h pain and
pulled it out in a hurry. Presently he tried again with the other
paw. Danny bit this one harder still, and Reddy danced with pain
and anger. Then he lost his temper completely, a very foolish
thing to do, as it always is. He hit the old can, and away it
rolled with Danny Meadow Mouse inside. This seemed to make Reddy
angrier than ever. He sprang after it and hit it again. Then he
batted it first this way and then that way, growing angrier and
angrier. And all the time Danny Meadow Mouse managed to keep
inside, although he got a terrible shaking up.

Back and forth across the patch of short grass Reddy knocked the
old can, and he was in such a rage that he didn't notice where he
was knocking it to. Finally he sent it spinning into the long
grass on the far side of the open patch, close to one of Danny's
private little paths. Like a flash Danny was out and scurrying
along the little path. He dodged into another and presently into
a third, which brought him to a tangle of barbed wire left
there by Farmer Brown when he had built a new fence. Under this
he was safe.

[Illustration: _Like a flash, Danny dodged into a tangle of
barbed wire_]

"Phew!" exclaimed Danny, breathing very hard. "That was the
narrowest escape yet! But I guess I'll get that special grass
seed I started out for, after all."

And he did, while to this day Reddy Fox wonders how Danny got out
of the old tomato can without his knowing it.

_And so you see what temper does
For those who give it rein;
It cheats them of the very thing
They seek so hard to gain._

Danny has had many more adventures, but there isn't room to tell
about them here. Besides, Grandfather Frog is anxious that you
should hear about the queer things that have happened to him.
They are told in the next book.

[Illustration]

_Bedtime Story-Books_

By THORNTON W. BURGESS

The Adventures of Reddy Fox
The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
The Adventures of Peter Cottontail
The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum
The Adventures of Mr. Mocker
The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse
The Adventures of Grandfather Frog
The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel
The Adventures of Sammy Jay
The Adventures of Buster Bear