“You will boast that you will drive me out of the Green Forest, will you, Mr. Porcupine? The time to brag will be when you have done it.”
Prickly Porky stopped short in the middle of one of his clumsy rushes.
“Boaster and bragger yourself!” he grunted. “You don't seem to be dining on Porcupine the first time we meet. Why don't you? Why don't you make your own boast good?”
Old Man Coyote stopped laughing and pricked up his ears. “What's that?” he demanded. “What's that? Somebody has been filling your ears with something that is very like a lie, Mr. Porcupine.”
“No more than they have yours, Mr. Coyote,” replied Prickly Porky, letting his thousand little spears drop part way back into his coat. “But old Granny Fox told me.”
“Ha! So it was Granny Fox!” interrupted Old Man Coyote. “So it was old Granny Fox! Well, it was that same old mischief-maker who told me that—” He stopped and suddenly looked very hard at the very place where Granny and Reddy were hiding. Then he made, a long jump in that direction. Granny and Reddy didn't wait for him.
They started for home so fast that they looked like nothing but two little red streaks disappearing among the trees.
“Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! Hee, hee, hee! Ha, ho, he, ho!” laughed Old Man Coyote, and all the little meadow and forest people who were looking on laughed with him. Then he turned to Prickly Porky.
