CHAPTER XI

GREAT DOINGS BY NIGHT IN THE WOODS AND FIELDS

My, but Louie was excited when he found the cows in his father’s corn. Of course it wasn’t his corn; his father told him so when he got angry with Louie for taking a little bit to feed Tad Coon. But Louie forgot all about that. Here were these bad old beasts biting and tearing and tramping it down after he’d had to hoe it so hard to start it growing.

“Get out of there!” he shouted. “Hi, boss! Move along!”

“Humph!” snorted the oldest cow. “It’s only that boy. We don’t have to pay any ’tention to him. It isn’t milking time.” And she snapped off another stalk.

“Get out of here, you cows!” said a new voice. “You don’t belong here, and you know it. Be reasonable now and go along.” Who do you think it was? It was Nibble Rabbit. He’d heard the noise, and he’d seen Louie run over to stop them, and he remembered the way the Red Cow took after Tommy Peele. He just knew it wasn’t safe for little boys to drive cows all alone when they didn’t want to be driven.

“I am reasonable,” said the cow stupidly. “The pasture’s all dried up. I can give a lot more milk if I eat this corn.” She knew well enough she was wrong.

“Maybe you can,” said Nibble, “but it doesn’t happen to be your corn. You walk right out of it and leave it alone, like Louie told you to.”

“I won’t!” said the cow. “We won’t!” they all mooed together. “We won’t, and you can’t make us. You go right back to the woods where you belong and mind your own business. You eat what you want without taking orders from any one.”

“Yes, but I only take a nibble here and a nibble there. I don’t destroy things,” Nibble Rabbit argued. “You’re worse than a whole woods full of fieldmice.”

That did make the cows cross. They hate mice. Mice make their grain taste musty, so the poor cows can’t eat it. They felt insulted. And just that very minute Louie hit one blam! right on her ribs with a stone.

“Moo-o-o-o!” she roared. “We’ll show you whether you can boss us!” And she put down her horns and began charging around in the corn. But the night was so dark and the corn was so tall she couldn’t find the little boy in it. He just scuttled for the fence and shinned over.

Slam! She hit the fence right behind him. But he was running up the lane as fast as he could go before the foolish thing could find the hole where she got into the cornfield, so she could get out again to chase him. He was going for help. Even if his father was mean, Louie just had to tell him what was happening.

Nibble Rabbit squeezed under the fence, but he didn’t run. Not yet! He stopped to shout at those foolish cows: “You made a mistake that time! Nobody can chase a little boy, not even if it is a great big cow without sense enough in her whole carcass to fill one of the slits in her clumsy hoofs. We Woodsfolk won’t stand it.” He gave an angry stamp and then his furry feet started twinkling. He was going for help, too. He knew whom he wanted and where to find him!

It didn’t take Louie Thomson very long to run up to his house and tell his father how the cows were in the corn. It didn’t take his father very long to get a hammer and some staples and a lantern. Or to hurry down the lane so fast that Louie had to run to keep up with him. But Nibble Rabbit beat them.

Nibble bounced into Tommy Peele’s barnyard next door and woke up Watch, the big shaggy, smiley dog who was his special friend. “It’s no work of mine,” said Watch when Nibble explained what he wanted. “They ought to have a dog of their own. But if Louie’s friends with all the Woodsfolk I s’pose we can’t let his cows think they can chase him if they want to and we won’t stop them.” So he took a good shake to get his coat feeling comfortable and galloped off after Nibble, smiling to himself because he thought it would be fun. And it was--for him!

But you never saw anybody so surprised as those cows! They went out of that cornfield a whole lot faster than they went in. Watch chased them way down to the very farthest corner of the fence and Nibble skipped along beside them, just kicking up his heels because he liked to see them run. Then Watch made them listen while he laid down the law to them. “How do you like being chased?” he barked. “Do you think it’s fun? Are you ever going to chase that boy again?”

“But he hit me with a stone!” moaned the cow. “He hit me with a stone.”

“Of course he did,” snapped Watch. “That’s because you didn’t obey him. You’re his cows, and that’s his corn. Are you going to do what he tells you or shall I teach you again?”

“Don’t!” they bellowed. “We’ll be good!” They meant it, too. They were so scared even Nibble Rabbit felt sure they did.

“All right,” Watch agreed. “You have to obey whoever feeds you, whether it’s Man or Mother Nature. You cows chose Man. Just remember that.” And off he trotted with Nibble hopping along beside him.

“I s’pose they can always go wild again, like the Red Cow’s mother did, and like Louie’s doing,” Nibble remarked. “I’d hate to belong to that man who was so cross to him and poor Tad Coon.” But right then they came on that very person, nailing up the fence, with Louie holding the lantern for him, friendly as anything. And he was saying, “I’ll throw all this corn they’ve broken down over the fence so the cows can finish it up in the morning, but you can take all you want for your coon.”

Louie looked up and saw Watch. “Why, that’s Tommy Peele’s dog!” he exclaimed. “He’s been helping us. That’s why the cows were gone.” And he ran right over to thank the furry old fellow who stood there proudly wagging his tail at them.

Even Louie’s father, who didn’t understand dogs any better than he did boys, knew enough to say, “Good dog! I wish I had one like him.” And Watch was so flattered over that, he wagged the whole hind half of him.

“Aren’t you coming home?” asked Louie’s father after he finished nailing up the fence. He didn’t just say, “Come home!” like he mostly gave orders. Because he wasn’t angry any more; he felt more like thanking Louie, just like Louie thanked that smart old dog. He’d have had an awful time trying to do it all alone because his cows were so awfully stubborn and disobedient.

“’Course not,” said Louie. He didn’t say why not because he knew the minute he told his father what he meant to do there would be some good reason why he mustn’t. Some grownups are like that, but some aren’t; his mother wasn’t. He looked at Watch and grinned, and his father knew he had some secret up his sleeve. The nice old dog smiled back and cocked one ear. Watch didn’t have any sleeve, but he did have a fine furry frill up the back of his leg to hide his secret in.

“Well, you’re all right so long as you have that dog with you,” his father agreed. “Come up in time for breakfast in the morning. Do you want the lantern?”

Louie was just going to say that wild folks like he was didn’t need lanterns, when he remembered about his secret. That lantern would be fine for picking up all that corn. And it would be fine to have his feast by, now that the moon had gone down. Of course that was his secret. So he did keep it. And he had to tie up the nice sweet ears in his shirt and throw them over the fence that way because he got such a load he couldn’t carry them.

Of course Nibble Rabbit came sniffing up just as soon as his father had gone. “What are you doing here?” asked Louie. “You’re Tommy Peele’s rabbit. I ’spect next thing I’ll be finding Tommy Peele.” And at that Watch began to bark. That was his secret. He thought it was a shame to have all sorts of fun going on when Tommy wasn’t in it. He was so pleased to have Louie guess, because it’s pretty hard to be a dog and not be able to tell people what you want.

First thing they got back to Louie’s tent--with the lantern. And they piled up the corn beside it. Then Watch went sniffing round inside to see if there wasn’t room for Tommy in it. And what do you s’pose he found? That old scamp of a Tad Coon, fast asleep.

So Watch gave Tad a little shake, just to wake him up. But you know how scared of dogs Tad always was. He didn’t stop to see that it was Watch. He let out a squall that woke up all the Woodsfolk and bounced out of the tent and into the pond with a great big splash before he got his eyes really opened.

Up popped Doctor Muskrat. He took one look at the lantern and thought it was a fire, like the ones that sometimes burn up the marsh. He began to shout: “Take to the water, quick! Take to the water, quick! It’s the only safe place!” Chatter Squirrel came out on a branch and began to shout, “Climb a tree!” And all the Woodsfolk were scuttling round, scared most to death at that little blinky light. Didn’t Watch just enjoy the joke on them.

But all the Woodsfolk didn’t run away from that twinkly light. There was one furry-foot who stayed. And he was more pleased about it than he even was about the feast--though he ate as much as any one. But I’m not going to tell you who it was, or how it happened that he wasn’t scared, or why he was so delighted. ’Cause if I tell you all my s’prises ahead of time I won’t have any more to write about.

Still I’ve given you such a great big hint maybe you’ll guess while you’re waiting. And I’ve given you still a bigger hint who was the next fellow who got to be friends with the Woodsfolk. I ’spect you know already it was Louie Thomson’s dad. And of course that made him friendly with Louie, too. And when a fellow’s dad gets to be a really-truly friend he’s the best in all the world.

But the stranger who came sneaking in to Louie’s lantern party after all the fun was over and done--the fellow who wasn’t a friend--and the ructions he stirred up--and how the Woodsfolk were too clever for him--I haven’t given you the least little hint in the world. And I’m not going to. Not till you read it in the next book. So there!

THE END