“Ow, ow, ow!” wailed Tad from way up the bank in the Pickery Things. And he had the tip of his tail in his mouth, so you could hardly make out what he was saying. “Ow, ow, my tail’s bitten right off!” “Do you think it’s really as bad as all that?” asked Nibble anxiously. Tad’s eyes were bulging so wide that they showed white all round them when he went bouncing off the flat stone. If he were really truly hurt it wouldn’t seem so funny. They liked him.
“Let’s go and see,” said the doctor, and he scuffled up the bank as fast as he could travel. “Did that turtle really bite you?” he asked. “Let me look so I’ll know what kind of a remedy to go after.”
So Tad took his tail out of his mouth and showed it to the doctor. He wouldn’t look at it himself for fear there would be blood on it. Tad’s very timid that way. And Doctor Muskrat examined it carefully. At last he said: “Why, Tad Coon, there’s nothing wrong with this tail.”
“Isn’t there?” asked Tad in a relieved voice. “It felt as if there was. It truly did.” So he took back his tail and combed the hair out and examined it most carefully with his little handy-paws, but all he could find was a tiny weeny bare spot at the very tip where Grandpop Snapping Turtle had pulled the hair out. “That’s good,” he smiled with a satisfied air. He wasn’t the least bit ashamed of having made such a fuss about nothing.
Snap! went Grandpop Snapping Turtle’s mouth on Tad Coon’s playful tail.
He wasn’t even thinking about it. Pretty soon he burst right out laughing. “Ho, ho! That old turtle’s got tickly coon hairs in his mouth. I hope they set him choking.” Then he cocked his head on one side and the most mischievous sparkle came into his dark brown eyes which peer out from a band of dark brown fur that lies across his nose like a pair of goggles. “I’ll get even with him,” he chuckled. “I’ll find his nest when his wife comes out to lay her eggs on the beach and I’ll eat every last one of them.”
“That won’t be till June,” answered Doctor Muskrat. “You’d better find something else in the meantime. I know where there are some marshmallow roots and we’ll all share them.”
“That sounds fine,” Tad agreed. “Just wait a minute.”
“What do you s’pose he’s up to now?” asked Nibble curiously.