|REDDY FOX was a sight! There was no doubt about that. When he started
down on to the Green Meadows that morning he limped like an old, old
man. Yes indeed, Reddy was a sorry looking sight. His head was swelled
so that one eye was closed, and he could hardly see out of the other.
Reddy never would have ventured out but that he just had to have some
fresh mud from the Smiling Pool.
Reddy had waited until most of the little meadow people were out of the
way. Then he had tried to hurry so as to get back again as quickly as
possible. But Johnny Chuck's sharp eyes had spied Reddy, and Johnny had
guessed right away what the trouble was. He hurried over to tell Peter
Rabbit. Then the two little scalawags hunted up Jimmy Skunk and Bobby
Coon to tell them, and the four hid near the Lone Little Path to wait
for Reddy's return.
Pretty soon Reddy came limping along. Even Johnny Chuck was surprised
at the way Reddy's face had swelled. It was plastered all over with mud,
and he was a sorry sight indeed.
Bobby Coon appeared very much astonished to see Reddy in such condition,
though of course Johnny Chuck had told him all about how Reddy had
run head first into the home of old Mrs. Hornet and her family the day
before.
Bobby stepped out in the Lone Little Path.
"Why, Reddy Fox, what has happened to you?" he exclaimed.
Reddy didn't see the others hiding in the long grass. He didn't want
Bobby Coon to know that he had been so careless as to run his head into
a hornets' nest, so he told a wrong story. He put on a long face. That
is, it was as long as he could make it, considering that it was so
swelled.
"I've had a most terrible accident, Bobby Coon," said Reddy, sighing
pitifully. "It happened yesterday as I was returning from an errand over
beyond the hill. Just as I was coming through the deepest part of the
wood I heard some one crying. Of course I stopped to find out what the
matter was."
"Of course!" interrupted Bobby Coon. "Certainly! To be sure! Of course!"
Reddy looked at him suspiciously, but went on with his tale. "Right
down in the thickest, blackest place I found one of Unc' Billy Possum's
children being worried to death by Digger the Badger. I couldn't see
that little Possum hurt."
"Of course not!" broke in Bobby Coon.
"So I jumped in and tackled old man Badger, and I had him almost
whipped, when I slipped over the edge of a big rock on the side of the
hill. It took the skin off my face and bruised me something terrible.
But I don't care, so long as I saved that little Possum child,"
concluded Reddy, as he started on.
Johnny Chuck stole up behind him and thrust a sharp brier into the seat
of Reddy's pants. At the same time Johnny made a noise like a whole
family of hornets. Reddy Fox forgot his limp. He never even turned his
head to look behind. Instead, he started off at his best speed, and it
wasn't until he heard a roar of laughter behind him that he realized
that he had been fooled again.