Good evening and welcome to Dreamtime Stories with Jackie.
Thank you for coming by tonight and letting me join you before you head into sleep.
We are reading Old Granny Fox and when last we left Granny and Ready they were thinking of a plan in chapter 21 to get a hen from Farmer Brown.
So make sure your covers are just the way you like them.
And here we go.
Chapter 22.
Granny plans to get a fat hen.
Full half success for fox or man is won by working out a plan.
Old Granny Fox.
Granny knows this.
No one knows it better.
Whatever she does is first carefully planned in her wise old head.
So now after she had decided that she and Ready would try for one of Farmer Brown's fat hens,
She lay down to think out a plan to get that fat hen.
No one knew better than she how foolish it would be to go over to that hen yard and just trust to luck for a chance to catch one of those biddies.
Of course they might be lucky and get a hen that way,
But then again they might be unlucky and get in a peck of trouble.
You see,
She said to Ready,
We must not only plan how to get that fat hen,
But we must also plan how to get away with it safely.
If only there were some way of getting into that hen house at night,
There would be no trouble at all.
I don't suppose there is the least chance of that.
No,
Not the least chance in the world,
Replied Ready.
There isn't a hole anywhere big enough for even Shadow the Weasel to get through,
And Farmer Brown's boy is very careful to lock the door every night.
There's a little hole that the hens go in and out of during the day,
Said Granny,
Which is big enough for one of us to slip through,
I believe.
Sure,
But it's always closed at night.
Besides,
To get to that or the other door,
You have got to inside the hen yard,
And there's a gate which we cannot open.
Well,
People are sometimes careless,
Even you,
Ready,
Said Granny.
Ready squirmed uneasily,
For he had been in trouble many times through his carelessness.
Well,
What of it,
He asked a wee bit crossly?
Nothing much,
Only if that hen yard gate should happen to be left open,
And if Farmer Brown's boy should happen to forget to close that little hole that the hens go through,
And if we happen to be around just at that time.
.
.
Oh,
That's just too many ifs to get a dinner with,
Interrupted Ready.
Perhaps,
Replied Granny,
But I've noticed that it is the one who has an eye open for all the little ifs in life that bears the best.
Now,
I've kept an eye on that hen yard,
And I've noticed that very often Farmer Brown's boy does not close the hen yard gate at night.
I suppose he thinks that if the hen house door is locked,
The gate doesn't matter.
Anyone who is careless about one thing is likely to be careless about another.
Sometime he may forget to close that hole.
I told you that we would try for one of those hens tomorrow morning,
But the more I think about it,
The more I think it will be wiser to visit that hen house a few nights before we run the risk of trying to catch a hen in broad daylight.
In fact,
I'm pretty sure I can make Farmer Brown's boy forget to close that gate.
How?
Demanded Ready eagerly.
Granny grinned.
I'll try it first and tell you later.
I believe Farmer Brown's boy closes the hen house up just before jolly round Mr.
Sun goes to bed behind the Purple Hills,
Doesn't he?
Ready nodded.
Many times from a safe hiding place,
He had hungrily watched Farmer Brown's boy shut the biddies up.
It was always just before the black shadows began to creep out from their hiding places.
I thought so,
Said Granny.
The truth is she knew it.
There was nothing about that hen house and what went on there that Granny did not know quite as well as Ready.
You stay right here this afternoon until I return.
I'll see what I can do.
Oh,
Let me go along,
Please,
Begged Ready.
No,
You stay here.
Sometimes two can do what one cannot do alone,
And sometimes one can do what two might spoil.
Now we may as well go and take a nap until it's time for Mr.
Sun to go to bed.
Just you leave it to your old Granny to take care of the first of those ifs,
For the other one will have to trust to luck.
But you know we are lucky sometimes.
With this,
Granny curled up for a nap,
And having nothing better to do,
Ready followed her example.
So let's join Ready and Granny as they slumber,
And we'll go to sleep now and come back soon for chapter 23.
This is Jackie wishing you so many sweet dreams and sending you hugs.
Good night now.
