XXIII
HOW NIMBLE HELPED
Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon had come early to Jimmy Rabbit's party.
And Jimmy had told them to hang their hats and coats upon his new
hat-rack--meaning Nimble Deer's antlers. But when they tried to do as
they were bid they found that the antlers were beyond their reach.
Of course Jimmy Rabbit was most uncomfortable. He coughed and gave
Nimble an odd look. He even nodded his head at Nimble behind his guests'
backs, thereby doing his best to give Nimble a hint to lower his head.
But Nimble Deer couldn't imagine what Jimmy Rabbit meant. Hadn't Jimmy
warned him not to move--not even to open his mouth, or chew his cud, or
wink? So Nimble stood like a statue.
"I--I see my new hat-rack is too high," Jimmy Rabbit stammered. "Let me
take your hats and coats and I'll hang them up for you while you go and
wait for the rest of the company over by the stone wall!"
So Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon gave their hats and coats to Jimmy.
"That's a fine Deer's head," Fatty remarked. "It seems to me I've seen
it before somewhere."
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. He wished his guests would
move away.
"Those antlers remind me of Nimble Deer's," Billy Woodchuck remarked.
And he gave Nimble a wink, for he had quickly guessed the secret of the
hat-rack and how Jimmy Rabbit had planned to have Nimble at his party
and yet keep him out of the crowd.
"Is this Deer's head stuffed?" Billy Woodchuck asked Jimmy Rabbit.
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy muttered. "Move along, please!"
Nimble wanted to return that wink that Billy Woodchuck gave him. But he
didn't, because Jimmy Rabbit had warned him to keep perfectly still.
As soon as his guests had left them Jimmy whispered to Nimble, "Lower
your head a bit, for pity's sake!"
Nimble promptly obeyed him. And Jimmy Rabbit hung the hats and coats
upon Nimble's antlers.
"Now," Jimmy said, "keep your head exactly where it is!"
[Illustration: Nimble Frightened Uncle Jerry Chuck.
_Page 125_]
"I suppose I may raise it after everybody has come to the party," Nimble
ventured.
"No! That would never do," Jimmy Rabbit replied firmly. "If anybody
happened to come back to get a pocket-handkerchief out of his coat he'd
be sure to notice the difference."
A sigh escaped Nimble Deer.
"My neck will ache before the evening's over," he said. "Couldn't I take
a short walk in the woods, later, to rest myself?"
"My goodness, no!" Jimmy cried. "You'd be sure to lose some of the hats
and coats, or tear them on some briars, or get them full of burs."
"How long is the party going to last?" Nimble asked.
"Only till midnight!"
At that Nimble gave a groan.
"S-s-h!" Jimmy Rabbit laid a paw upon his lips. "Keep still! Stuffed
animals never talk. If you don't look out somebody will hear you."
And then he hurried away to join his guests. He did not want to leave
them alone too long. He feared they might be saying things to each other
about his new hat-rack.
XXIV
UNCLE JERRY CHUCK
Soon Jimmy Rabbit's friends arrived at his party in throngs. And soon
Nimble Deer's antlers bristled with hats and coats of many kinds and
colors.
"I must look like a Christmas tree," Nimble thought. "I wish Jimmy
Rabbit and his friends would come and dance around me so I might see
the fun."
But they didn't. They stayed down in a little hollow some distance
away. Nimble could hear their voices. And they seemed to be having
a delightful time.
As for Nimble, he wasn't having a good time at all. "I'll never help
at another party!" he promised himself. He couldn't believe that
midnight--and the end of the party--would ever come.
At last, however, he took heart. For old Uncle Jerry Chuck came hurrying
up and began taking hats and coats off Nimble's antlers. And Nimble knew
then that the party must be almost over.
"This is a good hat!" Uncle Jerry muttered to himself. "I'll take it."
And then he said, "This is a good coat! I'll take it." Then he looked
closely at another hat. "This is a good one, too!" he remarked. "I might
lose the other. I'll take this one, too--and this coat here," he added,
selecting a second coat that pleased him.
Little did Uncle Jerry Chuck dream that the Deer's head was a real, live
one. And just as the old chap reached for the second coat Nimble Deer
had to cough. He didn't want to. Hadn't Jimmy Rabbit cautioned him not
to stir--not to open his mouth?
But the cough came all the same, right in Uncle Jerry Chuck's ear. And
Uncle Jerry jumped. He dropped both hats and both coats. And then he
waddled off as fast as he could go and scrambled over the stone wall,
out of sight. He didn't even wait to get his own rusty coat and tattered
hat, which he had left lying on the ground.
Uncle Jerry hadn't been gone long when all the company came jostling up
to Nimble. Everybody--except Nimble--was very merry. Amid a good many
jokes the company put on their hats and coats, until only Aunt Polly
Woodchuck's poke bonnet hung from Nimble's horns.
Then--just for fun--Jimmy Rabbit set the bonnet on Nimble's head and
tied its strings under his chin. And Aunt Polly Woodchuck herself
laughed hardest of all.
And then all at once something happened. A dog barked. "It's old dog
Spot!" somebody cried.
Nimble Deer was the first to run. One leap took him out of the evergreen
thicket in which he had been standing all the evening. Three leaps more
took him over the stone wall.
After that nobody saw him--nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck's bonnet--again that
night.
The whole company scattered and vanished like baby grouse surprised in
the woods. And when old dog Spot reached the clump of evergreens a few
moments later he found nothing to show that there had been a party
there--that is, he found nothing except a battered hat and a rusty
coat lying on the ground.
Spot sniffed at them. "Unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Jerry Chuck has
forgotten something," he murmured. "No doubt he'll be back here in
a little while."
So Spot waited and waited there.
But Uncle Jerry Chuck was half a mile away and sound asleep in his
underground chamber.
And Nimble Deer was a mile away, over in Cedar Swamp, trying to tear
Aunt Polly's bonnet off his head by rubbing his horns against a young
cedar.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Nimble Deer, by Arthur Scott Bailey