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

is at the bottom of it. Granny is the one to follow.”

So, like a gray shadow, crafty Old Man Coyote stole after Granny Fox and saw her hide behind the corner of the shed at the end of which was the little house of Bowser the Hound. He crept as near as he dared and then lay flat down behind a little bunch of dead grass close to the shed. For some time nothing happened, and Old Man Coyote was puzzled. Every once in a while Granny Fox would look behind and all about to be sure that no danger was near, but she didn’t see Old Man Coyote. After what seemed to him a long time, he heard a door open on the other side of the shed. It was Mrs. Brown carrying Bowser’s dinner out to him. Of course, Old Man Coyote didn’t know this. He knew by the sounds that someone had come out of the house, and it made him nervous. He didn’t like being so close to Farmer Brown’s house in broad daylight. But he kept his eyes on Granny Fox, and he saw her ears prick up in a way that he knew meant that those sounds were just what she had been waiting for.

“If she isn’t afraid, I don’t need to be,” thought he craftily. After a few minutes he heard a door close and knew that whoever had come out had gone back into the house. Almost at once Bowser the Hound began to yelp and whine. Swiftly Granny Fox disappeared around the corner of the shed. Just as swiftly Old Man Coyote ran forward and peeped around the corner. There was Bowser the Hound tugging at his chain, and just beyond his reach was Reddy Fox, grinning in the most provoking manner. And there was Granny Fox, backing and dragging after her Bowser’s dinner. In a flash Old Man Coyote understood the plan, and he almost chuckled aloud at the cleverness of it. Then he hastily backed behind the shed and waited.

In a minute Granny Fox appeared, dragging Bowser’s dinner. She was so intent on getting that dinner that she almost backed into Old Man Coyote without suspecting that he was anywhere about.

“Thank you, Granny. You needn’t bother about it any longer; I’ll take it now,” growled Old Man Coyote in Granny’s ear.

Granny let go of that dinner as if it burned her tongue, and with a frightened little yelp leaped to one side. A minute later Reddy came racing around from behind the barn eager for his share. What he saw was Old Man Coyote bolting down that twice-stolen dinner while Granny Fox fairly danced with rage.

XXI Granny and Reddy Talk Things Over

You’ll find as on through life you go
The thing you want may prove to be
The very thing you shouldn’t have.
Then seeming loss is gain, you see.

Old Granny Fox

If ever two folks were mad away through, those two were Granny and Reddy Fox as they watched Old Man Coyote gobble up the dinner they had so cleverly stolen from Bowser the Hound. It was bad enough to lose the dinner, but it was worse to see someone else eat it after they had worked so hard to get it. “Robber!” snarled Granny. Old Man Coyote stopped eating long enough to grin.

“Thief! Sneak! Coward!” snarled Reddy. Once more Old Man Coyote grinned. When that dinner had disappeared down his throat to the last and smallest crumb, he licked his chops and turned to Granny and Reddy.

“I’m very much obliged for that dinner,” said he pleasantly, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “It was the best dinner I have had for a long time. Allow me to say that that trick of yours was as smart a trick as ever I have seen. It was quite worthy of a Coyote. You are a very clever old lady, Granny Fox. Now I hear someone coming, and I would suggest that it will be better for all concerned if we are not seen about here.”

He darted off behind the barn like a gray streak, and Granny and Reddy followed, for it was true that someone was coming. You see Bowser the Hound had discovered that something was going on around the corner of the shed, and he made such a racket that Mrs. Brown had come out of the house to see what it was all about. By the time she got around there, all she saw was the empty pan which had held Bowser’s dinner. She was puzzled. How that pan could be where it was she couldn’t understand, and Bowser couldn’t tell her, although he tried his very best. She had been puzzled about that pan two or three times before.

Old Man Coyote lost no time in getting back home, for he never felt easy near the home of man in broad daylight. Granny and Reddy Fox went home too, and there was hate in their hearts⁠—hate for Old Man Coyote. But once they reached home, Old Granny Fox stopped growling, and presently she began to chuckle.

“What are you laughing at?” demanded Reddy.

“At the way Old Man Coyote stole that dinner from us,” replied Granny.

“I hate him! He’s a sneaking robber!” snapped Reddy.

“Tut, tut, Reddy! Tut, tut!” retorted Granny. “Be fair-minded. We stole that dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote stole it from us. I guess he is no worse than we are, when you come to think it over. Now is he?”

“I⁠—I⁠—well, I don’t suppose he is, when you put it that way,” Reddy admitted grudgingly.

“And he was smart, very smart, to outwit two such clever people as we are,” continued Granny. “You will have to agree to that.”

“Y-e-s,” said Reddy slowly. “He was smart enough, but⁠—”

“There isn’t any but, Reddy,” interrupted Granny. “You know the law of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. It is everybody for himself, and anything belongs to one who has the wit or the strength to take