And for a long time after that Mr. Dog didn't like to go out much, because everywhere he went somebody would be sure to say to him:—
"That's a new step, Mr. Dog! Dance, Mr. Dog; dance!"
MR. RABBIT'S UNWELCOME COMPANY
MR. POLECAT MAKES A MORNING CALL AND MR. DOG DROPS IN
"I think I shall have to tell you about Mr. Polecat," said the Story Teller, "and about his visit to Mr. Rabbit."
"Who's Mr. Polecat?" said the Little Lady. "You never told me about him before."
"Well, no, because you see Mr. Polecat is so queer in some of his ways that people even don't talk about him a great deal. He is really quite a nice gentleman, though, when he doesn't get excited. But when he does he loses friends.
"The trouble is with the sort of perfumery he uses when he gets excited, just as some people use a smelling bottle, and nobody seems to like the sort Mr. Polecat uses except himself. I suppose he must like it or he wouldn't be so free with it. But other people go away when he uses it—mostly in the direction the wind's blowing from—and in a hurry, as if they were afraid they'd miss a train. Even Mr. Dog doesn't stop to argue with Mr. Polecat. Nobody does, and all the other deep woods people do their best to make him happy and to keep him in a good humor whenever he comes about, and give him their nicest things to eat and a lot to carry home with him, so he'll start just as soon as possible.
"But more than anything they try to keep him from saying anything about Mr. Dog or hinting or even thinking about Mr. Dog, for when he does any of these things he's apt to get excited, and then sometimes he opens up that perfume of his and his friends fall over each other to get out of reach. They're never very happy to see him coming, and they're always glad to see him go, even when he's had a quiet visit and goes pretty soon, which is just what didn't happen one time when he came to call on Jack Rabbit, and it's that time I'm going to tell about.