“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered the man. “It’s all right for children to have pets, but let ’em get a dog or a cat that doesn’t eat clover and gnaw vegetables. Woodchucks are pesky creatures! I’ll soon put an end to this one.”
Mr. Tottle came to the fence, paused to look up at the house, and, seeing it was all in darkness, he climbed over and walked softly toward Winkie’s pen. It was a good thing Alice had been down and gone back again, or she might have been frightened by the big figure of a man stalking through the moonlight, with a club in his hand.
And perhaps if Uncle Elias had seen the white-robed figure floating over the grass in the moonlight he might have thought it was a fairy. But then, he didn’t believe in fairies.
“Now you pesky woodchuck, this is the end of you!” fiercely exclaimed Uncle Elias, as he reached the pen and raised his club.
But what a surprise for him! The door of the pen was open and there was no woodchuck to be seen!
“Gone!” gasped Mr. Tottle. “That pesky creature’s gone! I guess she broke out and has gone over to my clover field. I’ll fix her!”
Away he strode, muttering to himself. Back over the fence he climbed, and, had he but known it, he passed close to Winkie’s hiding place. But the wily woodchuck crouched down in the grass and neither moved nor made a sound.
Uncle Elias tramped on his way, muttering about “pesky creatures” over to his own clover patch. He thought he might find Winkie, or some other woodchucks, eating his crops. But he saw none, and that seemed to make him more angry, for he had tramped around in the night for nothing.
“But I’ll get that ground-hog when she comes back to her cage,” he muttered. “I will, or I’ll sic Buster on her!”