"Do be careful where you step!"
That remark did not please Fatty Coon.
"Don't tell me how to dance!" he said. "You're a great, clumsy creature!"
"I'm not!" Tommy retorted. "I'm the best dancer at the Ball. But you can't dance any better than a coon!"
That was enough for Fatty. He tore the handkerchief off his eyes. And Tommy Fox was just as quick. He saw that he had[p. 104] made an unwise speech. And he snatched the bandage from his own face.
"You've played a trick on me!" Tommy Fox cried, when he saw that all the other dancers—and the fiddlers, too—had gone.
"You've played one on me!" Fatty Coon shouted. And he pulled the mask off Tommy Fox's face.
And again Tommy Fox was just as quick. He reached out and twitched away Fatty Coon's mask.
For one second they stared at each other. And then they jumped at each other.
Jimmy Rabbit didn't wait to see anything more. He felt that it would be much safer somewhere else. And besides, the Rabbits' Ball had come to an end.