Early, early in the morning Stripes came snooping into the Pickery Things. Of course they caught hold of him until Rabbit waked up. And as soon as he that in the air he said, “Is that you, Tad Coon?”  
“No,” said a , voice; “it’s me, Stripes Skunk. I’ve been talking with the little . Please, won’t you make a compact with me?”
 
“Compact!” Nibble exclaimed. “Of course I won’t! And no one else will!” At that Stripes began to cry. “Won’t you even try me?” he . “I’d not want to be friends. I just want to be let alone as long as I’m good. Won’t you give me a chance to show you how very good I can be?”
 
So Nibble finally promised to talk things over with Watch and Doctor . Doctor Muskrat didn’t say anything, but he waited out on his flat stone for Watch. And when Watch came he fairly howled at the idea.
 
“Make a compact with that murderer?” he barked. “Not when he’s killed those little chicks that belong to Tommy Peele. I’ll kill him.”
 
“Watch,” said Doctor Muskrat, “who made you executioner of all the woods and fields? Stripes won’t give back those chicks to Tommy Peele. But if you put Stripes to work instead, he can pay back for them. He can keep down the mice who steal Tommy’s grain; he can kill snakes, and , and , and all manner of grubs. If he just picks off Tommy’s potatoes he’ll pay for all the harm he’s done.”
 
Watch put his head to one side. He could remember how Tommy hated to pick the bugs off those potatoes. “Wurff,” he at last. “I wish I knew what Tommy would think about it. I’ll wait until I know.”
 
As soon as Doctor Muskrat had finished speaking, Watch went up to the old house with his ears laid back. He wanted to get a nice comfortable bone in a quiet corner and think about it. Doctor Muskrat was right; no one, not even Tommy Peele, had appointed him executioner of the woods and fields, and he’d been pretty quick about wanting to kill every one who did any harm, instead of letting them learn better—if they would. You see, a dog is so big and strong he has to be careful not to the other beasts. No decent dog can be happy if he does that. But he couldn’t make up his mind that Stripes Skunk deserved to be trusted.
 
Neither did Nibble Rabbit. He wanted to know what every other one of the Woodsfolk thought about it. Right now he knew that Stripes was waiting to find out what Watch had to do to him, and yet he couldn’t help shaking at the idea of going to talk with him. For the first thing every mother rabbit teaches the bunny babies, as soon as they open their eyes, is to run from anything that has the strange and scary scent of the Things-from-under-the-Earth, whether they wear scales or fur. Snakes have it just the same as Stripes the Skunk, or Slyfoot the , or the weasel whom the Woodsfolk usually mean when they speak of the . He’s so terribly bloodthirsty and cruel that they never give him any other name.
 
But when Nibble found Stripes waiting patiently beside his Pickery Things, right where the faithful thorns had warned him to stop when he came begging for help that morning, even a scarier rabbit than Nibble wouldn’t have been afraid. Stripes was trembling and trying his best not to cry. “What did he say?” he begged anxiously. “Please, Nibble, quick! What did that big dog say? It’s too late for me to try to run away from him. He could trail me anywhere, and I’m so slow he’d overtake me in just a little while.”
 
“He’s gone off to make up his mind,” said Nibble. “Doctor Muskrat put in a word for you. He said that if you hunted the mice in Tommy Peele’s grain and kept the potato bugs off his vines, you could pay Tommy back for those chicks you ki............