"It was a trap," said Sammy. "It was some kind of a trap set by Farmer Brown's boy. Just as if he couldn't spare a few grains of corn when he has got so much! I—I—I'd like to—to peck his eyes out! That's what I'd like to do!"
Sammy said that because it was the most dreadful thing he could think of, but he didn't really mean it. Reddy knew it and grinned, for he also knew that Sammy didn't dare go near enough to Farmer Brown's boy to more than scream at him. All the time he had been listening, Reddy had sat with his head cocked on one side, which is a way he has when he is thinking. Inside he was laughing, for Reddy knows a lot about traps and about Farmer Brown's boy, and he didn't believe that Farmer Brown's boy would ever set a trap in such a queer place as a crack in the wall of a corn-crib.
"He wouldn't bother to try to trap Sammy Jay; he would just watch with his gun and shoot Sammy if he really cared about the few grains of corn Sammy has taken," thought Reddy. "It was some one or something else that frightened Sammy. But it isn't the least bit of use to tell him so. I believe I'll have a look and see what is going on at that corn-crib." Aloud he said:
"That was a terrible experience, Sammy Jay, and I don't wonder that you were frightened. Are you going up there to-morrow morning?"
"What?" screamed Sammy. "Going up there again? What do you take me for? I guess I don't need but one lesson of that kind. There's plenty to eat in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows without running any such risk as that. No, Sir, you won't catch me around Farmer Brown's corn-crib again very soon. Not if my name is Sammy Jay!"
"You are wise, very wise," replied Reddy gravely. "It is always wise to keep out of danger." And with this Reddy trotted on up the Lone Little Path, and inside his red head were busy thoughts. Reddy had made up his mind that there was something very queer about Sammy Jay's fright, and he meant to find out about it. He would be on hand at the first peep of day the next morning and see what was going on around Farmer Brown's corn-crib.
And all day long Sammy Jay flew about through the Green Forest telling every one who would listen how Farmer Brown's boy had tried to trap him. Late that afternoon he visited the Old Orchard and told his story all over again to Chatterer the Red Squirrel, and Chatterer didn't so much as smile until after Sammy had left. Then he threw himself on the ground and rolled over and over and laughed until his sides ached.
XIV
REDDY FOX PLAYS SPY
Reddy Fox didn't have to get up early to be hiding behind the fence back of Farmer Brown's corn-crib when jolly, round, red Mr. Sun chased the little stars from the sky. He didn't have to get up early, for the very good reason that he hadn't been to bed. You see, Reddy Fox does a great many things that he wouldn't like to have seen, and so he does them in the night when most of the other little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest are asleep. And so it happens that often he does not go to bed at all at night, but sleeps in the day, when most honest people are abroad. He had been roaming about all this night, and now he had come to watch and see what was going on at Farmer Brown's corn-crib, and whether or not Farmer Brown's boy had been setting a trap there for Sammy Jay, as Sammy was so sure he had.