“Ugh! Snff-snff-choo-a-a-ka-choo!” he sneezed. He stamped his feet angrily.
Tad looked over his shoulder and then went back to his fishing as though he didn’t know what he had done, but Nibble could hear him snort as he tried to choke down his laughter, and his fur was shaking.
Tad was sitting right over the place where Grandpop Snapping Turtle had caught Silvertip the Fox. Tad knew perfectly well he was there, but it would take something smarter than a loggy old turtle to catch Tad Coon. Besides, he knew, too, that Grandpop Snapping Turtle wouldn’t pay attention to anything else until Silvertip was all eaten up. So he sat there flicking the water with the tip-end of his tail, pretending he was fooling the fish into thinking it was a fly alighting. He was trying to think up another trick to play.
But there was one thing Tad didn’t know. He didn’t know what Doctor Muskrat was doing. Doctor Muskrat was paddling around in the pond, diving now and then as though he were fishing—and so he was, fishing up trouble for Tad Coon. The first time he came up to find out the meaning of Tad’s splash he sniffed. And it wasn’t to blow the water out of his nose—it was to make Nibble look at him. Nibble did look. And Doctor Muskrat closed both of his eyes in a big wink. After that you can be pretty sure Nibble kept his eyes on that playful tail of Tad Coon.
Flick! it went. Swish! For Tad wasn’t thinking what he was doing. He had an idea for another joke. “Pop!” Up comes the ugly head of Grandpop Snapping Turtle, his beady eyes peering, his hissy mouth open. Snap! it went on the end of that playful tail. Jerk! And Tad Coon was bouncing up the bank, his fluffy breeches sticking straight out with fright. And when Grandpop Snapping Turtle’s ugly head sank back it was wearing whiskers—whiskers which used to belong to the very last tip-end of that smarty coon’s tail.
And then didn’t Doctor Muskrat and Nibble Rabbit have their turn to chuckle! Nibble laughed till he stamped, only this time he wasn’t the one who was angry. And Doctor Muskrat paddled away round and came up on the bank beside him.
“What made Grandpop Snapping Turtle wake up?” asked Nibble.
“Mussel shells,” giggled the wise muskrat. “You know Bobby Robin’s story about the Babes in the Woods that the robins covered with leaves? That’s just what I’ve been doing to Silvertip. Only leaves don’t sink, so I used empty mussel shells. I’ve shied them down at him until Grandpop Snapping Turtle couldn’t take a bite without getting his beak into one of them. He thinks Tad Coon did it.”
“He-he!” snickered Nibble Rabbit. “And Tad Coon blames it all right back on him!”