The Tale of Frisky Squirrel | Page 8

of yours cut off," Jimmy said one day. "It's terribly out of fashion to wear a tail so long as yours. As a special favor, I'll be willing to cut it off for you, with a big pair of shears that my mother has."
Frisky Squirrel was just a bit angry at this remark about his tail.
"What about your ears?" he asked. "Not one of the forest-people--except rabbits--wears his ears so long as you do. I must say that they look very queer. How'd you like to have me trim them for you?"
"Tell you what we'll do," Jimmy Rabbit said. "I'll cut off your tail and you'll cut off my ears. What do you say?"
Somehow or other, Frisky did not quite like the idea of losing his tail. He was so used to having it that he was afraid he might miss it dreadfully. And he even thought that he would rather keep it--even if it was out of fashion.
But Jimmy Rabbit ran home to get his mother's shears. And when he came back with them Frisky couldn't think of any good excuse for not letting Jimmy cut off his tail for him. As Jimmy came hopping up with the shears, Frisky Squirrel put out his paw.
"What do you want?" asked Jimmy.
"The shears!" Frisky said. "I'm going to trim your ears, you know."
"Oh--yes!" Jimmy answered. "But I thought of this first, you remember. So I'll cut your tail off first. Then you'll have your turn--see?" He kept a firm hold on the shears. And almost before Frisky knew what was happening Jimmy had stepped behind him and had placed Frisky's tail between the big shears.
"Will it hurt?" Frisky asked, as he looked behind him.
"It'll all be over in a jiffy," said Jimmy Rabbit.

XI
Jimmy Rabbit is too Late
It was just as Jimmy Rabbit had said. You remember that as he stood behind Frisky Squirrel's back with his mother's big shears, all ready to cut off Frisky's tail, he had told Frisky that "it would all be over in a jiffy"?
Well, it was. But things didn't happen just as Jimmy Rabbit had expected. He had taken a good, firm grip on the shears, and he was just about to shut them upon Frisky's tail with a snap, when somebody called Frisky's name. Frisky knew who it was right away. It was his mother! And like most of us, when our mothers catch us doing something we ought not to do, Frisky was so surprised and so startled that he gave a great jump.
That jump was all that saved Frisky's tail. For just as Mrs. Squirrel called, Jimmy Rabbit shut the shears together as hard as he could. But Jimmy was too late. When Frisky jumped, his tail followed him, of course. It whisked out from between the shears; and they closed upon nothing at all.
"Now, that's too bad!" Jimmy exclaimed. He had been so interested in what he was doing that he had never heard Mrs. Squirrel at all. "Come back here and we'll try again."
The words were scarcely out of Jimmy Rabbit's mouth when he received a terrific box on the ear. Now, it's bad enough for anybody to have his ears boxed. But Jimmy's ears were so big that I dare say it hurt him three times as much as it would have hurt anyone else. And it surprised him, too. For he hadn't heard Mrs. Squirrel as she stole up behind him. Anyhow, he ran off howling, taking his mother's shears with him.
"That awful Rabbit boy!" Mrs. Squirrel said. "A moment more and he would have cut off your beautiful tail--your best feature, too!"
"What's a feature, Mother?" Frisky asked.
"Why--your nose, and your eyes, and your ears--anything of that sort," Mrs. Squirrel said. "It makes me feel faint just to think what almost happened."
"But Jimmy Rabbit says long tails are out of fashion," said Frisky.
"Out of fashion indeed!" Mrs. Squirrel sniffed. "He's jealous--that's what's the trouble with him. He wishes he had a fine, long, bushy tail himself. Goodness me! I'm all of a flutter--I'm so upset." And poor Mrs. Squirrel sat right down and fanned herself with her sun-bonnet. "Now, don't you ever let anybody try to cut off your tail again," she said to Frisky. "You have your father's tail. And everybody always said that he had the most beautiful tail that was ever seen in these woods."
Frisky didn't quite understand what his mother meant. If he had his father's tail, then where was his? And if it was his, then where was his father's? All the way home he kept asking himself questions like those. But whatever the answers might be, Frisky was glad that he still bore that beautiful brush. He began to see that he would have looked very queer, with just a short stub like