The Tale of Grumpy Weasel Part 3

"You don't like to get your feet wet," Paddy Muskrat said. And feeling safe as anything, he swam nearer the spot where the stranger was crouching.

Paddy saw, almost too late, that he had made a bad blunder. For without the slightest warning Grumpy Weasel leaped at him. And had not Paddy been a wonderful swimmer and able to dive like a flash, he would never have dashed, panting, into his house a few moments later.

"What on earth is the matter?" his wife asked him.

"I've been having a swimming race with a stranger," Paddy explained. "I don't know his name. But I do know that he'd just as soon get his feet wet as I would."

"Well, why not?" Mrs. Muskrat inquired. "That only shows he's sensible."

"Does it show I'm sensible, too?" Paddy asked her.

"Certainly not!" said Mrs. Muskrat.

VIII

THE DARE

If Grumpy Weasel had been a faster runner the forest people wouldn't have been so surprised when he dared Jimmy Rabbit to race him. Everybody knew that Jimmy was swift-footed--especially since he once beat old Mr.

Turtle (but that is another story).

When Mr. Crow, who was a great bearer of news, told Jimmy Rabbit one day that Grumpy Weasel wanted a race with him, Jimmy Rabbit seemed more than willing to oblige. "Where, when, and how far does Grumpy want to run against me?" he asked.

Mr. Crow said that he didn't know, but that he would make it his business to find out. So off he hurried to find Grumpy Weasel, for if there was anything Mr. Crow liked it was busying himself with other people's affairs.

He did not have what you could call a pleasant talk with Grumpy Weasel.

Once when Mr. Crow alighted too near the ground Grumpy jumped at him.

And several times he called Mr. Crow a nest-robber and an egg-thief, though goodness knows Grumpy Weasel himself was as bad as the worst when it came to robbing birds' nests.

Although he felt as if he were about to burst with rage old Mr. Crow pretended to laugh. He had been having a rather dull time, waiting for Farmer Green to plant his corn, and he thought that a lively race might put him in better spirits.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Grumpy Nearly Catches Paddy Muskrat. (_Page 31_)]

"Where do you want to race against Jimmy Rabbit?" Mr. Crow asked.

"We'll start from this wall," said Grumpy sulkily, "because it's always better to start from where you are than where you aren't."

Mr. Crow said that that seemed reasonable.

"When do you want to race?" he added.

"The sooner we start the quicker we'll finish," Grumpy Weasel snapped.

"Quite true, quite true!" Mr. Crow agreed. "And now may I inquire how long a race you want to run?"

"No longer than I have to!" Grumpy growled. "Not more than a day or two, I hope!"

Mr. Crow snickered slightly. "I see you don't understand my question,"

he observed. "Are you going to run a mile, or only a few rods?"

"How do I know?" Grumpy cried, as if he had no patience with his questioner. "How could anybody tell? I'll let Jimmy Rabbit start twenty jumps ahead of me and we'll run till I catch him."

Well, Mr. Crow laughed right out loud when he heard that. And he was about to tell Grumpy that he would have to run till the end of his days if he raced Jimmy Rabbit in any such fashion as that. But he saw all at once that such a race would be a great joke. And he said to himself with a chuckle that the laugh would be on Grumpy Weasel. For Jimmy Rabbit was so swift a runner that n.o.body who knew anything at all would ever consent to give him a start--much less propose such a thing.

"Very well!" said Mr. Crow with a smirk, "I'll report to Jimmy Rabbit.

I'll tell him where, when and how you want to race, and there's no doubt that your plan will please him."

"I hope it won't!" Grumpy Weasel snarled. "I've never pleased anybody yet; and I don't mean to."

And that goes to show what an ill-natured scamp he was.

IX

SAVING HIS FEET

Old Mr. Crow and Jimmy Rabbit had a good laugh over Grumpy Weasel's plan for a race with Jimmy. They thought it a great joke.

"He needn't give me a start," Jimmy said. "I can beat Grumpy easily."

"Never mind that!" Mr. Crow advised. "You might as well let him have his way. He'll look all the more foolish, trying to catch up with you."

So Jimmy Rabbit agreed to run the race as Grumpy Weasel wished, saying that he was ready to start at once.

But Mr. Crow told him he had better wait till the next day. "That will give me time to tell everybody," he explained, "and then there'll be a big turnout to see you win--and to jeer at Grumpy Weasel for losing."

And one could tell from Mr. Crow's remark that he liked Jimmy Rabbit and that he despised Grumpy Weasel.

The next day proved to be a fine one for the race. It wasn't too hot nor too cold; and early in the morning the field- and forest-people began gathering at Grumpy Weasel's hunting ground, where the stone wall touched the clearing.

About the only persons that objected to the time set for the race were Benjamin Bat and Solomon Owl. Benjamin said that he could never keep awake to watch it; and Solomon complained that he couldn't see well in the daytime. But all the rest of the company were in the best of spirits, giggling slyly whenever they looked at Grumpy Weasel, who seemed to pay scant heed to his neighbors, though you may be sure his roving black eyes took in everything that was going on. He seemed more restless than ever as he waited for Jimmy Rabbit to arrive, walking to and fro on his front legs in a most peculiar fashion, while he kept his hind feet firmly planted on the ground in one spot. Of course he could never have moved about in this manner had his body not been so long and slender.

Noticing Grumpy's strange actions, old Mr. Crow looked worried and asked him what was the matter. "I hope your hind feet aren't troubling you, just as the race is about to begin," he said.

Grumpy Weasel hissed at the old gentleman before he replied: "Don't worry! You'll soon see that my hind feet can travel as fast as my front ones--when I want to use them."

"Ah!" Mr. Crow exclaimed knowingly. "He's saving his hind feet for the race."

When Jimmy Rabbit reached the gathering place, coming up in a long lope, Mr. Crow hurried to meet him.

"I advise you to save your hind feet," he whispered. "Grumpy Weasel is saving his."

Jimmy Rabbit told Mr. Crow, with a smile, that he had saved his hind feet all his life--and his front ones, too.