"It'll all be over in a jiffy," said Jimmy Rabbit.




XI

Jimmy Rabbit is too Late


It was just as Jimmy Rabbit had said. You remember that as he stood
behind Frisky Squirrel's back with his mother's big shears, all ready
to cut off Frisky's tail, he had told Frisky that "it would all be
over in a jiffy"?

Well, it _was_. But things didn't happen just as Jimmy Rabbit had
expected. He had taken a good, firm grip on the shears, and he was
just about to shut them upon Frisky's tail with a snap, when somebody
called Frisky's name. Frisky knew who it was right away. It was his
mother! And like most of us, when our mothers catch us doing something
we ought not to do, Frisky was so surprised and so startled that he
gave a great jump.

That jump was all that saved Frisky's tail. For just as Mrs. Squirrel
called, Jimmy Rabbit shut the shears together as hard as he could. But
Jimmy was too late. When Frisky jumped, his tail followed him, of
course. It whisked out from between the shears; and they closed upon
nothing at all.