For all that there is in it!
Well, you remember what little Bobbie Redvest told the little rabbit to do in the last story—to jump back three feet and hide under the trap door beneath the bush.
Well, sir, in less time than I can take to tell it, he was under the door and hopping down a little stairway. But he didn’t forget to bolt the door, and it’s mighty lucky he did, for the next minute Old Man Weasel, Mr. Wicked Wolf and Danny Fox ran out from behind the trees and tried to lift up the trap door.
“I’ll dig a hole all around it,” said Danny Fox, when they found they couldn’t get in. So he set to work, and so did Old Man Weasel, while Mr. Wicked Wolf sat down and took out his pipe and smoked. And whenever Danny Fox stopped to wipe the perspiration from his face Mr. Wicked Wolf would say, “Hurry up! The little rabbit will be in China before you get started!”
And whenever Old Man Weasel stopped to wipe a little piece of dirt out of his eye, Mr. Wicked Wolf would say:
“Hurry up, Old Man Weasel. Danny Fox will get in first!”
Well, by and by, after a while, Danny Fox came to the flight of stairs, and maybe a minute or two later, Old Man Weasel got his head inside the hallway, but there wasn’t room for both of them at the same time.
“Get out of here,” said Danny Fox, “I saw the little rabbit first.”
“I won’t!” shouted Old Man Weasel. “I saw him before you did!” And then they started to talk and talk, till at last Mr. Wicked Wolf put his pipe back in his pocket and said:
“You are both wrong. I saw him first.” And he took hold of Danny Fox by the tail and dragged him out, and Old Man Weasel, too.