CHAPTER XIV: Three Vain And Foolish Wishes

There's nothing so foolishly silly and vain As to wish for a thing you can never attain. --Old Granny Fox.

We all know that, yet most of us are just foolish enough to make such a wish now and then. I guess you have done it. I know I have. Peter Rabbit has done it often and then laughed at himself afterwards. I suspect that even shrewd, clever old Granny Fox has been guilty of it more than once. So it is not surprising that Reddy Fox, terribly hungry as he was, should do a little foolish wishing.

When he left home to go to the Old Pasture, in the hope that he would be able to find something to eat there, he started off bravely. It was cold, very cold indeed, but his fur coat kept him warm as long as he was moving. The Green Meadows were glistening white with snow. All the world, at least all that part of it with which Reddy was acquainted, was white. It was beautiful, very beautiful, as millions of sparkles flashed in the sun. But Reddy had no thought for beauty; the only thought he had room for was to get something to put in the empty stomachs of himself and Granny Fox.

Jack Frost had hardened the snow so that Reddy no longer had to wade through it. He could run on the crust now without breaking through. This made it much easier, so he trotted along swiftly. He had intended to go straight to the Old Pasture, but there suddenly popped into his head a memory of the shelter down in a far corner of the Old Orchard which Farmer Brown's boy had built for Bob White. Probably the Bob White family were there now, and he might surprise them. He would go there first.

1. What season is it?
2. What kind of animal is Reddy?
3. Does he live alone?
4. Who lives with him?
5. Have they recently eaten?
6. How long has it been?
7. What was his original destination?
8. Did he get sidetracked?
9. Does he decide to go somewhere else on the way?
10. Where?
11. Who's shelter is it?
12. Did he build it?
13. How did he get it?
14. Does Bob live alone?
15. Who does he live with?
16. Why is Reddy going to the shelter?
17. Does he sink in the snow?
18. Why not?
19. Is he going fast?
20. Is he traveling by foot?

Provide a numbered list of answers.
1. winter
2. Fox
3. no
4. Granny Fox
5. no
6. unknown
7. Old Pasture
8. no
9. yes
10. shelter down in a far corner of the Old Orchard
11. Bob White.
12. no
13. Farmer Brown's boy built it for him
14. no
15. family
16. to surprise them
17. no
18. Jack Frost had hardened it
19. yes
20. yes