“Oh, I’ll tag you all right!” he cried, racing after his sister Winkie. “I’ll tag you!”
“If you do, then I’ll tag Blinkie and we can have a regular game!” merrily laughed Winkie, as she sprang over a clump of clover. “This is more fun than sliding down the back-hole door all alone, or even going to sleep. Come on, Blunk! Let’s see you tag me!” she cried.
Nearly always when the woodchuck children played a game of tag, or any other running game, Blunk would easily catch Winkie or Blinkie. For, being a boy woodchuck and strong, he could go faster than the girls. And this time Blunk thought he would have no trouble in tapping Winkie with his paw, tagging her and making her “it.”
But Blunk forgot about all the clover he had eaten. He had, I am sorry to say, rather stuffed himself. He had eaten too much, but not enough to make himself ill, for animals know better than that. But Blunk had swallowed so much clover that his little stomach was sticking out like a toy balloon, and this made him so heavy that he could not run fast.
Because of this, Winkie could easily keep ahead of him. On and on ran the wily little girl woodchuck, laughing and teasing her brother because he could not catch her to tag her.
“Come on! Come on!” cried Winkie. “Why don’t you tag me, Blunk?”
“I will—in a—minute!” panted Blunk. “I—I haven’t started—running—yet!”
He was getting out of breath, and he was beginning to wish he had done what Winkie had asked him to do at first—come and play with her—instead of eating so much clover.
“But I’ll catch her after a while. I always do,” thought Blunk to himself, as he raced on and on, while Winkie, the wily woodchuck, dashed this way and that, making quick turns, which was the best way of avoiding her brother.
“I never knew her to keep away from me so long as this—before. I—I guess I ate too much clover!” panted Blunk.