ALL IS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
When things go wrong, just patient be
Until the end you plainly see.
For often things that seem all bad
Will end by making all hands glad.
_Bowser the Hound._
Reddy Fox, trotting homeward, had nothing but bitterness in his heart,
and nothing at all in his stomach. He was tired and hungry and bitterly
disappointed. He was in a country with which he was not familiar, and so
he did not know where to hunt, and he felt that he just must get
something to eat. Do what he would, he couldn't help thinking about
that fat hen he had hidden and which had so mysteriously disappeared.
The more he thought of it, the worse he felt. It was bad enough to be
hungry and have no idea where the next meal was coming from, but it was
many times worse to have had that meal and then lose it. To Reddy,
everything was all wrong.
Now on his way home Ready had to pass several farms. Hunger made him
bold, and at each farm he stole softly as near as possible to the
farmyard, hoping that he might find more fat hens unguarded. Now it
happened that that afternoon a farmer at one of these farms was
preparing some chickens to be taken to market early the next morning. He
was picking these chickens in a shed attached to the barn. He had
several all picked when he was called to the house on an errand.
It happened that just after he had disappeared Reddy Fox came stealing
around from behind the barn, and at once he smelled those chickens. Just
imagine how Reddy felt when he peeped in that shed and saw those fine
chickens just waiting for him. Two minutes later Reddy was racing back
to the woods with one of them. This time there was no dog behind him.
And in a little hollow Reddy ate the finest dinner he ever had had. You
see there were no feathers to bother him on that chicken, for it had
been picked. When the last bit had disappeared, Reddy once more started
for home, and this time he was happy, for his stomach was full.
Long before Reddy got back to the Old Pasture Farmer Brown's boy and
Bowser the Hound had reached home. Such a fuss as everybody did make
over Bowser. It seemed as if each one at Farmer Brown's was trying to
spoil Bowser. As for Bowser himself, he was the happiest dog in all the
Great World.
Blacky the Crow got back to the Green Forest near Farmer Brown's just
before jolly, round Mr. Sun went to bed. Blacky had found plenty to eat
and he had seen no more of fierce Mr. Goshawk. As Blacky settled himself
on his roost he heard from the direction of Farmer Brown's house a great
voice. It was the voice of Bowser the Hound trying to express his joy in
being home. Blacky chuckled contentedly. He, too, was happy, for it
always makes one happy to have one's plans succeed.
"All's well that end's well," he chuckled, and closed his eyes sleepily.
Blacky never could have fooled old Granny Fox as he did Reddy. She is
far too smart to be fooled even by so clever a scamp as Blacky. She is
so smart that she deserves a book all her own, and so the next volume in
this series will be Old Granny Fox.
THE END