"I wasn't bawling at you," Peter Mink answered. And he was strangely polite, for him. "I was calling for help. Can't you see that my foot is caught in a trap?"
At that Grumpy jumped down upon the ice and took a good look at Peter Mink. He saw, then, that Peter spoke the truth. "This trap hurts my foot, I can tell you," Peter Mink whined.
"Maybe it will teach you not to screech at people," Grumpy told him.
"You're going to help me, aren't you?" Peter Mink asked his cousin anxiously.
"That trap belongs to Farmer Green's hired man," Grumpy informed Peter Mink. "I saw him when he set it there. Perhaps you would like to have me send word to him that you're using it."
"Oh! Don't do that!" Peter begged piteously.
"Well, then--suppose I get old dog Spot to come and see what he can do!
He'd have you out of that trap in no time!"
But that suggestion didn't suit Peter Mink any better.
"For goodness' sake, can't you think of something else?" he wailed.
His voice rose higher and higher as he spoke. And Grumpy Weasel showed his sharp teeth as he warned Peter Mink again not to squall at him, for he wouldn't stand it.
At last Peter saw that Grumpy did not intend to help him at all. So it occurred to him that perhaps he could hire his cousin to free him from the trap. "I'd do anything for you if you could help me out of this fix," he said finally.
"Will you drive Mr. Snowy Owl away from Pleasant Valley?" Grumpy cried.
"Certainly!" said Peter Mink with great promptness, as if that were the easiest matter in the world.
That answer surprised Grumpy Weasel. He had no idea that Peter Mink could do any such thing. And he said as much, too.
"You understand," Peter explained, "it may take me some time to get rid of him. It's mid-winter now. But I can promise you that I'll have him out of the valley by April Fool's Day!"
XXVI
HOW GRUMPY HELPED
Grumpy Weasel wondered how Peter Mink was going to get Mr. Snowy Owl out of Pleasant Valley. He had never dreamed that Peter could do it. But as he thought the matter over he remembered that Peter was a good deal bigger than himself.
"If I were Peter Mink's size I would give Mr. Snowy Owl the worst punishing he ever had!" Grumpy exclaimed under his breath. "So maybe Peter can do as he claims, after all."
"Very well!" Grumpy Weasel told Peter Mink. "This is a bargain. I'll help you out of the trap. And you'll rid Pleasant Valley of Mr. Snowy Owl by April Fool's Day."
"Agreed!" Peter Mink cried. "And now, how are you going to set me free?"
"I'm going to bite your leg off," Grumpy Weasel said cheerfully.
"Oh, no! You're not going to do that!" Peter Mink howled. "I don't want you to do that!"
"I made a bargain with you," Grumpy Weasel reminded him, "and I intend to carry out my part of it."
"Stop a moment," Peter Mink cried. For Grumpy Weasel, with his back arched like a cat's, and his white whiskers twitching, had already taken a step towards him. "If you bite off my leg I'd never be able to get rid of Mr. Snowy Owl."
That brought Grumpy Weasel up short. He thought deeply for a moment; and then he exclaimed: "I have it! You must bite off your own leg!"
But Peter Mink proved a hard one to please.
"You don't understand!" he said. "If I lose a leg I know I never could get Mr. Snowy Owl out of the valley."
At that Grumpy Weasel lost his temper completely. With a cry of rage he sprang at his cousin, Peter Mink, prisoner though he was. And Grumpy would have buried his white teeth in him except for just one thing. As he leaped forward Peter Mink leaped backward. And in that moment Peter freed himself. He had been caught only by the merest tip of a toe, anyhow. And now he crouched with his back against the bank of the brook, facing Grumpy Weasel with mouth wide open. His meekness had dropped off him like an old coat. And Grumpy Weasel knew better than to get within his reach. In fact he turned polite himself, all at once.
"There!" he said. "I got you out of the trap, as I had planned to all the time. I knew that if I could make you jump you'd pull your foot loose."
Well, Peter Mink hardly believed that. But he thought there was no use of saying so.
He was glad enough to escape Farmer Green's hired man's trap without having a dispute over the way it happened.
"I hope you'll keep your promise," Grumpy told Peter Mink. "If Mr. Snowy Owl doesn't leave these parts by April Fool's Day I won't like it very well. You know you agreed to get him away from here by that time."
"Oh! He'll be gone by then," said Peter Mink lightly. "He always leaves at the end of the winter, because he spends his summers in the Far North."
When he heard that, Grumpy Weasel was angry as anything.
"Then Mr. Owl is likely to be back here next fall," he said quickly.
"I dare say," Peter Mink admitted carelessly.
Grumpy Weasel backed cautiously away before he said another word. But when he had whisked into a great willow that leaned over Broad Brook he told his cousin what he thought about him.
As for Peter Mink--he was nursing his injured paw (in his mouth!) and he said never a word.
THE END
Little Jack Rabbit Books (Trademark Registered)
By DAVID CORY
Author of "Little Journeys to Happyland"
Colored Wrappers With Text Illustrations.