Tags:
adventure,
Mystery,
Texas,
dog,
cowdog,
Hank the Cowdog,
John R. Erickson,
John Erickson,
ranching,
Hank,
Drover,
Pete,
Sally May
I could be a dream if I could sleep. But I canât and Iâm not, and Iâm only who I am instead of who I could be.â
âAll right, I guess that sort of narrows it down. Who are you?â
âI hate simple questions. They require simple answers, and whoever I am, Iâm not simple. I simply canât answer your question.â
This was getting me nowhere. âAll right, then letâs move to my second point.â
âOh no, how dull! Letâs skip the second and go on to the third.â
âHuh? No, I donât have a third point. Just two.â
âAll things have three parts: the first half, the second half, and the third half which we didnât know was there. But it is there, so skip the second part and go to the third.â
âWell . . . all right, I guess . . . my second point, which is the same as your third part . . .â
âNow youâre getting in the spirit!â
â. . . is that you called me âHank the Rabbit,â and Iâm not a rabbit, see. Iâm a dog, Hank the Cowdog, Head of Ranch Security.â
âOh, I know all that! But I like Hank the Rabbit better than Hank the Cowdog, so I will call you Hank the Rabbit.â
âWell, whatever you . . .â Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. I remembered running into somebody once who had called me Hank the Rabbit. âSay, I think I just figgered out who you are! Youâre Madame Moonshine, the witchy little owl.â
I waited for her to answer but she didnât. There was a long throbbing silence.
âMadame? Madame Moonshine? Speak to me.â
âRubbish!â
âYouâre the one who cured me of Eye-Crosserosis.â
âDouble rubbish sassafras horseradish balderdash!â
âAnd that explains why youâve been talking in circles. Shucks, youâre a witch.â
âYes, Iâm a witch but also a switch.â
âHuh?â
âWhere would you look to find a switch?â
âWell, letâs see . . . a switch . . . hmmm. In a tree?â
âA switch in a tree, a witch that is me. Make the switch and find a witch, trah-lah, trah-lah, trah-lah.â
Hmmm. All the evidence was pointing . . . maybe if I raised my eyes from ground level . . . heck, Iâd been looking for her on the ground but . . .Â
I raised my eyes and studied the circle of trees all around me, and . . . mercy, there she was, hanging upside-down from a vine that was draped over a big hackberry tree.
âAh ha! There you are. Iâve found you at last.â
She smiledâupside-down, which was a little peculiar since an upside-down smile is about the same as a frown.
âI knew you could do it!â she said. âYou not only found who I am but where I am. Oh Hank, youâre such a clever rabbit and I do need your help.â
âIâm still not a rabbit, Madame, but Iâd be glad to help you if I can, because to tell you the truth, Iâm in kind of a jam myself.â
This was a real struck of loke, me running into Madame Moonshine, because I had a feeling that she could find Little Alfred and help me save him from the bobcat.
Chapter Seven: Disorientation
S o there I was in the Dark Unchanted Forest. I was lost, but I had found Madame Moonshine hanging upside-down by one foot from a vine.
âWell, what sort of help do you need, Madame?â
âOh Hank, I have a dilemma here. Iâve caught my foot in this vine and Iâm hanging downside-up.â
âHmmm. I would have said âupside-down.ââ
âPicky picky! Itâs all the same, isnât it? Downside-up and upside-down, wrongside-up and rightside-down, backside-up and topside-down! The problem is the same, and the problem is that Iâm backwards.â
âYes, I see what you