"Who's in your club?"
"That's one of the secrets," Jimmy answered. "We don't tell."
"I'd like to join," Frisky told him. And the others all said that they would like to be members, too.
"Well, everything has to be very private," Jimmy said. "Anybody who wants to belong to the club has to come and ask[p. 94] me. And I'll tell him what to do, if I want him to belong.... One at a time, now! Don't crowd!" Jimmy said. For everybody was coming inside his yard.
He stood at one side and wouldn't talk above a whisper. And to each of his friends he said:
"You have to have a uniform, you know.... The name of the club is The Scarlet Spies. And everyone who is in it must wear a pair of scarlet leggins."
Just as soon as they learned that, the whole troop hurried away. And by afternoon the woods seemed to have turned red, there were so many pairs of scarlet leggins twinkling almost anywhere you looked.
In fact, there was only one of Jimmy's young neighbors who hadn't been able to get a pair. And that was Fatty Coon. Goodness knows he wanted some scarlet leggins. But his mother simply would not[p. 95] buy him any, in spite of all his teasing.
"Why are we called The Scarlet Spies?" Frisky Squirrel asked Jimmy.
"Because we spy on everybody who doesn't wear the uniform," Jimmy Rabbit explained. "Now, there's Fatty Coon! We'll follow him wherever he goes, and watch everything he does. But we mustn't have anything to do with him, because he's what is called an 'outsider'."