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 pa.s.sed the word along to Jimmy Skunk, Peter Rabbit, and p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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. p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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."
p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 p.r.i.c.kly Porky moved quickly. The thousand little spears hidden in his coat suddenly stood on end and p.r.i.c.kly Porky made a fierce little rush forward.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 n.o.body 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 p.r.i.c.kly Porky.
XIX