“I don’t know,” said Tommy, “but there’s my chickadee, and here’s my rabbit. Something’s frightening them.”
“There, there! Look!” squeaked Chewee, dancing about on his twig like a crazy bird. Foul Fang raised his ugly head to sniff at them. Then he wound into his striking coil.
“Bz-z-z!” began Foul Fang’s rattle. “Bang-bang!” went Sandy’s gun. “A snake! No wonder they were frightened!” exclaimed Sandy. “Lucky that rabbit saw him!”
“Wow-wow-wow!” bayed Trailer, for Silvertip bolted out of his log and began to run.
“Bang—bang!” went the gun. And that did scare Nibble. It sent him flying through the woods, straight for Doctor Muskrat’s Pool.
The old doctor was out on his flat stone; but he wasn’t asleep. He was sitting straight up with his round ears pricked and his whiskers stiffened, listening. Ka-flick, ka-flick, came the long bounces of Nibble Rabbit. “Chick-adee-dee-dee-dee-ee!” rang out the joyful shout of Chewee, just a little way behind him. “We-e-e-ak!” came the far-away squeak of a fieldmouse. “We-e-e-aw!” echoed one nearer at paw. “R-r-r-r!” drummed a partridge, and a meadowlark who was drinking remarked: “That’s a death beat, but he isn’t muffling it. Sounds as though he were mighty glad about it.”
Ka-flick-thump! Nibble Rabbit landed beside the doctor. “I warned Tommy!” was all he had breath to gasp. But here came Chewee, his wings whirring like a humming bird’s, his eyes popping like a crawfish’s, as though they had stalks to stand on. “Whee!” he screeched. “You ought to see—ee—ee!”
“See what?” called Chaik, who was hurrying by to find out what all the noise meant, and he circled back to listen.
“Foul Fang!” squeaked Chewee, turning somersaults on a bulrush. “He’s in three pieces, and his tail is cut off and his wicked scales are squirming in the sun.”
“Yeah!” squawked Chaik, dancing on his wings. “And those Bad Little Owls are hiding in the Brushpile. I’m all mussed up from climbing in after them, but my relatives and I have picked them ’most as clean as the mice picked Nibble’s woodchuck. I’m going back to shout the news at them. Yeah!” And off he flew.