BOXER WISHES HE HADN’T
This is, you’ll find, the law of fate:
Regrets are always just too late.
_Mother Bear._
Sammy Jay had followed Boxer, for he felt sure that things were bound
to happen wherever that little Bear was. So Sammy saw his meeting with
Jimmy Skunk. He saw how polite Jimmy was and how very impolite the
little Bear was.
Sammy understood perfectly. He knew that probably Boxer knew nothing at
all about Jimmy Skunk and never had heard of that little bag of scent
carried by Jimmy and dreaded by all of Jimmy’s neighbors. He knew that
the little Bear was rude, simply because he was so much bigger than
Jimmy Skunk that he could see no reason for being polite, especially as
Jimmy had asked him to do something he didn’t want to do.
When Jimmy Skunk began to lose patience, Sammy Jay thought it was time
for him to give Boxer a little advice. “Don’t be silly! Do as Jimmy
Skunk tells you to, or you will be the sorriest little Bear that ever
lived!” screamed Sammy, as he saw Jimmy’s great plume of a tail begin
to go up, which is Jimmy’s signal of danger.
But Boxer, foolish little Bear that he was, couldn’t see anything
to fear from one so much smaller than he. So he paid no attention to
Jimmy’s request that he step aside. Instead he laughed in the most
impudent way.
“Run! Run!” screamed Sammy Jay.
Boxer didn’t move. Jimmy Skunk stamped angrily with his front feet.
Then something happened. Yes, sir, something happened. It was so sudden
and so unexpected that Boxer didn’t know exactly what had happened, but
he was very much aware that it _had_ happened. Something was in his
eyes and made them smart and for a few minutes blinded him. Something
was choking him; it seemed to him he could hardly breathe. And there
was the most awful odor he ever had smelled.
Boxer rolled over and over and over on the ground. He was trying to get
away from that awful odor. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t, for the very
good reason that he carried it along with him. You see, Jimmy Skunk had
punished that silly little Bear by throwing on him a little of that
powerful scent he always carries with him to use in time of danger or
when provoked.
“What did I tell you? What did I tell you?” screamed Sammy Jay. “I
guess you won’t interfere with Jimmy Skunk again in a hurry. It serves
you right. It serves you just right. But it is hard on the people who
live about here. Yes, sir, it is hard on them to have all the sweetness
of the Green Forest spoiled by that scent of Jimmy Skunk’s. I can’t
stand it myself, so I’ll be moving along. It serves you right, you
silly little Bear. It serves you right.” With this Sammy Jay flew away.
Boxer knew then that Jimmy Skunk had been the cause of this new and
dreadful trouble he was in, and great respect mingled with fear took
possession of him. And oh, how Boxer wished that he hadn’t been
impolite! How he wished he hadn’t refused to do as Jimmy Skunk had
politely asked him to!
“I wish I hadn’t! I wish I hadn’t! I wish I hadn’t!” sobbed Boxer
over and over, as he tried to get away from that dreadful smell and
couldn’t.