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Show J Children's Bedtime Story By THORNTON W. BURGESS 3 f A GLAD TIME MADE A SAD TIME A time that Mother Nature meant should 2 be most glad Has proved, alas I for many folks to be most sad. ' A ND it isn't Old Mother Nature's ft fault at all that this is so. It is the fault of man. You know, man is forever blundering in and upsetting up-setting Old Mother Nature's plans, sometimes heedlessly, sometimes because he knows no better, and sometimes just because he wants to. It is just that way every autumn in the Green Forest, on the Green Meadows, in the Old Pasture, and I sround the Smiling Pool. Peter Rab-i Rab-i bit knows all about it. Yes, indeed, ! Peter knows all about it. So does Bobby Coon, Uncle Billy Possum, Happy Jack Squirrel, Mrs. Grouse, and a lot more. It should be a glad time, a merry j time, and it isn't. No, sir, it isn't, i It is a time which most of the little ! people dread, and they dread it with i a very great dread, i Do you know why this is? If you could have been in Peter Rabbit's place yuu would understand why. He was sitting in the dear Old Brier Patch thinking all over again of the things for which he had to be thankful when suddenly he heard something which made him sit up very straight and prick up his long ears to listen better. There it was again "Bow-ow-ow-ow-ow, bow-ow- mm "We're safe enough in here," said Peter, ow!" It was not the voice of Bowser the Hound, but of some other dog, and the sound came from the Old Pasture. Peter knew just what that sound meant. It meant that that dog was following the tracks of some one. He was hunting, and that meant that some one was running for his life. Peter rather hoped that it was Reddy or old Granny Fox, but after he had listened a minute he knew that it wasn't. He could tell by the sound that the dog was following fol-lowing one of his own relatives. He was hunting a rabbit. Perhaps it was Old Jed Thumper, the big gray raooit who had treated Peter so badly when he went up to the Old Pasture to live for a little while. Peter Pe-ter grinned at the thought. Then he frowned. lie did not want any real harm to come to even this old enemy. Bang! Peter knew what that sound was. It was from a gun a dreadful dread-ful gun, and he knew that it hnH been pointed at the one who was running from that dog. Peter held his breath as he strained his ears to listen. Very abruptly the dog stopped barking. It must be that the dreadful gun had killed the rabbit rab-bit and the dog had stopped barking j because there were no more tracks t0 follow- P-'ter pulped hard once I or twice He couldn't bear to think j of what had happened up there. wT7 'Hururah" stouted Peter, and ! ,d hls hLeels for joy. That dog had begun barking aga.n, and that !S th "1 ."l gun hadn't . killed the rabbit after all. By and ; by he no longer heard the voice of : r ug T had there been another 0 d3S Th8' S PetCr knew tha Utd Jed Thumper, or whoever it ! foolPHWti 73S bGing hunted' had iooled the dog and was safe. i naier' as he sat on the edge of the Sd Pasture3? l0king t0'ard !he u m Pasture, he saw a man with a I gun on h,s shoulder and a dog at , his heels coming toward the dear iSr'aS15; watched the-ior the-ior a few minutes, then he turned .au"tdoTSd."""iMrs-p"'""'p wy 8o lid"' hh nand he M" |