"'Come on, Bunny; do you want to miss all the fun?'
"It was on my tongue's end to tell him that all the fun we'd be likely to have that night would be what we might get out of seeing poor Bobby killed; but I thought we'd soon be having trouble enough without my trying to stir up any more just then, so I said, talking as if it were all I could do to keep from crying:
"'If your tongue was aching same as my foot is, you couldn't even yip.'
"Then I hung back a little more, and it seemed as if poor Bobby must have run ahead considerably faster, for in another minute I heard Mr. Towser growling furiously, and at the same time came a squeak which told for a certainty that Bobby Coon had come to an end of his rambling. That dog must have got the scent of us while we were a long distance away, and laid low till all he had to do was snap his teeth together on Bobby's back.
"There was no chance for Bobby to play the same trick that had fooled Mr. Man, for I'm allowing he didn't have time to do more than let out the squeak we'd heard before he was really and truly dead. He had shown Jimmy and me that he dared to ramble around the farm; but how much had he gained by it? Why, there isn't a member of the club who doesn't say that he deserved to be killed for making such a simpleton of himself, though according to my idea, Jimmy Hedgehog is the one who ought to have got the worst of that mix-up.
"Well, the killing of poor Bobby didn't satisfy Mr. Towser. He had the scent of us, and after giving what was left of Bobby a toss in the air to make certain there was no life left in any of the pieces, he came for us at full tilt, thinking to make a clean job of the party. You can put it down as a fact that my left hind foot got well mighty quick just then, and without waiting to see how Jimmy was getting along, I lit out, knowing I was up against the race of my life.
"As nearly as I can make out, Mr. Towser must have come afoul of Jimmy when he first started for me, and you can put it down in your hat that that hedgehog knew how to take care of himself, even if he did egg others into danger, so I suppose that he rolled himself into a ball with all his quills sticking straight up. Then you can guess that the dog didn't do much smelling of that prickly bunch, for he's nobody's fool; but, after looking at it a minute, turned all his attention to me.
"Now it's a fact that Jimmy wouldn't do me a good turn if he had the chance; but this time he surely saved my life by being just where he was, for if Mr. Towser hadn't stopped he'd surely caught me on the meadow where there isn't the least little bit of a chance to dodge. Even as it was, I had to move my feet mighty fast in order to keep ahead of him, and when we came to the edge of the woods I was leading by four or five lengths, with the odds big in my favor because of the bushes. But I had to keep on moving all the time, just the same, and was precious near being winded when, slaperty, bang! I fell into a hole, nearly scraping the skin from one ear as I struck the bottom.
"You'd thought that I'd naturally have chuckled mightily at giving Mr. Towser the slip so neatly; but it's a fact that I felt really ashamed, for it did seem ridiculous that one of my family would fall into a hole while running. Where was I? Well, if you'll believe it, I'd struck Grandfather Fox's hole, and he wasn't at home on account of having his hide nailed up on Mr. Man's barn, so there I was all by my lonesome, with Mr. Towser scratching gravel at a great rate; but I knew he could wear his claws way down to the flesh before getting in, for Grandfather Fox knew how to dig a house that would protect him from dogs.
"I didn't have to wait so very long before Mr. Towser got tired of scratching, and then I crept out, counting on going straight home, for it stood to reason that Mrs. Bunny and Sonny Bunny would be worried because I'd been away so long; but before I'd taken half a dozen hops whom should I hear calling me but Cheeko's oldest boy.