Adventures in the Land of Canaan | Page 7

the Sentry:
"Yes, I acknowledge you have won the bet. But you have only just managed to do so; you are looking quite tired out. Another five minutes or less, and you would have been unable to stand still a moment longer."
"Double or quits!" cried the Sentry. "For another gold piece, I'll engage to keep still for the time you mention. If I fail to do so, of course you don't pay me anything."
"Agreed," said the Rabbit.
"Oh, friends," exclaimed the Mouse, shaking his head, "do not give way to this habit! It is, indeed, a sad, bad one."
This he merely said to impress the Owl (on whom he had not counted as a spectator) with a sense of his moral worth. He hoped by this means to counteract any after suspicions that might arise in the good bird's mind.
"As to that," said the Sentry, who was generally rude whether he was addressing friend or foe, "it is my own concern whether I bet or not. You had better not trouble yourself with my affairs, but if you really mean to give me one of your performances you would do well to begin."
"Just as you will," the Mouse said. "But I can't help taking an interest in the welfare of those with whom I have to do." Then addressing the Rabbit: "Dear friend," he said smoothly, "will you open with your famous rêverie, 'Dreamings of a Drum,' whilst I perform my pas de quatre, 'Twirlings of the Toes?'"
"Very good," agreed the Rabbit.
And the two performers began. But in a few moments the Rabbit stopped.
"I cannot continue," he said. "I am suffering from cramp in the muscles of my drum-legs."
"Dear! What a pity!" exclaimed the Mouse. "Come for a walk and brace yourself up."
"All right!" answered the Rabbit. "We'll go and fetch the gold pieces which I must give this fellow."
"Can't you give me something at once?" asked the Sentry, who did not, in his greed of gold, wish to lose the chance of getting all he could.
"I've nothing with me," replied the Rabbit. And so saying he followed the Mouse, who with his back towards the Sentry had already moved away.
They had hardly gone more than half a dozen steps when the Mouse said suddenly and loudly: "That Sentry friend of ours is a smart chap; he knows how to handle the bayonet."
"You are right," answered the Rabbit, and walked on, the Mouse doing the same, though with lagging steps.
Presently a look of anger and wonder crept into his eyes, remarking which the Rabbit laughed.
"What are you laughing at?" asked the Mouse uneasily.
"At nothing particular," answered his companion. "Cheerfulness, you know, is a habit of the mind."
At this moment a loud groan burst from the Sentry, who during this time had been struggling to get free, and in a last frantic effort, had just succeeded in giving a most painful rick to his back.
"Our Sentry friend does not look happy," said the Rabbit grimly.
"He is not well, I suppose," answered the Mouse nervously. "What has happened, I wonder?"
"ALL IS DISCOVERED!" exclaimed the Rabbit loudly.
Then as the Mouse made a desperate effort to run away, the Rabbit dealt him a blow on the back which injured the clockwork within his body and quite put a stop to his flight.
"I know all!" the Rabbit said sternly. "You are a little villain! What defence can you offer for so grossly deceiving me?"
But the Mouse made no reply. In a fury of disappointment and fear he was biting the Rabbit's legs, hoping thus to disable him and prevent his punishing the treachery that had been brought to light.
"Desist!" cried the Rabbit, "or I shall end your life without delay. I repeat, what excuse can you offer for having so wickedly broken the terms of our agreement? You have tried to rob me of my life and my money. Make your defence."
"There was no written agreement," answered the Mouse shamelessly. "Each was at liberty to understand it in his own way."
"Most wicked of animals, you are not fit to live," cried the Rabbit with disgust. "Your moments are numbered."
Then before the Mouse could offer any protest, the Rabbit bit his head right off and swallowed it.
"You will observe," said the Rabbit to the Owl with dignity, "that I still maintain my proper position in the eyes of the world as a Welsh rare-bit, but the Mouse, owing to his misdeeds, is now in the contemptible state of the biter bit. Such is the end of the wicked.
"As for you," he continued to the Sentry, who, with his boastful spirit crushed, stood trembling in the Sentry-box; "as for you, you have seen too much of the world and its ways. It would be better for you to see a little less of it for a time."
Then, according to