Everybody except Peter Mink laughed heartily when Grumpy Weasel came springing up the slope a little while later.
"You may as well stop now. You've as good as lost already," Mr. Crow greeted him.
"Whose race is this—yours or mine?" Grumpy Weasel hissed. And off he hurried, without pausing to hear Mr. Crow's answer.
"We'll wait a while longer," Mr. Crow told the company, "for the end is so near we may as well see it."
"Whose end?" Peter Mink asked him.
"I mean the end of the race, of course!" Mr. Crow squalled.
"Oh! I thought you meant the end of Jimmy Rabbit," Peter Mink replied.
"Impossible! Impossible!" was all Mr. Crow said to that. But he began to fidget—which was a sign that he was worried. And when Jimmy Rabbit appeared again Mr. Crow was not quite so cocksure when he asked if the race wasn't over.
"It would be," Jimmy Rabbit answered, "but the trouble is, Grumpy Weasel won't stop running!"