there's nothing so foolishly silly and vain

as to wish for a thing you can never attain.

—old granny fox.

we all know that, yet most of us are just foolish enough to make such a wish now and then. i guess you have done it. i know i have. peter rabbit has done it often and then laughed at himself afterwards. i suspect that even shrewd, clever old granny fox has been guilty of it more than once. so it is not surprising that reddy fox, terribly hungry as he was, should do a little foolish wishing.

when he left home to go to the old pasture, in the hope that he would be able to find something to eat there, he started off bravely. it was cold, very cold indeed, but his fur coat kept him warm as long as he was moving. the green meadows were glistening white with snow. all the world, at least all that part of it with which reddy was acquainted, was white. it was beautiful, very beautiful, as millions of sparkles flashed in the sun. but reddy had no thought for beauty; the only thought he had room for was to get something to put in the empty stomachs of himself and granny fox.

jack frost had hardened the snow so that reddy no longer had to wade through it. he could run on the crust now without breaking through. this made it much easier, so he trotted along swiftly. he had intended to go straight to the old pasture, but there suddenly popped into his head a memory of the shelter down in a far corner of the old orchard which farmer brown's boy had built for bob white. probably the bob white family were there now, and he might surprise them. he would go there first.

reddy stopped and looked carefully to make sure that farmer brown's boy and bowser the hound were nowhere in sight. then he ran swiftly towards the old orchard. just as he entered it he heard a merry voice just over his head: “dee, dee, dee, dee!” reddy stopped and looked up. there was tommy tit the chickadee clinging tightly to a big piece of fresh suet tied fast to a branch of a tree, and tommy was stuffing himself. reddy sat down right underneath that suet and looked up longingly. the sight of it made his mouth water so that it was almost more than he could stand. he jumped once. he jumped twice. he jumped three times. but all his jumping was in vain. that suet was beyond his reach. there was no possible way of reaching it save by flying or climbing. reddy's tongue hung out of his mouth with longing.

“i wish i could climb,” said reddy.

but he couldn't climb, and all the wishing in the world wouldn't enable him to, as he very well knew. so after a little he started on. as he drew near the far corner of the old orchard, he saw bob white and mrs. bob and all the young bobs picking up grain which farmer brown's boy had scattered for them just in front of the shelter he had built for them. reddy crouched down and very slowly, an inch at a time, he crept forward, his eyes shining with eagerness. just as he was almost within springing distance, bob white gave a signal, and away flew the bob whites to the safety of a hemlock-tree on the edge of the green forest.

tears of rage and disappointment welled up in reddy's eyes. “i wish i could fly,” he muttered, as he watched the brown birds disappear in the big hemlock-tree.

this was quite as foolish a wish as the other, so reddy trotted on and decided to go down past the smiling pool. when he got there he found it, as he expected, frozen over. but just where the laughing brook joins it there was a little place where there was open water. billy mink was on the ice at its edge, and just as reddy got there billy dived in. a minute later he climbed out with a fish in his mouth.

“give me a bite,” begged reddy.

“catch your own fish,” retorted billy mink. “i have to work hard enough for what i get as it is.”

reddy was afraid to go out on the ice where billy was, and so he sat and watched him eat that fine fish. then billy dived into the water again and disappeared. reddy waited a long time, but billy did not return. “i wish i could dive,” gulped reddy, thinking of the fine fish somewhere under the ice.

and this wish was quite as foolish as the other wishes.

chapter xv: reddy fights a battle

't is not the foes that are without

but those that are within

that give us battles that we find

the hardest are to win.

—old granny fox

after the last of his three foolish wishes, reddy fox left the smiling pool and headed straight for the old pasture for which he had started in the first place. he wished now that he had gone straight there. then he wouldn't have seen the suet tied out of reach to the branch of a tree in the old orchard; he wouldn't have seen the bob whites fly away to safety just as he felt almost sure of catching one; he wouldn't have seen billy mink bring a fine fish out of the water and eat it right before him. it is bad enough to be starving with no food in sight, but to be as hungry as reddy fox was and to see food just out of reach, to smell it, and not be able to get it is,—well, it is more than most folks can stand patiently.

so reddy fox was grumbling to himself as he hurried to the old pasture and his heart was very bitter. it seemed to him that everything was against him. his neighbors had food, but he had none, not so much as a crumb. it was unfair. old mother nature was unjust. if he could climb he could get food. if he could fly he could get food. if he could dive he could get food. but he could neither climb, fly, nor dive. he didn't stop to think that old mother nature had given him some of the sharpest wits in all the green forest or on all the green meadows; that she had given him a wonderful nose; that she had given him the keenest of ears; that she had given him speed excelled by few. he forgot these things and was so busy thinking bitterly of the things he didn't have that he forgot to use his wits and nose and ears when he reached the old pasture. the result was that he trotted right past old jed thumper, the big gray rabbit, who was sitting behind a little bush holding his breath. the minute old jed saw that reddy was safely past, he started for his bull-briar castle as fast as he could.

it was not until then that reddy discovered him. of course, reddy started after him, and this time he made good use of his speed. but he was too late. old jed thumper reached his castle with reddy two jumps behind him. reddy knew now that there was no chance to catch old jed that day, and for a few minutes he felt more bitter than ever. then all in a flash reddy fox became the shrewd, clever fellow that he really is. he grinned.

“it's of no use to try to fill an empty stomach on wishes,” said he.

“if i had come straight here and minded my own business, i'd have caught old jed thumper. now i'm going to get some food and i'm not going home until i do.”

very wisely reddy put all unpleasant thoughts out of his head and settled down to using his wits and his eyes and his ears and his nose for all they were worth, as old mother nature had intended he should.

all through the old pasture he hunted, taking care not to miss a single place where there was the least chance of finding food. but it was all in vain. reddy gulped down his disappointment.

“now for the big river,” said he, and started off bravely.

when he reached the edge of the big river, he hurried along the bank until he reached a place where the water seldom freezes. as he had hoped, he found that it was not frozen now. it looked so black and cold that it made him shiver just to see it. back and forth with his nose to the ground he ran. suddenly he stopped and sniffed. then he sniffed again. then he followed his nose straight to the very edge of the big river. there, floating in the black water, was a dead fish! by wading in he could get it.

reddy shivered at the touch of the cold water, but what were wet feet compared with such an empty stomach as his? in a minute he had that fish and was back on the shore. it wasn't a very big fish, but it would stop the ache in his stomach until he could get something more. with a sigh of pure happiness he sank his teeth into it and then—well, then he remembered poor old granny fox. reddy swallowed a mouthful and tried to forget granny. but he couldn't. he swallowed another mouthful. poor old granny was back there at home as hungry as he was and too stiff and tired to hunt. reddy choked. then he began a battle with himself. his stomach demanded that fish. if he ate it, no one would be the wiser. but granny needed it even more than he did. for a long time reddy fought with himself. in the end he picked up the fish and started for home.