The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee by Eleanor Estes

her. On his list, he wrote:
MS. RED HEN: Very wet and flustery. In a bad mood ... or anxious?
    Jimmy regarded Ms. Red Hen curiously. Maybe she would lay an egg here soon now, maybe inside the coil of Snakey, usurping the ancient throne? That should interest Snakey and make her unwind and join in.
    Ms. Red Hen gradually subsided, though she did maintain a quiet sort of cluck-clucking constantly. Her cluck-clucks and Filibuster's constant "Voilà"s were quite annoying to some. Nerves were getting edgy.
    "Nothing is madder than a wet red hen," said Owl sagely. He flew down to the ledge above Jimmy McGee's temporary seat. Here he could keep an eye on Jimmy McGee's listings and suggest corrections. His reputation as being a wise old owl gave him this privilege, he thought. And Jimmy McGee did not take offense.
    "Cluck, cluck-cluck, catawcut!" Ms. Red Hen said over and over.
    "She means 'Pawtucket,' not catawcut," Owl explained to Jimmy McGee, "because she is a Rhode Island red."
    But Jimmy did not change his entry and got aid from Filibuster, who screamed, "Voilà!" He was the one who liked to be the noisemaker, not a wet red hen or an owl!
    The squabbling brought an unlisted member of the group out of hiding. This was Rabbit.
    "Where were you when the listing of the animals was going on?" asked Jimmy McGee curiously. He didn't understand why he hadn't seen Rabbit. Perhaps suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, as if from nowhere, Little Lydia would come out of hiding as Rabbit had!
    "Hiding. Just hiding," said Rabbit shyly.
    Rabbit had come from high up in his headquarters, near where Little Lydia had last been seen. So Jimmy McGee wrote:
RABBIT: Shy, very nice ... still ... quite plump. Suspicious character.
    Where could she have been hiding? He'd scanned every possible nook and cranny. He liked Rabbit. Maybe she knew something, though? He couldn't see why she would swallow Little Lydia, hair and all, for Little Lydia looked like neither a carrot nor a piece of lettuce.
    Whoever was guilty would come to his mind in a real, regular striking and electrifying way. And he might rescue Little Lydia from inside one of the refugees with some help, perhaps, from his thunder and lightning bolt box.
    From somewhere a cricket chirped. His winter headquarters were full of surprises. Cricket had the sense not to come out with all these many potential cricket-eaters around. People's stomachs were rumbling. He stayed where he was, but he wanted to be on the list.
    Jimmy McGee felt that not only Cricket but also some of the other little ones needed special protection. He said to Badger, "Badger, you be the policeman. Bop somebody, but not hard, if he or she gets the idea a cricket or anybody else would be a tasty treat!"
    Badger was happy to have a job. Beaver was doing all the work, and he was jealous. He thumped his two little front paws three times on a rock to show what would happen to the bigger animals if they should hurt any of the smaller guests.
    Jimmy McGee made another entry in his list.
CRICKET: Cheerful. Harmless.
    Now to finish up the list. "You, over there in the pool," he said. He was speaking to a large bullfrog.
    "Bar-room!" said Frog.
    This startled everybody. Frog had a booming bass voice, and its echo resounded up and down and roundabout headquarters.
    Rabbit covered her ears and hid in her niche.
    Filibuster screamed, "Voilà!"
    Ms. Red Hen liked the sound. "Cluck-cluck catawcut!" she squawked.
    Everybody made some noise or other, including Cardinal Bird, who, to show his appreciation of something novel, loudly sang "Tweet tweet-tweet."
    If Jimmy McGee had been a composer of symphonies instead of a plumber, what a great "Works in G Major" this would be!
    "Bar-room!" Frog boomed again, as though in agreement.
    Jimmy McGee put him on the list.
BULLFROG: Frog for short. Quite stout. Suspicious character with that huge mouth of his!
    Now that seemed to be all. But just then in came something with such strength that it knocked