DOCTOR RABBIT THINKS OF A NEW SCHEME
Sophy Woodchuck was very, very glad that her Stubby had come through his terrible adventure safely, but she said she would be troubled now as long as Tom Wildcat was around. “I certainly do wish we could think of some plan to get rid of him”, she said, and Doctor Rabbit chuckled.
“I have a plan, Mrs. Woodchuck.”
“I have a plan, Mrs. Woodchuck,” he said. “It came to me only this morning, so you must give me a few days to get everything ready. And don’t you worry any more about Tom Wildcat being around. No, sir! Don’t you worry a bit! I’ve got an idea, and pretty soon old Tom will go tearing out of these woods, and he’ll stay out! Indeed he will! Ha, ha, ha!” And Doctor Rabbit laughed until his fat sides shook.
This made the Woodchuck family feel pretty fine, and it made them curious, too. They knew that Doctor Rabbit was very wise in a good many things, and especially wise in planning ways to get rid of a very bad enemy. They remembered how he had got rid of troublesome Ki-yi Coyote. Of course Doctor Rabbit’s plan of getting rid of Tom Wildcat in that hole had failed; but we must admit it was a good scheme, anyway.
Well, of course the Woodchucks wanted to know right away what Doctor Rabbit’s new scheme was, but he only chuckled, and said he would have to be going now to get things ready. “I’ll need you and all our other friends and neighbors to help me,” Doctor Rabbit said. “None of you will have to do very much, but what you do, you must do exactly right. Now I am going to slip around among our friends and get them to promise to be ready at any time, and to do just what I tell them.”
“You certainly can count on us!” exclaimed Stubby and Sophy, in the same breath.
“I was sure of that,” Doctor Rabbit replied, and then bidding them a very good morning, he went swiftly away, hoppity, hoppity, to tell all the others.
In a short time all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods knew that Doctor Rabbit was working on a new scheme to get rid of Tom Wildcat. For several days Doctor Rabbit was mysteriously engaged in some kind of work at his house. He did not go out at all, except to Farmer Roe’s garden once or twice a day, to get some green peas to eat. And Doctor Rabbit would not say a word to anyone. He was surely busy.