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.
"I've brought them along to-day,"
he said, "to help
me win this race."
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