“Wait for me, Mr. Rabbit,” said Ouphe in his sticky, sweet voice, “I’d like to eat with you. And we’ll invite my dear little friends the field-mice too.” He said that because he knew perfectly well Nibble had heard him call them “tattle-tales.” And he thumped down right into Nibble’s rabbity tracks where they went into the stack.
“All safe. Come ahead!” flashed Chirp. And he actually winked those tail-feathers. So Nibble bounced out and made some more tracks in the nice crunchy snow. But they went away from where Ouphe was hunting crossly through his black tunnels under the hay.
“Ka-runch-it, ka-runch-it!” sang his furry feet in the crispy snow, running away from Ouphe the Rat and his haystack. “Ka-flick-it, ka-flick-it!” twiddled his puffy tail as he passed under the elm branch where the sparrows were chuckling to themselves. That was his “Thank you.”
“I’d better not talk,” thought Nibble, “for fear Ouphe might hear me. All the same I call Chirp Sparrow pretty smart. He waited until he saw I’d come safely through Ouphe’s scary dark tunnels under the hay and then he sent Ouphe in there to look for me while I skip off. Only I wish I’d thanked that field-mouse who showed me the way out of Ouphe’s holes. I’ll do something for her some day.” And he did. You wait and see.
CHAPTER IX
NIBBLE DIGS INTO TROUBLE—AND SLIPS OUT
Suddenly Nibble put up his ears and put down his nose in great surprise. Then he hopped up on to the grey stone where he had hidden from Tommy Peele, and looked carefully about him. For he could see Tommy Peele’s footsteps following his own trail, just ahead of him, and Tommy Peele’s dark blue sweater and red mittens looking more than ever like Redwing the Blackbird, not so very far away. He couldn’t see Tommy’s tall rubber boots because they were hidden behind the cornstalk tent down in the Broad Field.
“Now I wonder what he’s doing there?” Nibble asked himself. He never for a minute thought of being afraid. He didn’t even know that what Tommy was doing had anything to do with him.
Well, when Nibble Rabbit isn’t afraid he’s always curious. He made a triangle or two of his tracks because he meant to be awfully careful about this “man,” as he called Tommy, and crept up behind him.
And what do you think Tommy was doing? He was making a figure-four trap. He took a soap box and balanced it on top of three little sticks. One was a bait stick. He had speared it through a fine fat carrot. And when he got them all fitted together he took a handful of wheat out of his pocket and spread it under the box. Any one could eat the wheat, but the box would come down “blam!” on the first fellow who touched that carrot. Only it wouldn’t hurt him. He’d just be caught in there under the soap box until Tommy came and took him out. That is unless he could dig under the edge of it.
But that isn’t what happened to Nibble. Oh, no!