IX. OLD MAN COYOTE MEETS REDDY FOX
No matter how you feel inside
Hold up your head! Call up your pride!
Stand fast! Look brave! Then none will guess
The fear you feel, but won't confess.
JIMMY SKUNK learned this when he was a very little fellow. Now he isn't afraid of much of anything, but there was a time when he was. Oh, my, yes! There was a time when he first started out to see the world, and before he had found out that all the world is afraid of that little bag of scent he always carries with him, when Jimmy often was as frightened as Peter Rabbit ever is, and you know Peter is very easily frightened. But Jimmy used to think of that little verse, and though sometimes he had to shut his mouth as tightly as he knew how to keep his teeth from chattering with fear, he would hold up his head, stand fast, and look brave. What do you think happened? Why, in a little while people began to say that Jimmy Skunk wasn't afraid of anything, and so no one tried to bother him. Of course when he found this out, Jimmy wasn't afraid.
But Reddy Fox is different. He dearly loves to tell how brave he is. He brags and boasts. But when he finds himself in a place where he is afraid, he shows it. Yes, Sir, he shows it. Reddy Fox has never learned to stand fast and look brave. When Reddy had first been told that the stranger with the voice which had sounded so terrible in the night was Old Man Coyote from the Great West, and that he had decided to make his home on the Green Meadows, Reddy had said: “Pooh! I'm not afraid of him!” and had swelled himself up and strutted back and forth as if he really meant it. But all the time Reddy took care, the very greatest care, to keep out of the way of Old Man Coyote.
Of course, some one told Digger the Badger what Reddy had said, and Digger told Old Man Coyote, who just grinned and said nothing. But he noticed how careful Reddy was to keep out of his way, and he made up his mind that he would like to meet Reddy and find out how brave he really was. So one moonlight night he hid behind a big log near one of Reddy's favorite hunting places. Pretty soon Reddy came tiptoeing along, watching for foolish young mice. Just a little while before he had heard the voice of Old Man Coyote way over on the edge of the Old Pasture, so he never once thought of meeting him here. Just as he passed the end of the old log, a deep voice in the black shadow said:
“Good evening, Brother Fox.” Reddy whirled about. His heart seemed to come right up in his throat. It was too late to run, for there was Old Man Coyote right in front of him. Reddy tried to swell himself up just as he so often did before the little people who were afraid of him, but somehow he couldn't. “Go-good evening, Mr. Coyote,” he replied, but his voice sounded very weak. “I hear you've come to make your home on the Green Meadows. I-I hope we will be the best of friends.”
“Of course we will,” replied Old Man Coyote. “I'm always the best of friends with those who are not afraid of me, and I hear that you are not afraid of anybody.”
“N-no, I-I'm not afraid of anybody,” said Reddy. “Everybody is afraid of me.” All the time he was speaking, he was slowly backing away, and in spite of his bold words, he was shaking with fear. Old Man Coyote saw it and he chuckled to himself.
“I'm not, Brother Fox!” he suddenly snapped, in a deep, horrid sounding voice. “Gr-r-r-r-r, I'm not!” As he said it, all the hair along his back stood on end, and he showed all his great, cruel-looking teeth.
Instead of holding his ground as Jimmy Skunk would have done, Reddy leaped backward, tripped over his own tail, fell, and then scrambled to his feet with a frightened yelp, and ran as he had never run before in all his life. And as he ran, he heard Old Man Coyote laughing, and all the Green Meadows and the Green Forest heard it:
“Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha! Hee, hee, hee! Ho, ha, hee, ho! Reddy Fox isn't afraid! Ho, ho!”
Reddy ground his teeth in rage, but he kept on running.
X. GRANNY FOX VISITS PRICKLY PORKY
“I've often heard old Granny say:
' He longest lives who runs away.'”
REDDY FOX didn't realize that he was speaking aloud. He was trying to make himself think that he wasn't a coward and that in running away from Old Man Coyote he had done only what every one of the little meadow and forest people would have done in his place. So, without knowing it, he had spoken aloud.
“But he who runs must leave behind
His self-respect and peace of mind.”
The voice came from right over Reddy's head, but he didn't have to look up to know who was there. It was Sammy Jay, of course. Sammy is always on hand when he isn't wanted, and Reddy knew by the look in his eyes that Sammy knew about the meeting with Old Man Coyote.
“What are you waiting around here for?” asked Reddy, with a snarl.
“To tell Old Granny Fox how brave you are,” retorted Sammy Jay, his eyes sparkling with mischief, “and how fast you can run.”
“You'd better mind your own affairs and leave mine alone. I shall tell Granny all about it myself, anyway,” snapped Reddy.
Now when Reddy said that, he didn't tell the truth, for he had no intention of telling Old Granny Fox of how he had run from Old Man Coyote, but hardly were the words out of his mouth when old Granny Fox herself stepped out from behind a bush. She had been up in the Old Pasture for a week or two and had just come back, so she knew nothing of the fright which Old Man Coyote had given those who live in the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.
“I'm already to listen right now, Reddy,” said she.
Reddy hung his head. He coughed and cleared his throat and tried to think of some way out of it. But it was of no use. There sat Sammy Jay ready to tell if he didn't, and so, mumbling so low that twice Granny told him to speak louder, Reddy told how he had run, and how Old Man Coyote had laughed at him so that all the little people in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows had heard.
“Of course he laughed!” snapped old Granny Fox. “You're a coward, Reddy Fox, just a plain coward. It's all well enough to run away when you know you have to, but to run before there is anything to be afraid of shows you are the biggest kind of a coward. Bah! Get out of my sight!”
Reddy slunk away, muttering to himself and glaring angrily at Sammy Jay, who was chuckling with delight to see Reddy looking so uncomfortable. Old Granny Fox made sure that Reddy was out of sight, and then she sat down to think, and there was a worried pucker in her forehead.
“Old Man Coyote is a wolf,” said she, talking to herself, “and a wolf on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest will mean hard hunting for Reddy and me when food is scarce. It is of no use for me to fight him, for he is bigger and stronger than I am. I'll just have to make all the trouble for him that I can, and then perhaps he'll go away. I wonder if he has ever met Prickly Porky the Porcupine. I believe I'll go over and make Prickly Porky a call right now!”
And as she trotted through the Green Forest on her way to call on Prickly Porky, her thoughts were very busy, very busy indeed. She was planning trouble for Old Man Coyote.
XI. GRANNY FOX TELLS PRICKLY PORKY A STORY
A little tale which isn't true,
And eager ears to heed it,
Means trouble starts right there to brew
With tattle-tales to feed it.
NO one knows how true this is better than does old Granny-Fox. And no one knows better than she how to make trouble for other people by starting little untrue stories. You see, she learned long ago how fast a mean little tale will travel once it has been started, and so when there is some one with whom she is afraid to fight honestly, she uses these little untrue tales instead of claws and teeth, and often they hurt a great deal worse than claws or teeth ever could.
Now you would think that by this time all the little meadow and forest people would have found old Granny Fox out, and that they wouldn't believe her stories. But the truth is most people are very apt to believe unpleasant things about other people without taking the trouble to find out if they are true, and old Granny Fox knows this. Besides, she is smart enough to tell these little trouble-making, untrue stories as if she had heard them from some one else. So, of course, some one else gets the blame for starting them. Oh, Granny Fox is smart and sly! Yes, Siree! She certainly is smart and sly.
It was one of her plans to make trouble that was taking her over to see Prickly Porky the Porcupine. She found him as usual in the top of a poplar tree, filling his stomach with tender young bark. Granny strolled along as if she had just happened to pass that way and not as if she had come purposely. She pretended to be very much surprised when she looked up and saw Prickly Porky.
“Good morning, Prickly Porky,” she said in her pleasantest voice. “How big and fine and strong and brave you are looking this morning!”
Prickly Porky stopped eating and looked down at her suspiciously, but just the same he felt pleased.
“Huh!” he grunted, then once more he began to eat.
Granny Pox went right on talking. “I said when I heard that story this morning that I didn't believe a word of it. I—”
“What story?” Prickly Porky broke in.
“Why, haven't you heard it?” Granny spoke in a tone of great surprise. “Billy Mink told it to me. He said that this stranger, Old Man Coyote, who has come to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, has been boasting that he is afraid of nobody, but everybody is afraid of him. When somebody asked him if you were afraid of him, he said that you climbed the highest tree you could find if you but saw his shadow. Of course, I didn't believe it, because I know that you are not afraid of anybody. But other people believe it, and they do say that Old Man Coyote is bragging that the first time he meets you on the ground he is going to have Porcupine for dinner.”
Prickly Porky had started down the tree before Granny finished speaking, and his usually dull eyes actually looked bright. The fact is, they were bright with anger. Prickly Porky looked positively fierce.
“What are you going to do?” asked Granny Fox, backing away a little.
“Going to give that boaster a chance to try to get his Porcupine dinner,” grunted Prickly Porky.
Granny turned aside to grin. “I don't believe you will find him now,” said she, “but I heard that he is planning to get you when you go down to the Laughing Brook for a drink this evening.”
“Then I'll wait,” grunted Prickly Porky.
So Granny Fox bade him good-by and started on with a wicked chuckle to think how Prickly Porky had believed the story which she had made up.
XII. GRANNY FOX TELLS ANOTHER STORY
Believe all the good that you may hear,
But always doubt the bad.
Pass on the word of kindly cheer;
Forget the tale that's sad.
IF every one would do that what a different world this would he! My, my, my, yes, indeed! There wouldn't be any place for the Granny Foxes who start untrue stories just to make trouble. But we will have to say this much for old Granny Fox,—she seldom does make trouble just for the sake of trouble. No, Sir, old Granny Fox seldom, very seldom makes trouble, unless she or Reddy Fox have something to gain by it. She is too smart and wise for that.
It was just this way now. You see she felt down in her heart that Old Man Coyote the Wolf had no right on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. He was a stranger from the Great West, and she felt that she and Reddy Fox had the best right there, because they had been born there and always had lived there; and she was afraid, very much afraid, that there wouldn't be room for them and for Old Man Coyote. But she wasn't big or strong enough to fight him and drive him away, and so the only thing she could think of was to make him so much trouble that he would leave. She had begun by telling an untrue story to Prickly Porky, a story which had made Prickly Porky very angry with Old Man Coyote, although they had never met. Now she was hurrying down to the Smiling Pool on the banks of which Old Man Coyote was in the habit of taking a sun-bath, she had been told.
Sure enough, when she came in sight of the Smiling Pool, there he lay sprawled out in the sun and talking to Grandfather Frog, who sat on his big green lily-pad well out of reach from the shore. Granny came up on the opposite side of the Smiling Pool from where Old Man Coyote lay.
“How do you do, Mr. Coyote? I have just heard that you have come here to make your home among us, and I am sure we all give you a hearty welcome.” Granny said this just as if she really meant it, and all the time she was speaking she was smiling. Old Man Coyote watched her out of half-closed eyes and to himself he thought: “I don't believe a word of it. Granny Fox is too polite, altogether too polite. I wonder what kind of a trick she is trying to play now.”
All the time he was saying this, Old Man Coyote was chuckling inside. But aloud he said, and his voice was just as smooth and soft and pleasant as Granny's:
“I'm very well, thank you, and I am much obliged to you for your hearty welcome. I am sure we shall be the best of friends.”
Original
Now all the time he was saying this, Old Man Coyote was chuckling inside, for he knew well enough that they wouldn't be friends, and that Granny Fox didn't want to be friends. You see, he is quite as sharp as she.
“Yes, indeed, I am sure we shall,” replied old Granny Fox. “How big and strong you are, Mr. Coyote! I shouldn't think that you would be afraid of anybody.”
Old Man Coyote looked flattered. “I'm not,” said he.
Granny Fox raised her eyebrows as if very much surprised. “Is that so?” she exclaimed. “Why I heard that Prickly Porky the Porcupine is boasting that you are afraid of him and don't dare put your foot in the Green Forest when he is about.”
Old Man Coyote suddenly jumped to his feet, and there was an ugly gleam in his yellow eyes. Granny Fox was glad that she was on the other side of the Smiling Pool. “I don't know who this Prickly Porky is,” said he, “but if you'll be so kind as to tell me where I can find him, I think I will make him a call at once.”
“Probably he's taking a nap in a tree-top just now,” replied Granny, “but it you really want to meet him, you'll find him getting a drink at the Laughing Brook in the Green Forest late this afternoon. I do hope that you will be careful, Mr. Coyote.”
“Careful! Careful!” snorted he.
“There won't be any Prickly Porky when I get through with him!”
“Chug-a-rum!” said Grandfather Frog and looked very hard at old Granny Fox. Granny winked the eye that was nearest to him.
XIII. THE MEETING AT THE LAUGHING BROOK
The trouble with a quarrel is
That when it's once begun
The whole world tries to push it on,
And seems to think it fun.
IT usually is anything but fun for those engaged in it, but their neighbors crowd about and urge them on and do their best to make matters worse. It was just that way when Prickly Porcupine and Old Man Coyote met beside the Laughing Brook. Now until they met here neither had ever seen the other, for you know Old Man Coyote had come out of the Great West, while Prickly Porky had come down from the North Woods. Prickly Porky took one good look and then he grunted, “I'll soon fix him!” What he saw was some one who looked something like a very large gray fox or a dog, and Prickly Porky had put too many foxes and dogs to flight to feel the least bit of fear of the stranger grinning at him and showing all his great teeth.
But Old Man Coyote didn't know what to make of what he saw. Never in all his life had he seen anything like it. He didn't know whether to laugh or to be frightened. About all he could see was what looked like a tremendous great chestnut-burr on legs, which came towards him in little rushes and with a great rattling of the thousand little spears which made him look like a chestnut-burr. Old Man Coyote had never fought with anybody like this, and he didn't know just how to begin. He didn't like the look of the thousand little spears. The nearer they came, the less he liked the look of them. So he backed away a few steps, growling and snarling angrily.
Now it seemed that as if by magic the news that there was trouble between Prickly Porky and Old Man Coyote had spread all over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest. Everybody who dared to go was on hand to see it. Sammy Jay and his cousin, Blacky the Crow, were there of course, peering down from the top of a pine-tree and screaming excitedly. Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel actually sat side by side in the same tree, so interested that they forgot for once to quarrel themselves. Unc' Billy Possum and Bobby Coon cut their afternoon nap short and looked on from a safe place in a big chestnut-tree.
Danny Meadow Mouse and his cousin, Whitefoot the Wood Mouse, shivered with fright, while they peeped out through a crack in a hollow log. Johnny Chuck came as near as he dared and peeped over the trunk of a fallen tree. Billy Mink and Jerry Muskrat quietly swam up the Laughing Brook and crawled out on the farther bank where they could see and still be safe. Of course Reddy and Granny Fox were there, well hidden so that no one should see them.
And what do you think every one of them was wishing? Why, that Prickly Porky would drive Old Man Coyote away from the Green Forest and off of the Green Meadows. You see, every one of them was afraid of Old Man Coyote, and right down in his heart each was hoping that Prickly Porky would be able to send Old Man Coyote off yelping, with his face stuck full of little spears as once upon a time he had sent Bowser the Hound.
XIV. SLOW WIT AND QUICK WIT
WHEN Prickly Porky the Porcupine and Old Man Coyote the Prairie Wolf met beside the Laughing Brook, it was a case of Slow Wit meeting Quick Wit. You see, Prickly Porky is very slow in everything he does, that is everything but flipping that queer tail of his about when there is an enemy near enough for it to reach. But in everything else he is oh, so slow! He walks as if he had all the time in the world to get to the place he has started for. He climbs in just the same way. And because he never moves quickly, he never thinks quickly. The fact is, he doesn't see any need of hurrying, not even in thinking.
But Old Man Coyote is just the opposite. Yes, Sir, he is just the opposite. No one moves quicker than he does. He is nimble on his feet, and his wit is just as quick.
His nimble wit and nimble feet
Are very, very hard to beat.
Digger the Badger, who also comes from the Great West, says that to beat Old Man Coyote in anything, you should start the day before he does and not let him know it.
So here was Slow Wit facing Quick Wit, with most of the little meadow people and forest folk looking on. Suddenly Old Man Coyote sprang forward with his ugliest snarl, a snarl that made everybody but Prickly Porky shiver, even those who were perfectly safe up in the trees.
But Prickly Porky didn't shiver.
No, Sir, he just grunted angrily and rattled this thousand little spears.
Now, Old Man Coyote had sprung with that ugly snarl just to try to frighten Prickly Porky, and he had taken care not to spring too close to those rattling spears. When he found that Prickly Porky wasn't frightened the least little bit, he tried another plan. Perhaps he could get Prickly Porky from behind. As quick as a flash and as light as a feather, he leaped right over Prickly Porky and turned to seize him from behind. But he didn't! Oh, my, no! You see, the thousand little spears covered every inch of Prickly Porky's back.
Slowly and clumsily Prickly Porky turned so as to face his enemy.
“Got fooled that time, didn't you, Mr. Smarty?” he grunted, while his eyes snapped with anger.
Old Man Coyote didn't say anything. He just grinned. But all the time he was using his eyes, and now he discovered that while Prickly Porky was fully protected on his back and sides by the thousand little spears carried in his coat, there wasn't a single little spear in his waistcoat.
“I've got to get him where I can seize him from underneath,” thought he, and straightway he began to run in a circle around Prickly Porky while the latter turned slowly round and round, trying to keep his face turned always towards Old Man Coyote. Faster and faster ran Old Man Coyote, and faster and faster turned Prickly Porky. In his slow mind he was trying to understand what it meant, but he couldn't. And for a while the little meadow and forest people looking on were just as much puzzled. It was a most surprising thing.
Then suddenly Unc' Billy Possum understood.
“He's trying to make Prickly Porky dizzy,” he whispered to Bobby Coon.
“Let's warn Prickly Porky; he'll never think of it himself until it's too late,” whispered Bobby Coon.
But before they could do this, the queer performance came to an end. Prickly Porky hadn't discovered what Old Man Coyote was trying to do, but he had become tired of such foolishness, and he suddenly decided to take a rest. So he stopped turning around, and then curled himself up in a ball on the ground, where he looked like a great chestnut burr. Everybody held their breath to see what Old Man Coyote would do next.
XV. PRICKLY PORKY'S TAIL
Who on a prickly porcupine
Makes up his mind that he will dine
Must overcome a thousand quills
Before his stomach Porky fills.
And so it is with you and me;
With everybody whom we see;
With Reddy Fox and Billy Mink,
And all the rest of whom we think
On Meadows Green, in Smiling Pool
Or hidden in the Forest cool:
The thing we've set our hearts upon
Must past a thousand spears be won.
NO one knows this better than did Old Man Coyote as he ran around and around Prickly Porky. He had never felt one of those little spears which Prickly Porky rattled so fiercely, and he had no mind to feel one. You see, he didn't like the look of them. When finally Prickly Porky lay down and curled up into a great prickly ball, like a huge chestnut burr, Old Man Coyote sat down just a little way off to study how he was going to get at Prickly Porky without getting hurt by some of those sharp, barbed little spears.
For a long time he sat and studied and studied, his tongue hanging out of one side of his mouth. Once he looked up at Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow and winked, but he didn't make a sound. Sammy and Blacky chuckled to themselves and winked back, and for a wonder they didn't make a sound. Somehow that wink made them have more of a friendly feeling for Old Man Coyote. You see, that wink told them that Old Man Coyote was just the same kind of a sly rogue as themselves, and so right away they had a fellow feeling for him.
And none of the little meadow and forest people looking on made a sound. Some of them didn't dare to, and others were so anxious to see what would happen next that they didn't want to. It was so still that the little leaves up in the tree-tops could be heard whispering good night to the Merry Little Breezes, for whom Old Mother West Wind was waiting with her big bag out on the Green Meadows to take them to their home behind the Purple Hills. It was so still that after a while Prickly Porky began to wonder if he were all alone. You see, being curled up that way, he couldn't see and had to trust to his ears. He waited a little longer, and then he uncurled just enough to peep out. There sat Old Man Coyote, and Prickly Porky promptly curled up again.
Now the minute he curled up again something happened. Old Man Coyote looked up at Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow and winked once more. Then very softly, so softly that he didn't so much as rustle a leaf, he tiptoed around to the other side of Prickly Porky and sat down just as before.
“Now,” thought he, “when he peeps out again, he will think I have gone, and then perhaps I can catch him by surprise.”
Bobby Coon saw through his plan right away. “Some one ought to warn Prickly Porky,” he whispered to Unc' Billy Possum.
Unc' Billy shook his head. “No,” he whispered back, “No, Brer Coon! That wouldn't be fair. It's they-all's quarrel and not ours, and though Ah done want to see Brer Porky win just as much as yo' do, Ah reckon it wouldn't be right fo' us to meddle. They-all done got to fight it out themselves.”
For a long time nothing happened. Then Old Man Coyote grew tired of waiting. Very carefully he crept nearer and nearer, with his nose stretched out to sniff at that prickly ball on the ground. Everybody held his breath, for everybody remembered what had happened to Bowser the Hound when he came sniffing around Prickly Porky,—how Prickly Porky's tail had suddenly slapped Bowser full in the face, filling it with sharp little spears. Now they hoped to see the same thing happen to Old Man Coyote. So they held their breath as they kept their eyes on Old Man Coyote and Prickly Porky's tail.
XVI. OLD MAN COYOTE'S SMARTNESS
When you meet an adversary
Bold and brave be, also wary.
If the weapons you may hear of,
Teeth and claws, you have no fear of,
Don't be heedless and rush blindly
Lest you be received unkindly,
And, like Prickly Porky, find him
With a dangerous tail behind him.
NOW Old Man Coyote knew nothing about that dangerous tail. He had never heard how Bowser the Hound had been sent yelping home with his face stuck full of those sharp little spears. But Old Man Coyote is wary. Oh, my, yes! He certainly is wary. To be wary, you know, is to be very, very careful where you go and what you do until you know for sure that there is no possible danger. And there is no one more wary than Old Man Coyote, not even wise, sly, old Granny Fox.
So now, though Prickly Porky, curled up in a ball in front of him, looked harmless enough except for the thousand little spears sticking out all over him, Old Man Coyote was too wary—too smart and too careful—to take any chances as Bowser the Hound had rashly done. And this is why, as he stole forward with his nose stretched out as if to sniff of Prickly Porky, he suddenly stopped just when the little meadow and forest people looking on were holding their breath and hugging themselves with joy and excitement because they expected to see the same thing happen to Old Man Coyote that had happened to Bowser.
Yes, Sir, Old Man Coyote stopped. He studied Prickly Porky a few minutes. Then slowly he walked around him, just studying and studying.
Original
“It looks safe enough to go closer and sniff at him,” thought Old Man Coyote, “but I learned a long time ago that you cannot always tell just by looks, and that the most harmless looking thing is sometimes the most dangerous. Now it looks to me as if this stupid Porcupine couldn't hurt a flee so long as he keeps curled up this way, but I don't know, and I'm not going any nearer until I do know.”
He scratched his head thoughtfully, and then he had an idea. He began to dig in the soft earth.
“What under the sun is he doing that for?” whispered Happy Jack Squirrel to his cousin, Chatterer the Bed Squirrel.
“I don't know,” replied Chatterer, also in a whisper. “We'll probably know in a few minutes.”
He had hardly finished when Old Man Coyote threw a little lump of earth so that it hit Prickly Porky. Now, Of course Prickly Porky couldn't see what was going on, because, you know, he was curled up with his head tucked down in his waistcoat. But he had been listening as hard as ever he could, and he had heard Old Man Coyote's footsteps very close to him. When the little lump of earth struck him, he thought it was Old Man Coyote himself, and like a flash he slapped that queer tail of his around. Of course it didn't hit anybody, because there was nobody within reach. But it told Old Man Coyote all that he wanted to know.
“Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed. “That's the time I fooled you instead of you fooling me! You've got to get up early to fool me with a trick like that, Mr. Smarty!”
Then what do you think he did? Why, he just scooped earth on to Prickly Porky as fast as he could dig. Prickly Porky stood it for a few minutes, but he didn't want to be buried alive. Besides, now that his trick was found out by the smartness of Old Man Coyote, there was no use in keeping still any longer. So, with a grunt of anger, Prickly Porky scrambled to his feet, and rattling his thousand little spears, rushed at Old Man Coyote, who just jumped to one side, laughing fit to kill himself.
XVII. GRANNY FOX IS FOUND OUT
Granny Fox is sly and wise
And seldom taken by surprise,
But wisdom wrongly put to use
Can never find a good excuse.
It ceases then to wisdom be,
But foolishness, as we shall see.
NOW, with all her smartness and all her cleverness, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. Yes, Sir, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. You see, she had become so used to being thought the smartest and cleverest of all the little people who lived on the Green Meadows and around the Smiling Pool and in the Green Forest, that she had come to believe that there couldn't be anybody anywhere as smart and clever as she. That was because she didn't know Old Man Coyote. And now, as she and Reddy Fox watched from their hiding place the meeting between Old Man Coyote and Prickly Porky, she felt a sudden sharp sting in her pride. Old Man Coyote had proved himself too smart for Prickly Porky. She ground her teeth as she heard him laughing fit to kill himself as he kept out of Prickly Porky's reach, and she ground them still more as she heard him say:
“You will boast that you will drive me out of the Green Forest, will you, Mr. Porcupine? The time to brag will be when you have done it.”
Prickly Porky stopped short in the middle of one of his clumsy rushes.
“Boaster and bragger yourself!” he grunted. “You don't seem to be dining on Porcupine the first time we meet. Why don't you? Why don't you make your own boast good?”
Old Man Coyote stopped laughing and pricked up his ears. “What's that?” he demanded. “What's that? Somebody has been filling your ears with something that is very like a lie, Mr. Porcupine.”
“No more than they have yours, Mr. Coyote,” replied Prickly Porky, letting his thousand little spears drop part way back into his coat. “But old Granny Fox told me.”
“Ha! So it was Granny Fox!” interrupted Old Man Coyote. “So it was old Granny Fox! Well, it was that same old mischief-maker who told me that—” He stopped and suddenly looked very hard at the very place where Granny and Reddy were hiding. Then he made, a long jump in that direction. Granny and Reddy didn't wait for him.
They started for home so fast that they looked like nothing but two little red streaks disappearing among the trees.
“Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! Hee, hee, hee! Ha, ho, he, ho!” laughed Old Man Coyote, and all the little meadow and forest people who were looking on laughed with him. Then he turned to Prickly Porky.
Original
“I guess you and I are going to be friends,” said he.
“I guess we are,” replied Prickly Porky, and all his little spears dropped out of sight.
XVIII. THE CUNNING OF OLD GRANNY FOX
You must get up very early,
You must lie awake at night,
You must have your wits well sharpened
And your eyes must be so bright
That there's nothing can escape them,
Nothing that you do not see,
If ahead of Granny Fox you
Ever get, or hope to be.
Happy Jack squirrel made up that verse one day after he had had oh, such a narrow escape from old Granny Fox. It had made Happy Jack very sober for a while, for Granny had so nearly caught him that she actually had pulled some hair from Happy Jack's tail. All the other little forest and meadow people agreed that Happy Jack was quite right.
Most of them had had just such narrow escapes from old Granny Fox.
You see, it is this way: Old Granny Fox is very, very cunning. To be cunning, you know, is to be sly and smart in doing things in such a way as no one else will think of doing them. Just now, the thing that Granny wanted most of anything in the world was to drive Old Man Coyote away from the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. She couldn't do it openly, because he was bigger and stronger than she, so she had thought and thought and thought, trying to find some plan which might get Old Man Coyote into trouble, so that he would go away and stay away.
Then Reddy Fox told her that he had found the place where Old Man Coyote took a sun-nap every day and a splendid plan came to Granny. At least, it seemed like a splendid plan. The more she thought about it, the better it seemed.
But Granny Fox never acts hastily. She is too wise for that. So she studied and studied this plan that she had thought of to make trouble for Old Man Coyote. Finally she was satisfied.
“I believe it will work. I certainly do believe it will work,” said she, and called Reddy Fox over to her.
“I want you to make sure that Old Man Coyote takes his sun-nap in the same place every day,” said she. “You must see him there yourself. It won't do to take the word of any one else for it. I want you to steal up every day and make sure that he is there. Be sure you don't tell any one, not any one at all, what you are doing, and above all things, don't let him get so much as a glimpse of you.”
Reddy promised that he would take the greatest care, and so for a week every day he crept to a snug hiding-place behind a thick clump of grass where he could peep through and see Old Man Coyote taking his sun-nap. Then he would tiptoe softly away and hurry to report to old Granny Fox.
“Good!” she would say. “Go again, to-morrow and make sure that he is. there.”
“But what do you want to know for?” Reddy asked one day, for he was becoming very, very curious.
“Never mind what I want to know for,” replied Granny severely. “Do as I tell you, and you will find out soon enough.”
You see, Granny Fox was too cunning to let even Reddy know of her plan, for if no one but herself knew it, it couldn't possibly leak out, and that, you know, is the only way to keep a secret.