Doctor Rabbit and Brushtail the Fox | Page 9

time he
found a piece of cheese he did just what he did with the first piece: he

carried it to that hole and dropped it in. When he had finished he stood
and looked down at all those pieces of cheese. Then he began
scratching leaves and dirt into the hole. Once in a while he would turn
around and look down into the hole and laugh. Then he would turn his
back again, and just make the leaves and dirt fly into that hole.
Well, he scratched and scratched and scratched until there was not a bit
of cheese anywhere to be seen. The hole was full of leaves and dirt, so
you never could have found it. Mrs. Brushtail came out and smiled at
Brushtail, and both of them looked at Farmer Roe's house and laughed
and laughed.
But Doctor Rabbit was not pleased. I should say he wasn't pleased, and
he wondered how these two terrible creatures would ever be driven
away from the woods. And he wondered more than ever who it was
that kept growling in the thicket.

THE GROWLERS COME OUT OF THE THICKET
After Mr. and Mrs. Brushtail had gone back into the thicket, Doctor
Rabbit wanted to run home. He surely was uncomfortable so near to
Brushtail and Mrs. Brushtail.
"And still," he thought to himself, "since I am here, I'll just stay a little
longer and discover all I can."
Well, the growling went on for a while in the thicket, and then
something happened that certainly surprised Doctor Rabbit. Mrs.
Brushtail came out into the open with Farmer Roe's chicken, partly
eaten, and she was followed by four little foxes!
Mrs. Brushtail dropped the chicken on the ground for the little foxes,
and then she sprang upon a log and just lay there and watched them. Mr.
Fox trotted off into the woods again.
"He's probably going after another hen," thought Doctor Rabbit, "or
after Stubby Woodchuck or Chatty Red Squirrel or any of us he can

catch." And Doctor Rabbit hoped all his little friends would be on the
lookout.
While Mrs. Brushtail lay up on the log and looked on proudly, how the
little foxes did pull at that dead chicken and growl!
"And so there are the growlers I heard in the thicket!" Doctor Rabbit
thought to himself.
Those little foxes might have looked pretty to some people, they were
so young and so playful and so funny; but they did not look pretty to
Doctor Rabbit. Indeed they did not. They looked like four terrible
monsters. Their little eyes snapped like the eyes of terrible little
savages, and their tiny teeth, sharp as needles, pulled feathers and sank
into the chicken.
It was certainly true that Mrs. Brushtail was teaching her very small
children how to eat chicken, and as she lay on the log and watched
them, she seemed perfectly satisfied with them.
After the little foxes had growled and pulled at the chicken for a good
while, Brushtail was seen coming through the woods with something in
his mouth. Then suddenly Doctor Rabbit became almost sick with fear.
He thought for a second that Brushtail had caught Stubby Woodchuck,
but it proved to be no one but a large and ugly old woodrat that had
lately grown so cross and savage that all the little creatures of the Big
Green Woods were afraid of him.
Doctor Rabbit was very glad indeed that it was that particular old
woodrat, because he had really become dangerous.
Brushtail dropped the woodrat down before the little foxes, and how
they did did begin pulling and biting him! Mrs. Brushtail up on the log
smiled ever so broadly at this. But it was not a pleasing smile to Doctor
Rabbit, hiding in the briar patch. I should say not! It was a terrible
smile.
The next instant Yappy came tearing through the woods, right toward

the thicket, and Doctor Rabbit had a moment of hope. But Mrs.
Brushtail just uttered one quick, low growl, and every little fox scurried
into the thicket. That time Doctor Rabbit had a good view of the inside
of the thicket, and he saw what became of the foxes. They went into a
hole under some rocks by a large papaw bush. "So that," said Doctor
Rabbit to himself, "is where Mr. and Mrs. Brushtail and their little
Brushies have their den."
Brushtail did not run into the thicket with Mrs. Brushtail and the little
foxes. When he saw Yappy coming toward the thicket he ran right
toward the excited dog and then hid behind another thicket. When
Yappy came near, Brushtail sprang right out, and away he ran. Yappy
bayed loudly, and away he went through the woods after Brushtail.
You see now what