Prickly Porky Takes A Sun Bath
Danger comes when least expected;
’Tis often near when not expected.
—_Old Granny Fox_.
The long hard winter had passed, and Spring had come. Prickly Porky the
Porcupine came down from a tall poplar-tree and slowly stretched
himself. He was tired of eating. He was tired of swinging in the
tree-top.
“I believe I’ll have a sun-bath,” said Prickly Porky, and lazily walked
toward the edge of the Green Forest in search of a place where the sun
lay warm and bright.
Now Prickly Porky’s stomach was very, very full. He was fat and
naturally lazy, so when he came to the doorstep of an old house just on
the edge of the Green Forest he sat down to rest. It was sunny and warm
there, and the longer he sat the less like moving he felt. He looked
about him with his dull eyes and grunted to himself.
“It’s a deserted house. Nobody lives here, and I guess nobody’ll care
if I take a nap right here on the doorstep,” said Prickly Porky to
himself. “And I don’t care if they do,” he added, for Prickly Porky the
Porcupine was afraid of nobody and nothing.
So Prickly Porky made himself as comfortable as possible, yawned once
or twice, tried to wink at jolly, round, red Mr. Sun, who was winking
and smiling down at him and then fell fast asleep right on the doorstep
of the old house.
Now the old house had been deserted. No one had lived in it for a long,
long time, a very long time indeed. But it happened that, the night
before, old Granny Fox and Reddy Fox had had to move out of their nice
home on the edge of the Green Meadows because Farmer Brown’s boy had
found it. Reddy was very stiff and sore, for he had been shot by a
hunter. He was so sore he could hardly walk, and could not go very far.
So old Granny Fox had led him to the old deserted house and put him to
bed in that.
“No one will think of looking for us here, for every one knows that no
one lives here,” said old Granny Fox, as she made Reddy as comfortable
as possible.
As soon as it was daylight, Granny Fox slipped out to watch for Farmer
Brown’s boy, for she felt sure that he would come back to the house
they had left, and sure enough he did. He brought a spade and dug the
house open, and all the time old Granny Fox was watching him from
behind a fence corner and laughing to think that she had been smart
enough to move in the night.
But Reddy Fox didn’t know anything about this. He was so tired that he
slept and slept and slept. It was the middle of the morning when
finally he awoke. He yawned and stretched, and when he stretched he
groaned because he was so stiff and sore. Then he hobbled up toward the
doorway to see if old Granny Fox had left any breakfast outside for
him.
It was dark, very dark. Reddy was puzzled. Could it be that he had
gotten up before daylight—that he hadn’t slept as long as he thought?
Perhaps he had slept the whole day through, and it was night again. My,
how hungry he was!
“I hope Granny has caught a fine, fat chicken for me,” thought Reddy,
and his mouth watered.
Just then he ran bump into something. “Wow!” screamed Reddy Fox, and
clapped both hands to his nose. Something was sticking into it. It was
one of the sharp little spears that Prickly Porky hides in his coat.
Reddy Fox knew then why the old house was so dark. Prickly Porky was
blocking up the doorway.