"Ah! What was that?" Reddy"s sharp ears had caught a sound up near the top of the hill. He stopped short and looked up. For just a little wee minute Reddy couldn"t believe that his eyes saw right. Coming down the hill straight towards him was the strangest thing he ever had seen. He couldn"t see any legs. He couldn"t see any head. He couldn"t see any tail. It was round like a ball, but it was the strangest looking ball that ever was. It was covered with old leaves. Reddy wouldn"t have believed that it was alive but for the noises it was making. For just a wee minute he stared, and then, what do you think he did? Why, he gave a frightened yelp, put his tail between his legs, and ran just as fast as he could make his legs go. Yes, Sir, that"s just what Reddy Fox did.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Reddy wouldn"t have believed that it was alive.
_Page 69._]
XIII
REDDY FOX IS VERY MISERABLE
When Reddy Fox put his tail between his legs and started away from that terrible creature coming down the hill where p.r.i.c.kly Porky lives, he thought of nothing but of getting as far away as he could in the shortest time that he could, and so, with a little frightened yelp with every jump, he ran as he seldom had run before. He forgot all about Unc" Billy Possum watching from the safety of a big pine-tree.
He didn"t see Jimmy Skunk poking his head out from behind an old stump and laughing fit to kill himself. When he reached the edge of the Green Forest, he didn"t even see Peter Rabbit jump out of his path and dodge into a hollow log.
When Reddy was safely past, Peter came out. He sat up very straight, with his ears pointing right up to the sky and his eyes wide open with surprise as he stared after Reddy. "Why! Why, my gracious, I do believe Reddy has had a fright!" exclaimed Peter. Then, being Peter, he right away began to wonder what could have frightened Reddy so, and in a minute he thought of the strange creature which had frightened him a few days before. "I do believe that was it!" he cried. "I do believe it was. Reddy is coming from the direction of p.r.i.c.kly Porky"s, and that was where I got my fright. I--I--"
Peter hesitated. The truth is he was wondering if he dared go up there and see if that strange creature without head, tail, or legs really was around again. He knew it would be a foolish thing to do, for he might walk right into danger. He knew that little Mrs. Peter was waiting for him over in the dear Old Briar-patch and that she would worry, for he ought to be there this very blessed minute. But he was very curious to know what had frightened Reddy so, and his curiosity, which has led him into so many sc.r.a.pes, grew greater with every pa.s.sing minute.
"It won"t do any harm to go part way up there," thought Peter.
"Perhaps I will find out something without going way up there."
So, instead of starting for home as he should have done, he turned back through the Green Forest and, stopping every few hops to look and listen, made his way clear to the foot of the hill where p.r.i.c.kly Porky lives. There he hid under a little hemlock-tree and looked in every direction for the strange creature which had frightened him so the last time he was there. But n.o.body was to be seen but p.r.i.c.kly Porky, Jimmy Skunk, and Unc" Billy Possum rolling around in the leaves at the top of the hill and laughing fit to kill themselves.
"There"s no danger here; that is sure," thought Peter shrewdly, "and I believe those fellows have been up to some trick."
With that he boldly hopped up the hill and joined them. "What"s the joke?" he demanded.
"Did you meet Reddy Fox?" asked Jimmy Skunk, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.
"Did I meet him? Why, he almost ran into me and didn"t see me at all.
I guess he"s running yet. Now, what"s the joke?" Peter demanded.
When the others could stop laughing long enough, they gathered around Peter and told him something that sent Peter off into such a fit of laughter that it made his sides ache, "That"s a good one on Reddy, and it was just as good a one on me," he declared. "Now who else can we scare?"
All of which shows that there was something very like mischief being planned on the hill where p.r.i.c.kly Porky the Porcupine lives.
XIV
REDDY FOX TRIES TO KEEP OUT OF SIGHT
Never in all his life was Reddy Fox more uncomfortable in his mind. He knew that by this time everybody in the Green Forest, on the Green Meadows, around the Smiling Pool, and along the Laughing Brook, knew how he had put his tail between his legs and run with all his might at the first glimpse of the strange creature which had rolled down the hill of p.r.i.c.kly Porky. And he was right; everybody _did_ know it, and everybody _was_ laughing about it. Unc" Billy Possum, Jimmy Skunk, p.r.i.c.kly Porky, and Peter Rabbit had seen him run, and you may be sure they told everybody they met about it, and news like that travels very fast.
It wouldn"t have been so bad if he hadn"t boasted beforehand that if he met the strange creature he would wait for it and find out what it was. As it was, he had run just as Peter Rabbit had run when he saw it, and he had been just as much frightened as Peter had. Now, as he sneaked along trying to find something to eat, for he was hungry, he did his very best to keep out of sight. Usually he is very proud of his handsome red coat, but now he wished that he could get rid of it.
It is very hard to keep out of sight when you have bright colored clothes. Presently Sammy Jay"s sharp eyes spied him as he tried to crawl up on the young family of Mrs. Grouse. At once Sammy flew over there screaming at the top of his lungs:
"Reddy Fox is very brave when there"s no danger near; But where there is, alas, alack! he runs away in fear."
Reddy looked up at Sammy and snarled. It was of no use at all now to try to surprise and catch any of the family of Mrs. Grouse, so he turned around and hurried away, trying to escape from Sammy"s sharp eyes. He had gone only a little way when a sharp voice called: "Coward! Coward! Coward!" It was Chatterer the Red Squirrel.
No sooner had he got out out of Chatterer"s sight than he heard another voice. It was saying over and over:
"Dee, dee, dee! Oh, me, me!
Some folks can talk so very brave And then such cowards be."
It was Tommy t.i.t the Chickadee. Reddy couldn"t think of a thing to say in reply, and so he hurried on, trying to find a place where he would be left in peace. But nowhere that he could go was he free from those taunting voices. Not even when he had crawled into his house was he free from them, for buzzing around his doorway was b.u.mble Bee and b.u.mble was humming:
"b.u.mble, grumble, rumble, hum!
Reddy surely can run some."
Late that afternoon old Granny Fox called him out, and it was clear to see that Granny was very much put out about something. "What is this I hear everywhere I go about you being a coward?" she demanded sharply, as soon as he put his head out of the doorway.
Reddy hung his head, and in a very shamefaced way he told her about the terrible fright he had had and all about the strange creature without legs, head, or tail that had rolled down the hill where p.r.i.c.kly Porky lives.
"Serves you right for boasting!" snapped Granny. "How many times have I told you that no good comes of boasting? Probably somebody has played a trick on you. I"ve lived a good many years, and I never before heard of such a creature. If there were one, I"d have seen it before now. You go back into the house and stay there. You are a disgrace to the Fox family. I am going to have a look about and find out what is going on. If this is some trick, they"ll find that old Granny Fox isn"t so easily fooled."
XV
OLD GRANNY FOX INVESTIGATES
In-vest-i-gate is a great big word, but its meaning is very simple. To 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly Porky lives, and I couldn"t find so much as a Wood Mouse for dinner. Do you believe such a foolish tale, Mr. Possum?"