py Weasel's head sticking out of a small hole high up in the
tree-trunk.

As they watched him Grumpy Weasel seemed to be saying something to them.
They couldn't hear what it was. But no doubt it was nothing pleasant.

XXV

PETER MINK'S PROMISE

It happened, on a bleak winter's day, that Grumpy Weasel was strolling
along the bank of Broad Brook when all at once he heard a squall.
Instantly he whirled around. There was something about the cry that
sounded familiar. And while he searched the stream up and down with his
sharp eyes he grew angrier every moment.

"Unless I'm mistaken that's my good-for-nothing cousin, Peter Mink,"
Grumpy muttered. "I'll teach him not to squall at me--the rascal!"

He did not have to look long before he caught sight of his cousin.
Peter Mink was crouched under the overhanging bank, not far from the
edge of the frozen surface of the brook. And he squalled again when he
saw that Grumpy had discovered him.

"Stop that!" Grumpy Weasel bellowed. He was not greatly afraid of Peter
Mink, though his cousin was much bigger than he. "I'll have you know
that I don't allow people to bawl at me, even if we are distantly
related."

"I wasn't bawling at you," Peter Mink answered. And he was strangely
polite, for him. "I was calling for help. Can't you see that my foot is
caught in a trap?"

At that Grumpy jumped down upon the ice and took a good look at Peter
Mink. He saw, then, that Peter spoke the truth. "This trap hurts my
foot, I can tell you," Peter Mink whined.

"Maybe it will teach you not to screech at people," Grumpy told him.

"You're going to help me, aren't you?" Peter Mink asked his cousin
anxiously.

"That trap belongs to Farmer Green's hired man," Grumpy informed Peter
Mink. "I saw him when he set it there. Perhaps you would like to have me
send word to him that you're using it."

"Oh! Don't do that!" Peter begged piteously.

"Well, then--suppose I get old dog Spot to come and see what he can do!
He'd have you out of that trap in no time!"

But that suggestion didn't suit Peter Mink any better.

"For goodness' sake, can't you think of something else?" he wailed.

His voice rose higher and higher as he spoke. And Grumpy Weasel showed
his sharp teeth as he warned Peter Mink again not to squall at him, for
he wouldn't stand it.

At last Peter saw that Grumpy did not intend to help him at all. So it
occurred to him that perhaps he could hire his cousin to free him fr