Half-Past Seven Stories | Page 4

to happen--they were so exciting.
A little streak of fur, with tail flying behind like a long pretty hat brush,
galloped across the Apgar field, then the very field where Marmaduke
sat, perched on the fence.
The dogs were right after Reddy, running hard, too, but they were two
fields farther back. Reddy, you see, had fooled them in that wood, and
he had gotten a good headstart.

My, how Reddy was running!
Marmaduke stood up on the fence and shouted:
"Hooray, go it Reddy!"
[Illustration: "Marmaduke stood on the fence and shouted:--'Hooray!
Go it, Reddy!'"]
He shouted so hard, and waved his hands so excitedly that he tumbled
off his perch, and lay still for a second. He was frightened, too, but he
forgot all about the bump on his forehead, and picked himself up, and
ran after Reddy across the field towards the barnyard, which,
fortunately, was just on the other side.
"Ooooooohhhhh!"--a very deep "Oooooohhhh!" came from behind him
from the throats of the dogs. They were only one field away now, and it
sounded as if they were pretty mad.
But Reddy had reached the corner of the field where the blackberry
bushes lined the fence. Now usually Reddy would have looked all
around those bushes until he found an opening; then he would have
stepped daintily through it. But he didn't do that today, oh no! You see
his family has a great reputation for wisdom, and Reddy must have
been just as wise as the man in Mother Goose, for he neither stopped
nor stayed, but jumped right in those brambles and managed somehow
to get through the rails of the fence to the other side. He left part of his
pretty red coat in the briars. However, that was better than leaving it all
to those dogs who were howling not far behind.
And now the Little Fox found himself near the barn and flew towards it
so fast that his legs fairly twinkled as he ran.
The Foolish White Geese were taking their morning waddle, and
Reddy ran plump into them. Now there was nothing that he liked better
to eat than nice fat goose. Still, he didn't wait, but left them beating
their wings and stretching their long necks to hiss, hiss, hiss, as they
scattered in all directions. I guess Reddy wished his legs were as long

as their necks.
Now in the old days when rich folks lived in castles and robber knights
quarreled and fought every day of the week, there were always places
of sanctuary, where any man could be safe from harm. That is just what
Reddy saw in front of him, a place of sanctuary for himself.
It was funny, but it had been prepared by little Wienerwurst. And
Wienerwurst was really Reddy's enemy, for all dogs like to chase foxes
whenever they get the chance. It was a little hole, just the right size for
Wienerwurst, just the right size for Reddy. The little yellow doggie
wasn't there now. He had dug it that morning to catch the big rat hiding
somewhere below the floor of the barn. He had started to build a tunnel
under the wall, and had been a long time working at it when Mother
Green came from the house. She carried a fine large bone, with lots of
meat left on it, too. And, of course, when the little dog smelled that
bone and meat, much as he liked rats, he just had to leave his work at
the tunnel and run straight for the bone, leaving the hole waiting for
Reddy.
Straight into it Reddy ran, just as Marmaduke and the big dogs reached
the fence and the blackberry bushes, all at the same time. Now
Marmaduke could have cried because the hunter dogs would reach the
hole before he could get there and cover it up, and they would reach
down into that hole and drag Reddy out by his pretty red coat and eat
him all up.
But when he stuck his head through the rail he saw help coming.
Jehosophat was there and he had heard those bad dogs and seen them,
too, coming on with their big mouths open and their tongues hanging
out as if they wanted to swallow Reddy down in one gulp. And
Jehosophat could see the redcoats on the horses not far away. They had
reached the big oak in the field and were coming on very fast.
He looked around. There was the very thing. A nice, broad cover of an
egg-crate. It would fit exactly. So, quick as a wink, Jehosophat picked
it up and clapped it over the hole. Then he looked around again. It
wasn't quite safe yet. But there was the big rock which they used for

"Duck-on-the-rock."