Doctor Rabbit hurried out.
“He’s out and he’s gone!” Blue Jay shouted. “Tom Wildcat is out of that hole! I just came from there this minute!”
“He is?” Doctor Rabbit exclaimed in a frightened voice.
“Yes, sir, he is!” Blue Jay replied, all in a flutter of excitement.
Doctor Rabbit scratched his head in wonder. “I was just a little afraid of that,” he said half to himself, “because old Tom is certainly cunning; but I wonder how he got out.”
“Well,” said Blue Jay, “I looked into that hole pretty close, and I saw just how he managed it. He dug two holes in one side, where there were some small roots. Then he dug two more holes a little higher up. And then he dug two more a little higher up, and then he crawled up a little and dug two more holes, and so on till he got to the top. There was a good deal of loose dirt in the hole, and I’ve an idea that Tom must have fallen back quite a number of times before he finally reached the top. He must have had a mighty hard time of it. As like as not he had to work most of the night.”
TOM WILDCAT INVITES DOCTOR RABBIT TO DINNER
While Doctor Rabbit and busy Blue Jay were talking, Doctor Rabbit said suddenly, “Sh! keep still; there he is now!” And sure enough, there was Tom Wildcat just a little way off near a stump, where he had pounced upon an unfortunate mouse that happened to be passing that way, and gobbled him up.