THE CLEVERNESS OF CHIRP SPARROW
Watch must have kept his word about sending the cows to talk to Nibble
Rabbit. For the first thing they did when the barn door was opened was
to come trooping up to his cage. And an old White Cow put her big
starey eye right up close to it, because she’s very near-sighted, and
sniffed. Nibble’s fur blew as hard as it did the time of the terrible
storm. But her breath was all warm and sweet with clover, so he wasn’t
afraid, though she was three times as big as the dog.
The very first thing the White Cow said was: “Why don’t you eat your
breakfast?”
“I can’t. I’m all cramped up in this cage,” answered Nibble.
[Illustration: The White Cow makes friends with Nibble.]
“He’s too much afraid of being eaten,” laughed Chirp Sparrow, and he
perched right on the White Cow’s horn.
“Why, there’s no one going to hurt him,” drawled the Cow in a
surprised tone.
“There was Ouphe the Rat last night. Nibble felt pretty trembly about
him.”
“Ouphe! The disgusting thing. He came in and messed up our feed and
danced over us with his pricky feet so we couldn’t sleep. I just
called Watch,” mooed the White Cow in her nice fluty voice. It
reminded Nibble of the South Wind.
“Aren’t you afraid of Watch?” Nibble asked, for now he was truly going
to find out whether Watch was bad. “He said he’d kill you if his Man
told him to.”
“Watch? Why, Watch couldn’t kill any one. He’s too fat and sleepy and
good-natured. And no man would ever tell him to.”
“Aren’t you afraid of Man?” Nibble asked next.
“Man!” The White Cow snorted again, and most of the others snorted,
too. “Why, Tommy Peele’s all the man that ever milks me. And he’s only
a little boy. He snuggles right in beside me as though he were my own
Calf. I love Tommy Peele.”
“I don’t like Tommy Peele,” bellowed the Red Cow Nibble had taken for
a log when Silvertip chased him. “I don’t like Tommy Peele. He threw
stones at me when he drove me out of the cornfield.” She nudged the
White Cow away and sniffed at Nibble’s carrot. “I’d like that,” said
the greedy thing.
“You’d quarrel with any one,” drawled the White Cow. “You’re always
doing something you’ve no business to do.” And she moved off.
Then Chirp Sparrow had a fine idea. “Look here,” he whispered in the
Red Cow’s ear. “If you want to get even with Tommy Peele you just
catch your horn in that wire and let out his rabbit.”
“Um-m, I dunno——” mumbled the Red Cow. She didn’t like stones the way
Tommy could throw them.
“Then you can have the carrots—all the carrots. There are lots of them
under the hay,” lied Chirp.
The Red Cow lurched her head awkwardly. Her horn caught on the wire.
Then she got scared and tried to break loose again. But what she broke
loose was the whole door. She bounced off with it dangling against her
face. “Moo-oo-oo!” she bawled as she plunged about the barnyard. “Take
it off! Take it off! It hurts my no-o-se!”
But Nibble didn’t care. He took a fine long jump that stretched his
long legs. And then who ever said a rabbit couldn’t dance? He danced a
proper hornpipe and he twiddled his puffy tail and flopped his
ears—all at once—because it felt so good to be free. And Chirp Sparrow
squawked and sat down on his tail feathers because he was laughing too
hard to fly. Half at Nibble and half at the Red Cow.
Of course all the other sparrows came cheeping and chirping, and
Chanticleer the Rooster crowed, though he didn’t know what he was
crowing about. And the noise brought Watch the Dog on the run—and
after him came Tommy Peele, not nearly so fast, for he still had his
tall rubber boots on.
And Nibble took to the only hole he knew anything about—which was
Ouphe’s—but he was so startled he didn’t stop to think of that. And
the bad old rat woke up and started to come out of that very hole to
see what all this noise was about.
Then wasn’t Nibble in a nice fix? Just wasn’t he?
In front of him Watch was sniffing and digging at the hay. Behind him
Ouphe was murmuring in his sticky, trickly voice: “Come right in,
little Friend Rabbit. Come right in.”
Just then Watch barked to Tommy Peele: “Here he is. I’ve got him.” And
Tommy said in a very severe voice: “Go ’way, Watch. Don’t you hurt my
bunny.”
“There,” barked Watch, “he says you’re still his bunny, even if you
are wild again. Come along!” But Nibble didn’t move.
“Go away!” said Tommy again. “Go on, Watch; he’ll never come out until
you do.”
But Watch didn’t move. He could hear Ouphe saying in a horrid voice:
“Come in here, or I’ll take you by the tail and pull you in.” And he
held his very breath—and his wagger with it!
Of course Ouphe thought he had gone away. And he wasn’t very scared of
Tommy Peele. So he caught hold of Nibble’s tail. And then Nibble was
so frightened he began to squeal and pull. And Ouphe held back.
“Come along, Nibble, come quick,” pleaded Chirp Sparrow. He meant that
the dog was safer than the rat. But Ouphe thought he meant that the
dog was gone. So he let Nibble pull him to the very edge of the hole.
“Aurgh!” sang Watch, very joyfully indeed. For he never touched Nibble
at all, but nipped Ouphe the Rat right through the heart with those
very long teeth he shows when he laughs.
Nibble sat right down there in the sunlight until he got his breath,
and nobody tried to catch him.
Watch couldn’t. He had his mouth all full of Ouphe. And he was walking
around on the tips of his toes, looking so vain that all the sparrows
laughed at him. Even Tommy Peele joined in. But Watch didn’t care a
bit. He just smiled as wide as he could let his mouth go and not lose
Ouphe out of it.
And Nibble slipped over and ate his carrot. How good it tasted, now he
was free!