. Coyote was another whom it made sly and cunning. He
was smart in the first place, even smarter than Mr. Fox, and he very
early made up his mind that if he would live, it must be by his wits,
for he wasn't big enough or strong enough to fight with his neighbors
such as his big cousin, Mr. Timber Wolf, or Mr. Lynx, or Mr. Panther
or Old King Bear, who was king no longer. And yet he liked the same
things to eat.

"So he used to study and plan how he could outwit them without danger
to himself. 'A whole skin is better than a full stomach, but both a
whole skin and a full stomach are better still,' said he to himself;
as he thought and schemed. For a while he was content to catch what he
could without danger to himself, and to eat what his bigger and
stronger neighbors left when they happened to get more than they
wanted for themselves. Little by little he got the habit of slyly
following them when they were hunting, always keeping out of sight. In
this way, he managed to get many meals of scraps. But these scraps
never wholly satisfied him, and his mouth used to water as he watched
the others feast on the very best when they had had a successful hunt.
He knew it wouldn't be of the least use to go out and boldly ask for
some, for in those hard times everybody was very, very selfish.

"The times grew harder and harder, until it seemed as if Old Mother
Nature had wholly forgotten her little people of the Green Meadows and
the Green Forest. Mr. Coyote still managed to pick up a living, but he
was hungry most of the time, and the less he had to put in his
stomach, the sharper his wits grew. At last one day, as he stole
soft-footed through the Green Forest, he discovered Mr. Lynx having a
great feast. To keep still and watch him was almost more than Mr.
Coyote could stand, for he was so hungry that it seemed as if the
sides of his stomach almost met, it was so empty.

"'If I could make myself into three, we could take that dinner away
from Mr. Lynx!" thought he, and right on top of that thought came a
great idea. Why not make Mr. Lynx think he had a lot of friends with
him? It would do no harm to try. So Mr. Coyote put his nose up in the
air and howled. Mr. Lynx looked up and grinned. He had no fear of Mr.
Coyote. Then Mr. Coyote hurried around to the other side of Mr. Lynx,
all the time keeping out of sight, and howled again, and this time he
tried to make his voice sound different. Mr. Lynx stopped eating and
looked up a l