He could not understand how
his enemy had got out of the way so quickly. He stared around, and then,
turning his one eye skyward, as if he thought Young Grumpy might have
gone that way, he trumpeted a loud _honka-honka-honk--kah_.
"For some reason this strange cry broke Young Grumpy's nerve. He
scuttled for his hole his jet-black heels kicking up the straws behind
him. As soon as he began to run, of course, the gander saw him and swept
after him with a ferocious hissing. But Young Grumpy had got the start.
He dived into his hole just as the gander brought up against the fence.
"Now, the moment he found himself inside his burrow, all Young Grumpy's
courage returned. He wheeled and stuck his head out again, as much as to
say, 'Now come on, if you dare!"
"The gander came on promptly--so promptly, in fact, that the lightning
stroke of his heavy bill knocked Young Grumpy far back into the hole
again.
"In a great rage, the gander darted his head into the hole. Chattering
with indignation, Young Grumpy set his long teeth into that intruding
bill, and tried to pull it further in. The gander, much taken aback at
this turn of affairs, tried to pull it out again. For perhaps half a
minute it was a very good tug-of-war.
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