. Bear put one of his big paws on him.

"That held the crazy hedgehog down for a minute, and President Crow
yelled savagely:

"'Let go his tail, you foolish old turtle! Do you count on killing the
whole club?'

"'I'm only doing what you asked me to do,' Slowly grumbled as he let
go his grip, and the minute his mouth was opened you can set it down
as a fact that Jimmy took mighty good care to get his tail in out of
harm's way.

"Now, as I've told you before, more than half the club members had
been knocked around by Slowly and Jimmy, and the minute they heard
that the job had been put up by Mr. Crow they sailed into him, calling
the old fellow more names than there are days in the month. Jimmy lay
there under the Senator's paw, but never said a word; he'd lost his
breath after scrambling around so fast, which was one reason why he
had nothing to say, and I reckon he was so frightened that he didn't
dare to move his tongue for fear something worse would happen.

"Well, say, I've heard rows before, but never anything that came up to
what we had right there under the big oak. The members who had been
bruised couldn't find hard words enough to sling at the president, and
those who came off without a scratch were cross because they'd been
obliged to move around so vigorously in order to keep out of Mr.
Turtle's way.

"Mr. Crow stood the abuse for quite a while without making any back
talk, and then he lost his temper, as even the blindest rabbit that
ever lived could have seen, for he hopped around first on one foot and
then on the other, acting as if he were choking because he couldn't
get the words out fast enough.

"'I'm through with every one of you!' he croaked, ruffling up the
feathers on his neck, and flapping his wings. 'You'll never catch me
being president again of such a club of dummies as this, not if I live
to be a thousand years old!'

"'You won't get the chance in this section of the country even if you
should live two thousand years!' cried Mr. Jay, fairly boiling over
with wrath because one of his eyes had been blackened, and the greater
portion of his tail torn away.

"It's no use for me to try to tell you all that was said while every
one was so worked up over what I had counted was going to be the joke
of the season. If there were any harsh names which they didn't call
Mr. Crow, it was because they were forgotten in the excitement, and
the scolding might have been kept up to this very day if th