So Sandy took up a long stick and held it out in front of Grandpop Snapping Turtle. “Ah-h-h!” he hissed triumphantly. And he grabbed it right in the middle with his bite that never lets go.
“Pick up the other end,” said Sandy. Tommy did, and there they had the turtle hanging between them, so blazing angry and so proud of his bite that won’t let go, that he never noticed that they were carrying him farther and farther away from his pond. And that was the last Nibble ever saw of him.
CHAPTER IV
TAD’S TRICKS COME HOME TO ROOST
But there was a whole lot of excitement near the Pond. There was Tad Coon snug in the crotch of a tree, there was Trailer the Hound sniffing the top of the stump where Tad had sat to keep out of reach of the angry turtle, and there was Nibble Rabbit snuggled beneath the Pickery Things, so curious that he couldn’t sit still.
Pretty soon Trailer began to whimper. “Coon, coon, coon,” he said to himself. “Where did he come from? Where did he go?” And he was so puzzled that he shook his head until his ears flopped.
That was too much for Tad Coon. He pulled off a strip of bark and dropped it right on top of Trailer. The hound jumped as though something had stung him.
And wasn’t Nibble surprised? He didn’t see how Tad dared play tricks on the very dog he said was his worst enemy.
Pretty soon Tad began to call out: “Hey; you hound, go away! I want to come down before that Man with the gun gets back here.”
“Go away?” barked Trailer. “I most certainly won’t. I’ll stay right here and keep you until I see what Sandy and Tommy Peele want to do with you.”
“Tommy won’t hurt you,” shouted Nibble. “He’ll just make friends with you.”