First Edition
CONTENTS
- I. [Stripes Turns a Trick on Tad Coon]
- II. [The Sweetness of Harmony and Honey]
- III. [Tommy Would A-Fishing Go]
- IV. [A Compact Between Fishermen]
- V. [Of the Tick in Tommy’s Pocket Which Wasn’t a Bug After All]
- VI. [The Battle of the Potato Bugs]
- VII. [The Birds Enlist in the War]
- VIII. [The Battle of the Crook Tailed Snake]
- IX. [The Secret of the Snake Guard]
- X. [The Field Mice Protest]
- XI. [War to the Tooth]
- XII. [The Mice Defeat Themselves]
- XIII. [Where, Oh Where, Is Tad Coon?]
ILLUSTRATIONS
- [The hive had sent out a cloud of fighting bees to stand guard]
- [Tommy fished and fished, but at first he did not get a single bite]
- [Stripes battles with a big fish]
- [Tommy takes off his “skin” to dry]
- [Tad Coon finds a new kind of bug]
- [When the moon came up there wasn’t a single tail stirring]
- [Nibble takes the lady mouse to Doctor Muskrat]
- [Tad Coon chased a couple of mice into a corn crib]
The Wavy Tailed Warrior
CHAPTER I
STRIPES TURNS A TRICK ON TAD COON
“Scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch,” went a noise in the woods not very far away from the pond where Doctor Muskrat was telling a story to Nibble Rabbit and Stripes Skunk. Nibble’s ears flew up; the doctor got ready to dive; Stripes hunched himself up and peered anxiously over his shoulder because the sound came from the only direction where he knew of a hole to hide in. The willows, where he first lived, were over on the far side of the pond—and Stripes simply hates to swim. His tail gets all soggy, so it’s just as if you tried swimming with all your clothes on.
Scritch—r-r-rip! went the noise. Patter, patter, patter, came footsteps of somebody running. Then Nibble laughed. “Ho! It’s only old Tad Coon,” he said. “He’s in kind of a hurry.”
But when Tad Coon came out into the grassy space between the trees and the sand he was just strolling along as dignified as a duck in a puddle. “Morning, Doctor Muskrat,” he said politely. “Hello, Nibble. Who’s the visitor?” He knew all the time, but he was just pretending, to see what Stripes would do.