"'Don't get to feeling good too soon, Bunny. Nobody knows how many wicked animals will come around to see what is going on, and when Mr. Towser finishes the job we may find ourselves nearer to a stew than before. Sonny and I have nearly finished making another door, and the best thing you can do is to close up the front one while Mr. Foxy Fox and Mr. Towser are so busy. Then we'll go over and visit your cousins till we can build a new house, for I wouldn't stay in this one another night.'
"When Mrs. Bunny really sets her mind on anything, the easiest way for me is to give in to her, and back I went, scratching the dirt against the door the best I knew how, though I was aching to listen, so's to know how long Mr. Fox held out.
"I hadn't more than done my part of the work in good shape when Mrs. Bunny came to tell me that she and Sonny Bunny had fixed things at the other end, so I went with her because she was dragging me by one ear in a way that wasn't comfortable. We found my cousins hopping around outside their home listening to the row, for Foxy was taking on at such a rate that you might have heard him half a mile away, and none of us went to bed until the sudden stillness told that Mr. Foxy Fox wouldn't steal another chicken, nor ever disturb a member of our family.
"It wasn't more than daybreak next morning when Mr. Crow sent one of Cheeko's brothers around to tell the members of the club that there was to be a meeting, on important business, as soon as the sun came out strong enough to prevent any of the 'Squire's family from showing themselves.
"I didn't stop for breakfast, but started right off, and on arriving at the big oak found almost everybody I knew, except those club members who don't care to meet at meal time. Mr. Crow was perched on the very tiptoppest branch of the tree, looking as if he had so much business on hand that he couldn't speak without forgetting some of it, and I asked little Cocky Robin if he knew why the meeting was to be held.
"'Don't you know what happened last night?' he asked, looking as if he thought something was wrong in my head.
"'I've got good reasons to know, seeing's how I was right in the thick of it,' I said, bristling up my fur so's to make me look mighty fierce. 'If it hadn't been for me Mr. Towser wouldn't have had such a chance at Mr. Fox.'
"'What did you have to do with it?' he asked, cocking his head in what I always thought a most impudent manner. Do you know, he puts on more airs and graces than a peacock, simply because he's the only bird that has a red vest to go with a brown coat? Of course I told him the whole story, though there wasn't any need for me to say that I'd been frightened nearly out of my wits, and before I'd finished Mr. Crow called the meeting to order.
"You know how well the old fellow loves to talk, and it seemed on this morning as if his tongue ran on wheels. He began by telling all about the row which Mr. Weasel kicked up with the 'Squire, and it seems, according to his story, that the head of the Owl family had been killed, as he had a good right to be after Mr. Weasel got a grip on his neck. Then he spoke about the trouble Mr. Foxy Fox had caused us members of the club, and announced that the long-tailed villain was dead, too, with his skin, most likely, nailed up on Mr. Man's barn that very minute.
"Never a word did Mr. Crow say about what I'd done toward fixing Foxy so he couldn't do any more mischief, and try as I might, I couldn't get in a word edgewise in the way of explaining that if it hadn't been for me Mr. Man's boy Tommy's dog Towser wouldn't have had a chance to get the best of Mr. Foxy Fox.