Strangely enough, nobody answered. Jimmy Rabbit didn't say a word. And as for Nimble, he didn't seem to hear—nor understand—anything his mother said.
"I repeat," she spoke again, "who are these people? Why have they gathered here? The woods aren't afire, are they?" And she lifted her nose and sniffed at the air. But she could find no trace of smoke.
Somehow Nimble began to feel ill at ease. He edged away from his mother and tried to hide behind Jimmy Rabbit. And that was a ridiculous thing to do; because Nimble was ever so much the bigger of the two.
Presently his mother gave him a sharp look. And then he, too, raised his muzzle and sniffed.
"I don't smell any smoke," he stammered.
"Do you know why there's such a crowd here?" she asked him sternly.
"I think," he said, "they expect to go to the garden patch with us."
And his mother wondered, then, why she hadn't guessed the secret instantly.