But Stripes didn’t. All that he scrunched was a couple of fat wood snails. Pretty soon he found what he was looking for—a fat, juicy grub. He knew Bob White would like it because skunks and birds eat so many of the same things. And Bob White did. The minute he smelled it he opened his eyes, and then he opened his beak. My, but that grub felt cool and moist on his tongue when he gulped it in! But didn’t he start when he saw who had given it to him?
And didn’t Nibble Rabbit prick up his ears when he heard what Stripes Skunk was saying? “I broke up your nest and stole your eggs this morning,” he told Bob White. “I thought maybe I’d pay you back even if I can’t be trusted to kill mice and potato bugs to pay back for those chickens of Tommy Peele’s I killed.” He still talked in his whiny, discouraged voice.
“What’s that?” cheeped Bob. He simply couldn’t believe his ears. “Well, I’ll be feathered! I’d as soon expect the Great Horned Owl to tell me such a thing. Eggs? You’re perfectly welcome. It’s not too late to nest over again. But for a skunk you’re certainly queer.”
“I—I—feel queer,” said Stripes in a funny, high voice, as though he were going to cry. “I feel queer and different.”
“You just feel happy,” said Nibble. “And you’ll feel happier yet when you’ve fixed those potato bugs for Tommy.”
CHAPTER XI
STRIPES CONTINUES HIS GOOD WORKS
You just ought to have heard the commotion in the Quail’s Thicket when Bob White came whirring home with his wild tale. But do you think he could make the quail believe that Stripes Skunk had helped Nibble Rabbit set him free again? Not until Nibble Rabbit himself came hopping along and told them exactly the same thing—only he gave Stripes all the credit.
“Eggs! Eggs!” exclaimed Bob White’s wife when Stripes explained he was trying to pay back because he’d mussed up her nest that morning. “What are a couple of eggs? I’ll scrape them back into the nest and lay a couple more in no time. I hadn’t begun to set on them.”
“Come along, Stripes,” said Nibble. “We must tell Doctor Muskrat. You know he told Watch the Dog to try you. If the quail can trust you, I guess I can. Your cousin Slyfoot the Mink would have eaten me long ago if I’d come this close to him. Why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid,” Stripes owned up. “The little owls warned me that if I did the dog would come after me. Anyway, I couldn’t catch you. Neither could Slyfoot if you only knew it.