At last Jimmy tumbled backward, head over heels. That was when the tooth came out.
"Well, you were long enough about it, I must say!" Uncle Jerry Chuck said. "Give me my ear of corn now, for I must hurry home."
"Give you your ear of corn?" Jimmy Rabbit cried. He could scarcely believe his own ears—and goodness knows they[p. 67] were big enough to hear anything anybody said.
"Why, certainly!" Uncle Jerry replied. "I asked you your prices, you know. And you said: 'An ear of corn for a tooth!'"
Jimmy Rabbit didn't know what to do.
"Why"—he gasped, "I thought you were going to pay me!"
"Well, you see you were mistaken," Uncle Jerry told him. "And you had better give me that ear of corn at once, or it will be the worse for you."
For all the old fellow was toothless, Jimmy saw that his claws were long and sharp. He knew that he had got himself into a fix. And he couldn't think of any way out of it.
"You've got my tooth! I want an ear of corn! You've got my tooth! I want an ear of corn!" Uncle Jerry Chuck kept saying. And each time he said it, his voice[p. 68] grew louder, until he was shouting at the top of his lungs.
Then Jimmy Rabbit had an idea. He picked up Uncle Jerry's tooth off the floor and placed it in Uncle Jerry's hand.