for me to trust. Oh, my! oh,
my! What news this will be to tell! Old Granny Fox will never hear the
end of it. If ever again she boasts of how smart she is, all we will
have to do will be to remind her of the time Farmer Brown's boy caught
her napping. Ho! ho! ho! I must hurry along and find my cousin, Blacky
the Crow. This will tickle him half to death."

As for Old Granny Fox, she feared Farmer Brown's boy more than ever, not
because of what he had done to her but because of what he had not done.
You see, nothing could make her believe that he wanted to be her friend.
She thought he had let her get away just to show her that he was smarter
than she. Instead of thankfulness, hate and fear filled Granny's heart.
You know--

People who themselves do ill
For others seldom have good will.

CHAPTER IX: Reddy Fox Hears About Granny Fox

Though you may think another wrong
And be quite positive you're right,
Don't let your temper get away;
And try at least to be polite.
--Old Granny Fox.

Sammy Jay hurried through the Green Forest, chuckling as he flew. Sammy
was brimming over with the news he had to tell,--how Old Granny Fox had
been caught napping by Farmer Brown's boy. Sammy wouldn't have believed
it if any one had told him. No, Sir, he wouldn't. But he had seen it
with his own eyes, and it tickled him almost to pieces to think that Old
Granny Fox, whom everybody thought so sly and clever and smart, had been
caught actually asleep by the very one of whom she was most afraid, but
at whom she always had turned up her nose.

Presently Sammy spied Reddy Fox trotting along the Lone Little Path.
Reddy was forever boasting of how smart Granny Fox was. He had boasted
of it so much that everybody was sick of hearing him. When he saw Reddy
trotting along the Lone Little Path, Sammy chuckled harder than ever. He
hid in a thick hemlock-tree and as Reddy passed he shouted:

"Had I such a stupid old Granny
As some folks who think they are smart,
I never would boast of my Granny,
But live by myself quite apart!"

Reddy looked up angrily. He couldn't see Sammy Jay, but he knew Sammy's
voice. There is no mistaking that. Everybody knows the voice of Sammy
Jay. Of course it was foolish, very foolish of Reddy to be angry, and
still more foolish to show that he was angry. Had he stopped a minute to
think, he would have known that Sammy was saying such a mean, provoking
thing just to make him