A kindly¹ word, a kindly deed,
 
Is like the planting of a seed;
 
It first sends forth² a little root
 
And by and by bears splendid fruit.
 
 
WHEN Old Man Coyote first came to the Green Meadows, to live, he chased Peter Rabbit and gave Peter a terrible fright. After that for some time Peter kept very close to the dear Old Briar-patch, where he always felt perfectly³ safe. But Peter dearly loves to roam, and Peter is very, very curious, so it wasn't long before he began to grow tired of the Old Briar-patch and long to go abroad on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest as he always had done, and find out all that was going on among his neighbors.
 
Of course Peter heard a great deal, for Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow would stop almost every day to tell him the latest news about Old Man Coyote. They told him all about how Granny Fox had tried to make trouble between him and Prickly Porky the Porcupine⁴, and how she had been found out. After they had gone, Peter sat very still for a long time, thinking it all over.
 
“H-m-m,” said Peter to himself, “it is very plain to me that Old Man Coyote is smarter than Granny Fox, and that means a great deal to me. Y es, Sir, that means a great deal to me. It means that I have got to watch out for him even sharper than I have to watch out for Granny and Reddy Fox. Dear me, dear me, just as if I didn't have troubles enough as it is!”
 
As he talked, Peter was sitting on the very edge of the Old Briar-patch, looking towards the place where Sammy Jay had told him that Old Man Coyote took his sun-nap every day. Suddenly he saw something that made him stop thinking about his troubles and sit up a little straighter and open his big eyes a little wider. It was Reddy Fox, creeping very, very slowly and carefully towards the napping place of Old Man Coyote. When he was near enough to see, Reddy lay down in the grass and watched. After a little while he tiptoed back to the Green Forest.
 
Peter scratched his ............