Green Meadow Stories, Thornton W. Burgess [read people like a book .txt] 📗

very thing once before a great while ago.

So he set himself to work with such patience as he could, and all the time Old Man Coyote watched and wondered what Reddy was doing. He guessed that Reddy was having some trouble, but also he knew from Reddy’s actions that Reddy hoped to get inside that henhouse.

Now Reddy had left the henyard gate ajar. If he had pushed it wide open things might have been different. But he didn’t push it wide open. He left it only halfway open. By and by there happened along a mischievous little Night Breeze. There is nothing that a mischievous little Night Breeze enjoys more than making things move. This mischievous little Night Breeze found that that gate would swing, so it blew against that gate and blew and blew until suddenly, with a sharp little click, the gate closed and the spring latch snapped into place. Reddy Fox was a prisoner!

XIV The Difference Between Being Inside and Outside

You’ll find ’twill often come about
That he who’s in fain would be out.

Bowser the Hound

It certainly is queer what a difference there is between being inside and outside. Sometimes happiness is inside and sometimes it is outside. Sometimes the one who is inside wishes with all his might that he were outside, and sometimes the one who is outside would give anything in the world to be inside.

Just take the case of Reddy Fox. He had stolen inside of Farmer Brown’s henyard, leaving the gate halfway open. He had set himself to work to open the little sliding door through which in the daytime the hens passed in and out of the henhouse. As he worked he had been filled with great contentment and joy. He knew that Bowser the Hound had disappeared. He felt sure that there was nothing to fear, and he fully expected to dine that night on chicken. Then along came a mischievous little Night Breeze and swung that gate shut.

At the click of the latch Reddy turned his head, and in a flash he saw what had happened. All in an instant everything had changed for Reddy Fox. Fear and despair took the place of contentment and happy anticipations. He was a prisoner inside that henyard.

Frantically Reddy rushed over to the gate. There wasn’t even a crack through which he could thrust his sharp little nose. Then, beside himself with fear, he raced around that henyard, seeking a hole through which he might escape. There wasn’t any hole. That fence had been built to keep out such people as Reddy Fox, and of course a fence that would keep Reddy out would also keep him in, if he happened to be caught inside as he now was. He couldn’t dig down under it, because, you know, the ground was frozen hard and covered with snow and an icy crust. He was caught, and that was all there was to it.

Suddenly Reddy became aware of someone just outside the wire fence, looking in and grinning wickedly. It was Old Man Coyote. Between them was nothing but that wire, but, oh, what a difference! Reddy was inside and a prisoner. Old Man Coyote was outside and free.

“Good evening, Reddy,” said Old Man Coyote. “I hope you’ll enjoy your chicken dinner. When you are eating it, just think over this bit of advice: Never take a risk when you can get someone else to take it for you. I would like a chicken dinner myself, but as it is, I think I will enjoy a Mouse or two better. Pay my respects to Farmer Brown’s boy when he comes in the morning.”

With this, Old Man Coyote once more grinned that wicked grin of his and trotted away towards the Green Forest. Reddy watched him disappear and would have given anything in the world to have been outside the fence in his place instead of inside, where he then was.

XV Reddy’s Forlorn Chance

This saying is both true and terse:
There’s nothing bad but might be worse.

Bowser the Hound

If anyone had said this to Reddy Fox during the first half hour after he discovered that he was a prisoner in Farmer Brown’s henyard, he wouldn’t have believed it. He wouldn’t have believed a word of it. He would have said that he couldn’t possibly have been worse off than he was.

He was a prisoner, and he couldn’t possibly get out. He knew that in the morning Farmer Brown’s boy would certainly discover him. It couldn’t be otherwise. That is, it couldn’t be otherwise as long as he remained in that henyard. There wasn’t a thing, not one solitary thing, under or behind which he could hide. So, to Reddy’s way of thinking, things couldn’t possibly have been worse.

But after a while, having nothing else to do, Reddy began to think. Now it is surprising how thinking will change matters. One of the first thoughts that came to Reddy was that he might have been caught in a trap⁠—one of those cruel traps that close like a pair of jaws and sometimes break the bones of the foot or leg, and from which there is no escape. Right away Reddy realized that to have been so caught would have been much worse than being a prisoner in Farmer Brown’s henyard. This made him feel just a wee, wee bit better, and he began to do some more thinking.

For a long time his thinking didn’t help him in the least. At last, however, he remembered the chicken dinner he had felt so sure he was going to enjoy. The thought of the chicken dinner reminded him that inside the henhouse it was dark. He had been inside that henhouse before, and he knew that there were boxes in there. If he were inside the henhouse, it might be, it just might possibly be, that he could hide when Farmer Brown’s boy came in the morning.

So once more Reddy