Forest until I get that fox!" said Farmer Brown's boy, and as he said it
he looked very fierce, as if he really meant it. "I'm not going to
have my chickens stolen any more! No, Sir-e-e! That fox has got a home
somewhere on the Green Meadows or in the Green Forest, and I'm going to
find it. Then watch out, Mr. Fox!"

Farmer Brown's boy whistled for Bowser the Hound and started for the
Green Forest.

Unc' Billy Possum poked his sharp little old face out from under the
henhouse and watched them go. Usually Unc' Billy is grinning, but now
there wasn't any grin, not the least sign of one. Instead Unc' Billy
Possum looked worried.

"There goes that boy with a gun, and nobody knows what'll happen when it
goes off. If he can't find Reddy Fox, just as likely as not he'll point
it at somebody else just fo' fun. Ah hope he doan meet up with mah ol'
woman or any of mah li'l' pickaninnies. Ah'm plumb afraid of a boy with
a gun, Ah am. 'Pears like he doan have any sense. Ah reckon Ah better be
moving along right smart and tell mah family to stay right close in
the ol' hollow tree," muttered Unc' Billy Possum, slipping out from his
hiding place. Then Unc' Billy began to run as fast as he could toward
the Green Forest.

XVIII. The Hunt for Reddy Fox

"Trouble, trouble, trouble, I feel it in the air; Trouble, trouble,
trouble, it's round me everywhere."

Old Granny Fox muttered this over and over, as she kept walking around
uneasily and sniffing the air.

"I don't see any trouble and I don't feel any trouble in the air.
It's all in the sore places where I was shot," said Reddy Fox, who was
stretched out on the doorstep of their home.

"That's because you haven't got any sense. When you do get some and
learn to look where you are going, you won't get shot from behind
old tree trunks and you will be able to feel trouble when it is near,
without waiting for it to show itself. Now I feel trouble. You go down
into the house and stay there!" Granny Fox stopped to test the air with
her nose, just as she had been testing it for the last ten minutes.

"I don't want to go in," whined Reddy Fox. "It's nice and warm out here,
and I feel a lot better than when I am curled up way down there in the
dark."

Old Granny Fox turned, and her eyes blazed as she looked at Reddy Fox.
She didn't say a word. She didn't have to. Reddy just crawled into his
house, muttering to himself. Granny stuck her head in at the door.

"Don't you come ou