it.

"What are you doing?" asked Uncle Wiggily in surprise.

"Oh, my! How you startled me!" exclaimed the red squirrel. "But I'm glad
it's you, Uncle Wiggily. I'm going to a surprise party soon, and I was
just trying to make my tail as big as Johnnie or Billie Bushytail's, but I
can't do it," she said sadly.

"No, and you never can," said the rabbit. "Their tails are a different
kind than yours, for they are gray squirrels and you are a red one. But
yours is very nice. Be content to have yours as it is."

"I guess I will," said the red squirrel. "But what are you doing out so
late, Uncle Wiggily?"

"Looking for the end of the moon-beam to get my fortune."

"Ha! The moon-beam ends right here," said the red squirrel-girl, pointing
to her looking-glass, and, surely enough, there the bright shaft of light
ended. "But there is no fortune here, Uncle Wiggily, I am sorry to say,"
she added.

"I see there isn't," answered the rabbit. "Well, I must travel on again
to-morrow, then. But now I will see that you get safely home, for it is
getting late."

And, just as he said that, what should happen but that a black, savage,
ugly bear stuck his nose out of the bushes and made a grab for the rabbit.
But what do you think the red squirrel did?