UNCLE JERRY CHUCK
Soon Jimmy Rabbit's friends arrived at his party in throngs. And soonNimble Deer's antlers bristled with hats and coats of many kinds andcolors.
"I must look like a Christmas tree," Nimble thought. "I wish JimmyRabbit and his friends would come and dance around me so I might seethe fun."
But they didn't. They stayed down in a little hollow some distanceaway. Nimble could hear their voices. And they seemed to be havinga delightful time.
As for Nimble, he wasn't having a good time at all. "I'll never helpat another party!" he promised himself. He couldn't believe thatmidnight--and the end of the party--would ever come.
At last, however, he took heart. For old Uncle Jerry Chuck came hurryingup and began taking hats and coats off Nimble's antlers. And Nimble knewthen that the party must be almost over.
"This is a good hat!" Uncle Jerry muttered to himself. "I'll take it."And then he said, "This is a good coat! I'll take it." Then he lookedclosely at another hat. "This is a good one, too!" he remarked. "I mightlose the other. I'll take this one, too--and this coat here," he added,selecting a second coat that pleased him.
Little did Uncle Jerry Chuck dream that the Deer's head was a real, liveone. And just as the old chap reached for the second coat Nimble Deerhad to cough. He didn't want to. Hadn't Jimmy Rabbit cautioned him notto stir--not to open his mouth?
But the cough came all the same, right in Uncle Jerry Chuck's ear. AndUncle Jerry jumped. He dropped both hats and both coats. And then hewaddled off as fast as he could go and scrambled over the stone wall,out of sight. He didn't even wait to get his own rusty coat and tatteredhat, which he had left lying on the ground.
Uncle Jerry hadn't been gone long when all the company came jostling upto Nimble. Everybody--except Nimble--was very merry. Amid a good manyjokes the company put on their hats and coats, until only Aunt PollyWoodchuck's poke bonnet hung from Nimble's horns.
Then--just for fun--Jimmy Rabbit set the bonnet on Nimble's head andtied its strings under his chin. And Aunt Polly Woodchuck herselflaughed hardest of all.
And then all at once something happened. A dog barked. "It's old dogSpot!" somebody cried.
Nimble Deer was the first to run. One leap took him out of the evergreenthicket in which he had been standing all the evening. Three leaps moretook him over the stone wall.
After that nobody saw him--nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck's bonnet--again thatnight.
The whole company scattered and vanished like baby grouse surprised inthe woods. And when old dog Spot reached the clump of evergreens a fewmoments later he found nothing to show that there had been a partythere--that is, he found nothing except a battered hat and a rustycoat lying on the ground.
Spot sniffed at them. "Unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Jerry Chuck hasforgotten something," he murmured. "No doubt he'll be back here ina little while."
So Spot waited and waited there.
But Uncle Jerry Chuck was half a mile away and sound asleep in hisunderground chamber.
And Nimble Deer was a mile away, over in Cedar Swamp, trying to tearAunt Polly's bonnet off his head by rubbing his horns against a youngcedar.
THE END.
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