" he grunted. _Page 89._]

"Drop him!" he grunted.

Granny Fox just snarled and backed away, dragging Peter with her and
keeping him between Prickly Porky and herself.

By this time Jimmy Skunk had recovered himself. You know he is not
afraid of anybody or anything. He sprang out from behind the stump,
looking a wee bit shame-faced, and started for old Granny Fox. "You
let Peter Rabbit go!" he commanded in a very threatening way. Now the
reason Jimmy Skunk is afraid of nobody is because he carries with him
a little bag of very strong perfume which makes everybody sick but
himself. Granny Fox knows all about this. For just a minute she
hesitated. Then she thought that if Jimmy used it, it would be as bad
for Peter as for her, and she didn't believe Jimmy would use it. So
she kept on backing away, dragging Peter with her. Then Unc' Billy
Possum took a hand, and his was the bravest deed of all, for he knew
that Granny was more than a match for him in a fight. He slipped down
from the tree where he had sought safety, crept around behind Granny,
and bit her sharply on one heel. Granny let go of Peter to turn and
snap at Unc' Billy. This was Peter's chance. He slipped out from under
Granny's paws and in a flash was behind Prickly Porky.

XIX

JIMMY SKUNK TAKES WORD TO MRS. PETER

When old Granny Fox found Prickly Porky, with his thousand little
spears all pointing at her, standing between her and Peter Rabbit, she
was the angriest old Fox ever seen. She didn't dare touch Prickly
Porky, for she knew well enough what it would mean to get one of those
sharp, barbed little spears in her skin. To think that she actually
had caught Peter Rabbit and then lost him was too provoking! It was
more than her temper, never of the best, could stand. In her anger she
dug up the leaves and earth with her hind feet, and all the time her
tongue fairly flew as she called Prickly Porky, Jimmy Skunk, and Unc'
Billy Possum everything bad she could think of. Her yellow eyes
snapped so that it seemed almost as if sparks of fire flew from them.
It made Peter shiver just to look at her.

Unc' Billy Possum, who, by slipping up behind her and biting one of
her heels, had made her let go of Peter, grinned down at her from a
safe place in a tree. Jimmy Skunk stood grinning at her in the most
provoking manner, and she couldn't do a thing about it, because she
had no desire to have Jimmy use his little bag of perfume. So she
talked herself o