Doctor Rabbit could not bear to see that big gray goose gobbled up, so
he shouted as loud as he could, "Look out, Gray Goose! Brushtail the
Fox is going to get you! He's coming! He's coming!"
Now, as you may know, a tame goose cannot fly very far, but many of
them can fly a short distance, and fly fairly high too. The gray goose
was terribly frightened, and instantly began flapping her great wings.
She flew just high enough in the air so that Brushtail missed him when
he sprang. If the Murmuring Brook had not been near, that gray goose
would surely have been caught, because, as I have said, she cannot fly
very far; but as it was she managed to fly across the brook. Then she
came to the ground again and ran screaming and flapping her wings
toward Farmer Roe's. She got out of the woods in a few moments and
Brushtail the Fox did not catch her.
Now when Doctor Rabbit shouted, Brushtail turned quickly and saw him,
but knowing that he could not catch both of them, he sprang for the
gray goose. But Brushtail did not swim across Murmuring Brook. He knew
it would take him too long, and he saw that he could not catch the
gray goose after all. So he turned from the edge of the brook and
started back after Doctor Rabbit.
My, but Brushtail was angry at Doctor Rabbit!
"It was that big fat rabbit that made me miss my dinner!" snarled
Brushtail.
"I saw him sitting on that fallen tree. It was he who warned that
silly goose!"
And Brushtail ran swiftly to the fallen tree, and darted quickly all
around it. He sprang into the near-by thickets and charged under some
small brush piles. In fact, he raced around and hunted in every spot
where he thought Doctor Rabbit might be hiding, and all the time he
kept up an angry growl.
"I'll get him; I'll get him," Brushtail kept snarling. "I'll get that
big fat rabbit if it takes me a week!"
BRUSHTAIL THE FOX FINDS THE TRAPS
A few days after Doctor Rabbit had helped Farmer Roe's big gray goose
to escape from Brushtail the Fox, Doctor Rabbit saw something that
interested him greatly. Farmer Roe was working at something out in the
woods. There was a briar patch near by, so Doctor Rabbit crept into
this and watched.
Yes, sir! Farmer Roe was actually setting a trap, or rather, he was
setting four traps. And he was surely arranging things so that if
Brushtail could ever be fooled at all he could be fooled here, or so
it seemed, at least. Farmer Roe had chosen a low place in
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