who on a prickly porcupine

makes up his mind that he will dine

must overcome a thousand quills

before his stomach porky fills.

and so it is with you and me;

with everybody whom we see;

with reddy fox and billy mink,

and all the rest of whom we think

on meadows green, in smiling pool

or hidden in the forest cool:

the thing we've set our hearts upon

must past a thousand spears be won.

no one knows this better than did old man coyote as he ran around and around prickly porky. he had never felt one of those little spears which prickly porky rattled so fiercely, and he had no mind to feel one. you see, he didn't like the look of them. when finally prickly porky lay down and curled up into a great prickly ball, like a huge chestnut burr, old man coyote sat down just a little way off to study how he was going to get at prickly porky without getting hurt by some of those sharp, barbed little spears.

for a long time he sat and studied and studied, his tongue hanging out of one side of his mouth. once he looked up at sammy jay and blacky the crow and winked, but he didn't make a sound. sammy and blacky chuckled to themselves and winked back, and for a wonder they didn't make a sound. somehow that wink made them have more of a friendly feeling for old man coyote. you see, that wink told them that old man coyote was just the same kind of a sly rogue as themselves, and so right away they had a fellow feeling for him.

and none of the little meadow and forest people looking on made a sound. some of them didn't dare to, and others were so anxious to see what would happen next that they didn't want to. it was so still that the little leaves up in the tree-tops could be heard whispering good night to the merry little breezes, for whom old mother west wind was waiting with her big bag out on the green meadows to take them to their home behind the purple hills. it was so still that after a while prickly porky began to wonder if he were all alone. you see, being curled up that way, he couldn't see and had to trust to his ears. he waited a little longer, and then he uncurled just enough to peep out. there sat old man coyote, and prickly porky promptly curled up again.

now the minute he curled up again something happened. old man coyote looked up at sammy jay and blacky the crow and winked once more. then very softly, so softly that he didn't so much as rustle a leaf, he tiptoed around to the other side of prickly porky and sat down just as before.

“now,” thought he, “when he peeps out again, he will think i have gone, and then perhaps i can catch him by surprise.”

bobby coon saw through his plan right away. “some one ought to warn prickly porky,” he whispered to unc' billy possum.

unc' billy shook his head. “no,” he whispered back, “no, brer coon! that wouldn't be fair. it's they-all's quarrel and not ours, and though ah done want to see brer porky win just as much as yo' do, ah reckon it wouldn't be right fo' us to meddle. they-all done got to fight it out themselves.”

for a long time nothing happened. then old man coyote grew tired of waiting. very carefully he crept nearer and nearer, with his nose stretched out to sniff at that prickly ball on the ground. everybody held his breath, for everybody remembered what had happened to bowser the hound when he came sniffing around prickly porky,—how prickly porky's tail had suddenly slapped bowser full in the face, filling it with sharp little spears. now they hoped to see the same thing happen to old man coyote. so they held their breath as they kept their eyes on old man coyote and prickly porky's tail.