Dan, the field mouse, strode confidently into the meadow saying, “We challenge you, for the pride of our fathers, for the sake of our dignity, and the right to this meadow!”
“What, jutht the 20 of you?” sneered Henry, a vole with a limp and a slight lisp.
“Nu-uh, We’ve got 29,” corrected Dan.
Henry counted, “I thee you, 8 mithe, 4 hedgehogth, 2 owlth, and half dozen thickly kittenth.”
Dan boasted, “Ah, but you’re not counting the 9 lemmings.”
“Lemmings don’t count,” mocked Phil, a spunky sparrow.
“We do so!” called one of the lemmings.
Henry sighed in a condescending way, “Even with the lemmingth, we have you outnumbered.”
“Not by much,” Dan tried, “half your number are feather weights.”
“I, and my 11 fellow sparrows take exception to that remark,” Phil said hotly.
“As do the larks, all 5 of us,” trilled Nancy, obviously, a lark.
“Numberth athide, we have 2 badgerth,” Henry added.
“You and your badgers,” Dan huffed.
“Hey, it’th not like we need the badgerth with 14 angry chipmunkth on our thide!”