Bowser The Hound Gets A Cold Bath

by Thornton W. Burgess

Old Granny Fox was feeling out of sorts. In the first place she was hungry, and it always made her feel out of sorts to be hungry. In the second place she was tired and did not feel at all like a long, hard run. So, as one morning she and Reddy Fox ran across the snow-covered Green Meadows with the great voice of Bowser the Hound roaring behind them, Granny Fox made up her mind that she would fool Bowser the Hound without wasting any more time than she had to.

She sent Reddy Fox over to the Green Forest to hide and wait until she should come for him. Then she waited until Bowser the Hound was almost to her so that he would follow her instead of following the tracks of Reddy. Nearer and nearer came Bowser. He saw her now and his great voice rolled back across the meadows to the dear Old Brier-Patch where Farmer Brown's boy stood with his gun. Farmer Brown's boy smiled.

"Good old Bowser!" he cried. "That fox will have to be smarter than I think she is to fool him."

You see Farmer Brown's boy didn't know old Granny Fox or he wouldn't have been so sure. Bowser the Hound was smart, very smart indeed, but old granny Fox is one of the smartest of all the little people who live on the Green Meadows or in the Green Forest, and this very minute she was thinking of a plan to fool Bowser the Hound.

"Let me see," said Granny, talking to herself as she started to run again. "Let me see! That dog is getting very much excited and the nearer he gets to me the more excited he will get. Now excitement is very bad for any one. People who are very much excited seldom do any thinking. That often leads them into trouble. I must plan some trouble for the noisy dog."

So Granny Fox ran across the snow-covered Green Meadows, and right at her heels ran Bowser the Hound. Pretty soon they came in sight of the Smiling Pool, which now was all bound with ice and covered with snow, all excepting one end where the Laughing Brook came in. There was a little bit which had not frozen over. It looked cold and black. Old Granny Fox grinned when she saw it. She knew that around the edge of that open water the ice was thin, and right away an idea for getting rid of Bowser the Hound came into her head so that she almost chuckled aloud.

"Bowser is three times as heavy as I am," she thought. "I will run across where the ice is thin but strong enough to hold me. Bowser is so excited that he will not stop to think and he is so much heavier than I am that he will break through. Perhaps a cold bath will calm his excitement. Any way we will soon see."

It all happened just as shrewd old Granny Fox had planned. She allowed Bowser to get almost on her very heels. Then she ran down the bank and across the thin ice as close to the open water as she dared. She ran very fast and she heard the ice crack under her. When she had safely reached the other side, she turned just in time to see what happened to Bowser the Hound.

Bowser came roaring down the bank, too excited to look about him or think. He galloped out on the thin ice. Granny heard a great crack, there was a splash and a howl, and there was Bowser the Hound swimming for shore as fast as he could go. Granny fox sat ont he snow and laughed until her sides ached, to see Bowser crawl out shivering so that he didn't have to shake himself to get the water off. Then he started for home as fast as he could go so as not to freeze to death. Granny Fox, still chuckling trotted over to the Green Forest to join Reddy Fox.

"'Tis bad to get excited so
You don't know where it is you go!" said she.