And none of the little meadow and forest people looking on made a sound. Some of them didn't dare to, and others were so anxious to see what would happen next that they didn't want to. It was so still that the little leaves up in the tree-tops could be heard whispering good night to the Merry Little Breezes, for whom Old Mother West Wind was waiting with her big bag out on the Green Meadows to take them to their home behind the Purple Hills. It was so still that after a while Prickly Porky began to wonder if he were all alone. You see, being curled up that way, he couldn't see and had to trust to his ears. He waited a little longer, and then he uncurled just enough to peep out. There sat Old Man Coyote, and Prickly Porky promptly curled up again.
Now the minute he curled up again something happened. Old Man Coyote looked up at Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow and winked once more. Then very softly, so softly that he didn't so much as rustle a leaf, he tiptoed around to the other side of Prickly Porky and sat down just as before.
“Now,” thought he, “when he peeps out again, he will think I have gone, and then perhaps I can catch him by surprise.”
Bobby Coon saw through his plan right away. “Some one ought to warn Prickly Porky,” he whispered to Unc' Billy Possum.
Unc' Billy shook his head. “No,” he whispered back, “No, Brer Coon! That wouldn't be fair. It's they-all's quarrel and not ours, and though Ah done want to see Brer Porky win just as much as yo' do, Ah reckon it wouldn't be right fo' us to meddle. They-all done got to fight it out themselves.”
For a long time nothing happened. Then Old Man Coyote grew tired of waiting. Very carefully he crept nearer and nearer, with his nose stretched out to sniff at that prickly ball on the ground. Everybody held his breath, for everybody remembered what had happened to Bowser the Hound when he came sniffing around Prickly Porky,—how Prickly Porky's tail had suddenly slapped Bowser full in the face, filling it with sharp little spears. Now they hoped to see the same thing happen to Old Man Coyote. So they held their breath as they kept their eyes on Old Man Coyote and Prickly Porky's tail.
XVI. OLD MAN COYOTE'S SMARTNESS
When you meet an adversary