HOW NIBBLE TRICKED A FOE—AND MADE A FRIEND
Tommy Peele had tried to make his cage a comfortable one for Nibble to
sleep in. But he didn’t know that a proper rabbit hole has fresh air
blowing into it from above. The cage had only one dark, stuffy corner
to hide in, or the open part behind a wire front. And there Nibble
crouched in the hay Tommy had given him. But he kept cheerful. Chirp
had said, “We’ll see what can be done about it,” and Nibble knew the
clever Sparrow. So he just made a little song of the words until he
sang himself to sleep with them.
Way ’long late toward the morning he woke up. His furry feet were
tickling. So were his ears. And presently his shoulders tickled, too,
where the fur stood straight up on them. Something was gnawing the
floor of his cage.
“Who’s there?” he called softly. And oh, how he did pray it might be
the field-mouse who had shown him the way through Ouphe’s tunnels! He
could see the haystack where the wicked Rat lived, but it was so dark
that that was all he could see.
“It’s I,” said the honey voice of Ouphe. “I’ve come to show you what
can be done about it. I’m sorry to be late, but I had to attend to a
little business with Chirp Sparrow.” The words were all right, but the
way he said them was enough to make your skin crawl.
“What are you going to do?” demanded Nibble.
“I’m going to have breakfast with you,” said Ouphe. “I’m going to make
a nice little door so I can come in and we’ll have a cozy time. I love
little rabbits, I do.” And Nibble knew very well the way he loved
them—like Slink the Weasel. For no wild beast needs to be warned
against any one who has the horrid musky, flesh-eater’s smell about
him. And Nibble smelled Ouphe.
“I’ll fasten my teeth right in your nose,” said Nibble, “the minute
you poke it through my floor.”
“What good will that do?” sneered Ouphe. “You’ll hurt me almost as
much as Chirp Sparrow. He pecked my ear, he did—the bold, bad bird!
All the same, I ate him.”
“You didn’t!” sobbed Nibble. He just couldn’t believe it.
“Didn’t I just?” jeered Ouphe. “You can smell him on my whiskers when
you bite me. Sparrow for supper and rabbit for breakfast. Mmn!” And he
smacked his lips.
But Nibble almost forgot to be scared, he was so angry. He thumped his
feet.
“Stop that!” snarled Ouphe. “Do you want the Dog to eat you?”
“Thump, Thump, THUMP!” went Nibble. He was bound to do whatever Ouphe
didn’t want him to.
“Arrh!” cursed the bad Rat. Kerflip, kerflop, he jumped down and
shuffled off to his haystack. Sure enough, there came the Dog,
calling, “What’s the matter here?” And Nibble was too scared to
answer.
“What’s the matter here?” repeated the Dog. He was standing in front
of the cage wagging his long, plumy tail. But all Nibble could look at
was the great teeth he showed when he smiled.
“Please,” said Nibble very faintly, “please, Mr. Dog, Ouphe the Rat
ate Chirp Sparrow for supper to-night. I thought I ought to tell you
because Chirp said you were friends.”
“He did, did he?” laughed the Dog. And he ran out his pink tongue,
which scared Nibble more than ever. “And who brought you the news?”
“Ouphe did. He’s been trying to get into my cage.”
“You don’t say?” The Dog sniffed carefully. “Great Bones, Bunny!” he
exclaimed, “Why didn’t you call me an hour ago. I’ll hate to show that
to Tommy. He’ll think I wasn’t watching.”
“Ouphe said you’d eat me,” whispered Nibble.
“Eat you?” repeated the Dog. “Lies! All lies! And Ouphe knew it. I’ll
tell you, Bunny, don’t believe a word that creature says. He never
tells the truth, even by accident. And he’s always up to some
devilment.”
Somehow Nibble knew he could believe the things the Dog said in his
rough but friendly voice. All the same, he wanted to be pretty
careful. “Why wouldn’t you want to eat me?” he asked.
“Why, because you belong to my Tommy. I’m not saying what I might do
if you didn’t,” answered the Dog, wagging his tail harder than ever
because he was so amused at Nibble. “Though I guess I’m too old and
fat to catch you. But as long as you live in my Man’s barns and have
my Man’s smell about you I’ll never touch you. My job is to take care
of my Man’s things and see that nobody hurts them.”
Now it was queer, but just the way that nice, big, growl Dog said he
might possibly try to catch him if he wasn’t Tommy Peele’s rabbit made
Nibble feel better. He felt the Dog wasn’t pretending like Ouphe the
Rat did after he’d been shouting horrid things at Chirp Sparrow. He
gave a little laugh—a sniffly one, because he wasn’t quite over being
afraid. “Please, Mr. Dog,” he murmured, “Chirp said I was to make
friends with you.”
“Well, then, my name is Watch,” the Dog continued; “it’s my job to
watch this farm and see that things don’t go wrong on it. And that’s
why you should have called me the minute Ouphe put his ugly teeth into
this.” He sniffed the gnawed spot on Nibble’s cage.
“Yes, sir.” Nibble apologized. “Chirp didn’t tell me that. He just
said you were once a wolf, like Silvertip—only much more clever.”
“Urr!” remarked Watch, cocking an ear. “So Chirp’s been going into my
family history? He’s a gossipy bundle of feathers.”
“No,” insisted Nibble honestly.
“Just about how the Wolves ate the Cows in the very First-Off
Beginning.”
“All right,” answered Watch. “Then I’ll finish it for myself.”