's head was a real, live
one. And just as the old chap reached for the second coat Nimble Deer
had to cough. He didn't want to. Hadn't Jimmy Rabbit cautioned him not
to stir--not to open his mouth?

But the cough came all the same, right in Uncle Jerry Chuck's ear. And
Uncle Jerry jumped. He dropped both hats and both coats. And then he
waddled off as fast as he could go and scrambled over the stone wall,
out of sight. He didn't even wait to get his own rusty coat and tattered
hat, which he had left lying on the ground.

Uncle Jerry hadn't been gone long when all the company came jostling up
to Nimble. Everybody--except Nimble--was very merry. Amid a good many
jokes the company put on their hats and coats, until only Aunt Polly
Woodchuck's poke bonnet hung from Nimble's horns.

Then--just for fun--Jimmy Rabbit set the bonnet on Nimble's head and
tied its strings under his chin. And Aunt Polly Woodchuck herself
laughed hardest of all.

And then all at once something happened. A dog barked. "It's old dog
Spot!" somebody cried.

Nimble Deer was the first to run. One leap took him out of the evergreen
thicket in which he had been standing all the evening. Three leaps more
took him over the stone wall.

After that nobody saw him--nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck's bonnet--again that
night.

The whole company scattered and vanished like baby grouse surprised in
the woods. And when old dog Spot reached the clump of evergreens a few
moments later he found nothing to show that there had been a party
there--that is, he found nothing except a battered hat and a rusty
coat lying on the ground.

Spot sniffed at them. "Unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Jerry Chuck has
forgotten something," he murmured. "No doubt he'll be back here in
a little while."

So Spot waited and waited there.

But Uncle Jerry Chuck was half a mile away and sound asleep in his
underground chamber.

And Nimble Deer was a mile away, over in Cedar Swamp, trying to tear
Aunt Polly's bonnet off his head by rubbing his horns against a young
cedar.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Nimble Deer, by Arthur Scott Bailey

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