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Tale of Frisky Squirrel

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<h2>XI</h2><h3>Jimmy Rabbit is too Late</h3></div> <p>It was just as Jimmy Rabbit had said. You remember that as he stood behind Frisky Squirrel’s back with his mother’s big shears, all ready to cut off Frisky’s tail, he had told Frisky that “it would all be over in a jiffy”?</p> <p>Well, it <i>was</i>. But things didn’t happen just as Jimmy Rabbit had expected. He had taken a good, firm grip on the shears, and he was just about to shut them upon Frisky’s tail with a snap, when somebody called Frisky’s name. Frisky knew who it was right away. It was his mother! And like most of us, when our mothers<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_54' id='Page_54'>[Pg 54]</SPAN></span> catch us doing something we ought not to do, Frisky was so surprised and so startled that he gave a great jump.</p> <p>That jump was all that saved Frisky’s tail. For just as Mrs. Squirrel called, Jimmy Rabbit shut the shears together as hard as he could. But Jimmy was too late. When Frisky jumped, his tail followed him, of course. It whisked out from between the shears; and they closed upon nothing at all.</p> <p>“Now, that’s too bad!” Jimmy exclaimed. He had been so interested in what he was doing that he had never heard Mrs. Squirrel at all. “Come back here and we’ll try again.”</p> <p>The words were scarcely out of Jimmy Rabbit’s mouth when he received a terrific box on the ear. Now, it’s bad enough for anybody to have his ears boxed. But Jimmy’s ears were so big that I dare say it<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_55' id='Page_55'>[Pg 55]</SPAN></span> hurt him three times as much as it would have hurt anyone else. And it surprised him, too. For he hadn’t heard Mrs. Squirrel as she stole up behind him. Anyhow, he ran off howling, taking his mother’s shears with him.</p> <p>“That awful Rabbit boy!” Mrs. Squirrel said. “A moment more and he would have cut off your beautiful tail—your best feature, too!”</p> <p>“What’s a feature, Mother?” Frisky asked.</p> <p>“Why—your nose, and your eyes, and your ears—anything of that sort,” Mrs. Squirrel said. “It makes me feel faint just to think what almost happened.”</p> <p>“But Jimmy Rabbit says long tails are out of fashion,” said Frisky.</p> <p>“Out of fashion indeed!” Mrs. Squirrel sniffed. “He’s jealous—that’s what’s the trouble with him. He wishes he had a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_56' id='Page_56'>[Pg 56]</SPAN></span> fine, long, bushy tail himself. Goodness me! I’m all of a flutter—I’m so upset.” And poor Mrs. Squirrel sat right down and fanned herself with her sun-bonnet. “Now, don’t you ever let anybody try to cut off your tail again,” she said to Frisky. “You have your father’s tail. And everybody always said that he had the most beautiful tail that was ever seen in these woods.”</p> <p>Frisky didn’t quite understand what his mother meant. If he had his father’s tail, then where was his? And if it was his, then where was his father’s? All the way home he kept asking himself questions like those. But whatever the answers might be, Frisky was glad that he still bore that beautiful brush. He began to see that he would have looked very queer, with just a short stub like Jimmy Rabbit’s.</p> <hr class='major' /> <div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <SPAN name='illus-021' id='illus-021'></SPAN> <ANTIMG src='images/illus-041.png' alt='300' title='' /><br/></div> <div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <SPAN name='XII' id='XII'></SPAN> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_57' id='Page_57'>[Pg 57]</SPAN></span> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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