he came over to look at Reddy's
hurts.

"Please don't scold, please don't, Granny Fox," begged Reddy, who was
beginning to feel sick to his stomach as well as lame, and to smart
dreadfully.

Granny Fox took one look at Reddy's wounds, and knew right away what had
happened. She made Reddy stretch himself out at full length and then
she went to work on him, washing his wounds with the greatest care and
binding them up. She was very gentle, was old Granny Fox, as she touched
the sore places, but all the time she was at work her tongue flew, and
that wasn't gentle at all. Oh, my, no! There was nothing gentle about
that!

You see, old Granny Fox is wise and very, very sharp and shrewd. Just as
soon as she saw Reddy's hurts, she knew that they were made by shot
from a gun, and that meant that Reddy Fox had been careless or he never,
never would have been where he was in danger of being shot.

"I hope this will teach you a lesson!" said Granny Fox. "What are your
eyes and your ears and your nose for? To keep you out of just such
trouble as this.

"A little Fox must use his eyes Or get someday a sad surprise.

"A little Fox must use his ears And know what makes each sound he hears.

"A little Fox must use his nose And try the wind where'er he goes.

"A little Fox must use all three To live to grow as old as me.

"Now tell me all about it, Reddy Fox. This is summer and men don't
hunt foxes now. I don't see how it happens that Farmer Brown's boy was
waiting for you with a gun."

So Reddy Fox told Granny Fox all about how he had run too near the old
tree trunk behind which Farmer Brown's boy had been hiding, but Reddy
didn't tell how he had been trying to show off, or how in broad daylight
he had stolen the pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy. You may be sure he
was very careful not to mention that.

And so old Granny Fox puckered up her brows and thought and thought,
trying to find some good reason why Farmer Brown's boy should have been
hunting in the summertime.

"Caw, caw, caw!" shouted Blacky the Crow.

The face of Granny Fox cleared. "Blacky the Crow has been stealing, and
Farmer Brown's boy was out after him when Reddy came along," said Granny
Fox, talking out loud to herself.

Reddy Fox grew very red in the face, but he never said a word.

IX. Peter Rabbit Hears the News

Johnny Chuck came running up to the edge of the Old Briarpatch quite
out of breath. You see, he is so round and fat and roly-poly