any chance of
keeping the peace without owning right up to being cowards. I'll bet
six of Mr. Man's biggest carrots that if I'd gone right out and coaxed
them not to fight they'd thanked me with tears in their eyes for
helping them out of a bad hole.

"The Senator came up on his hind legs, waving his fore paws in the air
as if all he wanted was to make fur fly, and Mr. Towser growled in a
way that would make your blood run cold; but neither of them moved out
of his tracks. I was looking over the tops of the ferns, wondering
who'd make the first move when suddenly somebody came up against me so
strong that I was nearly knocked over, and a great deal more scared
than I'd be willing to admit. Who do you think it was? Why, nobody but
Bobby Coon, and I felt like pulling his tail real hard because he'd
given me such a scare. Most likely I would have done it, for I'm
awfully reckless when I'm angry, if it hadn't been that I wanted to
keep my eyes on the Senator and Mr. Towser.

"Well, you know how foolish Bobby Coon can be without trying very
hard, and instead of waiting to find out how the two would fix
things, he whispered to me: 'Just hold your breath a minute and see
me give those two great ninnies the scare of their lives!' Then,
before I could say a word to stop him, he scratched around among the
leaves at a furious rate, singing out as if he were just regularly
thirsting for somebody's blood: 'Let me at 'em! I'm needing just about
that much meat!'

"It was mean of Bobby to break the meeting up; but even though I was
furious with him I couldn't help laughing till my sides really ached.
Oh, dear! how those stupid things did run at the first word that
foolish coon spoke! They were in such a hurry to get away that they
tumbled over each other, and before you could say 'Jack Robinson,'
provided you'd wanted to say it, there was nothing to be seen but
their hind feet as they clipped it through the bushes!

"I gave Bobby a real serious scolding for breaking up the fun so soon,
for I had been aching to see how much of a fight they would have made
and, besides, I had the least little bit of a hope that the Senator
might have done up Mr. Towser, for there are times when that dog makes
the lives of us club members a burden with sticking his nose in where
it doesn't belong.

[Illustration: "LET ME AT 'EM"]

"If you could have seen Bobby Coon capering around after the Senator
and Mr. Towser ran away from each other you'd th