"Sh-h-h, be still!" whispered Old Granny Fox.



CHAPTER XXV: A Dinner For Two

Dark deeds are done in the stilly night,
And who shall say if they're wrong or right?
- Old Granny Fox.

It all depends on how you look at things. Of course, Granny and
Reddy Fox had no business to be in Farmer Brown's henhouse in the
middle of the night, or at any other time, for that matter. That is,
they had no business to be there, as Farmer Brown would look at the
matter. He would have called them two red thieves. Perhaps that is
just what they were. But looking at the matter as they did, I am
not so sure about it. To Granny and Reddy Fox those hens were
simply big, rather stupid birds, splendid eating if they could be
caught, and bound to be eaten by somebody. The fact that they were
in Farmer Brown's henhouse didn't make them his any more than the
fact that Mrs. Grouse was in a part of the Green Forest owned by
Farmer Brown made her his.

You see, among the little meadow and forest people there is no such
thing as property rights, excepting in the matter of storehouses,
and because these hens were alive, it didn't occur to Granny and
Reddy that the henhouse was a sort of storehouse. It would have
made no difference if it had. Among the little people it is
considered quite right to help yourself from another's storehouse if