"If you think I'm going to tell you all I know," said he, "you're mistaken. If I did, you'd know as much as I do, and it wouldn't be any fun. Some day you'll be glad I've left something for you to find out for yourself." CHAPTER III YOUNG GRUMPY AND THE ONE-EYED GANDER "My gracious! What's that?" cried the Babe, and nearly jumped out of his boots. A gray thing had come right at him, with an ugly, scurrying rush. The bushes and bracken being thick, he had not got a very clear view of it--and he did not stop to try for a better one. In two seconds he was back at Uncle Andy's side, where the latter sat smoking on his favorite log by the water. The Babe's eyes were very wide. He looked a bit startled. "It ran _straight_ at me!" he declared. "What could it have been?" "A bear, I suppose!" said Uncle Andy sarcastically. "Of course not," answered the Babe in an injured voice. "If it had been a bear, I'd have been _frightened_." "Oh!" said Uncle Andy. "I see. Well, what was it like? Seems to me you didn't take much time to look at it, even if you weren't frightened." "I _did_ look," protested the Babe, glancing again, a little nervously, at the bushes. "It was like--like a tre-_mend_ous big fat guinea pig, with a fat tail and all kind of rusty gray." "Now, that's not at all bad, considering you were in something of a hurry," said Uncle Andy approvingly. "That's really a very good description of a woodchuck. No one could possibly mistake it for a lobster or a lion." "Of course, I couldn't see it very _plain_," added the Babe hastily, wondering if Uncle Andy was laughing at him. "But why did it run at me that way?" "You see," said Uncle Andy seriously, repenting of his mockery, "the woodchuck is a queer, bad-tempered chap, with more pluck than sense sometimes. Once in a while he would run at anything that was new and strange to him, no matter how big it was, just to see if he couldn't frighten it." "Would he run at you or Bill that way?" demanded the Babe in a voice of awe at the very thought of such temerity. "Oh, he has seen lots of _men_," replied Uncle Andy. "We're nothing new to him. But most likely he had never seen a small boy before, and he did not know what kind of an animal it was. The very fact that he did not know made him angry--he's sometimes so quick-tempered, you know!" "I'm glad he didn't frighten me--so _very_ much!" murmured the Babe, beginning to forget the exact degree of his alarm. "I noticed you got out of his way pretty smart!" said Uncle Andy, eyeing him from under shaggy brows. "But perhaps that was just because you were in a hurry to tell me about it!" "No-o!" answered the Babe, hesitating but truthful. "I thought perhaps he was going to bite my legs, and I didn't want him to." "That seems reasonable enough," agreed Uncle Andy heartily. "No sensible person wants a fool woodchuck biting his legs."