Granny Fox is sly and wise
And seldom taken by surprise,
But wisdom wrongly put to use
Can never find a good excuse.
It ceases then to wisdom be,
But foolishness, as we shall see.
NOW, with all her smartness and all her cleverness, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. Yes, Sir, old Granny Fox had made one great mistake. You see, she had become so used to being thought the smartest and cleverest of all the little people who lived on the Green Meadows and around the Smiling Pool and in the Green Forest, that she had come to believe that there couldn't be anybody anywhere as smart and clever as she. That was because she didn't know Old Man Coyote. And now, as she and Reddy Fox watched from their hiding place the meeting between Old Man Coyote and Prickly Porky, she felt a sudden sharp sting in her pride. Old Man Coyote had proved himself too smart for Prickly Porky. She ground her teeth as she heard him laughing fit to kill himself as he kept out of Prickly Porky's reach, and she ground them still more as she heard him say:
“You will boast that you will drive me out of the Green Forest, will you, Mr. Porcupine1? The time to brag2 will be when you have done it.”
Prickly Porky stopped short in the middle of one of his clumsy rushes.
“Boaster and bragger3 yourself!” he grunted<............