“Tut, tut, Reddy!  Tut, tut!” retorted Granny.  “Be fair-minded.  We stole that dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote stole it from us.  I guess he is no worse than we are, when you come to think it over.  Now is he?”

“I —­ I —­ well, I don’t suppose he is, when you put it that way, " Reddy admitted grudgingly.

“And he was smart, very smart, to outwit two such clever people as we are,” continued Granny.  “You will have to agree to that.”

“Y-e-s,” said Reddy slowly.  “He was smart enough, but—­”

“There isn’t any but, Reddy,” interrupted Granny.  “You know the law of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.  It is everybody for himself, and anything belongs to one who has the wit or the strength to take it.  We had the wit to take that dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote had the wit to take it from us and the strength to keep it.  It was all fair enough, and you know there isn’t the least use in crying over spilled milk, as the saying is.  We simply have got to be smart enough not to let him fool us again.  I guess we won’t get any more of Bowser’s dinners for a while.  We’ve got to think of some other way of filling our stomachs when the hunting is poor.  I think if I could have just one of those fat hens of Farmer Brown’s, it would put new strength into my old bones.  All summer I warned you to keep away from that henyard, but the time has come now when I think we might try for a couple of those hens.”

Reddy pricked up his ears at the mention of fat hens.  “I think so too,” said he.  “When shall we try for one?”

“To-morrow morning,” replied Granny.  “Now don’t bother me while I think out a plan.”

CHAPTER XXII:  Granny Fox Plans To Get A Fat Hen

   Full half success for Fox or Man
   Is won by working out a plan.
      — Old Granny Fox.

Granny Fox knows this.  No one knows it better.  Whatever she does is first carefully planned in her wise old head.  So now after she had decided that she and Reddy would try for one of Farmer Brown’s fat hens, she lay down to think out a plan to get that fat hen.  No one knew better than she how foolish it would be to go over to that henyard and just trust to luck for a chance to catch one of those biddies.  Of course, they might be lucky and get a hen that way, but then again they might be unlucky and get in a peck of trouble.

“You see,” said she to Reddy, “we must not only plan how to get that fat hen, but we must also plan how to get away with it safely.  If only there was some way of getting in that henhouse at night, there would be no trouble at all.  I don’t suppose there is the least chance of that.”

“Not the least chance in the world,” replied Reddy.  “There isn’t a hole anywhere big enough for even Shadow the Weasel to get through, and Farmer Brown’s boy is very careful to lock the door every night.”