“Help! Oh, please help me!”
“I would help you if I could see you,” said Mr. Stubtail, looking up and down and sideways and even around the corner. Still he could see no one, and then the voice said:
“Here I am, right down by this board fence!”
Then Mr. Stubtail looked more closely, and he saw, crouched on the ground, at the bottom of a board fence, Jollie Longtail, the little boy mousie.
“Oh, there you are!” exclaimed Mr. Stubtail. “But why are you crying, Jollie, and why don’t you run away?”
“I can’t run away,” answered the mousie boy, “because my long tail is fast through a knot hole in the fence, and that is the reason I am crying.”
“Your tail fast through a knot hole in the fence?” exclaimed Mr. Stubtail. “Why, how did that happen?”
“Well, you see,” explained Jollie. “I was creeping along here, looking for a piece of cheese, when my tail slipped through the hole. And, before I knew it, another boy mousie named Snippy-Snoopy, who doesn’t like me, came along and tied a knot in my tail so I couldn’t pull it back through the hole again. And here I am held fast. Will you please untie the knot in my tail? I can’t reach it.”
“Oh course I will!” exclaimed the bear gentleman, and very gently, so as not to hurt Jollie, he untied the knot in the mousie boy’s tail, so Jollie could run along home.
“Oh, thank you so much!” he called to Mr. Stubtail, most politely. “And if ever I can do you a favor I will!”