decided to go down past the Smiling Pool. When he got there he found
it, as he expected, frozen over. But just where the Laughing Brook
joins it there was a little place where there was open water. Billy
Mink was on the ice at its edge, and just as Reddy got there Billy
dived in. A minute later he climbed out with a fish in his mouth.

"Give me a bite," begged Reddy.

"Catch your own fish," retorted Billy Mink. "I have to work hard
enough for what I get as it is."

Reddy was afraid to go out on the ice where Billy was, and so he sat
and watched him eat that fine fish. Then Billy dived into the water
again and disappeared. Reddy waited a long time, but Billy did not
return. "I wish I could dive," gulped Reddy, thinking of the fine
fish somewhere under the ice.

And this wish was quite as foolish as the other wishes.



CHAPTER XV: Reddy Fights A Battle

'T is not the foes that are without
But those that are within
That give us battles that we find
The hardest are to win.
Old Granny Fox

After the last of his three foolish wishes, Reddy Fox left the Smiling