“Of course he laughed!” snapped old Granny Fox. “You're a coward, Reddy Fox, just a plain coward. It's all well enough to run away when you know you have to, but to run before there is anything to be afraid of shows you are the biggest kind of a coward. Bah! Get out of my sight!”
Reddy slunk away, muttering to himself and glaring angrily at Sammy Jay, who was chuckling with delight to see Reddy looking so uncomfortable. Old Granny Fox made sure that Reddy was out of sight, and then she sat down to think, and there was a worried pucker in her forehead.
“Old Man Coyote is a wolf,” said she, talking to herself, “and a wolf on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest will mean hard hunting for Reddy and me when food is scarce. It is of no use for me to fight him, for he is bigger and stronger than I am. I'll just have to make all the trouble for him that I can, and then perhaps he'll go away. I wonder if he has ever met Prickly Porky the Porcupine. I believe I'll go over and make Prickly Porky a call right now!”
And as she trotted through the Green Forest on her way to call on Prickly Porky, her thoughts were very busy, very busy indeed. She was planning trouble for Old Man Coyote.
XI. GRANNY FOX TELLS PRICKLY PORKY A STORY
A little tale which isn't true,
And eager ears to heed it,
Means trouble starts right there to brew