toward the place where he lay hidden.

Now, if Doctor Rabbit had had something better than a brush pile to
hide under, he might have made some sort of noise and warned the hen.
But if he had made the least sound, Brushtail would have come diving
under that brush pile in a second, for he isn't afraid of brush piles
as he is of briar patches.

Pretty soon the hen reached the woods. She stretched up her neck and
looked around, but not seeing anything she started into the woods for
some crickets. She had gone only a few steps when Brushtail the Fox
bounded out, seized her by the neck, and ran off through the Big Green
Woods.

Doctor Rabbit followed along behind, going hoppity, hoppity, hoppity,
and presently he saw Brushtail splashing along in the Murmuring Brook.
He was trotting along in the brook for a distance, for, you see, a
hound cannot smell a fox's tracks in the water; and so Yappy could not
track him.

Doctor Rabbit stopped and looked.

He saw Brushtail finally cross to the other side of the Murmuring
Brook. Brushtail then turned and looked back to see if anybody was
following him. He did not see anyone, so, still holding the dead hen
in his mouth, he trotted out of sight among the trees.

Of course Doctor Rabbit knew what Brushtail was going to do. He was
going to take that hen up the river to Mrs. Brushtail and the little
Brushies.