in-vest-i-gate is to look into and try to find out all about
something. That is what old Granny Fox started to do after Reddy had
told her about the terrible fright he had had at the hill where
Prickly Porky lives.
Now old Granny Fox is very sly and smart and clever, as you all know.
Compared with her, Reddy Fox is almost stupid. He may be as sly and
smart and clever some day, but he has got a lot to learn before then.
Now if it had been Reddy who was going to investigate, he would have
gone straight over to Prickly Porky's hill and looked around and
asked sly questions, and everybody whom he met would have known that
he was trying to find out something.
But old Granny Fox did nothing of the kind. Oh, my, no! She went about
hunting her dinner just as usual and didn't appear to be paying the
least attention to what was going on about her. With her nose to the
ground she ran this way and ran that way as if hunting for a trail.
She peered into old hollow logs and looked under little brush piles,
and so, in course of time, she came to the hill where Prickly Porky
lives.
Now Reddy had told Granny that the terrible creature that had so
frightened him had rolled down the hill at him, for he was at the
bottom. Granny had heard that the same thing had happened to Peter
Rabbit and to Unc' Billy Possum. So instead of coming to the hill
along the hollow at the bottom, she came to it from the other way.
"If there is anything there, I'll be behind it instead of in front of
it," she thought shrewdly.
As she drew near where Prickly Porky lives, she kept eyes and ears
wide open, all the time pretending to pay attention to nothing but the
hunt for her dinner. No one would ever have guessed that she was
thinking of anything else. She ran this way and that way all over the
hill, but nothing out of the usual did she see or hear excepting one
thing: she did find some queer marks down the hill as if something
might have rolled there. She followed these down to the bottom, but
there they disappeared.
As she was trotting home along the Lone Little Path through the Green
Forest, she met Unc' Billy Possum. No, she didn't exactly meet him,
because he saw her before she saw him, and he promptly climbed a
tree.
"Ah suppose yo'all heard of the terrible creature that scared Reddy
almost out of his wits early this mo'ning," said Unc' Billy.
Granny stopped and looked up. "It doesn't take much to scare the young
and innocent, Mr. Possum," she replied. "I don't believe all I hear.
I've just been hunting all over the hill where Prickly Porky lives,
and I couldn't find so much as a Wood Mouse for dinner. Do you believe
such a foolish tale, Mr. Possum?"
Unc' Billy coughed behind one hand. "Yes, Mrs. Fox, Ah confess Ah done
have to believe it," he replied. "Yo' see, Ah done see that thing mah
own self, and Ah just naturally has to believe mah own eyes."
"Huh! I'd like to see it! Maybe I'd believe it then!" snapped Granny
Fox.
"The only time to see it is just at sun-up," replied Unc' Billy.
"Anybody that comes along through that hollow at the foot of Brer
Porky's hill at sun-up is likely never to forget it. Ah wouldn't do it
again. No, Sah, once is enough fo' your Unc' Billy."
"Huh!" snorted Granny and trotted on.
Unc' Billy watched her out of sight and grinned broadly. "As sho' as
Brer Sun gets up to-morrow mo'ning, Ol' Granny Fox will be there," he
chuckled. "Ah must get word to Brer Porky and Brer Skunk and Brer
Rabbit."
XVI
OLD GRANNY FOX LOSES HER DIGNITY
Unc' Billy Possum had passed the word along to Jimmy Skunk, Peter
Rabbit, and Prickly Porky that old Granny Fox would be on hand at
sun-up to see for herself the strange creature which had frightened
Reddy Fox at the foot of the hill where Prickly Porky lives. How did
Unc' Billy know? Well, he just guessed. He is quite as shrewd and
clever as Granny Fox herself, and when he told her that the only time
the strange creature everybody was talking about was seen was at
sun-up, he guessed by the very way she sniffed and pretended not to
believe it at all that she would visit Prickly Porky's hill the next
morning.
"The ol' lady suspects that there is some trick, and we-uns have got
to be very careful," warned Unc' Billy, as he and his three friends
put their heads together in the early evening. "She is done bound to
come snooping around before sun-up," he continued, "and we-uns must be
out of sight, all excepting Brer Porky. She'll come just the way she
did this afternoon,--from back of the hill instead of along the
holler."
Unc' Billy was quite right. Old Granny Fox felt very sure that some
one was playing tricks, so she didn't wait until jolly, round, red Mr.
Sun was out of bed. She was at the top of the hill where Prickly Porky
lives a full hour before sun-up, and there she sat down to wait. She
couldn't see or hear anything in the least suspicious. You see, Unc'
Billy Possum was quite out of sight, as he sat in the thickest part of
a hemlock-tree, and Peter Rabbit was sitting perfectly still in a
hollow log, and Jimmy Skunk wasn't showing so much as the tip of his
nose, as he lay just inside the doorway of an old house under the
roots of a big stump. Only Prickly Porky was to be seen, and he seemed
to be asleep in his favorite tree. Everything seemed to be just as old
Granny Fox had seen it a hundred times before.
At last the Jolly Little Sunbeams began to dance through the Green
Forest, chasing out the Black Shadows. Redeye the Vireo awoke and at
once began to sing, as is his way, not even waiting to get a mouthful
of breakfast. Prickly Porky yawned and grunted. Then he climbed down
from the tree he had been sitting in, walked slowly over to another,
started to climb it, changed his mind, and began to poke around in the
dead leaves. Old Granny Fox arose and slowly stretched. She glanced at
Prickly Porky contemptuously. She had seen him act in this stupid,
uncertain way dozens of times before. Then slowly, watching out
sharply on both sides of her, without appearing to do so, she walked
down the hill to the hollow at the foot.
Now old Granny Fox can be very dignified when she wants to be, and she
was now. She didn't hurry the least little bit. She carried her big,
plumey tail just so. And she didn't once look behind her, for she felt
sure that there was nothing out of the way there, and to have done so
would have been quite undignified. She had reached the bottom of the
hill and was walking along the hollow, smiling to herself to think how
easily some people are frightened, when her sharp ears caught a sound
on the hill behind her. She turned like a flash and then--well, for a
minute old Granny Fox was too surprised to do anything but stare.
There, rolling down the hill straight towards her, was the very thing
Reddy had told her about.
At first Granny decided to stay right where she was and find out what
this thing was, but the nearer it got, the stranger and more terrible
it seemed. It was just a great ball all covered with dried leaves, and
yet somehow Granny felt sure that it was alive, although she could see
no head or tail or legs. The nearer it got, the stranger and more
terrible it seemed. Then Granny forgot her dignity. Yes, Sir, she
forgot her dignity. In fact, she quite lost it altogether. Granny Fox
ran just as Reddy had run!
XVII
GRANNY FOX CATCHES PETER RABBIT
Now listen to this little tale
That deals somewhat with folly,
And shows how sometimes one may be
A little bit too jolly.
No sooner was old Granny Fox out of sight, running as if she thought
that every jump might be her last, than Jimmy Skunk came out from the
hole under a big stump where he had been hiding, Peter Rabbit came out
of the hollow log from which he had been peeping, and Unc' Billy
Possum dropped down from the hemlock-tree in which he had so carefully
kept out of sight, and all three began to dance around Prickly Porky,
laughing as if they were trying to split their sides.
"Ho, ho, ho!" shouted Jimmy Skunk. "I wonder what Reddy Fox would have
said if he could have seen old Granny go down that hollow!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Peter Rabbit. "Did you see how her eyes popped
out?"
"Hee, hee, hee!" squeaked Unc' Billy Possum in his funny cracked
voice. "Ah reckons she am bound to have sore feet if she keeps on
running the way she started."
Prickly Porky didn't say a word. He just smiled in a quiet sort of way
as he slowly climbed up to the top of the hill.
Now old Granny Fox had been badly frightened. Who wouldn't have been
at seeing a strange creature without head, tail, or legs rolling down
hill straight towards them? But Granny was too old and wise to run
very far without cause. She was hardly out of sight of the four little
scamps who had been watching her when she stopped to see if that
strange creature were following her. It didn't take her long to decide
that it wasn't. Then she did some quick thinking.
"I said beforehand that there was some trick, and now I'm sure of it,"
she muttered. "I have an idea that that good-for-nothing old Billy
Possum knows something about it, and I'm just going back to find out."
She wasted no time thinking about it, but began to steal back the way
she had come. Now, no one is lighter of foot than old Granny Fox, and
no one knows better how to keep out of sight. From tree to tree she
crawled, sometimes flat on her stomach, until at last she reached the
foot of the hill where she had just had such a fright. There was
nothing to be seen there, but up at the top of the hill she saw
something that made a fierce, angry gleam come into her yellow eyes.
Then she smiled grimly. "The last laugh always is the best laugh, and
this time I guess it is going to be mine," she said to herself. Very
slowly and carefully, so as not to so much as rustle a leaf, she began
to crawl around so as to come up on the back side of the hill.
Now what old Granny Fox had seen was Peter Rabbit and Jimmy Skunk and
Unc' Billy Possum rolling over and over in the dried leaves, turning
somersaults, and shouting and laughing, while Prickly Porky sat
looking on and smiling. Granny knew well enough what was tickling them
so, and she knew too that they didn't dream but that she was still
running away in fright. At last they were so tired with their good
time that they just had to stop for a rest.
"Oh, dear, I'm all out of breath," panted Peter, as he threw himself
flat on the ground. "That was the funniest thing I ever saw. I wonder
who we--"
Peter didn't finish. No, Sir, Peter didn't finish. Instead, he gave a
frightened shriek as something red flashed out from under a
low-growing hemlock-tree close behind him, and two black paws pinned
him down, and sharp teeth caught him by the back of the neck. Old
Granny Fox had caught Peter Rabbit at last!
XVIII
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
The friendship which is truest, best,
Is that which meets the trouble test.
No one really knows who his best friends are until he gets in trouble.
When everything is lovely and there is no sign of trouble anywhere,
one may have ever and ever so many friends. At least, it may seem so.
But let trouble come, and all too often these seeming friends
disappear as if by magic, until only a few, sometimes a very few, are
left. These are the real friends, the true friends, and they are worth
more than all the others put together. Remember that if you are a true
friend to any one, you will stand by him and help him, no matter what
happens. Sometimes it is almost worth while getting into trouble just
to find out who your real friends are.
Peter Rabbit found out who some of his truest friends are when,
because of his own carelessness, old Granny Fox caught him. Peter has
been in many tight places and had many terrible frights in his life,
but never did he feel quite so helpless and hopeless as when he felt
the black paws of old Granny Fox pinning him down and Granny's sharp
teeth in the loose skin on the back of his neck. All he could do was
to kick with all his might, and kicking was quite useless, for Granny
took great care to keep out of the way of those stout hind legs of
his.
Many, many times Granny Fox had tried to catch Peter, and always
before Peter had been too smart for her, and had just made fun of her
and laughed at her. Now it was her turn to laugh, all because he had
been careless and foolish. You see, Peter had been so sure that Granny
had had such a fright when she ran away from the strange creature that
rolled down Prickly Porky's hill at her that she wouldn't think of
coming back, and so he had just given himself up to enjoying Granny's
fright. At Peter's scream of fright, Unc' Billy Possum scampered for
the nearest tree, and Jimmy Skunk dodged behind a big stump. You see,
it was so sudden that they really didn't know what had happened. But
Prickly Porky, whom some people call stupid, made no move to run away.
He happened to be looking at Peter when Granny caught him, and so he
knew just what it meant. A spark of anger flashed in his usually dull
eyes and for once in his life Prickly Porky moved quickly. The
thousand little spears hidden in his coat suddenly stood on end and
Prickly Porky made a fierce little rush forward.
[Illustration: "Drop him!" he grunted. _Page 89._]
"Drop him!" he grunted.
Granny Fox just snarled and backed away, dragging Peter with her and
keeping him between Prickly Porky and herself.
By this time Jimmy Skunk had recovered himself. You know he is not
afraid of anybody or anything. He sprang out from behind the stump,
looking a wee bit shame-faced, and started for old Granny Fox. "You
let Peter Rabbit go!" he commanded in a very threatening way. Now the
reason Jimmy Skunk is afraid of nobody is because he carries with him
a little bag of very strong perfume which makes everybody sick but
himself. Granny Fox knows all about this. For just a minute she
hesitated. Then she thought that if Jimmy used it, it would be as bad
for Peter as for her, and she didn't believe Jimmy would use it. So
she kept on backing away, dragging Peter with her. Then Unc' Billy
Possum took a hand, and his was the bravest deed of all, for he knew
that Granny was more than a match for him in a fight. He slipped down
from the tree where he had sought safety, crept around behind Granny,
and bit her sharply on one heel. Granny let go of Peter to turn and
snap at Unc' Billy. This was Peter's chance. He slipped out from under
Granny's paws and in a flash was behind Prickly Porky.
XIX
JIMMY SKUNK TAKES WORD TO MRS. PETER
When old Granny Fox found Prickly Porky, with his thousand little
spears all pointing at her, standing between her and Peter Rabbit, she
was the angriest old Fox ever seen. She didn't dare touch Prickly
Porky, for she knew well enough what it would mean to get one of those
sharp, barbed little spears in her skin. To think that she actually
had caught Peter Rabbit and then lost him was too provoking! It was
more than her temper, never of the best, could stand. In her anger she
dug up the leaves and earth with her hind feet, and all the time her
tongue fairly flew as she called Prickly Porky, Jimmy Skunk, and Unc'
Billy Possum everything bad she could think of. Her yellow eyes
snapped so that it seemed almost as if sparks of fire flew from them.
It made Peter shiver just to look at her.
Unc' Billy Possum, who, by slipping up behind her and biting one of
her heels, had made her let go of Peter, grinned down at her from a
safe place in a tree. Jimmy Skunk stood grinning at her in the most
provoking manner, and she couldn't do a thing about it, because she
had no desire to have Jimmy use his little bag of perfume. So she
talked herself out and then with many parting threats of what she
would do, she started for home. Unc' Billy noticed that she limped a
little with the foot he had nipped so hard, and he couldn't help
feeling just a little bit sorry for her.
When she had gone, the others turned to Peter Rabbit to see how badly
he had been hurt. They looked him all over and found that he wasn't
much the worse for his rough experience. He was rather stiff and lame,
and the back of his neck was very sore where Granny Fox had seized
him, but he would be quite himself in a day or two.
"I must get home now," said he in a rather faint voice. "Mrs. Peter
will be sure that something has happened to me and will be worried
almost to death."
"No, you don't!" declared Jimmy Skunk. "You are going to stay right
here where we can take care of you. It wouldn't be safe for you to try
to go to the Old Briar-patch now, because if you should meet Old Man
Coyote or Reddy Fox or Whitetail the Marshhawk, you would not be able
to run fast enough to get away. I will go down and tell Mrs. Peter,
and you will make yourself comfortable in the old house behind that
stump where I was hiding."
Peter tried to insist on going home, but the others wouldn't hear of
it, and Jimmy Skunk settled the matter by starting for the dear Old
Briar-patch. He found little Mrs. Peter anxiously looking towards the
Green Forest for some sign of Peter.
"Oh!" she cried, "you have come to bring me bad news. Do tell me
quickly what has happened to Peter!"
"Nothing much has happened to Peter," replied Jimmy promptly. Then in
the drollest way he told all about the fright of Granny Fox when she
first saw the terrible creature rolling down the hill and all that
happened after, but he took great care to make light of Peter's
escape, and explained that he was just going to rest up there on
Prickly Porky's hill for that day and would be home the next night.
But little Mrs. Peter wasn't wholly satisfied.
"I've begged him and begged him to keep away from the Green Forest,"
said she, "but now if he is hurt so that he can't come home, he needs
me, and I'm going straight up there myself!"
Nothing that Jimmy could say had the least effect, and so at last he
agreed to take her to Peter. And so, hopping behind Jimmy Skunk, timid
little Mrs. Peter Rabbit actually went into the Green Forest of which
she was so much afraid, which shows how brave love can be sometimes.
XX
A PLOT TO FRIGHTEN OLD MAN COYOTE
Mischief leads to mischief, for it is almost sure
To never, never be content without a little more.
Now you would think that after Peter Rabbit's very, very, narrow
escape from the clutches of Old Granny Fox that Jimmy Skunk, Unc'
Billy Possum, Peter Rabbit, and Prickly Porky would have been
satisfied with the pranks they already had played. No, Sir, they were
not! You see, when danger is over, it is quickly forgotten. No sooner
had Peter been made comfortable in the old house behind the big stump
on the hill where Prickly Porky lives than the four scamps began to
wonder who else they could scare with the terrible creature without
head, legs, or tail which had so frightened Reddy and Old Granny Fox.
"There is Old Man Coyote; he is forever frightening those smaller and
weaker than himself. I'd just love to see him run," said Peter Rabbit.
"The very one!" cried Jimmy Skunk. "I wonder if he would be afraid.
You know he is even smarter than Granny Fox, and though she was
frightened at first, she soon got over it. How do you suppose we can
get him over here?"
"We-uns will take Brer Jay into our secret. Brer Jay will tell Brer
Coyote that Brer Rabbit is up here on Brer Porky's hill, hurt so that
he can't get home," said Unc' Billy Possum. "That's all Brer Jay need
to say. Brer Coyote is gwine to come up here hot foot with his tongue
hanging out fo' that dinner he's sho' is waiting fo' him here."
"You won't do anything of the kind!" spoke up little Mrs. Peter, who,
you know, had bravely left the dear Old Briar-patch and come up here
in the Green Forest to take care of Peter. "Peter has had trouble
enough already, and I'm not going to let him have any more, so there!"
"Peter isn't going to get into any trouble," spoke up Jimmy Skunk.
"Peter and you are going to be just as safe as if you were over in the
Old Briar-patch, for you will be in that old house where nothing can
harm you. Now, please, Mrs. Peter, don't be foolish. You don't like
Old Man Coyote, do you? You'd like to see him get a great scare to
make up for the scares he has given Peter and you, wouldn't you?"
Little Mrs. Peter was forced to admit that she would, and after a
little more teasing she finally agreed to let them try their plan for
giving Old Man Coyote a scare. Sammy Jay happened along just as Jimmy
Skunk was starting out to look for him, and when he was told what was
wanted of him, he agreed to do his part. You know Sammy is always
ready for any mischief. Just as he started to look for Old Man Coyote,
Unc' Billy Possum made another suggestion.
"We-uns have had a lot of fun with Reddy and Granny Fox," said he,
"and now it seems to me that it is no more than fair to invite them
over to see Old Man Coyote and what he will do when he first sees the
terrible creature that has frightened them so. Granny knows now that
there is nothing to be afraid of, and perhaps she will forget her
anger if she has a chance to see Old Man Coyote run away. Yo' know she
isn't wasting any love on him. What do yo' alls say?"
Peter and Mrs. Peter said "No!" right away, but Jimmy Skunk and
Prickly Porky thought it a good idea, and of course Sammy Jay was
willing. After a little, when it was once more pointed out to them how
they would be perfectly safe in the old house behind the big stump,
Peter and Mrs. Peter agreed, and Sammy started off on his errand.
XXI
SAMMY JAY DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE
Sammy Jay has been the bearer of so many messages that no one knows
better than he how to deliver one. He knows when to be polite, and no
one can be more polite than he. First he went over to the home of
Reddy and Granny Fox and invited them to come over to the hill where
Prickly Porky lives and see the terrible creature which had frightened
them so give Old Man Coyote a scare. Both Reddy and Granny promptly
said they would do nothing of the kind, that probably Sammy was
engaged in some kind of mischief, and that anyway they knew that there
was no such creature without head, legs, or tail, and though they had
been fooled once, they didn't propose to be fooled again.
"All right," replied Sammy, quite as if it made no difference to him.
"You admit that smart as you are you were fooled, and we thought you
might like to see the same thing happen to Old Man Coyote."
With this he flew on his way to the Green Meadows to look for Old Man
Coyote, and as he flew he chuckled to himself. "They'll be there," he
muttered. "I know them well enough to know that nothing would keep
them away when there is a chance to see some one else frightened,
especially Old Man Coyote. They'll try to keep out of sight, but
they'll be there."
Sammy found Old Man Coyote taking a sun-bath. "Good morning, Mr.
Coyote. I hope you are feeling well," said Sammy in his politest
manner.
"Fairly, fairly, thank you," replied Old Man Coyote, all the time
watching Sammy sharply out of the corners of his shrewd eyes. "What's
the news in the Green Forest?"
"There isn't any, that is, none to amount to anything," declared
Sammy. "I never did see such a dull summer. Is there any news down
here on the Green Meadows? I hear Danny Meadow Mouse has found his
lost baby."
"So I hear," replied Old Man Coyote. "I tried to find it for him. You
know I believe in being neighborly."
Sammy grinned, for as he said this, Old Man Coyote had winked one eye
ever so little, and Sammy knew very well that if he had found that
lost baby, Danny Meadow Mouse would never have seen him again. "By the
way," said Sammy in the most matter-of-fact tone, "as I was coming
through the Green Forest, I saw Peter Rabbit over on the hill where
Prickly Porky lives, and Peter seems to have been in some kind of
trouble. He was so lame that he said he didn't dare try to go home to
the Old Briar-patch for fear that he might meet some one looking for a
Rabbit dinner, and he knew that, feeling as he did, he wouldn't be
able to save himself. Peter is going to come to a bad end some day if
he doesn't watch out."
"That depends on what you call a bad end," replied Old Man Coyote with
a sly grin. "It might be bad for Peter and at the same time be very
good for some one else."
Sammy laughed right out. "That's one way of looking at it," said he.
"Well, I should hate to have anything happen to Peter, because I have
lots of fun quarreling with him and should miss him dreadfully. I
think I'll go up to the Old Orchard and see what is going on there."
Off flew Sammy in the direction of the Old Orchard, and once more he
chuckled as he flew. He had seen Old Man Coyote's ears prick up ever
so little when he had mentioned that Peter was over in the Green
Forest so lame that he didn't dare go home. "Old Man Coyote will start
for the Green Forest as soon as I am out of sight," thought Sammy. And
that is just what Old Man Coyote did.
XXII