“That little ‘thank you’ is for you,” smiled Watch over Tommy Peele’s shoulder. “Why, Bunny, do you think we didn’t see you trying to help us with the Red Cow?”
Nibble certainly had tried his best, for deep down inside him he began to know why the tame beasts all loved Tommy.
Still he hesitated. “I won’t come back to my cage,” he warned; “I’m wild, you know.”
“That’s all right,” Watch promised, “but wild or tame, you’re Tommy Peele’s, and some day you’ll be glad to know it. So go ahead and accept that ‘thank you’ like a sensible beast or you’ll be hurting Tommy’s feelings.”
Nibble really wanted to. My, but it smelled good! And the White Cow was heaving big sighs of happiness over her pile. But he didn’t want to be caught again, so he was very, very careful. Lip-it, lip-it, he tiptoed over and sniffed. Then he just couldn’t resist it. It WAS good! Quite as good as it smelled! Pretty soon he felt like sighing, too, because his little skin was tight.
And Tommy Peele never tried to catch him at all. Because now he knew what it felt like to be chased. He only took off his red mitten and twiddled his pinky fingers.
Nibble knew that those fingers were nice and gentle when they petted him, and that was all Tommy wanted to do. But he just couldn’t quite dare to let him. So he cleaned the last crumb off his whiskers with the little fur brushes he wears on his paws and said, “That was mighty nice, but I’m a Wild Thing still, and I’m going back to the woods, where I belong. Good-bye, Mr. Watch. Good-bye, Mother Snowflake” [for that’s what Watch had called the White Cow].
“Good-bye,” barked Watch. “You’ll find us here any time you want us.”
Mother Snowflake couldn’t stop to talk. She was too busy.
So Nibble signalled a very polite “Good-bye” to Tommy Peele with his little tufty tail, though it was still rather stiff where Ouphe the Rat had bitten it. But Tommy didn’t understand Nibble—not yet. He only knew the talk of the tame beasts. So he felt quite sad when he saw the Bunny go skipping, lipity, lipity, down the long lane.