The Tale of Nimble Deer Part 5

Jimmy Rabbit made no reply, except to nod his head slightly. He was eating so fast that he really couldn't speak just then.

"Are these carrots?" Nimble inquired, as he looked about at the big cabbages, which crossed the garden in long rows.

Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.

"They seem to be good," said Nimble, "whatever they are. I'll taste of one."

And he did. In fact he tasted of three or four of them, eating their centers out neatly.

Meanwhile Jimmy Rabbit was becoming uneasy. And at last he spoke.

"I thought," he said, "you told me you had come down here to try the carrots."

"So I did," Nimble answered. "But I don't know where the carrots are."

"Why didn't you say so before?" Jimmy Rabbit asked him. And without waiting for a reply he cried, "Follow me! I'll show you." And he hopped off briskly, with Nimble after him.

Soon Jimmy Rabbit came to a halt.

"Here it is!" he said. "Here's the carrot patch. Help yourself!" And then he hopped away again, back to his supper of cabbages.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nimble Deer Followed Jimmy Rabbit.

_Page 57_]

Nimble Deer began to eat the carrot tops. And he was greatly disappointed.

"They're not half as good as those great round b.a.l.l.s," he muttered. And he turned away from the carrots, to go back and join Jimmy Rabbit. But he hadn't gone far when he met Jimmy bounding along in a great hurry.

"Old dog Spot!" Jimmy Rabbit gasped as he whisked past Nimble. "He's out to-night and he's coming this way."

In one leap Nimble sprang completely around and followed Jimmy Rabbit across the meadow, up through the pasture and over the stone wall into the woods. There they lost each other.

The next morning Nimble met his mother along the ridge that ran down toward Cedar Swamp.

"I went down to the carrot patch last night," he told her. "And I must say I don't see why you're so fond of carrots. They're not half as good as some big green b.a.l.l.s that I found in the garden. I call the carrot leaves tough. But the big green b.a.l.l.s have very tender leaves."

His mother gave him a queer look.

"Do you mean to tell me," she asked him, "that you ate only the _leaves_ of the carrots?"

"Why, yes!" said Nimble. "I saw nothing else to eat. There was no fruit on them."

"Ho!" cried his mother. "You have to dig with your toes to reach the carrots themselves. They're down in the ground. And to my mind there's nothing any juicier and sweeter and tenderer than nice young carrots, eaten by the light of the moon."

Nimble felt very foolish. And then he tossed his head and said lightly, "Oh, well! It wouldn't have made any difference if I _had_ dug the carrots out of the dirt. They wouldn't have tasted right anyhow. For there was no moon last night!"

XI

CUFFY AND THE CAVE

Nimble did not spend all his spare moments with the other Spike Horns.

Once in a while he met Cuffy Bear prowling about near the foot of Blue Mountain. But Nimble never had a mock battle with Cuffy. Cuffy Bear was a famous boxer. And in each of his paws he carried long sharp claws.

What if Cuffy should forget to pull in those claws sometime, when he struck you a playful tap? Ah! That wouldn't be very pleasant! This was what Nimble thought about the matter. So he never b.u.t.ted Cuffy Bear nor p.r.i.c.ked him with his spikes.

On the whole they found each other good company. Cuffy liked to see Nimble jump. And Nimble liked to see Cuffy climb trees.

One day, late in the fall, that year when Nimble was a Spike Horn, he strayed half way up the side of Blue Mountain. It was seldom that Nimble wandered so far up the steep and thickly wooded slopes. But old dog Spot was ranging about the lower woods. And for once Nimble did not run for Cedar Swamp when he heard the old dog bay. Instead he climbed steadily until he was sure that he had shaken Spot off his trail.

Nimble had stopped for a drink at the spring which marked the beginning of Broad Brook and there he met Cuffy Bear, who was just turning away from the ice-framed pool. "Aren't you a long way from home?" Cuffy asked him.

"Yes! But I can get down to my favorite ridge quickly enough, when I want to," said Nimble. "Do you live in this neighborhood?"

"I'm not quite sure," Cuffy Bear replied. "I've had my eye on a snug den a little further up the mountain. I'm thinking of living there, if it suits me.... Wouldn't you like to see it?"

Nimble told Cuffy that he would be delighted. So they started up the mountain, after Nimble had had his drink.

Cuffy Bear led the way. And in a short time he stopped in front of a cave. A tangle of bushes hid the mouth of it. You'd have pa.s.sed right by it without ever guessing that there was any cave there.

"This is it," Cuffy Bear told Nimble. "Come right in!"

"No, thank you. I'd rather not," said Nimble. "I don't care for caves, myself, though this seems to be a good one."

"It's worth seeing," Cuffy Bear urged.

"No, thank you!" Nimble repeated.

"You don't mind if I take a look at it?" Cuffy Bear inquired. "Maybe I can make up my mind--about living here--if I look at the cave once more."

"Go inside, by all means!" Nimble cried.

"Will you wait here till I come out?" Cuffy asked him.

And Nimble promised that he would wait.

Cuffy Bear yawned as he turned away. And Nimble thought it strange that he didn't take the trouble to beg pardon, nor to cover the yawn with a paw. Only a very careless--or a very sleepy--person would forget those things, Nimble knew.

Well, Cuffy crept inside the cave. And outside Nimble waited. He waited and waited, until at last the afternoon light began to fade.

"I wish he'd hurry," Nimble muttered. "We're going to have a storm and I don't want to stay up here in it, all night."

Snowflakes were already falling. And Nimble wished he hadn't promised that he would wait till Cuffy Bear came out of the cave.

He went to the entrance and called. But he got no answer.