Johnny Chuck and Reddy Fox lived very near together on the edge of the
Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck was fat and roly-poly. Reddy Fox was slim
and wore a bright red coat. Reddy Fox used to like to frighten Johnny
Chuck by suddenly popping out from behind a tree and making believe that
he was going to eat Johnny Chuck all up.
One bright summer day Johnny Chuck was out looking for a good breakfast
of nice tender clover. He had wandered quite a long way from his snug
little house in the long meadow grass, although his mother had told him
never to go out of sight of the door. But Johnny was like some little
boys I know, and forgot all he had been told.
He walked and walked and walked. Every few minutes Johnny Chuck saw
something farther on that looked like a patch of nice fresh clover.
And every time when he reached it Johnny Chuck found that he had made a
mistake. So Johnny Chuck walked and walked and walked.
Old Mother West Wind, coming across the Green Meadows, saw Johnny Chuck
and asked him where he was going. Johnny Chuck pretended not to hear and
just walked faster.
One of the Merry Little Breezes danced along in front of him.
“Look out, Johnny Chuck, you will get lost,” cried the Merry Little
Breeze then pulled Johnny's whiskers and ran away.
Higher and higher up in the sky climbed round, red Mr. Sun. Every time
Johnny Chuck looked up at him Mr. Sun winked.
“So long as I can see great round, red Mr. Sun and he winks at me I
can't be lost,” thought Johnny Chuck, and trotted on looking for clover.
By and by Johnny Chuck really did find some clover--just the sweetest
clover that grew in the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck ate and ate and ate
and then what do you think he did? Why, he curled right up in the nice
sweet clover and went fast asleep.
Great round, red Mr. Sun kept climbing higher and higher up in the sky,
then by and by he began to go down on the other side, and long shadows
began to creep out across the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck didn't know
anything about them: he was fast asleep.
By and by one of the Merry Little Breezes found Johnny Chuck all curled
up in a funny round ball.
“Wake up Johnny Chuck! Wake up!” shouted the Merry Little Breeze.
Johnny Chuck opened his eyes. Then he sat up and rubbed them. For just a
few, few minutes he couldn't remember where he was at all.
By and by he sat up very straight to look over the grass and see where
he was. But he was so far from home that he didn't see a single thing
that looked at all like the things he was used to. The trees were all
different. The bushes were all different. Everything was different.
Johnny Chuck was lost.
Now, when Johnny sat up, Reddy Fox happened to be looking over the Green
Meadows and he saw Johnny's head where it popped above the grass.
“Aha!” said Reddy Fox, “I'll scare Johnny Chuck so he'll wish he'd never
put his nose out of his house.”
Then Reddy dropped down behind the long grass and crept softly, oh,
ever so softly, through the paths of his own, until he was right behind
Johnny Chuck. Johnny Chuck had been so intent looking for home that he
didn't see anything else.
Reddy Fox stole right up behind Johnny and pulled Johnny's little short
tail hard. How it did frighten Johnny Chuck! He jumped right straight
up in the air and when he came down he was the maddest little woodchuck
that ever lived in the Green Meadows.
Reddy Fox had thought that Johnny would run, and then Reddy meant to run
after him and pull his tail and tease him all the way home. Now, Reddy
Fox got as big a surprise as Johnny had had when Reddy pulled his tail.
Johnny didn't stop to think that Reddy Fox was twice as big as he,
but with his eyes snapping, and chattering as only a little Chuck can
chatter, with every little hair on his little body standing right up
on end, so that he seemed twice as big as he really was, he started for
Reddy Fox.
It surprised Reddy Fox so that he didn't know what to do, and he simply
ran. Johnny Chuck ran after him, nipping Reddy's heels every minute or
two. Peter Rabbit just happened to be down that way. He was sitting up
very straight looking to see what mischief he could get into when he
caught sight of Reddy Fox running as hard as ever he could. “It must
be that Bowser, the hound, is after Reddy Fox,” said Peter Rabbit to
himself. “I must watch out that he doesn't find me.”
Just then he caught sight of Johnny Chuck with every little hair
standing up on end and running after Reddy Fox as fast as his short legs
could go.
“Ho! ho! ho!” shouted Peter Rabbit. “Reddy Fox afraid of Johnny Chuck!
Ho! ho! Ho!”
Then Peter Rabbit scampered away to find Jimmy Skunk and Bobby Coon and
Happy Jack Squirrel to tell them all about how Reddy Fox had run away
from Johnny Chuck, for you see they were all a little afraid of Reddy
Fox.
Straight home ran Reddy Fox as fast as he could go, and going home he
passed the house of Johnny Chuck. Now Johnny couldn't run so fast as
Reddy Fox and he was puffing and blowing as only a fat little woodchuck
can puff and blow when he has to run hard. Moreover, he had lost his ill
temper now and he thought it was the best joke ever to think that he had
actually frightened Reddy Fox. When he came to his own house he stopped
and sat on his hind legs once more. Then he shrilled out after Reddy
Fox: “Reddy Fox is a 'fraid cat, 'fraid-cat! Reddy Fox is a 'fraid-cat!”
And all the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind, who were
playing on the Green Meadows shouted: “Reddy Fox is a 'fraid-cat,
'fraid-cat!”
And this is the way that Reddy Fox was surprised and that Johnny Chuck
found his way home.