This made Louie angry. He just leaned over the fence and squalled: “You can have your darned old coon! He’s just as mean as your darned old dog! I wisht I hadn’t let him go. I wisht I’d killed him when I had him--I do!”
“When did you ever have him?” jeered Tommy Peele.
“This morning. I had one of your rabbits, too--a little bitty one--but ’twasn’t big enough to keep, so I let it go again.”
“You broke your promise!” shouted Tommy. “You broke your promise. You said you’d never come over here and catch my wild things again!” My, but he was angry.
“I didn’t--so, there!” snapped Louie. “I caught that coon in our corn-crib. And I caught that little bunny right here where I’m standing now. But I don’t want any of your old pets, seeing you’re so selfish about them.”
“I am not selfish,” Tommy answered back. “You could have pets yourself, only you’re too lazy to feed them.”
“I’d like to know what I’d feed them with?” asked Louie. “I see my pa letting me go into his feed bins like your pa lets you. He wouldn’t even let me have some for my coon, but Ma gave me bread for him.” No wonder poor Tad was hungry!
Tommy most forgot to be angry. Maybe Louie Thomson wasn’t so very bad, after all. Maybe he did want to be friends. Every little boy didn’t have a father like his, who knew all about boys and wild things. “Say, Louie,” Tommy said in a different voice, “all these fellows love roasting ears. You can get some from our cornfield if you want--my dad won’t care.”
Did Louie want to? Did he? You just ought to have seen the feast he laid out, over by his fence, not by the flat stone where Tommy always put his feasts, so the Woodsfolk would guess it wasn’t from Tommy Peele.
Before long, “Munch, munch!” went Nibble Rabbit and Silk-ears, and all their little bunnies. “Crunch, crunch!” went Stripes Skunk and his kittens. “Scrunch, scrunch!” went Doctor Muskrat, and Chatter Squirrel, and Tad Coon. “Pick, peck, pick!” went Chaik the Jay, all busy on those sweet, juicy young ears of corn.