Doctor Rabbit was right. Brushtail the Fox had seen exactly who was in
Doctor Rabbit's front yard, but he did not act as if he knew there was
any one within a mile of him. No, he just kept right on walking slowly
under the trees. And then all of a sudden Chatty Red Squirrel almost
made him look up. Chatty was high up in a big hackberry tree, and from
this safe perch he scolded Brushtail as loudly as he could.
"Get out of these woods!" Chatty Squirrel shouted angrily. "You have
no right in here. You are just sneaking around trying to catch
somebody. But you can't. I won't let you. I'll tell on you. Look here,
everybody. Here is old Brushtail the Fox. I know you, Mr. Brushtail.
I've seen you before in the woods up along the Deep River. Look out,
everybody! Brushtail is around. He's right under this tree, right this
minute. I can see him. Look out for Mr. Brushtail! Here he is!"
Well, Doctor Rabbit and Cheepy Chipmunk watched and listened while
Chatty Squirrel scolded Brushtail the Fox so loudly. But Brushtail
paid no attention whatever to Chatty. The fact was that he did hear
every word Chatty Squirrel said and he was pretty angry about it, too,
because you see he did not want all the little creatures of the Big
Green Woods to know he was around. He wanted to get one or two of them
for breakfast before they even dreamed he was anywhere near.
But even if he was angry, Brushtail knew, of course, that he could not
climb that tree after Chatty Squirrel, so he just ground his teeth and
walked on. He decided that he would make Chatty pay for this, indeed
he would. He would catch him the very first of all. And so as Doctor
Rabbit and Cheepy Chipmunk looked and listened, Brushtail, without
saying a word, walked on and finally slipped out of sight among some
leafy bushes.
"I'm going home this minute!" Cheepy Chipmunk exclaimed, his voice
trembling with fear; and away he went for his stump as fast as he
could run.
After Cheepy had gone, Doctor Rabbit said to himself, "Well, I do
declare! So Brushtail the Fox has found the Big Green Woods, and
likely enough intends to live here. If he does we'll certainly all
have to watch out every minute. Indeed we will. I'm glad Chatty
Squirrel is scolding so loudly. Perhaps our friends will all hear and
be on the lookout."
Chatty Squirrel, who had followed along in the branches of the trees
and kept sight of slinky Brushtail, was now heard quite a distance
away, scolding louder than ever.
"I wonder what Chatty is scolding about out there now," Doctor Rabbit
said. "It sounds as if he were still talking to Brushtail. Perhaps
Brushtail has stopped out there, and possibly he has caught something
and is eating it. I'm going to slip out that way and see. I'll take
the path that leads past several briar patches, and if Mr. Fox runs
for me I'll just slip into a briar patch. If he tries to follow me in
there he knows what he'll get. He'll get his eyes scratched out with
the briars. My, how Chatty is scolding! He's scolding Brushtail, too.
Brushtail must be doing something unusual or Chatty would not talk so
excitedly."