Some of them it made very sly and cunning, like
old Mr. Fox. Mr. Coyote was another whom it made sly and cunning. He
was smart in the first place, even smarter than Mr. Fox, and he very
early made up his mind that if he would live, it must be by his wits,
for he wasn't big enough or strong enough to fight with his neighbors
such as his big cousin, Mr. Timber Wolf, or Mr. Lynx, or Mr. Panther
or Old King Bear, who was king no longer. And yet he liked the same
things to eat.
"So he used to study and plan how he could outwit them without danger
to himself. 'A whole skin is better than a full stomach, but both a
whole skin and a full stomach are better still,' said he to himself;
as he thought and schemed. For a while he was content to catch what he
could without danger to himself, and to eat what his bigger and
stronger neighbors left when they happened to get more than they
wanted for themselves. Little by little he got the habit of slyly
following them when they were hunting, always keeping out of sight. In
this way, he managed to get many meals of scraps. But these scraps
never wholly satisfied him, and his mouth used to water as he watched
the others feast on the very best when they had had a successful hunt.
He knew it wouldn't be of the least use to go out and boldly ask for
some, for in those hard times everybody was very, very selfish.
"The times grew harder and harder, until it seemed as if Old Mother
Nature had wholly forgotten her little people of the Green Meadows and
the Green Forest.
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