SAMMY JAY has been the bearer of so many messages that no one knows better than he how to deliver one. He knows when to be polite, and no one can be more polite than he. First he went over to the home of Reddy and Granny Fox and invited them to come over to the hill where Prickly Porky lives and see the terrible creature which had frightened them so give Old Man Coyote a scare. Both Reddy and Granny promptly² said they would do nothing of the kind, that probably Sammy was engaged in some kind of mischief³, and that anyway they knew that there was no such creature without head, legs, or tail, and though they had been fooled once, they didn't propose to be fooled again.

 

"All right," replied Sammy, quite as if it made no difference to him. "You admit that smart as you are you were fooled, and we thought you might like to see the same thing happen to Old Man Coyote."

 

With this he flew on his way to the Green Meadows to look for Old Man Coyote, and as he flew he chuckled⁴ to himself. "They'll be there," he muttered. "I know them well enough to know that nothing would keep them away when there is a chance to see some one else frightened, especially Old Man Coyote. They'll try to keep out of sight, but they'll be there."

 

Sammy found Old Man Coyote taking a sun-bath. "Good morning, Mr. Coyote. I hope you are feeling well," said Sammy in his politest manner.

 

"Fairly, fairly, thank you," replied Old Man Coyote, all the time watching Sammy sharply out of the corners of his shrewd eyes. "What's the news in the Green Forest?"

 

"There isn't any, that is, none to amount to anything," declared Sammy. "I never did see such a dull summer. Is there any news down here on the Green Meadows? I hear Danny Meadow Mouse has found his lost baby."

 

"So I hear," replied Old Man Coyote. "I tried to find it for him. You know I believe in being neighborly."

 

Sammy grinned, for as he said this, Old Man Coyote had winked⁵ one eye ever so little, and Sammy knew very well that if he had found that lost baby, Danny Meadow Mouse would never have seen him again. "By the way," said Sammy in the most matter-of-fact tone, "as I was coming through the Green Forest, I saw Peter Rabbit over on the hill where Prickly Porky lives, and Peter seems to have been in some kind of trouble. He was so

分享到：