Doctor Rabbit and Cheepy Chipmunk were sitting in Doctor Rabbit's
front yard talking. They laughed a good deal as they talked, for it
was a lovely morning in the beautiful Big Green Woods, and everyone
felt happy.
Finally jolly Doctor Rabbit said he believed he would run over to the
big sycamore tree to eat some more of the tender blue grass that grew
there. It seemed as if he could eat there all day and all night, he
said, because that grass was so good. Cheepy Chipmunk said he was
getting hungry again too, and he guessed he would be going home to eat
the fresh ear of corn he had found that morning.
Cheepy Chipmunk got up and was starting away, when Doctor Rabbit
seized him and said in a low, frightened whisper that scared Cheepy
half to death, "Come back and sit down and keep as still as anything.
Look out there, will you!"
Very badly startled, Cheepy Chipmunk came back and sat down, and his
eyes followed Doctor Rabbit's eyes. Cheepy saw an animal such as he
had never seen before. This animal looked somewhat like a dog, but
Cheepy knew right away he was no dog. He was not quite so large as
Ki-yi Coyote, and was of a reddish-brown color, with a large, bushy
tail. The animal was walking along under the trees not far away, and
did not even look in the direction of Doctor Rabbit and little Cheepy
Chipmunk.
But, although he could not tell why, Cheepy knew at once that that
reddish-brown animal walking along out there under the trees was very
dangerous to chipmunks and rabbits and any number of other little
animals. Yes, sir, Cheepy Chipmunk was dreadfully frightened at once,
for he was certain his life and the lives of Stubby Woodchuck, Chatty
Red Squirrel and all his other friends were in great danger. But he
had never seen such an animal before, so of course he did not know
what it was.
While Doctor Rabbit and Cheepy Chipmunk looked, the strange animal
walked along just as if he were not interested in anything. He did not
even look toward Doctor Rabbit and Cheepy Chipmunk. This fooled
innocent Cheepy, and he whispered to Doctor Rabbit, "He has not seen
us; let's slip into your house! I don't want him to catch sight of
us."
"Keep right still!" Doctor Rabbit whispered in reply. "Just sit still.
Yes, he has seen us--don't you fool yourself about that. But he knows
well enough he can't catch us now. He's made up his mind he'll wait
until he gets a better chance. But we won't let him know we see him.
We'll have to try to deceive him at every turn. Yes, sir, Cheepy,
we've got to watch out every minute now; we certainly have. He's one
of the most cunning animals there is. I'm sorry he's come into our
woods."
Cheepy Chipmunk was so frightened that his teeth were chattering as he
asked, "Who is he?"
"He's Brushtail the Fox," Doctor Rabbit said. "I saw him a number of
times in the woods up along the Deep River where I used to live. We'll
see more of him--we can count on that. And now, Friend Cheepy, you
must stay right here at my house until we are sure Brushtail has
stopped watching us out of the corner of his eye."