Florian strode resolutely forward, but the mouse in the blue gown suddenly flung herself dramatically in front of the cart. One paw outstretched, the other across her brow, she declaimed, “Oh, mister Florian, I beseech you, sir, touch not a hair of that babe’s tender head. Do nothing you will reproach yourself for in the sunlit seasons lying ahead. Hear a pitiful mother’s plea, and punish not the harmless innocent. Spare him, I beg of you!”

Runktipp the hedgehog chortled bitterly as he removed the bunting from his spikes. “Dwopple a harmless innocent? Huh, that ’un’s about as harmless as a bucket o’ serpents an’ a sack o’ stoats! An’ you ain’t his mother, Deesum, yore only his auntie!”

Deesum shot Runktipp a haughty glance. “A mere detail. Do not quibble, sir. No mother could love a babe as I love Dwopple. Come to me, my precious little mite!”

Clambering into the cart, she grabbed a small fat mousebabe, who wore a stained oversized smock and a wicked scowl. Hanging from one of his grubby paws was a miniature slingshot. He wriggled and kicked desperately as Deesum smothered him with kisses.

“Garraaagh! Leggo a Dwopple, stoppa kissy me. Blurrgh!”

Elachim the otter massaged a bruised paw as he glared at the infant. “You steamin’ liddle nit, Dwopple, you ruined our re’earsal!”

Florian interrupted sternly. “Indeed you have, ye young ripcurdle. Apologize to the entire troupe, this very flippin’ instant! Say you’re sorry, sir!”

From over Deesum’s shoulder, Dwopple grinned fiendishly at the company. “A soggy!”

The hare squinched his eyes at Dwopple. “Beg pardon, what did y’say?”

Deesum stamped her paw impatiently. “He said he’s sorry, isn’t that good enough for you? Would you like the little fellow to shed salt tears and roll in the dust? Isn’t the word sorry satisfactory to a heartless, driving taskmaster like you?”

Florian threw up his paws in despair. “Tchah! I suppose it’ll have t’be, wot!”

Deesum patted the mousebabe’s back reassuringly. “There now, my little treasure, they’ve all forgiven you, isn’t that nice. Will you give them all a big kiss?”

The hedgehog, Runktipp, backed off with a horrified face. “Let that liddle savage kiss me? No, thanks! He’d prob’ly bite the snout off’n me!”

Florian waggled his cane severely at Dwopple. “Absolutely no need t’go kissin’ an’ huggin’ everybeast. Just behave y’self in future, m’laddo, particularly at rehearsals, wot!”

Turning on his heel, the hare strode grandiloquently off, only to be hit sharply on his bobtail by a missile from Dwopple’s sling.

“Yowhooch! Bandit, fiend, pollywoggle, scallywag! I’ll have y’tail for breakfast, sah!”

The sight of Florian’s enraged face set Dwopple crying in distress. “Wahaaah! Nasty wabbit gonna eat Dwopple’s tail. Boohoohoo! Me on’y a likka baybee. Wahaahaa!”