“I don't want to move,” whined Reddy Fox. “I'm too sore to walk.”
Old Granny Fox gave him a shove. “You go along and do as I say!” she
snapped. “If you had minded me, we wouldn't have to move. It's all your
own fault. The wonder is that you weren't killed when you poked your
head out right in front of Farmer Brown's boy. Now that he knows where
we live, he will give us no peace. Move along lively now! This is the
best home I have ever had, and now I've got to leave it. Oh dear! Oh
dear!”
Reddy Fox hobbled along up the long hall and out the front door. He was
walking on three legs, and at every step he made a face because, you
know, it hurt so to walk.
The little stars, looking down from the sky, saw Reddy Fox limp out the
door of the house he had lived in so long, and right behind him came old
Granny Fox. Granny sighed and wiped away a tear, as she said good-by
to her old home. Reddy Fox was thinking too much of his own troubles to
notice how badly Granny Fox was feeling. Every few steps he had to sit
down and rest because it hurt him so to walk.
“I don't see the use of moving tonight, anyway. It would be a lot easier
and pleasanter when the sun is shining. This night air makes me so stiff
that I know I never will get over it,” grumbled Reddy Fox.
Old Granny Fox listened to him for a while, and then she lost patience.
Yes, Sir, Granny Fox lost patience. She boxed Reddy Fox first on one ear
and then on the other. Reddy began to snivel.
“Stop that!” said Granny Fox sharply. “Do you want all the neighbors to
know that we have got to move? They'll find it out soon enough. Now come
along without any more fuss. If you don't, I'll just go off and leave
you to shift for yourself. Then how will you get anything to eat?”
Reddy Fox wiped his eyes on his coat sleeve and hobbled along as best he
could. Granny Fox would run a little way ahead to see that the way was
safe and then come back for Reddy. Poor Reddy. He did his best not
to complain, but it was such hard work. And somehow Reddy Fox didn't
believe that it was at all necessary. He had been terribly frightened
when he had disobeyed Granny Fox that afternoon and put his head out the
door, only to look right into the freckled face of Farmer Brown's boy.
He had ducked back out of sight again too quickly for Farmer Brown's boy
to shoot, and now he couldn't see why old Granny Fox wanted to move that
very night.
“She's getting old. She's getting old and timid and fussy,” muttered
Reddy Fox, as he hobbled along behind her.
It seemed to Reddy as if they had walked miles and miles. He really
thought that they had been walking nearly all night when old Granny Fox
stopped in front of the worst-looking old fox house Reddy had ever seen.
“Here we are!” said she.
“What! Are we going to live in that thing?” cried Reddy. “It isn't fit
for any respectable fox to put his nose into.”
“It is where I was born!” snapped old Granny Fox. “If you want to keep
out of harm's way, don't go to putting on airs now.
“Who scorns the simple things of life
And tilts his nose at all he sees,
Is almost sure to feel the knife
Of want cut through his pleasant ease.
“Now don't let me hear another word from you, but get inside at once!”
Reddy Fox didn't quite understand all Granny Fox said, but he knew when
she was to be obeyed, and so he crawled gingerly through the broken-down
doorway.