THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX(兰迪福克斯奇遇)

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THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

THE ADVENTURES OF

REDDY FOX

BY THORNTON W. BURGESS

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

I. Granny Fox Gives Reddy a Scare

Reddy Fox lived with Granny Fox. You see, Reddy was one of a large

family, so large that Mother Fox had hard work to feed so many hungry

little mouths and so she had let Reddy go to live with old Granny Fox.

Granny Fox was the wisest, slyest, smartest fox in all the country round,

and now that Reddy had grown so big, she thought it about time that he

began to learn the things that every fox should know. So every day she

took him hunting with her and taught him all the things that she had

learned about hunting: about how to steal Farmer Brown's chickens

without awakening Bowser the Hound, and all about the thousand and one

ways of fooling a dog which she had learned.

This morning Granny Fox had taken Reddy across the Green

Meadows, up through the Green Forest, and over to the railroad track.

Reddy had never been there before and he didn't know just what to make

of it. Granny trotted ahead until they came to a long bridge. Then she

stopped.

"Come here, Reddy, and look down," she commanded.

Reddy did as he was told, but a glance down made him giddy, so giddy

that he nearly fell. Granny Fox grinned.

"Come across," said she, and ran lightly across to the other side.

But Reddy Fox was afraid. Yes, Sir, he was afraid to take one step on

the long bridge. He was afraid that he would fall through into the water or

onto the cruel rocks below. Granny Fox ran back to where Reddy sat.

"For shame, Reddy Fox!" said she. "What are you afraid of? Just don't

look down and you will be safe enough. Now come along over with me."

But Reddy Fox hung back and begged to go home and whimpered.

Suddenly Granny Fox sprang to her feet, as if in great fright. "Bowser the

Hound! Come, Reddy, come!" she cried, and started across the bridge as

fast as she could go.

Reddy didn't stop to look or to think. His one idea was to get away

from Bowser the Hound. "Wait, Granny! Wait!" he cried, and started after

her as fast as he could run. He was in the middle of the bridge before he

remembered it at all. When he was at last safely across, it was to find old

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

Granny Fox sitting down laughing at him. Then for the first time Reddy

looked behind him to see where Bowser the Hound might be. He was

nowhere to be seen. Could he have fallen off the bridge?

"Where is Bowser the Hound?" cried Reddy.

"Home in Farmer Brown's dooryard," replied Granny Fox dryly.

Reddy stared at her for a minute. Then he began to understand that Granny

Fox had simply scared him into running across the bridge. Reddy felt very

cheap, very cheap indeed. "Now we'll run back again," said Granny Fox.

And this time Reddy did.

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

II. Granny Shows Reddy a Trick

Every day Granny Fox led Reddy Fox over to the long railroad bridge

and made him run back and forth across it until he had no fear of it

whatever. At first it had made him dizzy, but now he could run across at

the top of his speed and not mind it in the least. "I don't see what good it

does to be able to run across a bridge; anyone can do that!" exclaimed

Reddy one day.

Granny Fox smiled. "Do you remember the first time you tried to do

it?" she asked.

Reddy hung his head. Of course he remembered--remembered that

Granny had had to scare him into crossing that first time.

Suddenly Granny Fox lifted her head. "Hark!" she exclaimed.

Reddy pricked up his sharp, pointed ears. Way off back, in the

direction from which they had come, they heard the baying of a dog. It

wasn't the voice of Bowser the Hound but of a younger dog. Granny

listened for a few minutes. The voice of the dog grew louder as it drew

nearer.

"He certainly is following our track," said Granny Fox. "Now, Reddy,

you run across the bridge and watch from the top of the little hill over

there. Perhaps I can show you a trick that will teach you why I have made

you learn to run across the bridge."

Reddy trotted across the long bridge and up to the top of the hill, as

Granny had told him to. Then he sat down to watch. Granny trotted out in

the middle of a field and sat down. Pretty soon a young hound broke out of

the bushes, his nose in Granny's track. Then he looked up and saw her, and

his voice grew still more savage and eager. Granny Fox started to run as

soon as she was sure that the hound had seen her, but she did not run very

fast. Reddy did not know what to make of it, for Granny seemed simply to

be playing with the hound and not really trying to get away from him at all.

Pretty soon Reddy heard another sound. It was a long, low rumble. Then

there was a distant whistle. It was a train.

Granny heard it, too. As she ran, she began to work back toward the

long bridge. The train was in sight now. Suddenly Granny Fox started

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

across the bridge so fast that she looked like a little red streak. The dog

was close at her heels when she started and he was so eager to catch her

that he didn't see either the bridge or the train. But he couldn't begin to run

as fast as Granny Fox. Oh, my, no! When she had reached the other side,

he wasn't halfway across, and right behind him, whistling for him to get

out of the way, was the train.

The hound gave one frightened yelp, and then he did the only thing he

could do; he leaped down, down into the swift water below, and the last

Reddy saw of him he was frantically trying to swim ashore.

"Now you know why I wanted you to learn to cross a bridge; it's a

very nice way of getting rid of dogs," said Granny Fox, as she climbed up

beside Reddy.

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

III. Bowser the Hound Isn't Fooled

Reddy Fox had been taught so much by Granny Fox that he began to

feel very wise and very important. Reddy is naturally smart and he had

been very quick to learn the tricks that old Granny Fox had taught him.

But Reddy Fox is a boaster. Every day he swaggered about on the Green

Meadows and bragged how smart he was. Blacky the Crow grew tired of

Reddy's boasting.

"If you're so smart, what is the reason you always keep out of sight of

Bowser the Hound?" asked Blacky. "For my part, I don't believe that you

are smart enough to fool him."

A lot of little meadow people heard Blacky say this, and Reddy knew

it. He also knew that if he didn't prove Blacky in the wrong he would be

laughed at forever after. Suddenly he remembered the trick that Granny

Fox had played on the young hound at the railroad bridge. Why not play

the same trick on Bowser and invite Blacky the Crow to see him do it? He

would.

"If you will be over at the railroad bridge when the train comes this

afternoon, I'll show you how easy it is to fool Bowser the Hound," said

Reddy.

Blacky agreed to be there, and Reddy started off to find out where

Bowser was. Blacky told everyone he met how Reddy Fox had promised

to fool Bowser the Hound, and every time he told it he chuckled as if he

thought it the best joke ever.

Blacky the Crow was on hand promptly that afternoon and with him

came his cousin, Sammy Jay. Presently they saw Reddy Fox hurrying

across the fields, and behind him in full cry came Bowser the Hound. Just

as old Granny Fox had done with the young hound, Reddy allowed

Bowser to get very near him and then, as the train came roaring along, he

raced across the long bridge just ahead of it. He had thought that Bowser

would be so intent on catching him that he would not notice the train until

he was on the bridge and it was too late, as had been the case with the

young hound. Then Bowser would have to jump down into the swift river

or be run over. As soon as Reddy was across the bridge, he jumped off the

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

track and turned to see what would happen to Bowser the Hound. The

train was halfway across the bridge, but Bowser was nowhere to be seen.

He must have jumped already. Reddy sat down and grinned in the most

self-satisfied way.

The long train roared past, and Reddy closed his eyes to shut out the

dust and smoke. When he opened them again, he looked right into the

wide-open mouth of Bowser the Hound, who was not ten feet away.

"Did you think you could fool me with that old trick?" roared Bowser.

Reddy didn't stop to make reply; he just started off at the top of his

speed, a badly frightened little fox.

You see, Bowser the Hound knew all about that trick and he had just

waited until the train had passed and then had run across the bridge right

behind it.

And as Reddy Fox, out of breath and tired, ran to seek the aid of

Granny Fox in getting rid of Bowser the Hound, he heard a sound that

made him grind his teeth.

"Haw, haw, haw! How smart we are!"

It was Blacky the Crow.

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

IV. Reddy Fox Grows Bold

Reddy Fox was growing bold. Everybody said so, and what everybody

says must be so. Reddy Fox had always been very sly and not bold at all.

The truth is Reddy Fox had so many times fooled Bowser the Hound and

Farmer Brown's boy that he had begun to think himself very smart indeed.

He had really fooled himself. Yes, Sir, Reddy Fox had fooled himself. He

thought himself so smart that nobody could fool him.

Now it is one of the worst habits in the world to think too much of

one's self. And Reddy Fox had the habit. Oh, my, yes! Reddy Fox certainly

did have the habit! When anyone mentioned Bowser the Hound, Reddy

would turn up his nose and say: "Pooh! It's the easiest thing in the world to

fool him."

You see, he had forgotten all about the time Bowser had fooled him at

the railroad bridge.

Whenever Reddy saw Farmer Brown's boy he would say with the

greatest scorn: "Who's afraid of him? Not I!"

So as Reddy Fox thought more and more of his own smartness, he

grew bolder and bolder. Almost every night he visited Farmer Brown's

henyard. Farmer Brown set traps all around the yard, but Reddy always

found them and kept out of them. It got so that Unc' Billy Possum and

Jimmy Skunk didn't dare go to the henhouse for eggs any more, for fear

that they would get into one of the traps set for Reddy Fox. Of course they

missed those fresh eggs and of course they blamed Reddy Fox.

"Never mind," said Jimmy Skunk, scowling down on the Green

Meadows where Reddy Fox was taking a sun bath, "Farmer Brown's boy

will get him yet! I hope he does!" Jimmy said this a little spitefully and

just as if he really meant it.

Now when people think that they are very, very smart, they like to

show off. You know it isn't any fun at all to feel smart unless others can

see how smart you are. So Reddy Fox, just to show off, grew very bold,

very bold indeed. He actually went up to Farmer Brown's henyard in broad

daylight, and almost under the nose of Bowser the Hound he caught the

pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy. 'Ol Mistah Buzzard, sailing overhead

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

high up in the blue, blue sky, saw Reddy Fox and shook his bald head:

"Ah see Trouble on the way; Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do! Hope it ain't a-

gwine to stay; Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do! Trouble am a spry ol' man, Bound

to find yo' if he can; If he finds yo' bound to stick. When Ah sees him, Ah

runs quick! Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do!"

But Reddy Fox thought himself so smart that it seemed as if he really

were hunting for Ol' Mr. Trouble. And when he caught the pet chicken of

Farmer Brown's boy, Ol' Mr. Trouble was right at his heels.

THE ADVENTURES OF REDDY FOX

V. Reddy Grows Careless

Ol' Mistah Buzzard was right. Trouble was right at the heels of Reddy

Fox, although Reddy wouldn't have believed it if he had been told. He had

stolen that plump pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy for no reason under

the sun but to show off. He wanted everyone to know how bold he was.

He thought himself so smart that he could do just exactly what he pleased

and no one could stop him. He liked to strut around through the Green

Forest and over the Green Meadows and brag about what he had done and

what he could do.

Now people who brag and boast and who like to show off are almost

sure to come to grief. And when they do, very few people are sorry for

them. None of the little meadow and forest people liked Reddy Fox,

anyway, and they were getting so tired of his boasting that they just ached

to see him get into trouble. Yes, Sir, they just ached to see Reddy get into

trouble.

Peter Rabbit, happy-go-lucky Peter Rabbit, shook his head gravely

when he heard how Reddy had stolen that pet chicken of Farmer Brown's

boy, and was boasting about it to everyone.

"Reddy Fox is getting so puffed up that pretty soon he won't be able to

see his own feet," said Peter Rabbit.

"Well, what if he doesn't?" demanded Jimmy Skunk.

Peter looked at Jimmy in disgust:

"He comes to grief, however fleet, Who doesn't watch his flying feet.

"Jimmy Skunk, if you didn't have that little bag of scent that

everybody is afraid of, you would be a lot more careful where you step,"

replied Peter. "If Reddy doesn't watch out, someday he'll step right into a

trap.

Jimmy Skunk chuckled. "I wish he would!" said he.

Now when Farmer Brown's boy heard about the boldness of Reddy

Fox, he shut his mouth tight in a way that was unpleasant to see and

reached for his gun. "I can't afford to raise chickens to feed foxes!" said he.

Then he whistled for Bowser the Hound, and together they started out. It

wasn't long before Bowser found Reddy's tracks.

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