ncertain way dozens of times before. Then slowly, watching out
sharply on both sides of her, without appearing to do so, she walked
down the hill to the hollow at the foot.

Now old Granny Fox can be very dignified when she wants to be, and she
was now. She didn't hurry the least little bit. She carried her big,
plumey tail just so. And she didn't once look behind her, for she felt
sure that there was nothing out of the way there, and to have done so
would have been quite undignified. She had reached the bottom of the
hill and was walking along the hollow, smiling to herself to think how
easily some people are frightened, when her sharp ears caught a sound
on the hill behind her. She turned like a flash and then--well, for a
minute old Granny Fox was too surprised to do anything but stare.
There, rolling down the hill straight towards her, was the very thing
Reddy had told her about.

At first Granny decided to stay right where she was and find out what
this thing was, but the nearer it got, the stranger and more terrible
it seemed. It was just a great ball all covered with dried leaves, and
yet somehow Granny felt sure that it was alive, although she could see
no head or tail or legs. The nearer it got, the stranger and more
terrible it seemed. Then Granny forgot her dignity. Yes, Sir, she
forgot her dignity. In fact, she quite lost it altogether. Granny Fox
ran just as Reddy had run!

XVII

GRANNY FOX CATCHES PETER RABBIT

Now listen to this little tale
That deals somewhat with folly,
And shows how sometimes one may be
A little bit too jolly.

No sooner was old Granny Fox out of sight, running as if she thought
that every jump might be her last, than Jimmy Skunk came out from the
hole under a big stump where he had been hiding, Peter Rabbit came out
of the hollow log from which he had been peeping, and Unc' Billy
Possum dropped down from the hemlock-tree in which he had so carefully
kept out of sight, and all three began to dance around Prickly Porky,
laughing as if they were trying to split their sides.

"Ho, ho, ho!" shouted Jimmy Skunk. "I wonder what Reddy Fox would have
said if he could have seen old Granny go down that hollow!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Peter Rabbit. "Did you see how her eyes popped
out?"

"Hee, hee, hee!" squeaked Unc' Billy Possum in his funny cracked
voice. "Ah reckons she am bound to have sore feet if she keeps on
running the way she started."

Prickly