A great outcry rang through the woods the moment Jimmy Rabbit set out to race Grumpy Weasel and beat him. Shouts of "Good luck!" and "Run hard!" and "Hurrah for James Rabbit!" followed Jimmy. But old Mr. Crow squawked, "You don't need to hurry!" He thought that the race was already as good as won, for Grumpy Weasel had insisted on giving Jimmy Rabbit a start of twenty jumps.
Meanwhile Grumpy Weasel glowered. But he could not glower at Jimmy's friends, because he had to watch Jimmy himself in order to count the first twenty jumps he took. When Grumpy had counted nineteen and a half away he started. And old Mr. Crow, as he sat staring at the race, declared that Grumpy Weasel hadn't a chance to win.
The company seemed ready to take Mr. Crow's word for it—that is, all except Grumpy Weasel's cousin, Peter Mink. He spoke up and said that as for him, he would wait and see what happened. He didn't believe old Mr. Crow knew what he was talking about.
Mr. Crow grew almost a purplish black with rage.
"We'll all wait," he said stiffly. "We'll all wait. And when the race is over you will apologize to me."
Peter Mink merely grinned. He had no respect for his elders. And now he didn't appear to mind in the least when the entire company let him severely alone.
Mr. Crow shot a triumphant look at him about an hour later, when Jimmy Rabbit came bounding into sight, with no one following him. "You may as well stop now," Mr. Crow told Jimmy. "You've as good as won the race already."
Jimmy Rabbit said that he thought so, too, but he supposed he'd better keep running a while longer, till Grumpy Weasel gave up. So off he hopped again.
Everybody except Peter Mink laughed heartily when Grumpy Weasel came springing up the slope a little while later.
"You may as well stop now. You've as good as lost already," Mr. Crow greeted him.
"Whose race is this—yours or mine?" Grumpy Weasel hissed. And off he hurried, without pausing to hear Mr. Crow's answer.
"We'll wait a while longer," Mr. Crow told the company, "for the end is so near we may as well see it."
"Whose end?" Peter Mink asked him.
"I mean the end of the race, of course!" Mr. Crow squalled.
"Oh! I thought you meant the end of Jimmy Rabbit," Peter Mink replied.
"Impossible! Impossible!" was all Mr. Crow said to that. But he began to fidget—which was a sign that he was worried. And when Jimmy Rabbit appeared again Mr. Crow was not quite so cocksure when he asked if the race wasn't over.
"It would be," Jimmy Rabbit answered, "but the trouble is, Grumpy Weasel won't stop running!"
"Ha!" said Mr. Crow hoarsely. But Peter Mink said, "Ha, ha!" And there is a great difference between those two remarks, as we shall see.
Grumpy Weasel and Jimmy Rabbit Run a Race.