"You'll find it pretty difficult," Jimmy Rabbit said. "Let me arrange the matter for you! I'll promise you to put Reddy Woodpecker where he can't eat any beechnuts. And so long as I do that for you, I suppose you don't care what happens."
"Certainly not!" said Jasper Jay. "Though, of course, if you could arrange things so I didn't have to see Reddy I'd like that. His red cap is hideous. It's enough to make anybody ill, just to see it."
"I think I can please you," said Jimmy Rabbit. "But you'll have to do exactly as I say, or my plan won't work."
Now, Jasper Jay was really not at all eager to fight Reddy Woodpecker. Reddy had a very sharp bill, which was even longer than Jasper's, and just as strong. And Reddy could strike a powerful blow with his bill. So Jasper Jay was glad enough to accept help from a person like Jimmy Rabbit, who was always thinking of new schemes.
"I'll leave everything to you," said Jasper.
"Good!" cried Jimmy Rabbit. "And now you must wait right where I tell you to, while I go to find Reddy Woodpecker. Follow me!" he ordered.
And Jasper Jay followed him, while Jimmy skipped briskly through the woods. He appeared to be looking for something. And at last he seemed to have found it, in a swampy hollow where water stood here and there in pools. Anyhow,[p. 98] he stopped beside a cedar tree and said to Jasper Jay:
"You must stand beside this tree; and you mustn't stir out of your tracks."
Jimmy Rabbit pointed out the exact spot where he wanted Jasper Jay to station himself. And since it happened that there was a puddle of water there, it was only to be expected that Jasper Jay should begin to grumble.