njoy more than to make the trip with Nimble and his
mother. He had once tasted baked beans. And ever since that occasion he
had meant to see if he couldn't find some around Farmer Green's house.

Of course it would have been awkward to say no. So Nimble said yes to
everybody. He even promised that he would let all his friends know when
the excursion should take place.

But of all these things he said not a word to his mother. He was not
sure that they would please her. In fact he was sure that they
wouldn't.

V

NIMBLE'S MISTAKE

One morning Nimble's mother said to him, "To-night, just as the moon
rises, we'll start for Farmer Green's garden patch."

He knew what that meant. It meant that he was going to know, at last,
what carrots tasted like. And he was delighted.

"You've improved fast," his mother told him. "You've grown a good deal.
You start to run much more quickly than you did a month ago; and you're
quite speedy now. I must say that you don't mind me any too well. Take
care that to-night you do exactly as you're ordered!"

Nimble promised. "I'll be good," he said. "No matter how many carrots
you want me to eat, I'll finish every one."

"No matter if you haven't had a chance to eat a single carrot, if I
tell you to run you must obey instantly," his mother warned him. "Two
seconds' delay might be fatal," she added solemnly. "If we hear a twig
snap you mustn't stop to look nor listen."

"Yes!" said Nimble. But ten minutes later he couldn't have repeated a
word that his mother said--except that they were going to start for the
garden when the moon rose. That much he told Jimmy Rabbit when he met
him in the woods a little while afterward. And Jimmy Rabbit agreed to
get the news, somehow, to Fatty Coon and Cuffy Bear.

He was as good as his promise--even better. For Jimmy told everybody he
met that day. He explained about the excursion to the garden patch and
said that every one must be ready to start just as the moon peeped over
the rim of the world, for Nimble Deer's mother wouldn't wait for anybody
that wasn't on hand.

Nimble found that day a long one. He was so eager to get a carrot
between his lips that he thought night would never come. But darkness
fell at last. And some hours later his mother said to him, "Are you
ready?"

He was. So together they passed silently along the old runway which
led, as his mother knew, to the pasture fence. The woods were inky
black, for the moon had not