Johnny Chuck ran down the long tunnel underground until he reached the end . Then when he heard Reddy Fox digging and knew that he was really coming , Johnny Chuck began to dig , too , only instead of digging down he dug up towards the sunshine and the blue sky . My , how his short legs did fly and his stout little claws dug into the soft earth ! His little forepaws flew so fast that if you had been there you could hardly have seen them at all . And with his strong hind legs he kicked the sand right back into the face of Reddy Fox . All the little meadow people gathered around the hole where Johnny Chuck and Reddy Fox had disappeared . They were very anxious , very anxious indeed . Would Reddy Fox catch Johnny Chuck ? And what would he do to him ? Was all their fun to end in something terrible to sunny-hearted , merry Johnny Chuck , whom everybody loved ? All of a sudden , pop ! right out of the solid earth among the daisies and buttercups , just like a jack-in-the-box , came Johnny Chuck ! He looked very warm and a little tired , but he was still chuckling as he scampered across to another hole of Grandfather Chuck 's . By and by something else crawled out of the hole Johnny Chuck had made . Could it be Reddy Fox ? Where were his white waistcoat and beautiful red coat ? And was that thing dragging behind him his splendid tail ? He crept out of the hole and then just lay down and panted for breath . He was almost too tired to move . Then he began to spit sand out of his mouth and blow it out of his nose and try to wipe it out of his eyes .
The long hair of his fine coat was filled full of sand and no one would ever have guessed that this was Reddy XXXXX .
Chuck Fox buttercups digging earth forepaws jack-in-the-box pop right something