Thornton W. Burgess

“ But all the time old Granny Fox took the greatest care not to get too near to Jimmy Skunk.
“Where's my chicken?” snarled old Granny Fox, and she looked very, very fierce.
Jimmy Skunk looked up as if very much surprised. “Hello, Granny Fox!” he exclaimed. “Have you lost a chicken?”
“You've stolen it! You're a thief, Jimmy Skunk!” snapped Granny Fox.
“Words can never make black white; Before you speak be sure you're right,”
said Jimmy Skunk. “I'm not a thief.” ”

“ You folks who go to bed with the sun don't hear the news until it's old. What is it?”
“It's about Reddy Fox,” began Johnny Chuck, but Peter Rabbit interrupted him.
“Shucks, Johnny Chuck! You are slow! Why, it was all over Green Meadows last night how Reddy Fox had been shot by Farmer Brown's boy!” jeered Peter Rabbit. “That's no news. And here you've waked me up to tell me something I knew before you went to bed last night! Serves Reddy Fox right. Hope he'll be lame for a week,” added Peter Rabbit. ”

“ She had thought to walk home along shady paths and cool off, but now she must run faster than ever, for she must know if Farmer Brown's boy had found her house.
“It's lucky I told Reddy Fox to go inside and not come out till I returned; it's very lucky I did that,” thought Granny Fox as she ran. Presently she heard voices singing. They seemed to be in the treetops over her head.
“Happily we dance and play All the livelong sunny day! Happily we run and race And win or lose with smiling face!” ”

“ Supposing yo' should meet up with Farmer Brown's boy with that gun in his hands and supposing he had grown tired of watching fo' Reddy Fox. That gun might go off, Jimmy Skunk; it might go off when it was pointing right straight at yo'!” said Unc' Billy Possum.
Jimmy Skunk looked serious. “That's so, Unc' Billy, that's so!” he said. “Boys with guns do get dreadfully careless, dreadfully careless. They don't seem to think anything about the feelings of those likely to get hurt when the gun goes off. ”

“ The Green Meadows and the Green Forest would be better off without him, a lot better off! Nobody likes him. He's a dreadful bully and is all the time trying to catch or scare to death those who are smaller than he. Still, he is so handsome!” Drummer cocked his head on one side and looked over at Reddy Fox.
Reddy was laughing to see how hard Bowser the Hound was working to untangle Reddy's mixed-up trail. ”

“ It's all in the sore places where I was shot,” said Reddy Fox, who was stretched out on the doorstep of their home.
“That's because you haven't got any sense. When you do get some and learn to look where you are going, you won't get shot from behind old tree trunks and you will be able to feel trouble when it is near, without waiting for it to show itself. Now I feel trouble. You go down into the house and stay there!” Granny Fox stopped to test the air with her nose, just as she had been testing it for the last ten minutes. ”

“ He really thought that they had been walking nearly all night when old Granny Fox stopped in front of the worst-looking old fox house Reddy had ever seen.
“Here we are!” said she.
“What! Are we going to live in that thing?” cried Reddy. “It isn't fit for any respectable fox to put his nose into.”
“It is where I was born!” snapped old Granny Fox. “If you want to keep out of harm's way, don't go to putting on airs now.
“Who scorns the simple things of life And tilts his nose at all he sees, Is almost sure to feel the knife Of want cut through his pleasant ease. ”

“ A lot of little meadow people heard Blacky say this, and Reddy knew it. He also knew that if he didn't prove Blacky in the wrong he would be laughed at forever after. Suddenly he remembered the trick that Granny Fox had played on the young hound at the railroad bridge. Why not play the same trick on Bowser and invite Blacky the Crow to see him do it? He would. ”