"Old dog Spot!" he said. "Hurry and finish! I must be running along." And he glanced over his shoulder as if he half expected to see Spot come bounding towards him.
"You are going on a journey," Jimmy Rabbit told him. "You are going to the other side of Blue Mountain. Beneath the great oak near the lake" (everybody had heard of the great oak) "when the moon comes up to-night, you will find the[p. 89] surprise of your life.... That's all!" Jimmy said.
Mr. Fox thought it was well worth one cabbage. And he went off wondering about that surprise.
Jimmy Rabbit told many fortunes that day. And the last one of all was Henry Skunk's, because Henry was so slow in coming up the hill from the garden.
By the time he had reached Henry Skunk, Jimmy could think of nothing new to say. So he began at the beginning again and told Henry Skunk exactly what he had said to Mr. Fox.
And Henry seemed just as pleased as Mr. Fox had been.
Then Jimmy waited for some time, because Fatty Coon had not appeared at all. You see, Fatty had been trying and trying to bring a cabbage up the hill, to pay for having his fortune told. But before[p. 90] he was half way up he always grew so hungry that he had to eat the cabbage, and then there was nothing to do but go back for another. So poor Fatty never had his fortune told at all.
The next day Jimmy Rabbit heard that Mr. Fox and Henry Skunk had had a terrible battle on the other side of Blue Mountain, just as the moon came up. It was said that each thought the other was spying on him.
Jimmy Rabbit was the only person who knew how it had come about. And he wouldn't tell.
