Good evening and welcome to Dreamtime Stories with Jackie.
I'm delighted you're here tonight as we read another chapter in the wonderful story Old Granny Fox.
So snuggle down in your bed and let's get ready for chapter 15.
In chapter 14 we left Ready hunting and making three silly wishes,
But now in chapter 15 he's going to fight a battle.
Ready fights a battle.
"'Tis 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,
Ready 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 White family 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 in front of him.
It's bad enough to be hungry and starving with no food in sight,
But to be as hungry as Ready Fox was and to see food just out of reach,
To smell it and not be able to get it,
Oh well,
It is more than most folks can stand patiently.
So Ready Fox was grumbling to himself as he hurried to the old pasture and his heart was bitter.
It seemed to him that everything was against him.
His neighbors had food,
But he had none,
Not so much as a crumb.
Oh,
It was unfair.
Old Mother Nature was unjust.
If he could climb,
He could get food.
If he could fly,
He could get food.
If he could dive,
He could get food.
But he could neither fly nor climb nor dive.
He didn't stop to think that Old Mother Nature had given him some of the sharpest wits in all the green forest or on all the green meadows,
That she had given him a wonderful nose,
That she had given him the keenest of ears,
That she had given him speed excelled by view.
He forgot all these things and he was so busy thinking bitterly of the things he didn't have that he forgot to use his wits and nose and ears when he reached the old pasture.
The result was he trotted right past Old Jed Thumper,
The big gray rabbit who was sitting behind a little bush holding his breath.
The minute Old Jed saw that Reddy was safely past,
He started for his bull briar castle as fast as he could.
It was not until then that Reddy discovered him.
Of course,
Reddy started after him and this time he made good use of his speed.
But he was too late.
Old Jed Thumper reached his castle with Reddy two jumps behind him.
Reddy knew now that there was no chance to catch Old Jed that day and for a few minutes he felt more bitter than before.
And then all in a flash,
Reddy Fox became the shrewd clever fellow that he really is and he grinned.
It's of no use to try to fill an empty stomach on wishes,
Said he.
If I had come straight here and minded my own business,
I'd have caught Old Jed Thumper today.
Now I am going to go and get some food and I'm not going home until I do.
Very wisely,
Reddy put all unpleasant thoughts out of his head and settled down to using his wits and his eyes and his ears and his nose for all they were worth,
As old mother nature had indeed intended he should.
All through the old pasture he hunted,
Taking care not to miss a single place where there was the least chance of finding food.
But it was all in vain.
Reddy gulped down his disappointment.
Now for the big river,
He said,
And he started off bravely.
When he reached the edge of the big river,
He hurried along the bank until he reached a place where the water seldom freezes.
As he had hoped,
He found that it was not frozen today.
It looked so black and cold it made him shiver just to see it.
Back and forth,
With his nose to the ground,
He ran.
Suddenly,
He stopped and sniffed.
Then he sniffed again.
Then he followed his nose straight to the very edge of the big river.
And there,
Floating in the black water,
Was a dead fish.
By wading in,
He could get it.
Reddy shivered at the touch of the cold water.
But what were wet feet compared with such an empty stomach as his?
In a minute,
He had that fish and was back on the shore.
It wasn't a very big fish,
But it would stop the ache in his stomach until he could get something more.
With a sigh of pure happiness,
He sank his teeth into that fish.
And then,
Well,
Then he remembered poor old Granny Fox.
Reddy swallowed a mouthful and tried to forget Granny,
But he couldn't.
He swallowed another mouthful.
Oh,
Poor old Granny was back there at home,
Just as hungry as he was,
And too stiff and tired to hunt.
Reddy choked.
And then he began a battle with himself.
His stomach demanded that fish.
If he ate it,
No one would be the wiser.
No one would know.
But Granny needed it even more than he did.
For a long time,
Reddy fought with himself.
In the end,
He picked that fish up and he started for home.
Oh,
What a good job,
Reddy.
So snuggle down in your bed and have a lovely sleep and come back soon for chapter 16.
This is Jackie sending you so many hugs.
Good night now.
