losing her mind now. It's a pity, a great pity. I can just imagine
how Quacker will laugh at her. I have to laugh myself."

He did laugh, but you may be sure he took great pains that Granny
should not see him laughing. Whenever she looked around he was as
sober as could be. In fact, he appeared to be quite as eager as if
he felt sure they would catch Quacker. Now old Granny Fox is very
wise in the ways of the Great World, and if Reddy could have known
what was going on in her mind as she led the way to the Big River,
he might not have felt quite so sure of his own smartness.
Granny was doing some quiet laughing herself.

"He thinks I'm old and foolish and don't know what I'm about, the young
scamp!" thought she. "He thinks he has learned all there is to learn.
It isn't the least use in the world to try to tell him anything.
When young folks feel the way he does, it is a waste of time to talk
to them. He has got to be shown. There is nothing like experience
to take the conceit out of these youngsters."

Now conceit is the feeling that you know more than any one else.
Perhaps you do. Then again, perhaps you don't. So sometimes it
is best not to be too sure of your own opinion. Reddy was sure.
He trotted along behind old Granny Fox and planned smart things to
say to her when she found that there wasn't a chance to catch
Quacker the Duck. I am afraid, very much afraid, that Reddy was
planning to be saucy. People who think themselves smart are quite
apt to be saucy.

Presently they came to the bank of the Big River. Old Granny Fox
told Reddy to sit still while she crept up behind some bushes where