Then he heard Chatty up on the limb laughing and shouting for joy. Doctor Rabbit ran back to the edge of the thicket, and he was laughing too. It certainly did look funny to see Brushtail the Fox standing and staring at that moss as if he thought it was something alive.
When Brushtail saw that a joke had been played on him he was terribly angry. He knew, of course, he could not get Chatty, so he made a rush for Doctor Rabbit.
But Doctor Rabbit skipped into the thicket, picked up his medicine case and shouted, "Good day, Mr. Fox! I guess you won't have Chatty for breakfast! You'd better eat the moss ball."
And away Doctor Rabbit ran. In a twinkling he was out of sight in the leafy woods.
Brushtail the Fox ran after Doctor Rabbit as fast as he could go, but it was no use. He could not find him. Now it happened that Doctor Rabbit had not gone far at all. He was not far from home, so he just hid behind a big log. And he was watching Brushtail the Fox all the time.
My! How he did jump and yell!
After a time Brushtail sat down and kept still. His sharp eyes, however, were looking in every direction. He thought he might see Doctor Rabbit by keeping quiet and looking about him.
Doctor Rabbit, as I have said, was so close to his home that he knew he was safe, so he walked quietly from behind the log, holding his medicine case and acting just as though he did not know that Brushtail the Fox was anywhere about.