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Burgess</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Old Granny Fox</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Thornton W. Burgess</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 7, 2002 [eBook #4980]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 21, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Kent Fielden and David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD GRANNY FOX ***</div> + +<h1>OLD GRANNY FOX</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">By Thornton W. Burgess</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0001">CHAPTER I. Reddy Fox Brings Granny News</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0002">CHAPTER II. Granny And Reddy Fox Go Hunting</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0003">CHAPTER III. Reddy Is Sure Granny Has Lost Her Senses</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0004">CHAPTER IV. Quacker The Duck Grows Curious</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0005">CHAPTER V. Reddy Fox Is Afraid To Go Home</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0006">CHAPTER VI. Old Granny Fox Is Caught Napping</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0007">CHAPTER VII. Granny Fox Has A Bad Dream</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0008">CHAPTER VIII. What Farmer Brown's Boy Did</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0009">CHAPTER IX. Reddy Fox Hears About Granny Fox</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0010">CHAPTER X. Reddy Fox Is Impudent</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0011">CHAPTER XI. After The Storm</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0012">CHAPTER XII. Granny And Reddy Fox Hunt In Vain</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0013">CHAPTER XIII. Granny Fox Admits Growing Old</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0014">CHAPTER XIV. Three Vain And Foolish Wishes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0015">CHAPTER XVI. Reddy Is Made Truly Happy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0016">CHAPTER XVI. Reddy Is Made Truly Happy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0017">CHAPTER XVII. Granny Fox Promises Reddy Bowser's Dinner</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0018">CHAPTER XVIII. Why Bowser The Hound Didn't Eat His Dinner</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0019">CHAPTER XIX. Old Man Coyote Does A Little Thinking</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0020">CHAPTER XX. A Twice Stolen Dinner</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0021">CHAPTER XXI. Granny And Reddy Talk Things Over</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0022">CHAPTER XXII. Granny Fox Plans To Get A Fat Hen</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0023">CHAPTER XXIII. Farmer Brown's Boy Forgets To Close The Gate</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0024">CHAPTER XXIV. A Midnight Visit</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0025">CHAPTER XXV. A Dinner For Two</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0026">CHAPTER XXVI. Farmer Brown's Boy Sets A Trap</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0027">CHAPTER XXVII. Prickly Porky Takes A Sun Bath</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0028">CHAPTER XXVIII. Prickly Porky Enjoys Himself</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0029">CHAPTER XXIX. The New Home In The Old Pasture</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0001"></a> CHAPTER I<br/> +Reddy Fox Brings Granny News</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Pray who is there who would refuse<br/> +To bearer be of happy news?<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Snow covered the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, and ice bound the Smiling +Pool and the Laughing Brook. Reddy and Granny Fox were hungry most of the time. +It was not easy to find enough to eat these days, and so they spent nearly +every minute they were awake in hunting. Sometimes they hunted together, but +usually one went one way, and the other went another way so as to have a +greater chance of finding something. If either found enough for two, the one +finding it took the food back to their home if it could be carried. If not, the +other was told where to find it. +</p> + +<p> +For several days they had had very little indeed to eat, and they were so +hungry that they were willing to take almost any chance to get a good meal. For +two nights they had visited Farmer Brown’s henhouse, hoping that they would be +able to find a way inside. But the biddies had been securely locked up, and try +as they would, they couldn’t find a way in. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s of no use,” said Granny, as they started back home after the second try, +“to hope to get one of those hens at night. If we are going to get any at all, +we will have to do it in broad daylight. It can be done, for I have done it +before, but I don’t like the idea. We are likely to be seen, and that means +that Bowser the Hound will be set to hunting us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pooh!” exclaimed Reddy. “What of it? It’s easy enough to fool him.” +</p> + +<p> +“You think so, do you?” snapped Granny. “I never yet saw a young Fox who didn’t +think he knew all there is to know, and you’re just like the rest. When you’ve +lived as long as I have you will have learned not to be quite so sure of your +own opinions. I grant you that when there is no snow on the ground, any Fox +with a reasonable amount of Fox sense in his head can fool Bowser, but with +snow everywhere it is a very different matter. If Bowser once takes it into his +head to follow your trail these days, you will have to be smarter than I think +you are to fool him. The only way you will be able to get away from him will be +by going into a hole in the ground, and when you do that you will have given +away a secret that will mean we will never have any peace at all. We will never +know when Farmer Brown’s boy will take it into his head to smoke us out. I’ve +seen it done. No, Sir, we are not going to try for one of those hens in the +daytime unless we are starving.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m starving now,” whined Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“No such thing!” Granny snapped. “I’ve been without food longer than this many +a time. Have you been over to the Big River lately?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” replied Reddy. “What’s the use? It’s frozen over. There isn’t anything +there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps not,” replied Granny, “but I learned a long time ago that it is a poor +plan to overlook any chance. There is a place in the Big River which never +freezes because the water runs too swiftly to freeze, and I’ve found more than +one meal washed ashore there. You go over there now while I see what I can find +in the Green Forest. If neither of us finds anything, it will be time enough to +think about Farmer Brown’s hens to-morrow.” +</p> + +<p> +Much against his will Reddy obeyed. “It isn’t the least bit of use,” he +grumbled, as he trotted towards the Big River. “There won’t be anything there. +It is just a waste of time.” +</p> + +<p> +Late that afternoon he came hurrying back, and Granny knew by the way that he +cocked his ears and carried his tail that he had news of some kind. “Well, what +is it?” she demanded. +</p> + +<p> +“I found a dead fish that had been washed ashore,” replied Reddy. “It wasn’t +big enough for two, so I ate it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Anything else?” asked Granny. +</p> + +<p> +“No-o,” replied Reddy slowly; “that is, nothing that will do us any good. +Quacker the Wild Duck was swimming about out in the open water, but though I +watched and watched he never once came ashore.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ha!” exclaimed Granny. “That <i>is</i> good news. I think we’ll go Duck +hunting.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0002"></a> CHAPTER II<br/> +Granny And Reddy Fox Go Hunting</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +When you’re in doubt what course is right,<br/> +The thing to do is just sit tight.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun had just got well started on his daily climb up in +the blue, blue sky that morning when he spied two figures trotting across the +snow-covered Green Meadows, one behind the other. They were trotting along +quite as if they had made up their minds just where they were going. They had. +You see they were Granny and Reddy Fox, and they were bound for the Big River +at the place where the water ran too swiftly to freeze. The day before Reddy +had discovered Quacker the Wild Duck swimming about there, and now they were on +their way to try to catch him. +</p> + +<p> +Granny led the way and Reddy meekly followed her. To tell the truth, Reddy +hadn’t the least idea that they would have a chance to catch Quacker, because +Quacker kept out in the water where he was as safe from them as if they were a +thousand miles away. The only reason that Reddy had willingly started with +Granny was the hope that he might find a dead fish washed up on the shore as he +had the day before. +</p> + +<p> +“Granny certainly is growing foolish in her old age,” thought Reddy, as he +trotted along behind her. “I told her that Quacker never once came ashore all +the time I watched yesterday. I don’t believe he <i>ever</i> comes ashore, and +if she knows anything at all she ought to know that she can’t catch him out +there in the water. Granny used to be smart enough when she was young, I guess, +but she certainly is losing her mind now. It’s a pity, a great pity. I can just +imagine how Quacker will laugh at her. I have to laugh myself.” +</p> + +<p> +He did laugh, but you may be sure he took great pains that Granny should not +see him laughing. Whenever she looked around he was as sober as could be. In +fact, he appeared to be quite as eager as if he felt sure they would catch +Quacker. Now old Granny Fox is very wise in the ways of the Great World, and if +Reddy could have known what was going on in her mind as she led the way to the +Big River, he might not have felt quite so sure of his own smartness. Granny +was doing some quiet laughing herself. +</p> + +<p> +“He thinks I’m old and foolish and don’t know what I’m about, the young scamp!” +thought she. “He thinks he has learned all there is to learn. It isn’t the +least use in the world to try to tell him anything. When young folks feel the +way he does, it is a waste of time to talk to them. He has got to be shown. +There is nothing like experience to take the conceit out of these youngsters.” +</p> + +<p> +Now conceit is the feeling that you know more than any one else. Perhaps you +do. Then again, perhaps you don’t. So sometimes it is best not to be too sure +of your own opinion. Reddy was sure. He trotted along behind old Granny Fox and +planned smart things to say to her when she found that there wasn’t a chance to +catch Quacker the Duck. I am afraid, very much afraid, that Reddy was planning +to be saucy. People who think themselves smart are quite apt to be saucy. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they came to the bank of the Big River. Old Granny Fox told Reddy to +sit still while she crept up behind some bushes where she could peek out over +the Big River. He grinned as he watched her. He was still grinning when she +tiptoed back. He expected to see her face long with disappointment. Instead she +looked very much pleased. +</p> + +<p> +“Quacker is there,” said she, “and I think he will make us a very good dinner. +Creep up behind those bushes and see for yourself, then come back here and tell +me what you think we’d better do to get him.” +</p> + +<p> +So Reddy stole up behind the bushes, and this time it was Granny who grinned as +she watched. As he crept along, Reddy wondered if it could be that for once +Quacker had come ashore. Granny seemed so sure they could catch him that this +must be the case. But when he peeped through the bushes, there was Quacker way +out in the middle of the open water just where he had been the day before. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0003"></a> CHAPTER III<br/> +Reddy Is Sure Granny Has Lost Her Senses</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Perhaps ’tis just as well that we<br/> +Can’t see ourselves as others see.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +“Just as I thought,” muttered Reddy Fox as he peeped through the bushes on the +bank of the Big River and saw Quacker swimming about in the water where it ran +too swiftly to freeze. “We’ve got just as much chance of catching him as I have +of jumping over the moon. That’s what I’ll tell Granny.” +</p> + +<p> +He crept back carefully so as not to be seen by Quacker, and when he had +reached the place where Granny was waiting for him, his face wore a very +impudent look. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said Granny Fox, “what shall we do to catch him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Learn to swim like a fish and fly like a bird,” replied Reddy in such a saucy +tone that Granny had hard work to keep from boxing his ears. +</p> + +<p> +“You mean that you think he can’t be caught?” said she quietly. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think anything about it; I <i>know</i> he can’t!” snapped Reddy. “Not +by us, anyway,” he added. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you wouldn’t even try?” retorted Granny. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m old enough to know when I’m wasting my time,” replied Reddy with a toss of +his head. +</p> + +<p> +“In other words you think I’m a silly old Fox who has lost her senses,” said +Granny sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“No-o. I didn’t say that,” protested Reddy, looking very uncomfortable. +</p> + +<p> +“But you think it,” declared Granny. “Now look here, Mr. Smarty, you do just as +I tell you. You creep back there where you can watch Quacker and all that +happens, and mind that you keep out of his sight. Now go.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy went. There was nothing else to do. He didn’t dare disobey. Granny +watched until Reddy had reached his hiding-place. Then what do you think she +did? Why, she walked right out on the little beach just below Reddy and in +plain sight of Quacker! Yes, Sir, that is what she did! +</p> + +<p> +Then began such a queer performance that it is no wonder that Reddy was sure +Granny had lost her senses. She rolled over and over. She chased her tail round +and round until it made Reddy dizzy to watch her. She jumped up in the air. She +raced back and forth. She played with a bit of stick. And all the time she +didn’t pay the least attention to Quacker the Duck. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy stared and stared. Whatever had come over Granny? She was crazy. Yes, +Sir, that must be the matter. It must be that she had gone without food so long +that she had gone crazy. Poor Granny! She was in her second childhood. Reddy +could remember how he had done such things when he was very young, just by way +of showing how fine he felt. But for a grown-up Fox to do such things was +undignified, to say the least. You know Reddy thinks a great deal of dignity. +It was worse than undignified; it was positively disgraceful. He did hope that +none of his neighbors would happen along and see Granny cutting up so. He never +would hear the end of it if they did. +</p> + +<p> +Over and over rolled Granny, and around and around she chased her tail. The +snow flew up in a cloud. And all the time she made no sound. Reddy was just +trying to decide whether to go off and leave her until she had regained her +common sense, or to go out and try to stop her, when he happened to look out in +the open water where Quacker was. Quacker was sitting up as straight as he +could. In fact, he had his wings raised to help him sit up on his tail, the +better to see what old Granny Fox was doing. +</p> + +<p> +“As I live,” muttered Reddy, “I believe that fellow is nearer than he was!” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy crouched lower than ever, and instead of watching Granny he watched +Quacker the Duck. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0004"></a> CHAPTER IV<br/> +Quacker The Duck Grows Curious</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +The most curious thing in the world is curiosity.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Old Granny Fox never said a truer thing than that. It is curious, very curious, +how sometimes curiosity will get the best of even the wisest and most sensible +of people. Even Old Granny Fox herself has been known to be led into trouble by +it. We expect it of Peter Rabbit, but Peter isn’t a bit more curious than some +others of whom we do not expect it. +</p> + +<p> +Now Quacker the Wild Duck is the last one in the world you would expect to be +led into trouble by curiosity. Quacker had spent the summer in the Far North +with Honker the Goose. In fact, he had been born there. He had started for the +far away Southland at the same time Honker had, but when he reached the Big +River he had found plenty to eat and had decided to stay until he had to move +on. The Big River had frozen over everywhere except in this one place where the +water was too swift to freeze, and there Quacker had remained. You see, he was +a good diver and on the bottom of the river he found plenty to eat. No one +could get at him out there, unless it were Roughleg the Hawk, and if Roughleg +did happen along, all he had to do was to dive and come up far away to laugh +and make fun of Roughleg. The water couldn’t get through his oily feathers, and +so he didn’t mind how cold it was. +</p> + +<p> +Now in his home in the Far North there were so many dangers that Quacker had +early learned to be always on the watch and to take the best of care of +himself. On his way down to the Big River he had been hunted by men with +terrible guns, and he had learned all about them. In fact, he felt quite able +to keep out of harm’s way. He rather prided himself that there was no one smart +enough to catch him. +</p> + +<p> +I suspect he thought he knew all there was to know. In this respect he was a +good deal like Reddy Fox himself. That was because he was young. It is the way +with young Ducks and Foxes and with some other youngsters I know. +</p> + +<p> +When Quacker first saw Granny Fox on the little beach, he flirted his absurd +little tail and smiled as he thought how she must wish she could catch him. But +so far as he could see, Granny didn’t once look at him. +</p> + +<p> +“She doesn’t know I’m out here at all,” thought Quacker. Then suddenly he sat +up very straight and looked with all his might. What under the sun was the +matter with that Fox? She was acting as if she had suddenly lost her senses. +</p> + +<p> +Over and over she rolled. Around and around she spun. She turned somersaults. +She lay on her back and kicked her heels in the air. Never in his life had he +known any one to act like that. There must be something the matter with her. +</p> + +<p> +Quacker began to get excited. He couldn’t keep his eyes off Old Granny Fox. He +began to swim nearer. He wanted to see better. He quite forgot she was a Fox. +She moved so fast that she was just a queer red spot on the beach. Whatever she +was doing was very curious and very exciting. He swam nearer and nearer. The +excitement was catching. He began to swim in circles himself. All the time he +drew nearer and nearer to the shore. He didn’t have the least bit of fear. He +was just curious. He wanted to see better. +</p> + +<p> +All the time Granny was cutting up her antics, she was watching Quacker, though +he didn’t suspect it. As he swam nearer and nearer to the shore, Granny rolled +and tumbled farther and farther back. At last Quacker was close to the shore. +If he kept on, he would be right on the land in a few minutes. And all the time +he stared and stared. No thought of danger entered his head. You see, there was +no room because it was so filled with curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“In a minute more I’ll have him,” thought Granny, and whirled faster than ever. +And just then something happened. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0005"></a> CHAPTER V<br/> +Reddy Fox Is Afraid To Go Home</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Yes, Sir, a chicken track is good to see, but it often puts nothing but water +in my mouth.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy Fox thought of that saying many times as he hunted through the Green +Forest that night, afraid to go home. You see, he had almost dined on Quacker +the Duck over at the Big River that day and then hadn’t, and it was all his own +fault. That was why he was afraid to go home. From his hiding-place on the bank +he had watched Quacker swim in and in until he was almost on the shore where +old Granny Fox was whirling and rolling and tumbling about as if she had +entirely lost her senses. Indeed, Reddy had been quite sure that she had when +she began. It wasn’t until he saw that curiosity was drawing Quacker right in +so that in a minute or two Granny would be able to catch him, that he +understood that Granny was anything but crazy, and really was teaching him a +new trick as well as trying to catch a dinner. +</p> + +<p> +When he realized this, he should have been ashamed of himself for doubting the +smartness of Granny and for thinking that he knew all there was to know. But he +was too much excited for any such thoughts. Nearer and nearer to the shore came +Quacker, his eyes fixed on the red, whirling form of Granny. Reddy’s own eyes +gleamed with excitement. Would Quacker keep on right up to the shore? Nearer +and nearer and nearer he came. Reddy squirmed uneasily. He couldn’t see as well +as he wanted to. The bushes behind which he was lying were in his way. He +wanted to see Granny make that jump which would mean a dinner for both. +</p> + +<p> +Forgetting what Granny had charged him, Reddy eagerly raised his head to look +over the edge of the bank. Now it just happened that at that very minute +Quacker chanced to look that way. His quick eyes caught the movement of Reddy’s +head and in an instant all his curiosity vanished. That sharp face peering at +him over the edge of the bank could mean but one thing—danger! It was all a +trick! He saw through it now. Like a flash he turned. There was the whistle of +stiff wings beating the air and the patter of feet striking the water as he got +under way. Then he flew out to the safety of the open water. Granny sprang, but +she was just too late and succeeded in doing no more than wet her feet. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, Granny didn’t know what had frightened Quacker, not at first, +anyway. But she had her suspicions. She turned and looked up at the place where +Reddy had been hiding. She couldn’t see him. Then she bounded up the bank. +There was no Reddy there, but far away across the snow-covered Green Meadows +was a red spot growing smaller and smaller. Reddy was running away. Then she +knew. At first Granny was very angry. You know it is a dreadful thing to be +hungry and have a good dinner disappear just as it is almost within reach. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll teach that young scamp a lesson he won’t soon forget when I get home,” +she muttered, as she watched him. Then she went back to the edge of the Big +River and there she found a dead fish which had been washed ashore. It was a +very good fish, and when she had eaten it Granny felt better. +</p> + +<p> +“Anyway,” thought she, “I have taught him a new trick and one he is n’t likely +to forget. He knows now that Granny still knows a few tricks that he doesn’t, +and next time he won’t feel so sure he knows it all. I guess it was worth while +even if I didn’t catch Quacker. My, but he would have tasted good!” Granny +smacked her lips and started for home. +</p> + +<p> +But Reddy, with a guilty conscience, was afraid to go home. And so, miserable +and hungry, he hunted through the Green Forest all the long night and wished +and wished that he had heeded what old Granny Fox had told him. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0006"></a> CHAPTER VI<br/> +Old Granny Fox Is Caught Napping</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +The wisest folks will make mistakes, but if they are truly wise they will +profit from them.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +There is a saying among the little people of the Green Forest and the Green +Meadows which runs something like this: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“You must your eyes wide open keep<br/> +To catch Old Granny Fox asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +Of course this means that Old Granny Fox is so smart, so clever, so keenly on +the watch at all times, that he must be very smart indeed who fools her or gets +ahead of her. Reddy Fox is smart, very smart. But Reddy isn’t nearly as smart +as Old Granny Fox. You see, he hasn’t lived nearly as long, so of course there +is much knowledge of many things stored away in Granny’s head of which Reddy +knows little. +</p> + +<p> +But once in a while even the smartest people are caught napping. Yes, Sir, that +does happen. They will be careless sometimes. It was just so with Old Granny +Fox. With all her smartness and cleverness and wisdom she grew careless, and +all the smartness and cleverness and wisdom in the world is useless if the +possessor becomes careless. +</p> + +<p> +You see, Old Granny Fox had become so used to thinking that she was smarter +than any one else, unless it was Old Man Coyote, that she actually believed +that no one was smart enough ever to surprise her. Yes, Sir, she actually +believed that. Now, you know when a person reaches the point of thinking that +no one else in all the Great World is quite so smart, that person is like Peter +Rabbit when he made ready one winter day to jump out on the smooth ice of the +Smiling Pool,—getting ready for a fall. It was this way with Old Granny Fox. +</p> + +<p> +Because she had lived near Farmer Brown’s so long and had been hunted so often +by Farmer Brown’s boy and by Bowser the Hound, she had got the idea in her head +that no matter what she did they would not be able to catch her. So at last she +grew careless. Yes, Sir, she grew careless. And that is something no Fox or +anybody else can afford to do. +</p> + +<p> +Now on the edge of the Green Forest was a warm, sunny knoll, which, as you +know, is a sort of little hill. It overlooked the Green Meadows and was quite +the most pleasant and comfortable place for a sun-nap that ever was. At least, +that is what Old Granny Fox thought. She took sun-naps there very often. It was +her favorite resting place. When Bowser the Hound had found her trail and had +chased her until she was tired of running and had had quite all the exercise +she needed or wanted, she would play one of her clever tricks by which to make +Bowser lose her trail. Then she would hurry straight to that knoll to rest and +grin at her own smartness. +</p> + +<p> +It happened that she did this one day when there was fresh snow on the ground. +Of course, every time she put a foot down she left a print in the snow. And +where she curled up in the sun she left the print of her body. They were very +plain to see, were these prints, and Farmer Brown’s boy saw them. +</p> + +<p> +He had been tramping through the Green Forest late in the afternoon and just by +chance happened across Granny’s footprints. Just for fun he followed them and +so came to the sunny knoll. Granny had left some time before, but of course she +couldn’t take the print of her body with her. That remained in the snow, and +Farmer Brown’s boy saw it and knew instantly what it meant. He grinned, and +could Granny Fox have seen that grin, she would have been uncomfortable. You +see, he knew that he had found the place where Granny was in the habit of +taking a sun-nap. +</p> + +<p> +“So,” said he, “this is the place where you rest, Old Mrs. Fox, after running +Bowser almost off his feet. I think we will give you a surprise one of these +days. Yes, indeed, I think we will give you a surprise. You have fooled us many +times, and now it is our turn.” +</p> + +<p> +The next day Farmer Brown’s boy shouldered his terrible gun and sent Bowser the +Hound to hunt for the trail of Old Granny Fox. It wasn’t long before Bowser’s +great voice told all the Great World that he had found Granny’s tracks. Farmer +Brown’s boy grinned just as he had the day before. Then with his terrible gun +he went over to the Green Forest and hid under some pine boughs right on the +edge of that sunny knoll. +</p> + +<p> +He waited patiently a long, long time. He heard Bowser’s great voice growing +more and more excited as he followed Old Granny Fox. By and by Bowser stopped +baying and began to yelp impatiently. Farmer Brown’s boy knew exactly what that +meant. It meant that Granny had played one of her smart tricks and Bowser had +lost her trail. +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes later out of the Green Forest came Old Granny Fox, and she was +grinning, for once more she had fooled Bowser the Hound and now could take a +nap in peace. Still grinning, she turned around two or three times to make +herself comfortable and then, with a sigh of contentment, curled up for a +sun-nap, and in a few minutes was asleep. And just a little way off behind the +pine boughs sat Farmer Brown’s boy holding his terrible gun and grinning. At +last he had caught Old Granny Fox napping. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0007"></a> CHAPTER VII<br/> +Granny Fox Has A Bad Dream</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Nothing ever simply happens;<br/> + Bear that point in mind.<br/> +If you look long and hard enough<br/> + A cause you’ll always find.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Old Granny Fox was dreaming. Yes, Sir, she was dreaming. There she lay, curled +up on the sunny little knoll on the edge of the Green Forest, fast asleep and +dreaming. It was a very pleasant and very comfortable place indeed. You see, +jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun poured his warmest rays right down there from the +blue, blue sky. When Old Granny Fox was tired, she often slipped over there for +a short nap and sun-bath even in winter. She was quite sure that no one knew +anything about it. It was one of her secrets. +</p> + +<p> +This morning Old Granny Fox was very tired, unusually so. In the first place +she had been out hunting all night. Then, before she could reach home, Bowser +the Hound had found her tracks and started to follow them. Of course, it +wouldn’t have done to go home then. It wouldn’t have done at all. Bowser would +have followed her straight there and so found out where she lived. So she had +led Bowser far away across the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest and +finally played one of her smart tricks which had so mixed her tracks that +Bowser could no longer follow them. While he had sniffed and snuffed and +snuffed and sniffed with that wonderful nose of his, trying to find out where +she had gone, Old Granny Fox had trotted straight to the sunny knoll and there +curled up to rest. Right away she fell asleep. +</p> + +<p> +Now Old Granny Fox, like most of the other little people of the Green Forest +and the Green Meadows, sleeps with her ears wide open. Her eyes may be closed, +but not her ears. Those are always on guard, even when she is asleep, and at +the least sound open fly her eyes, and she is ready to run. If it were not for +the way her sharp ears keep guard, she wouldn’t dare take naps in the open +right in broad daylight. If you ever want to catch a Fox asleep, you mustn’t +make the teeniest, weeniest noise. Just remember that. +</p> + +<p> +Now Old Granny Fox had no sooner closed her eyes than she began to dream. At +first it was a very pleasant dream, the pleasantest dream a Fox can have. It +was of a chicken dinner, all the chicken she could eat. Granny certainly +enjoyed that dream. It made her smack her lips quite as if it were a real and +not a dream dinner she was enjoying. +</p> + +<p> +But presently the dream changed and became a bad dream. Yes, indeed, it became +a bad dream. It was as bad as at first it had been good. It seemed to Granny +that Bowser the Hound had become very smart, smarter than she had ever known +him to be before. Do what she would, she couldn’t fool him. Not one of all the +tricks she knew, and she knew a great many, fooled him at all. They didn’t +puzzle him long enough for her to get her breath. +</p> + +<p> +Bowser kept getting nearer and nearer and nearer, all in the dream, you know, +until it seemed as if his great voice sounded right at her very heels. She was +so tired that it seemed to her that she couldn’t run another step. It was a +very, very real dream. You know dreams sometimes do seem very real indeed. This +was the way it was with the bad dream of Old Granny Fox. It seemed to her that +she could feel the breath of Bowser the Hound and that his great jaws were just +going to close on her and shake her to death. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Oh!” cried Granny and waked herself up. Her eyes flew open. Then she gave +a great sigh of relief as she realized that her terrible fright was only a bad +dream and that she was curled up right on the dear, familiar, old, sunny knoll +and not running for her life at all. +</p> + +<p> +Old Granny Fox smiled to think what a fright she had had and then,—well, she +didn’t know whether she was really awake or still dreaming! No, Sir, she +didn’t. For a full minute she couldn’t be sure whether what she saw was real or +part of that dreadful dream. You see, she was staring into the face of Farmer +Brown’s boy and the muzzle of his dreadful gun! +</p> + +<p> +For just a few seconds she didn’t move. She couldn’t. She was too frightened to +move. Then she knew what she saw was real and not a dream at all. There wasn’t +the least bit of doubt about it. That was Farmer Brown’s boy, and that was his +dreadful gun! All in a flash she knew that Farmer Brown’s boy must have been +hiding behind those pine boughs. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Old Granny Fox! For once in her life she had been caught napping. She +hadn’t the least hope in the world. Farmer Brown’s boy had only to fire that +dreadful gun, and that would be the end of her. She knew it. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0008"></a> CHAPTER VIII<br/> +What Farmer Brown’s Boy Did</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +In time of danger heed this rule:<br/> +Think hard and fast, but pray keep cool.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Old Granny Fox! She had thought that she had been in tight places before, +but never, never had she been in such a tight place as this. There stood Farmer +Brown’s boy looking along the barrel of his dreadful gun straight at her, and +only such a short distance, such a very short distance away! It wasn’t the +least bit of use to run. Granny knew that. That dreadful gun would go “bang!” +and that would be the end of her. +</p> + +<p> +For a few seconds she stared at Farmer Brown’s boy, too frightened to move or +even think. Then she began to wonder why that dreadful gun didn’t go off. What +was Farmer Brown’s boy waiting for? She got to her feet. She was sure that the +first step would be her last, yet she couldn’t stay there. +</p> + +<p> +How could Farmer Brown’s boy do such a dreadful thing? Somehow, his freckled +face didn’t look cruel. He was even beginning to grin. That must be because he +had caught her napping and knew that this time she couldn’t possibly get away +from him as she had so many times before. “Oh!” sobbed Old Granny Fox under her +breath. +</p> + +<p> +And right at that very instant Farmer Brown’s boy did something. What do you +think it was? No, he didn’t shoot her. He didn’t fire his dreadful gun. What do +you think he did do? Why, he threw a snowball at Old Granny Fox and shouted +“Boo!” That is what he did and all he did, except to laugh as Granny gave a +great leap and then made those black legs of hers fly as never before. +</p> + +<p> +Every instant Granny expected to hear that dreadful gun, and it seemed as if +her heart would burst with fright as she ran, thinking each jump would be the +last one. But the dreadful gun didn’t bang, and after a little, when she felt +she was safe, she turned to look back over her shoulder. Farmer Brown’s boy was +standing right where she had last seen him, and he was laughing harder than +ever. Yes, Sir, he was laughing, and though Old Granny Fox didn’t think so at +the time, his laugh was good to hear, for it was good-natured and merry and all +that an honest laugh should be. +</p> + +<p> +“Go it, Granny! Go it!” shouted Farmer Brown’s boy. “And the next time you are +tempted to steal my chickens, just remember that I caught you napping and let +you off when I might have shot you. Just remember that and leave my chickens +alone.” +</p> + +<p> +Now it happened that Tommy Tit the Chickadee had seen all that had happened, +and he fairly bubbled over with joy. “Dee, dee, dee, Chickadee! It is just as I +have always said—Farmer Brown’s boy isn’t bad. He’d be friends with every one +if every one would let him,” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Maybe, maybe,” grumbled Sammy Jay, who also had seen all that had happened. +“But he’s altogether too smart for me to trust. Oh, my! oh, my! What news this +will be to tell! Old Granny Fox will never hear the end of it. If ever again +she boasts of how smart she is, all we will have to do will be to remind her of +the time Farmer Brown’s boy caught her napping. Ho! ho! ho! I must hurry along +and find my cousin, Blacky the Crow. This will tickle him half to death.” +</p> + +<p> +As for Old Granny Fox, she feared Farmer Brown’s boy more than ever, not +because of what he had done to her but because of what he had not done. You +see, nothing could make her believe that he wanted to be her friend. She +thought he had let her get away just to show her that he was smarter than she. +Instead of thankfulness, hate and fear filled Granny’s heart. You know— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +People who themselves do ill<br/> +For others seldom have good will. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0009"></a> CHAPTER IX<br/> +Reddy Fox Hears About Granny Fox</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Though you may think another wrong<br/> + And be quite positive you’re right,<br/> +Don’t let your temper get away;<br/> + And try at least to be polite.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Sammy Jay hurried through the Green Forest, chuckling as he flew. Sammy was +brimming over with the news he had to tell,—how Old Granny Fox had been caught +napping by Farmer Brown’s boy. Sammy wouldn’t have believed it if any one had +told him. No, Sir, he wouldn’t. But he had seen it with his own eyes, and it +tickled him almost to pieces to think that Old Granny Fox, whom everybody +thought so sly and clever and smart, had been caught actually asleep by the +very one of whom she was most afraid, but at whom she always had turned up her +nose. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Sammy spied Reddy Fox trotting along the Lone Little Path. Reddy was +forever boasting of how smart Granny Fox was. He had boasted of it so much that +everybody was sick of hearing him. When he saw Reddy trotting along the Lone +Little Path, Sammy chuckled harder than ever. He hid in a thick hemlock-tree +and as Reddy passed he shouted: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Had I such a stupid old Granny<br/> + As some folks who think they are smart,<br/> +I never would boast of my Granny,<br/> + But live by myself quite apart!” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy looked up angrily. He couldn’t see Sammy Jay, but he knew Sammy’s voice. +There is no mistaking that. Everybody knows the voice of Sammy Jay. Of course +it was foolish, very foolish of Reddy to be angry, and still more foolish to +show that he was angry. Had he stopped a minute to think, he would have known +that Sammy was saying such a mean, provoking thing just to make him angry, and +that the angrier he became the better pleased Sammy Jay would be. But like a +great many people, Reddy allowed his temper to get the better of his common +sense. +</p> + +<p> +“Who says Granny Fox is stupid?” he snarled. +</p> + +<p> +“I do,” replied Sammy Jay promptly. “I say she is stupid.” +</p> + +<p> +“She is smarter than anybody else in all the Green Forest and on all the Green +Meadows. She is smarter than anybody else in all the Great World,” boasted +Reddy, and he really believed it. +</p> + +<p> +“She isn’t smart enough to fool Farmer Brown’s boy,” taunted Sammy. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that? Who says so? Has anything happened to Granny Fox?” Reddy forgot +his anger in a sudden great fear. Could Granny have been shot by Farmer Brown’s +boy? +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing much, only Farmer Brown’s boy caught her napping in broad daylight,” +replied Sammy, and chuckled so that Reddy heard him. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t believe it!” snapped Reddy. “I don’t believe a word of it! Nobody ever +yet caught Old Granny Fox napping, and nobody ever will.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t care whether you believe it or not; it’s so, for I saw him,” retorted +Sammy Jay. +</p> + +<p> +“You—you—you—” began Reddy Fox. +</p> + +<p> +“Go ask Tommy Tit the Chickadee if it isn’t true. He saw him too,” interrupted +Sammy Jay. +</p> + +<p> +“Dee, dee, dee, Chickadee! It’s so, and Farmer Brown’s boy only threw a +snowball at her and let her run away without shooting at her,” declared a new +voice. There sat Tommy Tit himself. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy didn’t know what to think or say. He just couldn’t believe it, yet he had +never known Tommy Tit to tell an untruth. Sammy Jay alone he wouldn’t have +believed. Then Tommy Tit and Sammy Jay told Reddy all about what they had seen, +how Farmer Brown’s boy had surprised Old Granny Fox and then allowed her to go +unharmed. Reddy had to believe it. If Tommy Tit said it was so, it must be so. +Reddy Fox started off to hunt up Old Granny Fox and ask her about it. But a +sudden thought popped into his red head, and he changed his mind. +</p> + +<p> +“I won’t say a thing about it until some time when Granny scolds me for being +careless,” muttered Reddy, with a sly grin. “Then I’ll see what she has to say. +I guess she won’t scold me so much after this.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy grinned more than ever, which wasn’t a bit nice of him. Instead of being +sorry that Old Granny Fox had had such a fright, he was planning how he would +get even with her when she should scold him for his own carelessness. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0010"></a> CHAPTER X<br/> +Reddy Fox Is Impudent</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +A saucy tongue is dangerous to possess;<br/> +Be sure some day ’t will get you in a mess.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy Fox is headstrong and, like most headstrong people, is given to thinking +that his way is the best way just because it is <i>his</i> way. He is smart, is +Reddy Fox. Yes, indeed, Reddy Fox is very, very smart. He has to be in order to +live. But a great deal of what he knows he learned from Old Granny Fox. The +very best tricks he knows she taught him. She began teaching him when he was so +little that he tumbled over his own feet. It was she who taught him how to +hunt, that it is better never to steal chickens near home but to go a long way +off for them, and how to fool Bowser the Hound. +</p> + +<p> +It was Granny who taught Reddy how to use his little black nose to follow the +tracks of careless young Rabbits, and how to catch Meadow Mice under the snow. +In fact, there is little Reddy knows which he didn’t learn from wise, shrewd +Old Granny Fox. +</p> + +<p> +But as he grew bigger and bigger, until he was quite as big as Granny herself, +he forgot what he owed to her. He grew to have a very good opinion of himself +and to feel that he knew just about all there was to know. So sometimes when he +had done foolish or careless things and Granny had scolded him, telling him he +was big enough and old enough to know better, he would sulk and go off +muttering to himself. But he never quite dared to be openly disrespectful to +Granny, and this, of course, was quite as it should have been. +</p> + +<p> +“If only I could catch Granny doing something foolish or careless,” he would +say to himself. But he never could, and he had begun to think that he never +would. But now at last Granny, clever Old Granny Fox, had been careless! She +had allowed Farmer Brown’s boy to catch her napping! Reddy did wish he had been +there to see it himself. But anyway, he had been told about it, and he made up +his mind that the next time Granny said anything sharp to him about his +carelessness he would have something to say back. Yes, Sir, Reddy Fox was +deliberately planning to answer back, which, as you know, is always +disrespectful to one’s elders. +</p> + +<p> +At last the chance came. Reddy did a thing no truly wise Fox ever will do. He +went two nights in succession to the same henhouse, and the second time he +barely escaped being shot. Old Granny Fox found out about it. How she found out +Reddy doesn’t know to this day, but find out she did, and she gave him such a +scolding as even her sharp tongue had seldom given him. +</p> + +<p> +“You are the stupidest Fox I ever heard of,” scolded Granny. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m no more stupid than you are!” retorted Reddy in the most impudent way. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that?” demanded Granny. “What’s that you said?” +</p> + +<p> +“I said I’m no more stupid than you are, and what is more, I hope I’m not so +stupid. I know better than to take a nap in broad daylight right under the very +nose of Farmer Brown’s boy.” Reddy grinned in the most impudent way as he said +this. +</p> + +<p> +Granny’s eyes snapped. Then things happened. Reddy was cuffed this way and +cuffed that way and cuffed the other way until it seemed to him that the air +was full of black paws, every one of which landed on his head or face with a +sting that made him whimper and put his tail between his legs, and finally +howl. +</p> + +<p> +“There!” cried Granny, when at last she had to stop because she was quite out +of breath. “Perhaps that will teach you to be respectful to your elders. I +<i>was</i> careless and stupid, and I am perfectly ready to admit it, because +it has taught me a lesson. Wisdom often is gained through mistakes, but never +when one is not willing to admit the mistakes. No Fox lives long who makes the +same mistake twice. And those who are impudent to their elders come to no good +end. I’ve got a fat goose hidden away for dinner, but you will get none of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I—I wish I’d never heard of Granny’s mistake,” whined Reddy to himself as he +crept dinnerless to bed. +</p> + +<p> +“You ought to wish that you hadn’t been impudent,” whispered a small voice down +inside him. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0011"></a> CHAPTER XI<br/> +After The Storm</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +The joys and the sunshine that make us glad;<br/> +The worries and troubles that makes us sad<br/> +Must come to an end; so why complain<br/> +Of too little sun or too much rain?<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The thing to do is to make the most of the sunshine while it lasts, and when it +rains to look forward to the coming of the sun again, knowing that conic it +surely will. A dreadful storm was keeping the little people of the Green +Forest, the Green Meadows, and the Old Orchard prisoners in their own homes or +in such places of shelter as they had been able to find. +</p> + +<p> +But it couldn’t last forever, and they knew it. Knowing this was all that kept +some of them alive. +</p> + +<p> +You see, they were starving. Yes, Sir, they were starving. You and I would be +very hungry, very hungry indeed, if we had to go without food for two whole +days, but if we were snug and warm it wouldn’t do us any real harm. With the +little wild friends, especially the little feathered folks, it is a very +different matter. You see, they are naturally so active that they have to fill +their stomachs very often in order to supply their little bodies with heat and +energy. So when their food supply is wholly cut off, they starve or else freeze +to death in a very short time. A great many little lives are ended this way in +every long, hard winter storm. +</p> + +<p> +It was late in the afternoon of the second day when rough Brother North Wind +decided that he had shown his strength and fierceness long enough, and rumbling +and grumbling retired from the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, blowing the +snow clouds away with him. For just a little while before it was time for him +to go to bed behind the Purple Hills, jolly, round, red Mr. Sun smiled down on +the white land, and never was his smile more welcome. Out from their shelters +hurried all the little prisoners, for they must make the most of the short time +before the coming of the cold night. +</p> + +<p> +Little Tommy Tit the Chickadee was so weak that he could hardly fly, and he +shook with chills. He made straight for the apple-tree where Farmer Brown’s boy +always keeps a piece of suet tied to a branch for Tommy and his friends. +Drummer the Woodpecker was there before him. Now it is one of the laws of +politeness among the feathered folk that when one is eating from a piece of +suet a newcomer shall await his turn. +</p> + +<p> +“Dee, dee, dee!” said Tommy Tit faintly but cheerfully, for he couldn’t be +other than cheery if he tried. “Dee, dee, dee! That looks good to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is good,” mumbled Drummer, pecking away at the suet greedily. “Come on, +Tommy Tit. Don’t wait for me, for I won’t be through for a long time. I’m +nearly starved, and I guess you must be.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am,” confessed Tommy, as he flew over beside Drummer. “Thank you ever so +much for not making me wait.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t mention it,” replied Drummer, with his mouth full. “This is no time for +politeness. Here comes Yank Yank the Nuthatch. I guess there is room for him +too.” +</p> + +<p> +Yank Yank was promptly invited to join them and did so after apologizing for +seeming so greedy. +</p> + +<p> +“If I couldn’t get my stomach full before night, I certainly should freeze to +death before morning,” said he. “What a blessing it is to have all this good +food waiting for us. If I had to hunt for my usual food on the trees, I +certainly should have to give up and die. It took all my strength to get over +here. My, I feel like a new bird already! Here comes Sammy Jay. I wonder if he +will try to drive us away as he usually does.” +</p> + +<p> +Sammy did nothing of the kind. He was very meek and most polite. “Can you make +room for a starving fellow to get a bite?” he asked. “I wouldn’t ask it but +that I couldn’t last another night without food.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dee, dee, dee! Always room for one more,” replied Tommy Tit, crowding over to +give Sammy room. “Wasn’t that a dreadful storm?” +</p> + +<p> +“Worst I ever knew,” mumbled Sammy. “I wonder if I ever will be warm again.” +</p> + +<p> +Until their stomachs were full, not another word was said. Meanwhile Chatterer +the Red Squirrel had discovered that the storm was over. As he floundered +through the snow to another apple-tree he saw Tommy Tit and his friends, and in +his heart he rejoiced that they had found food waiting for them. His own +troubles were at an end, for in the tree he was headed for was a store of corn. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0012"></a> CHAPTER XII<br/> +Granny And Reddy Fox Hunt In Vain</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Old Mother Nature’s plans for good<br/> +Quite often are not understood.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Tommy Tit and Drummer the Woodpecker and Yank Yank the Nuthatch and Sammy Jay +and Chatterer the Red Squirrel were not the only ones who were out and about as +soon as the great storm ended. Oh, my, no! No, indeed! Everybody who was not +sleeping the winter away, or who had not a store of food right at hand, was +out. But not all were so fortunate as Tommy Tit and his friends in finding a +good meal. +</p> + +<p> +Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Peter came out of the hole in the heart of the dear Old +Briar-patch, where they had managed to keep comfortably warm, and at once began +to fill their stomachs with bark from young trees and tender tips of twigs. It +was very coarse food, but it would take away that empty feeling. Mrs. Grouse +burst out of the snow and hurried to get a meal before dark. She had no time to +be particular, and so she ate spruce buds. They were very bitter and not much +to her liking, but she was too hungry, and night was too near for her to be +fussy. She was thankful to have that much. +</p> + +<p> +Granny Fox and Reddy were out too. They didn’t need to hurry because, as you +know, they could hunt all night, but they were so hungry that they just had to +be looking for something to eat. They knew, of course, that everybody else +would be out, and they hoped that some of these little people would be so weak +that they could easily be caught. That seems like a dreadful hope, doesn’t it? +But one of the first laws of Old Mother Nature is self-preservation. That means +to save your own life first. So perhaps Granny and Reddy are not to be blamed +for hoping that some of their neighbors might be caught easily because of the +great storm. They were very hungry indeed, and they could not eat bark like +Peter Rabbit, or buds like Mrs. Grouse, or seeds like Whitefoot the Woodmouse. +Their teeth and stomachs are not made for such food. +</p> + +<p> +It was hard going for Granny and Reddy Fox. The snow was soft and deep in many +places, and they had to keep pretty close to those places where rough Brother +North Wind had blown away enough of the snow to make walking fairly easy. They +soon found that their hope that they would find some of their neighbors too +weak to escape was quite in vain. When jolly, round, red Mr. Sun dropped down +behind the Purple Hills to go to bed, their stomachs were quite as empty as +when they had started out. +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll go down to the Old Briar-patch. I don’t believe it will be of much use, +but you never can tell until you try. Peter Rabbit may take it into his silly +head to come outside,” said Granny, leading the way. +</p> + +<p> +When they reached the dear Old Briar-patch they found that Peter was not +outside. In fact, peering between the brambles and bushes, they could see his +little brown form bobbing about as he hunted for tender bark. He had already +made little paths along which he could hop easily. Peter saw them almost as +soon as they saw him. +</p> + +<p> +“Hard times these,” said Peter pleasantly. “I hope your stomachs are not as +empty as mine.” He pulled a strip of bark from a young tree and began to chew +it. This was more than Reddy could stand. To see Peter eating while his own +stomach was just one great big ache from emptiness was too much. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m going in there and catch him, or drive him out where you can catch him, if +I tear my coat all to pieces!” snarled Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +Peter stopped chewing and sat up. “Come right along, Reddy. Come right along if +you want to, but I would advise you to save your skin and your coat,” said he. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy’s only reply was a snarl as he pushed his way under the brambles. He +yelped as they tore his coat and scratched his face, but he kept on. Now +Peter’s paths were very cunningly made. He had cut them through the very +thickest of the briars just big enough for himself and Mrs. Peter to hop along +comfortably. But Reddy is so much bigger that he had to force his way through +and in places crawl flat on his stomach, which was very slow work, to say +nothing of the painful scratches from the briars. It was no trouble at all for +Peter to keep out of his way, and before long Reddy gave up. Without a word +Granny Fox led the way to the Green Forest. They would try to find where Mrs. +Grouse was sleeping under the snow. But though they hunted all night, they +failed to find her, for she wisely had gone to bed in a spruce-tree. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0013"></a> CHAPTER XIII<br/> +Granny Fox Admits Growing Old</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Who will not admit he is older each day fools no one but himself.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Old Granny Fox is a spry old lady for her age. If you don’t believe it just try +to catch her. But spry as she is, she isn’t as spry as she used to be. No, Sir, +Granny Fox isn’t as spry as she used to be. The truth is, Granny is getting +old. She never would admit it, and Reddy never had realized it until the day +after the great storm. All that night they had hunted in vain for something to +eat and at daylight had crept into their house to rest awhile before starting +on another hunt. They had neither the strength nor the courage to search any +longer then. Wading through snow is very hard work at best and very tiresome, +but when your stomach has been empty for so long that you almost begin to +wonder what food tastes like, it becomes harder work still. You see, it is food +that makes strength, and lack of food takes away strength. +</p> + +<p> +This was why Granny and Reddy Fox just <i>had</i> to rest. Hungry as they were, +they <i>had</i> to give up for awhile. Reddy flung himself down, and if ever +there was a discouraged young Fox he was that one. “I wish I were dead,” he +moaned. +</p> + +<p> +“Tut, tut, tut!” said Granny Fox sharply. “That’s no way for a young Fox to +talk! I’m ashamed of you. I am indeed.” Then she added more kindly: “I know +just how you feel. Just try to forget your empty stomach and rest awhile. We +have had a tiresome, disappointing, discouraging night, but when you are rested +things will not look quite so bad. You know the old saying: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +‘Never a road so long is there<br/> + But it reaches a turn at last;<br/> +Never a cloud that gathers swift<br/> + But disappears as fast.’ +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +You think you couldn’t possibly feel any worse than you do right now, but you +could. Many a time I have had to go hungry longer than this. After we have +rested awhile we will go over to the Old Pasture. Perhaps we will have better +luck there.” +</p> + +<p> +So Reddy tried to forget the emptiness of his stomach and actually had a nap, +for he was very, very tired. When he awoke he felt better. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Granny,” said he, “let’s start for the Old Pasture. The snow has crusted +over, and we won’t find it such hard going as it was last night.” +</p> + +<p> +Granny arose and followed Reddy out to the doorstep. She walked stiffly. The +truth is, she ached in every one of her old bones. At least, that is the way it +seemed to her. She looked towards the Old Pasture. It seemed very far away. She +sighed wearily. “I don’t believe I’ll go, Reddy,” said she. “You run along and +luck go with you.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy turned and stared at Granny suspiciously. You know his is a very +suspicious nature. Could it be that Granny had some secret plan of her own to +get a meal and wanted to get rid of him? +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded roughly. “It was you who proposed +going over to the Old Pasture.” +</p> + +<p> +Granny smiled. It was a sad sort of smile. She is wonderfully sharp and smart, +is Granny Fox, and she knew what was in Reddy’s mind as well as if he had told +her. +</p> + +<p> +“Old bones don’t rest and recover as quickly as young bones, and I just don’t +feel equal to going over there now,” said she. “The truth is, Reddy, I am +growing old. I am going to stay right here and rest. Perhaps then I’ll feel +able to go hunting to-night. You trot along now, and if you get more than a +stomachful, just remember old Granny and bring her a bite.” +</p> + +<p> +There was something in the way Granny spoke that told Reddy she was speaking +the truth. It was the very first time she ever had admitted that she was +growing old and was no longer the equal of any Fox. Never before had he noticed +how gray she had grown. Reddy felt a feeling of shame creep over him,—shame +that he had suspected Granny of playing a sharp trick. And this little feeling +of shame was followed instantly by a splendid thought. He would go out and find +food of some kind, and he would bring it straight back to Granny. He had been +taken care of by Granny when he was little, and now he would repay Granny for +all she had done for him by taking care of her in her old age. +</p> + +<p> +“Go back in the house and lie down, Granny,” said he kindly. “I am going to get +something, and whatever it may be you shall have your share.” With this he +trotted off towards the Old Pasture and somehow he didn’t mind the ache in his +stomach as he had before. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0014"></a> CHAPTER XIV<br/> +Three Vain And Foolish Wishes</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +There’s nothing so foolishly silly and vain<br/> +As to wish for a thing you can never attain.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +We all know that, yet most of us are just foolish enough to make such a wish +now and then. I guess you have done it. I know I have. Peter Rabbit has done it +often and then laughed at himself afterwards. I suspect that even shrewd, +clever old Granny Fox has been guilty of it more than once. So it is not +surprising that Reddy Fox, terribly hungry as he was, should do a little +foolish wishing. +</p> + +<p> +When he left home to go to the Old Pasture, in the hope that he would be able +to find something to eat there, he started off bravely. It was cold, very cold +indeed, but his fur coat kept him warm as long as he was moving. The Green +Meadows were glistening white with snow. All the world, at least all that part +of it with which Reddy was acquainted, was white. It was beautiful, very +beautiful, as millions of sparkles flashed in the sun. But Reddy had no thought +for beauty; the only thought he had room for was to get something to put in the +empty stomachs of himself and Granny Fox. +</p> + +<p> +Jack Frost had hardened the snow so that Reddy no longer had to wade through +it. He could run on the crust now without breaking through. This made it much +easier, so he trotted along swiftly. He had intended to go straight to the Old +Pasture, but there suddenly popped into his head a memory of the shelter down +in a far corner of the Old Orchard which Farmer Brown’s boy had built for Bob +White. Probably the Bob White family were there now, and he might surprise +them. He would go there first. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy stopped and looked carefully to make sure that Farmer Brown’s boy and +Bowser the Hound were nowhere in sight. Then he ran swiftly towards the Old +Orchard. Just as he entered it he heard a merry voice just over his head: “Dee, +dee, dee, dee!” Reddy stopped and looked up. There was Tommy Tit the Chickadee +clinging tightly to a big piece of fresh suet tied fast to a branch of a tree, +and Tommy was stuffing himself. Reddy sat down right underneath that suet and +looked up longingly. The sight of it made his mouth water so that it was almost +more than he could stand. He jumped once. He jumped twice. He jumped three +times. But all his jumping was in vain. That suet was beyond his reach. There +was no possible way of reaching it save by flying or climbing. Reddy’s tongue +hung out of his mouth with longing. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I could climb,” said Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +But he couldn’t climb, and all the wishing in the world wouldn’t enable him to, +as he very well knew. So after a little he started on. As he drew near the far +corner of the Old Orchard, he saw Bob White and Mrs. Bob and all the young Bobs +picking up grain which Farmer Brown’s boy had scattered for them just in front +of the shelter he had built for them. Reddy crouched down and very slowly, an +inch at a time, he crept forward, his eyes shining with eagerness. Just as he +was almost within springing distance, Bob White gave a signal, and away flew +the Bob Whites to the safety of a hemlock-tree on the edge of the Green Forest. +</p> + +<p> +Tears of rage and disappointment welled up in Reddy’s eyes. “I wish I could +fly,” he muttered, as he watched the brown birds disappear in the big +hemlock-tree. +</p> + +<p> +This was quite as foolish a wish as the other, so Reddy trotted on and decided +to go down past the Smiling Pool. When he got there he found it, as he +expected, frozen over. But just where the Laughing Brook joins it there was a +little place where there was open water. Billy Mink was on the ice at its edge, +and just as Reddy got there Billy dived in. A minute later he climbed out with +a fish in his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“Give me a bite,” begged Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Catch your own fish,” retorted Billy Mink. “I have to work hard enough for +what I get as it is.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy was afraid to go out on the ice where Billy was, and so he sat and +watched him eat that fine fish. Then Billy dived into the water again and +disappeared. Reddy waited a long time, but Billy did not return. “I wish I +could dive,” gulped Reddy, thinking of the fine fish somewhere under the ice. +</p> + +<p> +And this wish was quite as foolish as the other wishes. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0015"></a> CHAPTER XV<br/> +Reddy Fights A Battle</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +’Tis not the foes that are without<br/> + But those that are within<br/> +That give us battles that we find<br/> + The hardest are to win.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +After the last of his three foolish wishes, Reddy Fox left the Smiling Pool and +headed straight for the Old Pasture for which he had started in the first +place. He wished now that he had gone straight there. Then he wouldn’t have +seen the suet tied out of reach to the branch of a tree in the Old Orchard; he +wouldn’t have seen the Bob Whites fly away to safety just as he felt almost +sure of catching one; he wouldn’t have seen Billy Mink bring a fine fish out of +the water and eat it right before him. It is bad enough to be starving with no +food in sight, but to be as hungry as Reddy Fox was and to see food just out of +reach, to smell it, and not be able to get it is,—well, it is more than most +folks can stand patiently. +</p> + +<p> +So Reddy Fox was grumbling to himself as he hurried to the Old Pasture and his +heart was very bitter. It seemed to him that everything was against him. His +neighbors had food, but he had none, not so much as a crumb. It was unfair. Old +Mother Nature was unjust. If he could climb he could get food. If he could fly +he could get food. If he could dive he could get food. But he could neither +climb, fly, nor dive. He didn’t stop to think that Old Mother Nature had given +him some of the sharpest wits in all the Green Forest or on all the Green +Meadows; that she had given him a wonderful nose; that she had given him the +keenest of ears; that she had given him speed excelled by few. He forgot these +things and was so busy thinking bitterly of the things he didn’t have that he +forgot to use his wits and nose and ears when he reached the Old Pasture. The +result was that he trotted right past Old Jed Thumper, the big gray Rabbit, who +was sitting behind a little bush holding his breath. The minute Old Jed saw +that Reddy was safely past, he started for his bull-briar castle as fast as he +could. +</p> + +<p> +It was not until then that Reddy discovered him. Of course, Reddy started after +him, and this time he made good use of his speed. But he was too late. Old Jed +Thumper reached his castle with Reddy two jumps behind him. Reddy knew now that +there was no chance to catch Old Jed that day, and for a few minutes he felt +more bitter than ever. Then all in a flash Reddy Fox became the shrewd, clever +fellow that he really is. he grinned. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s of no use to try to fill an empty stomach on wishes,” said he. +</p> + +<p> +“If I had come straight here and minded my own business, I’d have caught old +Jed Thumper. Now I’m going to get some food and I’m not going home until I do.” +</p> + +<p> +Very wisely Reddy put all unpleasant thoughts out of his head and settled down +to using his wits and his eyes and his ears and his nose for all they were +worth, as Old Mother Nature had intended he should. +</p> + +<p> +All through the Old Pasture he hunted, taking care not to miss a single place +where there was the least chance of finding food. But it was all in vain. Reddy +gulped down his disappointment. +</p> + +<p> +“Now for the Big River,” said he, and started off bravely. +</p> + +<p> +When he reached the edge of the Big River, he hurried along the bank until he +reached a place where the water seldom freezes. As he had hoped, he found that +it was not frozen now. It looked so black and cold that it made him shiver just +to see it. Back and forth with his nose to the ground he ran. Suddenly he +stopped and sniffed. Then he sniffed again. Then he followed his nose straight +to the very edge of the Big River. There, floating in the black water, was a +dead fish! By wading in he could get it. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy shivered at the touch of the cold water, but what were wet feet compared +with such an empty stomach as his? In a minute he had that fish and was back on +the shore. It wasn’t a very big fish, but it would stop the ache in his stomach +until he could get something more. With a sigh of pure happiness he sank his +teeth into it and then—well, then he remembered poor Old Granny Fox. Reddy +swallowed a mouthful and tried to forget Granny. But he couldn’t. He swallowed +another mouthful. Poor old Granny was back there at home as hungry as he was +and too stiff and tired to hunt. Reddy choked. Then he began a battle with +himself. His stomach demanded that fish. If he ate it, no one would be the +wiser. But Granny needed it even more than he did. For a long time Reddy fought +with himself. In the end he picked up the fish and started for home. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0016"></a> CHAPTER XVI<br/> +Reddy Is Made Truly Happy</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +It’s what you do for others,<br/> + Not what they do for you,<br/> +That makes you feel so happy<br/> + All through and through and through.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy Fox ran all the way home from the Big River just as fast as he could go. +In his mouth he carried the fish he had found and from which he had taken just +two bites. You remember he had had a battle with himself over that fish, and +now he was running away from himself. That sounds funny, doesn’t it? But it was +true. Yes, Sir, Reddy Fox was running away from himself. He was afraid that if +he didn’t get home to Old Granny Fox with that fish very soon, he would eat +every last bit of it himself. So he was running his very hardest so as to get +there before this could happen. So really he was running away from himself, +from his selfish self. +</p> + +<p> +Old Granny Fox was on the doorstep watching for him, and he saw just how her +hungry old eyes brightened when she saw him and what he had. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve brought you something to eat, Granny,” he panted, as he laid the fish at +her feet. He was quite out of breath with running. “It isn’t much, but it is +something. It is all I could find for you.” +</p> + +<p> +Granny looked at the fish and then she looked sharply at Reddy, and into those +keen yellow eyes of hers crept a soft, tender look, such a look as you would +never have believed they could have held. +</p> + +<p> +“What have <i>you</i> had to eat?” asked Granny softly. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy turned his head that Granny might not see his face. “Oh, I’ve had +something,” said he, trying to speak lightly. It was true; he had had two bites +from that fish. +</p> + +<p> +Now you know just how shrewd and smart and wise Granny Fox is. Reddy didn’t +fool her just the least little bit. She took two small bites from the fish. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” said she, “we’ll divide it,” and she bit in two parts what remained. In +a twinkling she had gulped down the smallest part, for you know she was very, +very hungry. “That is your share,” said she, as she pushed what remained over +to Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy tried to refuse it. “I brought it all for you,” said he. “I know you did, +Reddy,” replied Granny, and it seemed to Reddy that he never had known her +voice to sound so gentle. “You brought it to me when all you had had was the +two little bites you had taken from it. You can’t fool me, Reddy Fox. There +wasn’t one good meal for either of us in that fish, but there was enough to +give us both a little hope and keep us from starving. Now you mind what I say +and eat your share.” Granny said this last very sternly. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy looked at Granny, and then he bolted down that little piece of fish +without another word. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s better,” said Granny. “We will feel better, both of us. Now that I’ve +something in my stomach, I feel two years younger. Before you came, I didn’t +feel as if I should ever be able to go on another hunt. If you hadn’t brought +something, I—I’m afraid I couldn’t have lasted much longer. By another day you +probably wouldn’t have had old Granny to think of. You may not know it, but I +know that you saved my life, Reddy. I had reached a point where I just had to +have a little food. You know there are times when a very little food is of more +good than a lot of food could be later. This was one of those times.” +</p> + +<p> +Never in all his life had Reddy Fox felt so truly happy. He was still +hungry,—very, very hungry. But he gave it no thought. He had saved Granny Fox, +good old Granny who had taught him all he knew. And he knew that Granny knew +how he had had to fight with himself to do it. Reddy was happy through and +through with the great happiness that comes from having done something for some +one else. +</p> + +<p> +“It was nothing,” he muttered. +</p> + +<p> +“It was a very great deal,” replied Granny. And then she changed the subject. +“How would you like to eat a dinner of Bowser the Hound’s?” she asked. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0017"></a> CHAPTER XVII<br/> +Granny Fox Promises Reddy Bowser’s Dinner</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +To give her children what each needs<br/> + To get the most from life he can,<br/> +To work and play and live his best,<br/> + Is wise Old Mother Nature’s plan.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +When old Granny Fox asked Reddy how he would like to eat a dinner of Bowser the +Hound’s, Reddy looked at her sharply to see if she were joking or really meant +what she said. Granny looked so sober and so much in earnest that Reddy decided +she couldn’t be joking, even though it did sound that way. +</p> + +<p> +“I certainly would like it, Granny. Yes, indeed, I certainly would like it,” +said he. “You—you don’t suppose he will give us one, do you?” +</p> + +<p> +Granny chuckled. “No, Reddy,” said she. “Bowser isn’t so generous as all that, +especially to Foxes. He isn’t going to give us that dinner; we are going to +take it away from him. Yes, Sir, we just naturally are going to take it away +from him.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy didn’t for the life of him see how it could be possible to take a dinner +away from Bowser the Hound. That seemed to him almost as impossible as it was +for him to climb or fly or dive. But he had great faith in Granny’s cleverness. +He remembered how she had so nearly caught Quacker the Duck. He knew that all +the time he had been away trying to find something for them to eat, old Granny +Fox had been doing more than just rest her tired old bones. He knew that not +for one single minute had her sharp wits been idle. He knew that all that time +she had been studying and studying to find some way by which they could get +something to eat. So great was his faith in Granny just then that if she had +told him she would get him a slice of the moon he would have believed her. +</p> + +<p> +“If you say we can take a dinner away from Bowser the Hound, I suppose we can,” +said Reddy, “though I don’t see how. But if we can, let’s do it right away. I’m +hungry enough to dare almost anything for the sake of something to put in my +stomach. It is so empty that little bit of fish we divided is shaking around as +if it were lost. Gracious, I could eat a million fish the size of that one! +Have you thought of Farmer Brown’s hens, Granny?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, Reddy! Of course! What a silly question!” replied Granny. “We may +have to come to them yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I was at them right now,” interrupted Reddy with a sigh. +</p> + +<p> +“But you know what I have told you,” went on Granny. “The surest way of getting +into trouble is to steal hens. I’m not feeling quite up to being chased by +Bowser the Hound just now, and if we came right home we would give away the +secret of where we live and might be smoked out, and that would be the end of +us. Besides, those hens will be hard to get this weather, because they will +stay in their house, and there is no way for us to get in there unless we walk +right in, in broad daylight, and that would never do. It will be a great deal +better to take Bowser’s dinner away from him. In the first place, if we are +careful, no one but Bowser will know about it, and as long as he is chained up, +we will have nothing to worry about from him. Besides, we will enjoy getting +even with him for the times he has spoiled our chances of catching a fat +chicken and for the way he has hunted us. Most decidedly it will be better and +safer to try for Bowser’s dinner than to try for one of those hens.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just as you say, Granny; just as you say,” returned Reddy. “You know best. But +how under the sun we can do it beats me.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is very simple,” replied Granny, “very simple indeed. Most things are +simple enough when you find out how to do them. Neither of us could do it +alone, but together we can do it without the least bit of risk. Listen.” +</p> + +<p> +Granny went close to Reddy and whispered to him, although there wasn’t a soul +within hearing. A slow grin spread over Reddy’s face as he listened. When she +had finished, he laughed right out. +</p> + +<p> +“Granny, you are a wonder!” he exclaimed admiringly. “I never should have +thought of that. Of course we can do it. My, won’t Bowser be surprised! And how +mad he’ll be! Come on, let’s be starting!” +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said Granny, and the two started towards Farmer Brown’s. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0018"></a> CHAPTER XVIII<br/> +Why Bowser The Hound Didn’t Eat His Dinner</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +The thing you’ve puzzled most about<br/> +Is simple once you’ve found it out.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Bowser The Hound dearly loves to hunt just for the pleasure of the chase. It +isn’t so much the desire to kill as it is the pleasure of using that wonderful +nose of his and the excitement of trying to catch some one, especially Granny +or Reddy Fox. Farmer Brown’s boy had put away his dreadful gun because he no +longer wanted to kill the little people of the Green Forest and the Green +Meadows, but rather to make them his friends. Bowser had missed the exciting +hunts he used to enjoy so much with Farmer Brown’s boy. So Bowser had formed +the habit of slipping away alone for a hunt every once in a while. When Farmer +Brown’s boy discovered this, he got a chain and chained Bowser to his little +house to keep him from running away and hunting on the sly. +</p> + +<p> +Of course Bowser wasn’t kept chained all the time. Oh, my, no! When his master +was about, where he could keep an eye on Bowser, he would let him go free. But +whenever he was going away and didn’t want to take Bowser with him, he would +chain Bowser up. Now Bowser always had one good big meal a day. To be sure, he +had scraps or a bone now and then besides, but once a day he had one good big +meal served to him in a large tin pan. If he happened to be chained, it was +brought out to him. If not, it was given to him just outside the kitchen door. +</p> + +<p> +Granny Fox knew all about this. Sly old Granny makes it her business to know +the affairs of other people around her because there is no telling when such +knowledge may be of use to her. So Granny had watched Bowser the Hound when he +and his master had no idea at all that she was anywhere about, and she had +found out his ways, the usual hour for his dinner and just how far that chain +would allow him to go. It was such things which she had stored away in that +shrewd old head of hers that made her so sure she and Reddy could take Bowser’s +dinner away from him. It was just about Bowser’s dinner-time when Granny and +Reddy trotted across the snow-covered fields and crept behind the barn until +they could peep around the corner. No one was in sight, not even Bowser, who +was inside his warm little house at the end of the long shed back of Farmer +Brown’s house. Granny saw that he was chained and a sly grin crept over her +face. +</p> + +<p> +“You stay right here and watch until his dinner is brought out to him,” said +she to Reddy. “As soon as whoever brings it has gone back to the house you walk +right out where Bowser will see you. At the sight of you, he’ll forget all +about his dinner. Sit right down where he can see you and stay there until you +see that I have got that dinner, or until you hear somebody coming, for you +know Bowser will make a great racket. Then slip around back of the barn and +join me back of that shed.” +</p> + +<p> +So Reddy sat down to watch, and Granny left him. By and by Mrs. Brown came out +of the house with a pan full of good things. She put it down in front of +Bowser’s little house and called to him. Then she turned and hurried back, for +it was very cold. Bowser came out of his little house, yawned and stretched +lazily. +</p> + +<p> +It was time for Reddy to do his part. Out he walked and sat down right in front +of Bowser and grinned at him. Bowser stared for a minute as if he doubted his +own eyes. Such impudence! Bowser growled. Then with a yelp he sprang towards +Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +Now the chain that held him was long, but Reddy had taken care not to get too +near, and of course Bowser couldn’t reach him. He tugged with all his might and +yelped and barked frantically, but Reddy just sat there and grinned in the most +provoking manner. It was great fun to tease Bowser this way. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile old Granny Fox had stolen out from around the corner of the shed +behind Bowser. Getting hold of the edge of the pan with her teeth she pulled it +back with her around the corner and out of sight. If she made any noise, Bowser +didn’t hear it. He was making too much noise himself and was too excited. +Presently Reddy heard the sound of an opening door. Mrs. Brown was coming to +see what all the fuss was about. Like a flash Reddy darted behind the barn, and +all Mrs. Brown saw was Bowser tugging at his chain as he whined and yelped +excitedly. +</p> + +<p> +“I guess he must have seen a stray cat or something,” said Mrs. Brown and went +back in the house. Bowser continued to whine and tug at his chain for a few +minutes. Then he gave it up and, growling deep in his throat, turned to eat his +dinner. But there wasn’t any dinner! It had disappeared, pan and all! Bowser +couldn’t understand it at all. +</p> + +<p> +Back of the shed Granny and Reddy Fox licked that pan clean; licked it until it +was polished. Then, with little sighs of satisfaction, and every once in a +while a chuckle, they trotted happily home. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0019"></a> CHAPTER XIX<br/> +Old Man Coyote Does A Little Thinking</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Investigate and for yourself find out<br/> +Those things which most you want to know about.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Never in all his life had Reddy Fox enjoyed a dinner more than that one he and +Granny had stolen from Bowser the Hound. Of course it would have tasted +delicious anyway, because they were so dreadfully hungry, but to Reddy it +tasted better still because it had been intended for Bowser. Bowser has hunted +Reddy so often that Reddy has no love for him at all, and it tickled him almost +to death to think that they had taken his dinner from almost under his nose. +</p> + +<p> +With that good dinner in their stomachs, Reddy and Granny Fox felt so much +better that the Great World no longer seemed such a cold and cruel place. Funny +how differently things look when your stomach is full from the way those same +things look when it is empty. Best of all they knew they could play the same +sharp trick again and steal another dinner from Bowser if need be. It is a +comforting feeling, a very comforting feeling, to know for a certainty where +you can get another meal. It is a feeling that Granny and Reddy Fox and many +other little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest seldom have in +winter. As a rule, when they have eaten one meal, they haven’t the least idea +where the next one is coming from. How would you like to live that way? +</p> + +<p> +The very next day Granny and Reddy went up to Farmer Brown’s at Bowser’s dinner +hour. But this time Farmer Brown’s boy was at work near the barn, and Bowser +was not chained. Granny and Reddy stole away as silently as they had come. On +the day following they found Bowser chained and stole another dinner from him; +then they went away laughing until their sides ached as they heard Bowser’s +whines of surprise and disappointment when he discovered that his dinner had +vanished. They knew by the sound of his voice that he hadn’t the least idea +what had become of that dinner. +</p> + +<p> +Now there was some one else roaming over the snow-covered meadows and through +the Green Forest and the Old Pasture these days with a stomach so lean and +empty that he couldn’t think of anything else. It was Old Man Coyote. You know +he is very clever, is Old Man Coyote, and he managed to find enough food of one +kind and another to keep him alive, but never enough to give him that +comfortable feeling of a full stomach. While he wasn’t actually starving, he +was always hungry. So he spent all the time when he wasn’t sleeping in hunting +for something to eat. +</p> + +<p> +Of course he often ran across the tracks of Granny and Reddy Fox, and once in a +while he would meet them. It struck Old Man Coyote that they didn’t seem as +thin as he was. That set him to thinking. Neither of them was a smarter hunter +than he. In fact, he prided himself on being smarter than either of them. Yet +when he met them, they seemed to be in the best of spirits and not at all +worried because food was so scarce. Why? There must be a reason. They must be +getting food of which he knew nothing. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll just keep an eye on them,” muttered Old Man Coyote. +</p> + +<p> +So very slyly and cleverly Old Man Coyote followed Granny and Reddy Fox, taking +the greatest care that they should not suspect that he was doing it. All one +night he followed them through the Green Forest and over the Green Meadows, and +when at last he saw them go home, appearing not at all worried because they had +caught nothing, he trotted off to his own home to do some more thinking. +</p> + +<p> +“They are getting food somewhere, that is sure,” he muttered, as he scratched +first one ear and then the other. Somehow he could think better when he was +scratching his ears. “If they don’t get it in the night, and they certainly +didn’t get anything this night, they must get it in the daytime. I’ve done +considerable hunting myself in the daytime, and I haven’t once met them in the +Green Forest or seen them on the Green Meadows or up in the Old Pasture. I +wonder if they are stealing Farmer Brown’s hens and haven’t been found out yet. +I’ve kept away from there myself, but if they can steal hens and not be caught, +I certainly can. There never was a Fox yet smart enough to do a thing that a +Coyote cannot do if he tries. I think I’ll slip up where I can watch Farmer +Brown’s and see what is going on up there. Yes, Sir, that’s what I’ll do.” +</p> + +<p> +With this, Old Man Coyote grinned and then curled himself up for a short nap, +for he was tired. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0020"></a> CHAPTER XX<br/> +A Twice Stolen Dinner</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +No one ever is so smart that some one else may not prove to be smarter +still.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Listen and you shall hear all about three rogues. Two were in red and were +Granny and Reddy Fox. And one was in gray and was Old Man Coyote. They were the +slyest, smartest rogues on all the Green Meadows or in all the Green Forest. +All three had started out to steal the same dinner, but the funny part is they +didn’t intend to steal it from the same person. And still funnier is it that +one of them didn’t even know where that dinner was or what kind of a dinner it +would be. +</p> + +<p> +True to his resolve to know what Granny and Reddy Fox were getting to eat, and +where they were getting it, Old Man Coyote hid where he could see what was +going on about Farmer Brown’s, for it was there he felt sure that Granny and +Reddy were getting food. He had waited only a little while when along came +Granny and Reddy Fox past the place where Old Man Coyote was hiding. They +didn’t see him. Of course not. He took care that they should have no chance. +But anyway, they were not thinking of him. Their thoughts were all of that +dinner they intended to have, and the smart trick by which they would get it. +</p> + +<p> +So with their thoughts all on that dinner they slipped up behind the barn and +prepared to work the trick which had been so successful before. Old Man Coyote +crept after them. He saw Reddy Fox lie down where he could peep around the +corner of the barn to watch Bowser the Hound and to see that no one else was +about. He saw Granny leave Reddy there and hurry away. Old Man Coyote’s wits +worked fast. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t be in two places at once,” thought he, “so I can’t watch both Granny +and Reddy. As I can watch but one, which one shall it be? Granny, of course. +Granny is the smartest of the two, and whatever they are up to, she is at the +bottom of it. Granny is the one to follow.” +</p> + +<p> +So, like a gray shadow, crafty Old Man Coyote stole after Granny Fox and saw +her hide behind the corner of the shed at the end of which was the little house +of Bowser the Hound. He crept as near as he dared and then lay flat down behind +a little bunch of dead grass close to the shed. For some time nothing happened, +and Old Man Coyote was puzzled. Every once in a while Granny Fox would look +behind and all about to be sure that no danger was near, but she didn’t see Old +Man Coyote. After what seemed to him a long time, he heard a door open on the +other side of the shed. It was Mrs. Brown carrying Bowser’s dinner out to him. +Of course, Old Man Coyote didn’t know this. He knew by the sounds that some one +had come out of the house, and it made him nervous. He didn’t like being so +close to Farmer Brown’s house in broad daylight. But he kept his eyes on Granny +Fox, and he saw her ears prick up in a way that he knew meant that those sounds +were just what she had been waiting for. +</p> + +<p> +“If she isn’t afraid, I don’t need to be,” thought he craftily. After a few +minutes he heard a door close and knew that whoever had come out had gone back +into the house. Almost at once Bowser the Hound began to yelp and whine. +Swiftly Granny Fox disappeared around the corner of the shed. Just as swiftly +Old Man Coyote ran forward and peeped around the corner. There was Bowser the +Hound tugging at his chain, and just beyond his reach was Reddy Fox, grinning +in the most provoking manner. And there was Granny Fox, backing and dragging +after her Bowser’s dinner. In a flash Old Man Coyote understood the plan, and +he almost chuckled aloud at the cleverness of it. Then he hastily backed behind +the shed and waited. In a minute Granny Fox appeared, dragging Bowser’s dinner. +She was so intent on getting that dinner that she almost backed into Old Man +Coyote without suspecting that he was anywhere about. +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you, Granny. You needn’t bother about it any longer; I’ll take it now,” +growled Old Man Coyote in Granny’s ear. +</p> + +<p> +Granny let go of that dinner as if it burned her tongue, and with a frightened +little yelp leaped to one side. A minute later Reddy came racing around from +behind the barn eager for his share. What he saw was Old Man Coyote bolting +down that twice-stolen dinner while Granny Fox fairly danced with rage. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0021"></a> CHAPTER XXI<br/> +Granny And Reddy Talk Things Over.</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +You’ll find as on through life you go<br/> + The thing you want may prove to be<br/> +The very thing you shouldn’t have.<br/> + Then seeming loss is gain, you see.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +If ever two folks were mad away through, those two were Granny and Reddy Fox as +they watched Old Man Coyote gobble up the dinner they had so cleverly stolen +from Bowser the Hound. It was bad enough to lose the dinner, but it was worse +to see some one else eat it after they had worked so hard to get it. “Robber!” +snarled Granny. Old Man Coyote stopped eating long enough to grin. +</p> + +<p> +“Thief! Sneak! Coward!” snarled Reddy. Once more Old Man Coyote grinned. When +that dinner had disappeared down his throat to the last and smallest crumb, he +licked his chops and turned to Granny and Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m very much obliged for that dinner,” said he pleasantly, his eyes twinkling +with mischief. “It was the best dinner I have had for a long time. Allow me to +say that that trick of yours was as smart a trick as ever I have seen. It was +quite worthy of a Coyote. You are a very clever old lady, Granny Fox. Now I +hear some one coming, and I would suggest that it will be better for all +concerned if we are not seen about here.” +</p> + +<p> +He darted off behind the barn like a gray streak, and Granny and Reddy +followed, for it was true that some one was coming. You see Bowser the Hound +had discovered that something was going on around the corner of the shed, and +he made such a racket that Mrs. Brown had come out of the house to see what it +was all about. By the time she got around there, all she saw was the empty pan +which had held Bowser’s dinner. She was puzzled. How that pan could be where it +was she couldn’t understand, and Bowser couldn’t tell her, although he tried +his very best. She had been puzzled about that pan two or three times before. +</p> + +<p> +Old Man Coyote lost no time in getting back home, for he never felt easy near +the home of man in broad daylight. Granny and Reddy Fox went home too, and +there was hate in their hearts,—hate for Old Man Coyote. But once they reached +home, Old Granny Fox stopped growling, and presently she began to chuckle. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you laughing at?” demanded Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“At the way Old Man Coyote stole that dinner from us,” replied Granny. +</p> + +<p> +“I hate him! He’s a sneaking robber!” snapped Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Tut, tut, Reddy! Tut, tut!” retorted Granny. “Be fair-minded. We stole that +dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote stole it from us. I guess he +is no worse than we are, when you come to think it over. Now is he?” +</p> + +<p> +“I—I—well, I don’t suppose he is, when you put it that way,” Reddy admitted +grudgingly. +</p> + +<p> +“And he was smart, very smart, to outwit two such clever people as we are,” +continued Granny. “You will have to agree to that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Y-e-s,” said Reddy slowly. “He was smart enough, but—” +</p> + +<p> +“There isn’t any but, Reddy,” interrupted Granny. “You know the law of the +Green Meadows and the Green Forest. It is everybody for himself, and anything +belongs to one who has the wit or the strength to take it. We had the wit to +take that dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote had the wit to take +it from us and the strength to keep it. It was all fair enough, and you know +there isn’t the least use in crying over spilled milk, as the saying is. We +simply have got to be smart enough not to let him fool us again. I guess we +won’t get any more of Bowser’s dinners for a while. We’ve got to think of some +other way of filling our stomachs when the hunting is poor. I think if I could +have just one of those fat hens of Farmer Brown’s, it would put new strength +into my old bones. All summer I warned you to keep away from that henyard, but +the time has come now when I think we might try for a couple of those hens.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy pricked up his ears at the mention of fat hens. “I think so too,” said +he. “When shall we try for one?” +</p> + +<p> +“To-morrow morning,” replied Granny. “Now don’t bother me while I think out a +plan.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0022"></a> CHAPTER XXII<br/> +Granny Fox Plans To Get A Fat Hen</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Full half success for Fox or Man<br/> +Is won by working out a plan.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Granny Fox knows this. No one knows it better. Whatever she does is first +carefully planned in her wise old head. So now after she had decided that she +and Reddy would try for one of Farmer Brown’s fat hens, she lay down to think +out a plan to get that fat hen. No one knew better than she how foolish it +would be to go over to that henyard and just trust to luck for a chance to +catch one of those biddies. Of course, they <i>might</i> be lucky and get a hen +that way, but then again they might be unlucky and get in a peck of trouble. +</p> + +<p> +“You see,” said she to Reddy, “we must not only plan how to get that fat hen, +but we must also plan how to get away with it safely. If only there was some +way of getting in that henhouse at night, there would be no trouble at all. I +don’t suppose there is the least chance of that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not the least chance in the world,” replied Reddy. “There isn’t a hole +anywhere big enough for even Shadow the Weasel to get through, and Farmer +Brown’s boy is very careful to lock the door every night.” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s a little hole that the hens go in and out of during the day, which is +big enough for one of us to slip through, I believe,” said Granny thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Sure! But it’s always closed at night,” snapped Reddy. “Besides, to get to +that or the door either, you have got to get inside the henyard, and there’s a +gate to that which we can’t open.” +</p> + +<p> +“People are sometimes careless,—even you, Reddy,” said Granny. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy squirmed uneasily, for he had been in trouble many times through +carelessness. “Well, what of it?” he demanded a wee bit crossly. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing much, only if that hen-yard gate should <i>happen</i> to be left open, +and if Farmer Brown’s boy should <i>happen</i> to forget to close that little +hole that the hens go through, and if we <i>happened</i> to be around at just +that time—” +</p> + +<p> +“Too many ifs to get a dinner with,” interrupted Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps,” replied Granny mildly, “but I’ve noticed that it is the one who has +an eye open for all the little ifs in life that fares the best. Now I’ve kept +an eye on that henyard, and I’ve noticed that very often Farmer Brown’s boy +<i>doesn’t</i> close the henyard gate at night. I suppose he thinks that if the +henhouse door is locked, the gate doesn’t matter. Any one who is careless about +one thing, is likely to be careless about another. Sometime he may forget to +close that hole. I told you that we would try for one of those hens to-morrow +morning, but the more I think about it, the more I think it will be wiser to +visit that henhouse a few nights before we run the risk of trying to catch a +hen in broad daylight. In fact, I am pretty sure I can make Farmer Brown’s boy +forget to close that gate.” +</p> + +<p> +“How?” demanded Reddy eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +Granny grinned. “I’ll try it first and tell you afterwards,” said she. “I +believe Farmer Brown’s boy closes the henhouse up just before jolly, round, red +Mr. Sun goes to bed behind the Purple Hills, doesn’t he?” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy nodded. Many times from a safe hiding-place he had hungrily watched +Farmer Brown’s boy shut the biddies up. It was always just before the Black +Shadows began to creep out from their hiding-places. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought so,” said Granny. The truth is, she <i>knew</i> so. There was +nothing about that henhouse and what went on there that Granny didn’t know +quite as well as Reddy. “You stay right here this afternoon until I return. +I’ll see what I can do.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me go along,” begged Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” replied Granny in such a decided tone that Reddy knew it would be of no +use to tease. “Sometimes two can do what one cannot do alone, and sometimes one +can do what two might spoil. Now we may as well take a nap until it is time for +Mr. Sun to go to bed. Just you leave it to your old Granny to take care of the +first of those ifs. For the other one we’ll have to trust to luck, but you know +we are lucky sometimes.” +</p> + +<p> +With this Granny curled up for a nap, and having nothing better to do, Reddy +followed her example. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0023"></a> CHAPTER XXIII<br/> +Farmer Brown’s Boy Forgets To Close The Gate</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +How easy ’tis to just forget<br/> + Until, alas, it is too late.<br/> +The most methodical of folks<br/> + Sometimes forget to shut the gate.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Farmer Brown’s Boy is not usually the forgetful kind. He is pretty good about +not forgetting. But Farmer Brown’s boy isn’t perfect by any means. He +<i>does</i> forget sometimes, and he <i>is</i> careless sometimes. He would be +a funny kind of boy otherwise. But take it day in and day out, he is pretty +thoughtful and careful. +</p> + +<p> +The care of the hens is one of Farmer Brown’s boy’s duties. It is one of those +duties which most of the time is a pleasure. He likes the biddies, and he likes +to take care of them. Every morning one of the first things he does is to feed +them and open the henhouse so that they can run in the henyard if they want to. +Every night he goes out just before dark, collects the eggs and locks the +henhouse so that no harm can come to the biddies while they are asleep on their +roosts. After the big snowstorm he had shovelled a place in the henyard where +the hens could come out and exercise and get a sun-bath when they wanted to, +and in the very warmest part of the day they would do this. Always in the +daytime he took the greatest care to see that the henyard gate was fastened, +for no one knew better than he how bold Granny and Reddy Fox can be when they +are very hungry, and in winter they are very apt to be very hungry most of the +time. So he didn’t intend to give them a chance to slip into that henyard while +the biddies were out, or to give the biddies a chance to stray outside where +they might be still more easily caught. +</p> + +<p> +But at night he sometimes left that gate open, as Granny Fox had found out. You +see, he thought it didn’t matter because the hens were locked in their warm +house and so were safe, anyway. +</p> + +<p> +It was just at dusk of the afternoon of the day when Granny and Reddy Fox had +talked over a plan to get one of those fat hens that Farmer Brown’s boy +collected the eggs and saw to it that the biddies had gone to roost for the +night. He had just started to close the little sliding door across the hole +through which the hens went in and out in the daytime when Bowser the Hound +began to make a great racket, as if terribly excited about something. +</p> + +<p> +Farmer Brown’s boy gave the little sliding door a hasty push, picked up his +basket of eggs, locked the henhouse door and hurried out through the gate +without stopping to close it. You see, he was in a hurry to find out what +Bowser was making such a fuss about. Bowser was yelping and whining and tugging +at his chain, and it was plain to see that he was terribly eager to be set +free. +</p> + +<p> +“What is it, Bowser, old boy? Did you see something?” asked Farmer Brown’s boy +as he patted Bowser on the head. “I can’t let you go, you know, because you +probably would go off hunting all night and come home in the morning all tired +out and with sore feet. Whatever it was, I guess you’ve scared it out of a +year’s growth, old fellow, so we’ll let it go at that.” +</p> + +<p> +Bowser still tugged at his chain and whined, but after a little he quieted +down. His master looked around behind the barn to see if he could see what had +so stirred up Bowser, but nothing was to be seen, and he returned, patted +Bowser once more, and went into the house, never once giving that open henyard +gate another thought. +</p> + +<p> +Half an hour later old Granny Fox joined Reddy Fox, who was waiting on the +doorstep of their home. “It is all right, Reddy; that gate is open,” said she. +</p> + +<p> +“How did you do it, Granny?” asked Reddy eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +“Easily enough,” replied Granny. “I let Bowser get a glimpse of me just as his +master was locking up the henhouse. Bowser made a great fuss, and of course, +Farmer Brown’s boy hurried out to see what it was all about. He was in too much +of a hurry to close that gate, and afterwards he forgot all about it or else he +thought it didn’t matter. Of course, I didn’t let him get so much as a glimpse +of me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course,” said Reddy. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0024"></a> CHAPTER XXIV<br/> +A Midnight Visit</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +By those who win ’tis well agreed<br/> +He’ll try and try who would succeed.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to Reddy Fox as if time never had dragged so slowly as it did this +particular night while he and Granny Fox waited until Granny thought it safe to +visit Farmer Brown’s henhouse and see if by any chance there was a way of +getting into it. Reddy tried not to hope too much. Granny had found a way to +get the gate to the henyard left open, but this would do them no good unless +there was some way of getting into the house, and this he very much doubted. +But if there was a way he wanted to know it, and he was impatient to start. +</p> + +<p> +But Granny was in no hurry. Not that she wasn’t just as hungry for a fat hen as +was Reddy, but she was too wise and clever and altogether too sly to run any +risks. +</p> + +<p> +“There is nothing gained by being in too much of a hurry, Reddy,” said she, +“and often a great deal is lost in that way. A fat hen will taste just as good +a little later as it would now, and it will be foolish to go up to Farmer +Brown’s until we are sure that everybody up there is asleep. But to ease your +mind, I’ll tell you what we will do; we’ll go where we can see Farmer Brown’s +house and watch until the last light winks out.” +</p> + +<p> +So they trotted to a point where they could see Farmer Brown’s house, and there +they sat down to watch. It seemed to Reddy that those lights never would wink +out. But at last they did. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, Granny!” he cried, jumping to his feet. +</p> + +<p> +“Not yet, Reddy. Not yet,” replied Granny. “We’ve got to give folks time to get +sound asleep. If we should get into that henhouse, those hens might make a +racket, and if anything like that is going to happen, we want to be sure that +Farmer Brown and Farmer Brown’s boy are asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +This was sound advice, and Reddy knew it. So with a groan he once more threw +himself down on the snow to wait. At last Granny arose, stretched, and looked +up at the twinkling stars. “Come on,” said she and led the way. +</p> + +<p> +Up back of the barn and around it they stole like two shadows and quite as +noiselessly as shadows. They heard Bowser the Hound sighing in his sleep in his +snug little house, and grinned at each other. Silently they stole over to the +henyard. The gate was open, just as Granny had told Reddy it would be. Across +the henyard they trotted swiftly, straight to where more than once in the +daytime they had seen the hens come out of the house through a little hole. It +was closed. Reddy had expected it would be. Still, he was dreadfully +disappointed. He gave it merely a glance. +</p> + +<p> +“I knew it wouldn’t be any use,” said he with a half whine. +</p> + +<p> +But Granny paid no attention to him. She went close to the hole and pushed +gently against the little door that closed it. It didn’t move. Then she noticed +that at one edge there was a tiny crack. She tried to push her nose through, +but the crack was too narrow. Then she tried a paw. A claw caught on the edge +of the door, and it moved ever so little. Then Granny knew that the little door +wasn’t fastened. Granny stretched herself flat on the ground and went to work, +first with one paw, then with the other. By and by she caught her claws in it +just right again, and it moved a wee bit more. No, most certainly that door +wasn’t fastened, and that crack was a little wider. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you wasting your time there for?” demanded Reddy crossly. “We’d +better be off hunting if we would have anything to eat this night.” +</p> + +<p> +Granny said nothing but kept on working. She had discovered that this was a +sliding door. Presently the crack was wide enough for her to get her nose in. +Then she pushed and twisted her head this way and that. The little door slowly +slid back, and when Reddy turned to speak to her again, for he had had his back +to her, she was nowhere to be seen. Reddy just gaped and gaped foolishly. There +was no Granny Fox, but there was a black hole where she had been working, and +from it came the most delicious smell,—the smell of fat hens! It seemed to +Reddy that his stomach fairly flopped over with longing. He rubbed his eyes to +be sure that he was awake. Then in a twinkling he was inside that hole himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Sh-h-h, be still!” whispered Old Granny Fox. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0025"></a> CHAPTER XXV<br/> +A Dinner For Two</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Dark deeds are done in the stilly night,<br/> +And who shall say if they’re wrong or right?<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +It all depends on how you look at things. Of course, Granny and Reddy Fox had +no business to be in Farmer Brown’s henhouse in the middle of the night, or at +any other time, for that matter. That is, they had no business to be there, as +Farmer Brown would look at the matter. He would have called them two red +thieves. Perhaps that is just what they were. But looking at the matter as they +did, I am not so sure about it. To Granny and Reddy Fox those hens were simply +big, rather stupid birds, splendid eating if they could be caught, and bound to +be eaten by somebody. The fact that they were in Farmer Brown’s henhouse didn’t +make them his any more than the fact that Mrs. Grouse was in a part of the +Green Forest owned by Farmer Brown made her his. +</p> + +<p> +You see, among the little meadow and forest people there is no such thing as +property rights, excepting in the matter of storehouses, and because these hens +were alive, it didn’t occur to Granny and Reddy that the henhouse was a sort of +storehouse. It would have made no difference if it had. Among the little people +it is considered quite right to help yourself from another’s storehouse if you +are smart enough to find it and really need the food. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, Reddy and Granny knew that Farmer Brown and his boy would eat some of +those hens themselves, and they didn’t begin to need them as Reddy and Granny +did. So as they looked at the matter, there was nothing wrong in being in that +henhouse in the middle of the night. They were there simply because they needed +food very, very much, and food was there. +</p> + +<p> +They stared up at the roosts where the biddies were huddled together, fast +asleep. They were too high up to be reached from the floor even when Reddy and +Granny stood on their hind legs and stretched as far as they could. +</p> + +<p> +“We’ve got to wake them up and scare them so that some of the silly things will +fly down where we can catch them,” said Reddy, licking his lips hungrily. +</p> + +<p> +“That won’t do at all!” snapped Granny. “They would make a great racket and +waken Bowser the Hound, and he would waken his master, and that is just what we +mustn’t do if we hope to ever get in here again. I thought you had more sense, +Reddy.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy looked a little shamefaced. “Well, if we don’t do that, how are we going +to get them? We can’t fly,” he grumbled. +</p> + +<p> +“You stay right here where you are,” snapped Granny, “and take care that you +don’t make a sound.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Granny jumped lightly to a little shelf that ran along in front of the +nesting boxes. From this she could reach the lower roost on which four fat hens +were asleep. Very gently she pushed her head in between two of these and +crowded them apart. Sleepily they protested and moved along a little. Granny +continued to crowd them. At last one of them stretched out her head to see who +was crowding so. Like a flash Granny seized that head, and biddy never knew +what had wakened her, nor did she have a chance to waken the others. +</p> + +<p> +Dropping this hen at Reddy’s feet, Granny crowded another until she did the +same thing, and just the same thing happened once more. Then Granny jumped +lightly down, picked up one of the hens by the neck, slung the body over her +shoulder, and told Reddy to do the same with the other and start for home. +</p> + +<p> +“Aren’t you going to get any more while we have the chance?” grumbled Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Enough is enough,” retorted Granny. “We’ve got a dinner for two, and so far no +one is any the wiser. Perhaps these two won’t be missed, and we’ll have a +chance to get some more another night. Now come on.” +</p> + +<p> +This was plain common sense, and Reddy knew it, so without another word he +followed old Granny Fox out by the way they had entered, and then home to the +best dinner he had had for a long long time. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0026"></a> CHAPTER XXVI<br/> +Farmer Brown’s Boy Sets A Trap</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +The trouble is that troubles are,<br/> + More frequently than not,<br/> +Brought on by naught but carelessness;<br/> + By some one who forgot.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Granny Fox had hoped that those two hens she and Reddy had stolen from Farmer +Brown’s henhouse would not be missed, but they were. They were missed the very +first thing the next morning when Farmer Brown’s boy went to feed the biddies. +He discovered right away that the little sliding door which should have closed +the opening through which the hens went in and out of the house was open, and +then he remembered that he had left the henyard gate open the night before. +Carefully Farmer Brown’s boy examined the hole with the sliding door. +</p> + +<p> +“Ha!” said he presently, and held up two red hairs which he had found on the +edge of the door. “Ha! I thought as much. I was careless last night and didn’t +fasten this door, and I left the gate open. Reddy Fox has been here, and now I +know what has become of those two hens. I suppose it serves me right for my +carelessness, and I suppose if the truth were known, those hens were of more +real good to him than they ever could have been to me, because the poor fellow +must be having pretty hard work to get a living these hard winter days. Still, +I can’t have him stealing any more. That would never do at all. If I shut them +up every night and am not careless, he can’t get them. But accidents will +happen, and I might do just as I did last night—think I had locked up when I +hadn’t. I don’t like to set a trap for Reddy, but I must teach the rascal a +lesson. If I don’t, he will get so bold that those chickens won’t be safe even +in broad daylight.” +</p> + +<p> +Now at just that very time over in their home, Granny and Reddy Fox were +talking over plans for the future, and shrewd old Granny was pointing out to +Reddy how necessary it was that they should keep away from that henyard for +some time. “We’ve had a good dinner, a splendid dinner, and if we are smart +enough we may be able to get more good dinners where this one came from,” said +she. “But we certainly won’t if we are too greedy.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I don’t believe Farmer Brown’s boy has missed those two chickens, and I +don’t see any reason at all why we shouldn’t go back there to-night and get two +more if he is stupid enough to leave that gate and little door open,” whined +Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Maybe he hasn’t missed those two, but if we should take two more he certainly +would miss them, and he would guess what had become of them, and that might get +us into no end of trouble,” snapped Granny. “We are not starving now, and the +best thing for us to do is to keep away from that henhouse until we can’t get +anything to eat anywhere else, Now you mind what I tell you, Reddy, and don’t +you dare go near there.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy promised, and so it came about that Farmer Brown’s boy hunted up a trap +all for nothing so far as Reddy and Granny were concerned. Very carefully he +bound strips of cloth around the jaws of the trap, for he couldn’t bear to +think of those cruel jaws cutting into the leg of Reddy, should he happen to +get caught. You see, Farmer Brown’s boy didn’t intend to kill Reddy if he +should catch him, but to make him a prisoner for a while and so keep him out of +mischief. That night he hid the trap very cunningly just inside the henhouse +where any one creeping through that little hole made for the hens to go in and +out would be sure to step in it. Then he purposely left the little sliding door +open part way as if it had been forgotten, and he also left the henyard gate +open just as he had done the night before. +</p> + +<p> +“There now, Master Reddy,” said he, talking to himself, “I rather think that +you are going to get into trouble before morning.” +</p> + +<p> +And doubtless Reddy would have done just that thing but for the wisdom of sly +old Granny. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0027"></a> CHAPTER XXVII<br/> +Prickly Porky Takes A Sun Bath</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Danger comes when least expected;<br/> +’Tis often near when not expected.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The long hard winter had passed, and Spring had come. Prickly Porky the +Porcupine came down from a tall poplar-tree and slowly stretched himself. He +was tired of eating. He was tired of swinging in the tree-top. +</p> + +<p> +“I believe I’ll have a sun-bath,” said Prickly Porky, and lazily walked toward +the edge of the Green Forest in search of a place where the sun lay warm and +bright. +</p> + +<p> +Now Prickly Porky’s stomach was very, very full. He was fat and naturally lazy, +so when he came to the doorstep of an old house just on the edge of the Green +Forest he sat down to rest. It was sunny and warm there, and the longer he sat +the less like moving he felt. He looked about him with his dull eyes and +grunted to himself. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a deserted house. Nobody lives here, and I guess nobody’ll care if I take +a nap right here on the doorstep,” said Prickly Porky to himself. “And I don’t +care if they do,” he added, for Prickly Porky the Porcupine was afraid of +nobody and nothing. +</p> + +<p> +So Prickly Porky made himself as comfortable as possible, yawned once or twice, +tried to wink at jolly, round, red Mr. Sun, who was winking and smiling down at +him and then fell fast asleep right on the doorstep of the old house. +</p> + +<p> +Now the old house had been deserted. No one had lived in it for a long, long +time, a very long time indeed. But it happened that, the night before, old +Granny Fox and Reddy Fox had had to move out of their nice home on the edge of +the Green Meadows because Farmer Brown’s boy had found it. Reddy was very stiff +and sore, for he had been shot by a hunter. He was so sore he could hardly +walk, and could not go very far. So old Granny Fox had led him to the old +deserted house and put him to bed in that. +</p> + +<p> +“No one will think of looking for us here, for every one knows that no one +lives here,” said old Granny Fox, as she made Reddy as comfortable as possible. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as it was daylight, Granny Fox slipped out to watch for Farmer Brown’s +boy, for she felt sure that he would come back to the house they had left, and +sure enough he did. He brought a spade and dug the house open, and all the time +old Granny Fox was watching him from behind a fence corner and laughing to +think that she had been smart enough to move in the night. +</p> + +<p> +But Reddy Fox didn’t know anything about this. He was so tired that he slept +and slept and slept. It was the middle of the morning when finally he awoke. He +yawned and stretched, and when he stretched he groaned because he was so stiff +and sore. Then he hobbled up toward the doorway to see if old Granny Fox had +left any breakfast outside for him. +</p> + +<p> +It was dark, very dark. Reddy was puzzled. Could it be that he had gotten up +before daylight—that he hadn’t slept as long as he thought? Perhaps he had +slept the whole day through, and it was night again. My, how hungry he was! +</p> + +<p> +“I hope Granny has caught a fine, fat chicken for me,” thought Reddy, and his +mouth watered. +</p> + +<p> +Just then he ran bump into something. “Wow!” screamed Reddy Fox, and clapped +both hands to his nose. Something was sticking into it. It was one of the sharp +little spears that Prickly Porky hides in his coat. Reddy Fox knew then why the +old house was so dark. Prickly Porky was blocking up the doorway. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0028"></a> CHAPTER XXVIII<br/> +Prickly Porky Enjoys Himself</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +A boasting tongue, as sure as fate,<br/> +Will trip its owner soon or late.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Prickly Porky the Porcupine was enjoying himself. There was no doubt about +that. He was stretched across the doorway of that old house, the very house in +which old Granny Fox had been born. When he had lain down on the doorstep for a +nap and sun-bath, he had thought that the old house was still deserted. Then he +had fallen asleep, only to be wakened by Reddy Fox, who bad been asleep in the +old house and who couldn’t get out because Prickly Porky was in the way. +</p> + +<p> +Now Prickly Porky does not love Reddy Fox, and the more Reddy begged and +scolded and called him names, the more Prickly Porky chuckled. It was such a +good joke to think that he had trapped Reddy Fox, and he made up his mind that +he would keep Reddy in there a long time just to tease him and make him +uncomfortable. You see Prickly Porky remembered how often Reddy Fox played mean +tricks on little meadow and forest folks who are smaller and weaker than +himself. +</p> + +<p> +“It will do him good. It certainly will do him good,” said Prickly Porky, and +rattled the thousand little spears hidden in his long coat, for he knew that +the very sound of them would make Reddy Fox shiver with fright. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly Prickly Porky pricked up his funny little short ears. He heard the +deep voice of Bowser the Hound, and it was coming nearer and nearer. Prickly +Porky chuckled again. +</p> + +<p> +“I guess Mr. Bowser is going to have a surprise; I certainly think he is,” said +Prickly Porky as he made all the thousand little spears stand out from his long +coat till he looked like a funny great chestnut burr. +</p> + +<p> +Bowser the Hound did have a surprise. He was hunting Reddy Fox, and he almost +ran into Prickly Porky before he saw him. The very sight of those thousand +little spears sent little cold chills chasing each other down Bowser’s backbone +clear to the tip of his tail, for he remembered how he had gotten some of them +in his lips and mouth once upon a time, and how it had hurt to have them pulled +out. Ever since then he had had the greatest respect for Prickly Porky. +</p> + +<p> +“Wow!” yelped Bowser the Hound, stopping short. “I beg your pardon, Prickly +Porky, I beg your pardon, I didn’t know you were taking a nap here.” +</p> + +<p> +All the time Bowser the Hound was backing away as fast as he could. Then he +turned around, put his tail between his legs and actually ran away. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly Prickly Porky unrolled, and his little eyes twinkled as he watched +Bowser the Hound run away. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Bowser’s very big and strong;<br/> +His voice is deep; his legs are long;<br/> +His bark scares some almost to death.<br/> +But as for me he wastes his breath;<br/> +I just roll up and shake my spears<br/> +And Bowser is the one who fears.” +</p> + +<p> +So said Prickly Porky, and laughed aloud. Just then he heard a light footstep +and turned to see who was coming. It was old Granny Fox. She had seen Bowser +run away, and now she was anxious to find out if Reddy Fox were safe. +</p> + +<p> +“Good morning,” said Granny Fox, taking care not to come too near. +</p> + +<p> +“Good morning,” replied Prickly Porky, hiding a smile. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m very tired and would like to go inside my house; had you just as soon +move?” asked Granny Fox. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” exclaimed Prickly Porky, “is this your house? I thought you lived over on +the Green Meadows.” +</p> + +<p> +“I did, but I’ve moved. Please let me in,” replied Granny Fox. +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly, certainly. Don’t mind me, Granny Fox. Step right over me,” said +Prickly Porky, and smiled once more, and at the same time rattled his little +spears. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of stepping over him, Granny Fox backed away. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0029"></a> CHAPTER XXIX<br/> +The New Home In The Old Pasture</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +Who keeps a watch upon his toes<br/> +Need never fear he’ll bump his nose.<br/> + —<i>Old Granny Fox</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Now there is nothing like being shut in alone in the dark to make one think. A +voice inside of Reddy began to whisper to him. “If you hadn’t tried to be smart +and show off you wouldn’t have brought all this trouble on yourself and Old +Granny Fox,” said the voice. +</p> + +<p> +“I know it,” replied Reddy right out loud, forgetting that it was only a small +voice inside of him. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you know?” asked Prickly Porky. He was still keeping Reddy in and +Granny out and he had overheard what Reddy said. +</p> + +<p> +“It is none of your business!” snapped Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +Reddy could hear Prickly Porky chuckle. Then Prickly Porky repeated as if to +himself in a queer cracked voice the following: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Rudeness never, never pays,<br/> +Nor is there gain in saucy ways.<br/> +It’s always best to be polite<br/> +And ne’er give way to ugly spite.<br/> +If that’s the way you feel inside<br/> +You’d better all such feelings hide;<br/> +For he must smile who hopes to win,<br/> +And he who loses best will grin.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy pretended that he hadn’t heard. Prickly Porky continued to chuckle for a +while and finally Reddy fell asleep. When he awoke it was to find that Prickly +Porky had left and old Granny Fox had brought him something to eat. +</p> + +<p> +Just as soon as Reddy Fox was able to travel he and Granny had moved to the Old +Pasture. The Old Pasture is very different from the Green Meadows or the Green +Forest. Yes, indeed, it is very, very different. Reddy Fox thought so. And +Reddy didn’t like the change,—not a bit. All about were great rocks, and around +and over them grew bushes and young trees and bull-briars with long ugly +thorns, and blackberry and raspberry canes that seemed to have a million little +hooked hands, reaching to catch in and tear his red coat and to scratch his +face and hands. There were little open places where wild-eyed young cattle fed +on the short grass. They had made many little paths all crisscross among the +bushes, and when you tried to follow one of these paths you never could tell +where you were coming out. +</p> + +<p> +No, Reddy Fox did not like the Old Pasture at all. There was no long, soft +green grass to lie down in. And it was lonesome up there. He missed the little +people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. There was no one to bully and +tease. And it was such a long, long way from Farmer Brown’s henyard that old +Granny Fox wouldn’t even try to bring him a fat hen. At least, that’s what she +told Reddy. +</p> + +<p> +The truth is, wise old Granny Fox knew that the very best thing she could do +was to stay away from Farmer Brown’s for a long time. She knew that Reddy +couldn’t go down there, because he was still too lame and sore to travel such a +long way, and she hoped that by the time Reddy was well enough to go, he would +have learned better than to do such a foolish thing as to try to show off by +stealing a chicken in broad daylight, as he had when he brought all this +trouble on them. +</p> + +<p> +Down on the Green Meadows, the home of Granny and Reddy Fox had been on a +little knoll, which you know is a little low hill, right where they could sit +on their doorstep and look all over the Green Meadows. It had been very, very +beautiful down there. They had made lovely little paths through the tall green +meadow grass, and the buttercups and daisies had grown close up to their very +doorstep. But up here in the Old Pasture Granny Fox had chosen the thickest +clump of bushes and young trees she could find, and in the middle was a great +pile of rocks. Way in among these rocks Granny Fox had dug their new house. It +was right down under the rocks. Even in the middle of the day jolly, round, red +Mr. Sun could hardly find it with a few of his long, bright beams. All the rest +of the time it was dark and gloomy there. +</p> + +<p> +No, Reddy Fox didn’t like his new home at all, but when he said so old Granny +Fox boxed his ears. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s your own fault that we’ve got to live here now,” said she. “It’s the only +place where we are safe. Farmer Brown’s boy never will find this home, and even +if he did he couldn’t dig into it as he did into our old home on the Green +Meadows. Here we are, and here we’ve got to stay, all because a foolish little +Fox thought himself smarter than anybody else and tried to show off.” +</p> + +<p> +Reddy hung his head. “I don’t care!” he said, which was very, very foolish, +because, you know, he did care a very great deal. +</p> + +<p> +And here we will leave wise Old Granny Fox and Reddy, safe, even if they do not +like their new home. You see, Lightfoot the Deer is getting jealous. He thinks +there should be some books about the people of the Green Forest, and that the +first one should be about him. And because we all love Lightfoot the Deer, the +very next book is to bear his name. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD GRANNY FOX ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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