If Grumpy Weasel had been a faster runner the forest people wouldn't have been so surprised when he dared Jimmy Rabbit to race him. Everybody knew that Jimmy was swift-footed—especially since he once beat old Mr. Turtle (but that is another story).
When Mr. Crow, who was a great bearer of news, told Jimmy Rabbit one day that Grumpy Weasel wanted a race with him, Jimmy Rabbit seemed more than willing to oblige. "Where, when, and how far does Grumpy want to run against me?" he asked.
Mr. Crow said that he didn't know, but that he would make it his business to find out. So off he hurried to find Grumpy Weasel, for if there was anything Mr. Crow liked it was busying himself with other people's affairs.
He did not have what you could call a pleasant talk with Grumpy Weasel. Once when Mr. Crow alighted too near the ground Grumpy jumped at him. And several times he called Mr. Crow a nest-robber and an egg-thief, though goodness knows Grumpy Weasel himself was as bad as the worst when it came to robbing birds' nests.
Although he felt as if he were about to burst with rage old Mr. Crow pretended to laugh. He had been having a rather dull time, waiting for Farmer Green to plant his corn, and he thought that a lively race might put him in better spirits.
Grumpy Nearly Catches Paddy Muskrat. "Where do you want to race against Jimmy Rabbit?" Mr. Crow asked.
"We'll start from this wall," said Grumpy sulkily, "because it's always better to start from where you are than where you aren't."
Mr. Crow said that that seemed reasonable.
"When do you want to race?" he added.
"The sooner we start the quicker we'll finish," Grumpy Weasel snapped.
"Quite true, quite true!" Mr. Crow agreed. "And now may I inquire how long a race you want to run?"
"No longer than I have to!" Grumpy growled. "Not more than a day or two, I hope!"
Mr. Crow snickered slightly. "I see you don't understand my question," he observed. "Are you going to run a mile, or only a few rods?"
"How do I know?" Grumpy cried, as if he had no patience with his questioner. "How could anybody tell? I'll let Jimmy Rabbit start twenty jumps ahead of me and we'll run till I catch him."
Well, Mr. Crow laughed right out loud when he heard that. And he was about to tell Grumpy that he would have to run till the end of his days if he raced Jimmy Rabbit in any such fashion as that. But he saw all at once that such a race would be a great joke. And he said to himself with a chuckle that the laugh would be on Grumpy Weasel. For Jimmy Rabbit was so swift a runner that nobody who knew anything at all would ever consent to give him a start—much less propose such a thing.
"Very well!" said Mr. Crow with a smirk, "I'll report to Jimmy Rabbit. I'll tell him where, when and how you want to race, and there's no doubt that your plan will please him."
"I hope it won't!" Grumpy Weasel snarled. "I've never pleased anybody yet; and I don't mean to."
And that goes to show what an ill-natured scamp he was.