“You don’t have to tell me that,” said Doctor Muskrat, and his fat sides were shaking with laughter. “I’ve eyes to see with. You’re as wet as ever you were when I fished you out of that pond there.” For you remember how Nibble tumbled right into the water he was so frightened the first time he ever saw the kind old muskrat.
“And then,” Nibble went on indignantly, “the impudent little scamp sniffed his little turned-up nose at me because I was spluttering.”
“You can’t expect a calf to be born with manners, can you?” soothed Doctor Muskrat, “’specially if it belongs to the Red Cow. But, as I told her, that’s the most remarkable youngst——” He flattened his ears, ready to dive, for a shadow came swooping down and he was expecting the Marsh Hawk back any day.
But it was only Chaik the Jay. “Hello,” he piped. “Who was she and what did you tell her?” And he pounced on an acorn that was half-buried in the ground.
“The Red Cow,” answered Doctor Muskrat, “has a little new calf who’s the most remarkable youngster I’ve ever seen.” And he was going to tell Chaik all about it, only——
Didn’t Nibble Rabbit just interrupt and tell it all himself? Just didn’t he? He was that puffed up because he was the first one to see it that he couldn’t wait. He described, how bright its little eyes were, and how it wriggled its tail like Chatter Squirrel does when he’s in a temper, and—everything there was to tell about that Red Cow’s red baby with the white star in his forehead and the turned-up nose.
And all the time Nibble was forgetting to clean his fur. And the mud spots showed worse than ever as the wind dried them. But Nibble was too busy talking about that very same bad little Beast who had splashed them on him.
Chaik was preening and tucking in his feathers every once in a while. He didn’t have his new spring coat yet, so he was very particular over his old one. Presently he noticed Nibble. “By the Worm in the Acorn, Rabbit, what’s happened to you?” he wanted to know.
Do you think Nibble would tell on that Red Cow’s bad baby? Not at all. He just said, “Oh, I wasn’t looking—you don’t know what the walking is this spring.” Then he got very busy with his mud spots and Chaik flew away.
“Hm,” giggled the doctor. “What do you really think of the Red Cow’s calf, what you told me about it or what you told Chaik?”