The Many Mischiefs of Reynard the Fox Book · Pickups

One evening, in the woods, Reynard the Fox stumbled upon Grimbard the Badger, Baldwin the Ass, and Kyward the Hare. They were all carrying pitchforks, scythes, and torches.

'Are you off to fight someone?', Reynard asked.

'We were just about to tell you!', Grimbard said. 'We met a man today! He wore a hood, had his face covered, and called himself A-Man-You-Meet!'

Reynard smiled, but said nothing.

'He told us we must kill our King, the Lion!', Baldwin squealed.

'He promised we'd never go hungry again', said Grimbard.

'And that we'll never have to fear anything!', Kyward added.

'Oh, and are you hungry now? Do you fear anything?', Reynard smiled again.

'Well, if you think about it... no', said Baldwin. 'Life is good under our king. But the man was very convincing, you know'.

And then Reynard put on a hood, covered his face with a piece of cloth and roared: 'You must kill the Lion! For my benefit! I want to be a king now! And I will promise you pie in the sky to make you do the dirty work for me!' And then he laughed, amused by his own joke.

'It was your mischief all along?!', Baldwin bristled.

'You're lucky it was! Would you really storm the king's castle just because a deceiver riled you up?!'

'You're right', said Grimbard, ashamed. 'We should use our pitchforks and scythes to work in the fields, not to spill blood'.

'And you should think before you believe every blatant lie you hear!', Reynard smiled.

All his friends agreed. They abandoned their silly thoughts of rebelling against their good king and lived in peace forever after.