Then Mr. Turtle crossed the line.
"You"ve won!" Tommy exclaimed. And he was so pleased that he gave Mr.
Turtle a good, hard slap on the back. "Ouch!" Tommy said. There was a look of pain on his face. He had forgotten that Mr. Turtle had such a hard back.
"Who"s won?" one of the Rabbit brothers asked.
"Why, Mr. Turtle!" said Tommy Fox.
"That," said the Rabbit boy, "that is just where you are mistaken, sir.
Jimmy Rabbit has won the race--for _I_ am Jimmy Rabbit."
For a moment there was silence. And then a great shout went up. For they all saw that it was Jimmy Rabbit himself, dressed like one of his brothers.
But Tommy Fox did not shout at all. He was very angry. "There"s been some trick played on us," he said.
"Where"s my sled, Mr. Turtle?" Jimmy Rabbit asked. He turned around. But Mr. Turtle had vanished. He had jumped into the brook and swum away.
So Jimmy Rabbit did not get the sled after all. But he was so pleased over the way he had outwitted Tommy Fox that he didn"t care very much.
And all his friends said that he was not only a fast runner, but a very clever fellow as well.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 9 Playing Leap-Frog]
9
Playing Leap-Frog
There was great joy in the woods. Jimmy Rabbit had promised to teach his friends a new game. Frisky Squirrel and Billy Woodchuck, Fatty c.o.o.n and Tommy Fox, were all on hand to have their share of the fun.
"What"s the game called?" Frisky Squirrel asked.
"It"s leap-frog," Jimmy told him.
"Shucks!" said Fatty c.o.o.n. "The frog"s not here yet. And we can"t do anything till _he_ comes."
Jimmy Rabbit laughed.
"You don"t need a frog to play leap-frog," he said. "Just squat down in front of me and I"ll show you how it"s done."
Frisky Squirrel did just as Jimmy told him to do. And Jimmy ran up behind him, put his front paws on Frisky"s back, and leaped over him.
Then he ran on a little way. And when he stopped, he crouched down and called to Fatty c.o.o.n to jump over them both.
Soon they were all playing leap-frog, though Tommy Fox said that he didn"t think it was much of a game.
"There"s more to it than you think," Jimmy said. "I haven"t taught you the whole game yet."
"Well, I want to learn it all," Tommy Fox grumbled.
"Wait until you do this part better," Jimmy Rabbit said. "Then I"ll show you something different. You must learn to leap higher and further.
You"re not half as good a jumper as I supposed you were."
Tommy Fox did not like that very well. And if he and Jimmy Rabbit had been alone I am afraid he would have done something very unpleasant to Jimmy. But now he only snarled a little, and showed his teeth, and said that he could leap higher and further than any of the others.
"Well, you"re a good boaster, anyhow," said Jimmy.
Everybody laughed at that--except Tommy Fox. _He_ frowned. And when it was his turn to leap over the others he sprang so high and so far that he jumped over Frisky Squirrel and Fatty c.o.o.n together, without once touching the ground. It was really a wonderful jump.
"What do you think of that?" Tommy asked with a grin. "Can any of you beat that?"
"It"s a pretty fair leap," Jimmy Rabbit admitted. "But I"ve seen better.
When I"m in practice I can do better myself. A really good leap-frog player ought to be able to jump over three people at a time."
Fatty c.o.o.n shook his head. He was not much of a jumper--he was so fat, and his legs were so short. And he didn"t believe he could ever leap over three people at a time.
"I could do it, if you"d let me start from a tree," Frisky Squirrel said.
But Jimmy told him that that was never allowed.
"It"s against the rules of the game," he explained.
"Well, I can do it, and start on the ground, too," Tommy Fox boasted. "I can do anything anybody else can do."
"I believe you can," Jimmy Rabbit said, to everybody"s surprise. For they all knew that he didn"t like Tommy Fox. "We"ll give you a good, fair chance to try it," Jimmy went on. "You squat here," he told Fatty c.o.o.n. And he pointed out the exact place where he wanted Fatty to stand.
A little way behind Fatty, he stationed Frisky Squirrel. And back of Frisky he took his own place.
"Now!" Jimmy Rabbit said, "are you all ready?"
"Yes," they cried.
"I"m coming!" called Tommy Fox. And he came running up behind them. He rested his front paws on Jimmy Rabbit"s back. And just as he leaped, Jimmy Rabbit leaped too.
You might say that Tommy Fox made a double jump. His own jump would have been a high one. But when Jimmy jumped, it sent Tommy Fox all the higher into the air. He went sailing far above Frisky Squirrel and Fatty c.o.o.n; and still he kept on, turning and tumbling, head over heels, until at last he landed with a great splash in the same deep pool where the hornets chased Cuffy Bear one time.
When Tommy Fox crawled out upon the bank, dripping wet, the leap-frog players were nowhere to be seen.
Though Tommy did not know it, at that very moment they were hidden in the woods, rolling over and over upon the ground, and laughing as if they would never stop.
Finally Jimmy Rabbit sat up and wiped the tears off his face. He had laughed so hard that he had cried.
"I told him I"d teach him something different about leap-frog," he said.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 10 The Tooth Puller]