"There"s Nimble now!" he exclaimed. "He just jumped the stone wall and he"s coming this way."
Jimmy Rabbit was right. In a few seconds more Nimble Deer stood before him.
"Here I am!" Nimble cried. "I"ve come early and I"m ready to help you."
"Good!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "Step this way, please!" And he hopped over to a clump of evergreens. Nimble followed him.
"Now," Jimmy Rabbit went on, "step inside this thicket and let only your head and neck stick out!"
"What shall I do with my antlers?" Nimble asked him. "They won"t come off, because it"s the wrong time of year to shed them."
"Oh! I want your antlers to show too," Jimmy Rabbit a.s.sured him.
So Nimble did exactly as Jimmy Rabbit had told him.
Then Jimmy sat up a little way off, c.o.c.ked his head on one side, and looked at Nimble. "That"s fine!" he declared. "When the moon comes up everybody will be able to see you--except what"s hidden by the evergreens."
"What am I going to do here?" Nimble inquired.
"You"re to stand perfectly still," Jimmy explained.
"And what else?"
"Nothing!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. "The other guests will do the rest....
And now, if you don"t mind, I"ll leave you here; for I hear somebody coming."
He scampered away then. But soon he came hurrying back.
"There"s something I forgot to say," he told Nimble hurriedly. "You mustn"t talk. You mustn"t even open your mouth. You mustn"t even chew your cud."
"I suppose I can wink if I want to," said Nimble Deer.
"No, indeed!" Jimmy Rabbit cried. "That would spoil everything."
"It"s going to be hard," Nimble complained, "to keep so still."
"Oh, no!" Jimmy Rabbit a.s.sured him. "It will be easy. Just act as if you were stuffed!"
"Stuffed!" Nimble exclaimed. "I"ve never been stuffed. I hope I never shall be. And I don"t know how to act as if I were."
Jimmy Rabbit didn"t even wait to hear what Nimble said, but whisked away again.
"Dear me!" Nimble muttered. "I wish I hadn"t said I"d come to the party and help. For it certainly won"t be any fun to stand still in this thicket, with only my head and neck sticking out."
However, he had promised to help. So there was nothing to be done except to follow Jimmy Rabbit"s orders. And at once Nimble could hear Jimmy Rabbit welcoming some early guests.
"Come this way and leave your hats and coats!" Jimmy Rabbit was saying.
And soon he returned with Billy Woodchuck and Fatty c.o.o.n at his heels.
Jimmy led them straight to the place where Nimble stood.
"Hang your things on my new hat-rack!" Jimmy Rabbit told them as he waved a paw toward Nimble"s antlers.
And to Nimble"s amazement they reached up to do as they were told.
But Nimble"s antlers were too high for them.
It was a bad moment for Jimmy Rabbit.
XXIII
HOW NIMBLE HELPED
Billy Woodchuck and Fatty c.o.o.n had come early to Jimmy Rabbit"s party.
And Jimmy had told them to hang their hats and coats upon his new hat-rack--meaning Nimble Deer"s antlers. But when they tried to do as they were bid they found that the antlers were beyond their reach.
Of course Jimmy Rabbit was most uncomfortable. He coughed and gave Nimble an odd look. He even nodded his head at Nimble behind his guests"
backs, thereby doing his best to give Nimble a hint to lower his head.
But Nimble Deer couldn"t imagine what Jimmy Rabbit meant. Hadn"t Jimmy warned him not to move--not even to open his mouth, or chew his cud, or wink? So Nimble stood like a statue.
"I--I see my new hat-rack is too high," Jimmy Rabbit stammered. "Let me take your hats and coats and I"ll hang them up for you while you go and wait for the rest of the company over by the stone wall!"
So Billy Woodchuck and Fatty c.o.o.n gave their hats and coats to Jimmy.
"That"s a fine Deer"s head," Fatty remarked. "It seems to me I"ve seen it before somewhere."
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. He wished his guests would move away.
"Those antlers remind me of Nimble Deer"s," Billy Woodchuck remarked.
And he gave Nimble a wink, for he had quickly guessed the secret of the hat-rack and how Jimmy Rabbit had planned to have Nimble at his party and yet keep him out of the crowd.
"Is this Deer"s head stuffed?" Billy Woodchuck asked Jimmy Rabbit.
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy muttered. "Move along, please!"
Nimble wanted to return that wink that Billy Woodchuck gave him. But he didn"t, because Jimmy Rabbit had warned him to keep perfectly still.
As soon as his guests had left them Jimmy whispered to Nimble, "Lower your head a bit, for pity"s sake!"
Nimble promptly obeyed him. And Jimmy Rabbit hung the hats and coats upon Nimble"s antlers.
"Now," Jimmy said, "keep your head exactly where it is!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Nimble Frightened Uncle Jerry Chuck.