ek coat and black-tipped tail, was one of the kind that didn't
like to get his feet wet.

Then Paddy Muskrat asked the stranger a silly question. He was not the
wisest person, anyhow, in Pleasant Valley, as his wife often reminded
him. "You're not a distant relation of Tommy Fox, are you?" he
inquired.

Grumpy Weasel actually almost smiled.

"Now, how did you happen to guess that?" he asked.

"Because you've got such a sharp nose," Paddy Muskrat replied. And he
was quite pleased with himself, for he thought that he wasn't so stupid
as some people thought.

"Any other reason?" Grumpy Weasel inquired, stepping to the edge of the
overhanging bank.

"You don't like to get your feet wet," Paddy Muskrat said. And feeling
safe as anything, he swam nearer the spot where the stranger was
crouching.

Paddy saw, almost too late, that he had made a bad blunder. For without
the slightest warning Grumpy Weasel leaped at him. And had not Paddy
been a wonderful swimmer and able to dive like a flash, he would never
have dashed, panting, into his house a few moments later.

"What on earth is the matter?" his wife asked him.

"I've been having a swimming race with a stranger," Paddy explained. "I
don't know his name. But I do know that he'd just as soon get his feet
wet as I would."

"Well, why not?" Mrs. Muskrat inquired. "That only shows he's sensible."

"Does it show I'm sensible, too?" Paddy asked her.

"Certainly not!" said Mrs. Muskrat.

VIII

THE DARE

If Grumpy Weasel had been a faster runner the forest people wouldn't
have been so surprised when he dared Jimmy Rabbit to race him. Everybody
knew that Jimmy was swift-footed--especially since he once beat old Mr.
Turtle (but that is another story).

When Mr. Crow, who was a great bearer of news, told Jimmy Rabbit one day
that Grumpy Weasel wanted a race with him, Jimmy Rabbit seemed more than
willing to oblige. "Where, when, and how far does Grumpy want to run
against me?" he asked.

Mr. Crow said that he didn't know, but that he would make it his
business to find out. So off he hurried to find Grumpy Weasel, for if
there was anything Mr. Crow liked it was busying himself with other
people's affairs.

He did not have what you could call a pleasant talk with Grumpy Weasel.
Once when Mr. Crow alighted too near the ground Grumpy jumped at him.
And several times he called Mr. Crow a nest-robber and an egg-thief,
though goodness knows Grumpy Weasel himsel