Old Mother Nature's plans for good
Quite often are not understood.
- Old Granny Fox.

Tommy Tit and Drummer the Woodpecker and Yank Yank the Nuthatch and
Sammy Jay and Chatterer the Red Squirrel were not the only ones who
were out and about as soon as the great storm ended. Oh, my, no! No,
indeed! Everybody who was not sleeping the winter away, or who had not
a store of food right at hand, was out. But not all were so fortunate
as Tommy Tit and his friends in finding a good meal.

Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Peter came out of the hole in the heart of the
dear Old Briar-patch, where they had managed to keep comfortably warm,
and at once began to fill their stomachs with bark from young
trees and tender tips of twigs. It was very coarse food, but it
would take away that empty feeling. Mrs. Grouse burst out of the
snow and hurried to get a meal before dark. She had no time to be
particular, and so she ate spruce buds. They were very bitter and
not much to her liking, but she was too hungry, and night was too
near for her to be fussy. She was thankful to have that much.

Granny Fox and Reddy were out too. They didn't need to hurry because,
as you know, they could hunt all night, but they were so hungry that
they just had to be looking for something to eat. They knew, of
course, that everybody else would be out, and they hoped that some
of these little people would be so weak that they could easily be caught.
That seems like a dreadful hope, doesn't it? But one of the first
laws of Old Mother Nature is self-preservation. That means to save
your own life first. So perhaps Granny and Reddy are not to be