d on. As he
drew near the far corner of the Old Orchard, he saw Bob White and Mrs.
Bob and all the young Bobs picking up grain which Farmer Brown's boy had
scattered for them just in front of the shelter he had built for
them. Reddy crouched down and very slowly, an inch at a time, he crept
forward, his eyes shining with eagerness. Just as he was almost within
springing distance, Bob White gave a signal, and away flew the Bob
Whites to the safety of a hemlock-tree on the edge of the Green Forest.

Tears of rage and disappointment welled up in Reddy's eyes. "I wish I
could fly," he muttered, as he watched the brown birds disappear in the
big hemlock-tree.

This was quite as foolish a wish as the other, so Reddy trotted on and
decided to go down past the Smiling Pool. When he got there he found it,
as he expected, frozen over. But just where the Laughing Brook joins it
there was a little place where there was open water. Billy Mink was
on the ice at its edge, and just as Reddy got there Billy dived in. A
minute later he climbed out with a fish in his mouth.

"Give me a bite," begged Reddy.

"Catch your own fish," retorted Billy Mink. "I have to work hard enough
for what I get as it is."

Reddy was afraid to go out on the ice where Billy was, and so he sat and
watched him eat that fine fish. Then Billy dived into the water again
and disappeared. Reddy waited a long time, but Billy did not return. "I
wish I could dive," gulped Reddy, thinking of the fine fish somewhere
under the ice.

And this wish was quite as foolish as the other wishes.

CHAPTER XV: Reddy Fights A Battle

'T is not the foes that are without
But those that are within
That give us battles that we find
The hardest are to win.
--Old Granny Fox

After the last of his three foolish wishes, Reddy Fox left the Smiling
Pool and headed straight for the Old Pasture for which he had started in
the first place. He wished now that he had gone straight there. Then he
wouldn't have seen the suet tied out of reach to the branch of a tree in
the Old Orchard; he wouldn't have seen the Bob Whites fly away to safety
just as he felt almost sure of catching one; he wouldn't have seen Billy
Mink bring a fine fish out of the water and eat it right before him. It
is bad enough to be starving with no food in sight, but to be as hungry
as Reddy Fox was and to see food just out of reach, to smell it, and
not be able to get it is,--well, it