“N-no, I-I'm not afraid of anybody,” said Reddy. “Everybody is afraid of me.” All the time he was speaking, he was slowly backing away, and in spite of his bold words, he was shaking with fear. Old Man Coyote saw it and he chuckled to himself.
“I'm not, Brother Fox!” he suddenly snapped, in a deep, horrid sounding voice. “Gr-r-r-r-r, I'm not!” As he said it, all the hair along his back stood on end, and he showed all his great, cruel-looking teeth.
Instead of holding his ground as Jimmy Skunk would have done, Reddy leaped backward, tripped over his own tail, fell, and then scrambled to his feet with a frightened yelp, and ran as he had never run before in all his life. And as he ran, he heard Old Man Coyote laughing, and all the Green Meadows and the Green Forest heard it:
“Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha! Hee, hee, hee! Ho, ha, hee, ho! Reddy Fox isn't afraid! Ho, ho!”
Reddy ground his teeth in rage, but he kept on running.
X. GRANNY FOX VISITS PRICKLY PORKY
“I've often heard old Granny say:
' He longest lives who runs away.'”