the cleverness of chirp sparrow
watch must have kept his word about sending the cows to talk to nibble rabbit. for the first thing they did when the barn door was opened was to come trooping up to his cage. and an old white cow put her big starey eye right up close to it, because she’s very near-sighted, and sniffed. nibble’s fur blew as hard as it did the time of the terrible storm. but her breath was all warm and sweet with clover, so he wasn’t afraid, though she was three times as big as the dog.
the very first thing the white cow said was: “why don’t you eat your breakfast?”
“i can’t. i’m all cramped up in this cage,” answered nibble.
“he’s too much afraid of being eaten,” laughed chirp sparrow, and he perched right on the white cow’s horn.
“why, there’s no one going to hurt him,” drawled the cow in a surprised tone.
“there was ouphe the rat last night. nibble felt pretty trembly about him.”
“ouphe! the disgusting thing. he came in and messed up our feed and danced over us with his pricky feet so we couldn’t sleep. i just called watch,” mooed the white cow in her nice fluty voice. it reminded nibble of the south wind.
“aren’t you afraid of watch?” nibble asked, for now he was truly going to find out whether watch was bad. “he said he’d kill you if his man told him to.”
“watch? why, watch couldn’t kill any one. he’s too fat and sleepy and good-natured. and no man would ever tell him to.”
“aren’t you afraid of man?” nibble asked next.
“man!” the white cow snorted again, and most of the others snorted, too. “why, tommy peele’s all the man that ever milks me. and he’s only a little boy. he snuggles right in beside me as though he were my own calf. i love tommy peele.”
“i don’t like tommy peele,” bellowed the red cow nibble had taken for a log when silvertip chased him. “i don’t like tommy peele. he threw stones at me when he drove me out of the cornfield.” she nudged the white cow away and sniffed at nibble’s carrot. “i’d like that,” said the greedy thing.
“you’d quarrel with any one,” drawled the white cow. “you’re always doing something you’ve no business to do.” and she moved off.
then chirp sparrow had a fine idea. “look here,” he whispered in the red cow’s ear. “if you want to get even with tommy peele you just catch your horn in that wire and let out his rabbit.”
“um-m, i dunno——” mumbled the red cow. she didn’t like stones the way tommy could throw them.
“then you can have the carrots—all the carrots. there are lots of them under the hay,” lied chirp.
the red cow lurched her head awkwardly. her horn caught on the wire. then she got scared and tried to break loose again. but what she broke loose was the whole door. she bounced off with it dangling against her face. “moo-oo-oo!” she bawled as she plunged about the barnyard. “take it off! take it off! it hurts my no-o-se!”
but nibble didn’t care. he took a fine long jump that stretched his long legs. and then who ever said a rabbit couldn’t dance? he danced a proper hornpipe and he twiddled his puffy tail and flopped his ears—all at once—because it felt so good to be free. and chirp sparrow squawked and sat down on his tail feathers because he was laughing too hard to fly. half at nibble and half at the red cow.
of course all the other sparrows came cheeping and chirping, and chanticleer the rooster crowed, though he didn’t know what he was crowing about. and the noise brought watch the dog on the run—and after him came tommy peele, not nearly so fast, for he still had his tall rubber boots on.
and nibble took to the only hole he knew anything about—which was ouphe’s—but he was so startled he didn’t stop to think of that. and the bad old rat woke up and started to come out of that very hole to see what all this noise was about.
then wasn’t nibble in a nice fix? just wasn’t he?
in front of him watch was sniffing and digging at the hay. behind him ouphe was murmuring in his sticky, trickly voice: “come right in, little friend rabbit. come right in.”
just then watch barked to tommy peele: “here he is. i’ve got him.” and tommy said in a very severe voice: “go ’way, watch. don’t you hurt my bunny.”
“there,” barked watch, “he says you’re still his bunny, even if you are wild again. come along!” but nibble didn’t move.
“go away!” said tommy again. “go on, watch; he’ll never come out until you do.”
but watch didn’t move. he could hear ouphe saying in a horrid voice: “come in here, or i’ll take you by the tail and pull you in.” and he held his very breath—and his wagger with it!
of course ouphe thought he had gone away. and he wasn’t very scared of tommy peele. so he caught hold of nibble’s tail. and then nibble was so frightened he began to squeal and pull. and ouphe held back.
“come along, nibble, come quick,” pleaded chirp sparrow. he meant that the dog was safer than the rat. but ouphe thought he meant that the dog was gone. so he let nibble pull him to the very edge of the hole.
“aurgh!” sang watch, very joyfully indeed. for he never touched nibble at all, but nipped ouphe the rat right through the heart with those very long teeth he shows when he laughs.
nibble sat right down there in the sunlight until he got his breath, and nobody tried to catch him.
watch couldn’t. he had his mouth all full of ouphe. and he was walking around on the tips of his toes, looking so vain that all the sparrows laughed at him. even tommy peele joined in. but watch didn’t care a bit. he just smiled as wide as he could let his mouth go and not lose ouphe out of it.
and nibble slipped over and ate his carrot. how good it tasted, now he was free!
