Good evening.
Welcome back to Dreamtime Stories with Jackie.
Tonight we're going to read chapter 14 where Ready Fox is going to go out hunting and Granny Fox is going to stay in the den and relax and rest up because she was too tired to join him on the hunt.
So snuggle down in your bed,
Get your covers just right and we'll begin chapter 14,
Three Vain and Foolish Wishes.
There's nothing so foolishly silly and vain as to wish for a thing you can never attain.
Old Granny Fox.
We all know that.
Yet most of us are just foolish enough to make such a wish now and then.
I guess maybe you have even done it.
I know I have.
I know Peter Rabbit has done it often and then laughed at himself afterwards.
I suspect that even shrewd,
Clever Old Granny Fox has been guilty of it more than once.
So it is not surprising that Ready Fox,
Terribly hungry as he was,
Should do a little foolish wishing too.
When he left home to go to the old pasture in the hope that he would be able to find something to eat there,
He started off bravely.
It was very cold,
Oh very cold indeed,
But his fur coat kept him very warm as long as he was moving.
The green meadows were glistening white with snow.
All the world,
At least all that part of it which Ready was acquainted,
Was white.
It was so beautiful,
So beautiful,
As millions of sparkles flashed in the sun.
But Ready had no thought for beauty.
The only thought he had room for was to get something to put in the empty stomachs of himself and Granny Fox.
Jack Frost had hardened the snow so that Ready no longer had to wade through it.
He could run on the top of the crust now without breaking through.
This made it so much easier,
So he trotted along rather swiftly.
He had intended to go straight to the old pasture,
But there suddenly popped into his head a memory of the shelter down in a far corner of the old orchard which Farmer Brown's boy had built for Bob White.
Probably the Bob White family might be there now and he might surprise them.
He would go there first.
Ready stopped and looked carefully to make sure that Farmer Brown's boy and Bowser the hound were nowhere in sight.
Then he ran swiftly towards the old orchard.
Just as he entered it,
He heard a merry voice just over his head.
Dee,
Dee,
Dee.
Ready stopped and looked up.
There was Tommy Titt the chickadee,
Clinging tightly to a big piece of fresh suet tied fast to a branch of a tree.
And Tommy was stuffing himself.
Ready sat down right underneath that suet and looked up longingly at it.
Oh,
The sight of it made his mouth water so that it was almost more than he could stand.
He jumped once,
He jumped twice,
He jumped three times so high,
But all his jumping was in vain.
That suet was beyond his reach.
There was no possible way of reaching it,
Save by flying or climbing.
Ready's tongue hung out of his mouth with longing.
Oh,
I wish I could climb,
Said Ready.
But he couldn't climb and all the wishing in the world would not enable him to,
As he very well knew.
So after a little while he started 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.
Ready crouched down and very slowly,
An inch at a time,
He crept forward,
His eyes shining with eagerness.
And just as he was almost within springing distance,
Bob White gave a signal and away flew the Bob White family to the safety of a hemlock tree on the edge of the green forest.
Oh,
Tears of rage and disappointment welled up in Ready's eyes.
Oh,
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 Ready 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 there where there was open water.
Billy Mink was on the ice at its edge.
And just as Ready got there,
Billy dived in.
A minute later,
He climbed out with a big fish in his mouth.
Oh,
Give me a bite,
Begged Ready.
Oh,
Catch your own fish,
Retorted Billy Mink.
I have to work hard enough for what I get as it is.
Ready 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.
Ready waited a long time,
But Billy did not return.
Oh,
I wish I could dive,
Gulped Ready,
Thinking of the fine fish somewhere under the ice.
And this wish was quite as foolish as the other wishes.
So join me again really soon to see what happens in Chapter 15.
Maybe Ready will get a fish.
You have a good night's sleep now.
This is Jackie sending you many,
Many hugs.
Good night now.
