After Mr. and Mrs. Brushtail had gone back into the thicket, Doctor
Rabbit wanted to run home. He surely was uncomfortable so near to
Brushtail and Mrs. Brushtail.
"And still," he thought to himself, "since I am here, I'll just stay a
little longer and discover all I can."
Well, the growling went on for a while in the thicket, and then
something happened that certainly surprised Doctor Rabbit. Mrs.
Brushtail came out into the open with Farmer Roe's chicken, partly
eaten, and she was followed by four little foxes!
Mrs. Brushtail dropped the chicken on the ground for the little foxes,
and then she sprang upon a log and just lay there and watched them.
Mr. Fox trotted off into the woods again.
"He's probably going after another hen," thought Doctor Rabbit, "or
after Stubby Woodchuck or Chatty Red Squirrel or any of us he can
catch." And Doctor Rabbit hoped all his little friends would be on the
lookout.
While Mrs. Brushtail lay up on the log and looked on proudly, how the
little foxes did pull at that dead chicken and growl!
"And so there are the growlers I heard in the thicket!" Doctor Rabbit
thought to himself.
Those little foxes might have looked pretty to some people, they were
so young and so playful and so funny; but they did not look pretty to
Doctor Rabbit. Indeed they did not. They looked like four terrible
monsters. Their little eyes snapped like the eyes of terrible little
savages, and their tiny teeth, sharp as needles, pulled feathers and
sank into the chicken.
It was certainly true that Mrs. Brushtail was teaching her very small
children how to eat chicken, and as she lay on the log and watched
them, she seemed perfectly satisfied with them.
After the little foxes had growled and pulled at the chicken for a
good while, Brushtail was seen coming through the woods with something
in his mouth. Then suddenly Doctor Rabbit became almost sick with
fear. He thought for a second that Brushtail had caught Stubby
Woodchuck, but it proved to be no one but a large and ugly old woodrat
that had lately grown so cross and savage that all the little
creatures of the Big Green Woods were afraid of him.
Doctor Rabbit was very glad indeed that it was that particular old
woodrat, because he had really become dangerous.
Brushtail dropped the woodrat down before the little foxes, and how
they did did begin pulling and biting him! Mrs. Brushtail up on the
log smiled ever so broadly at this. But it was not a pleasing smile to
Doctor Rabbit, hiding in the briar patch. I should say not! It was a
terrible smile.
The next instant Yappy came tearing through the woods, right toward
the thicket, and Doctor Rabbit had a moment of hope. But Mrs.
Brushtail just uttered one quick, low growl, and every little fox
scurried into the thicket. That time Doctor Rabbit had a good view of
the inside of the thicket, and he saw what became of the foxes. They
went into a hole under some rocks by a large papaw bush. "So that,"
said Doctor Rabbit to himself, "is where Mr. and Mrs. Brushtail and
their little Brushies have their den."
Brushtail did not run into the thicket with Mrs. Brushtail and the
little foxes. When he saw Yappy coming toward the thicket he ran right
toward the excited dog and then hid behind another thicket. When Yappy
came near, Brushtail sprang right out, and away he ran. Yappy bayed
loudly, and away he went through the woods after Brushtail. You see
now what Brushtail was doing--he was leading Yappy away from that den
of little foxes!