So brave Noodle Flat-tail hurried on ahead, and hid behind the stump. And when the fox came up, dragging poor Uncle Wiggily by the ears, the beaver boy cried:
"Boo! Bow-wow! Bur-r-r-r-r! Wuff! Skip out of here!"
And that fox was so frightened, thinking maybe a hunter and his dog were after him, that he dropped the rabbit gentleman and away he ran, without once looking back. If he had done so he'd have seen that it was only little Noodle. But he didn't.
"Oh, Noodle!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You saved my life! But, oh dear! That fox broke my crutch when he jumped on me, and he scared me so that my rheumatism is worse than ever. I can't walk, and, if I stay here in the woods alone, the bad fox may come back and get me."
"Have no fears," said Noodle bravely, just as the boy always spoke in the reader book. "Have no fears, Uncle Wiggily, I will gnaw you out another crutch."
So Noodle did this, with his strong orange-colored teeth. But, even with the new crutch, Uncle Wiggily Longears could not walk, and he said:
"Oh, Noodle, I don't know what to do! I think perhaps you had better go get Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy to come for me in a wheelbarrow, or my automobile, if she can run it."
"But," said Noodle, "if I go for Nurse Jane I shall have to leave you here alone, and the fox may come back."
"That is so," said Uncle Wiggily sadly.