Fat O. Possum exclaimed, "Whew, I'm tired. Now let's eat the head!"

Everybody but O. Possum laughed at that, and Doctor Rabbit said, "No,
Brother Possum, not just yet, but you are helping wonderfully, and
tomorrow morning I think you can have this head all to yourself. I
think we'll be rid of Brushtail the Fox by that time."

Doctor Rabbit now grabbed hold of the grapevine that hung from the top
of the hickory, and he and all his friends pulled and pulled until
they bent the top of the hickory down to the thicket. Then, while his
friends held the tree-top down, Doctor Rabbit made a snare or loop of
the rope he had found, and arranged it in the thicket so that if
Brushtail got to the cow's head he would have to step through the
snare, or slip noose. Finally, Doctor Rabbit tied the tree rather
loosely to a small twig of the thicket and told his friends to step
back carefully, because the least thing would make the tree fly up as
it was before and take that snare with it.




BRUSHTAIL THE FOX DISCOVERS THE COW'S HEAD


Doctor Rabbit and all his friends stood back and watched to see
whether the tree would fly back, but it did not. It held as firm and
quiet as could be.

"Now," said Doctor Rabbit, "old Brushy will come back to where that