For a wonder Grumpy Weasel was almost pleased.
"That"s true!" he cried. "I couldn"t be slow if I wanted to be!" And he actually asked the Woodchuck brothers to whistle "Pop! Goes the Weasel"
once more.
But Grumpy Weasel never thought of thanking them.
XIX
HIDING FROM HENRY HAWK
In the spring Grumpy Weasel was always glad to see the birds coming back from the South. But it must not be supposed that it was because he liked to hear them sing (for he didn"t!).
Nor should any one make the mistake of thinking that Grumpy Weasel loved the birds. The only reason why he welcomed them was because he liked to hunt them, and rob their nests.
But there were two birds that Grumpy didn"t care to have in Pleasant Valley. He often wished that Solomon Owl and Henry Hawk would leave the neighborhood and never return. That was because they liked to hunt him.
Especially did Grumpy Weasel dislike Henry Hawk, who had an unpleasant habit of sitting motionless on a limb in the top of some great tree.
From that high perch he swept the whole valley with his keen, cruel eyes, because (as he said) he "liked to see what was going on."
If Henry Hawk saw anything anywhere that interested him he lost no time in reaching that place. It might be a bird, or a meadow mouse, or maybe a plump chicken. And he was always hoping to catch a glimpse of Grumpy Weasel.
One day early in the fall Mr. Hawk saw what he had been looking for so long. Near the old cider mill, up the road from Farmer Green"s house, he spied a long, slender, brownish shape moving swiftly among a pile of barrels outside the building. He knew at once that it was Grumpy Weasel; and though he was a long way off Mr. Hawk could see that Grumpy was very busy looking for something--so busy, Mr. Hawk hoped, that Grumpy wouldn"t notice anything else.
Henry Hawk had wonderful eyesight. As he came hurtling down out of the sky he could see that Grumpy was playing hide-and-seek with a mouse.
"It"s a shame to break up the game," Mr. Hawk chuckled to himself.
And just then something made Grumpy Weasel look up. It must have been Henry Hawk"s shadow flickering over a barrel. There was no other sign that could have warned Grumpy.
He put the meadow mouse out of his mind without a bit of trouble and made a sidewise spring for the first hole on which his eyes lighted.
Grumpy was through it in a twinkling. Henry Hawk made a frantic grab with his talons at the black tip of Grumpy"s tail, just as it whisked out of sight. But he was too late.
It did not soothe Henry Hawk"s feelings to find that the meadow mouse had vanished at the same time. Henry would have liked to play hide-and-seek with him himself.
Mr. Hawk knew well enough where Grumpy was hiding. That slim fellow had sought safety in an empty jug, which was lying on its side near the pile of barrels. It made a fine fort for Grumpy Weasel. The enemy couldn"t break through it. And there was only one loophole, which was far too small to do Henry Hawk the least good.
Henry saw at once that he might as well go away. So he went off grumbling.
"This," he said, "is what comes of disorderly habits. Farmer Green ought not to have left that jug lying there. If he hadn"t, I might have been able to do him a good turn."
XX
A FREE RIDE
Inside the jug, where he had hidden to escape Henry Hawk, Grumpy Weasel yawned widely and licked his chops. He was having a dull time, waiting until he was sure that Henry Hawk had given up the chase and gone away.
In a little while Grumpy believed he could venture out in safety. But suddenly, to his great disgust, a wagon came clattering in from the road and pulled up right beside the pile of empty barrels near him.
It was Farmer Brown, driving his old horse Ebenezer. And of course Grumpy Weasel didn"t care to show himself just then, especially with old dog Spot nosing around. He had already heard Spot give several sharp yelps.
"That old dog knows I"m here somewhere but he can"t tell exactly where,"
Grumpy said to himself. "He can yelp his head off, for all I care."
And then Spot began to whine, and run in and out among the barrels, until he all but tripped Farmer Green, who was loading the barrels into the wagon.
"Let him whine!" said Grumpy Weasel softly. "His yelping and whining don"t scare me. He can"t get inside this jug of mine. And I certainly shan"t leave it so long as he stays here."
Meanwhile he could hear Farmer Green talking to old Spot, telling him not to be silly.
"From the way you"re acting anybody might think there was a bear around here," he told Spot.
Old dog Spot explained to Farmer Green in no uncertain fashion that it was no bear--but a weasel--that he was looking for. His nose told him that. And there was no mistake about it. But somehow Farmer Green couldn"t understand a word he said. So after putting the last barrel on the load Farmer Green climbed up himself and started to drive off.
But old dog Spot wouldn"t budge an inch. He hovered about the jug where Grumpy Weasel was hiding and made such a fuss that Farmer Green looked back at him.
"Well! well!" he exclaimed. And he stopped the horse Ebenezer and jumped down and walked back again.
"I declare I"d have forgotten to take this jug if you hadn"t reminded me of it," he told Spot. And thereupon he picked up the jug and set it in the back of the wagon.
This time Spot followed. This time he was in the wagon before Farmer Green was. And all the way down the road, until they reached the farmyard, he acted (or so Farmer Green told him!) like a simpleton.
The whole affair made Grumpy Weasel terribly angry. He thought it was an outrage for Farmer Green to kidnap him like that. And he was so enraged that he would have taken a bite out of anything handy. But there wasn"t a thing in the jug except himself.
At last the strange party drew up in front of the barn and stopped.
Farmer Green led Ebenezer into his stall. And then he took the jug, with Grumpy Weasel still inside in, and in spite of Spot"s protests set it high up on a shelf in the barn.
It was easy for Grumpy, after that, to crawl out of the jug. He scurried along the shelf, climbed up the wall, and glided through a crack in the ceiling, to hide himself in the haymow above.
"Old Spot didn"t get me this time!" he said gleefully. "Not by a jugful, he didn"t!"
XXI
A NEW SUIT
Throughout Pleasant Valley the very name of Grumpy Weasel was a bugaboo.