Of the brave snake-harrier.
The wavy-tailed warrior
Friend of Coquillicot!
Pirra-pirra-pirra-cheree-e!
He ended on a high ringing note that set every bird cheering at the very top of its voice. And the catbird, who can talk any bird tongue, began translating it to some of the summer visitors who couldn’t catch it at all. You can hear them still doing it, any time you listen to them.
CHAPTER X
THE FIELD MICE PROTEST
When Stripes Skunk heard that triumph song he was completely overcome. You see he hadn’t known he was being brave. He just was thinking so hard about poor Coquillicot’s wife and what that awful snake was trying to do to her that he forgot to be afraid. He forgot to think about himself at all—and that’s the way most people get to be heroes.
Now he felt all choked up and sniffly. So the next thing he knew Doctor Muskrat came shuffling up and asked most sympathetically: “Poor Stripes, does it hurt you so very much? Where were you bitten? Those fool meadowlarks called out to me five minutes ago and then they flew right off without letting me know where to find you.”
“Right here,” said Stripes, opening his mouth. And he was just going to explain that it didn’t amount to anything at all—because it wasn’t that kind of a snake that had bitten him—when in Doctor Muskrat popped one of his perpetual root poultices. It wasn’t the kind he usually keeps on hand, but a special one, from the root of a spotted plantain, but it worked just the same in one way. Stripes couldn’t talk while he held it.
But he could laugh. He laughed until his sides hurt. For he wasn’t any hero to Doctor Muskrat; he was just fat furry Stripes Skunk, to be cuffed and coddled like any kitten. He felt like himself again. So he rolled and giggled until he got some of the laugh out of him, and then he bounced up and began his dancing. He chased his shadow and he chased the leaves and he chased his tail until he had all the birds chuckling. And when Miau the Catbird perched low down and tried to explain that hero notion to the doctor, he tweaked Miau’s tail, too. And Miau began to squawk and peck his ears for him.