d the habit of
slipping away alone for a hunt every once in a while. When Farmer
Brown's boy discovered this, he got a chain and chained Bowser to his
little house to keep him from running away and hunting on the sly.

Of course Bowser wasn't kept chained all the time. Oh, my, no! When his
master was about, where he could keep an eye on Bowser, he would let him
go free. But whenever he was going away and didn't want to take Bowser
with him, he would chain Bowser up. Now Bowser always had one good big
meal a day. To be sure, he had scraps or a bone now and then besides,
but once a day he had one good big meal served to him in a large tin
pan. If he happened to be chained, it was brought out to him. If not, it
was given to him just outside the kitchen door.

Granny Fox knew all about this. Sly old Granny makes it her business to
know the affairs of other people around her because there is no telling
when such knowledge may be of use to her. So Granny had watched Bowser
the Hound when he and his master had no idea at all that she was
anywhere about, and she had found out his ways, the usual hour for his
dinner and just how far that chain would allow him to go. It was such
things which she had stored away in that shrewd old head of hers that
made her so sure she and Reddy could take Bowser's dinner away from him.
It was just about Bowser's dinner-time when Granny and Reddy trotted
across the snow-covered fields and crept behind the barn until they
could peep around the corner. No one was in sight, not even Bowser, who
was inside his warm little house at the end of the long shed back of
Farmer Brown's house. Granny saw that he was chained and a sly grin
crept over her face.

"You stay right here and watch until his dinner is brought out to him,"
said she to Reddy. "As soon as whoever brings it has gone back to the
house you walk right out where Bowser will see you. At the sight of you,
he'll forget all about his dinner. Sit right down where he can see you
and stay there until you see that I have got that dinner, or until you
hear somebody coming, for you know Bowser will make a great racket. Then
slip around back of the barn and join me back of that shed."

So Reddy sat down to watch, and Granny left him. By and by Mrs. Brown
came out of the house with a pan full of good things. She put it down
in front of Bowser's little house and called to him. Then she turned and
hurried back, for it was very cold. Bowser came out of h