and he
grinning at me in a way that said just as plain as words could have
done what a good time he'd have eating me. Goodness, I'm trembling
even now to think of what he might have done before I had a chance to
wag my ear if he'd known that I was the one who led his grandfather
into the trap where Mr. Man could get hold of him so easily! When he
didn't even speak after I'd talked to him so sweetly the idea came
into my head that perhaps I might jump right over his back and so get
out of the hole in that way; but it seemed as if he must have known
what was in my mind, for he said with another of his beastly grins:
"'Don't try to do anything like that, Bunny Rabbit, for I'm a good
deal more spry with my feet than ever grandfather was, and I'd catch
you on the fly.'
"'Perhaps you're making a mistake as to what I was thinking about,' I
said innocent-like, as if I didn't have sense enough to go home when
it rained. 'I was saying to myself that you had quite the most
beautiful tail I ever saw on one of your family.'
"Do you know, that struck him just right, and for the life of him he
couldn't help turning his head to look at it, though, between you and
me, it wasn't anything extra in the way of a tail; except for the
size, Cheeko had a better one--more bushy and with much finer hair.
Young Mr. Fox took all I said in sober earnest and began waving that
fly-brush of his to and fro so he could see it the more plainly and
then was come the time I'd been playing for!
"The very minute he turned his head I gave the jump of my life, and it
was as many as ten feet straight in the air, beating the Rabbit record
by more than five inches. I sailed right over a big alder bush, and
when I came down on my feet, young Mr. Fox had just got it into his
head that I'd played him a trick. Now you can set it down as a fact
that I didn't linger around there any very great while!
"I was off like a runaway streak of lightning the very instant I had
the ground under my paws, and, of course, young Mr. Fox started after
me; but I had a good three yards the start of him, and to a rabbit who
holds the record for running, as I do, that was a mighty long
distance. Then again I knew all the crooks and turns in our part of
the big woods, while Grandfather Fox's grandson wasn't very well
acquainted in that part of the country.
"Before I'd much more than struck my gait I knew I could give him the
slip whenever I wanted to, and it seemed as if it would do the
foolish fellow a world of good to teach him a lesson that he wouldn't
forget right away, so I set about doing it to the Queen's taste. First
I took a turn over by the pond, where the ground was so wet in spots
that he'd sink in two or three inches at every leap, while, by
skimming along the edge, I was tiring him out, which was what I didn't
want to do till he'd got it considerably harder than he had up to that
time.
[Illustration: STRAIGHT IN THE AIR]
"Then I tore round by the head pine tree, where Senator Bear lives,
thinking that perhaps the old fellow himself might like to take a hand
in the game, but he wasn't at home. After that I hiked it up Hemlock
Hill, where I could run under the fallen timber and through the thorn
bushes, while he'd have to show what he was able to do in the way of
jumping, or go a long bit around.
"That was the part of the race that broke his heart, and when I
circled over the top, allowing I'd give him a sight of the club's
meeting place, I saw him sitting down trying to pull a thorn out of
his left hind foot. Then I laughed and cut capers till he started down
the hill again on his way home, after which I went off hipperty-hop,
saying to myself that it would do poor little Sonny Bunny a world of
good when I told the story to him.
"Of course I had to go right past the big oak in order to get home,
and when I was there the most sensible thing I could do was to stop
and have a chat with President Crow, for I wanted to tell him how well
I'd served out young Mr. Fox.
"Old Mr. Crow was roosting mighty low that day, talking with Bobby
Coon's brother, and when I told him what had happened he laughed till
the tears got all mixed up with feathers on his cheeks, for he had
heard young Fox telling 'Squire Owl that he was going to make the
Rabbit family look mighty sick as soon as he had time to attend to the
matter.
"Well, after we'd had a good time over what I'd done and when Bobby's
brother had gone away I up and told Mr. Crow that I had to leave the
club that very day, else there'd never be any more peace at home for
me. The news surprised him terribly, as I understood by the way he
kept smoothing out his tail feathers, and it was quite a spell before
he could seem to say anything, but when he did speak it was the kind
of talk that counted.
"'We'll be sorry to lose you from the club, Bunny,' he said, 'for even
though you don't cut any great figure in helping the business along we
can always count on you to do the running about when the House
Committee want to send out notices, or if it is necessary for me to
call a special meeting. Of course I don't want to advise you to do
anything which may make trouble at your home; but it's my solemn
advice for you to leave your name on the rolls till I've had a chance
to talk with Mrs. Bunny. Perhaps she'll look at it in a different
light when I've shown her how much good you're getting from keeping
company with the other wood folks.'
"Now, I had a pretty good idea that Mrs. Bunny would take a broom to
the president, instead of listening to him, if he went to my home
while Sonny Bunny was so sick and I told him as much, breaking it
gently so he wouldn't get angry; but, bless you, he didn't seem to
mind it. He's been around the world so much that he's got a mighty
good idea of how things may be at a fellow's home when one of the
children has been abused.
"'I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Bunny,' he said, ruffling the feathers
on his neck as he always does when he's got some big scheme in his
mind, 'Jimmy Hedgehog is the one who's responsible for all the trouble
we've been having, and if I can find Mr. Turtle at home I'll rig up a
plan that'll make Mr. Hedgehog wish he'd never been quite so pert with
the president of the Fur and Feather Club. I don't count on letting
that prickly young chap run things his own way around Crow's Corner!'
"'What do you count on doing?' I asked, for I was dreadfully curious
by the time he'd got through talking.
"'Leave it to me, Bunny Rabbit. I've been out of the shell too long to
stand such nonsense from a hedgehog; but at the same time I don't
count on letting you into one of my secrets till the plans are all
laid. We'll go around by the way of your home, and there I'll tell
Mrs. Bunny what you've said about leaving the club. That'll keep her
quiet for a while, or, at least, calm her down so you and she can live
in the same house a bit longer, and if my plan works as I think it
will she'll be so tickled that you won't hear anything more about her
wanting you to keep away from Crow's Corner.'
"Of course I let him have his own way, for, being old, he's so
headstrong that you can't stop him from doing what he's set his mind
on, no matter how foolish it may be; but I wasn't much surprised,
after we came to my home and I'd called Mrs. Bunny out of her hole, to
hear her talk quite disrespectfully to him about the club, which she
declared was nothing more nor less than an excuse for us animals and
birds to idle our time away when we should be at home attending to
household affairs.
"He didn't seem to lose his temper a little bit, even when she talked
the most, but kept on trying to soothe her by saying that the only
trouble we'd ever had in the big woods among ourselves had been caused
by Jimmy Hedgehog, but we'd hear nothing more of that kind after his
plan had been worked out.
"Mrs. Bunny smoothed down a little before he left, and when he flew
off I went into the bedroom to see poor little Sonny Bunny, though I
was just fairly dying to know what it was Mr. Crow counted on doing to
Jimmy, and why it was necessary for him to see Mr. Turtle.
"Sonny Bunny was looking pretty bad when I went in; but he perked up a
good bit after I told him how I'd served out young Mr. Fox, and
before a great while he began to play around just as ever, though he
was mighty careful not to rub up against anything, on account of being
so sore in the places where Jimmy's quills had stuck into him.
"It was the longest while before Mrs. Bunny would so much as listen to
my going out again to see what Mr. Crow's trick might be; but after
I'd talked so much about it that she began to grow a bit curious
herself, she agreed that it would be all right if I didn't stay more
than an hour, and took good care to keep away from the Fox family.
"Well, I kissed Sonny Bunny, who cried to go with me, as he might have
done if only his mother had been willing, and then off I hopped,
puzzling my brain to guess what part Mr. Turtle could have in Mr.
Crow's plot."