Tommy Peele and Louie Thomson were driving up Louie’s cows as friendly as though they’d never had a quarrel. But Tommy’s dog, Watch, pricked up both his ears as he listened to them. Then he galloped over to the feast and barked: “That’s Louie Thomson’s corn. He’s trying to make friends with you.”
“Yah! ’Tis not!” squawked Chaik. “He got it in Tommy Peele’s own field. I saw him!” You see, they didn’t know Tommy said he might because Louie’s father wouldn’t let him take any from his own cornfield, even if Louie did the hoeing.
“It’s in Tommy’s woods,” pointed out Doctor Muskrat. “We haven’t made any compact!”
But Tad Coon surprised them all. “Are you sure, Watch?” he asked. “’Cause if you’re certain sure I’m going back to his cellar again.”
“Back to that smelly, stuffy, dark cage!” exclaimed Nibble Rabbit. And his ears flicked straight up, he was so s’prised to be asking such a foolish question.
“Sure as mice is mice!” chuckled Tad. “That cellar’s just alive with them. And there’s that rat who bothered your bunny, Nibble. I’ve got a bone to pick with him--and he’s going to furnish the bone!”
“Don’t do it!” warned Stripes excitedly. “You’ll get caught again!”
“No, I won’t,” sniffed Tad. “I’m not going near that old trap.” Tad meant the corn-crib.
“But it’s all over traps!” Stripes insisted. “Traps and cages, for cows and horses and pigs and sheep--and men, even!” You see Stripes thought the houses and barns and sheds were all traps to catch the things who live in them and keep them from going wild again. And that’s half true, isn’t it?
“Traps for men?” squealed everybody. “Men don’t hunt men.”