Doctor Rabbit and Brushtail the Fox | Page 5

Get out of here, get out, get out of here!" screamed Chatty.
Brushtail the Fox was angry. Well, I should say he was. He knew that
Doctor Rabbit would hear Chatty Red Squirrel's scolding, and would
know that he was hiding ready to eat him if he came out of the tree.
Brushtail was so angry that he snarled. But he slunk away through the
bushes without saying a word to Chatty Red. Brushtail is wise enough
to know that there is no use arguing with Chatty Squirrel, for Chatty is
altogether too noisy a talker. I should say he is.
When Brushtail slunk away through the bushes, Doctor Rabbit called to
Chatty Red Squirrel, but Chatty did not hear him. He had scampered
away to another tree, still talking loudly.
Then Doctor Rabbit turned quickly and leaned out of his window to
watch Brushtail the Fox. Brushtail was trotting off through the Big
Green Woods in a direction in which Doctor Rabbit seldom went. And
Doctor Rabbit noticed that he seemed to be afraid someone would see
him. He looked on each side of him as he went along, and every now
and then he took a big jump sidewise. Doctor Rabbit was certainly
interested now, for he believed Brushtail the Fox was going to hide
somewhere. Probably he was going to hide in a place where he hid
every day.
Yes, sir, Brushtail certainly was cautious now, and he must have
jumped to one side as many as five times while Doctor Rabbit was
watching him. Then in a little while he reached a part of the woods
where the brush and leaves were so thick that Doctor Rabbit could just
barely see him as he slipped along.

TWO HUNTERS COME TO THE BIG GREEN WOODS
When Brushtail the Fox slipped into the place where there were so
many leafy bushes, it was very hard for Doctor Rabbit to see him from
his big tree. Sometimes he lost sight of Brushtail altogether, and then
for an instant he would see his long, sharp nose, or his reddish-brown
coat, or his big bushy tail. And all the time Brushtail became more and
more cautious. He moved so slowly and so quietly among the bushes
that Doctor Rabbit had to strain his eyes to see him. Then suddenly
Brushtail jumped high up onto the dead limb of a big fallen tree. He
walked out on this limb, then jumped far out into a dense thicket and
disappeared.
Yes, sir, Brushtail the Fox was gone! Doctor Rabbit stood by his
window in the tree and looked and looked. He thought he would
presently see a sharp nose or a bushy tail, but he did not. Brushtail was
hiding somewhere in that thicket.
"Well! well! well!" Doctor Rabbit exclaimed. "I certainly should like to
know what old Brushtail is doing in there. I am positive he is in that
thicket. He never could have slipped out without my seeing him. Yes,
sir, he's in there. And that's probably where he always hides. Likely
enough he has a den in there. I shouldn't be surprised if there are a lot
of rocks in there and Brushtail the Fox has a big hole away back under
them."
"Well," Doctor Rabbit continued, talking softly to himself, "I'm going
to slip out there as near as possible and keep watch and see if I can
discover anything more about Brushtail. I must not tell anyone as yet
what I have seen. No, if I want to get a lot of information I must just
keep still and do the finding out myself. It isn't safe to trust too many
people."
Doctor Rabbit ran downstairs and was starting out into the woods to try
to get nearer Brushtail's hiding place when he saw something that made
him keep still and watch. Farmer Roe and his boy were coming through
the woods toward Doctor Rabbit's tree. Just as they went past, Doctor
Rabbit heard Farmer Roe say, "Yes, I'm certain that there is a fox in

these woods. That was a fox's track we saw in the yard this morning,
and that was a fox, I am sure, that took the old white hen last night. Our
chickens will be in danger until we get rid of him."
"Do you suppose he hides in these woods in the daytime?" asked
Farmer Roe's boy.
"I shouldn't be surprised," replied Farmer Roe. "In fact, I'm pretty sure
he hides close by. There is one thing that puzzles me, however, and that
is that although Yappy trailed that fox directly from the chicken yard,
he lost the trail right in the woods and could not pick it up again. The
fox has played some trick, of course," said Farmer Roe, "and we must