there would turn him white. That's a joke on
Mr. Crow all right, isn't it?"

"Yes--but are there white crows in the city?"

"There are white rabbits. Then why not white crows, and white foxes?"

"White foxes?"

"Yes, why not? Didn't you ever see one?"

"No, but I've heard of them, it seems to me, but they live way up north,
don't they?"

"If you want to see one now," continued Bumper, "look at the sun for ten
seconds, and sneeze twice, and then--"

"What then?"

"Do as I tell you, and then I'll tell you the rest."

Mr. Fox, after all, was a little vain, or at least very curious, and this
strange proposition interested him. He raised his head, and looked
straight into the blinding sun.

"Now count--one, two, three, four, and sneeze," added Bumper.

No fox can look hard at the sun long without sneezing, and after counting
six this one nearly sneezed his head off. That was what Bumper was waiting
for. He made a dive for the hollow tree, and got inside of it. When Mr.
Fox reached the log, and found the hole too small for him, he was quite
mad, and said: "I'll make you pay for that trick some day, Mr. Rabbit."

STORY XII

BUMPER ADMIRED BY THE BIRDS

It isn't good for us to be too smart. It sometimes makes us vain, and then
one day we overdo it. Bumper had some excuse for playing the trick on Mr.
Crow and Mr. Fox, for his life depended upon it; but his success was
giving him a little swelled head. He began to feel that he could get out
of any danger by using his wits.

"It takes a city rabbit to find a way out of difficulty," he reflected, as
he lay snugly in the hollow trunk of the tree. "These country animals are
dull-witted. I do hope my cousins of the woods are not so stupid. Perhaps
they are, and that's why people say rabbits are cunning but very stupid."

This sort of reasoning was the very thing that got him in trouble, and
nearly caused his death. He was so sure that he had outwitted Mr. Fox, he
decided after a while to leave the hollow trunk, and eat some of the green
leaves and branches growing around outside.

But he knew less about the cunning and patience of the fox than he
thought. Instead of trotting off in the woods, chagrined and disgusted by
his defeat, the fox was lying low ready to pounce on the white rabbit the
moment he showed himself. He was so still that Bumper couldn't hear the
rustle of a leaf or the snap of a twig.

"I think I'll go out now," Bumper said finally. "I'm