one mentioned Bowser the Hound,
Reddy would turn up his nose and say: "Pooh! It's the easiest thing in
the world to fool him."

You see, he had forgotten all about the time Bowser had fooled him at
the railroad bridge.

Whenever Reddy saw Farmer Brown's boy he would say with the greatest
scorn: "Who's afraid of him? Not I!"

So as Reddy Fox thought more and more of his own smartness, he grew
bolder and bolder. Almost every night he visited Farmer Brown's henyard.
Farmer Brown set traps all around the yard, but Reddy always found them
and kept out of them. It got so that Unc' Billy Possum and Jimmy Skunk
didn't dare go to the henhouse for eggs any more, for fear that they
would get into one of the traps set for Reddy Fox. Of course they missed
those fresh eggs and of course they blamed Reddy Fox.

"Never mind," said Jimmy Skunk, scowling down on the Green Meadows where
Reddy Fox was taking a sun bath, "Farmer Brown's boy will get him yet!
I hope he does!" Jimmy said this a little spitefully and just as if he
really meant it.

Now when people think that they are very, very smart, they like to show
off. You know it isn't any fun at all to feel smart unless others can
see how smart you are. So Reddy Fox, just to show off, grew very bold,
very bold indeed. He actually went up to Farmer Brown's henyard in broad
daylight, and almost under the nose of Bowser the Hound he caught the
pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy. 'Ol Mistah Buzzard, sailing overhead
high up in the blue, blue sky, saw Reddy Fox and shook his bald head:

"Ah see Trouble on the way; Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do! Hope it ain't
a-gwine to stay; Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do! Trouble am a spry ol' man,
Bound to find yo' if he can; If he finds yo' bound to stick. When Ah
sees him, Ah runs quick! Yes, Ah do! Yes, Ah do!"

But Reddy Fox thought himself so smart that it seemed as if he really
were hunting for Ol' Mr. Trouble. And when he caught the pet chicken of
Farmer Brown's boy, Ol' Mr. Trouble was right at his heels.

V. Reddy Grows Careless

Ol' Mistah Buzzard was right. Trouble was right at the heels of Reddy
Fox, although Reddy wouldn't have believed it if he had been told. He
had stolen that plump pet chicken of Farmer Brown's boy for no reason
under the sun but to show off. He wanted everyone to know how bold he
was. He thought himself so smart that he could do just exactly what he
pleased and no one could stop him. He liked to strut around through the
G