Yes, sir, there was Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, fast asleep!

How Wriggly Nose and Paddy Paws and the rest did wiggle their long brown ears at the sight!

“So he had been spying on our frolic!” whispered Flap Ears with a giggle.

“Yes, he thought he’d have hare for supper. Why do you suppose he didn’t catch one of us, when he came so near?” asked Wriggly Nose, his eyes a-twinkle.

“Huh, he knew we could run the faster,” and Paddy Paws threw his chest out.

“He was waiting to knock you down the instant you came near enough,” said Mammy Cottontail, suddenly appearing in the midst of her little brood. “Don’t go too near! He might wake up at any minute!”

“Aw, come on,” urged Flap Ears to the younger bunnies. “I’ll bet you can’t jump as high as I can,” and he vaulted fully five feet into the air.

“Bravo,” said Mammy Cottontail. “That is as good as I could do myself!”

“I can leap farther,” boasted Wriggly Nose, and shooting like a coiled spring from the ground, he landed a good ten feet away.

“They’ll soon be able to take care of themselves,” chuckled Daddy Cottontail, hopping over beside Mammy at this moment. “We must have more of these drills.”

“Yes,” whispered Mammy, “but don’t let ’em know it’s a part of their schooling. Let ’em think it’s only play, or they won’t take any pleasure in it.”

“Right!” agreed Daddy Cottontail. “The great secret of training the young is to make it play for them. Now when I was a youngster—”

He stopped to prick up his ears.

“What is it?” whispered Mammy, with an anxious eye on the little bunnies, who were now playing leap-frog with the hares from the other side of Pollywog Pond.

“Didn’t you get a sniff of something, just then, when the wind changed?” asked Daddy. “I could have sworn—there! A fox! A fox!” he signaled with that tap—tap—tap of his long hind legs that sounded so much like drumming on a hollow log.

Instantly every bunny in the glade had dashed to cover, and gone scuttling for home along the crookedest little rabbit road it could find.

For a Fox has sharper eyes than a bear, a keener nose and better ears, and on top of everything else, he can run as fast as the fastest hare that ever grew. At least, a large fox could, and even young Frisky Fox had grown into a foe worth keeping at a distance.

For the taint on the wind was that of Frisky Fox, out on a little spree of his own.