Then Mr. Stubtail hurried on home, thinking how nice it would be to take Beckie and Neddie to the football game. And I guess Mr. Stubtail was in such a hurry that he did not notice where he was going for, all of a sudden, he stepped into a steel trap.
“Snap!” it went shut, catching him on the paw. And, oh! how it did hurt.
“My goodness me! Oh, dear! This is terrible!” cried Mr. Stubtail. “I am caught!”
He tried to pull his paw out but the more he pulled the worse it hurt, and he had to stop. Then he tried to lift up the trap in his other paw, thinking maybe he could carry it to the blacksmith shop and have it filed off. But the trap was fast to a tree by a big chain and Mr. Stubtail could not get it loose. There he was caught fast.
This is the sad part of the story. I’ll make it just as short as I can and get to the glad part.
Well, poor Mr. Stubtail stood there in the trap not knowing what to do. He thought he would never see his home again, or his wife, or Neddie, or Beckie, nor yet Mr. Whitewash and Aunt Piffy and Uncle Wigwag.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Mr. Stubtail. “What ever shall I do? Soon the hunter who put this trap here will come along and get me. Then it will be all up with Papa Stubtail.”
But just then he heard a little rustling in the dried leaves, and a tiny voice asked:
“Can I help you, Mr. Stubtail?”
The bear gentleman looked down and saw Jollie Longtail, the mousie boy, whose tail he had untied a little while ago.