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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aeb9c37 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63954 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63954) diff --git a/old/63954-0.txt b/old/63954-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c2d8639..0000000 --- a/old/63954-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2392 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mostly About Nibble the Bunny, by John Breck - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Mostly About Nibble the Bunny - -Author: John Breck - -Illustrator: William T. Andrews - -Release Date: January 09, 2021 [eBook #63954] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Roger Frank - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY *** - - - - - MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY - - - - - Told at Twilight Stories - - - By JOHN BRECK - - MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY - NIBBLE RABBIT MAKES MORE FRIENDS - THE SINS OF SILVERTIP THE FOX - THE COON’S TRICKS - THE WAVY TAILED WARRIOR - TAD COON’S GREAT ADVENTURE - THE BAD LITTLE OWLS - THE JAY BIRD WHO WENT TAME - - - - -[Illustration: “Cheer up, Bunny,” chirped Bobby Robin] - - - - - Told at Twilight Stories - - MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY - - by - John Breck - - Illustrated by - William T. Andrews - - Garden City—New York - Doubleday, Page & Company - - 1923 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1923, - BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT - OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES - INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN - - COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES - AT - THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. - - First Edition - - - - - CONTENTS - - I. A Very Small Bunny Has a Very Big Adventure - II. Nibble Rabbit Learns His Fortune - III. Nibble Rabbit to the Rescue! - IV. What Happens When Folks Lose Their Tempers - V. Nibble Rabbit’s Storm Party - VI. The Little Bunny Meets the Little Boy - VII. Why the Cow Got Her Horns - VIII. Nibble Fools Ouphe in His Own Haystack - IX. Nibble Digs into Trouble—and Slips Out - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - “Cheer up, Bunny,” chirped Bobby Robin - - Bobby and Glider were making such a racket that every - one was coming to listen to them - - Dr. Muskrat pulls Nibble out of the broad pond - - Nibble digs Bob White’s mother out of the bank - - Nibble darted into the first shock he came to - - Silvertip pricked up his ears - - Nibble hid behind a fence post - - Tommy held Nibble up by his long ears - - - - - MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY - - - - - CHAPTER I - - A VERY SMALL BUNNY HAS A VERY BIG ADVENTURE - - -The air was blowing in at the mouth of his hole when Little Nibble -Rabbit opened his eyes. That meant a cold south wind outside, a rainy -wind. He could see the wet drops hanging from the top of his arched -earth doorway. They would wet his back when he tried to go out and -that wouldn’t be nice. He shivered and closed his eyes again. Then he -huddled up tighter than ever into a little furry brown ball. Still he -was cold, so he tried to cuddle into the very farthest corner where -his mother always slept. It was empty! - -That woke him up. “Mammy,” he called softly; “Mammy.” No answer. He -put his nose to the earth and found it still warm. She could not have -been gone very long. So he crawled to the mouth of the hole and -thumped with his little hind feet, making all the noise he dared. Then -he sat up and cocked his ears for her answering thump. He half -expected a glimpse of her white tail bobbing down one of the tunnels -through the Prickly Ash Thicket. But no mother was there. - -“She can’t go off and leave me like this,” he said to himself, and he -put down his nose to find her trail. It was all washed out by the -rain. Thump, thump! he went again—and they were cross thumps because -he was so terribly disappointed. Then he suddenly sat down on his -little tufty tail and wailed “Mammy, mammy, mammy!” at the top of his -voice. - -“Cheer up, Bunny. What’s wrong,” chirped some one from a branch just -over his head. It was Bobby Robin, and he was peering down with the -most puzzled and astonished look in his black eye. - -“I’m Nibble,” sobbed the little rabbit, “and I’ve lost my mother.” - -“Well, Nibble,” warned Bobby in his sensible way, “if she doesn’t come -back pretty soon she’ll lose her son. Don’t you know better than to -tell Killer Weasel and Silvertip the Fox, and Hooter the Owl, and any -one else who wants to know where they’ll find a nice young rabbit for -breakfast.” - -But the tears ran faster than ever down Nibble’s whiskers. “It’s -Hooter,” he sniffed. “He caught her when she went down to the brook -for a drink. I know he did. She’d never leave me.” - -“Nonsense,” said Bobby, and he said it peckishly, for no one likes to -hear a little rabbit cry. “I know your mother, and she knows the law -of the woods. You can fly—run, I mean—can’t you. And feed yourself?” - -“Yes,” answered Nibble, for his brothers and sisters had gone to dig -their own holes and find their own food weeks ago. - -“Well, then,” finished Bobby, nodding wisely to himself, “if there’s -any fresh rabbit fur under Hooter’s tree it’s not your mother’s.” - -To his surprise Nibble stopped squeezing the tears from his eyes and -opened them wide. “I’m going to look!” he announced. And he began to -scrub his face and polish off his ears with his little soft forepaws. - -“Going to look where?” asked Bobby Robin. - -“Oh, lots of places—the Clover Patch, and the Brush Pile, and the -Broad Field. But first I’m going to see if there’s any fur under -Hooter’s tree.” - -“What?” squawked Bobby. He came tumbling down to the ground where he -could make Nibble look him straight in the eye and listen to an awful -lecture. - -“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” he said. “Now that you have to see -and hear and smell and feel for yourself you will have to be twice as -careful as you ever were before. You may remember all the things your -mother taught you—now you’ll have to do them. And she took all that -trouble with you so you could be a sensible, clever rabbit and keep -out of danger, not so you’d run right off the minute she left you and -offer Hooter a free meal.” Bobby was so worried about Nibble he forgot -that the ground was no place for a sensible bird. - -“But I must know if Hooter caught her,” pleaded Nibble, “and I will be -careful.” He sat up and sniffed all around with his nice clean nose -that had been all swollen from crying when Bobby Robin found him. And -he pricked up his tidy ears, just to show how careful he meant to be. -And he heard a soft little noise behind him. It wasn’t two grass -stalks rubbing together, though it was as tiny as that. It was the -scraping Glider the Blacksnake makes when he slips across a stone! - -Nibble’s feet just bounced of themselves, and Bobby’s wings beat, and -Glider’s ugly head landed right between them. For Glider hears -everything that goes on along the ground. He had heard Nibble stamping -to call his mother. If Mammy Rabbit had answered Glider would never -have come. But she didn’t—so Glider did. And now lonely little Nibble -Rabbit was racing off and Glider was after him, simply boiling over -with rage, as fast as he could put tail to the ground. He didn’t think -Nibble could run so very far. He was sure he would catch him. - -For a minute Nibble thought so too. Scared! Nibble Rabbit was too -scared to think. He just ran. Every jump he made was longer and higher -than the one before until he was sailing over the tops of the tallest -grasses. My, but he wanted his mammy—that was because he was so -dreadfully scared. Then he wanted a place to hide. Presently he -remembered the Brush Pile. He turned toward it and he didn’t even hide -his trail the way he had been taught—that’s how scared he was. - -But just as he reached it he remembered something his mother had told -him, which was just what she hoped he would do. “If the thing that -chases you wears feathers take to a hole. If it wears fur don’t put -your nose into any hole that hasn’t another end. If it wears scales -keep to the open and run as fast and as far as you can.” And scales -are exactly what Glider wears. - -Now he knew exactly what to do, and he wasn’t quite as scared. He just -bounced up on the Brush Pile and kept on going until he bounced off -again on the other side. He raced through the Clover Patch and down -the Broad Field between the shocks of corn. The field was all muddy -from the rain and his feet slipped and slid and his little heart went -bump, bump, against his sides, as though some one were hitting him. He -wasn’t even frightened any more—he was too tired. But he kept on. - -Then he heard a voice calling him: “Nibble, Nibble, wait!” It was no -hissy voice of a snake. It was Bobby Robin. - -So he turned into one of the nice little tents made by the shocks of -corn. And Bobby had to catch his breath before he could talk. “You’re -safe,” he gasped. “You lost Glider way back there. I asked you if you -could fly. You can. You fly faster than a thistledown in a north -wind.” And Nibble twitched his nose into a pleased smile, while Bobby -stopped to fan himself with his wings. “Glider couldn’t see you bounce -oft on the other side of the Brush Pile,” he explained when he got his -breath, “because his head is so near the ground.” - -Nibble’s ears flew up in surprise. “Couldn’t he smell me?” he asked. -If he couldn’t, then here indeed was a new thing he had learned. - -Bobby cocked his head sidewise with a most mischievous air. “He could -follow you to the edge of the Clover Patch. But he lost you the minute -you went out into the Broad Field. Look at your feet, Nibble. You -didn’t leave any scent after you got your little mud boots.” - -Nibble held up one forepaw and looked at it. Then he put out a hind -one and looked at that, too. Sure enough the sticky mud of the Broad -Field had matted into his fur so that he was wearing a fine little set -of boots that came half way to his knees. He looked down the row of -slippy, slidy tracks he had made. “There’s where I got them,” he said. -“I should think Glider would see where I’d gone.” - -“Glider!” laughed Bobby scornfully. “Why, Glider’s too blind and -stupid to see anything. He’s nosing around on the Brush Pile right -this minute, looking for the hole you didn’t run into. And the little -sticks tickle his stomach, and he’s getting hungrier and hungrier and -crosser and crosser until—oh, I say, Nibble, I’ve just got to go back -and see the fun. Come along!” Bobby giggled a throatful of chuckling -notes and flitted off, winking his tail-feathers to beckon Nibble. - -But it didn’t seem like fun to Nibble. He was still so weak and shaky -after his run that he trembled every time Bobby spoke Glider’s name. -What he wanted was to find his mother—or at least to know that she -wasn’t a little matted ball of fur under Hooter the Owl’s tree. “I’d -go and look right now,” he said to himself, “if I didn’t have to pass -that Brush Pile.” - -Suddenly he knew that now was his chance, while he still had his -little mud boots on. Softly he crept through the Clover Patch for fear -Glider might be lurking in the long grass, ready to pounce on him. But -long before he reached the Brush Pile itself he knew exactly where the -wicked snake was. He was right on top of it. - -He was right on top of it, and what is more, Bobby Robin was circling -about his ugly head to jeer at him. “Yah!” Bobby was shouting, “Heap -big hunter, beaten by a bunny! Better go catch frogs in a marsh!” - -Now Nibble knew that was a most insulting thing to say. For a frog is -so stupid that almost anything can catch him—especially a snake. If a -frog can possibly dive he hides under a lily pad. If he can’t he just -squawks and waits to be eaten, like a helpless baby bird. - -Bobby was squawking loudly enough, only he wasn’t waiting to be eaten. -He was taking very good care not to be. But he was coming so close to -it that Nibble almost forgot everything else in watching him. There -was one thing he did remember, though, and that was that the wicked -snake had nearly caught him by sneaking up from behind. So he took -proper rabbit care that no one should do that again. He found a nice -log where he could see what was going on, but he didn’t hop straight -up on it. He took three short little leaps past it, and one great big -bound back to his perch. Since he still had on his little mud boots -which had hidden his trail from Glider out in the Broad Field, he felt -pretty safe. And when he crouched down like a small brown knot on the -log no one seemed to notice him. - -Somebody might have noticed easily enough for Bobby and Glider were -making such a terrible racket that every one was coming to listen to -them. The grasses were full of mice and the bushes were full of -sparrows who all hated the snake. Even Chatter Squirrel, who doesn’t -get on with Bobby any too well himself, came leaping across his -pathway among the branches. - -[Illustration: Bobby and Glider were making such a racket that everyone -was coming to listen to them] - -“Snail eater, snail eater!” yelled Bobby. Which was the awfullest -thing he could have thought of. To accuse a blacksnake of eating those -disgusting soft woodslugs—ugh! What he eats is nice warm food, like -mice and bunnies and birds—if he can catch them. But he couldn’t catch -Bobby Robin as he danced on his wings just out of reach. He missed a -particularly ugly snap and slapped his nose very hard when it came -down on a nubbly branch. That made him open his mouth and hiss like a -small steam engine. - -“That’s right,” said Bobby, pretending to be very sympathetic. “Spit -the mud out of your mouth and maybe you’ll learn to sing.” - -Chatter Squirrel laughed so hard at this that he had to hold on tight -to a piece of bark to steady himself. And Nibble sat straight up with -his muddy little paws dangling right against his clean shirt front and -stared with all his eyes. He had his ear cocked so he wouldn’t miss a -word of Glider’s answer. For now Glider was maddest of all. No snake -can stand being reminded that he has to go around with his chin in the -dust. - -He stopped whipping his head about and tied himself into a tight coil, -with his cold eyes glittering from the very middle of it. And he -hissed in his cold voice: “I’ll teach you Woodsfolk whether you dare -make fun of me!” - -“Oh,” whispered a thrush perched right over Nibble’s head, “I’m afraid -for Bobby. If Glider ever makes any one look him straight in the eye -they never get away from him.” He said it in a scared voice and Nibble -could see that was exactly what Glider was trying to do. - -Suddenly he felt himself crouch back against the log again, ears -tucked between his shoulders, whiskers twitching with the smell of fox -in his nostrils. His muscles did these things of themselves before he -really knew that Silvertip was standing at his very elbow. He had -followed Nibble’s footsteps to the end of the trail right past the -perch to where Nibble had jumped back. - -Nibble didn’t move. Silvertip raised his head and cocked his ears at -the noise over on the Brush Pile. Then he hung out his tongue in what -wasn’t entirely a sly smile. It was partly thinking how good Glider -the Blacksnake would taste. He made a little rush, with a bounce at -the end, like Nibble’s bounce, right into the middle of the Brush -Pile. - -“Help!” shrieked Bobby Robin. But Glider never spoke a single word. -Neither did Silvertip. His mouth was too full. Glider was in it. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - NIBBLE RABBIT LEARNS HIS FORTUNE - - -Not one of the Woodsfolk could make a sound. It was all so sudden it -took their breath away. Then the sparrows began to flutter and chirp -in their noisy way, and Chatter Squirrel said to nobody in particular, -“Great acorns! but that was exciting! One minute Glider is playing a -trick on Bobby Robin, and the next Silvertip jumps up from nowhere at -all and plays the biggest trick on Glider! Whew!” - -“Well,” answered Nibble Rabbit, “I’ve just been thinking that it -doesn’t matter to me which eats which. They’re both tried to eat me -since morning.” He was still the little brown knot on his log that he -had frozen into when Silvertip came past. “Chatter, is Silvertip -looking?” - -“No. He’s spread out in the sun sleeping off his meal,” answered -Chatter, craning his neck to see where Nibble was hidden. And his eyes -fairly popped when that little brown knot slipped down from the far -side of the log and limped away. - -He limped—for not only was Nibble a very tired rabbit from sitting so -still, but his little mud boots that he got in the Broad Field when he -was running away from Glider were all stiff and uncomfortable. How he -did want a wash and a drink and a place to rest! - -He could hear water whispering not far away, but he didn’t dare go -through the tunnels in the Prickly Ash Thicket to get to it. So he -didn’t find the brook he knew. He went farther down where it spread -out into a broad pond. It was all edged with reeds and rushes that had -some delicious watercress growing up between their roots. He could -step on the last year’s stalks which had been bent down by the Winter -Wind and keep his feet safe from the sticky mud below. Pretty soon he -found a little raft hidden in the middle of a clump of cattails. - -“This is the place for me,” he said to himself. “It’s warm in the sun -and snug from the wind, and nobody’ll ever find me.” So he curled up -and went fast asleep. - -He awoke to feel a shadow falling across him. He looked up into the -homeliest face he had ever seen. It was pointed, like his own, but -fatter, and it had little cropped ears and sleepy, blinky eyes, and -long yellow teeth that flashed when it said severely: “What are you -doing here?” - -Poor Nibble! He was only half awake. He had forgotten where he was, -and it’s rabbit nature to jump first and think while you run. He -jumped. His feet slipped, he splashed and the water closed over his -long ears. - -Then didn’t he kick and strangle! No sooner did he get his poor little -nose out than it went under again. But the second time the green water -parted and his scared eyes could see the rushes waving in the lovely -air, and his lungs could get one more breath that tasted as sweet as -clover in the spring, he felt a grip on the back of his neck. A gruff -voice growled: “Take your time. You should learn to swim.” - -The next thing he knew he was being shaken very hard. “Cough!” ordered -the gruff voice. “Shake your head till you get the water out of your -ears! Now eat this!” And Nibble swallowed a peppery bite of root that -made his eyes pop, and set the tears streaming down his whiskers. - -“Who are you?” he gasped. - -“Doctor Muskrat, of course,” answered the voice. “You couldn’t be in -better paws.” But poor Nibble Rabbit thought he couldn’t very well be -in worse ones. Which was very ungrateful. - -“I’d rather be eaten than choked to death,” he thought. “But this -awful old animal is perfectly satisfied with himself for doing it! Ah! -Oh! Uh-huh!” he coughed. And Doctor Muskrat sat back and looked more -wise and pleased than ever. - -“I knew that would open your eyes,” he explained. “It was a flagroot -gnawed in the wax of the moon. You see I know what every plant in the -marsh is good for and I dry them for my medicine chest.” - -“What would have happened if you hadn’t given it to me?” asked Nibble -weakly. - -“I didn’t risk it,” said Doctor Muskrat, “so of course I don’t know. I -gave you the proper remedy as soon as you could swallow, so of course -you’re all right now. - - “In the full of the moon - Eyes open soon. - Plucked in the wane - Eyes close again,” - -he quoted. “That’s the rule for flagroot. Now I’ll put you to sleep -with the other dose if you need a rest and I’ll stay right here and -watch you.” - -“Oh, no!” protested Nibble. He was just beginning to breathe and he -didn’t want any more of kind Doctor Muskrat’s medicines. “I must look -for my mother, under Hooter the Owl’s tree.” - -“First,” said the doctor looking at him very severely, “you must clean -yourself up and put your fur in order. If your feet hadn’t been all -caked with mud you wouldn’t have slipped.” - -“They were very uncomfortable, too,” Nibble agreed, glad that his swim -had melted his boots, at last. “I kept them on so Glider the -Blacksnake couldn’t track me.” And he told his experience with Glider -and the Fox. - -“Nevertheless,” said Doctor Muskrat, “you weren’t safe because you -couldn’t keep your nose clean and smell all around you, nor your ears -clean, so you could hear. Always be sure you know everything about it -before you decide to try something new. For instance, rabbits don’t -belong in a marsh, do they?” - -“No,” murmured Nibble, “But it looked so hidden and so safe.” - -“So hidden,” Doctor Muskrat snorted. “It’s a mercy it was I who found -you and not Slyfoot the Mink. So safe that you nearly drowned when you -tried to get away. Now you say you want to visit the owl’s tree. Is -that any place for a rabbit? Answer me that!” - -“No,” wailed Nibble. “But I want my mother and I don’t know where else -to look. If that old owl did catch her he might as well take me too. -Glider the Blacksnake ’most did, and Silvertip nearly ate me instead -of him. He might as well. Nobody cares, anyhow, if my mother’s gone. -Why didn’t you just let me drown?” Which was no way at all of thanking -Doctor Muskrat for having rescued him. And tears of sorrow mingled -with the tears that came from the awful medicine the old Doctor had -given him. - -But Doctor Muskrat’s feelings weren’t hurt in the least. He could see -that poor little Nibble was badly scared and all clammy and cold from -his ducking besides. “What you need,” he said in his gruff voice, -trying to make it sound really kind, “is a nap and some light but -refreshing nourishment. What’ll it be—a fat frog? No? I forgot that -all of us don’t eat the same things. Let’s see—” He thought a minute -and Nibble could see his nose twitch as though he imagined he were -sniffing things as they came into his mind. Then he licked his lips. -“I know,” he said, and at the word his scaly tail cut the water like a -knife where it closed behind his vanishing heels. - -A minute passed, two, four. What had happened to him? Nibble began to -remember how ungrateful he had been. He also remembered that Slyfoot -the Mink might be creeping up, or the Brown March Hawk peering about -as he flew by. He craned his neck and saw something floating down from -upstream as softly as a stick in the current. It was the fat old -doctor with a big root in his mouth. - -[Illustration: Dr. Muskrat pulls Nibble out of the broad pond] - -He slipped up beside Nibble without a sound. “I had to scour the -bottom to find this,” he explained. “It’s water chinquapin and it has -properties.” - -He said this so mysteriously that Nibble dared not ask him what -“Properties” were, so he tasted a little, very carefully, to see. Did -you ever taste a water chinquapin yourself? It’s delicate and -jelly-like, but so sweet and rich that you’d risk stepping on old -Grandpop Snapping Turtle himself to get some more. Nibble scraped the -very rind of it. And then he thanked Doctor Muskrat for taking so much -trouble over him. - -“Well,” growled the old doctor in a very pleased tone, “I’m glad you -have found your manners, if not your courage. Now snuggle up and go to -sleep.” And so Nibble cuddled against him in a nice warm lump to sleep -off his fullness. - -He didn’t wake until the pink reflections from the setting sun were -dying out of the west and stars were already twinkling in the sky. -Doctor Muskrat was studying their reflections where they sparkled in -the pool. He was saying something to himself. - - “By dusk and by dawn he shall travel alone - And all troubles are his excepting his own.” - -“Is that right?” and he pricked his ears. Nibble’s own ears flew up, -but he couldn’t hear a word from those stars, dancing softly on the -water in the night wind. That was because this was deep and secret -magic. - -“You awake?” asked Doctor Muskrat. “Well, that fortune was yours. I -asked the stars most particularly. They wouldn’t tell me anything -about your mother, but from the way they’re smiling I feel sure you’re -going to find her in the end. They did say that Slyfoot had gone -across the pond, so you had better hurry to the bank and find the -quail.” - -Which last was strictly true and not magic at all, because the stars -had danced very hard in Slyfoot’s ripples. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - NIBBLE RABBIT TO THE RESCUE! - - -“Go up on the bank and find the quail,” Doctor Muskrat had advised. So -Nibble Rabbit set out as obediently as possible, because he meant to -do exactly what the nice old gentleman told him to, though he didn’t -know something that had happened while he was taking his nap on the -snug little raft among the reeds. - -You see, Doctor Muskrat had heard the quail come fluttering down to -the pond for their evening drink, and he remembered that Bob White has -the kindest heart in the world. So he squealed, very softly. And Bob -flew right out to see what he wanted. - -“Look at this bunny,” whispered the doctor, pointing his paddle paw at -Nibble. “Whatever am I going to do with him? I can’t take him into the -underwater door to my own house, because he can’t dive. And if I make -a hole in my roof it will leak, and besides it will be far too -convenient for that clever mink, Slyfoot. He’d come right in by my -regular tunnel if he didn’t know I was asleep with my teeth bared at -the end of it. Couldn’t you look after him until morning?” - -“Surely I will,” answered Bob White. “Send him along as soon as he -wakes. I’ll have our Watch Bird keep an eye out for him.” And off he -flew. - -So Nibble was hopping ashore repeating to himself his fortune that the -stars had told the doctor for him. - - “By dusk and by dawn he shall travel alone - And all troubles are his excepting his own.” - -And he wasn’t lonely any more because, you see, that was part of his -fortune. - -But this time he didn’t travel alone very far. For just as he passed a -nice, home-like looking thicket, out stepped a bird. “Come along,” he -called cheerfully. “The rest of the flock are settled down by this -time. I’ll show you the way.” And he went scuttling ahead through the -grasses with Nibble hopping at his heels. - -They were right near a cluster of comfortable little thorn trees which -grew on the edge of the Bluff where it leaned away out over the Sandy -Beach below when they heard a startling noise. And the quail that was -with Nibble spread his wings and hurried on as fast as he could fly. -For the quail weren’t asleep at all. They were just ahead of him, all -fluttering and scuttling and crying together. - -“Danger!” thought Nibble. For it made his very heart beat fast just to -hear them. “Which way shall I run?” Then he remembered the last line -of his fortune; so he crept up closer instead. Presently he stopped to -listen—a weak little voice from under his very feet called, “Whit, -whit!” in the saddest tone. - -He sat straight up and demanded: “What’s the trouble?” - -“Oh,” mourned Bob White, frantically beating his wings, “my mother ran -under the edge of the bank and the earth caved in. And we can’t dig -her out again.” - -And they couldn’t, either, for the clay was all full of the tough, -tangled roots of the thorns. - -“I can,” said Nibble Rabbit. “All troubles are mine but my own. Where -do I begin?” - -So they showed him the little bit of a hole where they had tried it -themselves and he settled his strong hindfeet and moved the little -clawed spades of his forepaws so fast they fairly twinkled. When he -found a root he used his chisel teeth. As soon as he gnawed it through -his paws would begin to fly again. And the quail crowded around and -whispered to each other. Presently they began to croon a sort of song. -“He’s coming, coming, coming soon.” And the little quail deep in the -bank would answer. - -The earth was loose, so she didn’t quite smother, but she did need a -full breath of air. The time seemed very long to her. But it seemed -longer still to Nibble Rabbit. Those roots were so tough his jaws -ached. He had dug so hard his legs were getting numb. And the birds -outside had lost sight of his tufty white tail. But they knew how he -was working, for they could see the dirt fly when he kicked his strong -hind feet to clear it out of the hole. - -[Illustration: Nibble digs Bob White’s mother out of the bank] - -Soon his little claws almost refused to move. But he wouldn’t let them -stop! Then the “Whit!” sounded almost in his ear. Now his feet fairly -flew of themselves for a dozen strokes and—Victory! A weak little -bunch of brown feathers burst through the clay wall. And he backed out -and helped Mother Quail to the cool fresh air outside the hole. - -Nibble saw the quail all crowd around her, smoothing her ruffled -feathers, loosening the dirt that was caked into them, and making -little soft noises of delight that she was safe again. Then gradually -he didn’t see anything at all. He had come as near fainting as any -wild thing ever does except Mister Possum, who mostly pretends, and -scary little Keree the Rail. He had fallen into a sound sleep. - -When he awoke he felt something tugging his ears. He opened his eyes -and lay still, oh, so comfortable and warm. But the tugging kept up -until he shook his head. Then Bob White whispered softly: “Come on, -Nibble. Our Watch Bird has signalled that Slyfoot the Mink is swimming -this way. We must hide.” - -So Nibble sat up, very stiff and sore. And he found why he had been so -snug. Little quail were cuddled all around him. One by one they took -their heads from under their wings, shook themselves, and got ready to -fly. And overhead in the darkness he could hear the Quails’ Watch Bird -giving the hurry call. When he looked hard he could see the bird -craning his neck against the dusky sky. - -So he shook himself, too, and followed Bob White as he led the flock -in and out of the bushes. Pretty soon Bob gave a low whispering -whistle and the birds took wing. “Make a triangle, Nibble, over to the -top of that log and then jump where you hear me call,” he said. - -So Nibble limped off past the log, turned back on his trail and -dragged himself up on it. My but he was tired. He almost fell asleep -once more out in that cold wind. But Bob’s whistle waked him again. He -jumped and found his legs all tangled in a wild grape vine. - -That set Bob laughing softly. “It’s too bad,” he said, “but you see I -forgot you couldn’t perch like a bird.” - -But Nibble didn’t mind. He just kicked and wriggled until he tumbled -to the ground and the blanket of little quail closed around him again. - -Early in the morning a soft order woke him. “Hold your scent! Hold -your scent!” He didn’t know exactly what it meant, but all the quail -stopped ruffling their feathers to keep warm and closed them tight -about their bodies. So he sleeked his fur and listened with all his -ears. And he just caught the faintest sniffing—from the top of the -log, not ten feet away. It wasn’t any bird. It was—Slyfoot! And, oh! -how Nibble trembled. But the quail didn’t; they were only very still. -And then Nibble heard another tiny sound—the sound of twigs scraping -together. That was Bob White slipping through the branches. He was -walking along an overhead pathway, so as not to make a whir with his -wings. - -Soon Nibble heard Bob beating and flapping over behind the log. “Oh,” -he cried. “My wing—my poor wing! Oh, it’s broken! Help, Oh-h-h!” -Nibble wanted to go, but the other quail held him still. - -Plump! went Slyfoot, all feet at once, as he jumped for the crippled -bird. “Har-r-r!” he snarled as he just missed a mouthful of feathers. -He jumped again. “Oh-h! Help!” wailed Bob as he flapped off. And the -sounds died in the distance. - -But just as Nibble was beginning to scold the Quail because they -wouldn’t let him go and lead Slyfoot away, Bob came sailing into the -thicket with his wing as good as ever. He was laughing. “Topknots and -Tail-feathers!” he exclaimed, “but I gave Slyfoot a merry chase! He’s -over in the Briers by the Pasture fence with his feet as prickery as a -set of thistle-burs.” He limped over the dry leaves to show how -Slyfoot walked with prickers in his paws. - -Nibble laughed with him. “Won’t he be angrier than ever?” he asked. - -“He’s never anything else,” chuckled Bob cheerfully. “But he won’t -bother us again until he thinks we’ve forgotten about him. So we’ll -get our breakfast before we move.” And all the birds began scuttling -about, making as much noise as they pleased. When Nibble dug himself a -root they all crowded around for a taste of it, so there was very -little left for himself. But they shook off some fresh thorn-apples -for him and when he wanted to try the sumach they thought was so nice -they perched on a branch until they weighed it down within his reach. - -They ate and ate, for they were getting ready to travel. Of course -they haven’t any trunks to pack, but they pack their little crops -instead until they can hardly fly. - -“We can’t sleep here again,” Bob explained, “until the dark of the -next moon. Then you’ll know where to find us.” - -“Why?” demanded Nibble curiously. - -“Slyfoot will stay here until then, because he knows all the hiding -places. You mayn’t believe it, but he’s afraid to travel by moonlight -on account of Hooter the Owl. Just the same, he is as restless as we -are. On the first dark night he looks for a new hunting place as far -away as he can.” - -“Where are you going?” Nibble wanted to know. He felt sorry to lose -them. - -Bob stood up and flapped his wings to feel the air. “East or west,” he -answered. “This wind is north. And it’s very strong. We couldn’t go -far against it and if we went south it would tip up our tails and send -us tumbling. But if we fly across it will lift us and help us along.” -He took a little trial trip. Then he settled beside Nibble again. -“West,” he said, “to the deepest woods. There’s a smell of weather. -Come on. Whit! Whit! Good-bye, Nibble.” And they whirred away before -Nibble could ask what Bob meant. - -[Illustration: Nibble darted into the first shock he came to] - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FOLKS LOSE THEIR TEMPERS - - -Nibble found out pretty soon what “a smell of weather” meant. When he -went down to the Pond for a drink he saw a family of ducks. Some of -them were paddling around and some had gone to sleep on shore in the -sun. He spoke to one who had a beautiful green head and shiny blue -feathers in his wings. “Good morning,” he said timidly. - -“Eh? What?” quacked the duck in his hoarse voice, ruffling his -feathers angrily. “Oh, a rabbit. Good morning.” - -“Slyfoot the Mink lives here,” warned Nibble. “You might be caught -before you know.” - -“Thank you,” said the duck “we’re going South in half an hour.” - -“Won’t the wind tip you?” Nibble meant to be kind. - -“Ho, ho,” laughed the duck. “You’ve been talking to the quail. Of -course not. We’re Mallards. We fly faster than the wind. Now I’ll tell -you something. This wind is carrying more than ducks. Can’t you smell -it?” - -Nibble sat up and sniffed very carefully. “It’s queer and dry,” he -said, “and it seems to make my fur want to stand on end.” - -“Go make yourself a nest, Bunny,” said the duck good-naturedly. “What -you smell is a Terrible Storm coming, and it’s coming mighty fast.” He -turned back his shining green head to fix the little curly feathers -that quirked up over his tail. Below his white collar he wore a vest -of the rich red which all rabbits especially admire, and Nibble was -quite awed by his elegance. - -“Come along,” he called to the other ducks who were paddling about in -the shallow water and feeding among the roots of the water lilies. -“It’s time you put your wings in order for a long trip.” And he set -the example by spreading his own feathers and laying them very -cleverly with his wide beak. - -Nibble noticed a lady duck who wore the same colours as himself. She -stood on her head with just her tail and her yellow legs showing out -of water, until he was really afraid she was drowning. When she did -come up straight again she paddled ashore as fast as she could. “The -fish know,” she told her mate. “There’s not a fin stirring, and that -big pickerel I was afraid of has buried himself in the mud. When the -fish know about a storm it’s high time we were gone.” And site began -preening her feathers in a great hurry. - -“Are you afraid of a fish?” Nibble was surprised. - -“Sometimes,” said she. “If it’s big enough to catch us by the leg and -pull us under the water. We take turns watching while we have our -heads down. Everything is afraid of something. But I’m much more -afraid of that big black cloud and the thing that’s driving it.” And -she went back to preening harder than ever. - -“You see, Bunny,” said her good-natured mate, “this is really no -ordinary storm. We saw it grow. We were way up north where the wind -sings in the pines and the ice cracks like the shot of a gun. And this -storm woke up. It wasn’t very big at first, and it cried very softly. -Pretty soon it stood up over the tree tops, taller and taller every -minute. And then it began to howl. It howled so loudly that even the -wolves stopped to listen. But we didn’t We came away very quickly, -before it could catch us. And we’ll keep on going until it stops.” - -“What will it do if it catches you?” demanded Nibble, opening his eyes -very wide. - -“It’ll throw snow all over us so we can’t see our way to fly,” -answered the lady duck. “It’ll cover up all the water with ice so we -can’t feed. When it’s very had we can’t even find a hole big enough to -thaw our feet in. Ugh! I hate to fly so fast. We ought to have come -three days ago. I knew what it was the first day when it snarled at -the wind. It wasn’t afraid!” - -“Afraid?” Nibble sat up and wiggled his ears at the idea. “Are storms -ever afraid.” - -“Of course,” said she, as though he ought to have known. “I told you -everything is afraid of something.” - -Nibble knew this was true. Here he was afraid of Slyfoot, and Slyfoot -was afraid of Hooter. The ducks were afraid of the storm, and the -storm was afraid of— - -“Afraid of the wind!” finished Madame Mallard. “As long as a storm can -keep its head nothing can stop it. But it doesn’t. Sooner or later it -breaks into a rage and begins to thrash around. When a storm really -loses its temper the next sensible wind can smash it into bits. It -never pays to lose your temper. Something always happens if you do.” - -Nibble was very much excited. But he wasn’t too excited to think of a -good place to hide. There was that nice little tent made by a leaning -shock of corn out in the Broad Field. As he passed the Brushpile, -Chatter Squirrel was darting up a hickory tree with a mouthful of -leaves. “There’s going to be a Terrible Storm,” called Nibble -cheerfully, “the Mallards just told me about it.” - -“Who doesn’t know that?” snapped Chatter, fussing with a clutter of -leaves and twigs in the crotch of his hickory. “My home’s not half -done. I thought I’d take my time and make a good one. Now here comes -this Storm! If I can’t get it finished I’ll have to go over to that -leaky old Oak that has bats in it. Yah!” And he swore in Squirrel -language because one of the sticks he was using had snapped and he had -to go for another one. - -“The Ducks say you musn’t lose your temper, because something always -happens,” quoted Nibble. And he didn’t mean to be impertinent. He was -just pleased with himself for remembering it. - -“It’ll happen to you, then,” Chatter retorted in a rage. “You and your -ducks! You’ll stand there trying to mind my business for me until -Silvertip catches you.” But there’s no way of knowing how much angrier -Chatter might have been because right then something did happen. He -gave one shriek—“Hooter!”—and made a flying leap for that hollow Oak -Tree. And Mrs. Hooter clapped her beak at the hole. - -“Stickly Prickles!” said Nibble to himself—that really isn’t swearing. -“What are those owls doing out this time of the day?” For he could see -Hooter flapping sleepily along behind his mate. It was too early in -the day for him. It was a badly frightened rabbit who made the best of -his chance while they were chasing Chatter to dart across the -Cloverpatch and into the first shock he came to. - -But he didn’t stay there. Just as he began to breathe again he heard -the voice of Mrs. Hooter right above him. She was speaking crossly to -her husband. “Pay attention,” she said. “It may be three days before -we can hunt again. He went in there. I saw him.” - -Nibble guessed that a small brown rabbit was the “he” they wanted, so -he slipped out of the other side of that shock and ran across to the -next. - -“There he goes!” screeched Mrs. Hooter. “There he goes! Catch him, -quick!” But Hooter was too slow. Nibble was safe again. - -But was he? For in that second shock slept—Silvertip the Fox! - -Silvertip was curled up in a ball with his tail about his feet. Of -course he woke up the minute he heard the Hooters and pricked up his -ears. Whatever were they shouting about? - -In all that noise he never heard the soft sound of Nibble’s breathing -right behind him. He never sniffed anything but Owl. For they were -very close. - -“Go in and drive him out!” ordered Mrs. Hooter. - -“I—er—I’ve never done anything of the kind,” Hooter objected. “I don’t -think I care to begin.” - -“Coward!” hissed Mrs. Hooter. And she flew into a terrible temper. She -shook him until his beak rattled. Then she bounced him down. “You see -to it that you catch him when he comes out!” she raved. “I’ll go -myself!” - -And she did. Right into Silvertip! And let me tell you that for one -minute feathers flew and fur frazzled. Then Mrs. Hooter flew squawking -out one side and Silvertip limped yelping out of the other and Nibble -said to himself, “I’m so glad it wasn’t my temper that was lost.” He -had the little cornstalk tent all to himself. A clawful of feathers -and a beakful of fur were all that was left of the fight. “And they -can’t come back,” he said to himself, “because nobody could move in -this awful wind.” - -For right that minute the Terrible Storm swooped down out of its Black -Cloud. “Look out,” it shrieked, “I’m bad! I’ll show you what I can do -to you if I want to. Old Earth, I’m going to turn you upside down! -I’ll make you into a rubbish pile, I will! Wow-w-w!” Which was very -mean because it had no quarrel with the Old Earth and the poor wild -things. - -Nibble shook to the tips of his furry little toes when he heard it. -Once he tried to poke his nose out, just a tiny bit, to see what was -happening, but the Terrible Storm tweaked his whiskers and threw snow -into his eyes. So he backed in again and listened to the trees -shouting to each other. “Oh! Oh! I’m cracking! Hold me! Please, -please—I’m going to fall!” - -Pretty soon he heard a terrible groan with a crash at the end of it. -And then he heard a little sound wailing above the wind and the trees. -It was calling for help. It was Chatter Squirrel! Then he knew it was -the Big Oak who stood alone by the Clover Patch that had blown down. - -Suddenly Nibble found he wasn’t scared of that bully of a Storm. That -is, not so very, very scared. Not too scared to crawl out of his tent, -digging his little toes into the ground to keep from blowing away, his -nose close down in the grasses, his eyes half closed to keep out the -snow and look for poor Chatter. He called once or twice, but he was -very close before Chatter could hear. - -“Where am I?” he sobbed. “Oh, my nest is all smashed and I don’t know -where I am. Is this the end of the world?” - -“No,” said Nibble, and he nearly laughed because Chatter was so funny -when he was afraid. “It’s only the end of the Big Oak. I have a place -to sleep and plenty of food. Come along.” - -“Me too,” called Gimlet the Little Downy Woodpecker who lived in a -branch of the tree. “Us too,” chorused all the little field-mice who -had burrowed in its roots. And “Us, too,” piped three partridges who -had been snuggled in the bushes beside it. Even two little bats who -had lived in the tall dark cave of its hollow trunk came scuttling and -crawling, holding on tight to whatever fur they could touch. - -Every one came but Cheewee the Chickadee who said he would do very -nicely where he was, although his nest, an old woodpecker hole, was -all queer and upside down. - -They scuttled along together, traveling fast because now the wind was -pushing them from behind. And the snow drove under their feathers and -fur until it stung their very skins and nipped the ends of Nibble’s -blowy ears, but he kept saying, “I’m going to have a party! I’m going -to have a party!” so pleased and happy that every one was trying to -smile by the time they reached his little cornstalk house. - -The Terrible Storm had tried to knock that down, but only spread it -out so there was more room in it than ever. And the snow had tried to -smother it, but had only succeeded in stopping up the cracks so that -it was snug and warm. And the bats hung themselves upside down from -the middle of it and turned down their little webby tails over their -toes like the flap of an envelope and went to sleep again. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - NIBBLE RABBIT’S STORM PARTY - - -For three days and three nights Nibble Rabbit’s storm party stayed in -the little Cornstalk tent in the middle of the Broad Field. The -Terrible Storm might behave as badly as it pleased but they were -having too good a time to care. And it might yowl as loudly as it -could but they were making too much noise to listen. For they knew -that no one was going to interrupt them. - -When nobody could eat any more they began to amuse themselves. First -of all they had a dance. The three partridges could drum with their -wings and Nibble with his feet, for they learned it from the Indians. -Gimlet the Woodpecker tapped with much spirit on an empty corn cob, -and Chatter Squirrel called out the directions, while the mice did the -dancing. - -The little lady mice held their tails like trains, sweeping the ground -when they curtseyed, but their partners cocked their tails to the left -side, and Chatter got so excited that he waved his about in time to -his commands and curled the tip of it when they bowed. And the -partridges thought he was so funny that they nearly had to stop -drumming to laugh at him. - -When the mice were so breathless from whirling and twirling that they -had to stop they urged Nibble to take a turn. “We’ve seen you,” they -said, “on moonlight nights when we dance inside the Fairy Rings.” You -see the mushrooms make little dance halls for the Fairies to use on -Midsummer Eve. They have smooth, velvety grass on the inside with a -circle of little cushiony stools around them. And the mice use them -after the Fairies are through. Only they use the seats to hide under -when Hooter the Owl flits past. They nibble them, too, for -refreshments. You can see their toothmarks on every Fairy Ring you -find after midsummer. - -“I can’t dance,” murmured Nibble. He felt a bit embarrassed. Rabbits -do try sometimes out in the brush where they think no one can see -them, but they are very clumsy about it. “I never learned,” he -explained. - -“Dear me,” said a lively little mouse. “Why don’t you step into a -Charmed Circle some night when the moon smiles? Then you can’t help -dancing.” - -“Yes indeed,” chimed in Chatter, who calls out their dances for the -elves and so knows more about them than anybody else. “You know the -May Moon draws the Circle as soon as the trees bud their leaves, so -she can tell where there is no danger of their casting a shadow on the -Great Ball. Some of the wee Wild Folk count shadows very unlucky. From -then until it is over, tooth may not crop without singing, nor foot -step there without dancing.” - -“Yes,” finished the lady mouse. “So we take our children there until -they have danced three turns. After that they never forget it. But we -don’t like to let them eat. Singing is unlucky for a mouse. But -dancing is so delightful.” - -“It looks so,” said Nibble soberly, “but no rabbit can dance until he -grows a tail.” - -“Gracious,” said the lady mouse. “I’d forgotten you hadn’t—a regular -one.” When she saw Nibble’s feelings weren’t hurt, she asked, “Do you -mind telling us why?” - -“Certainly not,” Nibble assured her. “It happened back when the world -was young and the new creatures were choosing where they would live. -Some chose the mountains and some the plains, some the sea and some -the air. But my great-great-great-great—I can’t know how many greats I -ought to use—grandfather sat back on his elegant fluffy tail and -wondered about it. - -“Right near him sat a queer, snaky-looking animal. He had pricked up -ears and a bushy tail but his voice was a hissy whisper. He was -talking to a crowd of beasts and birds and they couldn’t take their -eyes off him. No wonder, for the things he said made my -great-grandfather’s ears stiff just to listen to. - -“Mother Nature came by and she was very busy. ‘Speak up, you with the -tall ears,’ she said. ‘Where do you choose?’ - -“‘Please,’ said my great-grandfather, ‘I don’t choose at all yet. I -just want to live on the earth until I see what these things are -eating.’ - -“‘Oh, ho!’ remarked Mother Nature, looking at him very hard. ‘You see -with more than your ears. And what are you eating your own self?’ - -“‘A nibble here and a nibble there,’ answered my great-grandfather, -‘but I take nothing that will not be again as it was before.’ - -“‘Good!’ said Mother Nature. ‘Make your choice when you please and it -shall be as you wish.’ Then she turned to those others near him. ‘Who -are you?’ she asked the strange-looking one, ‘and where do you -choose?’ - -“‘I’m the Weasel,’ he answered. ‘I came up from under the earth.’ - -“‘Ah,’ sighed Mother Nature, ‘I knew some of you would get here. But -choose.’ - -“‘I shall live anywhere I can lay my foot,’ announced the Weasel -boldly. ‘And I shall eat fish, flesh and fowl, whatever I can catch.’ -And the other beasts all nodded at one another. - -“‘For hunger?’ asked Mother Nature. And most of her beasts who had -been listening to the Weasel answered, ‘For hunger,’ because they -thought it was the thing to do. - -“‘For the joy of killing!’ snarled the Weasel. ‘Like this—’ And he -sprang at my great-grandfather. - -“But my great-grandfather gave a mighty leap. He landed in a briar -patch and began racing through it. And all the briars called, ‘He -chooses us—a beast has chosen us. Catch him! Hold him!’ and they -caught him by his tall ears and elegant fluffy tail so hard that they -stopped him short. - -“‘Let me go,’ he begged. ‘Please let me go. The Weasel will kill me.’ - -“Then the briars cried until the tears dripped from their twigs. -‘Nobody wants us,’ they sobbed. ‘Please choose us. If you lay back -your ears and shorten your tail we’ll never stop you. We’ll shelter -you from the summer sun and the winter wind. We’ll warn you of your -enemies and bar your path behind you. We’ll serve you as long as you -let us.’ - -“And just then my great-grandfather thought he could hear the Weasel -very close, so he cried despairingly. ‘I’ll choose the Pickery -Things.’ Down dropped his ears, up shrunk his tail, and away he ran. -But we’ve never been sorry. The Pickery Things have kept their word.” - -“Dear me, how interesting!” said the lady mouse when Nibble Rabbit had -finished. “But could you have your long tail back if you wanted to?” - -“It might be managed,” said Nibble. “Mother Nature said it wasn’t fair -for the Weasel to begin living before the other things had all made up -their minds. He really frightened my great-grandfather into making -that choice. And it really wasn’t fair of the briars to hold him. But -Mother Nature advised us to try it until we were sure we wanted our -tails back again and then let her know. She didn’t actually promise to -give them, as I remember,” he added honestly. - -And then a commotion broke loose in the little cornstalk tent where -Nibble’s party were hiding from the Terrible Storm. “Why don’t you -grow one? What kind do you want? Try one like mine! Or mine!!” shouted -all the voices until even Nibble’s long ears couldn’t hold all the -noise. - -“Your long leaps are almost like flying,” said the Partridge. “We -couldn’t steer without our tails.” - -“Yes, and then you could balance yourself in the trees,” advised -Chatter Squirrel. - -“Or hold on by it as we do,” said a wise old mouse. - -“My cousin lost hers,” murmured Gimlet, shaking his red Woodpecker’s -cap very seriously. “And she nearly starved before it grew out again. -She couldn’t sit comfortably on a tree-trunk without it.” - -“A tail,” squeaked the bats who hadn’t been heard from since they hung -themselves up from the roof, “a tail is the handiest pocket in the -world. You use it for flies in summer and to warm your paws in winter. -Do have one.” - -“I do use mine,” said Nibble laughing, “but not for any of the reasons -you give. I flash mine so any rabbit behind me can tell whether it’s -safe to follow me. Why, my mother never bothered to talk as long as -she knew I could see her tail.” And he showed them how he could make -the little white puff underneath it show and disappear. - -“Well, I never thought it was any good at all,” marvelled Chatter. - -“Another thing,” said Nibble. “Ours was no more use than Tad Coon’s. -Just a great big brush to carry around. All you could possibly do with -it was warm your feet. And we never slept half the year like Tad does, -so where would be the use of that?” - -“But Tad Coon’s was useful once,” argued Chatter. “His old great-aunt -wanted to go on a pilgrimage early one spring. But the water was high -in the marsh and she was so fat and crippled with age that she -couldn’t swim. So Tad would go down every morning and stick in his -tail to show her how deep it was. There would be a brown mark where -the mud came and a white mark where the water washed it off above. -Every morning the rings would be lower until there was only a little -black mud stain on the very tip of it. Then she started off and all -the black she got was a little on the very soles of her feet.” - -“And he never bothered to wash it clean again,” said Nibble, “so you -see how little use it is to him.” - -“You’re just jealous,” giggled the lady mouse. “That puff you wear is -no bigger than the fuzz off a pussywillow.” And then Chatter Squirrel -and Gimlet the Woodpecker and the Partridge all tried their best to -make Nibble say that even if he didn’t own a real tail he’d like to -try one. - -Which of course he wouldn’t. For no decent rabbit would go back on his -great-grandfather’s bargain with the Pickery Things. “No,” he -insisted, “I truly wouldn’t know what to do with one at all. If it -dragged, my gawky legs would stumble on it. If it stood up, my floppy -ears would get tangled in it. I guess I’d have to walk like this—” And -he limped across the dancing floor pretending to get all mixed up in a -tail that wouldn’t get out of the way. He tripped on it and he kicked -it and at last he pretended to pick it up in his mouth and carry it. - -Chatter Squirrel laughed until his feet danced under him. As for the -lady mouse she simply squeaked with joy. But the bats, who live in the -woods and sleep all day couldn’t understand. And they were very -serious about it. A bat hasn’t any fun in him at all. - -“He’s got a tail,” said one, peering at Nibble. - -“Of course,” answered the other sleepily, not troubling to open his -eyes to look. “Everything’s got a tail, Fish, Bird or Beast. They -couldn’t get on without one. It stands to reason.” - -“How about frogs?” demanded Gimlet sharply. “They haven’t any.” - -Now the bat had never particularly noticed a frog. But you couldn’t -fool him. “He’s got one,” he answered cheerfully. “Only sensible folks -keep it folded up under them like we do. Quite proper, too. One that -drags is so untidy.” - -“Untidy!” snapped the lady mouse. “What do you call one with a skin -pocket like yours, all cluttered up with fly-wings, Eh?” - -“Oh, but he hasn’t,” said Gimlet, and Nibble echoed, “No, truly he -hasn’t.” - -“Then he’s not Fish, Bird, or Beast!” repeated the sleepy bat. “It -stands to reason.” And the other creatures looked at each other -curiously, for they didn’t know what to say. - -“He isn’t Fish, Bird, or Beast, is he?” fluttered a partridge. And the -bat nodded as though he knew it all the time. - -“All right,” agreed Chatter cheerfully. “But how about Man?” - -“Man?” shouted Nibble and the mice and the partridge all together. For -this was news! When the Woodsfolk see a man they don’t stop to look at -him; they run and hide. And Nibble had never even got a glimpse of one -yet. Neither had the bats. But the sleepy bat just kept on insisting, -“He’s neither Fish, Bird, nor Beast, if he hasn’t a tail.” - -“Then what is he?” demanded Chatter. He thought he had asked something -the bat couldn’t answer. - -“What does he wear?” said the bat. - -And now it was Chatter who didn’t know what to say. For a Man doesn’t -wear scales or feathers or fur. “I think he wears a skin—like a frog,” -he said at last. - -“I told you so!” And the bat nodded away more conceitedly than ever. -And nothing the others could say made any difference. - -“But he’s not green,” objected Chatter. “And he doesn’t hop. He’s ever -so much bigger, and he’s tan, like your vest, Nibble, or pink, like -the inside of your mouth.” Chatter had seen the little boys at the -swimming-hole and some of them must have been sunburned. - -“Now isn’t that queer,” remarked a partridge. “The one we saw seemed -all brown and wrinkly and shelly, like Grandpop Snappingturtle. And he -made a noise like a Summer Storm.” She meant a man in a shooting-coat -who fired a gun. - -“Nothing queer about,” announced Gimlet cheerfully. Gimlet knows more -than all the rest of them because he works for the man in the Orchard -and is on very good terms with the whole Man tribe. “They come in as -many shapes and sizes and colours as flowers.” You see Gimlet doesn’t -know the difference between men and women and children. “They make as -many different noises as all of us put together and do as many -different things.” - -“I’m going to take a good long look at the first man I see,” said -Nibble. “I will, if I know him when I see him. That’s the only way -I’ll ever understand what you’ve been talking about.” - -[Illustration: Silvertip pricked up his ears] - -“Don’t do it,” shouted all the others. “Keep away from Man! Keep away -from Man! He’s more dangerous than Silvertip!” - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE LITTLE BUNNY MEETS THE LITTLE BOY - - -“Whiskers!” Nibble started to his feet at the very idea. - -“What if the Terrible Storm should be over and Silvertip comes -sneaking back!” And immediately they all looked very serious. They -seemed to feel in their hearts that something had gone wrong while -they were having their fun. A moment more and they knew it! - -Nibble started to scratch away the snow that had drifted the door of -the cornstalk tent closed behind them, three days ago. He clawed and -he thumped and he pushed and he squirmed but at last he had to sit -back and confess, “My nails won’t take a hold. It’s all solid ice -outside. We’re frozen in!” - -“Frozen in!” exclaimed the partridge. They knew what that meant. It -meant that you couldn’t breathe through ice as you can through snow, -so you smother in the long run. It seemed that Nibble’s lovely party -was going to have a sad ending indeed. - -The partridge tried but soon tired out. Then Gimlet tried, but he only -froze his bill. - -Suddenly, Bump! Bump! sounded from outside. - -“It’s Silvertip,” said Chatter sadly. “He’s digging his way in.” - -“He can’t catch us all,” answered Nibble, “unless we stay inside. We -must burst out in a body, right in his face, and take our chances. -Ready now—here we go!” - -And at the word the snow crashed in on the tent floor and Nibble -leaped through the hole, with the partridges roaring their wings -behind him. - -Nibble threw a frightened look over his shoulder as he ran to see if -Silvertip were following. Then he stopped dead, and turned around, and -sat up and took a good long look, exactly as he said he would. “That’s -a Man,” he said to himself “That’s a Man, for sure and certain. What -paws!” - -It was Tommy Peel, in his new red mittens, who had kicked in the door -with the heel of his tall rubber boots to see what was making that -noise inside. And he was just about as grown-up for a Man as Nibble -was for a Rabbit. And what he was doing out in the Broad Field was an -awful secret. - -Said Nibble to himself, “He’s not at all like a frog and he’s not like -Grandpop Snappingturtle one little bit. He reminds me much more of -Redwing the Blackbird.” That was because Tommy had on his dark -navy-blue sweater and his new red mittens and his tall rubber boots. -“That isn’t fur nor feathers nor scales he’s wearing, but it certainly -isn’t skin. Nevertheless,” Nibble told himself, “he has no tail, so a -man is all he can possibly be. But he hasn’t any hunger-light in his -eyes. I wonder why he’s so much to be feared?” - -“That’s the cunningest little bunny,” thought Tommy Peele. “I wish I -could catch it and put it in a cage to play with. I believe I’ll set a -trap for it.” - -Now if Tommy had wanted to kill him, Nibble would have known by the -way he looked. But Nibble never dreamed of a trap. That was another -thing he didn’t know about. And Tommy didn’t think of killing Nibble -because he was only nine years old and you have to be thirteen years -old and in the eighth grade before you can have a gun. - -Besides, wild things only hunt so that they can eat. But if Tommy -Peele could only catch Nibble, he meant to be very good to him. He was -going to give him the best of food and a fine cage. He didn’t think -Nibble would be unhappy with a nice cosy place to live in. You see -Tommy Peele lived in a house himself, which is a kind of a cage when -you come to think about it. He didn’t think how different that was -from living like a wild thing. - -So the small boy and the smaller rabbit were looking at each other in -a very friendly way. When all of a sudden the Wind told Nibble -something. A light crunch of snow tickled his long ear and a soft -whiff of scent tickled his nose. Silvertip the Fox had just jumped -over the rail fence into the Clover Patch, right behind him. - -“Danger! Come along!” he thumped with his little hind feet. “This way! -It’s all clear ahead!” he flashed in rabbity signals from his puffy -tail. And he dashed off down the Broad Field. - -But Tommy Peele didn’t follow. You see he didn’t understand that sort -of talk. He just turned and looked after Nibble, saying to himself, “I -wish that little bunny wasn’t so skeery. Wonder if I couldn’t tame -him?” - -Nibble made a proper triangle and brought up under a thorn bush in the -fence row before he dared to look behind him. And then his heart gave -an awful bump. For there stood Tommy Peele in his red mittens, exactly -where Nibble had left him. He had turned around so he could watch -Nibble. And Silvertip was creeping up behind him! The wind was blowing -straight from Silvertip to Tommy, warning him as plainly as it had -warned Nibble two minutes before, but Tommy didn’t pay any attention. -“Poor Man,” Nibble almost sobbed. “You won’t listen to the wind and -you won’t listen to me— I wish your mother were here to take care of -you.” He said that because he was still so lonely for his own mammy. - -Silvertip sniffed about the first corn shock. Then he crept along, -pretty carefully, to the one where the owls had found him, and Nibble -had given his party. Suddenly he caught sight of Tommy Peele, red -mittens, tall rubber boots, and all, standing with his back to him. -And he leaped—but he leaped the other way as fast as ever he could. -And Nibble wanted to kick up his heels with joy, because he knew -something Silvertip was afraid of. But Tommy Peele never knew anything -at all about it. - -[Illustration: Nibble hid behind a fence post] - -Just about the time Silvertip’s tail dusted the middle rail of the -fence, Tommy decided to follow the bunny and see where he had gone to. -Nibble had been calling him to run away from Silvertip a minute or two -before, but now he didn’t wait for Tommy Peele. “If that wicked fox is -so frightened,” he said to himself, “I can’t be too careful. But I -don’t see what he could do to me; he hasn’t any claws and he most -certainly can’t run.” - -Of course Tommy had to wade slowly through the snow while Nibble could -go skimming and skipping over the top of it. So the little rabbit just -went a short way farther and hid behind a fence post. - -Tommy tramped and trudged until he had followed the bunny tracks to -where Nibble had hidden in the bush. “Oh, ho!” said Nibble at last. -“That Man doesn’t hunt like the Woodsfolk. Glider the Blacksnake could -only smell, not see, where I had gone. This creature can see, and not -smell. I’ve got to stop making tracks in this snow.” - -He looked all around. Then he saw that he was in another field, -farther from the Woods than he had ever dared to come. Cattle were -walking about in it, dragging their feet the way they do, and -ploughing away the snow with their broad black noses to get at the -frosty grass. So Nibble danced down a sprawly cow track where his soft -feet wouldn’t leave any trace. And then he jumped over to a small grey -stone with a little peaked snow cap on it and snuggled up so close -that he looked like a part of it. And Tommy Peele walked right by and -never saw him. - -Nibble thought this kind of hide and seek was pretty good fun. He was -quite disappointed when Tommy went off without looking for him any -longer. Still, the grass tasted very sweet where the cows had scraped -off the snow for him. Pretty soon he said to himself: “I guess I’d -better be thinking about getting back to the Woods again. I’ll be -safer if I can reach the Clover Patch without meeting—” - -And he stopped right on that word. For there, following his trail, was -the very beast he was thinking of—Silvertip! And Silvertip doesn’t -have to see any one to follow him! - -“There’s only one thing for me to do,” thought the Bunny. “I’ll make a -new triangle and end up on that big Brown Log over there.” So he did. -And he crouched down on it as close as ever he could and held his -breath while Silvertip came closer and closer. Now he was by the -stone! Now he was at the grassy spot! Now— - -Now that big Brown Log did a very queer thing. It began to move. It -rocked and it heaved and then it raised itself right off the ground. -Nibble was so stiff with fright that all he could do was dig in his -toes and hold on. And then it switched its tail. It was a cow who had -chosen a chilly spot to lie down! - -That tail sent Nibble spinning. Luckily he landed right side up and -went bouncing off faster than when Glider was chasing him. But -Silvertip didn’t see him. Silvertip was too busy on his own account. - -For that cow wasn’t the sleepy and serious kind. She was young and -active. But Silvertip, coming along with his nose to the ground, -didn’t see her. - -She lowered her horns and rolled her eyes around, pawing footfuls of -snow about her shoulders. “Wolf!” she suddenly bellowed and ran at -him. - -Nibble Rabbit thought his end had come. But his feet didn’t think at -all; they just ran. They ran while he was turning a somersault through -the air and they ran faster when they felt the fluffy snow. And if -they hadn’t run right into the big haystack at the end of the pasture -there’s no knowing how far they would have taken him. But there was a -nice little hole under it, waiting for him to come right in and hide. - -But you know Nibble. First he’s scared, and next he’s curious. Just as -soon as he thought nothing was following him he stuck out his little -whiskers to sniff about and put up his long ears to listen. And he -heard a lot of little birds cheeping and gossiping up above him. One -of them said, “There he is! I say, Bunny, what did you do that for?” - -“Do what?” demanded Nibble, craning his neck so he could see who he -was talking to. “What did I do, Mr. Chirp?” - -“Tried to ride the red heifer,” answered Chirp Sparrow. - -“But I didn’t! Indeed I didn’t!” cried the little rabbit. “Silvertip -was chasing me, so I jumped back from my trail on to a log. I was -going to slip down behind it and run away as soon as he had gone past, -so he wouldn’t smell me on the ground. That’s what we always do. But -something happened.” - -“So it seems,” replied Chirp Sparrow in an amused voice. “Don’t you -know what it was?” - -“Not yet,” said Nibble, “My head’s still whirling.” - -“I should think it might be,” laughed Chirp. And the other sparrows -seemed to think it was so funny they all started to giggle and talk at -once, which made Nibble’s head whirl harder than ever. - -“Hush!” Chirp ordered. “I want to tell him myself. Well, that log you -hopped up on was a cow. She was taking a nap and you woke her up. When -she started to get up you dug your claws into her so she switched her -tail—I wish you could have seen yourself. You went tumbling over and -over like a curly thorn leaf in a west wind.” And he stopped to laugh -again. - -“But Silvertip?” asked Nibble anxiously. - -“Yes, Silvertip was the funniest of all.” Chirp shook himself so he -could sober up to tell the rest of it. “The cow looked all around to -see who had been disturbing her and there was Silvertip. So she must -have blamed it on him. You ought to have seen her chase him. Silly -thing. He just tumbled through the fence, any old way, and made off, -but she thinks she’s still after him.” - -Sure enough, Nibble could see the red heifer with her swishy tail -stuck straight up in the air, waving the tasselly tip of it, leaping -and mooing and snorting at the other end of the field. - -“I thought that was a queer log,” he said thoughtfully. “It made my -toes all warm and there wasn’t any snow on top of it. But it had such -a nice safe, warm-hole sort of a smell, with little clovery whiffs -mixed in with it. Cows must be awfully dangerous!” - -“Dangerous!” hooted Chirp. “A cow dangerous! Why, the only thing she’s -dangerous to is a clover-top. That’s what she eats, and that’s why she -smells of it.” - -“But Silvertip was afraid of her.” Nibble was really puzzled. - -“Silvertip? Oh, well. That’s another story,” said Chirp. - -“Away back when the world was new—tell me about it.” Now Nibble was -all pleased and excited. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - WHY THE COW GOT HER HORNS - - -“Exactly! Way back when the world was new,” began Chirp Sparrow. And -then he stopped to squirm himself into a bunch of hay right beside -Nibble Rabbit, so the wind wouldn’t muss his feathers, while he was -talking. And Nibble crept to the very mouth of the hole in the bottom -of the haystack where he was hiding, and sat on his toes and was very -happy and comfortable. - -“Away back when the world was new the cows and wolves began to have -trouble.” - -“Because the wolves chose to eat them, like the weasel chose to eat my -great-great-grandfather?” interrupted Nibble excitedly. - -“Not in the very first-off beginning,” said Chirp. “You see, the -weasel was one of those who came up from under the -Earth-that-was-common-to-all. He wasn’t one of Mother Nature’s own -things. But the wolf was. He was just a little too clever, but she -liked him and trusted him—more than most. - -“Mother Nature had made a bargain with the plants. The beasts were to -eat them. But she promised the plants that they wouldn’t die, but -would spring up again stronger than ever. She would send the rain to -keep them from getting thirsty, and they would put their roots into -the Earth-that-was-common-to-all and get their food from it, and the -winds were to keep their house swept clean and play with them, and the -trees were to shade them from the hot sun and sing to them, so that -they would be perfectly contented. And the beasts were to graze on -them and the birds were to eat part of their seeds—but not all—so they -were contented, too. - -“Mother Nature got about half the earth in fine working order. Then -she gave the rain and the wind orders and went down south, over the -Far Horizon to look after the other half. - -“Right away the wicked little raindrops went to playing in the brooks -and leading them into no end of mischief. And the winds went up and -played tag with each other on the mountain-tops. And the Sun got -curious to know what Mother Nature was doing with the other half of -the earth, because that was coming out all different, so he kept -edging farther and farther south until by and by, he wasn’t paying any -attention to the north half at all. And things went awfully wrong in -the north half. - -“Awfully wrong! The plants down in the brook bottoms cried: ‘We’re -drowning! We’re drowning! If the wind and the sun don’t do their part -we won’t be eaten.’ So they turned themselves into bulrushes and all -kinds of tough, stringy things that can stand wet feet, but nothing in -the world can eat them. And the plants on the higher lands cried: -‘We’re strangling! We haven’t had a drink in ever so long, and our -backs are so stiff from standing still we’ll never be able to play -again. If the rain and the wind don’t do their part we won’t be -eaten!’ So they hid down in their roots under the -Earth-that-is-common-to-all, most discouraged, and left only their -skeletons standing. And the beasts starved. Especially the poor cows. -But the wolves kept very fat. Only they weren’t telling any one how -they managed it. - -“And Mother Nature was almost through down south and getting ready to -come north again. So the Sun hurried back to get busy. And the rain -poured to make up for lost time, and the winds rushed down from the -mountain tops, but their fingers were all cold, so they made things -worse than ever. And the beasts were all cold, ’specially the cows.” -Chirp stopped to stretch his wing. - -“Please go on, Mr. Chirp,” pleaded Nibble. He was so excited and -impatient! “Please get to the part about the wolves!” - -“I will,” promised Chirp Sparrow. “Only these birds must settle down -and be quiet. They get me all fluttered.” For every sparrow on the -haystack was coming down close to the hole in the bottom where Nibble -Rabbit was sitting. No one wanted to miss hearing about it. - -“Well, Mother Nature came back,” Chirp went on. “And, my, but wasn’t -she angry! Just wasn’t she? She said to the rain: ‘I don’t believe -you’ve rained a drop since I’ve been gone or you wouldn’t be carrying -on at this rate. Do you call this a shower? It’s a flood—and it’s -perfectly disgraceful.’ Then she turned to the wind. ‘Do you think I -don’t know where you’ve been?’ she scolded. ‘I can feel how cold your -fingers are. Look how you’ve ruffled up the fur on my poor chilly -beasts there!’ And she snapped at the Sun: ‘You needn’t look so good. -Stop smiling and listen to me. Do you think I didn’t know where you -were? Peeking right over my shoulder. You nearly burned a hole in the -back of my neck when I was finishing up that last armadillo. You three -have made a pretty mess of things. And I did so want one world where -there wasn’t any winter!’ She nearly sat down and cried over it all, -she was so disappointed. - -“But, of course she hadn’t time. She had to put things back in order. -First she coaxed the plants to begin growing again. Then she called -the beasts so she could look them all over and see what she could do -for them. - -“And the cows came crawling up, as slow, as slow, with their poor -bones all sticking out—but the wolves were fat as butter. - -“And the cows said, ‘We’ve been so starvation hungry that we’ve worn -our teeth right off.’ And so they had. And their teeth are still worn -off, right to this day. - -“And the wolves whimpered: ‘We’ve been so starvation hungry, too!’ - -“But Mother Nature looked at their fat sides and she said: ‘Show me -your teeth.’ - -“And their teeth were perfectly sharp and new. And they still are. - -“So Mother Nature frowned at them until they cringed. And they -trembled so hard that their very claws clattered. For they knew that -they had misbehaved and something serious would come of it. Then she -asked: ‘What have you been eating?’ - -“‘Just dead beasts that we found lying about,’ they whined. - -“Mother Nature looked at the poor cows, but the cows wouldn’t tell on -the wicked wolves. Only they scratched the earth with their feet and -sent it flying over their shoulders the way they do when they’re -angry. Then she said: ‘Cows will always be angry with you like that -because they smell the blood on you. Oh, wolves, it is bad to lie, but -it is terrible to kill!’ - -“Of course the wolves knew that they had been found out, so they tried -to look brave and answered: ‘We are too clever to starve like a stupid -cow.’ - -“But Mother Nature shook her head sadly. ‘You’ll find that it’s better -to be good and stupid than to be bad and clever. But bad and clever -you will be to the end of all wolves, and the stupid cow will live to -see the last of you. Cows, how shall I punish them?’ - -“Then the cows roared like a raging river: ‘Give us back our teeth and -we’ll do it ourselves!’ - -“‘I can’t do that,’ she explained, ‘because nothing that has been -lived can be done over again, but I can give you something newer and -longer and sharper than the teeth of any wolf.’ - -“It was horns.” - -“Is that all?” demanded Nibble Rabbit. - -“All?” echoed Chirp Sparrow, cocking his head on one side. “Isn’t that -enough?” But he was really very much flattered. For Nibble’s ears had -stood straight up right through his story, and all the other sparrows -on the haystack were saying, “Hush, hush!” so he would go on again. - -“My beak!” Chirp exclaimed. “I’ve told you how winter came to be, -because the sun and the wind and the rain didn’t behave while Mother -Nature left this half of the earth to go down and start the other -half. I’ve told you how the good stupid cows starved because the -plants wouldn’t be eaten, and how the bad clever wolves took to eating -the cows. And how Mother Nature gave them horns that were longer and -sharper than the tooth of any wolf to make it up to them. What more do -you want to know?” - -“Lots of things,” insisted Nibble. “Why did that cow shout ‘Wolf’! at -Silvertip?” - -“Because she’s a cow. Too good and stupid to know the difference! -Wolf, fox, or dog, it’s all the same family, only the fox is smaller, -and cleverer—and wickeder—and the dog is the cleverest of all. But the -cows didn’t make much use of their horns after they did get them, -because they are so stupid. - -“They say Mother Nature was sorrier over the wickedness of the wolves -than over any of the rest because she trusted them more than most,” he -went on. “You see, they were her own beasts, not like the weasel who -came up from under the earth and was wicked from the very first.” - -“Were lots of others bad, too?” demanded Nibble. “Bad things are -always interesting, you know. - -“Oh, yes. Even some of the birds.” Chirp said this as though it were -the most wicked thing in the world for a bird to be bad. “But we -weren’t. We’ve always been as good as good, no matter how much trouble -we have with the hawks and the owls. We eat some seeds, but not all, -and the bugs. Bugs come from under the earth, you know, and the plants -hate them. But we didn’t have to ask for horns or claws to take care -of ourselves—that’s because we’re so clever.” And he spread his lively -little wings, with brown edges to every feather, and squinted -conceitedly at them over his shoulder. - -“And the mice?” added Nibble. He didn’t want birds to have all the -credit. - -“Mice, indeed!” chirped the sparrow, quite sharply. “Mice! Why, do you -know what they did? They sneaked down under the earth and nibbled the -very roots of the plants when they tried to hide under the -Earth-that-was-common-to-all. And that was the meanest trick! It took -Mother Nature half through the first spring to find out what they had -been doing. Some were so ashamed of it that they stayed right there -and got to be moles. But some of them pretended they just didn’t know -any better.” - -Nibble felt a bit flustered because he does it, too, and so does -Doctor Muskrat. But then the quail and the sleek brown thrasher are -just as bad, so he didn’t try to say anything. Fortunately Chirp went -right on talking. - -“The wickedest creature of all,” he said, “is Ouphe the Rat. He’s so -horrid and dirty and disgusting that he eats even his own kind. He’s a -cannibal! Everything hates him, whether it wears feathers or fur or -scales—even the stupid cow. And he hates everything. He comes sneaking -and creeping just when you least expect him, and—” - -“Cheep!” went the watch bird of the flock. “Cheep!” echoed their -voices and flutter went their lively little wings with brown edges to -every feather. And Ouphe squeaked with rage because he’d missed them -that time. - -“You will talk about me!” he snarled. “You will, will you? Wait till -you hatch and I’ll crunch your baby birds’ bones for you.” He clashed -his yellow fangs horribly. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - NIBBLE FOOLS OUPHE IN HIS OWN HAYSTACK - - -The little rabbit crouched down in the bole in the bottom of the -haystack not three feet away from the wicked rat. But Ouphe hadn’t -seen him. He was sure of it because Ouphe kept squalling at the -sparrows all the nastiest things he could put his tongue to. And the -sparrows, swinging from a branch of the elm tree that leaned above -him, weren’t much more polite. - -“Swapping lies with the field-mice, were you?” sneered Ouphe. “I’ll -attend to them.” - -“It wasn’t lies,” shrieked Chirp Sparrow indignantly. “Didn’t you come -sneaking and creeping—just the way you always do? Thought you’d climb -up the other side of the stack and surprise us when we weren’t -expecting you, didn’t you? And isn’t that exactly what I said? Let me -tell you, you’re one thing we always do expect. You’ll maybe catch us -when you learn to fly—but not before.” - -“I’ll catch you when I clean out these tattle-tales of field-mice,” -snapped Ouphe, and he gnashed his teeth until the froth made his -whiskers white. - -“It wasn’t the field-mice, Smarty! They never said a word. It was your -own scaly tail that told on you.” Chirp spread his wings, opened his -beak and stuck out his tongue at the wicked old beast. And Ouphe -lashed his own tattling tail in an awful rage. - -“It wasn’t the field-mice, was it?” he snarled. “Then who were you -talking to? I’ll slit your gossiping throat for you!” - -[Illustration: Tommy held Nibble up by his long ears] - -And right about then Nibble decided it was time to move. But he didn’t -try to run. You see, Ouphe would have pounced on him. He turned softly -around and slipped into the stack behind him. - -And a queer place he found himself in. For the whole bottom of the hay -was tunneled with holes. They went this way and that, twisting and -turning until he lost himself entirely. And they were a tight fit for -even a little rabbit to creep through. And dark! My, but that place -was dark and scary—it was the darkest place Nibble had ever seen, -darker even than a night when there isn’t any moon! And stuffy! For -besides the sweet smell of the clover there was a horrible smothery -weaselly one. - -Pretty soon something caught his foot and he was so scared he gave a -little “Ow!” But it was only a piece of wire and he soon got free -again. All the same he heard a tiny scratch beside him which scared -him more than ever. - -Right then a voice, even tinier than the scratch, whispered, “Who’s -there!” - -“Nibble Rabbit!” he whispered back. - -“A rabbit!” exclaimed the voice, “I knew I smelled one. Whatever are -you doing here? This is where Ouphe the Rat lives when he’s at home.” - -At that Nibble gave a little jump. But he just struck the top of the -tunnel and pricked his soft, loppy ear in the hay. So he went back to -crawling, all blind and scared in the blackness, trying to stifle his -sniffles and tasting the salt tears that rolled down his nose. And all -around him he seemed to see the long yellow teeth and the frothy -whiskers of Ouphe, parted in a wicked grin. - -Suddenly he struck something small and soft. And the tiny voice -whispered: “Take my tail in your mouth and follow me. But don’t bite -too hard.” - -Nibble Rabbit opened his mouth and caught hold of a slim thing, like a -little round stalk of grass, that was tickling his eyebrows. And he -knew it was a field-mouse’s tail. It twitched as her little feet -started running through the inky black tunnels Ouphe the Rat had made -for himself. And the way she turned and twisted made Nibble afraid she -didn’t know for sure just where she was going. It was no wonder that -he had got lost among them! - -But he scrambled along behind her as fast as he could. And at last -they made a sharp turn and Nibble could see the snow outside -glistening in the sun. My, how nice it seemed when he reached it, -though it made his eyes blink. And when he tried to thank the -field-mouse she had disappeared. - -He crept around the edge of the haystack, looking for where his tracks -led into it, so he could follow them back to the Woods again. At the -second corner he caught sight of the sparrows, still swinging in the -elm tree, just as he had left them before he hid in Ouphe’s own hole. -Of course he waited to hear whether Ouphe were still on that side of -the stack. Nibble didn’t want to be chased by him. - -And right then Chirp sang out, “It was a rabbit we were talking to. -He’s been sitting there all the while in that hole below you.” - -Nibble simply couldn’t believe his ears. It sounded as though Chirp -wanted Ouphe to get him. But Chirp knew what he was doing. For he -flashed “Wait!” with two white feathers in his tail. Chirp knows a -thing or two, if he is conceited, and he signalled so plainly any -rabbit would know what he meant by it. But a rat wouldn’t. - -You ought to have seen the change that came over Ouphe. He quickly -cleaned his whiskers and began to talk as though he had honey in his -throat. “What? A rabbit? Why, Mr. Sparrow, how could you keep me here -playing jokes when I had a visitor? That was very unkind of you. I -must invite him in and make him at home.” - -He said it so Nibble wouldn’t be afraid of him and begin to run. -Because then he’d have a fine hunt through all those twisty black -tunnels to find him. But Nibble knew mighty well that he was only -pretending. When he snarled out that he’d “slit Chirp’s throat” and -“crunch the bones of his baby birds” Ouphe had meant every wicked word -of it. - -“Ha, ha!” laughed Chirp. “You’re so funny, Mr. Ouphe, we don’t quite -know how to take you. That rabbit just stepped inside when he heard -you invite him. I saw his tail.” - -“Wait for me, Mr. Rabbit,” said Ouphe in his sticky, sweet voice, “I’d -like to eat with you. And we’ll invite my dear little friends the -field-mice too.” He said that because he knew perfectly well Nibble -had heard him call them “tattle-tales.” And he thumped down right into -Nibble’s rabbity tracks where they went into the stack. - -“All safe. Come ahead!” flashed Chirp. And he actually winked those -tail-feathers. So Nibble bounced out and made some more tracks in the -nice crunchy snow. But they went away from where Ouphe was hunting -crossly through his black tunnels under the hay. - -“Ka-runch-it, ka-runch-it!” sang his furry feet in the crispy snow, -running away from Ouphe the Rat and his haystack. “Ka-flick-it, -ka-flick-it!” twiddled his puffy tail as he passed under the elm -branch where the sparrows were chuckling to themselves. That was his -“Thank you.” - -“I’d better not talk,” thought Nibble, “for fear Ouphe might hear me. -All the same I call Chirp Sparrow pretty smart. He waited until he saw -I’d come safely through Ouphe’s scary dark tunnels under the hay and -then he sent Ouphe in there to look for me while I skip off. Only I -wish I’d thanked that field-mouse who showed me the way out of Ouphe’s -holes. I’ll do something for her some day.” And he did. You wait and -see. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - NIBBLE DIGS INTO TROUBLE—AND SLIPS OUT - - -Suddenly Nibble put up his ears and put down his nose in great -surprise. Then he hopped up on to the grey stone where he had hidden -from Tommy Peele, and looked carefully about him. For he could see -Tommy Peele’s footsteps following his own trail, just ahead of him, -and Tommy Peele’s dark blue sweater and red mittens looking more than -ever like Redwing the Blackbird, not so very far away. He couldn’t see -Tommy’s tall rubber boots because they were hidden behind the -cornstalk tent down in the Broad Field. - -“Now I wonder what he’s doing there?” Nibble asked himself. He never -for a minute thought of being afraid. He didn’t even know that what -Tommy was doing had anything to do with him. - -Well, when Nibble Rabbit isn’t afraid he’s always curious. He made a -triangle or two of his tracks because he meant to be awfully careful -about this “man,” as he called Tommy, and crept up behind him. - -And what do you think Tommy was doing? He was making a figure-four -trap. He took a soap box and balanced it on top of three little -sticks. One was a bait stick. He had speared it through a fine fat -carrot. And when he got them all fitted together he took a handful of -wheat out of his pocket and spread it under the box. Any one could eat -the wheat, but the box would come down “blam!” on the first fellow who -touched that carrot. Only it wouldn’t hurt him. He’d just be caught in -there under the soap box until Tommy came and took him out. That is -unless he could dig under the edge of it. - -But that isn’t what happened to Nibble. Oh, no! - -For before he ever reached it there were three little mice in it. They -were the very same mice Nibble had invited to that very same cornstalk -tent on the night of his Storm Party. The lady mouse hopped up on that -bait stick and— - -“Blam!” Down came the soap box. But of course that didn’t bother the -mice at all. They felt safer in the dark and it was warm and -comfortable after the box shut the wind out. - -Nibble came leaping up. “Are you hurt?” he called. - -“No!” answered the mice all at once. “It’s perfectly lovely in here.” -And the lady mouse added, “We’ve found the loveliest root I ever set -tooth to. I think it must be some of that Water Chinquapin Doctor -Muskrat gave you. Do come and help us eat it.” - -So Nibble Rabbit’s busy little feet found a crack in the crust and -made the snow fly. “Scritch-scratch!” went his claws. - -“Hurry up!” called his mouse friends who were inside. “We’ve eaten up -half of this lovely root already.” They were perfectly willing to give -him his share—if he could only get in with them to eat it. And he was -doing his very best. - -“Crunch, crunch. Nibble, nibble, nibble,” went their busy teeth. They -didn’t mean to be selfish, but a mouse is such a hungry little thing -it just can’t wait for any one. - -Now Tommy Peele had heard the “blam!” when his trap was sprung. - -So he came hurrying back as fast as ever he could in his tall rubber -boots. He was making all manner of noise, but nobody heard him. For -Nibble already had his head under the trap. His sprawly legs were -spread out to get a good grip on the snow, and even his puffy tail -seemed trying to help him as he squirmed into it. And didn’t Tommy -Peele laugh when he saw that! Who ever heard of anything so foolish as -digging into a trap. - -“Here,” said the Lady Mouse, remembering how she had eaten Nibble’s -corn in the little cornstalk tent; “you’ll find the heart is the -sweetest.” And soon the juice was dripping from Nibble’s busy little -jaws. - -“It isn’t water chinquapin,” he found time to say, “but it’s quite as -good. And this place seems nice and safe. I don’t think even Silvertip -the Fox could catch us.” - -“Hush!” said the mouse. “I think I hear that awful beast every time -you speak of him.” - -But Nibble was too busy making up for lost time even to listen. - -Up crept Tommy Peele with his eyes on the place where Nibble crawled -in. At last he got his hand over it. Then he hit the box on the other -side. - -Then didn’t those foolish little beasts who were feasting on his -carrot sit up and listen? And didn’t they start to run? But there -wasn’t any place to run to! For Nibble finally found his hole—with -Tommy Peele’s red mitten in it. And his poor little heart began to -beat like mad. “Mice,” he whispered, “it’s that Man!” - -So they huddled up into a miserable little heap in the very middle of -that soap box and waited. And Tommy waited, too. - -But they kept so very still he said to himself, “I wonder if that -bunny’s got out on the other side.” So he looked all around, and of -course he saw there were no fresh tracks in the snow. Then he pulled -off one of his mittens and reached in to feel. - -And his hand found Nibble’s soft, warm fur. And his fingers hunted for -Nibble’s floppy ears. But they just happened to touch the nose of that -Lady Mouse. - -“Ow, ow, ow-w-w! Leggo!” shouted Tommy. And trap and sticks and rabbit -and mice went whirling. And Tommy danced up and down in his tall -rubber boots. - -In the whole world you could not have found a more frightened bunny -than Nibble when Tommy Peele held him up by his long ears and started -toward the barn. I wish I could tell you right now what happened to -him then, but, bless me, so many things happened that this book simply -will not hold them. It is all written down, though, and if you want to -know how he made friends with the Red Cow and how he learned about Tad -Coon and how he learned about many other things you can read about -every bit of it in the other books about Nibble and his friends. -’Cause that Lady Mouse had bitten him. - -But Nibble didn’t know that. He dashed across the snow, his tufty tail -flicking at every jump, “Catch me if you can!” And of course Tommy -couldn’t. Not just then. - -But later— Well, that’s another story—and a good one, too. The Red Cow -is in it, and Ouphe the Rat, and Chirp, and Watch the Dog, and Tad -Coon, and Doctor Muskrat, of course, and—and— Oh, you’ll just have to -wait till that story has a cover of its own, I guess. ’Cause this -one’s too full to squeeze it in. - - THE END - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Mostly About Nibble the Bunny</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John Breck</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: William T. Andrews</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 09, 2021 [eBook #63954]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Roger Frank</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY ***</div> -<h1>MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY</h1> - -<div class='section'> - -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div>Told at Twilight Stories</div> -<div>By JOHN BRECK</div> -</div> -<div style='text-align:center; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto'> -<div style='display:inline-block; text-align:left;'> -<div class='cbline'>MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY</div> -<div class='cbline'>NIBBLE RABBIT MAKES MORE FRIENDS</div> -<div class='cbline'>THE SINS OF SILVERTIP THE FOX</div> -<div class='cbline'>THE COON’S TRICKS</div> -<div class='cbline'>THE WAVY TAILED WARRIOR</div> -<div class='cbline'>TAD COON’S GREAT ADVENTURE</div> -<div class='cbline'>THE BAD LITTLE OWLS</div> -<div class='cbline'>THE JAY BIRD WHO WENT TAME</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div id='i001' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i001.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>“Cheer up, Bunny,” chirped Bobby Robin</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div style='font-size:0.9em;margin-bottom:1em;'>Told at Twilight Stories</div> -<div style='font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'>MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY</div> -<div>by</div> -<div style='font-size:1.2em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'>John Breck</div> -<div>Illustrated by</div> -<div style='font-size:1.1em;margin-bottom:0.7em;'>William T. Andrews</div> -<div style='font-size:0.82em;'>Garden City—New York</div> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>Doubleday, Page & Company</div> -<div style='font-size:0.82em;'>1923</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div style='font-size:smaller;'> -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div>COPYRIGHT, 1923,</div> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY</div> -<div>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT</div> -<div>OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES</div> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN</div> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS</div> -<div>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES</div> -<div>AT</div> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.</div> -<div>First Edition</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div style='text-align:center'>CONTENTS</div> -<table class='toc tcenter' summary="" style='margin-bottom:3em'> -<tbody> - <tr><td class='c1'>I.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chI'>A Very Small Bunny Has a Very Big Adventure</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>II.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chII'>Nibble Rabbit Learns His Fortune</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>III.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chIII'>Nibble Rabbit to the Rescue!</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>IV.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chIV'>What Happens When Folks Lose Their Tempers</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>V.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chV'>Nibble Rabbit’s Storm Party</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>VI.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chVI'>The Little Bunny Meets the Little Boy</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>VII.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chVII'>Why the Cow Got Her Horns</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>VIII.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chVIII'>Nibble Fools Ouphe in His Own Haystack</a></td></tr> - <tr><td class='c1'>IX.</td><td class='c2'><a href='#chIX'>Nibble Digs into Trouble—and Slips Out</a></td></tr> -</tbody> -</table> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</div> -</div> -<ul class='loi' style='list-style-type:none; display:table; margin-top:1em;;'> - <li><a href='#i001'>“Cheer up, Bunny,” chirped Bobby Robin</a></li> - <li><a href='#i002'>Bobby and Glider were making such a racket that every one was coming to listen to them</a></li> - <li><a href='#i003'>Dr. Muskrat pulls Nibble out of the broad pond</a></li> - <li><a href='#i004'>Nibble digs Bob White’s mother out of the bank</a></li> - <li><a href='#i005'>Nibble darted into the first shock he came to</a></li> - <li><a href='#i006'>Silvertip pricked up his ears</a></li> - <li><a href='#i007'>Nibble hid behind a fence post</a></li> - <li><a href='#i008'>Tommy held Nibble up by his long ears</a></li> -</ul> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:4em;'>MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY</div> -</div> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chI' title='I: A VERY SMALL BUNNY HAS A VERY BIG ADVENTURE'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER I</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>A VERY SMALL BUNNY HAS A VERY BIG ADVENTURE</span> -</h2> - -<p>The air was blowing in at the mouth of his hole when Little Nibble -Rabbit opened his eyes. That meant a cold south wind outside, a rainy -wind. He could see the wet drops hanging from the top of his arched -earth doorway. They would wet his back when he tried to go out and that -wouldn’t be nice. He shivered and closed his eyes again. Then he huddled -up tighter than ever into a little furry brown ball. Still he was cold, -so he tried to cuddle into the very farthest corner where his mother -always slept. It was empty!</p> - -<p>That woke him up. “Mammy,” he called softly; “Mammy.” No answer. He put -his nose to the earth and found it still warm. She could not have been -gone very long. So he crawled to the mouth of the hole and thumped with -his little hind feet, making all the noise he dared. Then he sat up and -cocked his ears for her answering thump. He half expected a glimpse of -her white tail bobbing down one of the tunnels through the Prickly Ash -Thicket. But no mother was there.</p> - -<p>“She can’t go off and leave me like this,” he said to himself, and he -put down his nose to find her trail. It was all washed out by the rain. -Thump, thump! he went again—and they were cross thumps because he was so -terribly disappointed. Then he suddenly sat down on his little tufty -tail and wailed “Mammy, mammy, mammy!” at the top of his voice.</p> - -<p>“Cheer up, Bunny. What’s wrong,” chirped some one from a branch just -over his head. It was Bobby Robin, and he was peering down with the most -puzzled and astonished look in his black eye.</p> - -<p>“I’m Nibble,” sobbed the little rabbit, “and I’ve lost my mother.”</p> - -<p>“Well, Nibble,” warned Bobby in his sensible way, “if she doesn’t come -back pretty soon she’ll lose her son. Don’t you know better than to tell -Killer Weasel and Silvertip the Fox, and Hooter the Owl, and any one -else who wants to know where they’ll find a nice young rabbit for -breakfast.”</p> - -<p>But the tears ran faster than ever down Nibble’s whiskers. “It’s -Hooter,” he sniffed. “He caught her when she went down to the brook for -a drink. I know he did. She’d never leave me.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense,” said Bobby, and he said it peckishly, for no one likes to -hear a little rabbit cry. “I know your mother, and she knows the law of -the woods. You can fly—run, I mean—can’t you. And feed yourself?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Nibble, for his brothers and sisters had gone to dig -their own holes and find their own food weeks ago.</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” finished Bobby, nodding wisely to himself, “if there’s any -fresh rabbit fur under Hooter’s tree it’s not your mother’s.”</p> - -<p>To his surprise Nibble stopped squeezing the tears from his eyes and -opened them wide. “I’m going to look!” he announced. And he began to -scrub his face and polish off his ears with his little soft forepaws.</p> - -<p>“Going to look where?” asked Bobby Robin.</p> - -<p>“Oh, lots of places—the Clover Patch, and the Brush Pile, and the Broad -Field. But first I’m going to see if there’s any fur under Hooter’s -tree.”</p> - -<p>“What?” squawked Bobby. He came tumbling down to the ground where he -could make Nibble look him straight in the eye and listen to an awful -lecture.</p> - -<p>“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” he said. “Now that you have to see and -hear and smell and feel for yourself you will have to be twice as -careful as you ever were before. You may remember all the things your -mother taught you—now you’ll have to do them. And she took all that -trouble with you so you could be a sensible, clever rabbit and keep out -of danger, not so you’d run right off the minute she left you and offer -Hooter a free meal.” Bobby was so worried about Nibble he forgot that -the ground was no place for a sensible bird.</p> - -<p>“But I must know if Hooter caught her,” pleaded Nibble, “and I will be -careful.” He sat up and sniffed all around with his nice clean nose that -had been all swollen from crying when Bobby Robin found him. And he -pricked up his tidy ears, just to show how careful he meant to be. And -he heard a soft little noise behind him. It wasn’t two grass stalks -rubbing together, though it was as tiny as that. It was the scraping -Glider the Blacksnake makes when he slips across a stone!</p> - -<p>Nibble’s feet just bounced of themselves, and Bobby’s wings beat, and -Glider’s ugly head landed right between them. For Glider hears -everything that goes on along the ground. He had heard Nibble stamping -to call his mother. If Mammy Rabbit had answered Glider would never have -come. But she didn’t—so Glider did. And now lonely little Nibble Rabbit -was racing off and Glider was after him, simply boiling over with rage, -as fast as he could put tail to the ground. He didn’t think Nibble could -run so very far. He was sure he would catch him.</p> - -<p>For a minute Nibble thought so too. Scared! Nibble Rabbit was too scared -to think. He just ran. Every jump he made was longer and higher than the -one before until he was sailing over the tops of the tallest grasses. -My, but he wanted his mammy—that was because he was so dreadfully -scared. Then he wanted a place to hide. Presently he remembered the -Brush Pile. He turned toward it and he didn’t even hide his trail the -way he had been taught—that’s how scared he was.</p> - -<p>But just as he reached it he remembered something his mother had told -him, which was just what she hoped he would do. “If the thing that -chases you wears feathers take to a hole. If it wears fur don’t put your -nose into any hole that hasn’t another end. If it wears scales keep to -the open and run as fast and as far as you can.” And scales are exactly -what Glider wears.</p> - -<p>Now he knew exactly what to do, and he wasn’t quite as scared. He just -bounced up on the Brush Pile and kept on going until he bounced off -again on the other side. He raced through the Clover Patch and down the -Broad Field between the shocks of corn. The field was all muddy from the -rain and his feet slipped and slid and his little heart went bump, bump, -against his sides, as though some one were hitting him. He wasn’t even -frightened any more—he was too tired. But he kept on.</p> - -<p>Then he heard a voice calling him: “Nibble, Nibble, wait!” It was no -hissy voice of a snake. It was Bobby Robin.</p> - -<p>So he turned into one of the nice little tents made by the shocks of -corn. And Bobby had to catch his breath before he could talk. “You’re -safe,” he gasped. “You lost Glider way back there. I asked you if you -could fly. You can. You fly faster than a thistledown in a north wind.” -And Nibble twitched his nose into a pleased smile, while Bobby stopped -to fan himself with his wings. “Glider couldn’t see you bounce oft on -the other side of the Brush Pile,” he explained when he got his breath, -“because his head is so near the ground.”</p> - -<p>Nibble’s ears flew up in surprise. “Couldn’t he smell me?” he asked. If -he couldn’t, then here indeed was a new thing he had learned.</p> - -<p>Bobby cocked his head sidewise with a most mischievous air. “He could -follow you to the edge of the Clover Patch. But he lost you the minute -you went out into the Broad Field. Look at your feet, Nibble. You didn’t -leave any scent after you got your little mud boots.”</p> - -<p>Nibble held up one forepaw and looked at it. Then he put out a hind one -and looked at that, too. Sure enough the sticky mud of the Broad Field -had matted into his fur so that he was wearing a fine little set of -boots that came half way to his knees. He looked down the row of slippy, -slidy tracks he had made. “There’s where I got them,” he said. “I should -think Glider would see where I’d gone.”</p> - -<p>“Glider!” laughed Bobby scornfully. “Why, Glider’s too blind and stupid -to see anything. He’s nosing around on the Brush Pile right this minute, -looking for the hole you didn’t run into. And the little sticks tickle -his stomach, and he’s getting hungrier and hungrier and crosser and -crosser until—oh, I say, Nibble, I’ve just got to go back and see the -fun. Come along!” Bobby giggled a throatful of chuckling notes and -flitted off, winking his tail-feathers to beckon Nibble.</p> - -<p>But it didn’t seem like fun to Nibble. He was still so weak and shaky -after his run that he trembled every time Bobby spoke Glider’s name. -What he wanted was to find his mother—or at least to know that she -wasn’t a little matted ball of fur under Hooter the Owl’s tree. “I’d go -and look right now,” he said to himself, “if I didn’t have to pass that -Brush Pile.”</p> - -<p>Suddenly he knew that now was his chance, while he still had his little -mud boots on. Softly he crept through the Clover Patch for fear Glider -might be lurking in the long grass, ready to pounce on him. But long -before he reached the Brush Pile itself he knew exactly where the wicked -snake was. He was right on top of it.</p> - -<p>He was right on top of it, and what is more, Bobby Robin was circling -about his ugly head to jeer at him. “Yah!” Bobby was shouting, “Heap big -hunter, beaten by a bunny! Better go catch frogs in a marsh!”</p> - -<p>Now Nibble knew that was a most insulting thing to say. For a frog is so -stupid that almost anything can catch him—especially a snake. If a frog -can possibly dive he hides under a lily pad. If he can’t he just squawks -and waits to be eaten, like a helpless baby bird.</p> - -<p>Bobby was squawking loudly enough, only he wasn’t waiting to be eaten. -He was taking very good care not to be. But he was coming so close to it -that Nibble almost forgot everything else in watching him. There was one -thing he did remember, though, and that was that the wicked snake had -nearly caught him by sneaking up from behind. So he took proper rabbit -care that no one should do that again. He found a nice log where he -could see what was going on, but he didn’t hop straight up on it. He -took three short little leaps past it, and one great big bound back to -his perch. Since he still had on his little mud boots which had hidden -his trail from Glider out in the Broad Field, he felt pretty safe. And -when he crouched down like a small brown knot on the log no one seemed -to notice him.</p> - -<p>Somebody might have noticed easily enough for Bobby and Glider were -making such a terrible racket that every one was coming to listen to -them. The grasses were full of mice and the bushes were full of sparrows -who all hated the snake. Even Chatter Squirrel, who doesn’t get on with -Bobby any too well himself, came leaping across his pathway among the -branches.</p> - -<div id='i002' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i002.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Bobby and Glider were making such a racket that everyone was coming to listen to them</p> -</div> - -<p>“Snail eater, snail eater!” yelled Bobby. Which was the awfullest thing -he could have thought of. To accuse a blacksnake of eating those -disgusting soft woodslugs—ugh! What he eats is nice warm food, like mice -and bunnies and birds—if he can catch them. But he couldn’t catch Bobby -Robin as he danced on his wings just out of reach. He missed a -particularly ugly snap and slapped his nose very hard when it came down -on a nubbly branch. That made him open his mouth and hiss like a small -steam engine.</p> - -<p>“That’s right,” said Bobby, pretending to be very sympathetic. “Spit the -mud out of your mouth and maybe you’ll learn to sing.”</p> - -<p>Chatter Squirrel laughed so hard at this that he had to hold on tight to -a piece of bark to steady himself. And Nibble sat straight up with his -muddy little paws dangling right against his clean shirt front and -stared with all his eyes. He had his ear cocked so he wouldn’t miss a -word of Glider’s answer. For now Glider was maddest of all. No snake can -stand being reminded that he has to go around with his chin in the dust.</p> - -<p>He stopped whipping his head about and tied himself into a tight coil, -with his cold eyes glittering from the very middle of it. And he hissed -in his cold voice: “I’ll teach you Woodsfolk whether you dare make fun -of me!”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” whispered a thrush perched right over Nibble’s head, “I’m afraid -for Bobby. If Glider ever makes any one look him straight in the eye -they never get away from him.” He said it in a scared voice and Nibble -could see that was exactly what Glider was trying to do.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he felt himself crouch back against the log again, ears tucked -between his shoulders, whiskers twitching with the smell of fox in his -nostrils. His muscles did these things of themselves before he really -knew that Silvertip was standing at his very elbow. He had followed -Nibble’s footsteps to the end of the trail right past the perch to where -Nibble had jumped back.</p> - -<p>Nibble didn’t move. Silvertip raised his head and cocked his ears at the -noise over on the Brush Pile. Then he hung out his tongue in what wasn’t -entirely a sly smile. It was partly thinking how good Glider the -Blacksnake would taste. He made a little rush, with a bounce at the end, -like Nibble’s bounce, right into the middle of the Brush Pile.</p> - -<p>“Help!” shrieked Bobby Robin. But Glider never spoke a single word. -Neither did Silvertip. His mouth was too full. Glider was in it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chII' title='II: NIBBLE RABBIT LEARNS HIS FORTUNE'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER II</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>NIBBLE RABBIT LEARNS HIS FORTUNE</span> -</h2> - -<p>Not one of the Woodsfolk could make a sound. It was all so sudden it -took their breath away. Then the sparrows began to flutter and chirp in -their noisy way, and Chatter Squirrel said to nobody in particular, -“Great acorns! but that was exciting! One minute Glider is playing a -trick on Bobby Robin, and the next Silvertip jumps up from nowhere at -all and plays the biggest trick on Glider! Whew!”</p> - -<p>“Well,” answered Nibble Rabbit, “I’ve just been thinking that it doesn’t -matter to me which eats which. They’re both tried to eat me since -morning.” He was still the little brown knot on his log that he had -frozen into when Silvertip came past. “Chatter, is Silvertip looking?”</p> - -<p>“No. He’s spread out in the sun sleeping off his meal,” answered -Chatter, craning his neck to see where Nibble was hidden. And his eyes -fairly popped when that little brown knot slipped down from the far side -of the log and limped away.</p> - -<p>He limped—for not only was Nibble a very tired rabbit from sitting so -still, but his little mud boots that he got in the Broad Field when he -was running away from Glider were all stiff and uncomfortable. How he -did want a wash and a drink and a place to rest!</p> - -<p>He could hear water whispering not far away, but he didn’t dare go -through the tunnels in the Prickly Ash Thicket to get to it. So he -didn’t find the brook he knew. He went farther down where it spread out -into a broad pond. It was all edged with reeds and rushes that had some -delicious watercress growing up between their roots. He could step on -the last year’s stalks which had been bent down by the Winter Wind and -keep his feet safe from the sticky mud below. Pretty soon he found a -little raft hidden in the middle of a clump of cattails.</p> - -<p>“This is the place for me,” he said to himself. “It’s warm in the sun -and snug from the wind, and nobody’ll ever find me.” So he curled up and -went fast asleep.</p> - -<p>He awoke to feel a shadow falling across him. He looked up into the -homeliest face he had ever seen. It was pointed, like his own, but -fatter, and it had little cropped ears and sleepy, blinky eyes, and long -yellow teeth that flashed when it said severely: “What are you doing -here?”</p> - -<p>Poor Nibble! He was only half awake. He had forgotten where he was, and -it’s rabbit nature to jump first and think while you run. He jumped. His -feet slipped, he splashed and the water closed over his long ears.</p> - -<p>Then didn’t he kick and strangle! No sooner did he get his poor little -nose out than it went under again. But the second time the green water -parted and his scared eyes could see the rushes waving in the lovely -air, and his lungs could get one more breath that tasted as sweet as -clover in the spring, he felt a grip on the back of his neck. A gruff -voice growled: “Take your time. You should learn to swim.”</p> - -<p>The next thing he knew he was being shaken very hard. “Cough!” ordered -the gruff voice. “Shake your head till you get the water out of your -ears! Now eat this!” And Nibble swallowed a peppery bite of root that -made his eyes pop, and set the tears streaming down his whiskers.</p> - -<p>“Who are you?” he gasped.</p> - -<p>“Doctor Muskrat, of course,” answered the voice. “You couldn’t be in -better paws.” But poor Nibble Rabbit thought he couldn’t very well be in -worse ones. Which was very ungrateful.</p> - -<p>“I’d rather be eaten than choked to death,” he thought. “But this awful -old animal is perfectly satisfied with himself for doing it! Ah! Oh! -Uh-huh!” he coughed. And Doctor Muskrat sat back and looked more wise -and pleased than ever.</p> - -<p>“I knew that would open your eyes,” he explained. “It was a flagroot -gnawed in the wax of the moon. You see I know what every plant in the -marsh is good for and I dry them for my medicine chest.”</p> - -<p>“What would have happened if you hadn’t given it to me?” asked Nibble -weakly.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t risk it,” said Doctor Muskrat, “so of course I don’t know. I -gave you the proper remedy as soon as you could swallow, so of course -you’re all right now.</p> - -<div style='text-align:center; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto'> -<div style='display:inline-block; text-align:left;'> -<div class='cbline'>“In the full of the moon</div> -<div class='cbline' style='padding-left:1.4em; '> Eyes open soon.</div> -<div class='cbline'>Plucked in the wane</div> -<div class='cbline' style='padding-left:1.4em; '> Eyes close again,”</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p style='text-indent:0'>he quoted. “That’s the rule for flagroot. Now I’ll put you to sleep with -the other dose if you need a rest and I’ll stay right here and watch -you.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no!” protested Nibble. He was just beginning to breathe and he -didn’t want any more of kind Doctor Muskrat’s medicines. “I must look -for my mother, under Hooter the Owl’s tree.”</p> - -<p>“First,” said the doctor looking at him very severely, “you must clean -yourself up and put your fur in order. If your feet hadn’t been all -caked with mud you wouldn’t have slipped.”</p> - -<p>“They were very uncomfortable, too,” Nibble agreed, glad that his swim -had melted his boots, at last. “I kept them on so Glider the Blacksnake -couldn’t track me.” And he told his experience with Glider and the Fox.</p> - -<p>“Nevertheless,” said Doctor Muskrat, “you weren’t safe because you -couldn’t keep your nose clean and smell all around you, nor your ears -clean, so you could hear. Always be sure you know everything about it -before you decide to try something new. For instance, rabbits don’t -belong in a marsh, do they?”</p> - -<p>“No,” murmured Nibble, “But it looked so hidden and so safe.”</p> - -<p>“So hidden,” Doctor Muskrat snorted. “It’s a mercy it was I who found -you and not Slyfoot the Mink. So safe that you nearly drowned when you -tried to get away. Now you say you want to visit the owl’s tree. Is that -any place for a rabbit? Answer me that!”</p> - -<p>“No,” wailed Nibble. “But I want my mother and I don’t know where else -to look. If that old owl did catch her he might as well take me too. -Glider the Blacksnake ’most did, and Silvertip nearly ate me instead of -him. He might as well. Nobody cares, anyhow, if my mother’s gone. Why -didn’t you just let me drown?” Which was no way at all of thanking -Doctor Muskrat for having rescued him. And tears of sorrow mingled with -the tears that came from the awful medicine the old Doctor had given -him.</p> - -<p>But Doctor Muskrat’s feelings weren’t hurt in the least. He could see -that poor little Nibble was badly scared and all clammy and cold from -his ducking besides. “What you need,” he said in his gruff voice, trying -to make it sound really kind, “is a nap and some light but refreshing -nourishment. What’ll it be—a fat frog? No? I forgot that all of us don’t -eat the same things. Let’s see—” He thought a minute and Nibble could -see his nose twitch as though he imagined he were sniffing things as -they came into his mind. Then he licked his lips. “I know,” he said, and -at the word his scaly tail cut the water like a knife where it closed -behind his vanishing heels.</p> - -<p>A minute passed, two, four. What had happened to him? Nibble began to -remember how ungrateful he had been. He also remembered that Slyfoot the -Mink might be creeping up, or the Brown March Hawk peering about as he -flew by. He craned his neck and saw something floating down from -upstream as softly as a stick in the current. It was the fat old doctor -with a big root in his mouth.</p> - -<div id='i003' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i003.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Dr. Muskrat pulls Nibble out of the broad pond</p> -</div> - -<p>He slipped up beside Nibble without a sound. “I had to scour the bottom -to find this,” he explained. “It’s water chinquapin and it has -properties.”</p> - -<p>He said this so mysteriously that Nibble dared not ask him what -“Properties” were, so he tasted a little, very carefully, to see. Did -you ever taste a water chinquapin yourself? It’s delicate and -jelly-like, but so sweet and rich that you’d risk stepping on old -Grandpop Snapping Turtle himself to get some more. Nibble scraped the -very rind of it. And then he thanked Doctor Muskrat for taking so much -trouble over him.</p> - -<p>“Well,” growled the old doctor in a very pleased tone, “I’m glad you -have found your manners, if not your courage. Now snuggle up and go to -sleep.” And so Nibble cuddled against him in a nice warm lump to sleep -off his fullness.</p> - -<p>He didn’t wake until the pink reflections from the setting sun were -dying out of the west and stars were already twinkling in the sky. -Doctor Muskrat was studying their reflections where they sparkled in the -pool. He was saying something to himself.</p> - -<div style='text-align:center; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto'> -<div style='display:inline-block; text-align:left;'> -<div class='cbline'>“By dusk and by dawn he shall travel alone</div> -<div class='cbline'>And all troubles are his excepting his own.”</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Is that right?” and he pricked his ears. Nibble’s own ears flew up, but -he couldn’t hear a word from those stars, dancing softly on the water in -the night wind. That was because this was deep and secret magic.</p> - -<p>“You awake?” asked Doctor Muskrat. “Well, that fortune was yours. I -asked the stars most particularly. They wouldn’t tell me anything about -your mother, but from the way they’re smiling I feel sure you’re going -to find her in the end. They did say that Slyfoot had gone across the -pond, so you had better hurry to the bank and find the quail.”</p> - -<p>Which last was strictly true and not magic at all, because the stars had -danced very hard in Slyfoot’s ripples.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIII' title='III: NIBBLE RABBIT TO THE RESCUE!'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER III</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>NIBBLE RABBIT TO THE RESCUE!</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Go up on the bank and find the quail,” Doctor Muskrat had advised. So -Nibble Rabbit set out as obediently as possible, because he meant to do -exactly what the nice old gentleman told him to, though he didn’t know -something that had happened while he was taking his nap on the snug -little raft among the reeds.</p> - -<p>You see, Doctor Muskrat had heard the quail come fluttering down to the -pond for their evening drink, and he remembered that Bob White has the -kindest heart in the world. So he squealed, very softly. And Bob flew -right out to see what he wanted.</p> - -<p>“Look at this bunny,” whispered the doctor, pointing his paddle paw at -Nibble. “Whatever am I going to do with him? I can’t take him into the -underwater door to my own house, because he can’t dive. And if I make a -hole in my roof it will leak, and besides it will be far too convenient -for that clever mink, Slyfoot. He’d come right in by my regular tunnel -if he didn’t know I was asleep with my teeth bared at the end of it. -Couldn’t you look after him until morning?”</p> - -<p>“Surely I will,” answered Bob White. “Send him along as soon as he -wakes. I’ll have our Watch Bird keep an eye out for him.” And off he -flew.</p> - -<p>So Nibble was hopping ashore repeating to himself his fortune that the -stars had told the doctor for him.</p> - -<div style='text-align:center; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto'> -<div style='display:inline-block; text-align:left;'> -<div class='cbline'>“By dusk and by dawn he shall travel alone</div> -<div class='cbline'>And all troubles are his excepting his own.”</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>And he wasn’t lonely any more because, you see, that was part of his -fortune.</p> - -<p>But this time he didn’t travel alone very far. For just as he passed a -nice, home-like looking thicket, out stepped a bird. “Come along,” he -called cheerfully. “The rest of the flock are settled down by this time. -I’ll show you the way.” And he went scuttling ahead through the grasses -with Nibble hopping at his heels.</p> - -<p>They were right near a cluster of comfortable little thorn trees which -grew on the edge of the Bluff where it leaned away out over the Sandy -Beach below when they heard a startling noise. And the quail that was -with Nibble spread his wings and hurried on as fast as he could fly. For -the quail weren’t asleep at all. They were just ahead of him, all -fluttering and scuttling and crying together.</p> - -<p>“Danger!” thought Nibble. For it made his very heart beat fast just to -hear them. “Which way shall I run?” Then he remembered the last line of -his fortune; so he crept up closer instead. Presently he stopped to -listen—a weak little voice from under his very feet called, “Whit, -whit!” in the saddest tone.</p> - -<p>He sat straight up and demanded: “What’s the trouble?”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” mourned Bob White, frantically beating his wings, “my mother ran -under the edge of the bank and the earth caved in. And we can’t dig her -out again.”</p> - -<p>And they couldn’t, either, for the clay was all full of the tough, -tangled roots of the thorns.</p> - -<p>“I can,” said Nibble Rabbit. “All troubles are mine but my own. Where do -I begin?”</p> - -<p>So they showed him the little bit of a hole where they had tried it -themselves and he settled his strong hindfeet and moved the little -clawed spades of his forepaws so fast they fairly twinkled. When he -found a root he used his chisel teeth. As soon as he gnawed it through -his paws would begin to fly again. And the quail crowded around and -whispered to each other. Presently they began to croon a sort of song. -“He’s coming, coming, coming soon.” And the little quail deep in the -bank would answer.</p> - -<p>The earth was loose, so she didn’t quite smother, but she did need a -full breath of air. The time seemed very long to her. But it seemed -longer still to Nibble Rabbit. Those roots were so tough his jaws ached. -He had dug so hard his legs were getting numb. And the birds outside had -lost sight of his tufty white tail. But they knew how he was working, -for they could see the dirt fly when he kicked his strong hind feet to -clear it out of the hole.</p> - -<div id='i004' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i004.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Nibble digs Bob White’s mother out of the bank</p> -</div> - -<p>Soon his little claws almost refused to move. But he wouldn’t let them -stop! Then the “Whit!” sounded almost in his ear. Now his feet fairly -flew of themselves for a dozen strokes and—Victory! A weak little bunch -of brown feathers burst through the clay wall. And he backed out and -helped Mother Quail to the cool fresh air outside the hole.</p> - -<p>Nibble saw the quail all crowd around her, smoothing her ruffled -feathers, loosening the dirt that was caked into them, and making little -soft noises of delight that she was safe again. Then gradually he didn’t -see anything at all. He had come as near fainting as any wild thing ever -does except Mister Possum, who mostly pretends, and scary little Keree -the Rail. He had fallen into a sound sleep.</p> - -<p>When he awoke he felt something tugging his ears. He opened his eyes and -lay still, oh, so comfortable and warm. But the tugging kept up until he -shook his head. Then Bob White whispered softly: “Come on, Nibble. Our -Watch Bird has signalled that Slyfoot the Mink is swimming this way. We -must hide.”</p> - -<p>So Nibble sat up, very stiff and sore. And he found why he had been so -snug. Little quail were cuddled all around him. One by one they took -their heads from under their wings, shook themselves, and got ready to -fly. And overhead in the darkness he could hear the Quails’ Watch Bird -giving the hurry call. When he looked hard he could see the bird craning -his neck against the dusky sky.</p> - -<p>So he shook himself, too, and followed Bob White as he led the flock in -and out of the bushes. Pretty soon Bob gave a low whispering whistle and -the birds took wing. “Make a triangle, Nibble, over to the top of that -log and then jump where you hear me call,” he said.</p> - -<p>So Nibble limped off past the log, turned back on his trail and dragged -himself up on it. My but he was tired. He almost fell asleep once more -out in that cold wind. But Bob’s whistle waked him again. He jumped and -found his legs all tangled in a wild grape vine.</p> - -<p>That set Bob laughing softly. “It’s too bad,” he said, “but you see I -forgot you couldn’t perch like a bird.”</p> - -<p>But Nibble didn’t mind. He just kicked and wriggled until he tumbled to -the ground and the blanket of little quail closed around him again.</p> - -<p>Early in the morning a soft order woke him. “Hold your scent! Hold your -scent!” He didn’t know exactly what it meant, but all the quail stopped -ruffling their feathers to keep warm and closed them tight about their -bodies. So he sleeked his fur and listened with all his ears. And he -just caught the faintest sniffing—from the top of the log, not ten feet -away. It wasn’t any bird. It was—Slyfoot! And, oh! how Nibble trembled. -But the quail didn’t; they were only very still. And then Nibble heard -another tiny sound—the sound of twigs scraping together. That was Bob -White slipping through the branches. He was walking along an overhead -pathway, so as not to make a whir with his wings.</p> - -<p>Soon Nibble heard Bob beating and flapping over behind the log. “Oh,” he -cried. “My wing—my poor wing! Oh, it’s broken! Help, Oh-h-h!” Nibble -wanted to go, but the other quail held him still.</p> - -<p>Plump! went Slyfoot, all feet at once, as he jumped for the crippled -bird. “Har-r-r!” he snarled as he just missed a mouthful of feathers. He -jumped again. “Oh-h! Help!” wailed Bob as he flapped off. And the sounds -died in the distance.</p> - -<p>But just as Nibble was beginning to scold the Quail because they -wouldn’t let him go and lead Slyfoot away, Bob came sailing into the -thicket with his wing as good as ever. He was laughing. “Topknots and -Tail-feathers!” he exclaimed, “but I gave Slyfoot a merry chase! He’s -over in the Briers by the Pasture fence with his feet as prickery as a -set of thistle-burs.” He limped over the dry leaves to show how Slyfoot -walked with prickers in his paws.</p> - -<p>Nibble laughed with him. “Won’t he be angrier than ever?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“He’s never anything else,” chuckled Bob cheerfully. “But he won’t -bother us again until he thinks we’ve forgotten about him. So we’ll get -our breakfast before we move.” And all the birds began scuttling about, -making as much noise as they pleased. When Nibble dug himself a root -they all crowded around for a taste of it, so there was very little left -for himself. But they shook off some fresh thorn-apples for him and when -he wanted to try the sumach they thought was so nice they perched on a -branch until they weighed it down within his reach.</p> - -<p>They ate and ate, for they were getting ready to travel. Of course they -haven’t any trunks to pack, but they pack their little crops instead -until they can hardly fly.</p> - -<p>“We can’t sleep here again,” Bob explained, “until the dark of the next -moon. Then you’ll know where to find us.”</p> - -<p>“Why?” demanded Nibble curiously.</p> - -<p>“Slyfoot will stay here until then, because he knows all the hiding -places. You mayn’t believe it, but he’s afraid to travel by moonlight on -account of Hooter the Owl. Just the same, he is as restless as we are. -On the first dark night he looks for a new hunting place as far away as -he can.”</p> - -<p>“Where are you going?” Nibble wanted to know. He felt sorry to lose -them.</p> - -<p>Bob stood up and flapped his wings to feel the air. “East or west,” he -answered. “This wind is north. And it’s very strong. We couldn’t go far -against it and if we went south it would tip up our tails and send us -tumbling. But if we fly across it will lift us and help us along.” He -took a little trial trip. Then he settled beside Nibble again. “West,” -he said, “to the deepest woods. There’s a smell of weather. Come on. -Whit! Whit! Good-bye, Nibble.” And they whirred away before Nibble could -ask what Bob meant.</p> - -<div id='i005' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i005.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Nibble darted into the first shock he came to</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIV' title='IV: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FOLKS LOSE THEIR TEMPERS'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IV</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FOLKS LOSE THEIR TEMPERS</span> -</h2> - -<p>Nibble found out pretty soon what “a smell of weather” meant. When he -went down to the Pond for a drink he saw a family of ducks. Some of them -were paddling around and some had gone to sleep on shore in the sun. He -spoke to one who had a beautiful green head and shiny blue feathers in -his wings. “Good morning,” he said timidly.</p> - -<p>“Eh? What?” quacked the duck in his hoarse voice, ruffling his feathers -angrily. “Oh, a rabbit. Good morning.”</p> - -<p>“Slyfoot the Mink lives here,” warned Nibble. “You might be caught -before you know.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” said the duck “we’re going South in half an hour.”</p> - -<p>“Won’t the wind tip you?” Nibble meant to be kind.</p> - -<p>“Ho, ho,” laughed the duck. “You’ve been talking to the quail. Of course -not. We’re Mallards. We fly faster than the wind. Now I’ll tell you -something. This wind is carrying more than ducks. Can’t you smell it?”</p> - -<p>Nibble sat up and sniffed very carefully. “It’s queer and dry,” he said, -“and it seems to make my fur want to stand on end.”</p> - -<p>“Go make yourself a nest, Bunny,” said the duck good-naturedly. “What -you smell is a Terrible Storm coming, and it’s coming mighty fast.” He -turned back his shining green head to fix the little curly feathers that -quirked up over his tail. Below his white collar he wore a vest of the -rich red which all rabbits especially admire, and Nibble was quite awed -by his elegance.</p> - -<p>“Come along,” he called to the other ducks who were paddling about in -the shallow water and feeding among the roots of the water lilies. “It’s -time you put your wings in order for a long trip.” And he set the -example by spreading his own feathers and laying them very cleverly with -his wide beak.</p> - -<p>Nibble noticed a lady duck who wore the same colours as himself. She -stood on her head with just her tail and her yellow legs showing out of -water, until he was really afraid she was drowning. When she did come up -straight again she paddled ashore as fast as she could. “The fish know,” -she told her mate. “There’s not a fin stirring, and that big pickerel I -was afraid of has buried himself in the mud. When the fish know about a -storm it’s high time we were gone.” And site began preening her feathers -in a great hurry.</p> - -<p>“Are you afraid of a fish?” Nibble was surprised.</p> - -<p>“Sometimes,” said she. “If it’s big enough to catch us by the leg and -pull us under the water. We take turns watching while we have our heads -down. Everything is afraid of something. But I’m much more afraid of -that big black cloud and the thing that’s driving it.” And she went back -to preening harder than ever.</p> - -<p>“You see, Bunny,” said her good-natured mate, “this is really no -ordinary storm. We saw it grow. We were way up north where the wind -sings in the pines and the ice cracks like the shot of a gun. And this -storm woke up. It wasn’t very big at first, and it cried very softly. -Pretty soon it stood up over the tree tops, taller and taller every -minute. And then it began to howl. It howled so loudly that even the -wolves stopped to listen. But we didn’t We came away very quickly, -before it could catch us. And we’ll keep on going until it stops.”</p> - -<p>“What will it do if it catches you?” demanded Nibble, opening his eyes -very wide.</p> - -<p>“It’ll throw snow all over us so we can’t see our way to fly,” answered -the lady duck. “It’ll cover up all the water with ice so we can’t feed. -When it’s very had we can’t even find a hole big enough to thaw our feet -in. Ugh! I hate to fly so fast. We ought to have come three days ago. I -knew what it was the first day when it snarled at the wind. It wasn’t -afraid!”</p> - -<p>“Afraid?” Nibble sat up and wiggled his ears at the idea. “Are storms -ever afraid.”</p> - -<p>“Of course,” said she, as though he ought to have known. “I told you -everything is afraid of something.”</p> - -<p>Nibble knew this was true. Here he was afraid of Slyfoot, and Slyfoot -was afraid of Hooter. The ducks were afraid of the storm, and the storm -was afraid of—</p> - -<p>“Afraid of the wind!” finished Madame Mallard. “As long as a storm can -keep its head nothing can stop it. But it doesn’t. Sooner or later it -breaks into a rage and begins to thrash around. When a storm really -loses its temper the next sensible wind can smash it into bits. It never -pays to lose your temper. Something always happens if you do.”</p> - -<p>Nibble was very much excited. But he wasn’t too excited to think of a -good place to hide. There was that nice little tent made by a leaning -shock of corn out in the Broad Field. As he passed the Brushpile, -Chatter Squirrel was darting up a hickory tree with a mouthful of -leaves. “There’s going to be a Terrible Storm,” called Nibble -cheerfully, “the Mallards just told me about it.”</p> - -<p>“Who doesn’t know that?” snapped Chatter, fussing with a clutter of -leaves and twigs in the crotch of his hickory. “My home’s not half done. -I thought I’d take my time and make a good one. Now here comes this -Storm! If I can’t get it finished I’ll have to go over to that leaky old -Oak that has bats in it. Yah!” And he swore in Squirrel language because -one of the sticks he was using had snapped and he had to go for another -one.</p> - -<p>“The Ducks say you musn’t lose your temper, because something always -happens,” quoted Nibble. And he didn’t mean to be impertinent. He was -just pleased with himself for remembering it.</p> - -<p>“It’ll happen to you, then,” Chatter retorted in a rage. “You and your -ducks! You’ll stand there trying to mind my business for me until -Silvertip catches you.” But there’s no way of knowing how much angrier -Chatter might have been because right then something did happen. He gave -one shriek—“Hooter!”—and made a flying leap for that hollow Oak Tree. -And Mrs. Hooter clapped her beak at the hole.</p> - -<p>“Stickly Prickles!” said Nibble to himself—that really isn’t swearing. -“What are those owls doing out this time of the day?” For he could see -Hooter flapping sleepily along behind his mate. It was too early in the -day for him. It was a badly frightened rabbit who made the best of his -chance while they were chasing Chatter to dart across the Cloverpatch -and into the first shock he came to.</p> - -<p>But he didn’t stay there. Just as he began to breathe again he heard the -voice of Mrs. Hooter right above him. She was speaking crossly to her -husband. “Pay attention,” she said. “It may be three days before we can -hunt again. He went in there. I saw him.”</p> - -<p>Nibble guessed that a small brown rabbit was the “he” they wanted, so he -slipped out of the other side of that shock and ran across to the next.</p> - -<p>“There he goes!” screeched Mrs. Hooter. “There he goes! Catch him, -quick!” But Hooter was too slow. Nibble was safe again.</p> - -<p>But was he? For in that second shock slept—Silvertip the Fox!</p> - -<p>Silvertip was curled up in a ball with his tail about his feet. Of -course he woke up the minute he heard the Hooters and pricked up his -ears. Whatever were they shouting about?</p> - -<p>In all that noise he never heard the soft sound of Nibble’s breathing -right behind him. He never sniffed anything but Owl. For they were very -close.</p> - -<p>“Go in and drive him out!” ordered Mrs. Hooter.</p> - -<p>“I—er—I’ve never done anything of the kind,” Hooter objected. “I don’t -think I care to begin.”</p> - -<p>“Coward!” hissed Mrs. Hooter. And she flew into a terrible temper. She -shook him until his beak rattled. Then she bounced him down. “You see to -it that you catch him when he comes out!” she raved. “I’ll go myself!”</p> - -<p>And she did. Right into Silvertip! And let me tell you that for one -minute feathers flew and fur frazzled. Then Mrs. Hooter flew squawking -out one side and Silvertip limped yelping out of the other and Nibble -said to himself, “I’m so glad it wasn’t my temper that was lost.” He had -the little cornstalk tent all to himself. A clawful of feathers and a -beakful of fur were all that was left of the fight. “And they can’t come -back,” he said to himself, “because nobody could move in this awful -wind.”</p> - -<p>For right that minute the Terrible Storm swooped down out of its Black -Cloud. “Look out,” it shrieked, “I’m bad! I’ll show you what I can do to -you if I want to. Old Earth, I’m going to turn you upside down! I’ll -make you into a rubbish pile, I will! Wow-w-w!” Which was very mean -because it had no quarrel with the Old Earth and the poor wild things.</p> - -<p>Nibble shook to the tips of his furry little toes when he heard it. Once -he tried to poke his nose out, just a tiny bit, to see what was -happening, but the Terrible Storm tweaked his whiskers and threw snow -into his eyes. So he backed in again and listened to the trees shouting -to each other. “Oh! Oh! I’m cracking! Hold me! Please, please—I’m going -to fall!”</p> - -<p>Pretty soon he heard a terrible groan with a crash at the end of it. And -then he heard a little sound wailing above the wind and the trees. It -was calling for help. It was Chatter Squirrel! Then he knew it was the -Big Oak who stood alone by the Clover Patch that had blown down.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Nibble found he wasn’t scared of that bully of a Storm. That -is, not so very, very scared. Not too scared to crawl out of his tent, -digging his little toes into the ground to keep from blowing away, his -nose close down in the grasses, his eyes half closed to keep out the -snow and look for poor Chatter. He called once or twice, but he was very -close before Chatter could hear.</p> - -<p>“Where am I?” he sobbed. “Oh, my nest is all smashed and I don’t know -where I am. Is this the end of the world?”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Nibble, and he nearly laughed because Chatter was so funny -when he was afraid. “It’s only the end of the Big Oak. I have a place to -sleep and plenty of food. Come along.”</p> - -<p>“Me too,” called Gimlet the Little Downy Woodpecker who lived in a -branch of the tree. “Us too,” chorused all the little field-mice who had -burrowed in its roots. And “Us, too,” piped three partridges who had -been snuggled in the bushes beside it. Even two little bats who had -lived in the tall dark cave of its hollow trunk came scuttling and -crawling, holding on tight to whatever fur they could touch.</p> - -<p>Every one came but Cheewee the Chickadee who said he would do very -nicely where he was, although his nest, an old woodpecker hole, was all -queer and upside down.</p> - -<p>They scuttled along together, traveling fast because now the wind was -pushing them from behind. And the snow drove under their feathers and -fur until it stung their very skins and nipped the ends of Nibble’s -blowy ears, but he kept saying, “I’m going to have a party! I’m going to -have a party!” so pleased and happy that every one was trying to smile -by the time they reached his little cornstalk house.</p> - -<p>The Terrible Storm had tried to knock that down, but only spread it out -so there was more room in it than ever. And the snow had tried to -smother it, but had only succeeded in stopping up the cracks so that it -was snug and warm. And the bats hung themselves upside down from the -middle of it and turned down their little webby tails over their toes -like the flap of an envelope and went to sleep again.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chV' title='V: NIBBLE RABBIT’S STORM PARTY'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER V</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>NIBBLE RABBIT’S STORM PARTY</span> -</h2> - -<p>For three days and three nights Nibble Rabbit’s storm party stayed in -the little Cornstalk tent in the middle of the Broad Field. The Terrible -Storm might behave as badly as it pleased but they were having too good -a time to care. And it might yowl as loudly as it could but they were -making too much noise to listen. For they knew that no one was going to -interrupt them.</p> - -<p>When nobody could eat any more they began to amuse themselves. First of -all they had a dance. The three partridges could drum with their wings -and Nibble with his feet, for they learned it from the Indians. Gimlet -the Woodpecker tapped with much spirit on an empty corn cob, and Chatter -Squirrel called out the directions, while the mice did the dancing.</p> - -<p>The little lady mice held their tails like trains, sweeping the ground -when they curtseyed, but their partners cocked their tails to the left -side, and Chatter got so excited that he waved his about in time to his -commands and curled the tip of it when they bowed. And the partridges -thought he was so funny that they nearly had to stop drumming to laugh -at him.</p> - -<p>When the mice were so breathless from whirling and twirling that they -had to stop they urged Nibble to take a turn. “We’ve seen you,” they -said, “on moonlight nights when we dance inside the Fairy Rings.” You -see the mushrooms make little dance halls for the Fairies to use on -Midsummer Eve. They have smooth, velvety grass on the inside with a -circle of little cushiony stools around them. And the mice use them -after the Fairies are through. Only they use the seats to hide under -when Hooter the Owl flits past. They nibble them, too, for refreshments. -You can see their toothmarks on every Fairy Ring you find after -midsummer.</p> - -<p>“I can’t dance,” murmured Nibble. He felt a bit embarrassed. Rabbits do -try sometimes out in the brush where they think no one can see them, but -they are very clumsy about it. “I never learned,” he explained.</p> - -<p>“Dear me,” said a lively little mouse. “Why don’t you step into a -Charmed Circle some night when the moon smiles? Then you can’t help -dancing.”</p> - -<p>“Yes indeed,” chimed in Chatter, who calls out their dances for the -elves and so knows more about them than anybody else. “You know the May -Moon draws the Circle as soon as the trees bud their leaves, so she can -tell where there is no danger of their casting a shadow on the Great -Ball. Some of the wee Wild Folk count shadows very unlucky. From then -until it is over, tooth may not crop without singing, nor foot step -there without dancing.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” finished the lady mouse. “So we take our children there until -they have danced three turns. After that they never forget it. But we -don’t like to let them eat. Singing is unlucky for a mouse. But dancing -is so delightful.”</p> - -<p>“It looks so,” said Nibble soberly, “but no rabbit can dance until he -grows a tail.”</p> - -<p>“Gracious,” said the lady mouse. “I’d forgotten you hadn’t—a regular -one.” When she saw Nibble’s feelings weren’t hurt, she asked, “Do you -mind telling us why?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly not,” Nibble assured her. “It happened back when the world -was young and the new creatures were choosing where they would live. -Some chose the mountains and some the plains, some the sea and some the -air. But my great-great-great-great—I can’t know how many greats I ought -to use—grandfather sat back on his elegant fluffy tail and wondered -about it.</p> - -<p>“Right near him sat a queer, snaky-looking animal. He had pricked up -ears and a bushy tail but his voice was a hissy whisper. He was talking -to a crowd of beasts and birds and they couldn’t take their eyes off -him. No wonder, for the things he said made my great-grandfather’s ears -stiff just to listen to.</p> - -<p>“Mother Nature came by and she was very busy. ‘Speak up, you with the -tall ears,’ she said. ‘Where do you choose?’</p> - -<p>“‘Please,’ said my great-grandfather, ‘I don’t choose at all yet. I just -want to live on the earth until I see what these things are eating.’</p> - -<p>“‘Oh, ho!’ remarked Mother Nature, looking at him very hard. ‘You see -with more than your ears. And what are you eating your own self?’</p> - -<p>“‘A nibble here and a nibble there,’ answered my great-grandfather, ‘but -I take nothing that will not be again as it was before.’</p> - -<p>“‘Good!’ said Mother Nature. ‘Make your choice when you please and it -shall be as you wish.’ Then she turned to those others near him. ‘Who -are you?’ she asked the strange-looking one, ‘and where do you choose?’</p> - -<p>“‘I’m the Weasel,’ he answered. ‘I came up from under the earth.’</p> - -<p>“‘Ah,’ sighed Mother Nature, ‘I knew some of you would get here. But -choose.’</p> - -<p>“‘I shall live anywhere I can lay my foot,’ announced the Weasel boldly. -‘And I shall eat fish, flesh and fowl, whatever I can catch.’ And the -other beasts all nodded at one another.</p> - -<p>“‘For hunger?’ asked Mother Nature. And most of her beasts who had been -listening to the Weasel answered, ‘For hunger,’ because they thought it -was the thing to do.</p> - -<p>“‘For the joy of killing!’ snarled the Weasel. ‘Like this—’ And he -sprang at my great-grandfather.</p> - -<p>“But my great-grandfather gave a mighty leap. He landed in a briar patch -and began racing through it. And all the briars called, ‘He chooses us—a -beast has chosen us. Catch him! Hold him!’ and they caught him by his -tall ears and elegant fluffy tail so hard that they stopped him short.</p> - -<p>“‘Let me go,’ he begged. ‘Please let me go. The Weasel will kill me.’</p> - -<p>“Then the briars cried until the tears dripped from their twigs. ‘Nobody -wants us,’ they sobbed. ‘Please choose us. If you lay back your ears and -shorten your tail we’ll never stop you. We’ll shelter you from the -summer sun and the winter wind. We’ll warn you of your enemies and bar -your path behind you. We’ll serve you as long as you let us.’</p> - -<p>“And just then my great-grandfather thought he could hear the Weasel -very close, so he cried despairingly. ‘I’ll choose the Pickery Things.’ -Down dropped his ears, up shrunk his tail, and away he ran. But we’ve -never been sorry. The Pickery Things have kept their word.”</p> - -<p>“Dear me, how interesting!” said the lady mouse when Nibble Rabbit had -finished. “But could you have your long tail back if you wanted to?”</p> - -<p>“It might be managed,” said Nibble. “Mother Nature said it wasn’t fair -for the Weasel to begin living before the other things had all made up -their minds. He really frightened my great-grandfather into making that -choice. And it really wasn’t fair of the briars to hold him. But Mother -Nature advised us to try it until we were sure we wanted our tails back -again and then let her know. She didn’t actually promise to give them, -as I remember,” he added honestly.</p> - -<p>And then a commotion broke loose in the little cornstalk tent where -Nibble’s party were hiding from the Terrible Storm. “Why don’t you grow -one? What kind do you want? Try one like mine! Or mine!!” shouted all -the voices until even Nibble’s long ears couldn’t hold all the noise.</p> - -<p>“Your long leaps are almost like flying,” said the Partridge. “We -couldn’t steer without our tails.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and then you could balance yourself in the trees,” advised Chatter -Squirrel.</p> - -<p>“Or hold on by it as we do,” said a wise old mouse.</p> - -<p>“My cousin lost hers,” murmured Gimlet, shaking his red Woodpecker’s cap -very seriously. “And she nearly starved before it grew out again. She -couldn’t sit comfortably on a tree-trunk without it.”</p> - -<p>“A tail,” squeaked the bats who hadn’t been heard from since they hung -themselves up from the roof, “a tail is the handiest pocket in the -world. You use it for flies in summer and to warm your paws in winter. -Do have one.”</p> - -<p>“I do use mine,” said Nibble laughing, “but not for any of the reasons -you give. I flash mine so any rabbit behind me can tell whether it’s -safe to follow me. Why, my mother never bothered to talk as long as she -knew I could see her tail.” And he showed them how he could make the -little white puff underneath it show and disappear.</p> - -<p>“Well, I never thought it was any good at all,” marvelled Chatter.</p> - -<p>“Another thing,” said Nibble. “Ours was no more use than Tad Coon’s. -Just a great big brush to carry around. All you could possibly do with -it was warm your feet. And we never slept half the year like Tad does, -so where would be the use of that?”</p> - -<p>“But Tad Coon’s was useful once,” argued Chatter. “His old great-aunt -wanted to go on a pilgrimage early one spring. But the water was high in -the marsh and she was so fat and crippled with age that she couldn’t -swim. So Tad would go down every morning and stick in his tail to show -her how deep it was. There would be a brown mark where the mud came and -a white mark where the water washed it off above. Every morning the -rings would be lower until there was only a little black mud stain on -the very tip of it. Then she started off and all the black she got was a -little on the very soles of her feet.”</p> - -<p>“And he never bothered to wash it clean again,” said Nibble, “so you see -how little use it is to him.”</p> - -<p>“You’re just jealous,” giggled the lady mouse. “That puff you wear is no -bigger than the fuzz off a pussywillow.” And then Chatter Squirrel and -Gimlet the Woodpecker and the Partridge all tried their best to make -Nibble say that even if he didn’t own a real tail he’d like to try one.</p> - -<p>Which of course he wouldn’t. For no decent rabbit would go back on his -great-grandfather’s bargain with the Pickery Things. “No,” he insisted, -“I truly wouldn’t know what to do with one at all. If it dragged, my -gawky legs would stumble on it. If it stood up, my floppy ears would get -tangled in it. I guess I’d have to walk like this—” And he limped across -the dancing floor pretending to get all mixed up in a tail that wouldn’t -get out of the way. He tripped on it and he kicked it and at last he -pretended to pick it up in his mouth and carry it.</p> - -<p>Chatter Squirrel laughed until his feet danced under him. As for the -lady mouse she simply squeaked with joy. But the bats, who live in the -woods and sleep all day couldn’t understand. And they were very serious -about it. A bat hasn’t any fun in him at all.</p> - -<p>“He’s got a tail,” said one, peering at Nibble.</p> - -<p>“Of course,” answered the other sleepily, not troubling to open his eyes -to look. “Everything’s got a tail, Fish, Bird or Beast. They couldn’t -get on without one. It stands to reason.”</p> - -<p>“How about frogs?” demanded Gimlet sharply. “They haven’t any.”</p> - -<p>Now the bat had never particularly noticed a frog. But you couldn’t fool -him. “He’s got one,” he answered cheerfully. “Only sensible folks keep -it folded up under them like we do. Quite proper, too. One that drags is -so untidy.”</p> - -<p>“Untidy!” snapped the lady mouse. “What do you call one with a skin -pocket like yours, all cluttered up with fly-wings, Eh?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but he hasn’t,” said Gimlet, and Nibble echoed, “No, truly he -hasn’t.”</p> - -<p>“Then he’s not Fish, Bird, or Beast!” repeated the sleepy bat. “It -stands to reason.” And the other creatures looked at each other -curiously, for they didn’t know what to say.</p> - -<p>“He isn’t Fish, Bird, or Beast, is he?” fluttered a partridge. And the -bat nodded as though he knew it all the time.</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Chatter cheerfully. “But how about Man?”</p> - -<p>“Man?” shouted Nibble and the mice and the partridge all together. For -this was news! When the Woodsfolk see a man they don’t stop to look at -him; they run and hide. And Nibble had never even got a glimpse of one -yet. Neither had the bats. But the sleepy bat just kept on insisting, -“He’s neither Fish, Bird, nor Beast, if he hasn’t a tail.”</p> - -<p>“Then what is he?” demanded Chatter. He thought he had asked something -the bat couldn’t answer.</p> - -<p>“What does he wear?” said the bat.</p> - -<p>And now it was Chatter who didn’t know what to say. For a Man doesn’t -wear scales or feathers or fur. “I think he wears a skin—like a frog,” -he said at last.</p> - -<p>“I told you so!” And the bat nodded away more conceitedly than ever. And -nothing the others could say made any difference.</p> - -<p>“But he’s not green,” objected Chatter. “And he doesn’t hop. He’s ever -so much bigger, and he’s tan, like your vest, Nibble, or pink, like the -inside of your mouth.” Chatter had seen the little boys at the -swimming-hole and some of them must have been sunburned.</p> - -<p>“Now isn’t that queer,” remarked a partridge. “The one we saw seemed all -brown and wrinkly and shelly, like Grandpop Snappingturtle. And he made -a noise like a Summer Storm.” She meant a man in a shooting-coat who -fired a gun.</p> - -<p>“Nothing queer about,” announced Gimlet cheerfully. Gimlet knows more -than all the rest of them because he works for the man in the Orchard -and is on very good terms with the whole Man tribe. “They come in as -many shapes and sizes and colours as flowers.” You see Gimlet doesn’t -know the difference between men and women and children. “They make as -many different noises as all of us put together and do as many different -things.”</p> - -<p>“I’m going to take a good long look at the first man I see,” said -Nibble. “I will, if I know him when I see him. That’s the only way I’ll -ever understand what you’ve been talking about.”</p> - -<div id='i006' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i006.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Silvertip pricked up his ears</p> -</div> - -<p>“Don’t do it,” shouted all the others. “Keep away from Man! Keep away -from Man! He’s more dangerous than Silvertip!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVI' title='VI: THE LITTLE BUNNY MEETS THE LITTLE BOY'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VI</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>THE LITTLE BUNNY MEETS THE LITTLE BOY</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Whiskers!” Nibble started to his feet at the very idea.</p> - -<p>“What if the Terrible Storm should be over and Silvertip comes sneaking -back!” And immediately they all looked very serious. They seemed to feel -in their hearts that something had gone wrong while they were having -their fun. A moment more and they knew it!</p> - -<p>Nibble started to scratch away the snow that had drifted the door of the -cornstalk tent closed behind them, three days ago. He clawed and he -thumped and he pushed and he squirmed but at last he had to sit back and -confess, “My nails won’t take a hold. It’s all solid ice outside. We’re -frozen in!”</p> - -<p>“Frozen in!” exclaimed the partridge. They knew what that meant. It -meant that you couldn’t breathe through ice as you can through snow, so -you smother in the long run. It seemed that Nibble’s lovely party was -going to have a sad ending indeed.</p> - -<p>The partridge tried but soon tired out. Then Gimlet tried, but he only -froze his bill.</p> - -<p>Suddenly, Bump! Bump! sounded from outside.</p> - -<p>“It’s Silvertip,” said Chatter sadly. “He’s digging his way in.”</p> - -<p>“He can’t catch us all,” answered Nibble, “unless we stay inside. We -must burst out in a body, right in his face, and take our chances. Ready -now—here we go!”</p> - -<p>And at the word the snow crashed in on the tent floor and Nibble leaped -through the hole, with the partridges roaring their wings behind him.</p> - -<p>Nibble threw a frightened look over his shoulder as he ran to see if -Silvertip were following. Then he stopped dead, and turned around, and -sat up and took a good long look, exactly as he said he would. “That’s a -Man,” he said to himself “That’s a Man, for sure and certain. What -paws!”</p> - -<p>It was Tommy Peel, in his new red mittens, who had kicked in the door -with the heel of his tall rubber boots to see what was making that noise -inside. And he was just about as grown-up for a Man as Nibble was for a -Rabbit. And what he was doing out in the Broad Field was an awful -secret.</p> - -<p>Said Nibble to himself, “He’s not at all like a frog and he’s not like -Grandpop Snappingturtle one little bit. He reminds me much more of -Redwing the Blackbird.” That was because Tommy had on his dark navy-blue -sweater and his new red mittens and his tall rubber boots. “That isn’t -fur nor feathers nor scales he’s wearing, but it certainly isn’t skin. -Nevertheless,” Nibble told himself, “he has no tail, so a man is all he -can possibly be. But he hasn’t any hunger-light in his eyes. I wonder -why he’s so much to be feared?”</p> - -<p>“That’s the cunningest little bunny,” thought Tommy Peele. “I wish I -could catch it and put it in a cage to play with. I believe I’ll set a -trap for it.”</p> - -<p>Now if Tommy had wanted to kill him, Nibble would have known by the way -he looked. But Nibble never dreamed of a trap. That was another thing he -didn’t know about. And Tommy didn’t think of killing Nibble because he -was only nine years old and you have to be thirteen years old and in the -eighth grade before you can have a gun.</p> - -<p>Besides, wild things only hunt so that they can eat. But if Tommy Peele -could only catch Nibble, he meant to be very good to him. He was going -to give him the best of food and a fine cage. He didn’t think Nibble -would be unhappy with a nice cosy place to live in. You see Tommy Peele -lived in a house himself, which is a kind of a cage when you come to -think about it. He didn’t think how different that was from living like -a wild thing.</p> - -<p>So the small boy and the smaller rabbit were looking at each other in a -very friendly way. When all of a sudden the Wind told Nibble something. -A light crunch of snow tickled his long ear and a soft whiff of scent -tickled his nose. Silvertip the Fox had just jumped over the rail fence -into the Clover Patch, right behind him.</p> - -<p>“Danger! Come along!” he thumped with his little hind feet. “This way! -It’s all clear ahead!” he flashed in rabbity signals from his puffy -tail. And he dashed off down the Broad Field.</p> - -<p>But Tommy Peele didn’t follow. You see he didn’t understand that sort of -talk. He just turned and looked after Nibble, saying to himself, “I wish -that little bunny wasn’t so skeery. Wonder if I couldn’t tame him?”</p> - -<p>Nibble made a proper triangle and brought up under a thorn bush in the -fence row before he dared to look behind him. And then his heart gave an -awful bump. For there stood Tommy Peele in his red mittens, exactly -where Nibble had left him. He had turned around so he could watch -Nibble. And Silvertip was creeping up behind him! The wind was blowing -straight from Silvertip to Tommy, warning him as plainly as it had -warned Nibble two minutes before, but Tommy didn’t pay any attention. -“Poor Man,” Nibble almost sobbed. “You won’t listen to the wind and you -won’t listen to me— I wish your mother were here to take care of you.” -He said that because he was still so lonely for his own mammy.</p> - -<p>Silvertip sniffed about the first corn shock. Then he crept along, -pretty carefully, to the one where the owls had found him, and Nibble -had given his party. Suddenly he caught sight of Tommy Peele, red -mittens, tall rubber boots, and all, standing with his back to him. And -he leaped—but he leaped the other way as fast as ever he could. And -Nibble wanted to kick up his heels with joy, because he knew something -Silvertip was afraid of. But Tommy Peele never knew anything at all -about it.</p> - -<div id='i007' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i007.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Nibble hid behind a fence post</p> -</div> - -<p>Just about the time Silvertip’s tail dusted the middle rail of the -fence, Tommy decided to follow the bunny and see where he had gone to. -Nibble had been calling him to run away from Silvertip a minute or two -before, but now he didn’t wait for Tommy Peele. “If that wicked fox is -so frightened,” he said to himself, “I can’t be too careful. But I don’t -see what he could do to me; he hasn’t any claws and he most certainly -can’t run.”</p> - -<p>Of course Tommy had to wade slowly through the snow while Nibble could -go skimming and skipping over the top of it. So the little rabbit just -went a short way farther and hid behind a fence post.</p> - -<p>Tommy tramped and trudged until he had followed the bunny tracks to -where Nibble had hidden in the bush. “Oh, ho!” said Nibble at last. -“That Man doesn’t hunt like the Woodsfolk. Glider the Blacksnake could -only smell, not see, where I had gone. This creature can see, and not -smell. I’ve got to stop making tracks in this snow.”</p> - -<p>He looked all around. Then he saw that he was in another field, farther -from the Woods than he had ever dared to come. Cattle were walking about -in it, dragging their feet the way they do, and ploughing away the snow -with their broad black noses to get at the frosty grass. So Nibble -danced down a sprawly cow track where his soft feet wouldn’t leave any -trace. And then he jumped over to a small grey stone with a little -peaked snow cap on it and snuggled up so close that he looked like a -part of it. And Tommy Peele walked right by and never saw him.</p> - -<p>Nibble thought this kind of hide and seek was pretty good fun. He was -quite disappointed when Tommy went off without looking for him any -longer. Still, the grass tasted very sweet where the cows had scraped -off the snow for him. Pretty soon he said to himself: “I guess I’d -better be thinking about getting back to the Woods again. I’ll be safer -if I can reach the Clover Patch without meeting—”</p> - -<p>And he stopped right on that word. For there, following his trail, was -the very beast he was thinking of—Silvertip! And Silvertip doesn’t have -to see any one to follow him!</p> - -<p>“There’s only one thing for me to do,” thought the Bunny. “I’ll make a -new triangle and end up on that big Brown Log over there.” So he did. -And he crouched down on it as close as ever he could and held his breath -while Silvertip came closer and closer. Now he was by the stone! Now he -was at the grassy spot! Now—</p> - -<p>Now that big Brown Log did a very queer thing. It began to move. It -rocked and it heaved and then it raised itself right off the ground. -Nibble was so stiff with fright that all he could do was dig in his toes -and hold on. And then it switched its tail. It was a cow who had chosen -a chilly spot to lie down!</p> - -<p>That tail sent Nibble spinning. Luckily he landed right side up and went -bouncing off faster than when Glider was chasing him. But Silvertip -didn’t see him. Silvertip was too busy on his own account.</p> - -<p>For that cow wasn’t the sleepy and serious kind. She was young and -active. But Silvertip, coming along with his nose to the ground, didn’t -see her.</p> - -<p>She lowered her horns and rolled her eyes around, pawing footfuls of -snow about her shoulders. “Wolf!” she suddenly bellowed and ran at him.</p> - -<p>Nibble Rabbit thought his end had come. But his feet didn’t think at -all; they just ran. They ran while he was turning a somersault through -the air and they ran faster when they felt the fluffy snow. And if they -hadn’t run right into the big haystack at the end of the pasture there’s -no knowing how far they would have taken him. But there was a nice -little hole under it, waiting for him to come right in and hide.</p> - -<p>But you know Nibble. First he’s scared, and next he’s curious. Just as -soon as he thought nothing was following him he stuck out his little -whiskers to sniff about and put up his long ears to listen. And he heard -a lot of little birds cheeping and gossiping up above him. One of them -said, “There he is! I say, Bunny, what did you do that for?”</p> - -<p>“Do what?” demanded Nibble, craning his neck so he could see who he was -talking to. “What did I do, Mr. Chirp?”</p> - -<p>“Tried to ride the red heifer,” answered Chirp Sparrow.</p> - -<p>“But I didn’t! Indeed I didn’t!” cried the little rabbit. “Silvertip was -chasing me, so I jumped back from my trail on to a log. I was going to -slip down behind it and run away as soon as he had gone past, so he -wouldn’t smell me on the ground. That’s what we always do. But something -happened.”</p> - -<p>“So it seems,” replied Chirp Sparrow in an amused voice. “Don’t you know -what it was?”</p> - -<p>“Not yet,” said Nibble, “My head’s still whirling.”</p> - -<p>“I should think it might be,” laughed Chirp. And the other sparrows -seemed to think it was so funny they all started to giggle and talk at -once, which made Nibble’s head whirl harder than ever.</p> - -<p>“Hush!” Chirp ordered. “I want to tell him myself. Well, that log you -hopped up on was a cow. She was taking a nap and you woke her up. When -she started to get up you dug your claws into her so she switched her -tail—I wish you could have seen yourself. You went tumbling over and -over like a curly thorn leaf in a west wind.” And he stopped to laugh -again.</p> - -<p>“But Silvertip?” asked Nibble anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Silvertip was the funniest of all.” Chirp shook himself so he -could sober up to tell the rest of it. “The cow looked all around to see -who had been disturbing her and there was Silvertip. So she must have -blamed it on him. You ought to have seen her chase him. Silly thing. He -just tumbled through the fence, any old way, and made off, but she -thinks she’s still after him.”</p> - -<p>Sure enough, Nibble could see the red heifer with her swishy tail stuck -straight up in the air, waving the tasselly tip of it, leaping and -mooing and snorting at the other end of the field.</p> - -<p>“I thought that was a queer log,” he said thoughtfully. “It made my toes -all warm and there wasn’t any snow on top of it. But it had such a nice -safe, warm-hole sort of a smell, with little clovery whiffs mixed in -with it. Cows must be awfully dangerous!”</p> - -<p>“Dangerous!” hooted Chirp. “A cow dangerous! Why, the only thing she’s -dangerous to is a clover-top. That’s what she eats, and that’s why she -smells of it.”</p> - -<p>“But Silvertip was afraid of her.” Nibble was really puzzled.</p> - -<p>“Silvertip? Oh, well. That’s another story,” said Chirp.</p> - -<p>“Away back when the world was new—tell me about it.” Now Nibble was all -pleased and excited.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVII' title='VII: WHY THE COW GOT HER HORNS'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VII</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>WHY THE COW GOT HER HORNS</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Exactly! Way back when the world was new,” began Chirp Sparrow. And -then he stopped to squirm himself into a bunch of hay right beside -Nibble Rabbit, so the wind wouldn’t muss his feathers, while he was -talking. And Nibble crept to the very mouth of the hole in the bottom of -the haystack where he was hiding, and sat on his toes and was very happy -and comfortable.</p> - -<p>“Away back when the world was new the cows and wolves began to have -trouble.”</p> - -<p>“Because the wolves chose to eat them, like the weasel chose to eat my -great-great-grandfather?” interrupted Nibble excitedly.</p> - -<p>“Not in the very first-off beginning,” said Chirp. “You see, the weasel -was one of those who came up from under the -Earth-that-was-common-to-all. He wasn’t one of Mother Nature’s own -things. But the wolf was. He was just a little too clever, but she liked -him and trusted him—more than most.</p> - -<p>“Mother Nature had made a bargain with the plants. The beasts were to -eat them. But she promised the plants that they wouldn’t die, but would -spring up again stronger than ever. She would send the rain to keep them -from getting thirsty, and they would put their roots into the -Earth-that-was-common-to-all and get their food from it, and the winds -were to keep their house swept clean and play with them, and the trees -were to shade them from the hot sun and sing to them, so that they would -be perfectly contented. And the beasts were to graze on them and the -birds were to eat part of their seeds—but not all—so they were -contented, too.</p> - -<p>“Mother Nature got about half the earth in fine working order. Then she -gave the rain and the wind orders and went down south, over the Far -Horizon to look after the other half.</p> - -<p>“Right away the wicked little raindrops went to playing in the brooks -and leading them into no end of mischief. And the winds went up and -played tag with each other on the mountain-tops. And the Sun got curious -to know what Mother Nature was doing with the other half of the earth, -because that was coming out all different, so he kept edging farther and -farther south until by and by, he wasn’t paying any attention to the -north half at all. And things went awfully wrong in the north half.</p> - -<p>“Awfully wrong! The plants down in the brook bottoms cried: ‘We’re -drowning! We’re drowning! If the wind and the sun don’t do their part we -won’t be eaten.’ So they turned themselves into bulrushes and all kinds -of tough, stringy things that can stand wet feet, but nothing in the -world can eat them. And the plants on the higher lands cried: ‘We’re -strangling! We haven’t had a drink in ever so long, and our backs are so -stiff from standing still we’ll never be able to play again. If the rain -and the wind don’t do their part we won’t be eaten!’ So they hid down in -their roots under the Earth-that-is-common-to-all, most discouraged, and -left only their skeletons standing. And the beasts starved. Especially -the poor cows. But the wolves kept very fat. Only they weren’t telling -any one how they managed it.</p> - -<p>“And Mother Nature was almost through down south and getting ready to -come north again. So the Sun hurried back to get busy. And the rain -poured to make up for lost time, and the winds rushed down from the -mountain tops, but their fingers were all cold, so they made things -worse than ever. And the beasts were all cold, ’specially the cows.” -Chirp stopped to stretch his wing.</p> - -<p>“Please go on, Mr. Chirp,” pleaded Nibble. He was so excited and -impatient! “Please get to the part about the wolves!”</p> - -<p>“I will,” promised Chirp Sparrow. “Only these birds must settle down and -be quiet. They get me all fluttered.” For every sparrow on the haystack -was coming down close to the hole in the bottom where Nibble Rabbit was -sitting. No one wanted to miss hearing about it.</p> - -<p>“Well, Mother Nature came back,” Chirp went on. “And, my, but wasn’t she -angry! Just wasn’t she? She said to the rain: ‘I don’t believe you’ve -rained a drop since I’ve been gone or you wouldn’t be carrying on at -this rate. Do you call this a shower? It’s a flood—and it’s perfectly -disgraceful.’ Then she turned to the wind. ‘Do you think I don’t know -where you’ve been?’ she scolded. ‘I can feel how cold your fingers are. -Look how you’ve ruffled up the fur on my poor chilly beasts there!’ And -she snapped at the Sun: ‘You needn’t look so good. Stop smiling and -listen to me. Do you think I didn’t know where you were? Peeking right -over my shoulder. You nearly burned a hole in the back of my neck when I -was finishing up that last armadillo. You three have made a pretty mess -of things. And I did so want one world where there wasn’t any winter!’ -She nearly sat down and cried over it all, she was so disappointed.</p> - -<p>“But, of course she hadn’t time. She had to put things back in order. -First she coaxed the plants to begin growing again. Then she called the -beasts so she could look them all over and see what she could do for -them.</p> - -<p>“And the cows came crawling up, as slow, as slow, with their poor bones -all sticking out—but the wolves were fat as butter.</p> - -<p>“And the cows said, ‘We’ve been so starvation hungry that we’ve worn our -teeth right off.’ And so they had. And their teeth are still worn off, -right to this day.</p> - -<p>“And the wolves whimpered: ‘We’ve been so starvation hungry, too!’</p> - -<p>“But Mother Nature looked at their fat sides and she said: ‘Show me your -teeth.’</p> - -<p>“And their teeth were perfectly sharp and new. And they still are.</p> - -<p>“So Mother Nature frowned at them until they cringed. And they trembled -so hard that their very claws clattered. For they knew that they had -misbehaved and something serious would come of it. Then she asked: ‘What -have you been eating?’</p> - -<p>“‘Just dead beasts that we found lying about,’ they whined.</p> - -<p>“Mother Nature looked at the poor cows, but the cows wouldn’t tell on -the wicked wolves. Only they scratched the earth with their feet and -sent it flying over their shoulders the way they do when they’re angry. -Then she said: ‘Cows will always be angry with you like that because -they smell the blood on you. Oh, wolves, it is bad to lie, but it is -terrible to kill!’</p> - -<p>“Of course the wolves knew that they had been found out, so they tried -to look brave and answered: ‘We are too clever to starve like a stupid -cow.’</p> - -<p>“But Mother Nature shook her head sadly. ‘You’ll find that it’s better -to be good and stupid than to be bad and clever. But bad and clever you -will be to the end of all wolves, and the stupid cow will live to see -the last of you. Cows, how shall I punish them?’</p> - -<p>“Then the cows roared like a raging river: ‘Give us back our teeth and -we’ll do it ourselves!’</p> - -<p>“‘I can’t do that,’ she explained, ‘because nothing that has been lived -can be done over again, but I can give you something newer and longer -and sharper than the teeth of any wolf.’</p> - -<p>“It was horns.”</p> - -<p>“Is that all?” demanded Nibble Rabbit.</p> - -<p>“All?” echoed Chirp Sparrow, cocking his head on one side. “Isn’t that -enough?” But he was really very much flattered. For Nibble’s ears had -stood straight up right through his story, and all the other sparrows on -the haystack were saying, “Hush, hush!” so he would go on again.</p> - -<p>“My beak!” Chirp exclaimed. “I’ve told you how winter came to be, -because the sun and the wind and the rain didn’t behave while Mother -Nature left this half of the earth to go down and start the other half. -I’ve told you how the good stupid cows starved because the plants -wouldn’t be eaten, and how the bad clever wolves took to eating the -cows. And how Mother Nature gave them horns that were longer and sharper -than the tooth of any wolf to make it up to them. What more do you want -to know?”</p> - -<p>“Lots of things,” insisted Nibble. “Why did that cow shout ‘Wolf’! at -Silvertip?”</p> - -<p>“Because she’s a cow. Too good and stupid to know the difference! Wolf, -fox, or dog, it’s all the same family, only the fox is smaller, and -cleverer—and wickeder—and the dog is the cleverest of all. But the cows -didn’t make much use of their horns after they did get them, because -they are so stupid.</p> - -<p>“They say Mother Nature was sorrier over the wickedness of the wolves -than over any of the rest because she trusted them more than most,” he -went on. “You see, they were her own beasts, not like the weasel who -came up from under the earth and was wicked from the very first.”</p> - -<p>“Were lots of others bad, too?” demanded Nibble. “Bad things are always -interesting, you know.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes. Even some of the birds.” Chirp said this as though it were the -most wicked thing in the world for a bird to be bad. “But we weren’t. -We’ve always been as good as good, no matter how much trouble we have -with the hawks and the owls. We eat some seeds, but not all, and the -bugs. Bugs come from under the earth, you know, and the plants hate -them. But we didn’t have to ask for horns or claws to take care of -ourselves—that’s because we’re so clever.” And he spread his lively -little wings, with brown edges to every feather, and squinted -conceitedly at them over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>“And the mice?” added Nibble. He didn’t want birds to have all the -credit.</p> - -<p>“Mice, indeed!” chirped the sparrow, quite sharply. “Mice! Why, do you -know what they did? They sneaked down under the earth and nibbled the -very roots of the plants when they tried to hide under the -Earth-that-was-common-to-all. And that was the meanest trick! It took -Mother Nature half through the first spring to find out what they had -been doing. Some were so ashamed of it that they stayed right there and -got to be moles. But some of them pretended they just didn’t know any -better.”</p> - -<p>Nibble felt a bit flustered because he does it, too, and so does Doctor -Muskrat. But then the quail and the sleek brown thrasher are just as -bad, so he didn’t try to say anything. Fortunately Chirp went right on -talking.</p> - -<p>“The wickedest creature of all,” he said, “is Ouphe the Rat. He’s so -horrid and dirty and disgusting that he eats even his own kind. He’s a -cannibal! Everything hates him, whether it wears feathers or fur or -scales—even the stupid cow. And he hates everything. He comes sneaking -and creeping just when you least expect him, and—”</p> - -<p>“Cheep!” went the watch bird of the flock. “Cheep!” echoed their voices -and flutter went their lively little wings with brown edges to every -feather. And Ouphe squeaked with rage because he’d missed them that -time.</p> - -<p>“You will talk about me!” he snarled. “You will, will you? Wait till you -hatch and I’ll crunch your baby birds’ bones for you.” He clashed his -yellow fangs horribly.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVIII' title='VIII: NIBBLE FOOLS OUPHE IN HIS OWN HAYSTACK'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VIII</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>NIBBLE FOOLS OUPHE IN HIS OWN HAYSTACK</span> -</h2> - -<p>The little rabbit crouched down in the bole in the bottom of the -haystack not three feet away from the wicked rat. But Ouphe hadn’t seen -him. He was sure of it because Ouphe kept squalling at the sparrows all -the nastiest things he could put his tongue to. And the sparrows, -swinging from a branch of the elm tree that leaned above him, weren’t -much more polite.</p> - -<p>“Swapping lies with the field-mice, were you?” sneered Ouphe. “I’ll -attend to them.”</p> - -<p>“It wasn’t lies,” shrieked Chirp Sparrow indignantly. “Didn’t you come -sneaking and creeping—just the way you always do? Thought you’d climb up -the other side of the stack and surprise us when we weren’t expecting -you, didn’t you? And isn’t that exactly what I said? Let me tell you, -you’re one thing we always do expect. You’ll maybe catch us when you -learn to fly—but not before.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll catch you when I clean out these tattle-tales of field-mice,” -snapped Ouphe, and he gnashed his teeth until the froth made his -whiskers white.</p> - -<p>“It wasn’t the field-mice, Smarty! They never said a word. It was your -own scaly tail that told on you.” Chirp spread his wings, opened his -beak and stuck out his tongue at the wicked old beast. And Ouphe lashed -his own tattling tail in an awful rage.</p> - -<p>“It wasn’t the field-mice, was it?” he snarled. “Then who were you -talking to? I’ll slit your gossiping throat for you!”</p> - -<div id='i008' style='margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:10.0%; width:80%;'> - <img src='images/i008.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -<p class='caption'>Tommy held Nibble up by his long ears</p> -</div> - -<p>And right about then Nibble decided it was time to move. But he didn’t -try to run. You see, Ouphe would have pounced on him. He turned softly -around and slipped into the stack behind him.</p> - -<p>And a queer place he found himself in. For the whole bottom of the hay -was tunneled with holes. They went this way and that, twisting and -turning until he lost himself entirely. And they were a tight fit for -even a little rabbit to creep through. And dark! My, but that place was -dark and scary—it was the darkest place Nibble had ever seen, darker -even than a night when there isn’t any moon! And stuffy! For besides the -sweet smell of the clover there was a horrible smothery weaselly one.</p> - -<p>Pretty soon something caught his foot and he was so scared he gave a -little “Ow!” But it was only a piece of wire and he soon got free again. -All the same he heard a tiny scratch beside him which scared him more -than ever.</p> - -<p>Right then a voice, even tinier than the scratch, whispered, “Who’s -there!”</p> - -<p>“Nibble Rabbit!” he whispered back.</p> - -<p>“A rabbit!” exclaimed the voice, “I knew I smelled one. Whatever are you -doing here? This is where Ouphe the Rat lives when he’s at home.”</p> - -<p>At that Nibble gave a little jump. But he just struck the top of the -tunnel and pricked his soft, loppy ear in the hay. So he went back to -crawling, all blind and scared in the blackness, trying to stifle his -sniffles and tasting the salt tears that rolled down his nose. And all -around him he seemed to see the long yellow teeth and the frothy -whiskers of Ouphe, parted in a wicked grin.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he struck something small and soft. And the tiny voice -whispered: “Take my tail in your mouth and follow me. But don’t bite too -hard.”</p> - -<p>Nibble Rabbit opened his mouth and caught hold of a slim thing, like a -little round stalk of grass, that was tickling his eyebrows. And he knew -it was a field-mouse’s tail. It twitched as her little feet started -running through the inky black tunnels Ouphe the Rat had made for -himself. And the way she turned and twisted made Nibble afraid she -didn’t know for sure just where she was going. It was no wonder that he -had got lost among them!</p> - -<p>But he scrambled along behind her as fast as he could. And at last they -made a sharp turn and Nibble could see the snow outside glistening in -the sun. My, how nice it seemed when he reached it, though it made his -eyes blink. And when he tried to thank the field-mouse she had -disappeared.</p> - -<p>He crept around the edge of the haystack, looking for where his tracks -led into it, so he could follow them back to the Woods again. At the -second corner he caught sight of the sparrows, still swinging in the elm -tree, just as he had left them before he hid in Ouphe’s own hole. Of -course he waited to hear whether Ouphe were still on that side of the -stack. Nibble didn’t want to be chased by him.</p> - -<p>And right then Chirp sang out, “It was a rabbit we were talking to. He’s -been sitting there all the while in that hole below you.”</p> - -<p>Nibble simply couldn’t believe his ears. It sounded as though Chirp -wanted Ouphe to get him. But Chirp knew what he was doing. For he -flashed “Wait!” with two white feathers in his tail. Chirp knows a thing -or two, if he is conceited, and he signalled so plainly any rabbit would -know what he meant by it. But a rat wouldn’t.</p> - -<p>You ought to have seen the change that came over Ouphe. He quickly -cleaned his whiskers and began to talk as though he had honey in his -throat. “What? A rabbit? Why, Mr. Sparrow, how could you keep me here -playing jokes when I had a visitor? That was very unkind of you. I must -invite him in and make him at home.”</p> - -<p>He said it so Nibble wouldn’t be afraid of him and begin to run. Because -then he’d have a fine hunt through all those twisty black tunnels to -find him. But Nibble knew mighty well that he was only pretending. When -he snarled out that he’d “slit Chirp’s throat” and “crunch the bones of -his baby birds” Ouphe had meant every wicked word of it.</p> - -<p>“Ha, ha!” laughed Chirp. “You’re so funny, Mr. Ouphe, we don’t quite -know how to take you. That rabbit just stepped inside when he heard you -invite him. I saw his tail.”</p> - -<p>“Wait for me, Mr. Rabbit,” said Ouphe in his sticky, sweet voice, “I’d -like to eat with you. And we’ll invite my dear little friends the -field-mice too.” He said that because he knew perfectly well Nibble had -heard him call them “tattle-tales.” And he thumped down right into -Nibble’s rabbity tracks where they went into the stack.</p> - -<p>“All safe. Come ahead!” flashed Chirp. And he actually winked those -tail-feathers. So Nibble bounced out and made some more tracks in the -nice crunchy snow. But they went away from where Ouphe was hunting -crossly through his black tunnels under the hay.</p> - -<p>“Ka-runch-it, ka-runch-it!” sang his furry feet in the crispy snow, -running away from Ouphe the Rat and his haystack. “Ka-flick-it, -ka-flick-it!” twiddled his puffy tail as he passed under the elm branch -where the sparrows were chuckling to themselves. That was his “Thank -you.”</p> - -<p>“I’d better not talk,” thought Nibble, “for fear Ouphe might hear me. -All the same I call Chirp Sparrow pretty smart. He waited until he saw -I’d come safely through Ouphe’s scary dark tunnels under the hay and -then he sent Ouphe in there to look for me while I skip off. Only I wish -I’d thanked that field-mouse who showed me the way out of Ouphe’s holes. -I’ll do something for her some day.” And he did. You wait and see.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIX' title='IX: NIBBLE DIGS INTO TROUBLE—AND SLIPS OUT'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IX</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.0em'>NIBBLE DIGS INTO TROUBLE—AND SLIPS OUT</span> -</h2> - -<p>Suddenly Nibble put up his ears and put down his nose in great surprise. -Then he hopped up on to the grey stone where he had hidden from Tommy -Peele, and looked carefully about him. For he could see Tommy Peele’s -footsteps following his own trail, just ahead of him, and Tommy Peele’s -dark blue sweater and red mittens looking more than ever like Redwing -the Blackbird, not so very far away. He couldn’t see Tommy’s tall rubber -boots because they were hidden behind the cornstalk tent down in the -Broad Field.</p> - -<p>“Now I wonder what he’s doing there?” Nibble asked himself. He never for -a minute thought of being afraid. He didn’t even know that what Tommy -was doing had anything to do with him.</p> - -<p>Well, when Nibble Rabbit isn’t afraid he’s always curious. He made a -triangle or two of his tracks because he meant to be awfully careful -about this “man,” as he called Tommy, and crept up behind him.</p> - -<p>And what do you think Tommy was doing? He was making a figure-four trap. -He took a soap box and balanced it on top of three little sticks. One -was a bait stick. He had speared it through a fine fat carrot. And when -he got them all fitted together he took a handful of wheat out of his -pocket and spread it under the box. Any one could eat the wheat, but the -box would come down “blam!” on the first fellow who touched that carrot. -Only it wouldn’t hurt him. He’d just be caught in there under the soap -box until Tommy came and took him out. That is unless he could dig under -the edge of it.</p> - -<p>But that isn’t what happened to Nibble. Oh, no!</p> - -<p>For before he ever reached it there were three little mice in it. They -were the very same mice Nibble had invited to that very same cornstalk -tent on the night of his Storm Party. The lady mouse hopped up on that -bait stick and—</p> - -<p>“Blam!” Down came the soap box. But of course that didn’t bother the -mice at all. They felt safer in the dark and it was warm and comfortable -after the box shut the wind out.</p> - -<p>Nibble came leaping up. “Are you hurt?” he called.</p> - -<p>“No!” answered the mice all at once. “It’s perfectly lovely in here.” -And the lady mouse added, “We’ve found the loveliest root I ever set -tooth to. I think it must be some of that Water Chinquapin Doctor -Muskrat gave you. Do come and help us eat it.”</p> - -<p>So Nibble Rabbit’s busy little feet found a crack in the crust and made -the snow fly. “Scritch-scratch!” went his claws.</p> - -<p>“Hurry up!” called his mouse friends who were inside. “We’ve eaten up -half of this lovely root already.” They were perfectly willing to give -him his share—if he could only get in with them to eat it. And he was -doing his very best.</p> - -<p>“Crunch, crunch. Nibble, nibble, nibble,” went their busy teeth. They -didn’t mean to be selfish, but a mouse is such a hungry little thing it -just can’t wait for any one.</p> - -<p>Now Tommy Peele had heard the “blam!” when his trap was sprung.</p> - -<p>So he came hurrying back as fast as ever he could in his tall rubber -boots. He was making all manner of noise, but nobody heard him. For -Nibble already had his head under the trap. His sprawly legs were spread -out to get a good grip on the snow, and even his puffy tail seemed -trying to help him as he squirmed into it. And didn’t Tommy Peele laugh -when he saw that! Who ever heard of anything so foolish as digging into -a trap.</p> - -<p>“Here,” said the Lady Mouse, remembering how she had eaten Nibble’s corn -in the little cornstalk tent; “you’ll find the heart is the sweetest.” -And soon the juice was dripping from Nibble’s busy little jaws.</p> - -<p>“It isn’t water chinquapin,” he found time to say, “but it’s quite as -good. And this place seems nice and safe. I don’t think even Silvertip -the Fox could catch us.”</p> - -<p>“Hush!” said the mouse. “I think I hear that awful beast every time you -speak of him.”</p> - -<p>But Nibble was too busy making up for lost time even to listen.</p> - -<p>Up crept Tommy Peele with his eyes on the place where Nibble crawled in. -At last he got his hand over it. Then he hit the box on the other side.</p> - -<p>Then didn’t those foolish little beasts who were feasting on his carrot -sit up and listen? And didn’t they start to run? But there wasn’t any -place to run to! For Nibble finally found his hole—with Tommy Peele’s -red mitten in it. And his poor little heart began to beat like mad. -“Mice,” he whispered, “it’s that Man!”</p> - -<p>So they huddled up into a miserable little heap in the very middle of -that soap box and waited. And Tommy waited, too.</p> - -<p>But they kept so very still he said to himself, “I wonder if that -bunny’s got out on the other side.” So he looked all around, and of -course he saw there were no fresh tracks in the snow. Then he pulled off -one of his mittens and reached in to feel.</p> - -<p>And his hand found Nibble’s soft, warm fur. And his fingers hunted for -Nibble’s floppy ears. But they just happened to touch the nose of that -Lady Mouse.</p> - -<p>“Ow, ow, ow-w-w! Leggo!” shouted Tommy. And trap and sticks and rabbit -and mice went whirling. And Tommy danced up and down in his tall rubber -boots.</p> - -<p>In the whole world you could not have found a more frightened bunny than -Nibble when Tommy Peele held him up by his long ears and started toward -the barn. I wish I could tell you right now what happened to him then, -but, bless me, so many things happened that this book simply will not -hold them. It is all written down, though, and if you want to know how -he made friends with the Red Cow and how he learned about Tad Coon and -how he learned about many other things you can read about every bit of -it in the other books about Nibble and his friends. ’Cause that Lady -Mouse had bitten him.</p> - -<p>But Nibble didn’t know that. He dashed across the snow, his tufty tail -flicking at every jump, “Catch me if you can!” And of course Tommy -couldn’t. Not just then.</p> - -<p>But later— Well, that’s another story—and a good one, too. The Red Cow -is in it, and Ouphe the Rat, and Chirp, and Watch the Dog, and Tad Coon, -and Doctor Muskrat, of course, and—and— Oh, you’ll just have to wait -till that story has a cover of its own, I guess. ’Cause this one’s too -full to squeeze it in.</p> - -<div style='text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; '> -<div style='margin-top:1em;'>THE END</div> -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY ***</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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