SETTLING A DISPUTE
While Jimmy Rabbit was looking for wise old Mr. Crow, Peter Mink stuckclose behind him.
"You needn't think you can run away with my rabbit's lucky lefthind-foot," Peter kept saying. "That's my foot! You promised to giveit to me for helping you out of the mud. And I intend to have it. I'mgoing to follow you wherever you go. I wish you'd try to be a littlemore careful where you step with my foot."
But Jimmy Rabbit didn't seem the least bit worried.
"You stand by your bargain, and I'll stand by mine," he told Peter. Andthat was all he would say.
At last Jimmy found Mr. Crow. And as soon as Peter Mink spied him hehurried up and began to complain to Mr. Crow that Jimmy Rabbit wouldn'tstand by his bargain.
"What was it?" Mr. Crow asked.
"He promised to give me his left hind-foot, if I'd pull him out of thecreek," said Peter Mink.
"Did he pull you out?" Mr. Crow asked Jimmy Rabbit.
And Jimmy admitted that Peter had helped him out.
"He helped me in, too," added Jimmy. "But I didn't have to pay him fordoing that."
"You're out of order!" Mr. Crow told Jimmy sharply.
And looking down at his mud-stained clothes, Jimmy Rabbit said that hesupposed he was.
"Can you repeat the exact words of the bargain?" Mr. Crow asked PeterMink.
"Yes," Peter began. "He said----"
"That will do!" Mr. Crow cautioned him. "I said, 'Can you repeatthem?' I didn't tell you to repeat them, did I?"
"No," Peter Mink admitted.
"I advise you to be very careful," Mr. Crow warned him. Then Mr. Crowturned to Jimmy Rabbit.
"Can you repeat the exact words of the bargain?" he asked.
"Yes, sir!" said Jimmy Rabbit promptly.
"Good!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "I'll settle this dispute in no time. Now, Iwant you, Jimmy Rabbit, to whisper the exact words in my right ear,while Peter Mink whispers the exact words in my left one. In that wayI shall know at once if there's anybody that isn't telling the truth."
Mr. Crow was very particular. He made Peter and Jimmy begin at the sametime. And he said that if they both told the truth it seemed to him thatthey ought to finish at the same time, too.
And that's just the way it happened!
"I don't see what the dispute is," said Mr. Crow. "You both agree. Andhow can two people have a dispute, when they agree perfectly? The onlydifference I noticed in your stories was that Peter whispered muchlouder than Jimmy."
"The trouble," Peter Mink cried, "the trouble is, he won't let me cutoff his left hind-foot!"
Mr. Crow looked astonished.
"And why should he?" he exclaimed. "You agreed to take, along with thefoot, all the luck and everything else that goes with it. And if therest of Jimmy Rabbit doesn't go with his left hind-foot, why--I shouldlike to know what does!"
Peter Mink looked very sour. But pretty soon he brightened up.
"All right!" he said. "I get the whole of him, then--don't I?"
"You certainly do," said Mr. Crow. "And what's more, you have to carryhim in your pocket, for that was part of the bargain."
Now, when you stop to remember that Jimmy Rabbit was four times biggerthan Peter Mink, you can understand how angry Peter must have been. Hesaw right away that such a thing was impossible.
"I can't do that!" he cried.
"Then I declare the agreement to be broken," said Mr. Crow. "And Iadvise Jimmy Rabbit to run home at once, for I happen to know that hismother is looking for him."
Afterward, Peter Mink always claimed that there was no use trying to getthe better of anybody that had the left hind-foot of a rabbit. He saidthat they certainly were lucky, and that he knew what he was talkingabout.
THE END.
* * * * * * * * * * * *