Rooster, hurry up! And that’s just what he did.  

WHACK! Down came the wooden mallet on Hungry Hawk’s head. Whew! How mad he was!  

WHACK! Again the Old Red Rooster tickled the wicked hawk’s head.  

“Give him another!” shouted Uncle Lucky, hiding Little Jack Rabbit behind his coat tails.  
“Hit him again, and three times more!”  

Now, let me see. What did Hungry Hawk do after Uncle Lucky shouted to the Old Red Rooster; “Hit him again!” Well, what would you think he’d do? First, he hid his head under his wing; then he tried to squeeze back through the knothole. But he couldn’t, for his feathers turned up at the end and made him bigger than ever.  

“I don’t want to break your head,” said the Old Red Rooster. “This wooden mallet is pretty hard. But if you think you’re going to eat Uncle Lucky or Little Jack Rabbit or yours truly, you’ve made a mistake.”  

“You bet you have!” exclaimed Uncle Lucky. “You better go home to Mrs. Hawk and lead a better life hereafter.”  

“Dear me! I wish I could,” answered Hungry Hawk, “I’ve got an awful headache. The Old Red Rooster hit me three times with the wooden mallet.”  

Just then who should hop into the barn but the Policeman Dog. I wonder how he found out what was going on?  

“You wicked bird! I’ve a good notion to shoot you,” he shouted, pulling his gun from his hip pocket.  

“Don’t shoot!” begged Hungry Hawk, his tail feathers twitching and his eyes blinking with fright. My, but he was scared. For that Policeman Dog’s gun was a warlike looking weapon, let me tell you. The handle was red and the barrel black and the bullet as yellow as a dandelion.  

“I’ll take three minutes to think about it,” answered the Policeman Dog. “But what are you going to do? You can’t get out and you can’t get in, I guess you wish you were thin as a pin.”  

Just think of a Policeman Dog making up poetry at a dangerous time like this. Well, I never.  

“I’m worried enough to grow thin,” answered Hungry Hawk. “Besides, I’m dreadfully uncomfortable.”  

“I’ve got an idea,” suddenly exclaimed wise Uncle Lucky, “I’ll knock out the board. Maybe it will split in two and free the old bird.”  

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