ot to do is to swallow your
appetite and keep quiet in the darkest corner you can find,"

So Reddy Fox spent the rest of the night curled up in the darkest
corner, partly behind a box. All the time his nose was filled with the
smell of fat hens. Every little while a hen who was being crowded too
much on the roost would stir uneasily and protest in a sleepy voice.
Just think of what Reddy suffered. Just think how you would feel to be
very, very hungry and have right within reach the one thing you like
best in all the world to eat and then not dare touch it. Some foolish
folks in Reddy's place would have eaten that dinner and trusted to luck
to get out of trouble later. But Reddy was far too wise to do anything
of that kind.

Doing as Reddy did that night is called exercising self-restraint.
Everybody should be able to do it. But it sometimes seems as if very
many people cannot do it. Anyway, they don't do it, and because they
don't do it they are forever getting into trouble.

Reddy knew when morning came, although the henhouse was still dark.
Somehow or other hens always know just when jolly, round, red Mr. Sun
kicks his blankets off and begins his daily climb up in the blue, blue
sky. The big rooster on the topmost perch stretched his long neck,
flapped his wings, and crowed at the top of his voice. Reddy shivered.
"It won't be long now before Farmer Brown's boy comes," thought he.

CHAPTER XVII

FARMER BROWN'S BOY DROPS A PAN OF CORN

Who when surprised keeps calm and cool
Is one most difficult to fool.

_Bowser the Hound._

In his lifetime Reddy Fox has spent many anxious moments, but none more
anxious than those in which he waited for Farmer Brown's boy to open the
henhouse and feed the biddies on this particular morning.

From the moment when the big rooster on the topmost perch stretched
forth his neck, flapped his wings, and crowed as only he can crow, Reddy
was on pins and needles, as the saying is. Hiding behind a box in the
darkest corner of the henhouse, he hardly dared to breathe. You see, he
didn't want those hens to discover him. He knew that if they did they
would make such a racket that they would bring Farmer Brown's boy
hurrying out to find out what the trouble was.

Reddy had had experience with hens before. He knew that if Farmer
Brown's boy heard them making a great racket, he would know that
something was wrong, and he would come all prepared. This was the one
thing