He looked every which way even up in the tree tops, but all his looking
was in vain. It was so mysterious that if he hadn't known positively
that he was awake he would have thought it was all a dream.
But Reddy is something of a philosopher. That fat hen was gone, and
there was no use in wasting time puzzling over it. There were other fat
hens where that one came from, and he would just have to catch another.
So Reddy trotted through the swamp till he came to the edge of it. There
his keen nose found the scent of the farmer. It didn't take him two
minutes to discover that the farmer had followed Bowser the Hound to the
edge of the swamp and then gone back. Eagerly Reddy looked over to the
farmyard for those fat hens. They, too, had disappeared. Not one was to
be seen. But there was no mystery about the disappearance of these other
fat hens. He heard the muffled crow of the big rooster. It came from the
henhouse. All those fat hens had been shut up. It was perfectly plain
to Reddy that the farmer suspected Reddy might return, and he didn't
intend to lose another fat hen. With a little yelp of disappointment,
Reddy turned his back on the farm and trotted off into the woods.
CHAPTER XLI
WHAT BLACKY THE CROW SAW
The greatest puzzle is simple enough when you know the answer.
_Bowser the Hound._
There were just two people to whom the disappearance of that fat hen
Reddy Fox had hidden in the hollow stump was not a mystery.
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