, oh, what a difference! Reddy was inside
and a prisoner. Old Man Coyote was outside and free.

"Good evening, Reddy," said Old Man Coyote. "I hope you'll enjoy your
chicken dinner. When you are eating it, just think over this bit of
advice: Never take a risk when you can get some one else to take it for
you. I would like a chicken dinner myself, but as it is, I think I will
enjoy a Mouse or two better. Pay my respects to Farmer Brown's boy when
he comes in the morning."

With this, Old Man Coyote once more grinned that wicked grin of his and
trotted away towards the Green Forest. Reddy watched him disappear and
would have given anything in the world to have been outside the fence in
his place instead of inside, where he then was.

CHAPTER XV

REDDY'S FORLORN CHANCE

This saying is both true and terse:
There's nothing bad but might be worse.

_Bowser the Hound._

If any one had said this to Reddy Fox during the first half hour after
he discovered that he was a prisoner in Farmer Brown's henyard, he
wouldn't have believed it. He wouldn't have believed a word of it. He
would have said that he couldn't possibly have been worse off than he
was.

He was a prisoner, and he couldn't possibly get out. He knew that in the
morning Farmer Brown's boy would certainly discover him. It couldn't be
otherwise. That is, it couldn't be otherwise as long as he remained in
that henyard. There wasn't a thing, not one solitary thing, under or
behind which he could hide. So, to Reddy's way of thinking, things
couldn't possibly have been worse.

But after a while, having nothing else to do, Reddy began to think. Now
it is surprising how thinking will change matters. One of the first
thoughts that came to Reddy was that he might have been caught in a
trap,--one of those cruel traps that close like a pair of jaws and
sometimes break the bones of the foot or leg, and from which there is
no escape. Right away Reddy realized that to have been so caught would
have been much worse than being a prisoner in Farmer Brown's henyard.
This made him feel just a wee, wee bit better, and he began to do some
more thinking.

For a long time his thinking didn't help him in the least. At last,
however, he remembered the chicken dinner he had felt so sure he was
going to enjoy. The thought of the chicken dinner reminded him that
inside the henhouse it was dark. He had been inside that henhouse
before, and he knew that there were b