How Reddy Fox Was Surprised

HOW REDDY FOX WAS SURPRISED

Johnny Chuck and Reddy Fox lived very near each other, right on the edge of the Green Meadows.

Johnny Chuck was fat and roly-poly.

Reddy Fox was slim and wore a bright red coat.

Reddy Fox liked to frighten Johnny Chuck. He would pop out from behind a tree and pretend he was going to eat Johnny Chuck all up.

One bright summer day, Johnny Chuck went out to find a good breakfast of nice tender clover. He wandered quite a long way from his snug little house in the long meadow grass. His mother had told him never to go out of sight of the door.

But Johnny forgot.

He walked and walked and walked. Every few minutes he saw something farther on that looked like a patch of fresh clover. But every time he got there — no clover. Just grass.

So Johnny Chuck walked and walked and walked.

Old Mother West Wind came across the Green Meadows and saw him.

"Where are you going, Johnny Chuck?" she asked.

Johnny Chuck pretended not to hear. He just walked faster.

One of the Merry Little Breezes danced along in front of him.

"Look out, Johnny Chuck! You'll get lost!" cried the Merry Little Breeze.

Then she pulled Johnny's whiskers — TWING — and ran away.

Higher and higher up in the sky climbed round, red Mr. Sun. Every time Johnny Chuck looked up, Mr. Sun winked at him.

"So long as I can see great round, red Mr. Sun," thought Johnny Chuck, "and he winks at me… I can't be lost."

And he trotted on, looking for clover.

After a while, Johnny Chuck really did find some.

Oh, it was the sweetest clover that grew in all the Green Meadows.

Johnny Chuck ate and ate and ate.

Then he curled right up in the nice sweet clover… and went fast asleep.

Great round, red Mr. Sun kept climbing higher and higher. Then he began to go down on the other side. Long shadows crept out across the Green Meadows.

Johnny Chuck didn't know anything about them. He was fast asleep.

After a while, one of the Merry Little Breezes found him, curled up in a funny round ball.

"Wake up, Johnny Chuck! WAKE UP!"

Johnny Chuck opened his eyes. He sat up and rubbed them. For just a few minutes, he couldn't remember where he was at all.

He sat up very straight to look over the grass.

But he was so far from home that he didn't see a single thing he knew. The trees were all different. The bushes were all different. Everything was different.

Johnny Chuck was lost.

Now.

When Johnny sat up, Reddy Fox happened to be looking out over the Green Meadows. He saw Johnny's head pop up above the grass.

"Aha!" said Reddy Fox. "I'll scare Johnny Chuck so bad he'll wish he'd never put his nose out of his house."

Reddy dropped down behind the long grass. He crept softly — oh, ever so softly — along his own little paths, until he was right behind Johnny Chuck.

Johnny had been so busy looking for home that he didn't see anything else.

Reddy Fox crept right up behind him.

And he grabbed Johnny's little short tail and YANKED it. Hard.

Johnny Chuck jumped straight up in the air!

And when he came down —

He was the maddest little woodchuck that ever lived in the Green Meadows.

Reddy Fox thought Johnny would run away. Then Reddy meant to chase him and pull his tail and tease him all the way home.

But Reddy Fox got just as big a surprise as Johnny had.

Johnny didn't stop to think that Reddy Fox was twice as big as he was.

His eyes were snapping.

He chattered the way only a little Chuck can chatter.

Every single hair on his little body stood straight up on end, so he seemed twice as big as he really was.

And he went straight for Reddy Fox.

It surprised Reddy so much he didn't know what to do.

He simply ran.

Johnny Chuck ran after him, nipping Reddy's heels — NIP — every minute or two — NIP NIP!

Now, Peter Rabbit just happened to be down that way. He was sitting up very straight, looking around for mischief, when he saw Reddy Fox running as hard as ever he could.

"It must be Bowser the Hound after Reddy Fox," Peter Rabbit said to himself. "I'd better watch out!"

But then he saw Johnny Chuck — every little hair standing up on end — running after Reddy Fox as fast as his short legs could go.

"Ho! Ho! HO!" shouted Peter Rabbit. "Reddy Fox afraid of Johnny Chuck! Ho! Ho! HO!"

Peter Rabbit ran off to find Jimmy Skunk and Bobby Coon and Happy Jack Squirrel. He wanted to tell them all about it. They were all a little afraid of Reddy Fox.

Reddy Fox ran straight home as fast as he could go. And the way home took him right past Johnny Chuck's house.

Johnny couldn't run as fast as Reddy Fox. He was puffing and blowing the way a fat little woodchuck does when he has to run hard. But he had lost his anger now. He thought it was the best joke ever — that he had actually frightened Reddy Fox.

When he reached his own house, he stopped. He sat up tall on his back legs. And he called out after Reddy Fox:

"Reddy Fox is a 'fraid-cat, 'fraid-cat! Reddy Fox is a 'FRAID-CAT!"

And all the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind, playing on the Green Meadows, shouted it too:

"Reddy Fox is a 'fraid-cat, 'FRAID-CAT!"

And that is how Reddy Fox was surprised, and how Johnny Chuck found his way home.