eantime Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay agreed that the battle was
growing tamer every moment.

"Hustle it up!" Mr. Crow called to Nimble and Dodger, while Jasper Jay
jeered at them both and told them they were mollycoddles.

"I shouldn't call this a mock battle now," Mr. Crow told them. "It's
more like a game of tag."

"If only Dodger would run away!" Nimble said under his breath. "I'll
stop a minute and see if he won't." So he stood still, with his nose all
but touching the ground.

Dodger the Deer did not run. But he paused and stood exactly as Nimble
was standing.

So they eyed each other for a while. And neither of them said a word.

"Come!" cried old Mr. Crow. "This will never do. Give us more action!"

And then Dodger the Deer looked up at Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay and spoke.

"If you want more action why don't you two furnish it?" he asked.

"That's a good idea!" Nimble exclaimed. "Let's see a mock battle up in
the tree!"

[Illustration: "Don't Stop!" Said Old Mr. Crow, to Nimble.
_Page 85_]

But Mr. Crow replied hoarsely that he had to meet a friend down the
valley. "I must be flapping along," he said. And off he went.

Jasper Jay grinned and winked at Nimble and Dodger behind Mr. Crow's
back. And then with a loud squall--which might have meant almost
anything--he too flew away.

"That was the liveliest mock battle we ever had," Nimble remarked to his
friend Dodger.

Dodger agreed with what he said.

Nimble's mother gasped when she saw her son a little later.

"You're a terrible sight!" she told him severely. "What have you been
doing?"

"I've been having fun with Dodger the Deer," Nimble explained. "But to
tell the truth, it wasn't as much fun as I had expected."

XVII

WHAT BROWNIE WANTED

Nimble Deer had stopped at Brownie Beaver's pond to get a drink. Just as
he raised his head from the water he spied Brownie a little way off, on
the bank, gnawing at a box alder tree.

"Good evening!" Nimble called to him.

"Good evening!" Brownie Beaver answered.

"I see you're busy, as usual," Nimble remarked.

"Yes!" Brownie replied. "And what are you doing--if I may ask?"

"Oh! I'm just rambling about," Nimble explained.

"Then you're not doing much of anything," said Brownie Beaver.

Nimble admitted that he wasn't.

"Since you're not working, perhaps you'll be willing to help me,"
Brownie suggested.

"Certainly!" Nimble cried. He liked