sharp, gleaming eyes of his enemy.

Presently Doctor Rabbit heard the rustle of leaves and the gay chatter, chatter, chatter of Chatty Red Squirrel as he bounded into the branches of a tree overlooking the bushes that hid Brushtail.

Doctor Rabbit drew a long breath of relief. He wasn't afraid of Brushtail the Fox when he was safe in his big hollow tree—oh no, you mustn't think that, not for a moment. But you see Doctor Rabbit was getting pretty tired and stiff from watching so cautiously from his upstairs window, and yet he couldn't quite bring himself to the point of going downstairs and forgetting Brushtail. No indeed, he couldn't quite do that.

So Doctor Rabbit was glad to see Chatty Red Squirrel, for he knew just what would happen. And sure enough, in a few minutes Chatty Squirrel saw Brushtail lying low in the bushes, and then how he did scold!

"Aha, old Brushtail, I see you hiding in the bushes. Thought I wouldn't see you, didn't you? Thought I wouldn't see you! But I see you, all right. You can't fool Chatty, no siree. Oh, I know you're looking for Doctor Rabbit," and Chatty's tone became angrier at the thought of Brushtail waiting to pounce upon his good friend, Doctor Rabbit. "You're just waiting for Doctor Rabbit to come home and then spring out at him. Get out of here, get out, get out of here!" screamed Chatty.

Brushtail the Fox was angry. Well, I should say he was. He knew that Doctor Rabbit would hear Chatty Red Squirrel's scolding, and would know that he was hiding ready to eat him if he came out of the tree. Brushtail was so angry that he snarled. But he slunk away through the bushes without saying a word to Chatty Red. Brushtail is wise enough to know that there is no use arguing with Chatty Squirrel, for Chatty is altogether too noisy a talker. I should say he is.

When Brushtail slunk away through the bushes, Doctor Rabbit called to Chatty Red Squirrel, but Chatty did not hear him. He had scampered away to another tree, still talking loudly.

Then Doctor Rabbit turned quickly and leaned out of his window to watch Brushtail the Fox. Brushtail was trotting off through the Big Green Woods in a direction in which Doctor Rabbit seldom went. And Doctor Rabbit noticed that he seemed to be afraid someone would see him. He looked on each side of him as he went along, and every now and then he took a big jump sidewise. Doctor Rabbit was certainly interested now, for he believed Brushtail the Fox was going to hide somewhere. Probably he was going to hide in a place where he hid every day.

Yes, sir, Brushtail certainly was cautious now, and he must have jumped to one side as many as five times while Doctor Rabbit was watching him. Then in a little while he reached a part of the woods where the brush and leaves were so thick that Doctor Rabbit could just barely see him as he slipped along.

When Brushtail the Fox slipped into the place where there were so many leafy bushes, it was very hard for Doctor Rabbit to see him from his big tree. Sometimes he lost sight of Brushtail altogether, and then for an instant he would see his long, sharp nose, or his reddish-brown coat, or his big bushy tail. And all the time Brushtail became more and more cautious. He moved so slowly and so quietly among the bushes that Doctor Rabbit had to strain his eyes to see him. Then suddenly Brushtail jumped high up onto the dead limb of a big fallen tree. He walked out on this limb, then jumped far out into a dense thicket and disappeared.

Yes, sir, Brushtail the Fox was gone! Doctor Rabbit stood by his window in the tree and looked and looked. He thought he would presently see a sharp nose or a bushy tail, but he did not. Brushtail was hiding somewhere in that thicket.

"Well! well! well!" Doctor Rabbit exclaimed. "I certainly should like to know what old Brushtail is doing in there. I am positive he is in that thicket. He never could have slipped out without my seeing him. Yes, sir, he's in there. And that's probably where he always hides. Likely enough he has a den in there. I shouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of rocks in there and Brushtail the Fox has a big hole away back under them."

"Well," Doctor Rabbit continued, talking softly to himself, "I'm going to slip out there as near as possible and keep watch and see if I can discover anything more about Brushtail. I must not tell anyone as yet what I have seen. No, if I want to get a lot of information I must just keep still and do the finding out myself. It isn't safe to trust too many people."

Doctor Rabbit ran downstairs and was starting out into the woods to try to get nearer Brushtail's hiding place when he saw something that made him keep still and watch. Farmer Roe and his boy were coming through the woods toward Doctor Rabbit's tree. Just as they went past, Doctor Rabbit heard Farmer Roe say, "Yes, I'm certain that there is a fox in these woods. That was a fox's track we saw in the yard this morning, and that was a fox, I am sure, that took the old white hen last night. Our chickens will be in danger until we get rid of him."

"Do you suppose he hides in these woods in the daytime?" asked Farmer Roe's boy.

"I shouldn't be surprised," replied Farmer Roe. "In fact, I'm pretty sure he hides close by. There is one thing that puzzles me, however, and that is that although Yappy trailed that fox directly from the chicken yard, he lost the trail right in the woods and could not pick it up again. The fox has played some trick, of course," said Farmer Roe, "and we must try and find out what it is. I really shouldn't be surprised," he went on, "if that fox is lying around close enough to see us this minute. We'll just keep watch until we discover his hiding place."

Doctor Rabbit did not find out anything more about Brushtail the Fox that day, nor for several days. But it was only a very short time until all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods knew that Brushtail the Fox was around, and they were afraid to poke their noses out of their homes.

Stubby Woodchuck had seen Brushtail three times, and he said Brushtail certainly did look fierce.

"He looked so fierce he took my appetite away for several hours each time I saw him," said Stubby Woodchuck, "and I am sure he looks fully as terrible as Ki-yi Coyote or Tom Wildcat. Yes, sir, we have a very mean and dangerous enemy in Mr. Brushtail, and we must keep watch every minute."

"I wish he'd go away and stay away," said Cheepy Chipmunk, who was always easily frightened.

"But he doesn't expect to leave at all," Doctor Rabbit informed his friends. "He expects to live here in these woods, right along."

"He does!" exclaimed poor Cheepy Chipmunk, his voice trembling with fear. "How do you know he expects to live here?"

"Well," explained Doctor Rabbit, "I have seen quite enough to convince me that Brushtail expects to make his home in the Big Green Woods. In fact, I am in position to know that he has a home here right now. It's all fixed up, and he's living in it. He spends his time there except when he's out hunting us or after one of Farmer Roe's nice fat