He kept glancing back all the time but COON just slept away. FOX carefully stepped around and got a stick and began to scrape off the ashes from those geese. Mmmm! did that smell good! They seemed to be roasted just right! Some limbs up in the trees were squeaking and scraping away, but it didnšt seem to bother COON at all. Well, FOX got busy eating, and he ate and ate till he was stuffed and there was nothing but a pile of bones with just scraps of meat hanging on them.
Those limbs up in the tree were squeaking the whole time, but nothing seemed to disturb COON, he was sleeping so deeply. When he couldn't eat another bite, FOX took all the bones and put them back in the ashes and covered them and then planted all six feet in a row just as he found them.
Close by was a little pile of ashes and FOX danced all over them so COON would be sure to see his tracks when he woke up, "I think my Cousin will be glad I came to visit him and since he was so sleepy he'll be happy I didn't wake him up!"
After everything was fixed the way he wanted it, FOX wandered down the hill to the river. It was such a fine night after all, and he was feeling sleepy after such a feast! He found a nice oak tree that leaned out over the river with a nice flat spot on a big limb to stretch out on. There in the moonlight watching his own shadow in the moving current of the river below he drifted off to sleep.
Manwhile up on the hill, COON woke with a start, "Well, I guess I took a good nap!" He just stretched and looked around thinking, "Well, I have a nice supper ready and waiting!"
He hurried over to the fire and with both hands grabbed the feet of the first goose to yank it up out of the ashes. He pulled so hard he tumbled backwards and rolled over. He stared at the two goose feet in his hands.
"Hmmm, I must have cooked them too long!" He went back to the fire and one by one carefully pulled out the other feet with a puzzled look on his face. He grabbed a stick and scraped away the ash. There was nothing but a pile of bones with barely a thread of meat on it!
COON was furious! "Some lazy thief stole my supper! AUGHH! I wish I had caught him! I'd punch him in the nose! I'd like to find out who did it! I'd pound him good! FOX! I bet it was him! He must think hešs getting even with me for telling him how to catch crawdads! That was just a joke but this is a MEAN trick!"
The more he thought about it the madder he got, "I don't care a hundred snakes, how much he cries out when I beat him. OOOOOh! just wait till I catch him!"
COON looked up in the trees and shook his fist at the tree limbs, "Why didnšt you wake me up like I told you to!"
COON picked at the little strings left on the bones and got madder all the time. His eyes were firey as he eyed the branches that were squeaking away, "Why so noisy now? You are making me mad! If you don't stop Išll come up there when I finish these bones and make you stop myself!" But those limbs kept squeaking away all the time, making COON eat his little dried strings and bones faster.
When he finished eating the bones he caught sight of the footprints in the ash. He saw where FOX had danced around and in a fury, he took it out on those noisy branches.
"Ok!, I'm coming up to fix you guys, you wait and see!"
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