k
Rabbit began to back off toward the door and say a few soothing words,
when all at once Mr. Polecat leaned back and commenced to laugh and
laugh at the funny picture Mr. Dog made where Mr. Rabbit called to him,
'Dance! Mr. Dog, dance!' And then, of course, Mr. Rabbit felt better,
for if his company thought it was funny and laughed there wasn't so much
danger.

"'Why,' said Mr. Polecat, 'it's the best thing I ever saw! You could
almost imagine that Mr. Dog himself was right here, howling and barking
and dancing.'

"'Oh, no, hardly that,' said Mr. Rabbit. 'Of course I suppose it is a
little like him, but it's not at all as if he were here, you know--not
at all--and he's ever so far off, I'm sure, and won't come again for a
long time. You know, he's----'

"'Oh, yes, it is!' declared Mr. Polecat. 'It's just as if he were right
here. And I can just hear him howl and bark, and----'

"And right there Mr. Polecat stopped and Mr. Rabbit stopped, and both of
them held their breath and listened, for sure enough they did hear Mr.
Dog howling and barking and coming toward the house as straight as he
could come.

"Jack Rabbit gave a jump right up in the air, and hollered, 'Run! Mr.
Polecat, run! and go the back way!' But Mr. Polecat never runs from
anybody--he doesn't have to--he just opens up that perfume of his and
the other people do the running. So Mr. Rabbit gave one more jump, and
this time he jumped straight up the chimney, and didn't stop till he got
to the roof, where he found a loose board and put it over the chimney
quick and sat down on it. Then he called to Mr. Dog, who was coming
lickety-split through the woods:--

"'Why, how are you, Mr. Dog? Glad to see you! Walk right in. There's
company down stairs; just make yourself at home till I come down.' You
see there was no use to stop him now, because Mr. Rabbit could tell by
what was coming up the chimney that it was too late, and he wanted Mr.
Dog to get a good dose of it as well as himself.

"And Mr. Dog did come just as hard as he could tear, for the wind was
blowing toward the house and he couldn't detect anything wrong until he
gave a great big jump into Mr. Rabbit's sitting room and right into the
midst of the most awful smell that was ever turned loose in the Big Deep
Woods.

"Well, it took Mr. Dog so suddenly that he almost fainted away. Then he
gave a howl, as if a wagon had run over his tail, and tumbled out of
that sitting room and set out for home