BIG REDDY, STRATEGIST 61 
suddenly remembered a fox he’d seen caught in a 
trap—that was made of rusty iron, too. He 
turned tail and trotted away. It was better to 
have four sound legs than one full belly! 
This bit of wisdom on Reddy’s part gave him 
quite a reputation in those parts, and the next 
day another hunt was organized, and he was 
wakened once more by the hounds on his trail. 
Well, he’d had about enough of this particular 
neighborhood. He didn’t like it as well, anyhow, 
as the land of his birth. Maybe there was good 
hunting at home again now. Besides, he’d been 
thinking of late about a certain girl fox back 
there, and it filled him with funny feelings. 
Reddy rose, shook off the sleep, and without 
further ado headed for home as fast as his legs 
would carry him. That was so fast that he had 
no need of strategy until, after four miles, he had 
to come down into open country. Here, if the 
hounds weren’t to run him into somebody’s gun, 
he needed to throw them off. He cast about for 
a way, smelled water, made toward it, and found 
a small river half frozen over. Running out on 
the thin ice, he trotted cautiously along till his 
