VI. Drummer the Woodpecker Drums in Vain
Once upon a time, before he had grown to think himself so very, very smart, Reddy Fox would never, never have thought of running without watching out in every direction. He would have seen that thing that looked like the barrel of a gun sticking out from behind the old tree toward which he was running, and he would have been very suspicious, very suspicious indeed. But now all Reddy could think of was what a splendid chance he had to show all the little meadow and forest people what a bold, smart fellow he was.
So once more Reddy sat down and waited until Bowser the Hound was almost up to him. Just then Drummer the Woodpecker began to make a tremendous noise—rat-a-tat-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Now everybody who heard that rat-a-tat-tat-tat knew that it was a danger signal. Drummer the Woodpecker never drums just that way for pleasure. But Reddy Fox paid no attention to it. He didn't notice it at all. You see, he was so full of the idea of his own smartness that he didn't have room for anything else.
“Stupid thing!” said Drummer the Woodpecker to himself. “I don't know what I am trying to warn him for, anyway. The Green Meadows and the Green Forest would be better off without him, a lot better off! Nobody likes him. He's a dreadful bully and is all the time trying to catch or scare to death those who are smaller than he. Still, he is so handsome!” Drummer cocked his head on one side and looked over at Reddy Fox.
Reddy was laughing to see how hard Bowser the Hound was working to untangle Reddy's mixed-up trail.
“Yes, Sir, he certainly is handsome,” said Drummer once more.
Then he looked down at the foot of the old tree on which he was sitting, and what he saw caused Drummer to make up his mind. “I surely would miss seeing that beautiful red coat of his! I surely would!” he muttered. “If he doesn't hear and heed now, it won't be my fault!” Then Drummer the Woodpecker began such a furious rat-a-tat-tat-tat on the trunk of the old tree that it rang through the Green Forest and out across the Green Meadows almost to the Purple Hills.
Down at the foot of the tree a freckled face on which there was a black scowl looked up. It was the face of Farmer Brown's boy.
“What ails that pesky woodpecker?” he muttered. “If he doesn't keep still, he'll scare that fox!”
He shook a fist at Drummer, but Drummer didn't appear to notice. He kept right on, rat-a-tat-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
VII. Too Late Reddy Fox Hears
Drummer the Woodpecker was pounding out his danger signal so fast and so hard that his red head flew back and forth almost too fast to see. Rat-a-tat-tat-a-tat-tat, beat Drummer on the old tree trunk on the edge of the Green Forest. When he stopped for breath, he looked down into the scowling face of Farmer Brown's boy, who was hiding behind the old tree trunk.
Drummer didn't like the looks of that scowl, not a bit. And he didn't like the looks of the gun which Farmer Brown's boy had. He knew that Farmer Brown's boy was hiding there to shoot Reddy Fox, but Drummer was beginning to be afraid that Farmer Brown's boy might guess what all that drumming meant—that it was a warning to Reddy Fox. And if Farmer Brown's boy did guess that, why—why—anyway, on the other side of the tree there was a better place to drum. So Drummer the Woodpecker crept around to the other side of the tree and in a minute was drumming harder than ever. Whenever he stopped for breath, he looked out over the Green Meadows to see if Reddy Fox had heard his warning.
But if Reddy had heard, he hadn't heeded. Just to show off before all the little meadow and forest people, Reddy had waited until Bowser the Hound had almost reached him. Then, with a saucy flirt of his tail, Reddy Fox started to show how fast he could run, and that is very fast indeed. It made Bowser the Hound seem very slow, as, with his nose to the ground, he came racing after Reddy, making a tremendous noise with his great voice.
Now Reddy Fox had grown as careless as he had grown bold. Instead of looking sharply ahead, he looked this way and that way to see who was watching and admiring him. So he took no note of where he was going and started straight for the old tree trunk on which Drummer the Woodpecker was pounding out his warning of danger.
Now Reddy Fox has sharp eyes and very quick ears. My, my, indeed he has! But just now Reddy was as deaf as if he had cotton stuffed in his ears. He was chuckling to himself to think how he was going to fool Bowser the Hound and how smart everyone would think him, when all of a sudden, he heard the rat-a-tat-tata-tat-tat of Drummer the Woodpecker and knew that that meant “Danger!”
For just a wee little second it seemed to Reddy Fox that his heart stopped beating. He couldn't stop running, for he had let Bowser the Hound get too close for that. Reddy's sharp eyes saw Drummer the Woodpecker near the top of the old tree trunk and noticed that Drummer seemed to be looking at something down below. Reddy Fox gave one quick look at the foot of the old tree trunk and saw a gun pointed at him and behind the gun the freckled face of Farmer Brown's boy. Reddy Fox gave a little gasp of fright and turned so suddenly that he almost fell flat. Then he began to run as never in his life had he run before. It seemed as though his flying feet hardly touched the grass. His eyes were popping out with fright as with every jump he tried to run just a wee bit faster.
Bang! Bang! Two flashes of fire and two puffs of smoke darted from behind the old tree trunk. Drummer the Woodpecker gave a frightened scream and flew deep into the Green Forest. Peter Rabbit flattened himself under a friendly bramble bush. Johnny Chuck dived headfirst down his doorway.
Reddy Fox gave a yelp, a shrill little yelp of pain, and suddenly began to go lame. But Farmer Brown's boy didn't know that. He thought he had missed and he growled to himself:
“I'll get that fox yet for stealing my pet chicken!”
VIII. Granny Fox Takes Care of Reddy
Reddy Fox was so sore and lame that he could hardly hobble. He had had the hardest kind of work to get far enough ahead of Bowser the Hound to mix his trail up so that Bowser couldn't follow it. Then he had limped home, big tears running down his nose, although he tried hard not to cry. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” moaned Reddy Fox, as he crept in at the doorway of his home.
“What's the matter now?” snapped old Granny Fox, who had just waked up from a sun nap.
“I—I've got hurt,” said Reddy Fox, and began to cry harder. Granny Fox looked at Reddy sharply. “What have you been doing now—tearing your clothes on a barbed-wire fence or trying to crawl through a bull-briar thicket? I should think you were big enough by this time to look out for yourself!” said Granny Fox crossly, as she came over to look at Reddy's hurts.
“Please don't scold, please don't, Granny Fox,” begged Reddy, who was beginning to feel sick to his stomach as well as lame, and to smart dreadfully.
Granny Fox took one look at Reddy's wounds, and knew right away what had happened. She made Reddy stretch himself out at full length and then she went to work on him, washing his wounds with the greatest care and binding them up. She was very gentle, was old Granny Fox, as she touched the sore places, but all the time she was at work her tongue flew, and that wasn't gentle at all. Oh, my, no! There was nothing gentle about that!
You see, old Granny Fox is wise and very, very sharp and shrewd. Just as soon as she saw Reddy's hurts, she knew that they were made by shot from a gun, and that meant that Reddy Fox had been careless or he never, never would have been where he was in danger of being shot.
“I hope this will teach you a lesson!” said Granny Fox. “What are your eyes and your ears and your nose for? To keep you out of just such trouble as this.
“A little Fox must use his eyes Or get someday a sad surprise.
“A little Fox must use his ears And know what makes each sound he hears.
“A little Fox must use his nose And try the wind where'er he goes.
“A little Fox must use all three To live to grow as old as me.
“Now tell me all about it, Reddy Fox. This is summer and men don't hunt foxes now. I don't see how it happens that Farmer Brown's boy was waiting for you with a gun.”
So Reddy Fox told Granny Fox all about how he had run too near the old tree trunk behind which Farmer Brown's boy had been hiding, but Reddy didn't tell how he had been trying to show off, or how in broad daylight he had stolen the pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy. You may be sure he was very careful not to mention that.
And so old Granny Fox puckered up her brows and thought and thought, trying to find some good reason why Farmer Brown's boy should have been hunting in the summertime.
“Caw, caw, caw!” shouted Blacky the Crow.
The face of Granny Fox cleared. “Blacky the Crow has been stealing, and Farmer Brown's boy was out after him when Reddy came along,” said Granny Fox, talking out loud to herself.
Reddy Fox grew very red in the face, but he never said a word.
IX. Peter Rabbit Hears the News
Johnny Chuck came running up to the edge of the Old Briarpatch quite out of breath. You see, he is so round and fat and roly-poly that to run makes him puff and blow. Johnny Chuck's eyes danced with excitement as he peered into the Old Briar-patch, trying to see Peter Rabbit.
“Peter! Peter Rabbit! Oh, Peter!” he called. No one answered. Johnny Chuck looked disappointed. It was the middle of the morning, and he had thought that Peter would surely be at home then. He would try once more. “Oh, you Peter Rabbit!” he shouted in such a high-pitched voice that it was almost a squeal.
“What you want?” asked a sleepy voice from the middle of the Old Briar-patch.
Johnny Chuck's face lighted up. “Come out here, Peter, where I can look at you,” cried Johnny.
“Go away, Johnny Chuck! I'm sleepy,” said Peter Rabbit, and his voice sounded just a wee bit cross, for Peter had been out all night, a habit which Peter has.
“I've got some news for you, Peter,” called Johnny Chuck eagerly.
“How do you know it's news to me?” asked Peter, and Johnny noticed that his voice wasn't quite so cross.
“I'm almost sure it is, for I've just heard it myself, and I've hurried right down here to tell you because I think you'll want to know it,” replied Johnny Chuck.
“Pooh!” said Peter Rabbit, “it's probably as old as the hills to me. You folks who go to bed with the sun don't hear the news until it's old. What is it?”
“It's about Reddy Fox,” began Johnny Chuck, but Peter Rabbit interrupted him.
“Shucks, Johnny Chuck! You are slow! Why, it was all over Green Meadows last night how Reddy Fox had been shot by Farmer Brown's boy!” jeered Peter Rabbit. “That's no news. And here you've waked me up to tell me something I knew before you went to bed last night! Serves Reddy Fox right. Hope he'll be lame for a week,” added Peter Rabbit.
“He can't walk at all!” cried Johnny Chuck in triumph, sure now that Peter Rabbit hadn't heard the news.
“What's that?” demanded Peter, and Johnny Chuck could hear him begin to hop along one of his little private paths in the heart of the Old Briar-patch. He knew now that Peter Rabbit's curiosity was aroused, and he smiled to himself.
In a few minutes Peter thrust a sleepy-looking face out from the Old Briar-patch and grinned rather sheepishly. “What was that you were saying about Reddy Fox?” he asked again.
“I've a good mind not to tell you, Mr. Know-it-all,” exclaimed Johnny Chuck.
“Oh, please, Johnny Chuck,” pleaded Peter Rabbit.
Finally Johnny gave in. “I said that Reddy Fox can't walk. Aren't you glad, Peter?”
“How do you know?” asked Peter, for Peter is very suspicious of Reddy Fox, and has to watch out for his tricks all the time.
“Jimmy Skunk told me. He was up by Reddy's house early this morning and saw Reddy try to walk. He tried and tried and couldn't. You won't have to watch out for Reddy Fox for some time, Peter. Serves him right, doesn't it?''
“Let's go up and see if it really is true!” said Peter suddenly.
“All right,” said Johnny Chuck, and off they started.