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Nimble Deer had stopped at Brownie Beaver's pond to get a drink. Just as he raised his head from the water he spied Brownie a little way off, on the bank, gnawing at a box alder tree.
"Good evening!" Nimble called to him.
"Good evening!" Brownie Beaver answered.
"I see you're busy, as usual," Nimble remarked.
"Yes!" Brownie replied. "And what are you doing—if I may ask?"
"Oh! I'm just rambling about," Nimble explained.
"Then you're not doing much of anything," said Brownie Beaver.
Nimble admitted that he wasn't.
"Since you're not working, perhaps you'll be willing to help me," Brownie suggested.
"Certainly!" Nimble cried. He liked Brownie Beaver. Everybody liked him—unless it was Timothy Turtle, who had a grudge against the whole Beaver tribe.
"Maybe I can make arrangements with you to——" Brownie began.
"Of course you can!" Nimble interrupted.
"That's very kind of you," Brownie said. "I'm sure I'm much obliged to you."
"You're quite welcome," Nimble assured him.
"You're sure you won't mind!" Brownie Beaver inquired.
"Not at all! No, indeed! What is it you want me to do for you? Do you want me to help you roll a log into the water, when you've finished cutting down that tree? I might use my horns for a cant hook, such as the lumbermen have."
"No! It's not that—thank you!" Brownie Beaver mumbled. He had not stopped working, while he talked. And having some chips in his mouth he did not speak any too clearly.
"Maybe you'd like me to walk back and forth along the top of your dam and make it firmer," Nimble suggested.
"No, it's not that," Brownie told him. "The dam is firm. It has been here a great many years, ever since my great-great-grandfather's time.... You've noticed my house, I dare say," he went on.
"I have," Nimble answered. "It's a good one, though the chimney looks a bitlopsided, to me. Shall I give it a push and see if I can straighten it?"
"No, indeed—thank you!" said Brownie hurriedly. "For mercy's sake, don't touch my chimney! I worked a long time to make it. And if I do say so, it's the best one in the whole village."
Well, Nimble Deer couldn't guess what it was that Brownie Beaver wanted him to do. He couldn't think of any other way in which he might help.
"Then what—" he demanded—"what is it you want?"
"There's something I need for my house," Brownie explained.
"Shingles!" Nimble cried.
"No!" Brownie said, as he shook his head.
"I hope you don't want a pair of antlers to fasten over your chimney piece!" Nimble exclaimed. "I shouldn't care topart with my antlers—not just at present!"
"No!" Brownie said once more.
"I'm glad of that," Nimble replied. For a moment he had been worried.
And then Brownie Beaver told him what he had in mind: "I need a flag to fly over my house."
"That would be fine," Nimble observed. "But I don't see how I could help you with that."
"I've heard that you have a flag. I thought perhaps you'd let me have it—or borrow it, at least," Brownie Beaver told him.
Nimble Deer looked puzzled.
"I haven't any flag," he said. And then he cried, "Yes! Yes, I have one!"
"Ah! I was told you had," said Brownie Beaver.
"Who told you?"
"Old Mr. Crow!" Brownie Beaver said.
"I might have known it," Nimble muttered. "He has played a joke on you. It's true that I have a flag; but it's not the kind of flag you want. Some people call my tail a flag, on account of the way I wave it in the air when I'm startled. Of course you wouldn't care to have my tail on the top of your house."
And Brownie Beaver admitted that he shouldn't.
"But I can't help being disappointed," he confessed.
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Nimble Deer was a famous jumper. And so was the Muley Cow. In Farmer Green's herd there was no other that could match her.
Living as he did in the pasture, Billy Woodchuck had often seen and admired the Muley Cow as she jumped the fence in order to get into the clover patch, or the cornfield, or the orchard.
And Jimmy Rabbit, who lived in the woods, had come to believe—and even boast—that there wasn't anyone that could jump higher than Nimble Deer.
So Billy Woodchuck and Jimmy Rabbit could never agree upon this question ofthe best jumper in Pleasant Valley. And there was only one way to settle their difference of opinion. Old Mr. Crow told them that.
"You must have a contest," he declared.
And everybody was willing. The Muley Cow said (when asked) that she would be delighted. And when Nimble Deer heard of the plan he ran all the way to the back pasture at once. For that was where Mr. Crow said the contest ought to take place.
Nimble reached the back pasture just in time to see the Muley Cow arrive there. She leaped the fence. And at the same time she grazed the top rail.
"Good morning, madam!" Nimble said to the Muley Cow. And while she was answering him Nimble jumped the fence into the pasture from which the Muley Cow had come; and then he jumped back again, into the back pasture. And he didn'ttouch the fence by so much as a single hair.
Then Billy Woodchuck crawled under the fence and came hurrying up.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm just stretching my legs a bit," Nimble explained. At that answer Billy Woodchuck set up a loud clamor. "It's not fair!" he howled. "I expected the Muley Cow to win the contest. But if you're going to stretch your legs she'll certainly be beaten unless she stretches hers too."
Now, old Mr. Crow was on hand to see the fun. And not being very friendly with the Muley Cow he didn't want her to win the contest. So he began to squall.
"She mustn't stretch her legs any more than Nimble stretches his," he objected in his hoarse croak. "Nimble jumped the fence twice to stretch his legs. She has jumped once already. Let her jump thefence once more and then they'll be even and the real contest can begin."
"That's fair enough," said Jimmy Rabbit. But Billy Woodchuck began to chatter and scold.
"It's a trick—a trick of Mr. Crow's!" he cried. "If the Muley Cow jumps once more to stretch her legs she'll be on the wrong side of the fence. She won't be in the back pasture then. And how could she have the contest with Nimble Deer?"
Old Mr. Crow gave a loud haw-haw. But he still insisted that the Muley Cow might have only one more leg-stretching jump, when Jimmy Rabbit hurried up to him and said something nobody else could hear. And Mr. Crow listened and then nodded his head.
"It's all right," the old gentleman told Billy Woodchuck. "Let the Muley Cow stretch her legs all she likes."
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Having had Mr. Crow's permission, the Muley Cow went on stretching her legs as much as she pleased. She jumped the pasture fence; and she jumped it back again. And when she seemed about to stop Billy Woodchuck whispered to her, "You may as well keep a-stretching them. Keep a-jumping! And when the time for the real contest with Nimble Deer comes your legs will be stretched so long that you'll beat Nimble without the slightest trouble."
So the Muley Cow jumped over the fence and back, over the fence and back. And when at last she said she was readyfor the contest Billy Woodchuck still urged her to stretch her legs a bit more.
By the time he was willing to let her stop the Muley Cow's sides were heaving.
Meanwhile Jimmy Rabbit and Billy Woodchuck, with Mr. Crow's help, had picked out a clump of young hawthorns for the first test. And now that everybody was ready for the contest Nimble Deer cleared the clump gracefully, with a foot to spare.
Then came the Muley Cow's turn. She looked worried as she fell into a lumbering gallop and ran towards the prickly young trees. And with a mighty effort she tried to fling herself over them.
As she rose into the air she gave a bellow of dismay, to fall floundering the next instant into the thorny thicket.
Jimmy Rabbit began to hop about in circles. He knew that Nimble had wonthe contest and Jimmy was very happy.
Old Mr. Crow haw-hawed. The Muley Cow had lost the contest and he was glad.
Nimble watched the Muley Cow as she struggled amid the hawthorns, trying to scramble out of the tangle.
"Can I help you, madam?" he asked.
But she never even thanked him. She was so upset that she neither wanted anybody to speak to her nor did she wish to speak to anybody else.
As for Billy Woodchuck, he looked frightfully disappointed. He had expected the Muley Cow to win the jumping contest. And there she was, beaten at the very first jump!
He stole up to her; and standing on his hind legs, to get as near her as he could, he said, "It's a pity you lost! I don't believe you stretched your legs enough."
The Muley Cow snorted.
"That's not the reason why," she snapped. "I stretched my legstoo much. I jumped the fence until I was so tired I could scarcely stand. It's no wonder that Nimble beat me."
Nimble Deer could see that the Muley Cow was feeling quite glum. After she had struggled free of the thorns he went up to her and bowed in his most polite manner. "Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked her.
"Yes! Do let down the bars for me!" she gasped. "I want to go home. And I couldn't jump that fence again. It would be dangerous for me to try. I might fall and break a leg off. And then I'd have a short leg the rest of my life."
"You could stretch it," old Mr. Crow suggested.
But the Muley Cow turned her back on him and walked away.
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Jimmy Rabbit was going to give a party. Up and down Pleasant Valley and all about Blue Mountain the field and forest people were talking about it.
Almost everybody had an invitation. There were only a few that weren't asked. Jimmy Rabbit didn't intend to invite Grumpy Weasel because he was a rascal. And Timothy Turtle wasn't to be one of the guests because he would be sure to grumble at everybody and everything.
And then there was Nimble Deer. Jimmy Rabbit said that Nimble wastoo bigto come to his party. And every onetold Jimmy Rabbit that it was a pity. All the neighbors said so much that Jimmy Rabbit didn't know what to do.
"If I don't ask Nimble you won't be pleased," Jimmy complained to Billy Woodchuck. "And if I do ask him and he should happen to step on you during a dance you wouldn't like that."
"Invite him; but keep him away from the crowd!" Billy Woodchuck suggested.
"How can I do that?" Jimmy Rabbit demanded.
"I don't know," Billy replied. "But I am sure you can find a way, if anybody can."
Well, after that remark there was nothing Jimmy Rabbit could do except to put on his thinking cap. But try as he would, he couldn't hit upon a single plan.
Now, Nimble Deer had no idea of all the trouble he was causing Jimmy Rabbit.To be sure, he knew that he was not invited to Jimmy Rabbit's party. But he was no person to sulk or feel hurt over such a matter.
However, there was one thing that he thought was odd. Wherever he went he was sure to come upon Jimmy Rabbit. Sometimes Nimble would hear a faint rustle. And when he looked around he would catch a glimpse of Jimmy Rabbit ducking out of sight behind a tree. Sometimes Nimble would be taking a nap under the shelter of a clump of evergreens. And he would wake up suddenly with a strange feeling that somebody was watching him. And almost always he would discover Jimmy Rabbit crouching near-by and staring at him.
At first, at such times, Nimble only spoke pleasantly to Jimmy Rabbit. Still he couldn't help noticing that Jimmy Rabbit always acted queerly. He seemed to be absent minded. If Nimble bade him a cheerful good morning Jimmy Rabbit was likely to reply with a good evening. If Nimble said, "It's a fine day," Jimmy would say, "Yes! It does look like rain."
At last, one day, Jimmy Rabbit made the oddest answer of all. When Nimble spied him peering from behind a stump he called, "Hullo! I'm glad to see you." To which remark Jimmy Rabbit said, "I hope to see you later."
"Now, I wonder—" Nimble mused—"I wonder what he means." And then Nimble asked Jimmy Rabbit a question: "Are you feeling well?"
"As well as could be expected!" Jimmy Rabbit told him.
"You don't seem like yourself," said Nimble. "I haven't seen you smile for over a week."
Then, strangely enough, Jimmy Rabbit jumped into the air and kicked and smiled.
"At last," he cried, "I feel better. I have solved the problem. Will you come to my party and help me a week from to-night?"
Nimble Deer thanked him and said that he would.
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All the field and forest people soon knew that at last Jimmy Rabbit had invited Nimble Deer to his party. And everybody was pleased—that is, everybody except Grumpy Weasel and old Timothy Turtle, who were left out in the cold, so to speak. Grumpy Weasel, when he heard the news, said, "Humph!" And Timothy Turtle, when he heard it, said, "Ho!" And they both declared that they weregladthey were not going to the party.
Old Mr. Crow carried the news far and wide. It was he that told Billy Woodchuck, in Farmer Green's clover patch.And Billy Woodchuck almost choked over a clover top, he was so excited.
"Where's Jimmy Rabbit?" he asked Mr. Crow. "I want to ask him something."
"I couldn't say where he is," said Mr. Crow. "I don't think he'd want me to tell. But I'll find him for you and I'll ask him your question—if you'll tell me what it is." That was Mr. Crow's way. He was so curious.
"Thank you!" said Billy Woodchuck. "I don't want to trouble you, Mr. Crow."
And though Mr. Crow tried to learn what the question was, Billy Woodchuck wouldn't tell him.
Later Billy was almost sorry he hadn't accepted Mr. Crow's help. For he couldn't find Jimmy Rabbit anywhere. And then Billy happened to meet Nimble Deer.
"I hear you're going to the party,"Billy said to him. "How are you going to keep out of the crowd?" That was the question he had wanted to ask Jimmy Rabbit.
"Keep out of the crowd!" Nimble exclaimed. "I don't expect to keep out of it. The crowd at a party is more than half the fun. Since I'm to help Jimmy Rabbit I'll have to be where the people are."
"Oh!" said Billy Woodchuck. He had been a bit worried, for he didn't want Nimble Deer to step on him at the party. Even though it might be an accident, being stepped on by so big a chap as Nimble would be no joke. Everybody knew that Nimble's hoofs were sharp.
But now Billy had learned something that set his fears at rest. Nimble Deer was going tohelpJimmy at the party.
"Ah!" Billy Woodchuck murmured to himself. "That means that Jimmy Rabbit has a plan. And it must be a good one; for his plans are always fine."
"What are you going to do to help?" he asked Nimble.
"Jimmy Rabbit didn't tell me," Nimble replied. "Maybe I'm to entertain the company by having a mock battle with somebody. How would you like to have a mock battle with me?"
"I shouldn't care for it at all!"
"Well, I dare saysomebodywould enjoy a sham fight," said Nimble. "I must ask Jimmy Rabbit who it will be."
So the next time Nimble found Jimmy Rabbit he asked him that very question.
But Jimmy Rabbit said there were to be no battles of any kind at his party.
"Then how am I going to help you?"
"You're going to use your horns—but not to fight," Jimmy Rabbit explained.
And he wouldn't say another word.
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The night of Jimmy Rabbit's party arrived at last. The time was an hour after sunset. The place was Farmer Green's back pasture. And Jimmy Rabbit was waiting eagerly. He had told Nimble Deer to come early, before the other guests, because Nimble was going to help him.
Jimmy Rabbit hadn't waited long when he heard a muffled thud, followed by a swift patter.
"There's Nimble now!" he exclaimed. "He just jumped the stone wall and he's coming this way."
Jimmy Rabbit was right. In a few seconds more Nimble Deer stood before him.
"Here I am!" Nimble cried. "I've come early and I'm ready to help you."
"Good!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "Step this way, please!" And he hopped over to a clump of evergreens. Nimble followed him.
"Now," Jimmy Rabbit went on, "step inside this thicket and let only your head and neck stick out!"
"What shall I do with my antlers?" Nimble asked him. "They won't come off, because it's the wrong time of year to shed them."
"Oh! I want your antlers to show too," Jimmy Rabbit assured him.
So Nimble did exactly as Jimmy Rabbit had told him.
Then Jimmy sat up a little way off, cocked his head on one side, and looked atNimble. "That's fine!" he declared. "When the moon comes up everybody will be able to see you—except what's hidden by the evergreens."
"What am I going to do here?" Nimble inquired.
"You're to stand perfectly still," Jimmy explained.
"And what else?"
"Nothing!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. "The other guests will do the rest.... And now, if you don't mind, I'll leave you here; for I hear somebody coming."
He scampered away then. But soon he came hurrying back.
"There's something I forgot to say," he told Nimble hurriedly. "You mustn't talk. You mustn't even open your mouth. You mustn't even chew your cud."
"I suppose I can wink if I want to," said Nimble Deer.
"No, indeed!" Jimmy Rabbit cried. "That would spoil everything."
"It's going to be hard," Nimble complained, "to keep so still."
"Oh, no!" Jimmy Rabbit assured him. "It will be easy. Just act as if you were stuffed!"
"Stuffed!" Nimble exclaimed. "I've never been stuffed. I hope I never shall be. And I don't know how to act as if I were."
Jimmy Rabbit didn't even wait to hear what Nimble said, but whisked away again.
"Dear me!" Nimble muttered. "I wish I hadn't said I'd come to the party and help. For it certainly won't be any fun to stand still in this thicket, with only my head and neck sticking out."
However, he had promised to help. So there was nothing to be done except to follow Jimmy Rabbit's orders. And at once Nimble could hear Jimmy Rabbit welcoming some early guests.
"Come this way and leave your hats and coats!" Jimmy Rabbit was saying. And soon he returned with Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon at his heels. Jimmy led them straight to the place where Nimble stood.
"Hang your things on my new hat-rack!" Jimmy Rabbit told them as he waved a paw toward Nimble's antlers.
And to Nimble's amazement they reached up to do as they were told.
But Nimble's antlers were too high for them.
It was a bad moment for Jimmy Rabbit.
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Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon had come early to Jimmy Rabbit's party. And Jimmy had told them to hang their hats and coats upon his new hat-rack—meaning Nimble Deer's antlers. But when they tried to do as they were bid they found that the antlers were beyond their reach.
Of course Jimmy Rabbit was most uncomfortable. He coughed and gave Nimble an odd look. He even nodded his head at Nimble behind his guests' backs, thereby doing his best to give Nimble a hint to lower his head.
But Nimble Deer couldn't imagine what Jimmy Rabbit meant. Hadn't Jimmy warned him not to move—not even to open his mouth, or chew his cud, or wink? So Nimble stood like a statue.
"I—I see my new hat-rack is too high," Jimmy Rabbit stammered. "Let me take your hats and coats and I'll hang them up for you while you go and wait for the rest of the company over by the stone wall!"
So Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon gave their hats and coats to Jimmy.
"That's a fine Deer's head," Fatty remarked. "It seems to me I've seen it before somewhere."
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. He wished his guests would move away.
"Those antlers remind me of Nimble Deer's," Billy Woodchuck remarked.And he gave Nimble a wink, for he had quickly guessed the secret of the hat-rack and how Jimmy Rabbit had planned to have Nimble at his party and yet keep him out of the crowd.
"Is this Deer's head stuffed?" Billy Woodchuck asked Jimmy Rabbit.
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy muttered. "Move along, please!"
Nimble wanted to return that wink that Billy Woodchuck gave him. But he didn't, because Jimmy Rabbit had warned him to keep perfectly still.
As soon as his guests had left them Jimmy whispered to Nimble, "Lower your head a bit, for pity's sake!"
Nimble promptly obeyed him. And Jimmy Rabbit hung the hats and coats upon Nimble's antlers.
"Now," Jimmy said, "keep your head exactly where it is!"
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Nimble Frightened Uncle Jerry Chuck
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Nimble Frightened Uncle Jerry Chuck.Page125
"I suppose I may raise it after everybody has come to the party," Nimble ventured.
"No! That would never do," Jimmy Rabbit replied firmly. "If anybody happened to come back to get a pocket-handkerchief out of his coat he'd be sure to notice the difference."
A sigh escaped Nimble Deer.
"My neck will ache before the evening's over," he said. "Couldn't I take a short walk in the woods, later, to rest myself?"
"My goodness, no!" Jimmy cried. "You'd be sure to lose some of the hats and coats, or tear them on some briars, or get them full of burs."
"How long is the party going to last?" Nimble asked.
"Only till midnight!"
At that Nimble gave a groan.
"S-s-h!" Jimmy Rabbit laid a pawupon his lips. "Keep still! Stuffed animals never talk. If you don't look out somebody will hear you."
And then he hurried away to join his guests. He did not want to leave them alone too long. He feared they might be saying things to each other about his new hat-rack.
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Soon Jimmy Rabbit's friends arrived at his party in throngs. And soon Nimble Deer's antlers bristled with hats and coats of many kinds and colors.
"I must look like a Christmas tree," Nimble thought. "I wish Jimmy Rabbit and his friends would come and dance around me so I might see the fun."
But they didn't. They stayed down in a little hollow some distance away. Nimble could hear their voices. And they seemed to be having a delightful time.
As for Nimble, he wasn't having a good time at all. "I'll never help at anotherparty!" he promised himself. He couldn't believe that midnight—and the end of the party—would ever come.
At last, however, he took heart. For old Uncle Jerry Chuck came hurrying up and began taking hats and coats off Nimble's antlers. And Nimble knew then that the party must be almost over.
"This is a good hat!" Uncle Jerry muttered to himself. "I'll take it." And then he said, "This is a good coat! I'll take it." Then he looked closely at another hat. "This is a good one, too!" he remarked. "I might lose the other. I'll take this one, too—and this coat here," he added, selecting a second coat that pleased him.
Little did Uncle Jerry Chuck dream that the Deer'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 itsstrings 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.