"I'll go on the other side of the wall and look," Mr. Meadow Mouse offered. And thereupon he skipped over the wall.
Solomon Owl waited patiently. And so
did Grumpy Weasel. But Mr. Meadow Mouse never came back. Once out of sight he scampered away. And he never trespassed on Grumpy Weasel's hunting ground again.
VII
PADDY MUSKRAT'S BLUNDER
Sometimes Grumpy Weasel found the hunting poor along the stretch of stone wall that he called his own—though of course it really belonged to Farmer Green. And though he disliked to wander much in strange neighborhoods, once in a while he visited other parts of Pleasant Valley.
It was on such an excursion to the bank of the mill pond that he caught sight, one day, of Paddy Muskrat—or to be more exact, that Paddy Muskrat caught sight of him.
Now it was seldom that anybody spoke
to Grumpy Weasel. On the contrary, most of the forest-folk dodged out of sight whenever they saw him, and said nothing. So he wheeled like a flash and started to run when somebody called, "Hullo, stranger!"