Bowser and Farmer Brown’s boy were not the only ones who rejoiced.  Reddy Fox had been badly worried.  Although he had tried every trick he could think of, he had not been able to get rid of Bowser, and he had just about made up his mind that there was nothing for it but to start back to the Old Pasture which was so far away.  That would mean giving up the fat hen which he had hidden in the hollow stump.

Of course, Reddy knew the instant that Bowser began to yelp and bark that something had happened.  What it was he couldn’t imagine.  He sat down to wait and listen.  Then he heard the voice of Farmer Brown’s boy.  Reddy knew that voice and he grinned, for he felt sure that Bowser would give up the hunt.  He grinned because now he would have a chance to go back for that fat hen.  At the same time that grin was not wholly a happy grin, because Reddy knew that now Bowser would return to his home.

Presently Reddy very carefully crept back to a place where he could see what was going on.  He watched Farmer Brown’s boy start back for the road and the sleigh, with Bowser jumping up on him and racing around him like a foolish young puppy.  He waited only long enough to make sure that Bowser would not come back; then he turned and trotted swiftly along his own back trail towards that hollow stump into which he had tossed that fat hen.  Reddy’s thoughts were very pleasant thoughts, for they were all of the fine dinner of which he now felt sure.

CHAPTER XXXIX

A VANISHED DINNER

    This fact you’ll find where’er you go
     Is true of Fox or Dog or Man: 
    Dishonesty has never paid,
     And, what is more, it never can.

    Bowser the Hound.

Very pleasant were the thoughts of Reddy Fox as he trotted back to the swamp where was the hollow stump in which he had hidden the fat hen he had stolen.  Yes, Sir, very pleasant were the thoughts of Reddy Fox.  He felt sure that no dinner he had ever eaten had tasted anywhere near as good as would the dinner he was about to enjoy.

In the first place his stomach had not been really filled for a long time.  Food had been scarce, and while Reddy had always obtained enough to keep from starving, it was a long time since he had had a really good meal.  He had, you remember, traveled a very long distance to catch that fat hen, and it had been many hours since he had had a bite of anything.  There is nothing like a good appetite to make things taste good.  Reddy certainly had the appetite to make that fat hen the finest dinner a Fox ever ate.

So, with pleasant thoughts of the feast to come, Reddy trotted along swiftly.  Presently he reached the little swamp in which was the hollow stump.  As he drew near it, he moved very carefully.  You see, he was not quite sure that all was safe.  He knew that the farmer from whom he had stolen that fat hen had seen him run away with it, and he feared that that farmer might be hiding somewhere about with a terrible gun.  So Reddy used his eyes and his ears and his nose as only he can use them.  All seemed safe.  It was as still in that little swamp as if no living creature had ever visited it.  Stopping every few steps to look, listen, and sniff, Reddy approached that hollow stump.