Uncle Jerry hadn't been gone long when all the company came jostling up to Nimble. Everybody—except Nimble—was very merry. Amid a good many jokes the company put on their hats and coats, until only Aunt Polly Woodchuck's poke bonnet hung from Nimble's horns.
Then—just for fun—Jimmy Rabbit set the bonnet on Nimble's head and tied its strings under his chin. And Aunt Polly Woodchuck herself laughed hardest of all.
And then all at once something happened. A dog barked. "It's old dog Spot!" somebody cried.
Nimble Deer was the first to run. One leap took him out of the evergreen thicket in which he had been standing all the evening. Three leaps more took him over the stone wall.
After that nobody saw him—nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck's bonnet—again that night.
The whole company scattered and vanished like baby grouse surprised in the woods. And when old dog Spot reached the clump of evergreens a few moments later he found nothing to show that there had been a party there—that is, he found nothing except a battered hat and a rusty coat lying on the ground.
Spot sniffed at them. "Unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Jerry Chuck has forgotten something," he murmured. "No doubt he'll be back here in a little while."
So Spot waited and waited there.
But Uncle Jerry Chuck was half a mile away and sound asleep in his underground chamber.
And Nimble Deer was a mile away, over in Cedar Swamp, trying to tear Aunt Polly's bonnet off his head by rubbing his horns against a young cedar.