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

to get. Do you wonder that Reddy was dismayed? XXXVI Reddy Hides the Fat Hen

Dishonesty will run away
Where Honesty will boldly stay.

Bowser the Hound

Reddy Fox was in a fix! He certainly was in a fix! Here he was with the fat hen which he had come such a long, long way to get, and no chance to eat it, for Bowser the Hound was on his trail. Ordinarily Reddy Fox can run faster than can Bowser, but it is one thing to run with nothing to carry, and another thing altogether to run with a burden as heavy as a fat hen. Reddy’s wits were working quite as fast as his legs.

“I can’t carry this fat hen far,” thought Reddy, “for Bowser will surely catch me. I don’t want to drop it, because I have come such a long way to get it, and goodness knows when I will be able to catch another. The thing for me to do is to hide it where I can come back and get it after I get rid of that pesky dog. Goodness, what a noise he makes!”

As he ran, Reddy watched sharply this way and that way for a place to hide the fat hen. He knew he must find a place soon, because already that fat hen was growing very heavy. Presently he spied the hollow stump of a tree. He didn’t know it was hollow when he first saw it, but from its looks he thought it might be. The top of it was only about two feet above the ground. Reddy stopped and stood up on his hind legs so as to see if the top of that stump was hollow. It was. With a quick look this way and that way to make sure he wasn’t seen, he tossed the fat hen over into the hollow and then, with a sigh of relief, darted away.

With the weight of that fat hen off his shoulders, and the worry about it off his mind, Reddy could give all his attention to getting rid of Bowser the Hound. He had no intention of running any farther than he must. In the first place he had traveled so far that he did not feel like running. In the second place he wanted to get back to that hollow stump and the fat hen just as soon as possible.

It wasn’t long before Reddy realized that it was not going to be so easy to fool Bowser the Hound. Bowser was too wise to be fooled by common tricks such as breaking the trail by jumping far to one side after running back on his own tracks a little way; or by running along a fallen tree and jumping from the end of it as far as he could. Of course he tried these tricks, but each time Bowser simply made a big circle with his nose to the ground and picked up Reddy’s new trail.

Reddy didn’t know that country about there at all, and little by little he began to realize how much this meant. At home he knew every foot of the ground for a long distance in every direction. This made all the difference in the world, because he knew just how to play all kinds of tricks. But here it was different. It seemed to him that all he could do was to run and run.

XXXVII Farmer Brown’s Boy Has a Glad Surprise

The sweetest sound in the world is the voice of one you love.

Bowser the Hound

Farmer Brown’s boy had an errand which took him far from home. He harnessed the horse to a sleigh and started off right after dinner. Now it happened that his errand took him in the direction of the farm where Bowser the Hound had been taken such good care of, and where Reddy Fox had that very day caught the fat hen. Farmer Brown’s boy was not thinking of Bowser. You see, he had already visited most of the farms in that direction in his search for Bowser and had found no trace of him.

It was a beautiful day to be sleighing, and Farmer Brown’s boy was whistling merrily, for there is nothing he enjoys more than a sleigh ride. He had almost reached the place he had started for when ’way off across the fields to his right he heard a dog. Now Farmer Brown’s boy enjoys listening to the sound of a Hound chasing a Fox. There is something about it which stirs the blood. He stopped whistling and stopped the horse in order that he might listen better.

At first that sound was very, very faint, but as Farmer Brown’s boy listened, it grew louder and clearer. Suddenly Farmer Brown’s boy leaped up excitedly. “That’s Bowser!” he cried. “As sure as I live that’s good old Bowser! I would know that voice among a million!”

He leaped from the sleigh and tied the horse. Then he climbed over the fence and began to run across the snow-covered fields. He could tell from the sound in what direction Bowser was running. He could tell from the appearance of the country about where Reddy Fox would be likely to lead Bowser, and he ran for a place which he felt sure Reddy would be likely to pass.

Louder and louder sounded the great voice of Bowser, and faster and faster ran Farmer Brown’s boy to reach that place before Bowser should pass. The louder that great voice sounded, the more absolutely certain Farmer Brown’s boy became that it was the voice of Bowser, and a great joy filled his heart. At last he reached an old road. He felt certain that Reddy would follow that road. So he hid behind an old stone wall on the edge of it.

He did not have long to wait. A red form appeared around a turn in the old road, running swiftly. Then it stopped and stood perfectly still.