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Show Children's Bedtime Story By THORNTON W. BURGESS OLD MAN COYOTE GOES ON WITH HIS STORY SAMMY JAY was just like a lot of little folks he wanted more. Old Man Coyote had told him how once he was caught in two traps, and then he had told him what happened hap-pened next. But that didn't satisfy Sammy. Oh, my, no! It left off right in such an interesting part. It left off with Old Man Coyote a prisoner, pris-oner, chained to a post and feeling very weak and miserable. Sammy knew that something interesting must have happened after that. He just knew it. So very timidly he asked Old Man Coyote what did happen next, and Old Man Coyote replied that was another story. Sammy Sam-my waited hopefully, but he had just about made up his mind that he was to hear no more when Old Man Coyote began again. "I don't suppose you ever were tied to a post," said he. "Mercy, No!" exclaimed Sammy Jay. "You ought to be just to learn how good it is to be free," said Old Man Coyote. "Well, there I was chained to that post. I couldn't break that chain, though I tried my best, and I couldn't bite it in two. and finally I gave up trying, because be-cause I saw that it was of no use "Sometimes it seemed as if j ffould go crazy as I looked out between be-tween those bars." and it hurt my teeth. For a while 1 was dreadfully lame where the traps had hurt my legs, but they healed in time, and then it was harder than ever to be a prisoner I had plenty to eat, but nothing tasted tast-ed good. It is better to starve and be free than to have plenty and be a prisoner. Don't ever forget that. Sammy Jay. I know. "At last one day 1 was put in a stout cage with iron bars, and then put in a wagon and taken away." Old Man Coyote stopped and the far-away look came into his eyes. It was so long before he began to speak that Sammy . was. afraid that he had forgotten that he was telling a story. At last he sighed and began be-gan again. "The cage was put in a car drawn by one of those terrible things that spit fire and smoke and rush along on two shining rails. After three days and nights it stopped and 1 was taken out and carried to a place called a park, and there I was put in a little bigger cage, which also had iron bars. There were many other cages there, with prisoners just like me, and every day people, ever so many, more than I had supposed there were in the whole world, came and stared at us. They seemed to think it was fun to see us cooped up there in those miserable little cages. I used to run back and forth, back and forth, in the little bit of space I had, so as to keep my legs in good condition. It was all I had to do, and if I hadn't I guess I would have died, just out of homesickness. home-sickness. "Sometimes it seemed as, if I would go crazy as I looked out between be-tween those bars and longed and longed and longed to run through the grass and "among the trees, and go where I pleased, when I pleased, as i I always had. I hope you'll never know what it is like to feel that way, Sammy Jay. It's it's the worst feeling 1 know of. If I never had been free it wouldn't have been so bad, because I wouldn't have known what I was missing. But I had been free, just as I am now, and 1 could look out and see squirrels running around and birds flying, and all I could do was to trot back and forth, back and forth, behind those iron bars. Ugh! I don't like to think about it even now. It was worse than the pain of the traps. That's what it means to be a prisoner, pris-oner, Sammy Jay." Old Man Coyote stopped, as if this was the end of the story. After a little, Sammy ventured another question. "Did they let you go finally?" final-ly?" he asked. Old Man Coyote grinned. "Not so as you would notice it,' said he. (Associated Newspapers WNU Service. |