XVIII. FARMER BROWN'S BOY MAKES A DISCOVERY
Reddy Fox glared up at Sammy Jay. “What's the matter with you?” snarled Reddy Fox. “Why don't you mind your own affairs, instead of making trouble for other people?” You see, Reddy was afraid that Johnny Chuck would hear Sammy Jay and take warning.
“Hello, Reddy Fox! I thought you had gone down to the Green Meadows!” Sammy said this as if he was very much surprised to see Reddy there. He wasn't, for you know he had been watching Reddy hunt for Johnny Chuck's new house, but Reddy had pretended that he was going down to the Green Meadows early that morning, and so now Sammy pretended that he had thought that Reddy really had gone.
“I changed my mind!” he snapped. “What are you screaming so for?”
“Just to exercise my lungs, so as to be sure that I can scream when I want to,” replied Sammy, screaming still louder.
“Well, go somewhere else and scream; I want to sleep,” said Reddy crossly.
Now Sammy Jay knew perfectly well that Reddy Fox had no thought of taking a nap but was hiding there to try to catch Johnny Chuck. And Sammy knew that Farmer Brown's boy could hear him scream, and that he knew that when Sammy screamed that way it meant there was a fox about. Sitting in the top of the apple-tree, Sammy could see Farmer Brown's boy starting for the old orchard, with Bowser the Hound running ahead of him.
Farmer Brown's boy had no gun, so Sammy knew that no harm would come to Reddy, but that Reddy would get a dreadful scare; and that is what Sammy wanted, just out of pure mischief. So he screamed louder than ever.