Oh, maybe Jimmie and his sisters weren’t frightened.  They trembled so that the leaves shook as if the wind was blowing them, and when Jimmie got a little quiet he looked out, and what do you suppose he saw?  Why two mean, wicked, sly old foxes, who were getting ready to go to grandpa’s house and eat him up, and Mamma and Papa Wibblewobble up, and probably Uncle Wiggily Longears, too; who knows?

“Oh, isn’t this awful?” asked Alice in a whisper.  “I am going to faint!  I know I am!”

“Silly!” said Jimmie to her.  “Don’t you dare faint!  Here, smell of this,” and he picked some spearmint, and held it under his sister’s nose, which made her feel better.

“We must do something,” said Lulu.  “It will never do to have those bad foxes go to grandpa’s house!  How can we stop them?”

“Let me think,” whispered Jimmie, quite bravely, and he put his head under his wing, so he could be quiet and think better.  “Ah, I have it!” he cried out.  “Come with me, girls!”

So they stepped softly from under the burdock leaves, those three duck children did, and ran to grandpa’s house as fast as they could, leaving the bad foxes in the woods.  Well, you can imagine how surprised all the folks were, even Uncle Wiggily, when they heard the alarming news which the children told.

“Oh, whatever shall we do?” cried Weezy Wibblewobble.

“I know what I’d do, if it wasn’t for my rheumatism!” said Uncle Wiggily.  “I’d bite those foxes, and jump on them, too, but I can’t!  Oh, if Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy were only here!”

“Never mind.  I will save you,” spoke Jimmie.  “Come now, we must get a lot of stones and some boards.  Hurry, for the foxes will soon be here.”

So the ducks, with Uncle Wiggily helping them as much as he could, put a board over the front door, and one over the back door, just inside the house.  Then they piled a lot of stones on the boards and fixed them with strings, so that when the cords were pulled the boards would fall down and the stones would also fall, with a clatter on the head of whoever was at the door.

Well, after all this was done, the ducks and Uncle Wiggily went and hid in the house.  Then, in a little while, those bad foxes came sneaking along.  And, sure enough, one went to the back door and the other to the front door.

They knocked at the same time, just as they had said they would, and Papa Wibblewobble opened one door and Grandpa Wibblewobble the other.  Then just as soon as the doors were opened Jimmie, who had hold of the strings that were fast to the boards, pulled them with his bill, and down clattered the stones, rattlety-bang-go-bung-ker-plunk, right on top of the heads of those two bad foxes!  Oh, how scared they were!

“The house is falling!  The house is falling!  Run away!” cried one fox and they both ran as fast as they could, glad enough to escape, I tell you.  Now, wasn’t that a good trick Jimmie played on those bad animals?