Green Meadow Stories quotes

He sometimes actually wished that he wasn’t as fat as he was. Then he would be less tempting to his hungry neighbors.

But no good comes of worrying. No, sir, not a bit of good comes of worrying, and Happy Jack knows it.

“All I can do is to watch out and not be careless,” said he, and dropped the shell of a nut on the head of Reddy Fox, who happened to be passing under the tree in which Happy Jack was sitting.

Then everybody had Farmer Brown’s boy on their minds most of the time. Happy Jack had hated him then, hated him because he had feared him.

You know fear almost always leads to hate.

But now it was different. Farmer Brown’s boy had put away his terrible gun. Happy Jack no longer feared him.

Happy Jack had hated him then, hated him because he had feared him. You know fear almost always leads to hate. But now it was different. Farmer Brown’s boy had put away his terrible gun. Happy Jack no longer feared him.

Love had taken the place of hate in his heart

, for had not Farmer Brown’s boy saved him from Shadow the Weasel, and brought him nuts and corn when food was scarce? And now Tommy Tit had brought word that some thing was the matter with Farmer Brown’s boy.

… getting his breakfast there, for always there were fat, delicious nuts on the windowsill, and it was much easier and more comfortable to breakfast there than to hunt up his own hidden supplies and perhaps have to dig down through the snow to get them.

Most people are just like Happy Jack⁠—they do the easiest thing.

Each day Farmer Brown’s boy looked more and more like himself. His cheeks stuck out less and less, and finally did not stick out at all. And now he smiled at Happy Jack with his mouth as well as with his eyes.

… found out that love destroys fear, and that though it might look to others like a very bold thing to walk right into Farmer Brown’s house, it really wasn’t bold at all, because all the time he knew that no harm would come to him.

It is never brave to do a thing that you are not afraid to do.

It had been brave of him to go in at that open window the first time, because then he had been afraid, but now he wasn’t afraid, and so it was no longer either brave or bold of him.

But he was too proud and too brave to let anyone know that any such fear ever entered his mind.

Whatever his faults, Shadow is no coward.

He boldly took bits of meat which Farmer Brown’s boy brought to him, and not once appeared in the least afraid, so that, much as he disliked him, Farmer Brown’s boy actually had to admire him.

He was a prisoner, but he kept just as stout a heart as ever.

It is a fact, one of the biggest facts in all the world, that tongues make the greatest part of all the trouble that brings uncomfortable feelings, and bitterness and sadness and suffering and sorrow.

If it wasn’t for unruly, careless, mean tongues, the Great World would be a million times better to live in, a million times happier. It is because of his unruly tongue that Sammy Jay is forever getting into trouble.

Farmer Brown’s boy just smiled and tossed a nut to Happy Jack. And far up in the Old Pasture, Shadow the Weasel was once more free. It was well for Happy Jack’s peace of mind that he didn’t know that.

Taking things for granted doesn’t do at all in this world.

To take a thing for granted is to think that it is so without taking the trouble to find out whether it is or not. It is apt not only to get you yourself into trouble, but to make trouble for other people as well.

Of course if Peter had really stopped to think the matter over thoroughly he would have known that running away from one kind of trouble is almost sure to lead to other troubles. But

Peter is one of those who does his thinking afterward.

Peter is what is called impulsive. That is, he does things and then thinks about them later, and often wishes he hadn’t done them.

But as it was his thoughts were all of Old Man Coyote and Granny Fox, and that is where Peter made a very grave mistake, a very grave mistake indeed, as he was soon to find out.

Forgetting leads to more trouble than almost anything under the sun.

Peter Rabbit knew this. Of course he knew it. Peter had had many a narrow escape just from forgetting something.

He didn’t even realize that he was getting tired. Always in his nose was the tantalizing scent of Old Man Coyote. Bowser was sure that this time he would catch this fellow who had fooled him so often before.

There is such a thing as being too much interested in the thing you are doing.

That is the way accidents very often happen. A person will get so interested in something that he will be blind and deaf to everything else, and so will walk straight into danger or trouble of some kind.

“I should have kept out of sight and let him open that gate and go inside first. There may be traps in there, for all I know.

When there’s likely to be danger, always let someone else find it out for you if you can.

” Old Man Coyote grinned as he said this.

This mischievous little Night Breeze found that that gate would swing, so it blew against that gate and blew and blew until suddenly, with a sharp little click, the gate closed and the spring latch snapped into place. Reddy Fox was a prisoner!

It certainly is queer what a difference there is between being inside and outside.

Sometimes happiness is inside and sometimes it is outside. Sometimes the one who is inside wishes with all his might that he were outside, and sometimes the one who is outside would give anything in the world to be inside.

“Good evening, Reddy,” said Old Man Coyote. “I hope you’ll enjoy your chicken dinner. When you are eating it, just think over this bit of advice:

Never take a risk when you can get someone else to take it for you.

I would like a chicken dinner myself, but as it is, I think I will enjoy a Mouse or two better. Pay my respects to Farmer Brown’s boy when he comes in the morning.”

He knew that he had only a forlorn chance of escaping when Farmer Brown’s boy should come to open the henhouse in the morning. He knew that he must make the most of that forlorn chance.

He knew that freedom is a thousand times better than a full stomach.

On one of the lower roosts sat a fat hen. She was within easy jumping distance. Reddy knew that with one quick spring she would be his.

Bowser the Hound was a prisoner. Yes, sir, Bowser was a sure-enough prisoner. But there is a great difference in prisons.

Bowser was a prisoner of kindness.

It seems funny that kindness should ever make anyone a prisoner, but it is so sometimes.

Reddy was sure. He trotted along behind old Granny Fox and planned smart things to say to her when she found that there wasn’t a chance to catch Quacker the Duck. I am afraid, very much afraid, that Reddy was planning to be saucy.

People who think themselves smart are quite apt to be saucy.

Presently they came to the bank of the Big River. Old Granny Fox told Reddy to sit still while she crept up behind some bushes where she could peek out over the Big River. He grinned as he watched her.

At last Quacker was close to the shore. If he kept on, he would be right on the land in a few minutes. And all the time he stared and stared. No thought of danger entered his head.

You see, there was no room because it was so filled with curiosity.

“In a minute more I’ll have him,” thought Granny, and whirled faster than ever. And just then something happened.

“Perhaps that will teach you to be respectful to your elders. I was careless and stupid, and I am perfectly ready to admit it, because it has taught me a lesson.

Wisdom often is gained through mistakes, but never when one is not willing to admit the mistakes.

No Fox lives long who makes the same mistake twice. And those who are impudent to their elders come to no good end. I’ve got a fat goose hidden away for dinner, but you will get none of it.”

I was careless and stupid, and I am perfectly ready to admit it, because it has taught me a lesson. Wisdom often is gained through mistakes, but never when one is not willing to admit the mistakes.

No Fox lives long who makes the same mistake twice.

And those who are impudent to their elders come to no good end. I’ve got a fat goose hidden away for dinner, but you will get none of it.”

“

It’s of no use to try to fill an empty stomach on wishes,

” said he.

He was still hungry—very, very hungry. But he gave it no thought. He had saved Granny Fox, good old Granny who had taught him all he knew. And he knew that Granny knew how he had had to fight with himself to do it.

Reddy was happy through and through with the great happiness that comes from having done something for someone else.

“It was nothing,” he muttered.

With that good dinner in their stomachs, Reddy and Granny Fox felt so much better that the Great World no longer seemed such a cold and cruel place.

Funny how differently things look when your stomach is full from the way those same things look when it is empty.

Best of all they knew they could play the same sharp trick again and steal another dinner from Bowser if need be. It is a comforting feeling, a very comforting feeling, to know for a certainty where you can get another meal.

“There isn’t any but, Reddy,” interrupted Granny. “You know the law of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.

It is everybody for himself, and anything belongs to one who has the wit or the strength to take it.

We had the wit to take that dinner from Bowser the Hound, and Old Man Coyote had the wit to take it from us and the strength to keep it.

“Perhaps,” replied Granny mildly, “but

I’ve noticed that it is the one who has an eye open for all the little ifs in life that fares the best.

Now I’ve kept an eye on that henyard, and I’ve noticed that very often Farmer Brown’s boy doesn’t close the henyard gate at night. I suppose he thinks that if the henhouse door is locked, the gate doesn’t matter.