Chapter XIII: Disciplining Jimmy

"I just wish I could wring that old fellow's neck!" Mr. Bunny cried angrily as he shook one paw in the direction of Professor Hawk, who was slowly circling around with his eyes apparently fixed on Mr. Rabbit. "'Squire Owl, the old one as well as the young one, is about as bad a bird as we members of the Fur section care to meet; but yet I think that old pirate is worse than all the Owl family put together, for the 'Squire's folks can't do much mischief except in the night, and the Hawk gang are at it all the time.

"Of course I couldn't wring his neck even if I got a good hold with all four paws, because he can give a fellow a terrible drubbing with his wings; but if I were strong enough, and could bite as Butcher Weasel can, I'd give him all he wanted, even if I had to spend my time, night and day, for a week in order to do it. More than twenty times I've torn my coat mighty badly through jumping into a thorn bush to get out of that fellow's way, and such sort of business gets tiresome after a while.

"The worst part of Professor Hawk, so far as we members of the Fur section are concerned, is that his eyes are so sharp. He can sail around in the sky so high up that a fellow can't see him, and yet keep a mighty good watch on all that takes place beneath him! Fly! He can beat any bird I know of at that way of getting around, and when he drops down for a young rabbit or a squirrel, the chances are that it's good-bye then.

"Of course it doesn't do any good for me to sit here and scold about the Professor; he'll keep on at his murderous business just as long as there are animals in the big woods for him to eat, so I'll get on with the story I was trying to tell when he stuck his beak in where it didn't belong. Just keep your eye out for the old fellow, for it wouldn't bother him a bit to pick me off this log with you sitting close by, and call it a good joke.

"Let me see--I'd come to where the club meeting was broken up by the Professor, and I'd gone into a thorn bush head first. Well, you can set it down as a fact that I wasn't in any hurry about coming out from cover till the word had been given that he had gone, and even then I took good care to have a sharp look around before showing even so much as the end of my nose. I was the last one out, and when I hopped through the bushes Jimmy Hedgehog set up a great shout about my being the biggest coward of the crowd. What was the use of answering him back? It wasn't because of being so terribly brave that he stayed out in the open while all the other members of the club were hunting for cover; but he knew that so long as he was rolled into a ball, with his quills sticking out in every direction, the Professor wouldn't dare to meddle with him.

"I'm thinking one reason why he made so much noise about my being a coward was that he hoped to make the others forget they had met to overhaul him for egging poor Bobby on to his death. If that was the scheme in his mind, it didn't work, for in less than half a minute after I showed myself, Mr. Crow got right down to business, and it wasn't so very long before all hands knew the story as well as I did. Mr. Blue Jay perched himself on the very top of the oak tree, where he could sound the alarm in case the Professor showed himself again, and Cheeko's oldest child was stationed in a bush at the edge of the clearing to give warning if Butcher Weasel came sneaking along, so we weren't afraid of being taken by surprise.

"Some of the animals say that Mr. Crow doesn't know as much as he tries to make out; but he was sharp enough to get in all the facts concerning the murder of poor Bobby, and when the matter was ended every member of the club knew just who was to blame for what had happened over on the farm. More than once while I was answering the question the president asked, Jimmy wrinkled up his nose at me, as much as to say that he would serve me out for telling tales on him; but I couldn't help myself, could I? They called me a coward, and perhaps there's some truth in what they say, but I'll never give one of them the right to say I'm a liar and that's what could have been said if I hadn't told the story just as it was.

"Well, after the trial was over, Mr. Crow hopped to the very tiptoppest branch of the tree and gave out what I suppose you'd call the sentence. He said that Jimmy Hedgehog wasn't to be considered a member of the club till he'd shown plainly and positively that he was sorry because he had urged Bobby to go where Mr. Towser was, and that while he was deprived of the club privileges, no member would be allowed so much as to speak to him. More than that, he wasn't to put his paw anywhere near the big oak. It was that part of it which seemed to make Jimmy more angry than anything else, and he cried out, as he actually shook his fist at the president:

"'I'd like to know how you can stop me from coming near this blooming old tree in case I take a notion to hover round? I'll have you know, Jim Crow, that you don't dare to lay the weight of your wings on me, 'less you want to be filled so full of quills that you'd have to draw your breath crosswise! Do you think I won't come here if I feel like it? You make me tired with your club talk, and the sooner you take my name off the list the better I'll be pleased!'

"Then Jimmy shook himself till his quills rattled, and looked around to see if any members of the Fur section were going to call him to account for what he had said; but I noticed that he was all ready to roll himself into a ball at the first move that might be made toward him. Of course, it mixed us all up to have such talk as that right in meeting; but there wasn't any use in making a row with a fellow you couldn't hit on account of his quills, so no one said anything, though I noticed that Mr. Crow hopped about mighty lively, which showed how angry he was.

"Jimmy swelled around a few minutes, shaking himself every once in a while as if he were the only thing of any account in the big woods, and then off he strutted, looking over his shoulder now and then to learn if any one had the nerve to follow him. You could have heard a nut drop just so long as he was in sight; but when it was certain he couldn't hear what was said all hands began to talk about what ought to be done with a fellow who had made himself so disagreeable.

"'Leave him to me,' Mr. Crow said in his very youngest voice as soon as it was possible to make himself heard. 'I want you to understand that I'm not any bump on a log, and before I'm through with Jimmy Hedgehog he'll wish he'd kept his tongue between his teeth. I'm the president of this club, and there isn't any ordinary-sized member of the Fur section who can bulldoze me.'

"It almost frightened me to hear the president speak in that way, for, while I haven't any love for Jimmy, it made me feel rather bad to think how tough it would be for him when Mr. Crow started out on his trail. Every one of the wood folks seemed to think that something more than suspending him from the club should be done to the member who had spoken out in meeting as Jimmy had, and while they were telling Mr. Crow what he ought to do I slipped off, for I knew that Mrs. Bunny was probably getting a bit angry because I'd been away from home so long.

"Now do you know, it never came into my head that Jimmy Hedgehog would try to do me a bad turn because I had told what he said to poor Bobby. I had to answer the questions which the president asked, or I'd sure been brought up with a round turn, and I never said a word more than just enough to satisfy Mr. Crow; but for all that it seems Jimmy had it in for me good and hot.

"I hopped along home with my ears well back over my shoulders so I could hear if anybody was after me, and was thinking what a nice time I'd have with some of Mr. Man's carrots that I'd brought in the day before, when what should I stumble over but a place on the moss which looked as if there'd been mischief of some kind done there lately. I had an idea I could smell blood ever so faintly, but even then I didn't suspect anything was wrong at home till I crept in through the hallway, and there was poor little Sonny Bunny all curled up as if he'd been tied in a knot, while his mother was washing the blood spots off his coat.

"'What's the matter?' I asked, feeling as faint as ever a rabbit could, and Mrs. Bunny said, speaking as if it were all my fault:

"'It's something to do with that precious club of yours, and if you don't take yourself out of it this very day Sonny Bunny and I'll leave this hole for good and all!'

"Mrs. Bunny never did like the idea of my joining the club; but she hadn't come out quite so strong before, and it staggered me so much that, just for the moment, I forgot that my poor little Sonny seemed to be in trouble. It was quite a spell before I could coax her to tell what had happened, and when she did speak I found out how mean a sneak Jimmy Hedgehog could be without trying very hard.

"It seems that poor Sonny was lying on the moss sunning himself, at the very place where I fancied it was possible to smell blood, when along came Jimmy. Of course, Sonny stayed where he was, never thinking one of the Hedgehog family would do him any harm, and without saying a word Jimmy lay down on the poor little fellow, rolling over on him as many as six times. There's no need for me to say that my dear little rabbit looked, when Jimmy got up, a good deal like one of Mrs. Man's pin-cushions, for quills were sticking out all over him.

"'You can tell your father that that's what he gets for tattling about me,' Jimmy said in a terribly ugly voice, 'and if he doesn't mind his business from now on I'll come and fix your mother the same way!'

"Poor Sonny was so frightened and hurt that he couldn't say a word, and there he lay, not daring to move because every time he wiggled the least little bit the quills would stick into him worse than ever, till his mother found him. She had just finished pulling out the quills when I came in, and, of course, felt a good deal excited; wouldn't even let me touch Sonny, but declared that until I'd left the club for good and all I couldn't come where she or the children were.

"It wasn't the least little use for me to promise that I'd take my name off the list of members next morning; she insisted that I do it that very same minute, and, if you'll believe me, nearly drove me out of my own home, threatening to pour hot water on me if I didn't notify the president right away that I was through with joining clubs.

"When Mrs. Bunny gets really mad there isn't any sense in trying to argue with her, for she won't listen, and, seeing that I was driven out of the hole, there was nothing left but to do as she had said. You can't think how bad I felt about being obliged to do it, for I knew all the members would laugh at me, or say I didn't dare to stand up for my rights; but there wasn't any other way out of the scrape, as I figured it, so off I went, hopping mighty slow, and trying to think up what I could say to make the other fellows believe I'd got tired of going to the club meetings.

"I suppose because I was so mixed up in my mind I didn't look after myself as I would have done at almost any other time, and all of a sudden there was one of Grandfather Fox's grandchildren standing right in front of me, so near that I could have touched him with my paw! Now you'd better believe I was frightened, and I had good reason to be, for if he made one snap I was a gone rabbit, as I couldn't make the first jump without his nabbing me!

"He licked his chops, thinking, I suppose, that a bit of fresh rabbit would taste mighty good, and I couldn't help saying to myself that I was the freshest thing in the big woods, else I'd have had better sense than to have run straight into that impudent young fox as I had. He was a member of the family with which I wasn't very well acquainted, but when I understood by the swinging of his tail that he was getting ready to pounce on me I said, as if he were the best friend I ever had in the world:

"'Good afternoon, Mr. Fox. Your grandfather was an old acquaintance of mine, and I'm mighty glad to meet a grandson of his who looks so much like him.'

"Mr. Fox grinned, but he never said a word, and I made up my mind right off quick that there wouldn't be any need for me to tell Mr. Crow to take my name off the club list, for in two or three minutes more there wouldn't be enough left of me to talk about."

At this point Mr. Rabbit ceased speaking abruptly, moving his ears to and fro nervously as if he had heard something disagreeable, and common courtesy demanded that the silence should not be broken save by himself.