They would dive head first , one after the other , in at the doorway , and not show their noses outside again until Johnny or Polly Chuck told them they could . Then there was a still different whistle . It meant `` Danger very near ; lie low ! '' When they heard that , they flattened themselves right down in the grass just wherever they happened to be , and held their breath and did n't move until Johnny signaled that they might . Of course , there never was any real danger . Johnny was just teaching them , so that when danger did come , as it surely would , sooner or later , they would know just what to do . It surely was a funny little school , and sometimes Sammy Jay had hard work to keep from laughing right out . XXIV SAMMY JAY PROVES THAT HE IS NOT ALL BAD Sammy Jay had n't had so much fun for a long time as he found in watching the funny little school in Farmer Brown 's old orchard , where Johnny Chuck was teaching his three baby Chucks the things that every little Chuck must learn , if he would grow up into a big Chuck . When they had learned to mind without waiting to ask why , and had learned the signals which told them just what to do when danger was near , Johnny began to lead them farther and farther away from home . He took them up along the old stone wall and showed them how to find safe hiding-places among the stones . Then he took them off a little way and suddenly gave the danger signal . It was funny , very funny indeed to see the three little Chucks scamper for the old stone wall and crawl out of sight . The first time , two of them tried to squeeze into the same hole together , and each was in such a hurry that he would n't let the other go first . Then both lost their tempers and they began to fight about it , quite forgetting that if there was really any danger near , they surely would come to harm . Such a scolding as Johnny Chuck did give those two little Chucks ! Then he made them try it all over again . Once he found a foot print which Reddy Fox had made in some soft earth during the night , and made each little Chuck smell of it , while he told them all about Reddy and old Granny Fox and how smart and sly they were and how very , very fond they were of tender young Chucks for dinner . The three little Chucks shivered when they smelled of Reddy 's track , and the hair along their backs stood up in a way that was very funny to see . Then Johnny Chuck took them over to the edge of the old orchard , where they could peep out over the Green Meadows . He pointed out old Whitetail the Marshhawk , sailing back and forth over the meadows , and told them how once , when he was a little Chuck and had run away from home , old Whitetail had nearly caught him .
He told them XXXXX Farmer Brown 's boy and about Bowser the Hound and a great many other things that little Chucks should learn about .
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