BEDTIME STORY FOR CHILDREN by THORNTON W BURGESS WHAT JERRY MUSKRAT WAS DOING ID you eer watch a house being D DID built of course you liae hae you know first of all a cellar Is dug you vou know how bow sewer and water pipes are laid you must know that ft lot of work Is done in the ground which go into the house itself but which Is a part of the building of the house just the same it was tills this same way wath jerry muskrat and his new house lie ile had a lot to do before he could build the house itself which would rise above the surface of the water nater Grand grandfather fathe r frog lind had been right when he had said that that part of the work would be the easiest for jerry first of all jerry had to dig a sort of cellar the mud from this lie he plied piled around him to make a sort of wall it was really the beginning of the foundations of the new house when he had this cellar finished of course the water was quite a lot deeper there than it was wag around it IL this was why by he had dug it IL lie ile knew that the water was so shallow around it that it would it 11 p 0 first of all jerry had to dig a cellar very likely freeze clear to the bottom in the winter ile he want that to happen under his bis house or should I 1 say inside his house you see that cellar really was a part of his house I 1 suppose anyway it was the way by which he would go in and out and so it had to be made safe it do to leave a chance of being frozen in so he took pains to make it deep enough then from that cellar he started a tunnel over to lie hie batik bank of the smiling rodi it took time to dig that tunnel when he reached the bank he kept right on slanting up until he had reached a place where it was dry and chere here he felt sure that the spring alood would mould not reach unless it happened to be such an unusual flood is as the one which had swept away his old id house last spring there he made i comfortable and roomy chamber n herein amerein lie ile would later make a nice bed of grass then jerry went back to his cellar and started another tunnel this one cue lie he headed straight for the deepest part of the smiling rooi pool where he knew there would be water no matter how thick the ice fee above might be when this was finished he dug another to the bank and another to deep water so that in case of accident to the first one he be would still have tunnels be could use um jerry believes in being prepared it takes time and a lot of hard work to dig tunnels like these it was this that jerry was doing while peter rabbit was so impatiently watching for some signs of the new house above water the bits of earth and sod which jerry dug out he used to broaden the foundation around his cellar and of course it was this work that made the water so muddy the truth Is these tunnels were quite as important as the house itself in facts fact in some ways they were more important so jerry took great pains paine in digging them lie ile knew that the time might come when his life would depend on them lie he intended that if that time did come there should be 1 nothing wrong with mith those tunnels not until they were finished did he give much thought to the rest of the house 0 01 33 by T W burgese service