e, and Jack Rabbit
gave him his best chair and brought out a little table and put a lot of
nice things on it that Mr. Polecat likes, and began right away to pack
a basket for him to take home.

"But Mr. Polecat didn't seem to be in any hurry to go. He ate some of
the nice things, and then leaned back to talk and smoke, and told Mr.
Rabbit all the news he'd heard as he came along, and Mr. Rabbit got more
and more worried, for he knew that just as likely as not Mr. Polecat had
heard something about Mr. Dog and would begin to tell it pretty soon,
and then no knowing what would happen. So Jack Rabbit just said 'Yes'
and 'No' and began to talk about Mr. Robin, because Mr. Robin was a good
friend of everybody and nobody could get excited just talking about Mr.
Robin. But Mr. Polecat says:--'Oh, yes, I saw Mr. Robin as I came along,
and he called to me that Mr. Dog----' And then Jack Rabbit changed the
subject as quick as he could and spoke about Mr. Squirrel, and Mr.
Polecat says:--'Oh, did you hear how Mr. Squirrel went over to Mr. Man's
house and saw Mr. Dog there----' And then poor Mr. Rabbit had to think
quick and change the subject again to the Hollow Tree people, and Mr.
Polecat said:--'Oh, yes. I stopped by that way as I came along, and they
called out to me from up stairs how you were practising drawing, and
that you gave Mr. Dog some dancing lessons the other day, and then made
a fine picture of him just as he looked when he danced into the hot
coals, so I hurried right over here for just to see that picture.'

"Poor Mr. Rabbit! He didn't know what to do. He knew right away that
the Hollow Tree people had told about the picture to get rid of Mr.
Polecat, and he made up his mind that he'd get even with them some day
for getting him in such a fix. But some day was a long ways off and Mr.
Polecat was right there under his nose, so Mr. Rabbit said, just as
quick as he could say it, that the Hollow Tree people were always making
jokes, and that the picture was just as poor as it could be, and that
he'd be ashamed to show it to anybody, much more to a talented gentleman
like Mr. Polecat. But that made Mr. Polecat all the more anxious to see
it, for he was sure Mr. Rabbit was only modest, and pretty soon he
happened to spy the edge of the picture frame under Mr. Rabbit's bed,
and just reached under and pulled it out, before Mr. Rabbit could help
himself.

"Well, he picked up that picture and looked at it a minute, and Jac