Jack Frost had hardened the snow so that Reddy no longer had to wade
through it. He could run on the crust now without breaking through.
This made it much easier, so he trotted along swiftly. He had
intended to go straight to the Old Pasture, but there suddenly popped
into his head a memory of the shelter down in a far corner of
the Old Orchard which Farmer Brown's boy had built for Bob White.
Probably the Bob White family were there now, and he might surprise
them. He would go there first.
Reddy stopped and looked carefully to make sure that Farmer Brown's
boy and Bowser the Hound were nowhere in sight. Then he ran swiftly
towards the Old Orchard. Just as he entered it he heard a merry
voice just over his head: "Dee, dee, dee, dee!" Reddy stopped and
looked up. There was Tommy Tit the Chickadee clinging tightly to a
big piece of fresh suet tied fast to a branch of a tree, and Tommy
was stuffing himself. Reddy sat down right underneath that suet and
looked up longingly. The sight of it made his mouth water so that
it was almost more than he could stand. He jumped once. He jumped
twice. He jumped three times. But all his jumping was in vain.
That suet was beyond his reach. There was no possible way of
reaching it save by flying or climbing. Reddy's tongue hung out of
his mouth with longing.
"I wish I could climb," said Reddy.
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