CHAPTER XIII
DISCIPLINING JIMMY
"I just wish I could wring that old fellow's neck!" Mr. Bunny cried angrily as he shook one paw in the direction of Professor Hawk, who was slowly circling around with his eyes apparently fixed on Mr. Rabbit. "'Squire Owl, the old one as well as the young one, is about as bad a bird as we members of the Fur section care to meet; but yet I think that old pirate is worse than all the Owl family put together, for the 'Squire's folks can't do much mischief except in the night, and the Hawk gang are at it all the time.
"Of course I couldn't wring his neck even if I got a good hold with all four paws, because he can give a fellow a terrible drubbing with his wings; but if I were strong enough, and could bite as Butcher Weasel can, I'd give him all he wanted, even if I had to spend my time, night and day, for a week in order to do it. More than twenty times I've torn my coat mighty badly through jumping into a thorn bush to get out of that fellow's way, and such sort of business gets tiresome after a while.
"The worst part of Professor Hawk, so far as we members of the Fur section are concerned, is that his eyes are so sharp. He can sail around in the sky so high up that a fellow can't see him, and yet keep a mighty good watch on all that takes place beneath him! Fly! He can beat any bird I know of at that way of getting around, and when he drops down for a young rabbit or a squirrel, the chances are that it's good-bye then.
"Of course it doesn't do any good for me to sit here and scold about the Professor; he'll keep on at his murderous business just as long as there are animals in the big woods for him to eat, so I'll get on with the story I was trying to tell when he stuck his beak in where it didn't belong. Just keep your eye out for the old fellow, for it wouldn't bother him a bit to pick me off this log with you sitting close by, and call it a good joke.
"Let me see—I'd come to where the club meeting was broken up by the Professor, and I'd gone into a thorn bush head first. Well, you can set it down as a fact that I wasn't in any hurry about coming out from cover till the word had been given that he had gone, and even then I took good care to have a sharp look around before showing even so much as the end of my nose. I was the last one out, and when I hopped through the bushes Jimmy Hedgehog set up a great shout about my being the biggest coward of the crowd. What was the use of answering him back? It wasn't because of being so terribly brave that he stayed out in the open while all the other members of the club were hunting for cover; but he knew that so long as he was rolled into a ball, with his quills sticking out in every direction, the Professor wouldn't dare to meddle with him.
"I'm thinking one reason why he made so much noise about my being a coward was that he hoped to make the others forget they had met to overhaul him for egging poor Bobby on to his death. If that was the scheme in his mind, it didn't work, for in less than half a minute after I showed myself, Mr. Crow got right down to business, and it wasn't so very long before all hands knew the story as well as I did. Mr. Blue Jay perched himself on the very top of the oak tree, where he could sound the alarm in case the Professor showed himself again, and Cheeko's oldest child was stationed in a bush at the edge of the clearing to give warning if Butcher Weasel came sneaking along, so we weren't afraid of being taken by surprise.
"Some of the animals say that Mr. Crow doesn't know as much as he tries to make out; but he was sharp enough to get in all the facts concerning the murder of poor Bobby, and when the matter was ended every member of the club knew just who was to blame for what had happened over on the farm. More than once while I was answering the question the president asked, Jimmy wrinkled up his nose at me, as much as to say that he would serve me out for telling tales on him; but I couldn't help myself, could I? They called me a coward, and perhaps there's some truth in what they say, but I'll never give one of them the right to say I'm a liar and that's what could have been said if I hadn't told the story just as it was.