ed up and tried to grin, but made a face of pain instead. You
see, it hurt so to move.

"I suppose you're tickled to death to see me like this," he growled to
Peter Rabbit.

Now Peter had every reason to be glad, for Reddy Fox had tried his best
to catch Peter Rabbit to give to old Granny Fox for her dinner, and time
and again Peter had just barely escaped. So at first Peter Rabbit had
whooped with joy. But as he saw how very helpless Reddy really was and
how much pain he felt, suddenly Peter Rabbit's big, soft eyes filled
with tears of pity.

He forgot all about the threats of Reddy Fox and how Reddy had tried to
trick him. He forgot all about how mean Reddy had been.

"Poor Reddy Fox," said Peter Rabbit. "Poor Reddy Fox."

XI. Granny Fox Returns

Up over the hill trotted old Granny Fox. She was on her way home with
a tender young chicken for Reddy Fox. Poor Reddy! Of course, it was his
own fault, for he had been showing off and he had been careless or he
never would have gone so near to the old tree trunk behind which Farmer
Brown's boy was hiding.

But old Granny Fox didn't know this. She never makes such mistakes
herself. Oh, my, no! So now, as she came up over the hill to a place
where she could see her home, she laid the chicken down and then she
crept behind a little bush and looked all over the Green Meadows to see
if the way was clear. She knew that Bowser the Hound was chained up. She
had seen Farmer Brown and Farmer Brown's boy hoeing in the cornfield, so
she had nothing to fear from them.

Looking over to her doorstep, she saw Reddy Fox lying in the sun, and
then she saw something else, something that made her eyes flash and her
teeth come together with a snap. It was Peter Rabbit sitting up very
straight, not ten feet from Reddy Fox.

"So that's that young scamp of a Peter Rabbit whom Reddy was going to
catch for me when I was sick and couldn't! I'll just show Reddy Fox how
easily it can be done, and he shall have tender young rabbit with his
chicken!" said Granny Fox to herself.

So first she studied and studied every clump of grass and every bush
behind which she could creep. She saw that she could get almost to where
Peter Rabbit was sitting and never once show herself to him. Then
she looked this way and looked that way to make sure that no one was
watching her.

No one did she see on the Green Meadows who was looking her way. Then
Granny Fox began to crawl from one clump of grass to