“Can’t you hang on by somebody’s fur and come along?� suggested Nibble anxiously.
“It’s too slippery,� sighed poor Chaik. “I’d slip off and get hurt again.�
“Listen here, Chaik,� said Doctor Muskrat. “Your claws can still climb. This thicket is full of little, fine twigs that won’t begin to hold up Killer. He’s as heavy as I am. Couldn’t you hop up and perch in the middle of them?�
“Yes,� exclaimed Nibble enthusiastically. “And the Pickery Things have thorns all over them. They pick as hard on the top as they do on the bottom. Killer hates them.�
Chaik tried. And he found he could move a great deal better than he could that morning. He slipped and stumbled and scrambled and flapped his well wing, and squawked as softly as he could when he bumped his sore one, but climb he did. “Flit along,� he chirped cheerfully in a minute; “I wouldn’t ask a better place to perch in.� He didn’t feel as cheerful as he sounded, but he didn’t want them to get into trouble by waiting for him.
“All right,� thumped Nibble with his furry feet. That’s safer than whispering. Then he remembered. “But where are we going? To the marsh on the far-away side of the Deep Woods, where the sun goes to sleep?� The Woodsfolk didn’t know that the sun went a great deal farther than that. The near side of that marsh was as far as any of them had gone.
“We can’t run fast enough,� mourned Stripes. “He’d catch up with us before very long.�
“An I can’t run at all,� said the fat old muskrat. “I’d better go back and trust the water to hide me from him.�
“Nonsense!â€� sniffed Stripes. “I’ve seen him swim. We’ll all run across the Broad Field as fast as we can—he hates to leave the woods worse than anything——â€�
“Yes,â€� interrupted Nibble, flicking his long ears as a bright idea struck him. “We’ll cross the Broad Field and we’ll hide by Tommy Peele’s barn. There’s food and water for every one. We’ll treat him as I told the fieldmice to treat you when you were fighting them—we’ll run off and leave him alone!â€� And he twiddled his tufty tail just to show how pleased he felt over his bright idea.