While Jimmy Rabbit was looking for wise old Mr. Crow, Peter Mink stuck
close behind him.
"You needn't think you can run away with _my_ rabbit's lucky left
hind-foot," Peter kept saying. "That's _my_ foot! You promised to give
it to me for helping you out of the mud. And I intend to have it. I'm
going to follow you wherever you go. I wish you'd try to be a little
more careful where you step with my foot."
But Jimmy Rabbit didn't seem the least bit worried.
"You stand by your bargain, and I'll stand by mine," he told Peter. And
that was all he would say.
At last Jimmy found Mr. Crow. And as soon as Peter Mink spied him he
hurried up and began to complain to Mr. Crow that Jimmy Rabbit wouldn't
stand by his bargain.
"What was it?" Mr. Crow asked.
"He promised to give me his left hind-foot, if I'd pull him out of the
creek," said Peter Mink.
"Did he pull you out?" Mr. Crow asked Jimmy Rabbit.
And Jimmy admitted that Peter had helped him out.
"He helped me in, too," added Jimmy. "But I didn't have to pay him for
doing that."
"You're out of order!" Mr. Crow told Jimmy sharply.
And looking down at his mud-stained clothes, Jimmy Rabbit said that he
supposed he was.
"Can you repeat the exact words of the bargain?" Mr. Crow asked Peter
Mink.
"Yes," Peter began. "He said----"
"That will do!" Mr. Crow cautioned him. "I said, '_Can_ you repeat
them?' I didn't _tell_ you to repeat them, did I?"
"No," Peter Mink admitted.
"I advise you to be very careful," Mr. Crow warned him. Then Mr. Crow
turned to Jimmy Rabbit.
"Can _you_ repeat the exact words of the bargain?" he asked.
"Yes, sir!" said Jimmy Rabbit promptly.
"Good!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "I'll settle this dispute in no time. Now, I
want you, Jimmy Rabbit, to whisper the exact words in my _right_ ear,
while Peter Mink whispers the exact words in my _left_ one. In that way
I shall know at once if there's anybody that isn't telling the truth."
Mr. Crow was very particular. He made Peter and Jimmy begin at the same
time. And he said that if they both told the truth it seemed to him that
they ought to _finish_ at the same time, too.
And that's just the way it happened!
"I don't see what the dispute is," said Mr. Crow. "You both agree. And
how can two people have a dispute, when they agree perfectly? The only
difference I noticed in your stories was that Peter whispered much
louder than Jimmy."
"The trouble," Peter Mink cried, "the trouble is, he won't let me cut
off his left hind-foot!"
Mr. Crow looked astonished.
"And why should he?" he exclaimed. "You agreed to take, along with the
foot, all the luck and _everything else that goes with it_. And if the
rest of Jimmy Rabbit doesn't go with his left hind-foot, why--I should
like to know what does!"
Peter Mink looked very sour. But pretty soon he brightened up.
"All right!" he said. "I get the whole of him, then--don't I?"
"You certainly do," said Mr. Crow. "And what's more, you have to _carry
him in your pocket_, for that was part of the bargain."
Now, when you stop to remember that Jimmy Rabbit was four times bigger
than Peter Mink, you can understand how angry Peter must have been. He
saw right away that such a thing was impossible.
"I can't do that!" he cried.
"Then I declare the agreement to be broken," said Mr. Crow. "And I
advise Jimmy Rabbit to run home at once, for I happen to know that his
mother is looking for him."
Afterward, Peter Mink always claimed that there was no use trying to get
the better of anybody that had the left hind-foot of a rabbit. He said
that they certainly were lucky, and that he knew what he was talking
about.
[Illustration: The End]