"'I'm in a mighty bad way, Mr. Hedgehog, and I allow you're the only one in all the big woods who can give me a lift. I've never done anything wrong to you, and a young chap ought to be willing to help a poor old fellow who's got the misery in his tooth that I'm having.'
"'Of course, I'll do what I can, Mr. Turtle,' and Jimmy bristled around like a red and green auto that's gone wrong in its steering-gear. 'Suppose you show me the tooth and perhaps I can pull the thing out for you.'
"I thought for sure Jimmy had the old fellow then and that Mr. Crow's plan had failed, but old Slowly Turtle isn't half as foolish as he looks for he never turned a hair when he said:
"'It's no use for me to try to show it, Mr. Hedgehog, because I've had the pain so long that I've regularly got the lock-jaw. If you'd be willing to let me have one of your stoutest quills I'm most certain I could fix the thing up myself. You see, I've got the thick part of a snail's shell in my tooth and the minute that is out I'll be all right.'
"'You're welcome to a dozen quills, if that's what you want; but you'll have to get Bunny to pull 'em out, for I can't do it,' and Jimmy looked around at me as if expecting I was going to thrust my paws among all those sharp-pointed toothpicks.
"'I don't believe I'd care to trust Bunny in such a job as that,' Mr. Turtle said, looking out of the corner of his eye at me as if to say that I was to keep my paws out of his pies, which I was perfectly willing to do. 'If you'd turn around, Mr. Hedgehog, so's I could see just which quill I wanted it wouldn't take me long to get what I needed.'
"Jimmy still believed that he must be the biggest kind of fellow among the wood folks if he was the only one who could save Mr. Turtle's life, and around he swung, his quills rustling like dry leaves in a strong wind. I caught just one glimpse of old Slowly's eye as he winked it wickedly, and then I saw his jaws come together on the middle of Jimmy's tail, where there wasn't a chance of his being pricked. Now don't you think there was any need of telling Jimmy that things had gone wrong in the rear! It was just the same as if old Slowly had telegraphed, for at the very minute Mr. Turtle got the hold he wanted, that hedgehog let out a yell which you could have heard from one end of the big woods to the other, and off he started at full speed.
Mr. Turtle never said a word, and he couldn't on account of his mouth being so full. He didn't have time to wink at me again before I saw him whisking through the bushes just as if he were flying. It was as much as a minute before I came to understand what was happening, and then you can make up your mind that I put in my best licks to be on hand when the end came, for Jimmy isn't great at running, and it stood to reason he couldn't keep up that pace very long.
"I don't allow that the frightened hedgehog knew where he was aiming for when he started. You see old Slowly must have hurt him a good bit, if he shut his jaws together right hard, as Jimmy said he did, for Mr. Crow declares that he could bite off the end of an oak stick and not strain himself very much. It so happened, though, that when Jimmy struck his two-minute clip he was heading straight for the big oak, and nothing could have suited the president of the club any better.
"It wasn't very hard for me to get well up with the procession before the race was more than half run, and as we came within sight of the big oak I saw that nearly every member of the club was there, as if notices of a special meeting had been sent out. I afterward heard that all Cheeko's boys had been running around the country a full hour to get the wood folks gathered where they could see the fun, and surely those young fellows had done their work well, for it didn't seem as if any one was absent, though I'm allowing that more than one wished, before the day was over, that he hadn't been so prompt in answering the president's invitation.