"Brother Terrapin's eyes grew redder and redder, and the skin on the back of his head began to work backward and forward. What might have happened I don't know, but just as the girls were in the middle of a dance one of my fiddle-strings broke, and it was the treble, too. I wouldn't have minded it if it had been any of the other strings, but when the treble broke I had to stop playing. "Well, the girls were very much disappointed and so was I, for I had come for a frolic. I searched in my pockets, but I had no other string. I tried to play with three strings, but the tune wouldn't come. The girls were so sorry they didn't know what to do. "Just then an idea struck me. 'Ladies,' says I, 'it's a thousand pities I didn't bring an extra treble, and I'm perfectly willing to go home and fetch one, but if Brother Terrapin was a little more accommodating the music could go right on. You could be dancing again in a little or no time.' "'Oh, is that so?' says the girls. 'Well, we know Brother Terrapin will oblige us.' "'I'm not so sure of that,' says I. "'What do you want me to do?' says he. His voice sounded as if he had the croup. "'Ladies,' says I, 'you may believe it or not, but if Brother Terrapin has a mind to he can lend me a treble string that will just fit my fiddle.' "'Brother Rabbit,' says he, 'you know I have no fiddle-string. What would I be doing with one?' "'Don't mind him, ladies. He knows just as well as I do that he has a fiddle-string in his neck. I can take my pocket-knife and get it out in half a minute,' says I. "This made Brother Terrapin roll his eyes. "'Be ashamed of yourself, Brother Terrapin,' says the girls. 'And we were having so much fun, too.' "'If my neck was as long and as tough as Brother Terrapin's, I'd take one of the leaders out and make a fiddle-string of it, just to oblige the ladies,' says I. "The girls turned up their noses and tossed their heads. 'Don't pester Brother Terrapin,' says they. 'We'll not ask him any more.' "'Ladies,' says I, 'there is a way to get the fiddle-string without asking for it. Will you please hand me a case-knife out of the cupboard there?' "I rose from my chair with a sort of a frown," continued Mr. Rabbit, laughing heartily, "but before I could lift my hand Brother Terrapin rolled from the shelf and went tumbling down the slope to the creek, heels over head." "Did it hurt him much?" asked Sweetest Susan, with a touch of sympathy. "It didn't stop his tongue," replied Mr. Rabbit. "He crawled out on the other side of the creek and said very bad words. He even went so far as to call me out of my name. But it is all over with now," said Mr. Rabbit, with a sigh. "I bear no grudges. Let bygones be bygones." "I never heard before that Brother Terrapin had a fiddle-string in his neck," said Buster John, after he had thought the matter over a little. "In dem times," said Drusilla, as if to satisfy her own mind, "you couldn't tell what nobody had skacely."