Doctor Rabbit and Ray Coon kept perfectly quiet in the thicket and
watched Brushtail the Fox as he came creeping along. When he saw the
fish lying in that loop, my, how wide Brushtail's eyes did open! The
fish jumped and squirmed just enough to make Brushtail want it very
badly. He was so delighted that he stood up on his hind legs and
danced toward the fish.
"Ha! ha!" he laughed. "It was probably old Bald Eagle who flew over
the woods and dropped his fish! Ha! ha! ha! That's luck for me--a
fine fish for breakfast. And I did not have to get my feet wet to
catch it." Then Brushtail began to sing:
"Great flying Bald Eagle caught a fish,
And flew away to eat him;
But down it fell through green treetops,
And Brushy Fox will cheat him!"
Brushtail finished his song and jumped for the fish. He jumped, of
course, right into that loop Doctor Rabbit had made in the stout
fishing cord. Well, sir, just as soon as Brushtail's feet touched the
ground inside that loop, Doctor Rabbit and Ray Coon jerked the line as
quickly and as firmly as they could. The loop slipped up and caught
Brushtail around the body. My, but he was surprised and scared! I
should say he was! He forgot the fish instantly, and he yelled ever so
loud, "Let me go," although he did not know, of course, just what it
was that had caught him.
The way he yelled and started pulling to get away was so funny that
Doctor Rabbit and Ray Coon laughed until they could scarcely hold the
line.
They wrapped the line around their paws and held on as hard as ever
they could. And my, how Brushtail did dig his claws into the ground
and pull!
When he found he couldn't free himself he was more frightened than
ever and shouted (because, you see, he could not see what held him),
"You let go of me, you old ghost, or goblin man! You let go of me or
I'll claw you to pieces! Let go of me or I'll come back there and pull
all your hair out, and I'll throw you in the briars so far you'll
never get out and they will stick you forever!"
And all the time Brushtail was talking this he was digging his claws
into the ground and pulling with all his might.
Doctor Rabbit could not have held him alone, but Ray Coon is pretty
plump and stout, and he helped a great deal. But Brushtail pulled so
hard that he pulled them right out of the thicket before they knew it!
Doctor Rabbit was so anxious to hold Brushtail that he cried right
out, "Hold him, Ray Coon! Hold on to him! Hold on to him!"
Then Doctor Rabbit saw his mistake, for when Brushtail the Fox heard
that voice he stopped pulling and turned around quickly. When he
turned toward them, Ray Coon seized the fish, and he and Doctor Rabbit
ran for their lives. And Brushtail was close behind them.
Doctor Rabbit skipped away as easily as could be, and Ray Coon, with
the fish in his mouth, started up a tree. Brushtail ran for Ray Coon
and gave a big spring for him. He almost got him, too, for he bit him
on the hind foot. But Ray Coon managed to get up on a limb just out of
reach. Brushtail was so angry at losing the fish and being completely
fooled that he jumped several times as high as he could, but he could
not jump quite high enough. So Ray Coon just sat there and ate that
fish right before Brushtail's eyes.
"This is an extra good fish," Ray Coon called down, as he gobbled it
up. "It's extra good, Brushy. But you didn't want it anyway, did you?
Ha! ha! ha!"
Then old Brushtail was angrier than before. He pulled the loop off of
his body with his teeth and snarled, "All right for this time--you
and that big fat rabbit fooled me. He's pretty clever, but he'll not
fool me again. And the _next_ time I'll get both of you. I'll eat
rabbit and coon both at one meal. In about three days I'll get both of
you!" And with an angry growl old Brushtail the Fox went off into the
woods.
After a while Doctor Rabbit ventured out of his hiding place and
hopped over to the tree which Ray Coon had climbed.
"Brushtail has gone off toward the Murmuring Brook," Doctor Rabbit
said. "Come on down and let me doctor your foot where he bit you. I
see it's bleeding a little."
Ray Coon came right down and laughed as he said, "My foot isn't hurt
much, Doctor, and it will soon be well if you put some of your yellow
salve on it."
"Of course it will," Doctor Rabbit agreed, as he took some salve from
his medicine case.
He bandaged Ray's foot in a few minutes. But all the time that he was
bandaging it, he kept a sharp lookout for Brushtail.
"He's very sly," Doctor Rabbit said, "and I am certain that right this
minute he is planning some scheme to catch us or some of our friends."
"That's so," Ray Coon replied, looking at the bushes around him
somewhat nervously. "I do wish," he continued, "that we could think of
some plan to get rid of him for good. Then we could live happily and
have our fun as we used to do."
"Don't you worry, Neighbor Coon," Doctor Rabbit chuckled as he picked
up his medicine case and looked at Ray Coon over his big glasses.
"Don't you worry," he repeated, "I'll have a plan all in good time,
and right now I'm going in the direction he went, to see what he is up
to!"
Ray Coon seemed a little nervous again as he said, "Well, do be
careful, whatever you do, Doctor, because he looked terribly cruel,
you remember."
"Ha! ha! ha!" jolly Doctor Rabbit laughed as he started away, waving a
paw at Ray Coon, "I'll take care of myself--never fear. And I'll take
care of old Brushy Fox, too! Ha! ha! ha! Yes, I'll see what he's doing
now. Perhaps I shall catch him right away." And Doctor Rabbit slipped
away in the direction in which Brushtail had gone.