Next day, while all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods were wondering just what Doctor Rabbit could be doing, Chatty Red Squirrel had an exciting time. It was a beautiful morning. The sun shone bright, and everything in the woods smelled so fresh and sweet that it was very fine to be out.

Chatty Red Squirrel was out, jumping about on the limbs of his tree and enjoying himself generally. He would frisk about first on one big limb, then on another, and every now and then he would bark a little. This was his way of laughing sometimes when he was as glad to be alive as he was this morning.

Pretty soon Chatty Squirrel scrambled[Pg 70] down his tree and went frisking around on the ground. Sometimes he would pick up an old worm-eaten nut and bite into it, and laugh, and throw it away. Then he would frisk around again, so fast that it would almost make anyone dizzy to look at him. And as sure as anything, some one was watching Chatty Squirrel, and watching him very closely, too. Not far away—just behind the nearest dogwood thicket, in fact—Tom Wildcat lay hiding and watching every movement that Chatty made. Old Tom was very hungry, and he believed here was a fine chance for a breakfast.

Now when Tom Wildcat hides in the woods, he can lie so still that unless you happen to look right at him you would never know he was there. And he can lie still so long you would think he[Pg 71] couldn’t stand it; but somehow he can, for that’s his nature.

Tom Wildcat lay behind that thicket and watched for nearly an hour while Chatty Squirrel played around and had a fine time—never thinking, of course, that Tom Wildcat was anywhere near.

Then at last Chatty started straight toward the thicket where Tom Wildcat lay. Tom crouched down close to the ground and got all ready to spring. He thought now surely he would get a breakfast. But after all he was the one who was the most surprised, for a little way off he heard some one cry out, “Run for your tree, Friend Chatty. Here’s Tom Wildcat!”

It was Doctor Rabbit who had shouted. He just happened to be passing that way to g............