But Tad Coon wasn’t quite as smart as he thought he was. Trailer ran so fast that he left most of those wasps behind him. And he went bouncing through the brush at such a rate that he scraped a lot more off of him. Pretty soon they began coming back to where their nest had been. And they couldn’t find it. That didn’t improve their tempers, I can tell you. But if they couldn’t find their nest, they certainly could find Tad Coon. And just didn’t they?
Now it was Tad’s turn to howl. “Ow-ow-ow!” he cried. And he squinched up his eyes as tight as ever Nibble did and began to scramble down as fast as ever his little handy-paws would let him. But when he opened his mouth a wasp stung him right on the tongue, and when he shut it his little black nose got the stinging. And when he tried to cover it with his paw he lost his hold and went tumbling down to the ground.
Blam! It almost knocked the breath out of him. But he rolled over and over till he found his feet and then he scuttled to Doctor Muskrat’s Pond as fast as he could limp on three of them. He kept trying to brush the wasps off his nose and ears with the other one, until he could jump into the water. And then he splashed around as hard as ever he could. The wasps didn’t like that a little bit, because they can’t fly when their wings get wet. So they went away and left him.
Then poor Tad Coon began shouting: “Do’ Mu’a! Do’ Mu’a!” Because his poor stung tongue couldn’t say Doctor Muskrat.
He wished he hadn’t dropped that wasps’ nest down on Trailer. And he wished those wasps hadn’t come back and stung him. And he wished he hadn’t fallen out of the tree and bumped himself. And he wished his nose wasn’t swollen up so he couldn’t see around it. And he wished his poor tongue wasn’t hanging out of the corner of his mouth with such a great big sting that he couldn’t say any of his wishes. All he could do was shout “Do’ Mu’a!” when he was trying with all his might to shout “Doctor Muskrat!” And Doctor Muskrat wouldn’t come.
But Nibble Rabbit did. And when he heard Tad Coon’s great big sobs and saw the tears in his eyes he felt mighty sorry for him. So he began to thump and pound for the doctor.
Pretty soon Doctor Muskrat came out on top of his house in the middle of the pond and answered. “I hear you,” he snapped. “And I heard Tad Coon in the first place. But I’m not going to do anything for him. I don’t mind the funny tricks he plays, but that one just played on Trailer the Hound was cruel.”
“I ’o,” sniffed Tad. “I i’ ‘o’ i’ u’ hu’ ho.”
“He didn’t know it would hurt so,” Nibble translated. “Don’t scratch your ears, Tad. Come over and let me lick them.”
“That’s no excuse,” said Doctor Muskrat severely. “What if Tommy Peele thinks we did it? That hound can’t explain. And he doesn’t know anybody else is here with us.”