'd told
the truth about the Bobby Coon business.

"I let him go on as wildly as he pleased, for I was thinking to myself
all the time that Jimmy would soon be having a hard time if things
went the way Mr. Crow and old Slowly had figured, and it was all I
could do to keep myself from laughing right out loud, I felt so
tickled. It seemed to me that Mr. Crow wouldn't hatch out a plan that
could go wrong, and Mr. Turtle was so terribly in earnest about
playing his part of it that I had good reason to think Jimmy would
have the hot end of the stick before long, with me right on hand to
see the whole game.

"Yes, I did tremble once in a while, when I thought of how hot Jimmy
would be against me if he did get into a scrape, for by my hunting him
up it looked a good deal as if I had quite a finger in the pie,
whatever kind of pie it might be, though, as I've already said, I
hadn't the littlest bit of an idea as to what was really in the wind,
but I knew it was about time for things to begin to hum, especially if
Slowly kept on doing his part as well as he had begun."

CHAPTER XVI

TROUBLE IN THE CLUB

"It took Jimmy a long time to get down to the pond, because he had to
stop every now and then to rub it into me on account of the Bobby Coon
business, and by the way he talked you'd thought I was the only thing
in the big woods who'd not done right," Mr. Bunny said as he nursed
his knee carefully, swaying his body to and fro slowly, but keeping a
sharp watch around lest some one of his many enemies should creep upon
him unawares.

"If it had been at any other time, except when I counted he was going
to get it good and hot mighty soon, I'd have had it out with him then
and on the spot, for there isn't any hedgehog that ever walked who'll
be allowed to give me cheap talk about what I hadn't any finger in,
except to tag on behind when the two of 'em were going toward Mr.
Man's barn, and I wouldn't have done even as much as that if I hadn't
known they'd call me 'fraid cat' unless I stayed with the crowd.

"Oh my! how big Jimmy did feel, and how he threw out his chest while
we were going to the pond, and the more he talked the surer he was
that there wasn't anything in the big woods that could so much as hold
a candle to him! As I told you, I let him run on, because I had a
mighty good idea of what was going to happen, and whenever we came to
a big bunch of ferns I crept among them to have a chance for laughing
withou