"
"Wish it had been!" said the Babe.
"Just you wait!" said Uncle Andy. "Well, the next minute he looked
down, and, lo and behold! all the water underneath him was alive with
swimming muskrats, darting up and closing in upon him. Three or four
already had their sharp teeth in his feet. He was mad and frightened,
I can tell you.
"He struggled and flopped, but his short wings could not raise him from
the water with those weights fastened upon his feet. Then his black
head shot under, and he jabbed savagely this way and that, making
dreadful wounds in those soft, furry bodies. But the muskrats never
heeded a wound. They swarmed upon their enemy with a splendid,
reckless rage. _They'd_ teach him to stab Water Babies!
"And they did, too! In a minute or so they had pulled the old robber
clean under, where they could all get at him; and, my! you should have
seen how the water boiled! But it was only for a minute or two. Then
two muskrats came up, bleeding, but proud as you please, and then two
or three more; and they all went ashore to lick their wounds and make
their toilets, for, as you may imagine, their hair was somewhat
disarranged.
"And then, while they were combing their fur with the claws of their
little forepaws, like hands, who should come up but Dagger Bill; but
his feet came up first, and he didn't come up far, anyway, and he
didn't stir.
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