"Here, Buddy! Come right away from that! Jump back as fast as you can! Quick! Quick! I say!"
"Why?" asked Buddy, "is it your turnip?"
"No, but don't you see? That turnip is nothing but a trap. It is hung up there on purpose. Come away. I can see the trap as plain as anything. Uncle Wiggily Longears taught me how to keep away from them, for I was caught in one, once upon a time."
"A trap?" asked Buddy. "Is this a trap?"
"To be sure," answered Sammie. "See, the turnip hangs right over a loop of wire, and inside the wire loop there is a piece of wood. Now to reach up and get the turnip you must step on the piece of wood, and as soon as you do so that tree branch, to which the wire is fast, will spring up, the wire will slip around your neck, you will be yanked up into the air, and that will be the last of you."
"The last of me?" asked Buddy, who, being a little boy, had not seen as much of the world as had Sammie.
"The very last of you," answered the rabbit. "You would be choked to death by the wire. Yes, the turnip was put there to catch some one, but they won't catch us, Buddy. We'll fool them!"
"Oh, I say! This is too bad!" exclaimed Buddy. "I was just counting on this turnip. Isn't there any way we can get it?"
"I don't believe so," replied Sammie, wrinkling up his nose, just as Buddy was doing. They smelled that turnip, and it had a most delicious odor, better to them, even, than strawberries are to you.
"Maybe we can throw some stones up and knock it down," suggested Buddy.