when you meet an adversary

bold and brave be, also wary.

if the weapons you may hear of,

teeth and claws, you have no fear of,

don't be heedless and rush blindly

lest you be received unkindly,

and, like prickly porky, find him

with a dangerous tail behind him.

now old man coyote knew nothing about that dangerous tail. he had never heard how bowser the hound had been sent yelping home with his face stuck full of those sharp little spears. but old man coyote is wary. oh, my, yes! he certainly is wary. to be wary, you know, is to be very, very careful where you go and what you do until you know for sure that there is no possible danger. and there is no one more wary than old man coyote, not even wise, sly, old granny fox.

so now, though prickly porky, curled up in a ball in front of him, looked harmless enough except for the thousand little spears sticking out all over him, old man coyote was too wary—too smart and too careful—to take any chances as bowser the hound had rashly done. and this is why, as he stole forward with his nose stretched out as if to sniff of prickly porky, he suddenly stopped just when the little meadow and forest people looking on were holding their breath and hugging themselves with joy and excitement because they expected to see the same thing happen to old man coyote that had happened to bowser.

yes, sir, old man coyote stopped. he studied prickly porky a few minutes. then slowly he walked around him, just studying and studying.

“it looks safe enough to go closer and sniff at him,” thought old man coyote, “but i learned a long time ago that you cannot always tell just by looks, and that the most harmless looking thing is sometimes the most dangerous. now it looks to me as if this stupid porcupine couldn't hurt a flee so long as he keeps curled up this way, but i don't know, and i'm not going any nearer until i do know.”

he scratched his head thoughtfully, and then he had an idea. he began to dig in the soft earth.

“what under the sun is he doing that for?” whispered happy jack squirrel to his cousin, chatterer the bed squirrel.

“i don't know,” replied chatterer, also in a whisper. “we'll probably know in a few minutes.”

he had hardly finished when old man coyote threw a little lump of earth so that it hit prickly porky. now, of course prickly porky couldn't see what was going on, because, you know, he was curled up with his head tucked down in his waistcoat. but he had been listening as hard as ever he could, and he had heard old man coyote's footsteps very close to him. when the little lump of earth struck him, he thought it was old man coyote himself, and like a flash he slapped that queer tail of his around. of course it didn't hit anybody, because there was nobody within reach. but it told old man coyote all that he wanted to know.

“ha, ha, ha!” he laughed. “that's the time i fooled you instead of you fooling me! you've got to get up early to fool me with a trick like that, mr. smarty!”

then what do you think he did? why, he just scooped earth on to prickly porky as fast as he could dig. prickly porky stood it for a few minutes, but he didn't want to be buried alive. besides, now that his trick was found out by the smartness of old man coyote, there was no use in keeping still any longer. so, with a grunt of anger, prickly porky scrambled to his feet, and rattling his thousand little spears, rushed at old man coyote, who just jumped to one side, laughing fit to kill himself.