Doctor Rabbit was just ready to run to the tree with the prickly vines
around it when he crouched low and sat very still again. He heard
somebody coming through the woods. Pretty soon he saw that it was
Farmer Roe.
The farmer stopped when he got close to the briar patch and muttered
to himself, "Every spring I have to rid these woods of a fox or two. I
guess I'll just put out a little bait for them and see how that will
work."
As soon as Doctor Rabbit heard Farmer Roe coming through the woods he
noticed that everything in the thicket grew very quiet. I should say
it did! There was not the least sound in there--not a single growl.
And there Farmer Roe stood within twenty feet of the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Brushtail without ever dreaming of it.
Farmer Roe had gloves on, and he held a number of pieces of cheese on
one hand. He put several of these pieces of cheese under the fallen
tree. Right near the thicket he placed some more cheese, partly under
some dead leaves. Then Farmer Roe went around placing the cheese here
and there where he thought the fox would be most likely to find it.
After a time he put the last piece of cheese under an old log.
Then he straightened up and said, "There, now! That ought to fix him,
or both of them, if there are two instead of one. I'm glad Yappy has
been trained not to eat anything he finds out in the woods," he added,
"for this bait would be the end of him, too! And that would never do."
And Farmer Roe walked back through the woods toward his house. After a
while the sound of his heavy footsteps died away.
Everything in the thicket was perfectly still. There was not a sound.
Doctor Rabbit waited and listened. Then he heard a movement inside the
thicket. Presently Mrs. Brushtail came out, sat down, and looked in
the direction Farmer Roe had taken. While she sat there Mr. Brushtail
came trotting up from somewhere out in the woods. Doctor Rabbit heard
the two talking very rapidly and excitedly, but they talked so low he
could not understand what they said. He wanted very much to know what
they said, but what interested him still more was that he again heard
those growls in the thicket. He wondered who it could be, since
neither Brushtail nor Mrs. Brushtail was in there now.
Well, after Mr. and Mrs. Brushtail had talked for a while, Brushtail
went right up to the old dead log where Farmer Roe had placed some of
the cheese. Doctor Rabbit was delighted, for he thought this would be
the end of Brushtail the Fox. And we can't blame Doctor Rabbit or
think him cruel, either, for hoping so. You see, Doctor Rabbit, being
a doctor, knew at once that Farmer Roe had poisoned that cheese. Yes,
sir, he had put poison in it for Mr. Fox. And if Mr. and Mrs.
Brushtail should eat just one of those pieces of cheese it would
certainly cause their death.
But Doctor Rabbit was certainly surprised at what happened. Brushtail
took the piece of cheese carefully in his mouth and carried it to a
small hole a little distance away. Then he hunted around until he
found every piece of poisoned cheese Farmer Roe had put out. And each
time he found a piece of cheese he did just what he did with the first
piece: he carried it to that hole and dropped it in. When he had
finished he stood and looked down at all those pieces of cheese. Then
he began scratching leaves and dirt into the hole. Once in a while he
would turn around and look down into the hole and laugh. Then he would
turn his back again, and just make the leaves and dirt fly into that
hole.
Well, he scratched and scratched and scratched until there was not a
bit of cheese anywhere to be seen. The hole was full of leaves and
dirt, so you never could have found it. Mrs. Brushtail came out and
smiled at Brushtail, and both of them looked at Farmer Roe's house and
laughed and laughed.
But Doctor Rabbit was not pleased. I should say he wasn't pleased, and
he wondered how these two terrible creatures would ever be driven away
from the woods. And he wondered more than ever who it was that kept
growling in the thicket.