“Well, that’s the first flower ever I heard of that didn’t,” said Nibble, looking quite surprised, because he thought that was something everybody knew.
“Bees’ milk!” whooped Doctor Muskrat. And he let go that laugh he’d been holding in for so long. “Tad Coon believed honey was milk from a bee! O Tad Coon!”
CHAPTER III
TOMMY WOULD A-FISHING GO
I tell you what, Nibble Rabbit and Doctor Muskrat had a lot of fun teasing Tad Coon because he didn’t really know where honey came from.
All the woods and fields knew perfectly well that the little furry bat is the only thing in the world with both milk and wings. But Tad didn’t stop to think. He wouldn’t even stop to eat, he was so busy chasing Doctor Muskrat into the pond. And Doctor Muskrat laughed so hard he got water into his throat and had to climb out on his last winter’s house to cough. And when he couldn’t talk he kept splashing water at them with his scaly tail.
Well, they made so much noise that they didn’t hear who was coming. And Nibble Rabbit was so taken up with the joke on Tad Coon that he forgot to tell them. The first thing they knew, “Woof!” went a voice, and there was Watch the Dog and Tommy Peele.
You remember Tad Coon tried to get the bees after Stripes Skunk because he wanted to see him run? Well, Stripes certainly did run then. He’d been licking up little crumbs of tasty honeycomb and little trickles of honey from Doctor Muskrat’s flat stone, just getting ready for the time when he’d plunge his nose, sqush! right into the delicious middle of his piece. But he didn’t wait for that. He left it for Tommy Peele to find.
And Tommy found it. He found the crummy, broken piece that Tad Coon carried hugged against his furry body with his little handy-paws until it was all hairs, and he found the nice neat lump that belonged to Stripes Skunk lying right beside it. Of course that was the one he’d choose—Tommy liked honey quite as well as any one else. So he ate it—before Watch even thought to take a sniff.
Out of the bushes tiptoed Stripes Skunk, sort of timid, but hopeful.
The minute Watch saw him he knew something was wrong. “Yah! Get away, you, or I’ll chase you away!” he growled. You know he’d never made friends with Stripes and he didn’t intend to, either.