CHAPTER 32

BOXER¹ WISHES HE HADN’T

This is, you’ll find, the law of fate:

Regrets are always just too late.

Mother Bear.

Sammy Jay had followed Boxer, for he felt sure that things were bound to happen wherever that little Bear was. So Sammy saw his meeting with Jimmy Skunk². He saw how polite Jimmy was and how very impolite the little Bear was.

Sammy understood perfectly³. He knew that probably Boxer knew nothing at all about Jimmy Skunk and never had heard of that little bag of scent⁴ carried by[190] Jimmy and dreaded⁵ by all of Jimmy’s neighbors. He knew that the little Bear was rude, simply because he was so much bigger than Jimmy Skunk that he could see no reason for being polite, especially as Jimmy had asked him to do something he didn’t want to do.

When Jimmy Skunk began to lose patience, Sammy Jay thought it was time for him to give Boxer a little advice. “Don’t be silly! Do as Jimmy Skunk tells you to, or you will be the sorriest little Bear that ever lived!” screamed Sammy, as he saw Jimmy’s great plume⁶ of a tail begin to go up, which is Jimmy’s signal of danger.

But Boxer, foolish little Bear[191] that he was, couldn’t see anything to fear from one so much smaller than he. So he paid no attention to Jimmy’s request that he step aside. Instead he laughed in the most impudent⁷ way.

“Run! Run!” screamed Sammy Jay.

Boxer didn’t move. Jimmy Skunk stamped angrily with his front feet. Then something happened. Yes, sir, something happened. It was so sudden and so unexpected that Boxer didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he was very much aware that it had happened. Something was in his eyes and made them smart and for a few minutes blinded him. Something was choking him; it seemed[192] to him he could hardly breathe. And there was the most awful odor he ever had smelled.

Boxer rolled over and over and over on the ground. He was trying to get away from that awful odor. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t, for the very good reason that he carried it along with him. You see, Jimmy Skunk had punished that silly little Bear by throwing on him a little of that powerful scent he always carries with him to use in time of danger or when provoked.

“What did I tell you? What did I tell you?” screamed Sammy Jay. “I guess you won’t interfere⁸ with Jimmy Skunk again in a hurry. It serves you right. It[193] serves you just right. But it is hard on the people who live about here. Yes, sir, it is hard on them to have all the sweetness of the Green Forest spoiled by that scent of Jimmy Skunk’s. I can’t stand it myself, so I’ll be moving along. It serves you right, you silly little Bear. It serves you right.” With this Sammy Jay flew away.

Boxer knew then that Jimmy Skunk had been the cause of this new and dreadful trouble he was in, and great respect mingled⁹ with fear took possession of him. And oh, how Boxer wished that he hadn’t been impolite! How he wished he hadn’t refused to do as Jimmy Skunk had politely asked him to!

[194]“I wish I hadn’t! I wish I hadn’t! I wish I hadn’t!” sobbed¹⁰ Boxer over and over, as he tried to get away from that dreadful smell and couldn’t.