<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN name="IX" id="IX" /> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-ix-p053.jpg" width-obs="325" height-obs="194" alt="HELPING JIMMY RABBIT" title="HELPING JIMMY RABBIT" /></div>
<p><span class="smcap">Peter Mink</span> was feeling even more peevish
than usual. And this was the reason:
Jimmy Rabbit had a new sled.</p>
<p>Now, Peter had never owned a sled;
and it made him envious to see what a
good time Jimmy was having, coasting
down the side of Blue Mountain.</p>
<p>There was only one thing that Jimmy
Rabbit did not like about his sled. It
went so fast that he always fell off long
before he reached the end of the slide.</p>
<p>"I can fix that," Peter Mink told him.
"You go home and borrow your father's
hammer and a few nails, and I'll show you<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></SPAN></span>
how you can coast 'way down into Pleasant
Valley without once tumbling off."</p>
<p>Jimmy thanked him. And he hurried
home at once. He dragged his new sled
after him, too; for he was afraid that if
he left it behind he might not be able to
find Peter Mink—or the sled, either—when
he came back again.</p>
<p>But Peter did not seem to care. Perhaps
he had something on his mind. Anyhow,
when Jimmy Rabbit returned with
the hammer and nails, Peter Mink was
waiting patiently for him.</p>
<p>"Now, then," said Peter, as he took the
nails and the hammer, "you sit on the
sled, Jimmy, and I'll fix you up in no
time."</p>
<p>So Jimmy Rabbit sat down on his new
sled. And in a few minutes Peter Mink
had nailed Jimmy's trousers fast to the
sled.</p>
<p class="flat"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Now you simply <i>can't</i> fall off," Peter
said. "I'll give you a push; and the first
thing you know, you'll be down in the valley."</p>
<p>Jimmy Rabbit said to himself that
Peter Mink was very bright, to think of
such a splendid plan as nailing his trousers
to the sled. He thanked Peter; and
he gripped the sled tightly—though he
didn't need to—while Peter gave him a
push that sent him flying down the mountainside.</p>
<p>Though he went like the wind, he never
fell off once. And soon he was down in
Pleasant Valley, skimming over the crust
which covered the drifts in Farmer
Green's meadow.</p>
<p>At last the sled stopped. And then
Jimmy Rabbit decided that Peter Mink
had forgotten something. How was he to
get off the sled with his trousers nailed<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></SPAN></span>
fast to it? And what would his mother
say, when she saw the nail-holes in his
trousers? And what would his father do,
when <i>he</i> saw the nails in Jimmy's new
sled?</p>
<p>It was not very pleasant for Jimmy
Rabbit, sitting all alone in the meadow,
with such thoughts running through his
head.</p>
<p>After he had sat there a while Jimmy
heard something that worried him even
more. He heard old dog Spot barking.
And he saw that he would be in a good
deal of a fix if Spot should happen to
come along and find him. For he couldn't
stir from his sled.</p>
<p>Jimmy began to hate that sled. He
wished he had never seen it.... And
then he heard somebody scampering over
the crust. He was almost too frightened
to look around to see who it was. But he<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></SPAN></span>
turned his head. And he was glad to find
that it was Peter Mink, who had run all
the way down from Blue Mountain.</p>
<p>"You had a fine ride, didn't you?" said
Peter Mink.</p>
<p>"Yes," Jimmy answered. "But I liked
the beginning of it better than the end."</p>
<p>"Why, what's the matter?" Peter inquired.</p>
<p>"I can't get off the sled," Jimmy said.</p>
<p>Peter Mink pretended to be surprised.
And he said that he hadn't thought of
that.</p>
<p>"But I'll help you," he promised.</p>
<p>Jimmy Rabbit thanked him.</p>
<p>"But," said Peter Mink, "I can't do
all these things for you for nothing, of
course. I have too much else to do, to be
wasting my time like this, without pay."</p>
<p>"What do you want?" Jimmy Rabbit
asked him.</p>
<p class="flat"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Give me the sled," said Peter Mink,
"and I'll help you to get off it."</p>
<p>"All right," Jimmy agreed. He would
even have given Peter his wheelbarrow,
too, he was so anxious to be freed from
his seat. "I think, though, that you
might pull me up the mountain," Jimmy
added. "I don't feel like walking." And
that was quite true, because he had been
so frightened, when he heard old Spot
barking, that his legs were still shaking.</p>
<p>"Well," said Peter Mink, "I'm pretty
particular who rides on my sled. But I'll
pull you up the mountain, because I'm
going that way myself, to slide."</p>
<p>And he started off, dragging Jimmy
Rabbit behind him.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-p058.jpg" width-obs="318" height-obs="89" alt="" title="" /></div>
<hr class="chapter" />
<p class="flat"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></SPAN></span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />