“Wait a minute, Patter! Wait a minute and I’ll take the crab off your paw!”
“Better not do that,” advised George. “Knock the crab off with a stick. If you try to pull it off you’ll get pinched, too.”
“Yes, I guess maybe I shall,” said Bunny.
He caught up a stick and ran until he was close enough to reach Patter.
“Sit up!” commanded Bunny, as he knew if the dog did this it would be easier to knock off the pinching crab.
Patter did as he was told. Even though howling from pain he obeyed his master’s voice. Then, when he was sitting on his hind legs with the paw to which the crab was fastened held pitifully out, Bunny swung his stick and hit the hard shell of the crab a resounding blow.
The result was that the one claw, by which the crab was then hanging, was broken off. Crabs’ claws are easily broken, and it does not seem to hurt the creature. There is a saying that crabs’ claws will grow back on again, but I am not certain of this. I have caught a great many crabs with only one claw—large crabs, too—and it seems to me that if they were going to grow a new claw, in place of the one they have lost, a little claw would have started growing. And this I have never seen.
Anyhow, by knocking the crab from Patter’s paw the claw of the sea-creature was broken off and left hanging on the dog’s foot, though it no longer pinched. The one-clawed crab scuttled off sideways, which is the way crabs “walk” on dry land, and also the way they often swim, though sometimes they dart backward in the water.
“Catch the crab!” cried George. “Don’t let it get away! It’s a big one and full of meat!”
“I’ll get it,” offered Charlie, while Bunny began taking the loose claw from Patter’s leg.