"'You wouldn't take the advice of those who were older and more experienced in the world and now you must pay the price for being headstrong,' Mr. Crow cawed, and it made me provoked to hear him reading a lesson to poor Cheeko when he was in such a peck of trouble, so I said, speaking as easy as I knew how:
"'There's no use telling him about what has been done, Mr. President. He knows all that only too well, and we'd better spend what little time we've got before Mr. Man's boy Tommy comes back in trying to make him feel better.'
"'He would have the dose, no matter what we could say, and, according to my way of thinking, it's high time he was brought up with a sharp turn, for he had got it into his head that he owned pretty near all the big woods,' Mr. Crow said, and then he flew off to watch for Tommy, so's to give us fair warning, for however sharp the old fellow may talk his heart is always in the right place when it comes to helping us wood folks who behave ourselves.
"Well, Jimmy and I kept on trying to turn the box over again until we heard Mr. Crow calling out that the boys were coming and then it was up to us to get out of the way unless we were willing to go further with Cheeko than would be at all pleasant.
"'We've got to skip,' I whispered to him, putting my mouth close to the crack of the door and before I could get away he cried, oh! so mournfully:
"'Please don't leave me, Bunny, dear, when I'm in such terrible trouble!'
"Dear knows, I'd have stayed by him until the cows came home if I could have done the poor fellow any good, but I couldn't, and the tears almost blinded me as I hopped off into the bushes just in time to be well hidden before that gang of young ruffians came up.
"'Hurrah! We've got a squirrel!' Mr. Man's boy Tommy cried as he picked up the box and squinted into it. 'Hurry and we'll put him into that cage we made yesterday!'
"Then off the whole crowd ran, and poor Cheeko with them. I'd forgotten all about Jimmy Hedgehog, because of feeling so sorry for Cheeko, and was wiping my eyes with my ears, when he squeaked, poking his nose out of the hole he had dodged into when the boys came up:
"'What's the reason we shouldn't go and see what they do with Cheeko? It won't be much of a trick to keep out of sight and follow them at the same time.'