XXII. WHY THE CLEVER PLAN OF GRANNY FOX FAILED
|WHEN Old Man Coyote, chuckling to himself, left Peter Rabbit and the
Old Briar-patch, he went straight over to look around the place where
he took his sun-nap every day. His sharp eyes soon saw the place where
Reddy Fox had been lying in the grass to watch him, for of course the
grass was pressed down by the weight of Reddy's body.
“Peter Rabbit told me the truth, sure enough, and I guess I owe him a
good turn,” muttered Old Man Coyote, as he studied and studied to see
why Reddy was watching him every day. You see, he is so sharp and clever
himself that he was sure right away that Reddy had some plan in mind to
bring him to the same place every day.
But he didn't let on that he knew anything about what was going on. Oh,
my, no! The next day he curled up for his sun-nap just as usual, only
this time he took care to lie in such a way that he would be looking
towards Reddy's hiding place. Then he pretended to go to sleep, but if
you had been there and looked into his eyes, you would have found
no sleepy-winks there. No, Sir, you wouldn't have found one single
sleepy-wink! Instead, his eyes were as bright as if there were no such
thing as sleep. He saw Reddy steal out of the Green Forest. Then he
closed his eyes all but just a tiny little crack, through which he could
see Reddy's hiding place, but all the time he looked as if his eyes were
shut tight.
Reddy crept softly as he could, which is very softly indeed, to his
hiding place and lay down to watch. Old Man Coyote pretended to be very
fast asleep, and every once in a while he would make believe snore. But
all the time he was watching Reddy. After a little while Reddy tiptoed
away until he felt sure that it was safe to run. Then he hurried as fast
as he could go to report to old Granny Fox in the Green Forest. Old Man
Coyote chuckled as he watched Reddy disappear.
“I don't know what it all means,” said he, “but if he and old Granny Fox
think that they are going to catch me napping, they are making one of
the biggest mistakes of their lives.”
The next day and the next the same thing happened, but the day after
that Reddy only stopped long enough to make sure that Old Man Coyote was
there just as usual, and then he hurried away to the top of the Crooked
Little Path that comes down the hill. There he barked three times. Old
Man Coyote watched him go and heard him bark.
“That's some kind of a signal,” said he to himself, “and unless I am
greatly mistaken, it means mischief. I think I won't take a nap to-day,
for I want to see what is going on.”
With that, Old Man Coyote made a very long leap off to one side, then
two more, so as to leave no scent to show which way he had gone. Then,
chuckling to himself, he hurried to the Green Forest and hid where he
could watch Reddy Fox. He saw Reddy hide on the edge of the Green Forest
where he could watch Farmer Brown's dooryard, and then he crept up where
he could watch too. Of course he saw old Granny Fox when she led Bowser
the Hound down across the Green Meadows, and he guessed right away what
her plan was. It tickled him so that he had to clap both hands over
his mouth as he watched sly old Granny take Bowser straight over to his
napping-place, and when he saw how surprised she was to find him gone he
sat up and laughed until all the little people on the Green Meadows and
in the Green Forest heard him and wondered what could be tickling Old
Man Coyote so.
XXIII. OLD MAN COYOTE GETS A GOOD DINNER
|WHEN old Granny Fox found that Old Man Coyote was not at his usual
napping-place, she was sure that Reddy Fox must have been very stupid
and thought that he saw him there when he didn't. She hurried to the
Laughing Brook and waded in it for a little way in order to destroy her
scent so that Bowser the Hound would not know in which direction she had
gone. You know water is always the friend of little animals who leave
scent in their footsteps. Bowser came baying up to the edge of the
Laughing Brook, and there he stopped, for his wonderful nose could not
follow Granny in the water and he could not tell whether she had gone up
or down or across the brook.
But Bowser is not one to give up easily. No, indeed! He had learned many
of Granny's tricks, and now he knew well enough what Granny had done. At
least, Bowser thought that he knew.
“She'll wade a little way, and then she will come out of the water, so
all I have to do is to find the place where she has come out, and there
I will find her tracks again,” said he, and with his nose to the ground
he hurried down one bank of the Laughing Brook.
He went as far as he thought Granny could have waded, but there was no
trace of her. Then he crossed the brook, and with his nose still to the
ground, ran back to the starting place along the other bank.
“She didn't go down the brook, so she must have gone up,” said Bowser,
and started up the brook as eagerly as he had gone down. After running
as far as he thought Granny could possibly have waded, Bowser crossed
over and ran back along the other bank to the starting place without
finding any trace of Granny Fox. At last, with a foolish and ashamed
air, Bowser gave it up and started for home, and all the time Granny Fox
was lying in plain sight, watching him. Yes, Sir, she was watching him
and laughing to herself. You see, she knew perfectly well that Bowser
depends more on his nose than on his eyes, and that when he is running
with his nose to the ground, he can see very little about him. So she
had simply waded down the Laughing Brook to a flat rock in the middle of
it, and on this she had stretched herself out and kept perfectly still.
Twice Bowser had gone right past without seeing her. She enjoyed seeing
him fooled so much that for the time being she quite forgot about Old
Man Coyote and the failure of her clever plan to make trouble for him.
But when Bowser the Hound had gone, Granny remembered. She stopped
laughing, and a look of angry disappointment crossed her face as she
trotted towards home. But as she trotted along, her face cleared a
little. “Any way, Reddy and I will have a good dinner on that fat hen I
caught in Farmer Brown's dooryard,” she muttered.
When she reached home, there sat Reddy on the doorstep, but there was no
sign of the fat hen, and Reddy looked very uneasy and frightened.
“Where's that fat hen I caught?” demanded Granny crossly.
“I--I--I'm sorry, Granny, but I haven't got it,” said Reddy.
“Haven't got it!” snapped Granny. “What's the matter with you, Reddy
Fox? Didn't you see me throw it in the grass when I ran past the place
where you were hiding, and didn't you know enough to go and get it?”
“Yes,” replied Reddy, “I saw you throw it in the grass, and I went out
and got it, but on my way home I met some one who took it away from me.”
“Took it away from you!” exclaimed Granny. “Who was it? Tell me this
instant! Who was it?”
“Old Man Coyote,” replied Reddy in a low, frightened voice.
Old Granny Fox simply stared at Reddy. She couldn't find a word to say.
Instead of making trouble for Old Man Coyote, she had furnished him with
a good dinner. He was smarter than she. She decided then and there that
she could not drive Old Man Coyote out of the Green Forest and that she
would either have to leave herself or accept him and make the best of
it.
But that's what Old Man Coyote had thought all along, for he quite liked
his new home and took a good deal of interest in his new neighbors.
One of these whom he found most interesting was Paddy the Beaver. Paddy
really is a very wonderful fellow and I will tell you about him in the
next book.
THE END