[Illustration]

On the fifth day the squirrels brought a present of wild honey; it was so sweet and sticky that they licked their fingers as they put it down upon the stone.  They had stolen it out of a bumble bees’ nest on the tippitty top of the hill.

But Nutkin skipped up and down, singing—­

    “Hum-a-bum! buzz! buzz!  Hum-a-bum buzz! 
      As I went over Tipple-tine
      I met a flock of bonny swine;
    Some yellow-nacked, some yellow backed! 
      They were the very bonniest swine
      That e’er went over Tipple-tine.”

[Illustration]

Old Mr. Brown turned up his eyes in disgust at the impertinence of Nutkin.

But he ate up the honey!

[Illustration]

The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts.

But Nutkin sat upon a big flat rock, and played ninepins with a crab apple and green fir-cones.

[Illustration]

On the sixth day, which was Saturday, the squirrels came again for the last time; they brought a new-laid egg in a little rush basket as a last parting present for Old Brown.

But Nutkin ran in front laughing, and shouting—­

    “Humpty Dumpty lies in the beck,
     With a white counterpane round his neck,
     Forty doctors and forty wrights,
     Cannot put Humpty Dumpty to rights!”

[Illustration]

Now old Mr. Brown took an interest in eggs; he opened one eye and shut it again.  But still he did not speak.

[Illustration]

Nutkin became more and more impertinent—­

      “Old Mr. B!  Old Mr. B! 
    Hickamore, Hackamore, on the King’s kitchen door;
    All the King’s horses, and all the King’s men,
    Couldn’t drive Hickamore, Hackamore,
    Off the King’s kitchen door.”

Nutkin danced up and down like a sunbeam; but still Old Brown said nothing at all.

[Illustration]

Nutkin began again—­

    “Arthur O’Bower has broken his band,
     He comes roaring up the land! 
     The King of Scots with all his power,
     Cannot turn Arthur of the Bower!”

Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the wind, and he took a running jump right onto the head of Old Brown!...

Then all at once there was a flutterment and a scufflement and a loud “Squeak!”

The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes.

[Illustration]

When they came back very cautiously, peeping round the tree—­there was Old Brown sitting on his door-step, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if nothing had happened.

* * * * *

But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket!

[Illustration]

This looks like the end of the story; but it isn’t.

[Illustration]

Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house, and held him up by the tail, intending to skin him; but Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic window.