TOMMY PEELE’S FRIENDS STAND UP FOR HIM Of course Rabbit wouldn’t eat the pile of meal Tommy Peele left for Doctor .
 
But he thought he was going to have a terrible time to keep all those foolish young , who were round in the trying to start their spring love affairs, from doing it. He forgot that everything around the place where Tommy had set it still smelled of the little boy and his dog. So not another beast dared come near it.
 
Chaik the Jay and Chewee the Chickadee stole a few beakfuls, but Nibble knew Doctor Muskrat wouldn’t mind that. And he wanted company. So he told them all about how Tommy had caught the doctor and let him go again. And how Tommy had thrown away the trap.
 
Chaik raised and lowered his , just as we sometimes do our , when we’re puzzled about anything. “He was lucky,” Chaik said. “I’ve seen beasts suffer in a trap for whole days before they died. And I never heard of any before that got out of one alive. I believe that human is queer. Sometimes I think he’s trying to think the way we woods folk do.”
 
“I know it,” chimed in Chewee. “When it was so terribly cold I was having an awful time. The ice had frozen over the so I couldn’t even pick a living among the pine trees. And do you know what he did? He tied a big lump of fat pork away out on the end of a springy branch, so that fat house cat couldn’t reach it. Just for me! Wasn’t that clever” And he began about in the excited way he has whenever he gets to talking.
 
“Well, he most certainly is trying to make friends with us,” Nibble observed. “Only us in traps isn’t a very comfortable way of doing it. You fellows will have to help me convince Doctor Muskrat.”
 
Help! He needed it. It was two whole days before the doctor his head out of the hole where Watch had smashed the crumbly ice. The wise old beast wasn’t using his front door any more.
 
“Come on,” called Nibble cheerfully. “See what Tommy Peele left you to say he was sorry he bit you.”
 
“Not I,” the doctor. “I’ve had enough of his .” He spread out his paddle paw. The good roots he stores in his medicine chest had nearly healed it, but his little toe was gone. “I’m going to move away as soon as I can travel.”
 
“Don’t do that,” pleaded Nibble. “If he bit your foot you certainly bit his. Now he doesn’t mean ever to use those jaws again. He threw them into that very hole.”
 
Pop! Down went the doctor to have a look. And his face was surprised when it popped up again. “It’s the truth!” he said. “Those jaws are biting the mud. We needn’t worry so long as we can keep an eye on them. Nibble, I’ll just dip a whisker into that present Tom............