e swung, his quills rustling like dry leaves in a
strong wind. I caught just one glimpse of old Slowly's eye as he
winked it wickedly, and then I saw his jaws come together on the
middle of Jimmy's tail, where there wasn't a chance of his being
pricked. Now don't you think there was any need of telling Jimmy that
things had gone wrong in the rear! It was just the same as if old
Slowly had telegraphed, for at the very minute Mr. Turtle got the
hold he wanted, that hedgehog let out a yell which you could have
heard from one end of the big woods to the other, and off he started
at full speed.

Mr. Turtle never said a word, and he couldn't on account of his mouth
being so full. He didn't have time to wink at me again before I saw
him whisking through the bushes just as if he were flying. It was as
much as a minute before I came to understand what was happening, and
then you can make up your mind that I put in my best licks to be on
hand when the end came, for Jimmy isn't great at running, and it stood
to reason he couldn't keep up that pace very long.

"I don't allow that the frightened hedgehog knew where he was aiming
for when he started. You see old Slowly must have hurt him a good bit,
if he shut his jaws together right hard, as Jimmy said he did, for Mr.
Crow declares that he could bite off the end of an oak stick and not
strain himself very much. It so happened, though, that when Jimmy
struck his two-minute clip he was heading straight for the big oak,
and nothing could have suited the president of the club any better.

"It wasn't very hard for me to get well up with the procession before
the race was more than half run, and as we came within sight of the
big oak I saw that nearly every member of the club was there, as if
notices of a special meeting had been sent out. I afterward heard that
all Cheeko's boys had been running around the country a full hour to
get the wood folks gathered where they could see the fun, and surely
those young fellows had done their work well, for it didn't seem as if
any one was absent, though I'm allowing that more than one wished,
before the day was over, that he hadn't been so prompt in answering
the president's invitation.

"As near as I could figure it out, Jimmy didn't have an idea that any
one was near until he found himself in the very midst of the crowd,
and then he swung around in order to stop quickly, when, of course,
old Mr. Turtle flew out like a rock on the end of a str