CHAPTER XX
A VERY MEEK YOUNG OTTER
The wise will never scorn retreat
When facing swift and sure defeat.
Yes, Sir, it certainly looked bad for that young Otter fighting with Yowler the Bobcat. It looked very much as if in the end Yowler would have that dinner of tender, young Otter for which he was fighting. Such a snarling and spitting! Such a thrashing about in the snow, as they rolled over and over! Never had Yowler fought harder.
But though he was so busy with teeth and claws, he never once forgot to keep his ears open. He never once forgot to listen for sounds that might warn him of the approach of Little Joe Otter or Mrs. Joe. He knew that they were not so far away but that they might hear that fight. So it was with a sudden wrench he tore himself free, and with a screech of disappointment and anger bounded to the nearest tree and climbed it.
He was just in time and that was all. Snarling, her eyes blazing with anger, Mrs. Joe plunged down the trail, and behind her came Little Joe Otter. Had they succeeded in reaching Yowler, the Green Forest would have known him no more.
Mrs. Joe paid no attention to him. She rushed straight to the young Otter and began to lick her wounds and try to comfort her. She examined her all over to see how badly she was hurt, as only an anxious mother could. But Little Joe made straight for the tree up which Yowler had climbed. At the foot of it he glared up and dared Yowler to come down. Yowler was licking a badly bitten paw. Between licks he snarled and growled and spit at Little Joe. But he didn't come down. No, Sir, Yowler didn't come down. He was far too wise to do that. And so all that Little Joe could do was to snarl and spit back at him and tell him what he would do to him if ever he had the chance.
It didn't take Mrs. Joe long to find that the young Otter was not badly hurt. Her coat was torn in places and she was very, very sore, but she was not seriously hurt. As soon as Mrs. Joe was sure of this she called to Little Joe, and regretfully Little Joe left the foot of that tree and once more led the way along the trail. This time Mrs. Joe was the last one. She kept behind the two young Otters. She didn't intend to give them a chance to get into more trouble.
As for the young Otter, never was there one more meek. She had had a lesson she would never forget. She smarted and ached, but she knew that she deserved it. She knew that it was wholly because of her wilfulness and disobedience.
"I'll never, never disobey again," she kept saying over and over to herself. "I'll never, never disobey again. I guess I don't know as much about the Great World as I thought I did. Ouch! That fellow's teeth and claws were sharp. I—I—I wish I hadn't thought myself so smart. I wonder who that fellow is, anyway."
Before this she had been too busy to even wonder who she had been fighting with. But now she wanted to know who this enemy was. And so at the first chance she asked her mother.
"That was Yowler the Bobcat," replied her mother. "He is the greatest sneak in the Green Forest. He wouldn't have dared to touch your father or me. I wish we had been in time to catch him. There are a lot of people who would have been thankful to us if we had."