Granny Fox

“ 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. ”

“ 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.
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. ”

“ Hadn’t he proved himself smarter than old Granny Fox? That is something to make any one happy. Some folks may fool Granny Fox once; some may fool her twice; but there are very few who can keep right on fooling her until she gives up in disgust. That is just what Danny Meadow Mouse had done, and he felt very smart and of course he felt very happy. ”

“ 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.
CHAPTER XIII
Granny Fox Admits Growing Old Who will not admit he is older each day fools no one but himself.
—Old Granny Fox.
Old Granny Fox is a spry old lady for her age. If you don’t believe it just try to catch her. ”

“ He just wandered about restlessly, waiting for daybreak and hoping that something would turn up to prevent him from going to Prickly Porky's hill. He didn't dare to tell old Granny Fox about it. He knew just what she would say. It seemed as if he could hear her sharp voice and the very words:
"Serves you right for boasting about something you don't know anything about. How many times have I told you that no good comes of boasting? A wise Fox never goes near strange things until he has found out all about them. That is the only way to keep out of trouble and live to a ripe old age. ”

“ Is won by working out a plan.
—Old Granny Fox.
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 might be lucky and get a hen that way, but then again they might be unlucky and get in a peck of trouble. ”

“ Reddy Fox is headstrong and, like most headstrong people, is given to thinking that his way is the best way just because it is his 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. ”

“ So, bright and early the next morning, old Granny Fox and Reddy Fox went down on the meadows where Danny Meadow Mouse lives. Danny had felt in his bones that Reddy would come back, so he was watching, and he saw them as soon as they came out of the Green Forest. When he saw old Granny Fox, Danny’s heart beat a little faster than before, for he knew that Granny [17] Fox is very smart and very wise and has learned most of the tricks of all the other little meadow and forest people. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Reddy crouched lower than ever, and instead of watching Granny he watched Quacker the Duck.
CHAPTER IV
Quacker The Duck Grows Curious The most curious thing in the world is curiosity.
—Old Granny Fox.
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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.”
With this, Old Man Coyote grinned and then curled himself up for a short nap, for he was tired.
CHAPTER XX
A Twice Stolen Dinner No one ever is so smart that some one else may not prove to be smarter still.
—Old Granny Fox.
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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Pretty soon he’ll get too [25] tired to be so spry, and when he is—” Granny didn’t finish, but licked her chops and smacked her lips. Reddy Fox grinned, then licked his chops and smacked his lips. Then once more they took turns diving into the snow.
And down underneath in the little tunnels he had made, Danny Meadow Mouse was running for his life. He was getting tired, just as old Granny Fox had said he would. He was almost out of breath. He was sore and one leg smarted, for in one of her jumps old Granny Fox had so nearly caught him that her claws had torn his pants and scratched him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.
“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.”
“Pooh!” exclaimed Reddy. ”

“ He come to he senses. He know mighty well an’ good dat a pusson de size o’ Mr. Fox ain’t got no reason to ax ef he granny tough, less’n he want to git he teef in her. By dat he recomember what his mammy done told him. He look all ’bout. He ain’t see no he’p nowhars. Den hit come in Sonny Bunny Rabbit’ mind dat de boys on de farm done sot a trap down by de pastur’ fence. Ef he kin git Mr. Fox to jump inter dat trap, his life done save.
“‘Oh, my granny mighty big,’ he say; ‘but dat ’s ’ca’se she so fat she cain’t run. She hain’t so mighty old, but she sleep all de time ”

“ Tebrick stopped short in consternation and looked about for his vixen, but she had run forward without any shyness to greet her. Then he recognised the intruder, it was his wife's old nurse.
"What are you doing here, Mrs. Cork?" he asked her.
Mrs. Cork answered him in these words:
"Poor thing. Poor Miss Silvia! It is a shame to let her run about like a dog. It is a shame, and your own wife too. But whatever she looks like, you should trust her the same as ever. If you do she'll do her best to be a good wife to you, if you don't I shouldn't wonder if she did turn into a proper fox. ”

“ The half-forgotten horror grew large; I remembered that she had said that Fox, like herself, was one of a race apart, that was to supersede us—Dimensionists. And, when I looked at him now, it was plain to me that he was of a race different to my own, just as he had always seemed different from any other man. He had had a different tone in triumph; he was different now, in his despair. He went on: "I might have managed Gurnard alone, but I never thought of her coming. You see one does one's best, but, somehow, here one grows rather blind. ”

“ Fox knew that he had been found out, and he sneaked away with his tail between his legs. The first chance he got, he went to Old Mother Nature and begged her to give him back his old coat. She promised that she would when his heart changed, and he changed his ways. But his heart never did change, and his children and his children's children were just like him. They have always been the smartest and the sliest and the most feared and disliked of all the little people on the meadows or in the forest. And now you know why Reddy Fox wears a red coat," concluded Grandfather Frog. ”

“ The cat answered,
"Bread so white, and milk so sweet,
Will it please you sit and eat?"
"Thank you very much, Miss Cat," answered the wolf; "but is Mrs. Fox at home?"
Then the cat said,
"She is sitting upstairs in her grief,
And her eyes with her weeping are sore,
From her sorrow she gets no relief,
Now poor old Mr. Fox is no more!"
The wolf answered,
"Won't she take another spouse,
To protect her and her house?"
Up went the cat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat.
She knocks at the door, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat!
"Mrs. Fox, are you there?" ”

“ There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test. He stretched himself out under the bench, did not move a limb, and behaved as if he were stone dead. Mrs Fox went up to her room, shut herself in, and her maid, Miss Cat, sat by the fire, and did the cooking. When it became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves. ”

“ So they passed a good while, till at last the tears welled up in the poor fox's eyes and she began weeping (but quite in silence) , and she trembled too as if she were in a fever. At this he could not contain his own tears, but sat down on the ground and sobbed for a great while, but between his sobs kissing her quite as if she had been a woman, and not caring in his grief that he was kissing a fox on the muzzle. ”