“Thank you, Granny.  You needn’t bother about it any longer; I’ll take it now,” growled Old Man Coyote in Granny’s ear.

Granny let go of that dinner as if it burned her tongue, and with a frightened little yelp leaped to one side.  A minute later Reddy came racing around from behind the barn eager for his share.  What he saw was Old Man Coyote bolting down that twice-stolen dinner while Granny Fox fairly danced with rage.

CHAPTER XXI:  Granny And Reddy Talk Things Over.

   You’ll find as on through life you go
   The thing you want may prove to be
   The very thing you shouldn’t have. 
   Then seeming loss is gain, you see.
      — Old Granny Fox.

If ever two folks were mad away through, those two were Granny and Reddy Fox as they watched Old Man Coyote gobble up the dinner they had so cleverly stolen from Bowser the Hound.  It was bad enough to lose the dinner, but it was worse to see some one else eat it after they had worked so hard to get it.  “Robber!” snarled Granny.  Old Man Coyote stopped eating long enough to grin.

“Thief!  Sneak!  Coward!” snarled Reddy.  Once more Old Man Coyote grinned.  When that dinner had disappeared down his throat to the last and smallest crumb, he licked his chops and turned to Granny and Reddy.

“I’m very much obliged for that dinner,” said he pleasantly, his eyes twinkling with mischief.  “It was the best dinner I have had for a long time.  Allow me to say that that trick of yours was as smart a trick as ever I have seen.  It was quite worthy of a Coyote.  You are a very clever old lady, Granny Fox.  Now I hear some one coming, and I would suggest that it will be better for all concerned if we are not seen about here.”

He darted off behind the barn like a gray streak, and Granny and Reddy followed, for it was true that some one was coming.  You see Bowser the Hound had discovered that something was going on around the corner of the shed, and he made such a racket that Mrs. Brown had come out of the house to see what it was all about.  By the time she got around there, all she saw was the empty pan which had held Bowser’s dinner.  She was puzzled.  How that pan could be where it was she couldn’t understand, and Bowser couldn’t tell her, although he tried his very best.  She had been puzzled about that pan two or three times before.

Old Man Coyote lost no time in getting back home, for he never felt easy near the home of man in broad daylight.  Granny and Reddy Fox went home too, and there was hate in their hearts, —­ hate for Old Man Coyote.  But once they reached home, Old Granny Fox stopped growling, and presently she began to chuckle.

“What are you laughing at?” demanded Reddy.

“At the way Old Man Coyote stole that dinner from us,” replied Granny.

“I hate him!  He’s a sneaking robber!” snapped Reddy.