The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk | Page 6

what to do next.
"The only thing I can do is to get as far away from everybody as I can,"
thought he. "I guess I'll have to go up to the Old Pasture to live for a
while."
So he started for the Old Pasture, keeping as much out of sight as
possible. On the way he remembered that Old Man Coyote lived there.
Of course it would never do to go near Old Man Coyote's home for if
he smelled that awful perfume and discovered that he, Reddy, was the
cause of it he would certainly drive him out of the Old Pasture and then
where could he go? So Reddy went to the loneliest part of the Old

Pasture and crept into an old house that he and Granny had dug there
long ago when they had been forced to live in the Old Pasture in the
days when Farmer Brown's boy and Bowser the Hound had hunted
them for stealing chickens. There he stretched himself out and was
perfectly miserable.
"It wouldn't be so bad if I had really been to blame, but I wasn't. I didn't
know Jimmy Skunk was in that barrel and I didn't mean to start it
rolling down the hill anyway," he muttered. "It was all an accident
and--" He stopped and into his yellow eyes crept a look of suspicion. "I
wonder," said he slowly, "if Peter Rabbit knew that Jimmy Skunk was
there and planned to get me into all this trouble. I wonder."

VI
PETER RABBIT DOESN'T ENJOY HIS JOKE
All the time that Jimmy Skunk was punishing Reddy Fox for rolling
him down hill in a barrel, and while Reddy was sneaking away to the
Green Forest to get out of sight, Peter Rabbit was lying low in the old
house of Johnny Chuck, right near the place where Jimmy Skunk's wild
ride had come to an end. It had been a great relief to Peter when he had
seen Jimmy Skunk get to his feet, and he knew that Jimmy hadn't been
hurt in that wild ride. Lying flat in the doorway of Johnny Chuck's old
house, Peter could see all that went on without being seen himself, and
he could hear all that was said.
He chuckled as he saw Reddy Fox come up and his eyes were popping
right out with excitement as he waited for what would happen next. He
felt sure that Reddy Fox was in for something unpleasant, and he was
glad. Of course, that wasn't a bit nice of Peter. Right down in his heart
Peter knew it, but he had been chased so often by Reddy and given so
many dreadful frights, that he felt now that he was getting even. So he
chuckled as he waited for what was to happen. Suddenly that chuckle
broke right off in the middle, and Peter cried "Ouch!" He had felt a pain
as if a hot needle had been thrust into him. It made him almost jump

out of the doorway. But he remembered in time that it would never,
never do for him to show himself outside, for right away Reddy Fox
and Jimmy Skunk would suspect that he had had something to do with
that wild ride of Jimmy's in the barrel. So it would not do to show
himself now. No, indeed!
All he could do was to kick and squirm and twist his head around to see
what was happening. It didn't take long to find out. Even as he looked,
he felt another sharp pain which brought another "Ouch!" from him and
made him kick harder than ever. Two very angry little insects were just
getting ready to sting him again, and more were coming. They were
Yellow Jackets, which you know belong to the wasp family and carry
very sharp little lances in their tails. The fact is, this old house of
Johnny Chuck's had been deserted so long the Yellow Jackets had
decided that as no one else was using it, they would, and they had
begun to build their home just inside the hall.
Poor Peter! What could he do? He didn't dare go out, and he simply
couldn't stay where he was. Whatever he did must be done quickly, for
it looked to him as if a regular army of Yellow Jackets was coming,
and those little lances they carried were about the most painful things
he knew of. By this time he had lost all interest in what was going on
outside. There was quite enough going on inside; too much, in fact. He
remembered that Johnny Chuck digs his house deep down in the
ground. He looked down the long hall. It was dark down there. Perhaps
if he went down