Several days after Doctor Rabbit had talked to his friends under the
big sycamore tree he was hopping along near the edge of the Big Green
Woods when he saw Brushtail the Fox hiding behind a tree and looking
toward Farmer Roe's house.
Doctor Rabbit crept under a big brush pile and looked in the same
direction. What do you suppose Brushtail was watching? Well, he was
looking at a big Plymouth Rock hen coming across the field right
toward the place where he lay hidden.
Now, if Doctor Rabbit had had something better than a brush pile to
hide under, he might have made some sort of noise and warned the hen.
But if he had made the least sound, Brushtail would have come diving
under that brush pile in a second, for he isn't afraid of brush piles
as he is of briar patches.
Pretty soon the hen reached the woods. She stretched up her neck and
looked around, but not seeing anything she started into the woods for
some crickets. She had gone only a few steps when Brushtail the Fox
bounded out, seized her by the neck, and ran off through the Big Green
Woods.
Doctor Rabbit followed along behind, going hoppity, hoppity, hoppity,
and presently he saw Brushtail splashing along in the Murmuring Brook.
He was trotting along in the brook for a distance, for, you see, a
hound cannot smell a fox's tracks in the water; and so Yappy could not
track him.
Doctor Rabbit stopped and looked.
He saw Brushtail finally cross to the other side of the Murmuring
Brook. Brushtail then turned and looked back to see if anybody was
following him. He did not see anyone, so, still holding the dead hen
in his mouth, he trotted out of sight among the trees.
Of course Doctor Rabbit knew what Brushtail was going to do. He was
going to take that hen up the river to Mrs. Brushtail and the little
Brushies.
When Brushtail had passed out of sight, Doctor Rabbit did not go home
at once. No, he sat down to think. He was trying to think out a way to
drive old Brushtail out of the Big Green Woods. He sat there and
thought ever and ever so long. Sometimes he thought so hard he
scratched his head without knowing it. At other times he curled his
mustache.
So he thought and thought, but after a long time he said he would have
to give it up for this time. He was not discouraged, for he could tell
from the various things he had thought of that something would turn up
after a while to help him work out a plan that would get rid of
Brushtail the Fox. That was one fine thing about Doctor Rabbit--he
would not give up. He kept right on trying.
Well, for the next two days Doctor Rabbit was busy doctoring the
little Chipmunk children. They had got into Farmer Roe's apple orchard
and had eaten a lot of green apples, in spite of the fact that Mother
Chipmunk had told Jimmy Chipmunk, her oldest, that he and the rest of
the children should not eat green apples.