. Turtle wouldn't
explain his plan to me however hard I might coax I said as if I
believed all the hot air he'd been giving me:

"'If you think you must really see Jimmy I'll do what I can to find
him.'

"'My dear Bunny, if you'd do that much for a poor fellow like me who
can't get over the ground as you can I'd never forget the favor as
long as I live. You are the one person in all the big woods who can
get around quickly enough to save my life!'

"I didn't wait to talk with him any longer, for what would be the use
when he was ready to tell me anything for the sake of shutting my eye,
so off I went, putting in my best licks to be on hand when the fun
began.

"Do you know, I had the job of my life finding Jimmy? It seemed as if
he knew I was looking for him, and he was doing his best to keep out
of my way. Luckily I happened to see Mr. Jay, and he told me he'd seen
Jimmy under a lot of fir bushes over by the swamp, acting as if he'd
been taken with a bad fit of the sulks, and sure enough I found him
there, but he didn't look as if he were very glad to see me.

"'Howdy, Jimmy,' I said, soft as silk, when I'd gotten over making
believe I was surprised to see him there. 'Anything gone wrong that
you're tucked away here where even Professor Hawk would have hard work
to find you?'

"'Now don't try to be funny!' he growled, and just for the minute I
was afraid we might have a row then and there because he was in such a
bad temper. 'I'd like to know what business you've got running all
over the country looking for me?'

"'But I haven't been running all over the country, Jimmy,' I said,
speaking softly because I didn't want to have any trouble. 'Come to
think of it, now that you've reminded me, I did want to find you on
account of Slowly Turtle.'

"'I've had enough of you,' he snarled, bristling up his quills as if
he counted on sticking some of them into me. 'After the way you went
back on me in that scrape Bobby Coon got me into, I'm through with the
whole Rabbit family, from this out. Just keep your eye on me, and
you'll see that I'll even up that business before I'm many days
older.'

"Of course I couldn't have him holding out against me like that, for I
knew he might make lots of trouble if he tried very hard, and then
again it didn't seem right to blame me for what I really couldn't
help, so I talked as softly as I knew how, smoothing things over till
he said, still acting grumpy:

"'Well, what do you want